The Mutant Epoch blog

Excavator Monthly Issue 5 just released!

2012-01-12T15:06:00.001-08:00

Whew! We finally sent issue 5 of Excavator Monthly to press, a few weeks late this time. It seems that each issue is getting more challenging to produce and thus hitting the market a bit later.

Here is the pitch...

Camping out in the ruins is insane! But sometimes things go wrong and your dig team has no choice. If you’re gonna do it, then issue 5 explains how. While the hapless PC’s are having their sleep over in the rubble heaps, why not terrorize them? For the GM, we have an article on introducing horror into your post apocalyptic campaign.

In this issue we also present more NPCs, 3 nasty new creatures: The Ponysapien, Botamorto and Gaswing, along with potent relics: the Medusa Stun Staff, Energy Shield, Tactical Knife and Recon Carbine. A new character generation method is also included bringing you the Generic Excavator, plus a new skill: Archery, articles on ruin ecology, using name tags and tent cards, another treasure table, and more!

Excavator Monthly is the official magazine for The Mutant Epoch milieu, covering the TME RPG, fiction, art and more. Not using the Outland System? No worries, there is a ton here that any post apocalyptic GM can utilize.

This issue includes:

Terrorize Them! Horror in a PA setting
2 NPCs
3 New Creatures
4 New relics
Generic Excavator Character type
Camping In The Ruins
Archery Skill
Ruin Ecology

Treasure Table EM4
25 illustration
40 pages

Softcover $9.99 PDF $3.50

Demo Link: http://www.outlandarts.com/EM-5-web-files/Excavator_Monthly_Issue-5-The-Mutant-Epoch-8-page-demo.pdf

Art Gallery http://www.outlandarts.com/TME-Excavator-Monthly-Magazine-issue5.htm

Merry Christmas From Outland Arts

2011-12-24T23:15:00.001-08:00

Some of you might have already received this card if you're on our mailing list.

Society of Excavators can download this card to use, either digitally or print and mail, from the members area of our website.

At any rate, to those of you on the TME forum, Merry Christmas and here's to a prosperous, creative and game filled 2012!

All the best,

Will

Excavator Monthly Magazine issue 4 hits the market!

2011-12-02T00:48:00.000-08:00

This one took a bit longer on account of the many free player handouts we had to create to go along with an article on creating them. This is the best issue yet, and we welcome Danny Seedhouse as our new writer and designed the new Acrobatics skill featured in this issue. Danny has done some stuff for the SOE member's area of the site and along with Graeme Hallett are working on a robust setting book and accompanying adventure... more on that later. Graeme also shared and article with us for issue 4 on the causes of Factional Warfare in The Mutant Epoch. If you get a copy of the mag, please let us know your thoughts on it and what you'd like to see in future issues.

Anyhow, sorry for the delay in getting this issue out. We are now busy at work on issue 5.

Here is the promo text for Issue 4:

What drives your character? Why risk life and limb in the God forsaken ruins and wastelands of The Mutant Epoch? In issue 4 we offer 50 goals and obsessions to motivate your post apocalyptic character, and much more.

EM-4 includes articles on how many adversaries a GM should throw at PCs, dice rolling methods to speed up game pace, creating handouts along with links to a heap of free sheets, the bonus offer method of character generation, more NPCs, wicked relics: Grenade Mat and Laser tipped bullets, plus three freaky creatures: the Waste Grazer, Pus Worm and Hackoid. Articles on the causes of PA factional warfare, agreed upon rendezvous, making coffee for Mel Gibson, and a new skill: Acrobatics, round out this content rich publication. Get it in PDF or print today.

This issue includes:

Creating Intriguing Handouts with 17+ free to download player hand out sheets

50 PC Goals, Drives and Obsessions

2 NPCs

3 New Creatures

2 New relics

1 Character generation system (Bonus Offer System)

29 illustrations

44 Pages

See the PDF demo here

review the art gallery for issue 4 here

PDF $3.50

Print copy $9.99

See more art from EM issue 4 at our website by clicking here.

2011-11-07T00:38:00.000-08:00

We've set up a Facebook page for The Mutant Epoch! Since it just went live Sunday Nov 6th 2011, there isn't too much on there yet. But, with your help, dear reader, we can get quite the conversation going. TME gamers can meet each other and perhaps the page can become quite the hub for our growing community. In some respects it could become the public forum, viewable by both Society of Excavator members and civilians alike.

Hope to see you there,

here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/TheMutantEpoch

Best regards,

Mutant Lord

Excavator Monthly Magazine Issue 3 hits the market

2011-10-24T12:29:00.001-07:00

Well, we got this issue out a few days late, but it is our best one yet and a bit over the standard page count at 44 pages instead of 40. This issue also introduces a new TME writer to the team: Graeme Hallett, plus, we had some special editorial help with a few articles from Audrey Deutschmann. Thanks very much to them both, as well as to game designer Danny Seedhouse for his excellent insights and opinions on the magazine.

Here is the promo text we've been using to promote issue 3....

How do your post-apocalyptic heroes know each other?

Issue 3 presents a robust article on dozens of possible ways in which characters meet up prior to the beginning of game play. We also present the Fixed Value Allotment method of character generation, two wicked NPCs, two new relics: Landmine Detection coil and Advanced Grenade

Launcher, along with three nasty creatures: The Devil Spider, Mutant Perch and Jaw Crawler. Other articles include Outfitting a Post Apocalyptic Army, Silver Coins & Ancient Currency, Character Type Rotation and Similarity, another great treasure table and much more.

This issue includes:

2 NPCs 3 New Creatures 2 New relics 1 Treasure Table
1 Character generation system (Fixed Value Allotment)
24 illustrations & 1 Map 44 Pages

How about some art from issue 3? You can also check out the full gallery at our website here

BigCon 2011 and Roleplayers Chronicle Designer's Diary

2011-09-26T12:04:00.001-07:00

I think I'll post this on the private SOE forums as well, but for those of you who don't wander over there, here we go...

Well, Another BigCon gaming convention has come and gone. I've caught up on my sleep but

now we need to get back to issue three of Excavator Monthly... and promotions.

Here is a snap shot of our booth from my blackberry. I'll post more from later in the con as I get

them from other attendees and staff.

There were't as many people at the convention as I'd hoped, but the ones who were there were sure the right ones. Thank you all who came to the booth and rolled up a character and bought a copy of the Mutant Epoch and Mall of Doom. And thanks to Adam Trudel, High Octane Comics, All Aboard Games, The Kamloops Anime Club, The Zoo, and so many others for all their hard

work, especially the minion volunteers.

