New Belkar Bitterleaf prequel story (plus Don't Split the Party) in PDF from Gumroad

[Lissou]

Question - is the O-Chul prequel still in the old art style (+black and white, obviously).

I've heard that the O-Chul prequel is actually bluescale rather than greyscale.

[Porthos]

I've heard that the O-Chul prequel is actually bluescale rather than greyscale.

That was the original plan, but it got junked somewhere along the way (Rich wasn't pleased with the look, IIRC) so it is going to be greyscale like most of the other supplementary materials.

[Peelee]

That was the original plan, but it got junked somewhere along the way (Rich wasn't pleased with the look, IIRC) so it is going to be greyscale like most of the other supplementary materials.

I don't recall that. In one of the emails, maybe?

[Lissou]

That was the original plan, but it got junked somewhere along the way (Rich wasn't pleased with the look, IIRC) so it is going to be greyscale like most of the other supplementary materials.

Ah, thanks for setting me straight :)

[Porthos]

I don't recall that. In one of the emails, maybe?

Look what you made me do! I had to spend minutes, minutes I say, tracking this down.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects.../posts/1141218

The second of the Backer's Choice PDFs is now complete: Therkla the half-orc ninja in "Spoiler Alert." (That's the name of the story, not an actual spoiler alert.) It's sixteen pages long, which is about what I've come to expect when I set out to write an eight page story. Backers, you'll be getting a second (private) update shortly after this one with a download link to a .zip file with the story, so keep an eye out for that.

It's also greyscale, not blue as I had previously envisioned it. Turns out the all-blue look didn't work as well as I would've liked, leaving the pages muddy and hard to read, so I scrapped it. I may try again when I start on the art for O-Chul; I think it might look better if I start with it blue instead of drawing it grey and then trying to convert it at the end. Or it might not, who knows?

Turns out I slightly misremembered what was said, but given that the dialogue-less panel from the O-Chul story that was shown in the last KS update wasn't blue tinged (at least not to my eyes), I am going to guess that Rich decided to stick (ahem) with greyscale after all.

Or maybe he will try to blue tinge it after all when it is done. We'll find out soon enough, I suppose.

==========

On a separate note, and not to double post, Rich I wanted to let you know that the bottom of the page for the Chapter Art of Round Six in the pdf for DStP has that "Comic Title" "A" pseudo Page Number bug that crept up in one of the other PDFs.

Obviously not worth a whole new digital edition, but I thought you might want to make a note of it if/when you ever update it.

[Kish]

While I didn't go to art school, my experience with trying to tint things non-greyscale shades is such that I'll be impressed if he comes up with a way to tint it that doesn't look like ass (if you'll excuse the technical term).

[The Giant]

O-Chul's story will be done in the current art style, as will everything from now on unless I'm trying to specifically insert material into the middle of an older story for some reason, such as when I drew the bonus materials for Blood Runs in the Family. There wasn't any art completed on the O-Chul prequel beyond that cover image until recently, only outlines and scripts, so there's no need to match the older style if I don't want to (and I don't want to).

O-Chul's story will also be greyscale. The bluescale is nice in theory but the big problem with it is that without color, my art relies heavily on that black line to differentiate between blocks of grey that are sometimes only a little bit apart. Every blue I tried failed to do as good a job at separating darker tints (60-80%) as black does when separating equivalent greys. And any blue that even came close looked more like grey or purple when scaled back to 10-20%. The only way to make it work would have been to use different blues for different parts, at which point you're using multiple inks when printing and you might as well work in full color. The main reason I started using greyscale in the first place was due to the massive cost savings of 1-color printing anyway.

[Peelee]

Makes sense. I was kind of exited about the bluescale, bit it's not gonna ruin my enjoyment of it.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah, I have a set of blue-tinted novelty shades somewhere or other to wear when I read it.

