From the Mutant Insurrectionist: Interview with a Cosmic Doctor

So I'm starting a Gathox 'zine called The Mutant Insurrectionist, featuring news snippets, gang territories, new items/spells/classes/monsters, playable locations, and absurdist advertisements. Here's a news snippet from the monthly magazine for the rich part of town, which includes a custom 1st level Mentalist spell:

Excerpted from the Vaclavellian Digest for the Month of Morning Fog:

. . . and after bypassing the Riddle of Chitin in Cheery Orchard, our crew finally caught up with renowned Cosmic Doctor, Arimena the Parallelizer. What follows is a distillation of that momentous interview.

VD: My god, I've never even seen a Zhezhn before, let alone pass through an entire grotto of them . . .

AP: I'm sure you haven't!

VD: The thrumming down here is turning the stomachs of my crew, and one just had a seizure from the pulsing lights. Any way you could dismiss those . . . things?

(AP smiles wryly and emits a series of polyphonic grunts - the Zhezhn phase through the floors and our sickness subsides.)

AP: You're a daisy for coming down here. What can I do for you?

VD: We're writing a feature on the Deflector fad. The spell's being used for new toeball game variants, public duels, drinking contests - it's on fire! How did you develop your namesake spell?

AP: And here I was, thinking you wanted a sneak peek at my Doppleganger Invasion manuscript! (chuckles) So anyway, in my travels I noticed a trend - each technologically advanced species eventually develops 'lightbox' technology, and shortly thereafter devises games for lightboxes.

VD: You're talking about face-screens?

AP: That's what the Mokron call them, yeah. The true marker of an advanced civilization is developing a lightbox game wherein two opponents compete by passing a dot back and forth using lit up lines or paddles. If a player sends the dot across the box and their opponent does not return the dot with the paddle, they score a point. Each advanced civilization across this galaxy has developed this game independently. I don't even waste my time trying to communicate with species that haven't developed it somewhere in spacetime.

VD: So this lightbox game inspired the spell?

AP: Yes. The Deflector is a three dimensional representation of one of those paddles, useful for deflecting incoming attacks. It works even better than the game version, because it automatically rotates around the body to intercept strikes or missiles. I wanted to make sure that even the least experienced of Mentalists could access the spell.

VD: There's been a glut in the market recently, so many scrolls of Arimena's Deflector are available on the cheap. There are even variations with custom colors and pyrotechnics! Did you think you'd set off a sea change in the spell market?

AP: Well, if you can cast at all, folks on the surface take notice pretty quickly. If you don't seek the protection of a gang, and sometimes even if you do, as a Mentalist you have to watch your back at all times. The Deflector is a great way to put up real resistance against a team of ruffians trying to steal your wizard brain for their boss. It makes sense that the Deflector is making the rounds, and I'm just chuffed!

VD: You should be! We risked life and limb to get the scoop on the Deflector, because our audience loves the spell so deeply. We'll be offering a briefing on your Deflector alongside this interview in the next issue of the Vaclavellian Digest. I want to thank you so much for your time, Arimena!

AP: Thanks for the house call, Vaclav! Here's a Gate back to the surface . . .
(air ionizes, lights pulse rapidly)

VD: No, wait! Aaaagh!


Arimena's Deflector
Spell Level: M1
Range: 5' radius
Duration: 5 rounds

This spell conjures a rotating quarter-globe paddle of thin, crackling magical energy which can quickly move around the caster to intercept physical attacks. The Deflector can automatically intercept up to 3 +1/lvl attacks per round. The Deflector requires an opponent's attack to first overcome the Deflector's AC of 5 before rerolling a To-Hit caster’s AC. Lasts 5 rounds.

Gathox updates and new player-made optional rules!

Hello, folks! It's been a while sussing out what I'm going to do with the Gathox blog and communities since the announcement that G+ is getting shut down. It's a shame, a lot of my close friends and a large chunk of my career came from G+, and the dust hasn't yet settled on where everyone is going. You can find me a couple of places:

1) Here, at the Gathox blog.