I have to say that setting up at a gaming con is one of the most exhausting, yet fun, things have ever done, at least in recent years. I can't imagine doing this at GenCon for three days with so many gamers around. I'd need a team to man the booth so I could at least go pee.

Looks like we will need to restock our local inventory.

In other news, Aaron T. Huss over at Roleplayers Chronicle asked us some questions about The Mutant Epoch and just released them in their Designer's Diary.

If any of you want to login over there and make some favorable comments, they would be worth their weight in silver to us. Here is the link:

http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=13108

Sincerely,

Will McAusland

Excavator Monthly Magazine Issue 2 released

2011-09-16T02:06:00.000-07:00

How did things get this way? In this issue we tackle Apocalypse Mythology for your character, along with articles on solo-play gaming, stashing your loot, and much more.

Issue two of Excavator Monthly magazine is character focused, yet still has plenty for the Mutant Epoch game master to challenge the players with. Included in this release are more nasty creatures: the Bloat Creeper, Pipe Worm and Mouther, along with two new relics: the handy Remote Watcher and the devastating Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle. This issue also includes another popular treasure table, as well as a new character generation method called the Gambler System, a full color character sheet to copy or download, plus two more NPCs, Phaydrix the mind waster and Sgt. Cole Dodgerre, a purist bounty hunter.

Featured articles this month are a discussion on solo play gaming, how PCs can make a cache for stashing spare or empty relics securely and finally, a huge selection of Apocalypse Myths for characters, setting background and NPCs.

Even if you aren't using the Outland System game mechanic, there is plenty here for any post apocalyptic gamer to bring to the game table. 24 illustrations 40 pages

Excavator Monthly is the official magazine for The Mutant Epoch milieu, covering the TME RPG, fiction, art and more.

Highlights of what this issue includes:

2 NPCs
3 New Creatures
2 new relics
Feature Articles: Regarding Solo-play /Apocalypse Mythology/ Your Stash
Color Character Sheet
1 Treasure Table
1 Character generation system (Gambler System)24 illustrations 40 pages

PDF $3.99
Print copy $9.99

We've decided to add a few pictures form the latest issue here:

Excavator Monthly Magazine Issue 1 released

2011-08-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

Clearly I've been busier working on The Mutant Epoch than writing about working on it.

I guess that's good, but I do need to rank up Outland Arts' the social media presence and make a greater effort to update both here and on twitter. So far, twitter has been where we've done most of our updates as it is so easy to access with my blackberry. This blog of course allows for more text, images, videos and subscriber involvement, and doesn't require somebody to have a twitter account to access our tweets. So, with no further preamble, here is the news....

Welcome adventurer! This is the first issue of Outland Arts’ entirely The Mutant Epoch focused magazine, Excavator Monthly.

Included in this inaugural issue are articles on GM rewarded Experience Factors, another on how to handle multiple player characters, a character generation technique: the Double Barrel System, a word on some gaming blogs and podcasts, new relics: liquid flesh and the net gun, 2 NPCs and 3 mutant creatures: the creeping digester, jaw hog, and howling eviscerator. There is also a short story entitled Demon in the Depths, a write up on The Mutant Epoch website, preview of Pitford: Gateway to the Ruins, and a treasure table. Finally, an extensive article on Spiderborgs as NPCs, hostile foes, or player characters.

This issue includes:

2 NPCs

3 New Creatures

2 new relics

1 new NPC or PC race (Spiderborgs)

1 short story

1 Treasure Table

1 Character generation system (Double Barrel)

19 illustrations

40 pages

RPGnow http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=94024

Lulu http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/excavator-monthly-issue-1/16585021?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/9

Here is the first look at some of the interior illustrations from this issue....

The Mall of Doom Released Today!

2011-07-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

Without much pre-launch hype, advertising or warning, we’ve released our second book in the Mutant Epoch line. The Mall of Doom adventure is available in print and PDF and already selling better than we hoped. What’s interesting is that some of the people buying it haven’t apparently bought the TME hub rules yet. Of course not all sales at RPGnow show the customers name, but still It makes me wonder if gamers collect stuff they don’t intend to play? I can see that with rule sets, as I bought the Pathfinder core rules but haven’t even rolled up a character yet, but to buy an adventure without owning the system to play it? That’s another thing.

At any rate, buyers of The Mall of Doom who are a

lso Society of Excavator members can go to the downloads by product page and grab a heap of free PDFs from the adventure including the 5 player handouts, six maps, new creature, new relics and two NPCs. But be warned, if you are not going to GM The Mall, then don’t spoil things for yourself by sneaking a peak a the important handouts and NPCs.

In other news, we are already well ahead of schedule on the full version of Pitford: Gateway to the Ruins, with the layout done. The 80 or so illustrations will be the next hurtle, as we are also aiming at ramping up to the release of Excavator Monthly magazine, to be release on the 15^th of each month. Our current goal is to get issue 1 out for august 15^th.

After the Pitford book is on the market in September,

we will commence work on the 200+ page Crossroads Region Gazetteer, and then get to the Mutant Beastiary One book.

Whew, there is a lot to do. I can’t tell you how much the fan support on the forums and here on the blog have helped motivate me and the rest of the recruits.

Oops. Website needs a tweak here and there, and t

he kids need supper.

Again, the Mall of Doom is available as a PDF through RPGnow.com for $7.99 and a 136 page softcover book at lulu.com for $16.99

Happy Gaming

Will (Mutant Lord)

The Mall of Doom, back cover text

2011-06-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

"The meat colored humanoids unleash a deafening howl of alarm, a cacophony which echoes throughout the courtyard and deep into all the nooks and crannies of the old mall. Immediately, answering shrieks and snarls respond and shadows of tall, skinny figures appear on the walls..."

In the twisted, dark future of 24th century America, heroes are needed more than ever. Do you have what it takes to rise up and answer the plea for help of hard pressed humanity?

In this adventure, the characters are recruited to investigate the disappearance and whereabouts of missing townsfolk beneath the recently re-inhabited farm-fortress of Walsave.

Through a series of underground expeditions, they soon discover that there is more to these kidnappings than meets the eye, and that these explorations under the Earth aren’t just a ruin-crawl into the crumbling, artifact rich confines of an ancient shopping complex. Besides the pitfalls and nightmares of the subterranean hell, they must contend with conflicting interests among the villagers as well, including raiders, a bizzare cult, and the ruling founders of this fortified settlement.

