clarence

I also like to add a few aliens that are ‘too weird.’ Most of the species have to be easy to relate to, as per @soltakssdefinition, but throwing the inexplicable at the PCs once in a while is fun.

That’s true. I like sea urchins, that use their entire bodies as an eye.

Thanks! Excellent article. The idea that natural selection is a universal principle for all life seems reasonable. That’s one of the few things we can know about aliens. And that any eyes will be at the front.

Thanks. Well-rounded review.

The creativity of Greg's games have shaped my roleplaying ever since the early 1980s. It's been a privilege to follow his work.

Odd Soot has been released and the reception has been fantastic. The game - and the aliens - are out in the wild, waiting for new mysteries. And that’s one of the cool things about writing RPGs - finishing a book is not the end of a story, it’s the beginning. Unlike most art forms, RPGs embrace readers as co-creators. What’s in the Book? Odd Soot is 270 pages, a perfect bound softcover with 20+ images in colour. The book measures 8.5”x8.5”. The content includes: - Character generation that integrates Circles and Relationship Maps, creating deep PCs. - Alternate speed-creation of PCs. - Details on how The Soot affects PCs and NPCs with two connected mechanics; a Soot value and Peculiarities. - Extended Conflicts have been expanded to cover magic, difference engines and the handling of unknown technology. *** - The setting describes the five intelligent alien species in detail, with behaviours, quirks and motivations. - The fictional island of Doggerland and its capital Glimminge, starting points for the game, are portrayed in-depth. - The exo-planet Sisymbrium, housing The Sinking City and The Dream Library, is covered. - Exo-planet Vera Colony, gets a thorough description. - The major powers, like Skreeder Shamans, The Priests of Wittenberg and The Philosophy Engine are defined, their goals and methods explained. - Weird technology, both by aliens and the Soot-infected, is presented. - Details on life in the alternate 1920s, including star liner travel and equipment, are included. - An introduction scenario - The Wayward Patient - set in Doggerland. Discount Ends on Friday Just a reminder that the 15% discount ends on Friday night, so you have two more days before it reverts to full price. Full-colour print: $31.95 $27 PDF: $14.95 $12.70 Buy from DriveThruRPG. The PDF is included for free if you purchase a printed copy.

With the release of Odd Soot, I realize how nominal the alien creation process has been to the book. Without my 'Frankenstein Gaze', the game would have been completely different. But also, by working in parallell as a writer and illustrator, the images became an indivisible part of the work. The images are rooted so deep in the game that they even forego the division between words and images. It all grew from my hands - words and images triggering each other in a massive creative spiral. Read more about The Soot here and how it fit into the design process of the game: http://out-now.strikingly.com/ Odd Soot is Finally Live! I’m so happy to finally make Odd Soot available to everyone. This is the best game I’ve written and I really want you to be able to play it. This is what the early reviewers say: Until Friday, the price is discounted by 15% The book comes in two versions: Colour Print and PDF. It’s 270 pages of rules, setting, bestiary, scenario and GM's guidelines. The printed book is normally $31.95 while the PDF is $14.95. Until Friday you get the print version for $27 and the PDF for $12.70. And as always, you get the PDF for free if you purchase the print version. You can get both from DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/252369/Odd-Soot And don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Clarence Redd

EN World interview about Odd Soot: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?5660-Intergalactic-Diseases-Cosmic-Mystery-An-Interview-with-Clarence-Redd

I've thought about putting up something on YouTube. I'll see what I can come up with. The links above work for me. One of the links in my last email was broken though.

Two of the species spend parts of their lives in water: aygaan and nuveri. The other species are land based. The l’sesenaugh species, with its thin, springy legs, originally lived buried in quick-soil, using their legs sparingly. To allow them to have such thin limbs, Sisymbrian evolution has come up with particularly strong building materials. If it is natural or engineered is up for debate in-game.

