The marmotfolk live in the bone mountains called The Ribs of the Father, in an uneasy equilibrium with the powerful spectrum satraps to their north. But I haven't drawn them yet! This is what is written about t...
2018-07-12 00:07:20 +0000 UTC View Post
While I'm working on wrapping up the UVG, I've also been working on an adjacent project. It's still only a codename and hints of pictures I've released in the past on G+ and other social media, but where the UVG is broad and long, this one is sharp and focused on the conquest and looting of an ancie...
2018-07-05 02:14:25 +0000 UTC View Post
The Ultraviolet Grasslands continue, with voyagers reaching the Chasm that divides the great steppe from the western ridges and finally, that locus of the imagination, the Black City.
This update adds:
1. More character generation options at the beginning.
2. Encounter a...
Hello everybody, patrons, followers, and casual visitors. Writing continues on Update 14 and it is nearly ready. All that is still waiting is a breakdown on the long-distance encounter rules and the points of interest for the Dark Light passage.
Besides the regular writing, I've been modifying som...
2018-06-24 23:23:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Wow! I expected this, but still ... it was unexpected. I check in, and we're over the 300 mark. There is little to say here, except: well done and welcome!
I would certainly never have written this book (yes, it is long enough to be called a book now) without your support and encouragement. Thank ...
2018-06-17 00:38:38 +0000 UTC View Post
I tend to greet everyone who joins personally, and get a bit of a conversation going ... and I've been falling behind on that. I'll get around to it. Totally.
But, till then, greetings and welcome, everyone together—here's to us having a great time together!
Meanwhile, I've compiled the mu...
2018-06-13 13:55:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Tim requested if I could share share the Neon Ziggurat in wallpaper size. Well, here it is - 2560x1440 pixels - only lightly marred by the attribution at bottom left.
Built of massive limestone blocks shaped so finely that not even an amoeba could crawl between them, it rises out of a sca...
2018-05-31 02:32:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Welcome, patrons, to update 13!
Every sixtieth day the Grand Observer of the Rotations of the Wheels manifests precisely 217 meters due north of the third portal to hand down a Prophecy Out of Time.
Update 13 adds three areas, instead of two: the Spectrum Palace, The Iron Road, and...
2018-05-26 13:25:35 +0000 UTC View Post
The poster says it all. You wonderful, crazy people, supporting a strange illustrated gamebook grown out of a mishmash of arty comic books, post-modernist sociology cross-polinated with brutalist architecture, and slow, doomy metal riffs!
Thank you so much.
How shall we celebrate?
I m...
2018-05-25 10:52:07 +0000 UTC View Post
In less than a week since I published the free introduction, new heroes have joined in their tens, and brought us through the psychological $200 boundary. I'm still amazed and astounded and half-disbelieving that you, my patrons, vote with your wallets for my writing and my drawing. However, if the ...
2018-05-16 06:29:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Dear patrons and casual browsers.
This is a free, 78-page art-packed introduction to the psychedelic metal pointcrawl that are the Ultraviolet Grasslands. It covers less than a fifth of the complete written UVG content I have created so far with the support of my generous and incredibly c...
2018-05-07 14:31:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Whew! Made it! Nearly there, four more updates and the main body of the Ultraviolet Grasslands will be complete.
This was an art-heavy update. Besides the two areas - the bone mountain known as the ribs, inhabited by the marmotfolk (wtf?), and the old highway of the Cage Run - I've added eight det...
2018-04-29 02:38:49 +0000 UTC View Post
One thing I've wanted to add for a while (but hadn't before) is a crawling biomechanical factory (the source fac in area 3, I think).<br><br>Yesterday I playtested the first half - it worked smoothly enough, though I was really surprised when the druid cat went ahead and ate the brains o...
2018-04-26 02:35:38 +0000 UTC View Post
(yes, the piece of art is older, but it's just there to make the post a wee bit more colorful!)
I'm running an offline group of ttrpg newbies through the UVG, and testing various subsystems as we go. As a rule, the sessions are great fun and I've been happy with several things:
- us...
2018-04-19 02:05:09 +0000 UTC View Post
This was one of the first points of interest I wrote up in the UVG. A thousand-foot deep submerged cavern filled with treasures and horrors.