Can your characters survive the challenges that await them, or will they meet their end someplace deep below the rubble and junk of a besieged post-apocalyptic village?

The Mall of Doom uses the Outland System™ game mechanic and requires only The Mutant Epoch™hub rules RPG game book to play. Although set in the Crossroads Region over former Los Angeles, and a half day’s ride from the sprawling, poverty ridden city of Overpass, the game master can easily drop this adventure into his or her own campaign region. Designed for 6 to 10

first rank characters, this adventure could take surviving characters to the third or fourth rank. Here’s what’s included in this terrifying, fast paced adventure:

• Multi-Path adventure design: never plays the same twice. Design

ed for group gaming or

you can test your survival instincts, knowledge of The Mutant Epoch™, and wits by solo playing .

• PG14 rating due to some of the suggestive themes, horrific circumstances and descriptions; this adventure is not for the squeamish.

• 60 Illustrations • 5 Player Handouts • 6 Maps • 1 New Creature

• 2 New Relics • 136 Pages

The Mall of Doom goes to pre-press: Full cover preview here!

2011-06-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

Since the release of The Mutant Epoch in April, we have been working double time to get our second book on the market. The Mall of Doom is an adventure for first rank characters and has been a blast to play test. Its probably the most horrific thing I've ever written and not sure what part of my psyche has caused it... you'll see.

Anyhow, the pre-press phase means sending the print files to lulu.com and then waiting a couple weeks for the book to get here. Once we have our reader sign off on the texts and we like how the cover fits and looks, we can release it. Usually this process takes few back and forth proof

copies to get right, so the release date may be closer to the end of June 2011 instead of the middle of the month as we plan now.

Incidentally, if any of you are interested in publishing your own books on any subject and ever want advice on the print on demand or PDF book publishing process, just email me at info@outlandarts.com . The whole thing is great fun.

Oh that reminds me, one of our readers, Mark Lambert has his http://www.trexlin.com/ big release of a system independent fantasy world setting: World of Trexlin coming up pretty soon. Cool stuff and a great site. check it out and say hello to the team there.

Anyhow here is the cover. Sorry, it doesn't seem to want to enlarge when I click it. Have to fix this.

Enjoy

Will

The Mutant Epoch is available on Amazon.com

2011-05-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

Hey, just a quick update on The Mutant Epoch. The response to the game has been excellent and sales continue at a respectable pace. We have received some really fine reviews and a hell of a lot of outstanding support from bloggers, artists and other individuals who I will mention in upcoming posts. Plus, the response from buyers and Society of Excavator members on the forums and in email has been thoughtful, creative, game content rich, and motivating.

We are way ahead of schedule for the release of the Mall of Doom, and and beginning interior art for the first issue of Excavator Monthly Magazine.

The game is now available on Amazon.com as well as the createspace.com store which supplies Amazon, plus, the Italian online game store Arima.it .

The print copies from lightning Source through RPGnow.com came back yesterday and had some serious issues, with a desaturated and grayed down cover, and any drop shadowed text in the book converted to solid black blocks. Yikes. So today was spent dealing with that headache and uploading new versions for another two week wait. We had planned to hold off on banner ads and other marketing until the hardcover and soft cover could be purchased through RPGnow.com, but may not be able to wait much longer.

Review copies should also be arriving over the next few days, plus, a shipment of 50 more copies of the game are on their way here for local stores and events.

This is all so exciting and I have a heck of a time shutting off my mind at night and falling asleep.

There is so much more going on that I'd like to share, but will save some for later entries.

Next time we will be adding new art for The Mall of Doom, our first full length published adventure for The Mutant Epoch. We of course can only show the art which doesn't give away too much, since some of you might be players, or even use the adventure's Multi-Path (solo-play) feature. This feature allows those wanting to learn the rules or prepare to be a GM and/or test the adventure first before subjecting their players to it, to get gaming right away.

Happy Adventuring, and keep your heads down out there.

So... What's The Mutant Epoch about?

2011-04-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

See the Preview PDF here

"The Mutant Epoch is about humankind’s attempt to reclaim some semblance of civilization, calling upon its best and boldest to uncover the lost knowledge and power of the old ones."

The Mutant Epoch™ post-apocalyptic RPG challenges your in-game persona to survive in an age of rediscovery, high adventure, savage conflict, and freakish mutants and machines. Characters work in small excavation teams making forays into ruined cities, through junk strewn wastelands, twisted forests, nightmarish swamps and across polluted seas. During their expeditions they must contend with mutant beasts, the environment, as well as raiders, cultists, and robotic forces, only to stake their place in the newly emerging barter forts and factional bastions of humanity.

Players can take on the roles of pure stocks, mutants, ghost mutants, cyborgs, beastial humans and an assortment of synthetic or engineered humans.

All you need is this book, dice, paper and pencils, a few friends and your imagination. The Mutant Epoch™ uses the Outland System™ game mechanic, which employs the full set of polyhedron dice, is easy to learn, logical, fast paced, and perfectly suited to the hard core action of post apocalyptic game play.

Inside this lavishly illustrated book you will find all the rules, art and content to generate characters, challenge them with perils, and then reward them with potent relics.

This core book includes: • 8 character types • 30 castes • 36 skills • over a 111 mutations • 68 cybernetic implants •104 creatures • 9 robots and 10 androids • complete encounter tables • hazards, traps and insanity • typical humans • rules for called shots, parrying and chases • 9 relic vehicles, 44 weapon relics, 14 armor relics and 70+ miscellaneous relics • common PA vehicles and 10 scrap built Vehicles • dozens of helpful tables • character sheet • GMs party record sheet • grid and hex paper, and much more!

Plus, there are numerous supplemental books, Excavator Monthly magazine issues, fiction, art, and as an added bonus buying the TME Hub Rules book automatically grants the owner exclusive membership in the Society of Excavators.

246 pages hyperlinked

The Mutant Epoch

2011-04-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

The Mutant Epoch: "The Mutant Epoch"

We've posted the PDF version of the RPG on RPGnow.com and Drivethrurpgs.com... and getting sales right off the bat. Check out the demo here, too: http://www.outlandarts.com/The-Mutant-Epoch-RPG-preview-spring2011v2.pdf

Man, I need some sleep... or more coffee.

Regards,

Will

The Mutant Epoch full release:: Hours, not days....

2011-04-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

It is going to be another long, late night for me working on the website. I hit the pillow aroudn 4:30 am last night, worked all day on the site, and am now inthe home run. Java script issues and coping with the password protected member's area have been pushing the limits of my tech level. Still, the members area is all working and the loads of free content ready for you all to download. The silly adult content section navigation is giving me much anxiety, however, I have a cold beer waiting as a reward for completing that.

