Art Previews
Another month, another update and another chance to brag about Blue Planet art. Every time a new piece came in, I changed my mind about which was my favorite. This Blood Hunter attack illustration was one of the last to be submitted, and since now all the art is in, this illustration may forever stand as my favorite of so many great images. I love how at first glance it appears just an abstract swirl of colors, then suddenly resolves into dynamic horror.
I also want to brag about some more of the tech art. The more I look at these portraits of some of the hybrid species, the more I love them. Though I know many BP players imagined more animalistic aspects for the hybrids, in my mind they have always been human first, separated from the rest of humanity only by an uncanny valley of prejudice. I asked the artist to emphasize their humanity while still capturing their slightly unsettling nature, and I think he nailed it.
Stretch Goals
We have deliberately been focusing on the content that is going into the physical books so we can get them to press as soon as possible. Though we are deferring production on the stretch goals until the core books go to press, developmental work has continued on A World of Hurt, Wormhole and the mini-campaign Storm Surge (working title). I have playtested the first of the three sections of Storm Surge and am playtesting the second this fall. One of my ambitions for the campaign is that it be playable - or even re-playable - using different, recurring/rotating parties of characters for the same players. In its current state, the game is intended to be played by a party of native insurgents, a ruthless Incorporate security squad and a team of undercover GEO operatives. Each section will be composed of three one-shots that can be mixed and matched so that a given gaming group can approach the campaign however they want, playing through whichever chapters they wish. I am not convinced that I can pull it off, but this is the intention for now.
Pandemic Production
In last month's update, I shared how the pandemic has impacted the Blue Planet production schedule. I recently guested on Role Playing Public Radio's excellent Game Designer's Workshop podcast, where the host, Ross Payton (Base Raiders), Caleb Stokes (Red Markets and Fae's Anatomy) and I had an "inside baseball" kind of discussion about game publishing during the pandemic. We talk Blue Planet specifically and dive deeper into some of the murky depths of game design and publishing in the pandemic.