[DaggerPen]

Thank you for answering! As a fan of the new art style, I'll be quite pleased when the story eventually gets released to us poor schmucks who couldn't participate in the Kickstarter <3 <3

(I mean, lbr. I'd have been pleased regardless. But this is icing XD)

[Sky_Schemer]

The bluescale is nice in theory but the big problem with it is that without color, my art relies heavily on that black line to differentiate between blocks of grey that are sometimes only a little bit apart.

Another issue with blue, which probably contributed to the problem of finding usable shades, is basic human anatomy: our eyes just aren't very sensitive to it. It is a very poor color to use when differentiating details.

This effect gets worse as we age. Our eyes tend to yellow, which makes our blue perception even worse.

(I knew my cartography class would come in handy. Eventually.)

[nerman8r]

I want to say that having donated to the Kickstarter, I'd be happy if the PDFs were for-sale to everybody as soon as we got them. I'd sooner the stories were publicly available. As far as DStP, I don't want to shell out $17 for a PDF when I already have the hard copy, but I really want to read that essay!

[Ruck]

Heh, love the John Cage joke.

[KorvinStarmast]

Got Uncivil Servant, enjoyed it. Will probably order DtSP soon.

[Unregistered]

So, I finally got to buy them both. Since I already got the Belkar pdf as a KS reward,I only payed 2$ but I guess every cent counts. I'm looking forward to the OotS-campaign part.

[Centaur]

I’d like to point out that the Shop page still lists “Don’t Split the Party” as “coming soon” from Gumroad, and says nothing about “Uncivil Servant”.

[tomandtish]

Can someone advise on how to download from the Kickstarter page if you were a subscriber? I can't find the link on the update page he was talking about (and I am signed in).

[Peelee]

Can someone advise on how to download from the Kickstarter page if you were a subscriber? I can't find the link on the update page he was talking about (and I am signed in).

I don't know about the kickstarter page, but you could just comb through your email. Using "burlew" as a search criteria found me all the kickstarter emails with links to download.

[tomandtish]

I don't know about the kickstarter page, but you could just comb through your email. Using "burlew" as a search criteria found me all the kickstarter emails with links to download.

Already done. It did not show up, and wasn't in my spam folder.

[Kish]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...e/posts/411224 .

[tomandtish]

That worked. Thanks. Not sure why it wasn't showing when I tried to go to it from inside Kickstarter originally.

[Darth Paul]

Yeah, I have a set of blue-tinted novelty shades somewhere or other to wear when I read it.

Do they play ZZ Top singing "Cheap Sunglasses"?

[Yendor]

So, something I noticed about the statblock in the bonus material:

Spoiler

Show

There are stats there beyond what's seen, but they're invisible due to clipping. They can be revealed with the help of copy-and-paste. Notably, everything smaller than juvenile is just zeroes - the Giant has spoken out against statting babies - but there are proper stats for the next few categories. Apparently, beige dragons get less charismatic with age.

[ti'esar]

So, something I noticed about the statblock in the bonus material:

Spoiler

Show

Apparently, beige dragons get less charismatic with age.

Wow. That's a neat discovery (and hilarious ).

[Rogar Demonblud]

Why is that a surprise? Everyone knows babies (and puppies, kittens, etc) are the apex of charismatic.

[Peelee]

Why is that a surprise? Everyone knows babies (and puppies, kittens, etc) are the apex of charismatic.

Then why have no babies ever been elected king? Check and mate.

[hroþila]

Then why have no babies ever been elected king? Check and mate.

You're mistaken.

[Peelee]

You're mistaken.

After some research, King Baby clearly did not come to power through a democratic process, but by birthright. As sad as it may be, King Baby will soon taste the bitter fruit of an uprising due to his lack of charisma. Viva la revolución!

[The Giant]

Let's please keep this thread free of derailments and irrelevant conversations, please.

[i6uuaq]

I just logged in for the first time in years to say that I bought the Belkar story for $1.

And since I was there already, I bought every other main-plotline PDF too. 😃

Nice marketing gimmick. Now I can't wait for BRitF to come out in pdf too.