The PDF is also completed and ready for upload to RPGnow, One bookshelf, Yourgamesnow.com as soon as the site is tested, so things are coming together nicely.

Thanks all of you for ordering The Mutant Epoch role-playing game. It is simply thrilling to think some of you already have your copies. Justin you got yours in just 6 days! That's simply amazing considering the book is printed and shipped in that time. We get books in about 11 days to our warehouse (basement) here in Canada ( where there is still some snow in our back yard, along with bears).

Brutorz Bill, yours should be in your mailbox Tuesday.

Hey, Anonymous, yes, there will be character robots, and plants, in the expansion book, and a lot of other twisted character types, new implants, mutations and post-apocalyptic gaming loot.

So the big release will only be hours, not days away. Hard to believe.

If you've had a chance to look through the book and try out some character generation, combat and so forth, and you like what you've experienced, please feel free to leave a review at the Lulu.com store on the page you bought the book, or email us any comments or reviews that we can place on our website. Customer reviews are invaluable, and the Mutant Lord will not forget his allies.

Sincerely,

Will

The Mutant Epoch RPG pre-release availability tonight!

2011-03-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

Get your copy here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-mutant-epoch-role-playing-game/15316236

Alas, after several attempts and much bad language, we were able to upload The Mutant Epoch role-playing game just minutes ago. Only about a half hour left in March.

You can get a copy right now at our outland arts lulu store front for $27.99

Keep in mind that this is not our big launch since the PDF version for rpgnow, drive thrurpg and yourgamesnow.com is important, so too is having a working forum and website, but some of you have been very eager and patient and I wanted to make the print version available to you. It will take a week or so to arrive at your door so by that time we should have the web site and forum up and running. At that pint, we will officially launch the game and have it available through every venue we can find.

Next is the interior art for Adventure TME-1: Mall of Doom and the first issue of Excavator Monthly.

Now, time or a big coffee and hours of work on the website while uploading the updated version to our createspace store. We will be ordering a few boxes for local area distribution and mailer copies to reviewers and allies.

Goodnight,

Will

Creative Director

OutlandArts.com

Hours away from releasing The Mutant Epoch RPG

2011-03-31T17:55:00.001-07:00

An update on the release of the Mutant Epoch RPG,

Just dropped off five copies at High Octane Comics and Collectibles, 3 already pre-sold, and we're an hour or two away from having the book available through our lulu.com storefront. I will post here and on twitter as soon as that happens.

The full website isn't loaded yet as we are still waiting on our outside service people to get the password protected area established, but that should only take a few days.

The PDF version of the book will have to wait a few days, too as the linked version had a serious issue and needs to be redone, perhaps with Adobe Acrobat instead of in InDesgin this time.

I imagined a huge global release at all sales venues simultaneously, with everything ready... instead of in a ever growing stream of availability, but, I said it would be out in March and so it shall be.

Stand by...

Will

The Mutant Epoch available in March!

2011-02-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

The third round of proofs are on their way to the Studio, the content rich official web site all but done, the free content PDFs loaded and the forum's being tweaked. This is it. The TME Hub rules book will be available at Createspace, Amazon.com, Drive Thru RPG, RPGnow as print books, as well as PDF versions through your games now, and the previously mentioned outlets. We will also order a limited quantity for the two game stores here in Kamloops, as well as several to be mailed to reviewers and several international customers who want signed copies direct from us. We will be posting much more frequently once the launch has happened.

The Mutant Epoch Hub Rules book is done.

2011-01-13T01:30:00.000-08:00

We are edging very close to a firm, fixed release date, and are just finishing off the last of the free online content, dealing with our web design guys, setting up the password protected Society of Excavators members area and forum... and getting together some art for the many PDFs that users can download for free.

Excited is no word for it.

A final proof copy was sent from Lulu.com last week. Just need to give it a quick look through and assure ourselves that he quality is good ad then as soon as the new site is up and working, we will releases within days. It is looking like the last week of January 2011 is the releases date.

The above image shows a mock up of the free adventure called The Crevice, or at least the earliest online version of it as we plan to update it with more art once we have a free week.

We have been working so hard that we haven't devoted much time to advertising, twitter, blogs, art previews and such. while all these pre-launch promotions are great and highly recommended by marketing people, I'd rather be promoting once I have a product to offer. There will be enough chance to arrange pre-launch hype for other books, as we have several well along in the works including The Mall of Horrors and Pitford: Gateway to the Ruins.

Of course, there is the monthly magazine. We don't have a set date for when the first of those come out, and would like to get the first three issues loaded and ready for the market before we release the first issue of Excavator Monthly. The covers, articles and much of the art is done for the magazine already, we just need to assemble them and give them each a final edit.

Thanks to all of you who have been so patient,

Happy New Years!

Will

Creative Director

Outland Arts

Last Edits being inserted and TME website near completion

2010-12-19T23:36:00.000-08:00

Hi Anonymous, and you others who are waiting so patiently!

The final edits got turned in and we have about 60 more pages to go through and then it is good to go. I'll order a test print copy via lulu.com to make sure the conversion looks fine, and then make it available as both print on demand and PDF versions at once. We'll get a shipment of hard copies sent to the office and deliver these to the local game shops and book stores, and commence the mail order for those in Europe and elsewhere who have been waiting for their copy.

The only issue now, besides inserting the final edits is working with our server host to get the Society of Excavators password protected area of web site up, and the phpBB forum inside the members area fully operational. All is going according to plan but not to schedule. Getting the game on the market before Christmas seems to be a objective that is slipping away by the hour, and the Christmas party lat night and my subsequent hang over today didn't accelerate my productivity. Still, every hour I work, and press my hirelings and talented henchmen to work, brings the release an hour closer.

Speaking of henchmen, I have a lot of talented people helping me with this project, and The Mutant Epoch could not have gotten to this stage without tons of feedback, play tester advice, family support and sacrifice. There have also been a lot of people online, including some of my illustration client-rpg publishers, who have been very gracious with advice, resource sharing and camaraderie. I'll be thanking them properly in the book credits and on the website.

To close off before I settle down to several hours of edit insertions, thanks to all of you who have signed up to the Outland Arts Insider newsletter and TME inform mailing list, this blog and wrote me email asking about the game. Although Outland Arts hasn't started marketing this Post Apocalyptic game, other than a few cryptic tweets, some banners here and there and a teaser ad on roleplayingtips.com, we are still getting a lot of attention and it is a huge motivator toward getting this done as soon as possible, without sacrificing artwork, rules clarity, game balance, grammar, spelling or other RPG book publishing challenges.