2018-04-11 03:13:36 +0000 UTC View Post
--//--
Yes, I know the secrets of the iron and mind
They’re trinity acts, a mineral fire
Yes, I know the secrets of the circuitry mind
It’s a flaming wonder telepath
--//--
In this update I reformated the entire introduction, expanded the equi...
2018-03-29 04:00:56 +0000 UTC View Post
You might recall one of the earliest points of interest, aka. mini locations, in the UVG: the Crystal Pylon. Or you might not, it's pretty forgetable:
"
Crystal Pylon (+2 days, 150 XP): a voluptuously whorled crystal pylon lies on its side in a heavily eroded crater, t...
2018-03-28 04:48:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings, dear patrons!
The February-and-March update continues to drag along slowly. You may well be wondering: what in blazes is Luka up to? Has he given up the ghost? Has he the flu, or the flux, or an embezzled fluxonator?
No, none of that.
As I've mentioned previously, the...
"Luka! Why are you taking so long?!"
"Because I'm really busy, damnit!"
"You had one job."
"No, actually, it was more like two ..."
"I don't care."
"Fine, here's part of the reason. I want to get the damned map into working order, so the Referee can run this danged steppe f...
2018-03-20 10:10:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I've mostly been posting just finished updates, but ... sometimes a peek behind the ivory curtain is also interesting. A lot of my creative process is a dialogue between my drawings and my writing.<br><br>In this case, I realized I needed a better intro to the UVG. After all, the damned ...
2018-03-13 05:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
I was just blown away tonight. A good friend of mine, Peter Leban, a long time player and now a DM in his own right, is also a 3D artist and a few weeks ago he mentioned how much he loved the Porcelain Throne and how he was going to throw it at his players.
Then he asked me if he could render...
Hello patrons!
One of the things that the next update is bringing is a divergence. The appendix and glossaries are becoming their own thing, while the UVG is getting a bit more rigorous structure and an introduction that should draw in more casual adventurers, and explain how to use the whole thin...
2018-03-07 02:22:59 +0000 UTC View Post
This is an excerpt from a wholly different module I'm working on, that deals with the fall of an ancient city, its plunder and destruction. As I sent it off to the editor, he said, "Oh, this is set in the Rainbowlands, too, isn't it?"
I replied, "Of course it's not! It's its own thing!"
The Stratometaship continues to journey west, inching closer and closer to the Black City. The first update of 2018 and it's a massive on! In fact, so large I couldn't neatly fit all the new pieces into the document without risking exploding all my formatting.
What's new?
- Near Moon regio...
This mini-update is an excerpt from Three Sticks Lake - an over-detailed region of the central Ultraviolet Grasslands. A perfect location if you want to start with a party of Icemen (see glossary of next update).
Red Bear is a village honey-combed through a great amalgama...
2018-02-07 01:46:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Where is the monthly UVG? What is going on? Has it died?
No, no. The UVG is fine. Most of the update is written, most of the art is ready, but I've had a month so packed with family, travel, jetlag, additional projects, and work that I was left with a stark choice: rush out a half-assed u...
2018-01-30 14:06:03 +0000 UTC View Post
First, a happy new year. You've been great, and you're the reason the UVG has grown the way it has. I wish you all the best, many weird voyages, memorable adventures, and good friends found in games and lives.
Second, I did a bit of a competition for character "retirements" to immortalize in the U...
2018-01-09 14:12:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Last update of the year! We've made it to the Moon River, in sight of the swollen Near Moon, on the frontiers of Satrap Domains. Whoah. This update has been pretty major, including:
-two new areas
-more retirement tables
-trade obstacles
-river crossings
-languages
-one extra g...
Hello, my fine and dear patrons! First, a happy xmas and a merry new year, since we're in that seasonal period. I've weathered most of the family holidays, and hope you have, too.
We've also weathered the Patreon-billing-modification-episode (well, I didn't do a thing, and neither did most of you,...
2017-12-28 09:26:10 +0000 UTC View Post
This free mini-update is an excerpt from the Glossary expansion of December's update to the UVG (it's going to be UVG-9). It's cozy and cuddly, but I haven't put it into a .pdf because layout takes time and I'm writing and oh, god, did you see, patreon back-tracked and you can support at the $1 ...
2017-12-15 03:18:27 +0000 UTC View Post