2) Over on MeWe, as D.L. Johnson and with a fresh Gathox gaming group: https://mewe.com/group/5bbe73faa5f4e54433c5447a

3) On Facebook, although I only show up there about once a week, again as D.L. Johnson.

4) Very soon, you can find excellent Gathox gaming content on Patreon. I'm starting a regular Gathox zine called The Mutant Insurrectionist, and it features weekly in-game news from all three neighborhoods, new adventure hooks, new classes and monsters, custom spells, and a new detailed location each issue! I plan to make the zine for at least a year, and release the zines to the general public through DrivethruRPG. I'l post links to that when it starts up!

Next, I'm stoked to announce that GVS1: Gathox Vertical Slum and GVS2: Quake Alley Mayhem! have gone Electrum and Copper bestsellers on DrivethruRPG.com accordingly! Thank y'all so much for interest in my gonzo science fantasy game, I cannot thank you guys enough!

Next, I'd like to share with you a player creation for Gathox. Paul Thompson has been a regular Gathox player and playtester since 2015, and he recently dreamed up some optional rules for gang management that I think a lot of Gathox Referees would be interested in seeing. It's so cool to see people create things for Gathox totally independent of what I have planned, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to share his work with you! Paul wanted me to stress that this is a rough draft, and has granted me permission to share them here. Here it is:

"Chief Mastermind”: Gang Business Game

Description

This mini-game will simulate limited contact with a chief mastermind/Brainiac overseeing the entirety of the gang’s businesses. The DM will roll on two tables at the beginning of the week; the News/ Threat Avenue table generates the nature of a news item the chief mastermind will deliver to the PCs at the week’s start, the Actual Value table determines the percentage of the gang’s profits the chief is destined to deliver at week’s end. If disastrous profits are looming, the DM then rolls the chief’s savvy stats to see if he or his staff will take care of the impending problem and avert disaster on their own (report of this triumph becomes that week’s news tidbit). If staff fail to avert disaster, then they’ve failed to uncover it at all. That week’s news item may now be a clue as to the impending disaster, which savvy and intuitive PCs may follow up on diegetically to avert disaster themselves.

Chief’s Savvy Stats (1-10) *currently this is an arbitrary DM assignation:

• Internal Savvy: The chief excels at training personnel, creating protocols, and is adept at monitoring internal discord and adherence to policy.
• Larger Market Savvy: The chief keeps a passive eye on larger market trends and larger news items.
• Local Market Savvy: The chief keeps a watchful eye on neighbors’ competing businesses, especially for nonviolent but cutthroat practices.
• Security Savvy: The chief orchestrates a lively and ever-ready security apparatus.

Procedure

At the beginning of the week, roll on both Actual Value and News/ Threat Avenue tables. The News Avenue roll indicates the nature of that week’s news item (and by extension the threat-avenue should the Actual Value come up Trouble or Boom). Then follow the appropriate section below (Steady Business, or Trouble/ Boom):

Actual Value Table: Roll 2d6.

Trouble. (roll Avenue Table and follow Trouble procedure)
2	50% drain from the company/ party coffers
3	25% drain from the company/ party coffers
4	Company/ party is barely in the black; no profit this cycle
Steady Business. (roll Avenue Table for normal news item)
5	50% Bluebook
6	75% Bluebook
7	100% Bluebook
8	110% Bluebook
9	120% Bluebook
Boom. (roll Avenue table and follow Boon procedure)
10	150% Bluebook
11	200% Bluebook
12	300% Bluebook

News/ Threat-Avenue Table: Roll 1d5.

Following is a table for determining the avenue by which news, trouble, and boons collide with the party each cycle:

1	Internal Threats (Embezzling, Loose lips, Employee Theft)
2	Larger Market Threats (Foreign supply and demand shifts)
3	Local Market Threats (Direct competitors’ business tactics and operations)
4	Security Threats (Vulnerability to outright attacks/ hijacks)
5	*Mysterious Threats or “All Quiet”

*If Mystery is rolled with Steady Business, then that week “no news is good news.” If Mystery is rolled with Trouble or Boom, the avenue is mysterious or supernatural.