Thanks and Merry Christmas,

William McAusland

Creative Director,

Outland Arts.com

Sheer force of Will:: New release date for The Mutant Epoch RPG

2010-11-22T01:47:00.000-08:00

Sheer force of will can fuel a person to work insane hours, draw upon reserves of enthusiasm, optimism and creativity, summon self discipline beyond anything he or she has known before, and get one very, very close to realizing goals which fall short by only a matter of weeks or months. I’m talking about getting The Mutant Epoch released, of course. It has been a challenge like no other in my creative life, and has been one of those things that sheer force of will has propelled along for over seven years now.

The last edits are being interwoven into the Hub Rules book day and night. The coffee flows and I sit alone here night after night getting ever closer to a final, polished, game of extreme post-apocalyptic mayhem and adventure. In fact, I am taking a break from the last edits to update some of the Outland Arts social media venues ahead of next week’s advertising campaign. We have an ad going out in the upcoming issue of roleplayingtips.com so anticipate some traffic from that.

The anticipated release date back in late September 2010 was to have the game out late October, and as that month came and went in a blur of activity, art, gaming, and writing of the free material for the web site, we now find ourselves in mid November. We’ve decided to provide news on the impending release and showcase artwork here on The Mutant Epoch blog to show a little more of what you can expect in the book right up to the release date.

Currently, we are being more conservative in our launch date, taking into account the few challenges still ahead and feeling lousy about failing to have it on the market already. We are now confident that the book will be available sometime in December and before Christmas and available in PDF and print on demand through lulu.com, RPGnow.com, yourgamesnow.com and onebookshelf.com, to name just a few sales venues

Thanks to all of you for the help with getting the word out and the encouragement. Knowing people are out there eagerly anticipating The Mutant Epoch’s release, not to mention the pre-sales I’ve heard about from the local game stores and individuals, has been extra fuel and motivation to see this game done, and done right.

In the meantime, here is the new release notification ad. Look for artwork here on the blog over the next weeks as we head down the home stretch.

Best regards,

Will McAusland

Creative Director

Outland arts.com

BigCon 2010 a hit!

2010-09-28T01:41:00.001-07:00

Whew, can't believe this weekend came and went so fast. BigCon 2010 was hit, at least from what I heard, saw and personally feel. From all indications it looks like the game convention will be even bigger and better next year. Outland Arts plans to be there in 2011, this time with finished books for sale of The Mutant Epoch RPG, Pitford: Gateway to the Ruins, the adventure Mall of Doom, plus the first 6 issues of our house magazine Excavator monthly, along with a few surprises.

This year was our first convention and I learned a heck of a lot from the experience, like don't where a white shirt, bring more snacks, don't volunteer to arrange an art show the same time one is also trying to get a 248 page RPG on the market, plus, have an assistant so one can go take a leak or grab a beer upstairs and take 5.

What follows are a few shots from the con. Although the pictures don't show it, there must have been a couple of hundred people in attendance at various times. The warhammer and magic cards people seemed to be on a time clock as suddenly their game session would end and they'd all clear out. Next thing you know they are back and throwing dice and whipping out measuring tapes... kinda noisy but I got a kick out of the banter they had going, and man do those guys know how to build and paint miniatures. My friend and fellow artist Pat Badminton was there with his orks and they looked great. He also did a minis painting demo and I learned a lot.. even though I thought I was a pretty well educated and experienced minis painter form my younger years. He should do a book on painting miniatures.

Here is Karim at the High Octane Comics and collectibles booth which was situated next to me. I had my son buy us the board game 'Zombies', which I have been dying to play with the older kids.

In this shot we have the extensive All Aboard Games booth, with the owner, Derek in the yellow shirt. I bought a round hundred sided dice and a set of gold colored, tiny brass dice from them.

And now we have our booth, with me giving demos on rolling up characters for a lot of great guys. Special thanks to Shawn, Eric, Cody, Danny, Darren, Daniel, Jon, and Karim for taking the time to roll up a character. I am still stunned at some of the cool, dangerous freaks these guys made. I can't figure out how when other people roll up characters in TME that they are such stunning, awesome player characters, while

mine come out fine enough, just with more reasonable, anticipated rolls and traits. The characters other people seem to make their first time around turn out to be team leader material, with wicked implants, skills and mutations, as well as a few une

xpected lucky rolls allowing their PCs to acquire relics like pump f'n shotguns.

Tonight each of my older daughters rolled up a character as well, now that the con is over and they are excited to play mutants. Of course, they rolled high traits, excellent skills and excellent mutation combinations making them into impressive, fun and well rounded characters. I'll have to tone down the Post Apocalyptic, nightmarish scenarios that seem to erupt in every Mutant Epoch game when GMing for them. One of the things at my booth that drew all sorts of people to it was a chaingun, also called a mini-gun for some reason. This is an .223 caliber infantry variant, meant to be held by a very powerful person, android or robot, as well as mounted on vehicles and light aircraft. Of, course, it doesn't really exist , yet, but man did a lot of people ask if it was real. I think using real bolts, straps, metal fittings, a heavy duty tripod and real dummy rounds on an ammo belt contributed to that impression, although it is made of plywood, dowel, cardboard, paper and other common materials found at home depot.

Look out next year, I plan to have a life size manikin in body armor holding the chain gun along with a lot more gear. Maybe an area with a PA background so people can get into a photograph with various weapons and gear. Is this legal?

So I had my two copies of TheMutant Epoch, which made it here from lulu just in time. I used one as a display copy and the other as my demo copy. With Jon, Eric and Cody we played until almost midnight on the opening day, and had a great time GMing for these most excellent and creative fellows. Along with this three, I am planning to get together locally at both game stores and a private home to run ongoing campaigns and demo sessions.

If you're local to Kamloops and want to keep posted on this, either email us to get on the mailing list at info@outlandarts.com or sign

up for my twitter feed where I am @mutantlord

Tons of people wanted to buy a copy then and there, and sadly I was unable gratify them, but do feel confident that we will be releasing The Mutant Epoch by end of October, if not sooner depending on how well I can work with my editor on the last editing pass through, and complete the essential index and six or so full page digital painting for the section intros inside the book.

