[OSR Sci-Fi Horror] Presentation of Alastor 55

I've teased some Art and told you i'm working on a new project:

With a friend, we are writing a new OSR rpg. Actually writing 2 versions of one RPG : one motorised by the black hack and another based on Microlite 5th.

I'm in charge of a lot of things, from the microlite 5th adaptation of the system to layout, but also artworks.

I've found a way to create easily and quickly art that I deem good enough for an OSR publication, and I wanted to share some with you.

The Pitch:

The "Ravenium Rush" brings hundreds of new settlers on the "Satanic Planet", but only a few will survive the horror, the demons, and the corporate greed... Will you Crew survive, die in the dirt, or thrive in this sick atmophere?

The Setting:

Alastor 55 is an outer system moon, that was colonized by a satanic church, long ago, and went missing from the human sphere, during a big "Colonies vs Earth"-independance-war.

Much later, when the United Earth Nations discovered Ravenium on Alastor, a black cristalline fuel for black hole jumpships, they tried to re-colonize the moon and discovered a world in shambles: internal strife, feuding satanic sects, technology set back in the 19th century. And DEMONS! A lot of them, with all the slaughter, orgies, gore and unethical behaviours bound with it.

In the middle of the war between all these factions, the U.N. and the corporations, are poor settlers that came as a last chance to escape the misery of life on the planets and moons of the solar system. Thinking that the demons and the black magic were rumors, like the U.N. pretends.

Poor people...

You are a Crew, freshly arrived on Alastor and you'll need a few credits to survive in the protected corporate enclaves. But maybe you 'll strive in this atmosphere of conflict, betrayal and ever present death.

The Art:

I've developped a few images, that might or might not make it into the book.

The demons:

(I have already shown them all but two)

They were the start of the project, and i'm not yet sure to use them all...

But since i'm getting better, there will be more to come, same style and same Modus Operandi.

The firedemon

Wreaking mayhem and playing fire in a plaza? Yes, that's a typical fire demon

The Chainsaw-Massacre-Demon

This is probably not gonna be our Cover. This is the first art piece I created. But it's too recognizable from heavily copyright protected material. Sad, i really love it...

The quick and agile Demon

 

Most of the life on the planet is settled deep under the earth. These swift jumpers are rarely seen not in packs, and are a bane for travellers.

Demonic Infighting

 

Demons would not be demons if they were not bickering amongst each others. It's always a good thing for the colonist when they steer their anger at each others...

The Succubus

Who said all demons had to be ugly and spooky?

If there are orgies with demons on Alastor, I hope for the population that a few demons (independently of their gender) are good looking too. And manipulative. Evil anyway...

The tunnel confrontation

Alastor 55 is an ice moon, where hairy demons feel at home. Unless some pesky humans starts to crawl out of their warm underground arcologies...

The Origins 

(I don't want to use the word "race" in a Sci-Fi context)

The Patrolling Cyborg

  

Cyborgs are human brains implanted in a robotic body. There is no reason for anxiety, they are mentally stable and not prone to PTSD or loss of humanity. Never. Not at all. Remember these are the good guys.

And good guys go to bars, don't they?

This one doesn't drink, but likes to watch humans off-guarded by alcohol consumption...

The sad Cyborg

 

Why is he sad? He's working in one of the few places over the surface of the planet, at the equator.

Well why do you think he's sad? Maybe because he has to freeze his balls off to keep the privileged arseholes protected

Careers

Right now, I'm working on the careers (which is the ingame name for the classes), and there will be 8 of them:

Captain, Investigator, Medic, Occultist, Psiker, Scoundrel, Scientist, & Soldier.

I've already 3 pictures of classes, but i'll post them as a bunch when they are all ready...

Probably the next post 

[OSR Sci-Fi Horror] Sample Art

Quick and dirty Art

You might remember that I teased a new OSR project, last week.

The design crew (that's me and a friend) has decided to go for a very OSRish approach, not only concerning the rules, but also the Art which will be included in our next RPG.

I wanted to present you some of the Art I've developped for that game, because i'm kind of very proud of it.

The Setting

The setting will be a planet of horror, settled by a satanic cult who achieved to break some Seals, align the stars, or create an arcane apocalypse (no one really knows, and those who know... don't tell...)

CyberDemonPunk

So it's a futuristic setting, with cyberpunk elements (don't think only of chrome, but more of very powerful megacorporations, poluted ecosystems, and galactic misery apart for the top 0,1%), with black magic, and demons. No Angels, no other arcane powers than the dark art.

Yes it will be pretty bleak.

If you think of Doom, right now, yes, that's a major influence (along with Blade Runner, Transhuman Space, Dead Space, and a bunch of others)

The (quick and dirty) Art

I've spent a day developping a method to create Art quickly and used it for the Art you are about to see.

I'll probably make a tutorial out of my method, once the game is out.

