Two Projects coming to a slow down, Fallout76, however...

There is so much going on and I need to touch on all of it. I have greatly enjoyed bringing happiness to the Fallout community with my new scale of Fallout art that you get to color yourself; that was 100% supported by you the player with your submissions of in game photos. Your support past that has been wonderful too. Unfortunately, this is not meeting my new need of groceries and medications. Those cost. So I will have to do more toward efforts that I can be paid for and less on the freebie work.

I've done enough of the FCCP art and Chef adventures to fill 6 coloring books and you can download and print all of it for free. Other artist friends think I've gone completely insane. Who does that much free work? Well, for the joy it brings and hopefully will continue to bring, it's worth it in these trying times. People who are stuck at home can print out and color pages for that added distraction and relaxation with a side dish of silliness. Just what the doctor ordered. I did it for you.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to draw anymore of them. But there won't be near as big of releases as before and they will be released on a more spontaneous schedule. Kind of as I do them.

Now, if people want to ORDER a page from me I am happy to do custom work for a minimal charge. I will even drop the price to 7 dollars a page via paypal. I was doing 15. So hit me up if you want something special done that is just for you and will only be released to the public by you. That puts you at the head of the line because I always do paid work first. Like I said, I find myself in a need of groceries and meds for my MS.

You see, since moving to a new state and having everything shut down, I haven't been able to get a new doctor for me or my son. We are running out of important medications. So I have to put efforts into these things and try to push for what we need.

I am working on two new coloring book projects that I have posted teasers to so I hope you will be watching. I also have new character work coming for GZ with the 2020 project.

So there we are. I hope to still see you at my page!

FCCP Behind the scenes: Making pictures fit (Fallout 76 coloring pages)

If you've been following along, you know that I'm the artist who started the Fallout Community Coloring Project (FCCP). I've drawn well over 70 free coloring pages so far with requests to compile into a coloring book. The community response has been awesome and lots of people have contributed their in game photos for me to potentially draw.

Most of what I get I can draw and fit in the frame for a coloring page pretty easily. Sometimes, however, the best results come from a few alterations of space and detail. Today I'm going to give you a couple of examples. Let's start here:

BEFORE

AFTER

Whoa! There are some major changes going on there. I draw in photoshop and utilize tricks to bring things together. I brought everyone closer, added some baubles to the tree, omitted suit guy's backpack, and corrected her wardrobe malfunction. Click on images for closer view. To break those down on the last two, the seated guy in a suit had a backpack on that was digitally  merging with the couch. The lady's hand was merging through her dress into her lap. That's just how Fallout objects go when they are close to each other. It's not a perfect system. It's easy enough to correct when drawing the picture. 

BEFORE

AFTER

As you can see, after I drew in our dancing couple, I zoomed in on the tent and made for more active background to color. The giant rock is nice and all, but comes across as blank ground after you draw it in and thus dead space.  So now there is something active to color in the background without losing the action of the scene.

I have to say the community has been wonderful and I am still working on the ways one or more coloring books may happen. The update on that is that I am in process of moving across states, doing the FCCP coloring book will have to wait until I finish moving. I will update on that more as time draws near. Hopefully you will have a book by this summer. 

As for the rest of the images, if you have not seen them all, you can view them at my page HERE. Just click on PHOTOS and there are two albums. 

If you really love my work and want to help me keep it going, consider ways to support your favorite artists HERE. 

Until next time... thanks for reading and I am still accepting new images, just know that it takes about 3 weeks to get to a new person on the list. In about 3 weeks I will be restarting on my list of people unless new folks add in.

UPDATE FCCP: Bethesda says NO to a coloring book..sort of.

I am writing today's post in response to multiple requests that I compile actual coloring books for the Fallout Community Coloring Project. As I answered before, I could only do what would be a commercially sold book with support and agreement from Bethesda. I wouldn't serve to go through all that work to make a book and put it up on Amazon if I wound up head to head with Bethesda's legal department.

So I wrote to them. I explained how the project is 100% community supported and how much interest it is gathering. I gave them every positive point I could think of and they responded pretty quickly. They listed it as an "incident" with an identification number and said the following:

Greetings!

Thank you for contacting Bethesda Customer Support. 

Bethesda Softworks appreciates our fans and generally does not discourage posting of non-commercial fan created tributes.  Any use of our intellectual property for commercial purposes, however, including The Elder Scrolls® or Skyrim® names, logos, branding elements, artwork, etc., is strictly forbidden without a written license agreement.  We regret that we are unable to grant licenses for the commercialization of fan fiction.

 

We also cannot accept unsolicited manuscripts or other material.  Please do not send us any submissions.

 

Please be advised that any commercial use or exploitation of our intellectual property rights is not permitted.  Bethesda Softworks will strictly enforce its rights.

 

 I hope this information helps! Thank you for your interest in Bethesda Softworks.

Kind Regards,
Bethesda Softworks

So, as I understand this, so long as I keep doing the project more or less as I'm doing it, which is not for profit, I can keep on drawing the coloring pages for the community. If I try to put out an actually coloring book... that will be responded to in a negative fashion. 