More coming to this blog soon! Time to get some much needed sleep,

Will

Poster of Polyhedron Dice Lino Print now available

2010-09-18T01:08:00.000-07:00

We've placed a high quality scan of a polyhedron dice set lino print up at our Lulu.com store. This poster can be purchased in many sizes, perfect for your gaming room or store. The original, limited edition of 500 hand pulled, hand painted prints are also on sale at next weekend's big event: BigCon her in Kamloops for $20 each.

2010-09-18T00:33:00.000-07:00

Hey, we have a whole sheet of print on demand paper dice up at our lulu.com store. We'll also have these available at BigCon next weekend (Sept 25-26th in Kamloops)

Here is a pic and then the link to our store: $17.90 for the roughly 11 x 17 sheet, but you can select much larger dice if you want to make a huge dice mobile in your gaming den or shop!

11x17-paper-dice-Toxic-industrial-sheet-press by outlandarts
See more Dice Posters

Our Bookmarks have gone to press

2010-09-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

We have been working double time on The Mutant Epoch RPG these past months, and are in the home stretch now. In anticipation of the game's release this October, and making ready for our info-play testing booth at BicCon 2010, we've ordered a huge run of bookmarks. We've decided to use Keeper Kard out of Vancouver for the run of 2500 bookmarks, as I've used them for over a decade in my illustration and design career and have always been very pleased with their prices, service and the quality of the printing. Their turn around time is also excellent. Check them out at: http://www.keeperkard.com/

Since the bookmarks use the the cover of TME's Hub Rules book, we spent a few weeks going back and forth with the back cover blurb, and made a modified version for the back of the bookmarks. Special thanks go out to my editor Ann Silbernagel, my creative associate Bill Frymire, and Mark Lambert over at Trexlin .com http://www.trexlin.com/ for his enormous help and excellent suggestions on the text. We took a lot of Mark's wording and worked it into the copy, so he can expect a free copy of the book in the mail when it comes out!

As you can imagine, I am very excited to send these bookmarks out as the first step in getting the Hub Rules book off to press. As a graphic designer, I've sent many dozens of books to print, and it is always an exciting process, but working on one's own project and sending it to press for the first time has a level of exhilaration and stress to it that is not easily described without first

experiencing it for yourself.

As BigCon looms up at us like some armor and spike encrusted post apocalyptic RV, we've focused less on the preview site, blog and twitter feed and instead are using those hours to get the latest art into the layout, more play testing and more content for the official site. There is so much work yet to be done, and having the hub rules for sale at BigCon is no longer a possibility, but we do want to have a review copy there if humanly possible.

Anyhow, here are the bookmarks, click to enlarge

regards,

Will

Creative Director

Outland Arts

The Mutant Epoch YouTube Channel goes live

2010-06-29T00:21:00.000-07:00

First of all, a very special thank to our tech specialist Jakob, for getting us started with movie maker and setting up our youtube account so quickly.

Outland Arts now has a dedicated The Mutant Epoch channel and we managed to load a simple slide show of just some of the art from the Hub Rules book. The music is by Neuroclasm and used with permission. I love it!

If you wait until the end of the video you'll get a sneak peak at our finished front cover for the Hub Rules book. Art is still coming in as are new sections and edits. We have two months to get the book done and off to press if we want to see printed copies at BigCon at the end of September. While we are working our butts off trying to reach that goal, we may only have beta copies available for new local playtest groups to walk away with... which would also be a huge step. There are also several very supportive people out there who will be getting a printed beta copy as well.

At any rate, enjoy the slide show and let me know what you think,

Regards,

Will McAusland

Creator

The Mutant Epoch

Here there be MONSTERS: Mutant Beasts

2010-06-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

The art is arriving faster than we can place it in the layout these days, but we want to get these new images on the blog. Today’s offering includes both animals and humanoids that are destined to both terrify and challenge the player characters.

The Mutant Dog shown here is just one of many possibilities, as each pack or individual offers from the next. Found as both wild or domesticated, these canines are cunning, unpredictable, heavily mutated and relentless predators. One of my favorite PCs was killed by a mutant pit-bull in a narrow passage when the PCs shotgun ran out of ammo.

Moaners, also called rubble zombies are diseased, mutated, nocturnal humanoids who delight in torturing and eating humans, however are known to enslave attractive pure stocks of the opposite gender as mating companions… untie the tire of them or food supplies run low. When I saw the movie I Am Legend, I was thrilled to see a similar specimen come to life.

The Horrlify is of human design, a sort of mutated-reptilian dog thing with a powerful beak and randomly determined cybernetic implants. The few that are still around serve as attack-patrol animals for advanced factions, corporate holdover strongholds, and other technologically advanced groups.

Green Walkers appear to be sickly, diseased humans from a distance, perhaps even moaners, but are actually plants which inhabit the frames of humanoid victims, utilizing their sensory organs, skeletal frame and certain organs while living off the tissues of the host. Slow moving and relentless, these nightmares are disturbing to behold and tricky to dispatch.

Dune Spiders are enormous, fast running inhabitants of the wastelands and streets of ancient metropolises. They have evolved to simply run down and dismember their prey, forgoing the use of web or poison.

More beasties coming shortly!

2010-06-17T01:54:00.000-07:00

After listening to The RPG Haven Podcast's most recent show 'genre emulation', I decided to take myself away from a digital illustration of assorted post apocalyptic armor and write a review for them on itunes. Here it is:

I’ve listened to a lot of RPG podcasts over the years and this one is now one of my favorites. It is an excellent tabletop RPG podcast because of the knowledge and open mindedness of the hosts, the varied subject matter, games and game related topics. As the publisher of an upcoming rpg, I found their friendly neighborhood gamer section to be refreshing, entertaining, eye opening and very valuable. Keep up the great work guys.

You can find them at: http://www.therpghaven.com/podcast/

Regards,

Got guns?

2010-06-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

The art for the Mutant Epoch Hub Rules book is really coming along and we are in the last 90% of it now. Of course in the last blog entry I mentioned the addition of a new PC race and a bunch of skills being added to the book, which will of course mean more art, edits and layout, but we think its worth it.

Today we are offering up a few of the weapon illustrations. Most of these use ink wash over the underlying ink line drawing, followed by some touch ups in Photoshop. While time consuming, this process really makes these weapons stand out. I would love to have a few in small frames to sell or give out as gifts to the many people who have been so supportive of Outland Arts and this project in particular. Maybe a contest giveaway through Excavator Monthly magazine?