Actual Value Results (DM performs one of the following):

Steady Business:

If a Steady Business result is rolled, multiply the total bluebook profits for gang’s businesses by the percentage indicated. These are the real profits for the gang that week. Next roll on the Avenue table for news-item inspiration. It is important to include a news item for most cycles so the presence of news itself does not become a “tell” alerting players they should investigate.

Trouble/ Boom

If Trouble or Boon is rolled, the News Avenue becomes the Threat Avenue for that week’s incident:

1. Determine auto-defense. DM rolls the threat (1d10) versus the chief’s stat (1-10) in this area.

• If the roll is equal or beneath the stat, the threat was neutralized by the company without the characters’ intervention. The tale of this near-disaster is that week’s news item.
  • Roll 1d6+3 on the profit table for the new, trouble-free profit if the disaster was Trouble. Skip to step 3: Special Boom for a successfully navigated Boom result.
• If the roll is above the stat, the event will manifest and take its toll on company profits unless the players intervene. The PCs may, however, receive a clue about its looming presence.

2. Determine News Clue. The event will manifest unmodified at the end of the week unless the characters intervene. Roll 1d10 again against the chief’s relevant stat. Success on this roll means a news item pops up that includes some peripheral “clue” about the threat looming at the week’s end. Failure means the DM treats the news result as if it were 5/ All Quiet and will surprise the players with the bombshell loss at week’s end.
3. Special Boom. If the Actual Value result was a Boom, then the danger was a potential loss resulting from a high-risk situation. If staff or the players mitigate the boom, it yields the listed bonanza amount, but failing to do so means rerolling 1d3+1 (a guaranteed loss) on the Actual Value table.

Future Directions:

 Specific Chief Masterminds, complete with Savvy stats, appear in a rogue’s gallery for hire as would any hireling | The week’s news might result in a lead for headhunting/ poaching opportunities | Regular (but slightly more or less valuable) masterminds might appear for hire and contribute a +1 or -1 modifier to the chief’s stats | Players with the right wheelhouse might decide to devote their downtime to add a modifier to the chief’s weekly rolls.

The Glaatu: optional alien race class for Gathox

This week I'd like to focus on a new optional class for Gathox - this time, the Glaatu. The Glaatu are a race of foul-mouthed, split-limbed space pirates whose ships habitually and inexplicably tend to crash land on worlds the godling repeatedly visits. Their population remains diffuse in the city, with some living “homefree,” or homeless, in Berchan Favela and others seeking refuge in the shifting stomach-dungeons deep beneath the surface.

Here's their stats as monsters from GVS1:

Armor Class: 7[12]
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 2
Special: Multilimbed
Move: 15
HDE/XP: 3/60

As Big As: A skinnier version of a bear.
Smells Like: Sulphur and pyramid-scheme perfume.
Sounds Like: A drunk speaking in reverse.
Favorite Pastime: Playing poker, drunk speaking in reverse.
Turnoffs: Thick limbs.

These foul-mouthed, polyglot alien pirates occasionally mine for legitimate work. Their ships have an uncanny knack for picking up on Gathox's magnetic signature in the cosmos and accidentally crash landing nearby. They travel in scavenger teams of 2-20 and prefer to dig to safety when on solid ground. Their split limbs allow them to wield two weapons at once without penalty, including two-handed weapons.

The Glaatu as a class

Glaatu make for natural adventurers, swindlers, thieves, and brigands. They advance as Militants (using the S&W White Box Fighter advancement tables) and possess a number of innate racial abilities.

Character Advancement: The Glaatu are considered Militants for all purposes and may typically only advance as high as 5th level unless the Referee rules otherwise.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Like any other Militant, the Glaatu can use any weapons and armor without restriction and without the price increases for possessing a strange body shape. As space pirates, the Glaatu adapted to scavenging fitting armor pieces eons ago.