The first art took a while, but now I need less than 2 hours for each image (and would take much longer to make it "undirty" - #StillLearning)

You can find those images on ArtStation too, where I also will add newer art pieces, later on (and will not add them into this post)

The firedemon

Wreaking mayhem and playing fire in a plaza? Yes, that's a typical fire demon

The Chainsaw-Massacre-Demon

This is probably gonna be our Cover. This is the first art piece I created.

What noise could have troubles this Demon? I'll wait for your answers in the commentaries

The quick and agile Demon

 

Most of the life on the planet is settled deep under the earth. These swift jumpers are rarely seen not in packs, and are a bane for travellers.

Demonic Infighting

 

Demons would not be demons if they were not bickering under themselves. It's always a good thing for the colonist when they steer their anger at each others...

The Patrolling Cyborg

  

Cyborgs are human brains implanted in a robotic body. There is no reason for anxiety, they are mentally stable and not prone to PTSD or loss of humanity. Never. Not at all. Remember these are the good guys.

And good guys go to bars, don't they?

The sad Cyborg

 

Why is he sad? He's working in one of the few places over the surface of the planet, at the equator.

Well why do you think he's sad?

That's all for today!

As always, comments are welcome (and I normally publish them quickly - no bots allowed here though...)

[OSR SciFi horror] New project teaser

What's going on with the setting of D.R.E.A.D.? 

Well, even if I haven't posted anything for a while, i still continue to develop things, in my head or on paper. To be honest, i've been working on quite a lot of other projects too, cooperations with other autors or illustrators that can't really write but still got to get their ideas on print... 

New projects

Anyway, right now, i'm working on 2 collaborations: 

• One narrative urban fantasy game with faeries and a big influence of the Tarot. 
•  The other one is probably more for the public of this blog: It's an OSR space horror game with demons and satanic cults. 

We are in the beginning stages, but the framework of the background already stands. And I made a cover for it, that I can show you here. We've decided to start really talking about the game in September, once everyone is back from holiday, but I wanted to present you with a small teaser...

And as always, they'll be a lot of random tables...

The "Ravenium Rush" brings hundreds of new settlers on the "Satanic Planet", but only a few will survive the horror, the demons, and the corporate greed...

[Stellar Fiefdoms] More backgrounds - Church !

Slowly going forward building the backgrounds. And trying out a new template (which i like a lot).
Don't hesitate to tell me what you like (and don't like)
Here they are !

Still done with GM Binder, which is really nice to work with (and sometimes around :-D )

If you know an artist that would be willing to work on a space-feudal game, have them contact me, i'd be glad !

[Stellar Fiefdoms] 5th edition Space Feudalism - Aristocratic backgrounds

It's been a bit quieter in here lately, and there is a good reason for that:
I'm working on a new project...

Space Feudalism

Stellar Fiefdoms is my attempt to emulate “Space Feudalism”, which is, for me, a sub-genre of science fiction as much as fantasy, at one of their intersections called space fantasy or science fantasy.
It’s a universe where technological advancement has brought humanity to the stars, but society has decided to take a turn back in time and revive some sort of medieval societal organisation.
Aristocracy and Church are the main powers, and their whims can be made into law.
Many technological wonders were banned, first and most importantly one: the microprocessor and any kind of artificial computing machine.
Space travel is faster than light, but only possible thanks to drugged-up fortune-teller than can choose exactly where and when to drill a hole in the space-time continuum with their motor and come back unscathed on the other side of the transfer-black-hole.
Faster than light communication is only done by way of courier, bringing wax-sealed messages using the jump-ships.
The central authority of the emperor is uncontested thanks to his unrivaled military power and the backing of the Church, but the nobles ruling their planetary fiefs enjoy a lot of freedom, far away from Messadoon, the imperial planet and seat of the Adelscabinet (The House of Lords, the law-making body of the Messaran Empire). At least, as long as they respect imperial laws and pay taxes.

Neo-Clone

The game system motorising Stellar Fiefdoms is a mix of old and new, ranging from mechanics dating to the first role playing game to its newest installment, with rules borrowed from other clones and editions situated in between.

The f5eats system

Stellar Fiefdoms is motorised by the f5eats system, a system with roots in the fifth edition of the oldest published role-playing game. It also borrows concepts from the third edition of the same game, particularly the feats that are central in the f5eats system. This system is an attempt at deconstruction of the third and fifth editions, trying to mix the best of them to obtain a fun and simple system, with a progression not based on levels, but on feats. A bit of Macchiato Monsters is also sprinkled on top

GM Binder

I'm trying to get a handle on the GM binder's tools (check them out, their page is really great)
The out put is a pdf (or at least the extract i'll show you)
Instead, I'll upload image files of each page in here, to ease readability.

Backgrounds

First i want to present you the 3 aristocratic backgounds.

As always Comments and Questions are welcome !