Artpunk? Artbook!

There's a war on artpunk. Or is there? Honestly, I don't really care - people have the right to think what's right and wrong - and to express these feelings. In case of my artpunk-ish setting, the Ashen Void - any publicity is a good publicity. Especially when the written content is of any positive quality. And I believe it is!

(in addition, I've made a no-art edition as well, for all those haters who still want to enjoy over seventy random tables without the need to damage their eyesight with the disgusting, AI-generated deformities!)

BUT - to be honest, I'm quite tired of wars within the hobby. Being it edition wars, wars on artpunk, or even wars on particular people, no matter whether they deserve the hate or not. Fuck it. Negativity is rarely a sign of an improvement.

I'm still quite enamored with the basic idea of artpunk RPGs. But the think I'm working on has quickly evolved beyond the artpunk aesthetics. In fact, it has quickly evolved outside the role-playing games. Or even games in broader sense.

The Black Tome of Nothingness will be an artbook. And while the basic idea was to make a book that could be handed to the players as an in-game artifact, the actual thing quickly became something more. At least for me, from the author's perspective. The statement above is still true - there will be nothing about any kind of game mechanics, rules or "laws". But for me, the maker - the process is much more important. So, you may expect a messy mix of styles and ideas, sprinkled with an unhealthy dose of ugly artwork.

 

The thing will be quite sizable - for now, I have ideas for over 200 entries (very briefly described HERE). And each one of them will be a full-sized mix of artwork and handwritten bullshit. And only like 5 are already done. 

The process of creating them is quite interesting in itself. I have like 3-5 sentences-long descriptions of each entry. And when I start to lay out the basic images that relate to the text, the new text is also born. And it leads to the new doodles. And so on - until I run out of space on one A4-sized workspace (yes, everything is made digitally). Any leftovers are noted, as in most cases they are some cross-references to other entries. 

I love making it. It's fun.

Judging from my pace of creating previous things - expect the Black Tome to be released somewhere in mid-2040s! I will try to keep you up to date - but I think you know me already.

Oh, and the February sale of all my shit on DriveThru is still on! Grab yourself a PDF or two, while they're 30% off!