Dual Wielding: Due to their split limbs, the Glaatu can wield two weapons without penalty, including two-handed weapons.

Double Attacks: The Glaatu may make two attacks per round if dual wielding weapons - which means that for each attack, a dual wielding Glaatu may roll damage twice and take the higher damage value.

Saving Throws: The Glaatu are less susceptible to magical attacks, and thus receive a +4 bonus on Saving Throws against magic, even if the Referee only uses single saving throws.

The Mi-Chiw: an optional alien race class for Gathox!

Howdy, folks! Some quick housekeeping:

1) Quake Alley Mayhem is available in print now. That means you can go here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/244989/Gathox-Vertical-Slum-Quake-Alley-Mayhem

to grab a physical copy! Go get some and murder your PCs, it'll always be worth it!

2) Jesse Goldshear from the Yenemvelt blog wrote a kickass carousing table for Gathox. You should check it out here:

http://yenemvelt.blogspot.com/2018/09/party-like-you-mean-it-gathoxian.html

I dig the three-axis generation process for the results, that's super hot - and everything's tied tightly into the functional fiction and geography to boot. Jesse's also been kind enough to assist in organizing a collection of player-made game content for Gathox, which will eventually be a free .pdf! Huzzah!

The Mi-Chiw optional class for Gathox

From GVS1, Chapter 6 Monster Section

The short, violent, and hideous turtle people known as the Mi-Chiw ("MEE-chyoo") grew from a single crate of eggs thoughtlessly brought into the city on a world not visited for hundreds of years. The Mi-Chiw are barely tolerated, but they occasionally find work as death squads for the elite when on the surface. They naturally go to ground in Gathox, establishing wet warrens and complex hatcheries. Mi-Chiw possess a species-wide instinctual desire to build ladders, stacking them on the surface at night in an attempt to ascend to the sun at dawn and touch Dzak-Molu, their god. 

As monsters, they typically travel in bands of 3d4 members and warren with anywhere from 12-60 individuals. Every group of 5 or more Mi-Chiw will be accompanied by a mutated 4+2 HD Shell Priest, who casts as a 3rd level Mentalist.

As PCs, the lives of Mi-Chiw trend toward short and brutal. Their horrific countenances and penchant for violence render them simultaneously unsuited to lives of socialization and talented at adventuring. 

Mi-Chiw Race Abilities

Character Advancement: Mi-Chiw advance as Militants, and may typically advance as far as 6th level. They use Militant Hit Dice, To-Hit scores, and Saving Throws.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Because of their strange shape and hard shells, Mi-Chiw may only wear armor on their arms and legs, and can wear up to four pieces of armor. They may carry a small shield as well. They may only use one-handed melee or ranged weapons.

Natural Weapons and Armor: The Mi-Chiw's shell provides natural armor, which continues to harden through age and exposure to the hardships of adventuring. At level 1, a Mi-Chiw has a natural AC of 7[12]; this improves by one point each level, until at level 6, where a Mi-Chiw has a natural AC of 2[17]. Additionally, the Mi-Chiw possesses jagged, devastating claws that function as incredible natural weapons. At level 1, the Mi-Chiw's barehanded attacks do 1d6 damage. At level 3, damage improves to 1d4+2. At level 5, damage improves again, this time to 1d6+3. At level 6, their claw attacks continue to do 1d6+3 damage and are treated as magical weapons in terms of ability to damage enemies resistant to mundane attacks.

Fighting Zhezhn: Gathox's antibodies, the Zhezhn, have a difficult time adapting to the bizarre psychology of the Mi-Chiw, and thus find them difficult to engage in combat; Zhezhn only inflict half the normal damage against Mi-Chiw.

Keen Detection: Mi-Chiw are naturally subterranean and can navigate below ground with ease. On checks for spatial orientation underground, detecting slanting passages, or spotting traps, Mi-Chiw are considered to have a +2 to WIS.

