Thursday 23 June 2011

Embarking on a self-publishing venture!

For some time I've been thinking about the possibility of making a book compiling all the new spells and magic-using classes I've been coming up with. So the other day I cut and pasted it all together into a single document, just out of interest to see how much content I have already. And, to my surprise, it came to almost 40 pages! This has galvanised me to complete the project.

After a bit of preliminary organisational work, I've decided that I'm going to compile a book with the following content:
  • The elementalist class (available here). Possibly expanded with some additional spells.
  • The necromancer class (which I've been working on for a while "behind the scenes", and which already has about 50 new spells).
  • The fey class (available here). Also possibly expanded with some additional spells.
  • The expansion of the illusionist class which I've been working on.
  • Edit: Just maybe the hypothesised nature mage, if I feel really inspired. I think it'd be a very cool class, but I'd only include it if I thought I'd be able to do it justice.
  • A selection of magical tomes (each containing a bunch of new spells around a specific theme -- including, for example, the tome of the spider mage).
  • Any other random bits & pieces relating to arcane magic which I feel like throwing in!
Everything will be specifically compatible with Labyrinth Lord, but of course that means it's equally usable with Swords & Wizardry, B/X D&D, AD&D, etc.

Primarily I'm doing this for my own pleasure. I think it'd be totally cool to have an actual properly printed book of my own classes and spells to use in my games! But of course, once I've gone to the effort of writing, compiling and laying everything out, and then publishing it on Lulu, then it'll certainly be available to other people as well.

I don't have a name for the book yet, and no idea what to do about artwork! As it's purely a hobbyist thing, I don't really imagine investing any money in this venture (i.e. to pay artists), but it would of course be nice to have at least a good-looking cover (I'm imagining old-school style black & white illustration to go along with the LL books). If any artists reading this are up for drawing some stuff, please let me know -- I could probably offer you a print copy of the book if all goes well!

Any thoughts or suggestions most welcome!

6 comments:

  1. Good luck Gavin! About a year ago, I got the idea to do the Wilderness Alphabet and it was a very satisfying project. As for art, I used all public domain stuff (and stuff I drew). It turned out well. Don't hesitate to take a look at Wikimedia Commons.

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  2. Excellent Gavin, it will great to see all of your creations in one book.

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  3. Always looking for OSR projects to make some images, maps, etc. Drop me an email (scadgrad1 AT GEEmail DOT com) if you'd like some help.

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  4. I am pleased that you've buckled to inevitability!

    I'd be happy to help out with art, so let me know.

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  5. Thanks for the encouragement everyone! It's really very inspiring! :)

    Scadgrad & Kelvin -- wow thanks guys that'd be totally amazing! I sort of put out that intention for proper artwork not really thinking anything would come of it, and here you two come straight away offering to help. That's just great! I'll send you both emails over the next couple of days... Hopefully we can make something really cool together :)

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