AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC FOR 13 DAYS, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEN
HOW TO BUY IT:
PHYSICAL COPIES ONLY: ETSY
PHYSICAL OR DIGITAL: KO-FI
DIGITAL ONLY: ITCH.IO
Mortasheen is a monster-collecting setting I've developed for over twenty years, it has been in development as a tabletop roleplaying game for over fifteen years, and I have spent more than the last five years laboring on this first book alone. Credit to Morgan Mullins for the gameplay system, @gutsygills for every single playable monster build, rules expansion, testing and enormous amounts of other editing work.
History of the project here
A condensed guide to the setting itself here
Expanding and co-managing a new tabletop gaming "brand" out of this setting is MY SOLE CAREER PROSPECT and potentially my entire new livelihood for the foreseeable future. This is literally now more than half my life's work.
If you can't afford such a LARGE AND CONTENT DENSE new gaming book (a fair chunk of the price is only the raw printing cost!) you can help me survive and get this life-consuming project off to a good start by signal boosting and spreading the word.
Miscellaneous Book Information:
8 x 11'', 350 pages. Includes all rules and mechanics for running a campaign or playing in one, player biotypes, NPC's, locations, gadgets, lairs, setting culture, ecology, unique original battle system, story hooks, a secret antagonist faction for more epic life-or-death adventures and a modular ability system for modifying and creating any conceivable monster, object or phenomenon. All 177 monsters in the bestiary include detailed biology and characterization.
Featuring guest artists including @biomechanicalmush, @sabedilemon, @iguanamouth and more
Softcover $60, Hardcover $70-80 (more on etsy to offset their fees) digital pdf download $40 so we have enough to split with the gameplay devs. Books ordered during this first run will most likely arrive December within the USA, while international shipping from this country is currently undergoing unpredictable chaos.
Backers of the original kickstarter should still receive their books first, and many already have! Over half are yet to finish printing, but we're getting there.
Free online-only playable bonus monster builds available on the front page of bogleech.com or at the bogleech.com/mortabook link, also all assembled by @gutsygills
This is a special variant on a book exclusive monster you can also see as a preview page! The original monster was designed by me but one of many in the book with a final illustration by @biomechanicalmush !
Link goes to a teaser with further details, followed by two more introductory pages, which I will also link here:
What is Mortasheen? How and why did I start it almost 25 years ago? When did it become a Tabletop RPG project, and why did that take as long as it did?? It certainly involves a lot more Neopets than you probably assumed, I'll tell you that much.
What is this setting like? How does it work? Who lives there other than hundreds and hundreds of googly-eyed parasites? I explain not only the basics of the setting and a condensed canon history, but the key elements of the TTRPG including the eight primary "player races" (we just call them biotypes), some environments, some of the "scientific disciplines" that rule the setting and a recap of every current monster class, so you can already start planning your character and what they specialize in should you find that interesting or can see yourself playing the game!
QUICK THINGS ABOUT THE BOOK:
The kickstarter copies are now printing and shipping to me from the factory in batches, which is the only way it was feasible and is going to continue all the way into September, so backers will be getting their books anywhere from late October to mid December. There is no faster, safer service for this many books at once, but the orders were placed!
The general public will get to order copies for thirteen days as a "soft release," which will also take some weeks to print and ship out.
I'm splitting profits with the gameplay dev team and we each want about $20 per book for all this hard work. Softcover in standard color quality costs $15 just to print, so the cheapest physical copies will be around $60 shipped.
On October 31st I'll announce and link to every way you can order a copy, everywhere I can.
Digital will also hopefully be available in some way (it isn't all 100% just my call)
Sales will open up again every couple months or so after that, until final details of long-term full release are worked out.
It's crazy to me that it's now been 15 actual real life years since I began following this project, and 5 years since Bogleech first asked me if I would like to contribute some guest art to this project. Of course there was no question, as not only is Bogleech always a pleasure to collaborate with, but discovering Mortasheen back in 2010 directly altered the course of my entire artistic career. It's no exaggeration to say that without Mortasheen, I would not be the artist that I am.
I am immensely, indescribably proud to finally see this 25 year passion project finally spread its wings, and I have no doubt in my mind that people will love it. It was an absolute pleasure.
odd sketch I was doing in my dream. I remember the eyes were a lot more piercing but, like most dreams, I don't think it would be possible to recreate the effect.
Heres me having a go at demonstrating ghiandina's basic movements. As you can see, I am not a particularly skilled puppeteer, but she works well enough, so I can finally call this project a job well done.
the cord hip joints make walking motions a little difficult, a bit "swingy", but I would consider this more of an "art" marionette rather than one really designed for good performance, so I'm not too bothered about it.
my piece for @bowelfly's magnificent GIGAPHONE 2024. 72 artists (imagine that) and they all killed it. I was number 11. I think we've really made something special here.
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
titsay
gummygunk
