Fight On #4 Liveblog

[makofan]

Zulgyan

I would be happy to edit your English for you

[Zulgyan]

Great, thanks!

So I'll submit the Palace of Eternal Ilussion for FO! nº5!

When's the deadline?

[calithena]

just one more leetle thing...the proof copy will be up tonight, i'm sure...

Zulg, the deadline for #5 is in about a month. Though levels 2, 5, and 6 need to be published as well. 7 could be published before some of those because it comes after 4 which is what's in this month's issue. So, get crackin', I guess!

[Zulgyan]

The Pallace is mostly done, though in spanish and in hand-written notes, so it won´t take that much.

[calithena]

Very cool, Zulg.

Layout is done and I am making the PDF right now.

[calithena]

...and the 15 minute file upload is complete, but I still have to put in the covers...

[calithena]

Wow, it's just never easy. The proof copy is up, after much fighting with cover images.

$10 and 122 pages.

There isn't anything like Rob's maps in this one and the PDF looks clean, so I think this should be OK. Think. If you want to be sure, wait another week or two until I get the proofs and start advertising.

In the meantime, here's the TOC:

Table of Contents
Delvers Delve (David Bowman)………………………3
Silver Knights of the Eld (Beaudry and Calithena)….…7
Knights & Knaves (Kesher)………….………………10
House of the Axe (Calithena)……………………...…12
Random Rooms (Michael Curtis)…………………......37
Dungeons and Librarians (Jason Vasché)…………….38
Dungeon Home Remedies (Jeff Rients)……...………41
The Spring Temple of Ai (Gabor Lux)………...……..42
Education of a Magic-User (Will Douglas)……...……45
The Tower and Spells of Duvan’Ku (J. Raggi IV)….....46
Creepies & Crawlies (Jeff Rients)…………………….52
Ghost Stories (Geoffrey O. Dale)…………………....54
Vault of the Magic Goddess (Matthew Riedel)……….57
Tables for Fables (Age of Fable)……………………..65
Proclamations of the Fomalhaut Oracle (G. Lux)……66
Magical Weapon Drawbacks (Wayne Rossi)………….68
Carousing Mishaps (Jeff Rients)……………………...69
Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer (G.McKinney)70
These Mean Streets (Baz Blatt)……………………....79
Oceanian Legends (Del L. Beaudry)………………….91
The Airships of Mistworld (Steve Marsh)…………….95
The Kitsunemori Campaign (Alex Schroeder)………..96
Chrysolia (Monty St. John)……………………….…100
The Darkness Beneath (James Maliszewski)………...106
Merlin’s Mystical Mirror (Jeff Rients)……………….117
Guest Editorial (Calithena)………………………….118
Artifacts, Adjuncts, & Oddments (J. Raggi IV)……...120

Front Cover by Steve Zieser. Back Cover by Kevin Mayle (kevinmayle.netaidz.com/main.php). Fight On! and Erol Otus Logos by Jeff Rients. Dave Hargrave photo by Lance Mazmanian. Knights & Knaves and Creepies & Crawlies logos by Lee Barber. Interior artwork and carto-graphy by Alex Schroeder (3,13,15,17,22,26,33,36,46,75, 96,97,98,99), Steve Zieser (4,43,69), Otherworld Minia-tures (5,44), Lee Barber (ghosttower.crithitcomics.com) (7,21), Emperor’s Choice (Greg Espinoza 8, John Usiak 18,55, Brad “Morno” Schenk 19, Josephine St. John 100), Kesher (10,11,87,95), motorvinen (12,24,44), Tony Rosten (16), C. Thayer (katana2665.deviantart.com) (22,111), Vincent Baker (29,34), Patrick Farley (31,36), Gabor Lux (42,66,67), Will Douglas (45), Laura Kristiina Jalo (50), Pat Wheeler (52,53), Livio Andreatta (57,59,60,62), Matthew Riedel (58), Age of Fable (65), Ben Monroe (68), Geoffrey McKinney (70,72), Kelvin Green (junkopia.net/kelvinsdirtybits/main.html) (73,75, 76,115), FuFu Frauenwahl (fufufrauenwahl.com) (77,78), Baz Blatt (84), Del Beaudry (91,93), Robert S. Conley (106), James Maliszewski (108). We also used public domain clipart from www.karenswhimsy.com (11,39,41, 64,82,92,121).