Saving Throws: The Mi-Chiw intellect is so foreign that psychic attacks, whether magical or biological, trend toward failure. The Mi-Chiw has a +4 bonus on Saving Throws against all psychic attacks.

The Great Gathoxan Giveaway!

First thing's first - I'm gonna give away some original art! Here's the rules of the Great Gathoxan Giveaway:

1) As a GM, you need to run a full session of GVS2: Quake Alley Mayhem.

2) You need to write up a full session report, including traps solved, treasure gained, and a list of the dead.

3) Share that session report either on your blog, or on G+. Tag me in on your post or let me know that you've posted your session report.

4) The first 5 GMs to run GVS2 will receive an original piece of Gathox art in the mail, and we'll trade contact info to make that happen.

5) I'm down to ship anywhere in the continental US. If you're outside of the lower 48 states, you gotta cover the costs of shipping.

That's it - just run the module for friends, post about it online, and the first five folks to do so get original Gathox art! Go get some!

Quake Alley Mayhem and Updates!

Alright, so I'm super stoked to announce that GVS2: Quake Alley Mayhem is finally out! The module was a blast to work on and I cannot thank Mike Evans at DIY RPG Productions enough for being patient with me and supporting my work through thick and thin. Mike recruited the speedy, hard working, and talented Matt Hildebrand to handle layout, and Matt just nailed it to the wall with tightness and little design flourishes that really make the book pop.

You can find GVS2: Quake Alley Mayhem here!

Okay, so what's in the module?

GVS2 is a tournament module with pre-gens. It's a classic 'Get the MacGuffin,' only it's not. Sure, retrieving the ancient artifact known as Vaclav's Holy Driver is the mission objective of the Purple Rockets gang played by the players, but the real mission becomes clear as soon as players enter the enemy base: beat the clock!


For every 20 minutes of table time, another earthquake occurs, invoking particular physical effects within the dungeon and sapping the PCs of crucial resources along the way, but these effects become more deleterious over time. This puts the pressure on players to solve the traps and puzzles of the dungeon as quickly as possible, as it becomes clear that the longer they wait, the closer to death they come. Finally, the dungeon is a high-density puzzle-and-trap dungeon  which means that players will have to apply their wits at top speed without rest in order to survive and retrieve the Holy Driver!

Why did you make a tournament module?

One practical and one design reason each inspired the decision to make a tournament module.

Practically, I needed a module I could take anywhere and run for total strangers to highlight the fun and deadliness of Gathox. I've been fortunate to run Quake Alley Mayhem at cons, out of state at friends' homes, for distant acquaintances and strangers by invitation, and for a number of local gaming groups. The Quake Table and time limits in the game allow those sessions to be action packed, concise, and constrained without being too short - all the fun of haste and hustle without the stress of sessions dragging out through indecision.

In terms of design (puts on designer's cap), over the years I've come to view retroclone games like Swords & Wizardry as a bit of a team sport, like football. I know, I know, this is a roleplaying game, but it's also tactical, conflict oriented, and requires cooperation amongst players whilst promoting varying degrees of competition within the group. To me that seems fun as hell.

What if I don't want to run a tournament?

You're in luck! There's an entire section in the module devoted to adapting Quake Alley Mayhem to campaign play, with alternative mission parameters and appropriate Reputation Points rewards. There's even a 'Tower Defense' version where you get to defend the Holy Driver from waves of gangsters pouring in to retrieve it! There's also a rumor table for roaming about The Kettle neighborhood, containing hints as to the deeper history of the Driver and linking out to potential new contacts, as well as random encounters to make that fact-finding mission more challenging.

If you're not convinced of the sheer radness of Quake Alley Mayhem, watch the sweet animation I made for the launch of the book:

Updates

So, it's been a minute or two since I last posted on this blog. Rest assured, I'll be posting here regularly again. This last year was gnarly, to say the least, in part because I lived in a camper in the woods with little to no internet through the long winter. I still live in my camper with my pupper, but I've finally made my way back to Missoula, MT, where I can have nice things like access to internet and gaming and playtest groups.