The process of creating aliens for Odd Soot started out pretty shaky. But after several tries, I finished my first successful montage of a vintage alien. To my astonishment, my friends found it truly disgusting. A sentiment I took as encouragment. Read more about the design process here: Thankfully, My Friends Hated the First Drawing 5-Day Launch Discount On Monday Odd Soot will be released! It feels great to finally get the book into your hands and hear your thoughts about it. The response I’ve gotten so far has been amazing. To show my appreciation of your support during the last years, there will be a 15% discount on Odd Soot the first five days. Make sure you don’t miss it. I will post a purchase link on Monday. In the meantime, check out this review on EN World: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?5659-Dusting-Up-Some-Odd-Soot Also, I’ve added more of the alien species artwork to the Odd Soot webpage: www.frostbytebooks.com/denizens

Yes, the species on the cover is a bit cthulhoid in appearance but it’s simply shaped by the oceans it lives in. The other aliens look quite different.

Designing aliens is hard. By turning to an unexpected source, I found a way to by-pass my own ingrained notions of what aliens look like. As I mentioned in an earlier thread, Odd Soot is my upcoming game set on an alternate 1920s Earth. In that universe, a plague torments humanity and starliners trudge between planets populated by aliens. They differ greatly from humans and to find the right tone, my design process took an irregular path. Read more about the design process here: My Graphic Frankenstein Method for Genuine Aliens Download a Preview of Odd Soot! I’ve created a 28-page preview PDF to give you a better feeling for the game: http://odd-soot-preview.strikingly.com/ In the preview, you will find the introduction to the game, a star map from the 1920s and sample aliens among other things. You also get a link to download the introduction scenario for free. The alien below is an l'sesenaugh, living in The Sinking City on Sisymbrium. Among other things, they act as guardians and librarians in The Dream Library.

Oh, that’s nice!

Just a quick note that I’ve launched the Odd Soot website where you can see more of the game and the setting. There’s also sample artwork of the aliens, starships and characters. I hope you'll enjoy it. www.frostbytebooks.com/odd-soot And while you’re there, don’t miss the newish M-SPACE page. M-SPACE continues to be a popular alternative for sci-fi gaming. And the positive comments keep coming in. Like this, from Åsa Roos, RPG writer: 'One of the best uses of modular rules that I’ve seen.' Or this, from Stephanie McAlea, Stygian Fox: 'It's a fantastic book and exactly the bridge I needed between good sci-fi and BRP/D100 systems.' Regarding the rules, Odd Soot uses Mythras Imperative, just like M-SPACE. But as Odd Soot grew, I realised it needed to stand on its own. Which means M-SPACE is not required to run Odd Soot. And just as in M-SPACE, there are modular parts to handle the setting and nudge gameplay in the right direction. More about that later.

Metropolis is a fantastic movie. I haven’t seen it in many years but I have very fond memories of it. In Odd Soot, I have gone for a realistic rocket-powered exploration of the solar system. Humanity managed - with the help of difference engines - to reach Earth orbit by the mid 19th century. Years later, human space explorers discovered two alien probes (orbiting Mars and Venus) and successfully extracted their Unfolding Devices - FTL engines utilising folded-up dimensions to travel without moving. In the 1920s, humanity has travel to the nearby stars for about 40 years, met five intelligent species and settled on several exoplanets.

I've seen Forgotten Futures before but I've never read/played it. I always enjoyed Marcus Rowland's articles in White Dwarf, so I'll give it a shot. Have you read any of it @seneschal?

I haven’t read We, but as 1984 is one of my favourite books, I probably should. HG Wells is part of the inspiration for Odd Soot but with a bigger focus on mystery and the weird. I have the original French cover of L’arrivée des Marsiens on my kitchen wall. Intelligent dinosaurs sound cool. It only seems logical that they would have developed intelligence eventually.

For many years I’ve thought about how to design believable aliens. When we’ve only seen life on Earth, how can we even begin to imagine the otherworldly? Aren’t we predicted to just come up with variations on existing species? I realised a new approach was needed. I wanted to break my ingrained views of what an alien looks like. Around the same time, I explored the concept of science fiction in the 1920s. I dreamed of propelling humanity to the stars, decades earlier than in the real world. I wanted to combine these ideas – so I created something new. My next game – called Odd Soot – takes place on an alternate Earth in the 1920s and explores what might have happened if space travel had existed back then. And specifically, what aliens would look like in the 1920s. Here’s a sneak preview of the cover - and I'll be back with more soon.

Survey completed!

Good walkthrough of the rules!

Any chance it can open InDesign files?

That’s nice! I will also give it a try.

Cool. Anything you can share?

I’ve started reading it but got sidetracked. I really liked what I saw. The superpower section seems very versatile.