[calithena]

What a weekend. I am totally not ready to teach tomorrow.

Well, off to bed. Fight on!

[calithena]

P.S. Link, so you can see Steve and Kevin's unbelievably awesome covers, and the content preview...
www.lulu.com/content/6208366

[Melan]

Ah, at last, time to spend some of my hard-earned cash. ;D

Well done, Ignatius!

[edit] Holy hell, those covers! [/edit]

[calithena]

I do notice that the first page of Kesher's article the text got out of line somehow. So I will have to fix that...not a devastating error but annoying.

Anyway, this issue is striking for its science-fantasy thematics, at least in the adventures. There's a goodly dose of Cthulhu too.

I'll be back Wednesday to try to fix the errors I've spotted so far (mostly just that one, but I'll look at the PDF again), post about FO! #5 stuff, contact Tim Kask about the dedication page, and so on....have fun!

[Zulgyan]

I agree the cover is fantastic, best so far!

[kesher]

Cal, tremendous job! I can't wait to dig in!

[stonetoflesh]

Whoa, this looks freaking awesome!!!

Here's hoping that the "Arduin Trilogy" illustration on p.9 of the preview is actually Page 1 of the special Arduin pull-out mini-comic...

[coffee]

I went ahead and ordered my copy -- I just can't wait until the proofreading is done!

[sham]

Yay! Geat job. I can't believe it's been three months since FO 3 already.

FO 5 will be the 1st Anniversary issue, no?

[calithena]

I reckon so.

[calithena]

I think it's good to go now. I won't advertise it until I get a proof copy though. I think. Unless lulu takes too long.

In addition to the off-center Kesher text I found two minor typos and a page of Geoffrey's mod that was seriously off. I fixed that (restoring three lines of important text). Well, anyway.

[calithena]

My proof copy is actually in the mail now! I have made all changes other people have told me about and a few of my own. Unlike issue #3 there were as far as I can tell no substantial problems even with the very first version of this (issue 3 was OK even early on but the art was not as crisp in the first version or two, and I kept futzing with Rob's maps until I finally settled on the four-page blowup added at the end of the issue - issue 4 has no problems like that and all changes so far have been cosmetic).

But anyway I suspect I'll start advertising this puppy shortly.

[grodog]

Exellent news!

[calithena]

I've got the proof. It's OK, I'll start advertising as soon as I get a free hour, probably Wednesday. No particular reason to avoid buying it any more though, I might tweak one or two typos but there's nothing serious wrong at this point.

[terje]

Impressive work! The preview looks great!

When do you think the pdf will be available?

[calithena]

Earlier than usual, because we're going to try to turn #5 around in 2 months instead of 3, but not for at least another week or two. I've got to run the ads for the print edition, make the PDF, and then get contributors their free contributor PDF before we think about making it publicly available.

I don't know if lulu changed their print process or what. The B&W art for the most part looks fantastic but some of the greyscaled images are much less expressive than in previous issues. This is not a problem with the file I don't think because I got new copies of 1 and 3 with my printout of 4 and they seem to have the same issues. Lulu is growing at an insane speed (are they publicly traded yet? seems like the new economy isn't destroying everyone) so there may be some issue there. I'm still content with them on the whole but it's always worth looking out for new venues if they give better service.

An rpg.net review of one or more issues of the mag would still be welcome...

[Melan]

Mar 2, 2009 20:35:38 GMT -6 calithena said:

An rpg.net review of one or more issues of the mag would still be welcome...

Yes please. I can't do that since I write for the zine, but someone should definitely do it.