Thursday, March 3, 2011

[Category - Bloody Obvious Ideas] Artwork First Monster Manual?

I know there's been a lot of OSR-blogosphere discussion about greater collaboration between writers and artists blah blah blah... (I'm going to be a dick and NOT LINK to said discussions).

Whilst meditating on said subject the idea struck me, "It would be awesome if a bunch of awesome OSR-ish artists types assembled a collection of bitchin' original monster illustrations, and than said monsters were statted out for a monster book (including morale scores and hoard classes dammit! And also Comprehensive Encounter Tables too!)"

The next idea to strike me was "Duuh genius...I'm sure someone has already done that." Although I'm sure it was more like 20 monsters for 3E in a $12 PDF-only product, and done in that full-color, overblown DevaintArt style...

Anyways, a nice thick monster manual of OSR illustrator monsters could be pretty freaking awesome, and I'm pretty much counting on James Mal. to get on this right on this after releasing Petty Gods...

15 comments:

  1. "...a nice thick monster manual of OSR illustrator monsters could be pretty freaking awesome..."

    Oh yes! Yes! Yes! God! Oh Yes! *mentalorgasm* This idea is pure "erotic" for a beastcollector like me. ;D

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  2. I'll see what I can do ;)

    More seriously, I did in fact have a similar idea at one time, but I shelved it because it's heavily dependent on having lots of artists willing to offer up their artwork for no reward. I worry I may have already dried up that well with Petty Gods.

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  3. Too bad that I cannot draw :/
    And my main artists are too busy even to draw for me, so I was forced to do a crappy artwork by myself.

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  4. Oh, I love this idea. Wouldn't be difficult to mimic the fonts and layout style of the original MONSTER MANUAL.

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  5. I would certainly participate on the writing side - I only wish I could draw.

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  6. Yeah, I can "give" my UK and TS monsters - if only there is someone who will "repair" my horrid english...

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  7. Hmmm, as I both write and draw I'm sure I could offer up something for such a project.

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  8. I worry I may have already dried up that well with Petty Gods.

    I for one would love to contribute to a monster manual type book.

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  9. As would I - though since the one decent picture of a monster I made is gone, I'd probably have to restrict myself to statting.

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  10. Thanks for the enthusiastic feedback!

    I'll make a future post with further musings.

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  11. Jeez the news just keeps getting better & better! I can't draw but I can buy! Can't wait to see this!

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  12. weird, i recently made these for my upcoming campaign. They're not statted yet, but im not sure if theyre strictly art-first since the names are randomly generated

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  13. i forgot the names are not included in the image. they are basically two-word descriptions designed to give me a disgusting monster to draw.

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  14. I could scan pages of my sketchbooks, post those, and people could choose which stuff to write about. Not quite as polished, but it might keep the 'exquisite corpse' part of it.

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  15. @ Needles: Whoah! I didn't say I was making this :)

    @ Jasonalexanderscalon: Whoah, they are GROSS! And awesome! I don't think they're anything wrong for, in conjunction with the monster manual concept, for the artist to name the monster or work with a pre-existing name; any means of generating creative stimuli are good!

    @ Huth: That sounds pretty practical; in a perfect world version of this theoretical project I could see the artist presenting sketches, some of which are monsterized and statted, and than the artist produces a more polished version of the monster taking the writeup in mind?

    Any exquisite corpse-ing of the procedures would be beneficial!

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