Enjoy,

Weapon Expert Skill illustration

2010-06-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today we have another image for the Hub Rules book. This one shows an ambidextrous adventurer with two razor swords standing over the bloody bodies of three skullocks. This is for the Weapon Expert skill entry and was rendered in graphite, then scanned, and digitally blended to give it an oil paint-like look. This is a slow process compared to inking, but for larger images, something we are planning to use extensively. The upcoming monster book called Mutant Beastiary One, which has a hundred new creatures to add to the multitude already included in the TME hub rules book, will generally be in the digital-oil style shown here.

Hey, just a reminder if you haven't already joined The Mutant Epoch mailing list, why not sign up as we are about to start releasing that shortly.

We have signed up at technorati dot com to try and get this blog listed in their directory. The following code is required to be added to this blog in order to verify that we are the blog writers.

http://technorati.com

EHQT2RBBEJA4

The Mutant Epoch web site

Beware the Great Worm

2010-06-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Thought we’d add another entry today as this digital grayscale painting was just completed.

This is the last image for the creature section of the Mutant Epoch Hub Rules RPG book. It is a half pager that took me a couple of days to pull off. It shows up small here but if you click on the image it should resize to a larger view.

In this scene I wanted to show a few diggers in the ruined streets of an ancient city, perhaps getting the hell outa the underground levels after disturbing something big… which followed them up and now emerges. Notice the feet of the guy with the shotgun. There is some debris across his path. He needs top make a perception based hazard check to see if he sees the bar or not. If not, he trips and the enormous jaw worm gets the initiative.

More art and news coming soon. Back to work on the Cover art and design.

Our First Convention: BigCon 2010

2010-06-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

Outland Arts will be at our first gaming convention… BigCon 2010 in Kamloops

, British Columbia, September 25^th and 26^that the Kamloops Convention centre^.. While I am one of the volunteers, doing the logo, some posters and industry liaison, Outland Arts will be paying for a table and sponsorship spots.

Since BigCon is only a few months away, the likelihood

of having the TME Hub Rules book available for sale at the event is now low. It seems we are adding a new character race and some skills and these will need edits, play testing and art and there is no way we can rush these aspects into the book. What’s that saying: ‘No wine before its time’? I guess

that’s the opposite of ‘the perfect is the enemy of the done’. I tend to think the core game book for an RPG should be as perfect and close to the creator’s vision as possible, as all other supporting products are based on it.

Still, we will set up a table and run demos, pre-sell, preview the art, meet gamers, and maybe sell some posters, original art, a lino print of polyhedron dice (hand pulled, hand colored and limited edition).

We have designs for the table setup which I'll scan and post alter and are looking into a table banner, side roll-up posters, hand outs, business cards, bookmarks and much more. The bookmark for the Mutant Epoch is basically done, I am just waiting for the final touches on the cover art and will apply that and off to press they go.

Clearly, there is much to be done.

Below are a couple of posters I've presented to the organization committee.

From the Creative Director's desk at Outland Arts

2009-12-12T22:45:00.000-08:00

We are adding artwork to the Hub Rules book almost daily now, filling all those stark white spaces with their accompanying illustrations. Many of the images are tiny in this book, used both to clarify what something, someone or a relic looks like, and at other times to make a sort of visual placeholder for game masters and players to easily find a table, section or passage of text.

Today I am adding more art from various sections of the book. It seems we are leaning toward plenty of ink work, especially for the small stuff as it holds up in test printings we have been conducting. In other books, including the Excavator Monthly Magazine, we are going with more gray scale graphite, digital, ink wash and some color interior art.

That reminds me, next blog entry we will have a new, full color cover image for the magazines in the works.

In the meantime, enjoy these ink offerings, let others know about this blog and the upcoming release of the Mutant Epoch Rpg, and share your thoughts here. Also, click on the mutant skull banner at the bottom of this entry and sign up for the mailing list.

Best regards,

Will McAusland
Creative Director Outland Arts.com

Art Preview: More Typical PA humans for the Mutant Epoch RPG

2009-12-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

This week we have added some more art which has recently arrived for insertion into The Mutant Epoch RPG Hub Rules book. Many of these are for the Typical Humans section as were those submitted last week.

We are still hard at proofreading and play testing, doing layout and developing web content for the full website.

Enjoy!
Will

"The Perfect is the Enemy of the Done"

2009-12-02T21:48:00.000-08:00

Between edits, play testing, layout and art production, we’ve been busier than ever here at Outland Arts. When it comes time to sit down and either add an entry to this blog or get another section of a book or magazine edited, we seem to go for the edits instead. This has certainly kept our updates here at a minimum.

Our plan for this blog has been to utilize it frequently once the initial RPG release is imminent and after the release to update readers on new products and showcase art and related media.

From now to the release of the Mutant Epoch Hub Rules book, we will be making more regular blog entries, presenting art as it pours in.

This week’s imagery, spread through this entry, covers a newly added section to the core book: Typical Humans of the New Era. In earlier drafts of the Hub Rules book these people appeared only under the typical humans table as well as in special encounter listings, but as they are so often met in various adventures, supplements and circumstances, we felt that a richer, more detailed description of each, as along with an illustration, was welcome.

The added section has certainly slowed the release of the book as about twenty new inks drawings and another visit to the book’s layout had to be accomplished, not to mention more work for our editor and proofreaders.

Yes, the now famous and very true saying “The Perfect is the Enemy of the Done” is constantly on our minds here, and as we revisit rules, art, and edits of the hub rules book, we are painfully aware of how long it is taking to get this game on the shelves.

We have a few other sections to be inserted in the book yet including Common Vehicles, Scrap Built Vehicles, Airships and a few smaller sections, all needing edits and artwork, so the struggle and progress continues.

Our goal to release the game in early 2010 is still in our sights, and given the intensity of our recent progress, feel confident about meeting that goal. Once the Hub Rules book has all its art, cover art and design and final edits done, and the first printed proof on my desk, we will give a fixed release date and begin pre-launch promotions in earnest.

On a side note, check out the total blog Directory.com to find other gaming blogs
Games Blog Directory

The Outland System Fantasy Role Playing Game is in the works!

2009-09-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

While the name of the game hasn’t been released yet pending website domain purchasing, with a choice yet to be made between six closely related but different titles, we have commenced part time and highly enjoyable work on the fantasy RPG. This upcoming game will use the same game mechanic as used in The Mutant Epoch, with several additional character traits to reflect a fantasy world where magic, luck, and the Gods are all very real factors in daily life. The Outland System Fantasy RPG had a former life as a home brew for many years just like the Mutant Epoch did; however, the play test version that we are currently using is greatly expanded and incorporates many of the game innovations learned in the creation of TME as well as trends in the RPG industry.
Because we have been so hard at work on The Mutant Epoch and have still so much to do on it, and still have no firm release date, we don’t even want to hazard a guess as to when the fantasy game will hit the stores. We have been debating whether or not to release the fantasy game Hub Rules as a sort of supplement to TME, like our time travel and dimensional portals book, or Prehistoric World supplements, also in the writing stages. I personally think the reception of the Mutant Epoch will determine the scope of the FRPG line, and to divide the focus would not help Outland Arts until well after TME has been on the market and built a solid base of players who have expressed interest in changing genres but keeping with the Outland System game mechanic.