I'm just wrapping up my first draft of the Lamentations book I've been commissioned, and will be creating art for it once it's been submitted (which should be very soon). Additionally, I'm running two competing groups of players through my Gathox megadungeon, The Ruins of Ce-C'el, and will regularly post session recaps of those. You may find them interesting both for the sheer fictional joy of them as well as for their use in running multiple groups of players. I'll be doing my best to tease out larger design thoughts and strategies for that as I go. They're only a week in, so we'll see how it goes!

Finally, thank you so much for your support and interest in the things I make and do. I'd love to hear your thoughts and see your creations as well - tell me about how you use Gathox! If you make cool stuff, I'll be happy to promote it. Cheers!

Gathox Process: The Cover Art . . . also, updates!

Today I'd like to feature a step-by-step of my construction of the Gathox cover art, which follows below. But first, I'd like to make a few brief updates as to all things going on over here at the official Gathox Home Base Headquarters Neighborhood Friendship Society (TM) (R).

Update 1: Gathox Print Edition

You can get your digital copy of Gathox Vertical Slum HERE!!!!!

Mike and I had to make some changes and modifications to the original print files we sent to OBS. Those changes are complete (we hope!!!) and a final test print is on its way to Mike's hands as we speak. If it looks good, we will be turning that live on all of the OBS sites (DriveThruRPG.com, et. al.). Anyone who bought a .pdf will be getting an email with a discount off the print copy equal to the value of what they paid for their digital copy (in this case, $10). I'm super excited!

Update 2: GVS2: Quake Alley Mayhem!

Over the last year and a half I have playtested and drafted an awesome tournament-style module for Gathox, called GVS2: Quake Alley Mayhem! It features a 'Get The McGuffin' style mission full of traps and deadly consequences, and runs on a unique timer with escalating deadliness. The manuscript for GVS2 is complete and ready for edits, and the art is almost done as well. Ideally, I'd like to have this PC-killer ready for folks by Christmas time; cross your fingers, no guarantees! Also, the custom Gathox Character Sheet is almost ready for upload to DTRPG, and will be totally free for download.

Update 3: Life Stuff

I've been fairly quiet on the blog front as well as on G+ and Fb, and for good reason. I figure that I owe you a brief explanation as to why.

First, the committed relationship I was in for the last 4+ years ended, necessitating a move to a different part of the state. I now live in a remote part of Montana with my dog, and the internet here is essentially held together with chicken bones and hope :) The upside is that I recently was able to acquire an 18' Roadrunner camp trailer (for a song, no less) which I'm converting into a full-time home and off-grid mobile art studio - and I'm super pumped!

Second, shortly after I moved, I suffered a series of illnesses which kept me from working as much as I normally do. I've since healed up and am back up to par. The uptick is that my immune system is that much stronger, and I likely won't get ill again for some time to come (knock on wood).

Third, I've been given the opportunity to write and illustrate a book for Lamentations of the Flame Princess!!!!!!!!! The book is tentatively titled, "The Goddess Who Sleeps in Bile," and features a procedurally generated hex crawl, nightmare inputs from the players, and lots of level-agnostic deadliness. The research and drafting of the book eats up lots of my time, in the best possible way.

That's it for the updates; now on to a discussion about making the cover for Gathox!!!

Gathox Process: The Cover Art

I employed a mixture of physical and digital processes to make the GVS cover come to life. My goal was to make it look as natural and physical as possible, so I simply started with pencils on a standard 11"x17" sheet of Bristol board (100 lbs., lined for comics).