There are a ton of articles circulating around the internet about Fantasy RPG Heartbreakers. Check out this great and frightening essay: More Fantasy Heartbreakers by Ron Edwards .

Competing with Dungeons & Dragons TM and the OGL seems illogical from a strictly business point of view… however, as a gamer, one who loves the pace, simplicity and myriad of options available in the Outland System… I simply prefer our in-house rules, especially with the additional fantasy and spiritual traits found in the fantasy game, the two settings we are working on, and the unique look at fantasy monsters and magic found in the as yet unnamed Outland Arts fantasy RPG. I suppose it goes without saying that if we found what we were craving in d20 or OSRIC or other FRPG systems, we’d publish under one of those mechanics. We simply feel that The Outland System is the best tabletop gaming mechanic available for the sort of role playing games we enjoy.

As soon as we have a few of our FRPG test play characters ready, we will post PDFs of the character sheets here or on the outlandarts.com site to give you a sneak peek.

Best regards,
Will
Creator

The Village of Walsave:: 1st rank adventure written and in playtest

2009-09-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

The Village of Walsave, a 1^st rank adventure for 6-10 player characters of The Mutant Epoch tabletop role playing game, is written and in the edit and illustration phase as of mid August 2009. This is our last for-purchase manuscript destined for the initial release in 2010. The adventure was initially to be part of a series of 50 page multi-path adventures, but even in its MS Word version it now stands at 80 pages, which will convert up to about a hundred pages when art, tables, graphic elements, appendices, maps, floor plans and other gaming goodness is inserted.

Play testing of the adventure will commence in the next two weeks and we look forward to reporting the outcome without spoiling the adventure for those of you who will be playing it down the road.

We will post sketches, finished art and maps for this project here and on the main TME site as they become available.

Have a great day

Will

Creator

2009-06-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

It has certainly been awhile since we’ve loaded new content to this blog, having instead spent our time working on the last of the writing, edits and art for the initial launch.

While we are aiming for a release of early 2010, we have decided not to adhere to a set release date but instead ensure a perfected product line. Putting out a product that is not as excellent as it could have been, simply to save a month or two, even a year, is a recipe for bad reviews, an inferior product, typos, and rules issues which afflict all subsequent supplements and adventures. Besides ensuring we get it right the first time, we have our concerns about the economy, about printers, mail order fulfillment, and into-retail distribution.

There is certainly enough to consider with publication alone, let alone game design, to make us take a deep breath and enjoy the process of RPG creation, play testing, illustrating, layout and web design without the panic of a set in stone deadline. Still, setting goals is of paramount importance in any project, especially one involving different people and elements. We are of course eager to see our dream realized, to see the physical bound books, to start promotions and getting out of the studio and into the RPG hobby’s eye, but first there are a few enormous steps between now and then….

The Mutant Epoch Hub Rules book, which is the main core book needed to play the game and includes character generation, game mastering tips, ‘monsters’ and tons more, as opposed to having these elements broken up into three books as many game systems offer, has been getting a few alterations in phrasing, rules and artwork additions.

Changes to the Hub Rules so late in the production process delays the release because we need to insert new sections of text, re-phrase rules, update tables to reflect late play testing tweaks, and add newly updated illustrations and then reflow the layout.

All in all, we are increasing the Hub rules book by about 25 pages for the PDF version and by about 50 pages for the print version. What’s the difference between these two formats? Our previous publication model maintained a focus on PDF sales of all our books and supplements, including the monthly magazine, however, since that time, we have seen a rise in the popularity, user ease and cost effectiveness of POD (Print on Demand) publishing, not to mention have found cheaper printing sources for our direct mail sales option.

In short, when PDF was our focus, we went with a leaner, more densely packed and printer friendly version of the game, knowing that both download considerations and inkjet home printing issues were of concern to gamers who bought and downloaded RPG products from Your games now RPG now and drive through RPG. Our new plan is to focus on printed books… but still have a PDF version with all the same content, but with a more printer and download size friendly format.

In other news, we have been getting quite a few emails from people wanting to be put on the TME inform list, which is basically a list of people we will notify when the game is released and where they can buy a copy. We have decided to expand this notification list to a news list, providing a brief update on the progress and selected images. If you are interested in keeping tabs on the impending releases of The Mutant Epoch RPG, fiction and art, simply email us with the words ‘TME inform’ or something similar in the subject line.

Best regards,

Will McAusland

Creator

2009-04-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the TME Blog

Welcome to the Mutant Epoch Blog’s inaugural entry. We have big things planned for this place, and have chosen to use it as our main news and update platform leading up to the release of the Role-playing game and beyond. While the RPG is our main focus right now, we will also use this blog to promote anything related to the TME including the fiction and graphic novel we have in the works. I’ve personally found that a blog is the perfect news portal for a project or individual, better even than posting news on a homepage due to the increased exposure a blog gets by being part of a blog community, as well as apparently being more accessible by search engines. Finally, by using blogger.com for our journal, I can update it while away from the office on trips or at the coffee shop.

The Mutant Epoch is more than a tabletop role playing game; it is a setting that has evolved over a decade of gaming, art and fiction, in no particular order. The three elements each enhance the other, bringing to life a richly imagined world wherein unique characters not only attempt to survive, but gain in prowess, community status, and knowledge of both their twisted new reality as well as the secrets of the ancient ones.

We’ve designed a preview website at www.mutantepoch.com as well as created a PDF preview document for easy download. The explanation of the setting, character creation, Outland System game mechanic, and what’s in production are all included on the site and in the PDF.

While serving as a news source for updates on the roleplaying game, we know that subscribers to this blog are busy people, so we will strive to keep all entries short and to the point, opting for more frequent entries as opposed to essays. Please feel free to join in and make comments or contact us directly at info@outlandarts.com. If you’d like to be put on the mailing list for the Hub Rules book releases date, go to our mailing list page at www.outlandarts.com/TME-mailing-list.htm .

Thanks for stopping by,

Sincerely Will McAusland

Creator