As you can see, I went for a unified, single-point perspective that would let me emphasize the verticality of the city environment. I set the horizon line far enough up from the bottom of the page so that I could detail a full street battle, but not so far that I couldn't communicate the steepness of the surrounding buildings. Also, the giant head belongs to Jackie Zhao, the gear-vomiting recluse featured in the chapter fiction written by Josh Wagner. There's a tiny gear on his tongue, but I like to think it could be mistaken for a tab of acid ;)

I chose gangs and characters that featured prominently in the year-long first campaign I ran for Gathox. On the left you see early and eager versions of The Firestarters (the PCs' gang), and on the right I've begun to illustrate a one-eyed hypercapitalist Kermen warrior getting punched out.

Here, I've continued to add in more Firestarters and Kermen, as well as some mangled hirelings and a Gongwarped Fisherman (the players had a hell of a time with the Fishermen in the first campaign, and I figured they deserved a spot on the cover as well).

Here I've added to the cluster of bodies on the page with some additional FPA gangsters and a laser-shooting Zhezhn known as a Pyramid Eye (which falls squarely under the heading of "Things in Gathox Inspired by Conspiracy Culture.") It's almost ready for ink . . .

I decided to start the inking process by blacking in the border of the image. I used permanent black ink and a flat, angled brush from a pack of kids' paint brushes (like $2 at Target). Blocking in the black border helps me see everything I'm doing better and gives me some leeway when I am working close to the edges of the image - I don't have to gauge where to terminate a line and can more easily avoid tangents along the sides of the illustration.

Like a lot of my friends and colleagues, I tend to ink from top to bottom. Because I'm left-handed, I also tend to ink from right to left. This keeps my hands out of the wet stuff. As an old crew boss of mine used to say, "Keep you hands, feet, and other objects outta the shit!"

Occasionally I'll switch over to working from the outside of the image toward the middle. Sometimes this is to frame up everything outside of the subjects, sometimes it's to work in line weight variation, and sometimes I do it just to switch things up.

After I finish inking my lines, I go through and add my spot blacks, beef up line weight as needed, hatch or texture parts that scream for more detail, and find ways to clarify an image with ink. I prefer to use ink washes on most of my black and white ink drawings, but decided against that technique for the cover. First and most important, I knew I wanted to colorize this piece with as much active color as I could, and washes would dull that out. Second, and really only a minor consideration, I knew that I had to scan this drawing in four different pieces (because I have a tiny scanner), and stitching the image together with washes was going to be labor-intensive with no guarantee that it would look good.

After everything was ready to go in terms of line art, I turned my attention to color.

I cut four sheets of cold-press watercolor paper in half and applied some paint in an abstract fashion. I used kid's neon tempura paint to get those super bright colors you see above, as well as some runny washes of gouache paint. I let gravity do some of the work, taping the paper at odd angles to my tilted drafting table to dry before applying another layer. I allowed the paints to mix a bit, working sufficiently wet that my dry time was slow and the pigments could interact.

Finally, I used acrylics to paint a large abstract background. I first covered my 16"x20" canvas with Open Acrylic additive, applied thinly with a palette knife, which slows the drying time and allows me to mix colors on the canvas, wet-on-wet, like oils. I knew I wanted a light source at the top with pooled darkness below, and the patchy mix above is what I ended up with. I dig this canvas on its own and might do more of these in the future for their own sake.

The next step took a while, but I was very pleased with the results. I used the canvas painting as my background, and began cutting selections from the scans of the watercolor paper and pasting them underneath different figures in the line art. I took inspiration from the old, brightly colored plastic toy action figures you could buy in bulk at the dollar store, and did my best to make the figures brighter than the background. Finally, I took several passes at shading and highlighting all the figures and surfaces digitally, paying attention to whether or not I was obliterating too much of the natural texture and detail from the color scans.

To finish the cover off, I got the print specs from Mike, built a template in Inkscape, imported my artwork, and built the graphics. I had made font choices for the book long before I finished the cover, so it was more a matter of toying with the fonts and box elements to get everything looking nice. I decided I didn't want to cover any of the art up with text, and given that Gathox is, well, vertical, I figured that a vertical title bar would fit nicely with everything else. Oh, and also neon green, because neon fucking green, that's why.

Cheers!