Let me be clear, I want to keep drawing your pictures. This project has been a source of great positivity for me and I love that I'm doing something so many are enjoying. So I am going to continue giving you guys and my coloring book page this source for something positive and different.  This of what I do, shall remain as free. Should anyone wish to support me as an artist, there are several ways to accomplish that and you need only ask. I have a patreon and other books as well.  You can share me in all sorts of ways. All things that help out wonderfully. 

In further news, this Saturday's release of new images will be my biggest one yet. Thank you all for being part of this project and it shall go on!

Board game preview: HOW TO WIN!

Isn't that what everyone wants to know? How to win the game is the single most important key to nearly any game out there. Well, it's time for these previews to heat way up as I show you just a few ways to win at the Galaxy Zento adventure game!

As I've explained before, in game set up, each player is given a random goal. The first player to complete their goal wins. But not all goals are created equal. Thanks to the game being heavily customizable, the host should make sure the main deck is built to support the goals being used. There will be 18 goals with the New York edition, but you don't have to use all of them. For a 6 player game, having 7 to 8 goals possible is plenty. I will get more into main deck arrangements later. For now, let's look at just a few of those 18 new goals!

Achievement Hog:  Of course, the first one I show you is kind of a dirty trick. You might look at the player with this goal and think, "why bother playing any further?". Well, don't let a guy with a ton of achievement tokens deter you. There is a good chance this guy will have a bull's eye on him all game long. Since players can take damage and 5 damage kills a player, you know how to nerf this goal. Getting achievement tokens only happens when you win combats, escape traps, or obtain artifacts. And getting a lot of tokens isn't that easy to build up. But with the right build up of powers or spells, the achievement hog can do a lot to interfere with other players while building up their stash. He'll force you to pay attention around the table as you make way for your own win.





Archaeologist: Gain three artifacts from the deck. Seems simple enough right? The best way to win goals like this one are to utilized force points on the board to make those cards come out for you. If you caught the last posting of this blog, you got to read about them all. There are 7 points on the board that can up the ante for revealing cards from the main deck for any goal like this one. So what's to get in your way? Threats from the main deck and other player's goals of course. There are similar goals for hunting beasts, or fighting enemies. Of course, cursed artifacts don't count. Note that when you start pulling off your goal you get bonuses. Every time you obtain an artifact, you put a goal token on this card to keep track. The bonus allows you better chances at dice rolls to obtain artifacts. But some artifacts you have to fight for.

Combatant: First of all, please not the dedication to our nation's veterans. Then note the goal itself. It's simple. Just win combats. These can be from any assortment of enemies in the deck or other players. To get in combat with a player, you just move adjacent on the board and challenge them. With but a few exceptions, they can't say no. Then hope you win the combat via d20 rolls.

Power Monger: Remember what I said about goal tokens. Well, there are two goals that give them a slightly complicated twist. You will have to track your goal tokens two ways on this card. One is for the bonuses you gain and the other for what actually will apply to win. Powers come from their own separate deck and there are several ways to get your hands on them. Of course, if you get the original game and the expansion, powers can come from the main deck too. Totally up to you when you host a game. Power monger can get really beefed up once he starts cycling powers. The limit to powers is 3 so you have to have 3 before you can start changing them.

Serial Killer: When a player character dies, the player isn't out of the game unless they want to be. If they think they still have a chance. They can continue with their goal and player character card or change them both at random to try again. The Serial Killer is there to help players make those choices (I know. ha ha ha). As you can see, this goal also affects a player's alignment of good or evil. Also note the effect on achievement tokens, allowing this goal to challenge the Achievement Hog. The Serial Killer has to be very opportunistic to win, watching for players to build up toward fatal damage before diving in to take them out.

Strange Addiction: Some effects of the game will poison a player character. Apparently, some of them like it. With this goal, you want to see about getting poisoned without actually killing yourself. Watch out if the Serial Killer is on the table while you try this goal. Getting killed means starting all over again.

King of the Hill: For the last one today, I bring you one more dirty trick. The player of this goal will literally spend the entire game beefing up with items, artifacts and spells for the last combat of the game. Past that, it's wait for someone to call "winner" so the title bout can begin. The winner of that combat is who really wins the game that time around. It's not a guaranteed win, just a different one.











Want to know what the other goals are? Well, you can only find out two ways. One, wait for the game or two, sign up to the mailing list!  See upper left corner or links in upper right. Because that is where I will be spoiling some more of them.

About the artwork. You might wonder, in my universe of heroes and villains, why more of them aren't represented in these cards. That's because the seemingly random people in the cards are meant to represent YOU. You, the player who is exploring this aspect of the GZ universe. Thanks for reading. More to come soon!

Board game preview! MONSTERS!!

It's time for another board game preview! This time I'm going to share some monsters that will come for you out of the event deck as you search New York city for your goal to win the game. If your goal card says you have to fight monsters, this is what you'll face!

This is for the Galaxy Zento Adventure Game: New York City. The game is tied into two other expansions that can be mixed and matched for how you want to play and is based on the stories and novels (see links in upper right of page).

 I know you can't see exactly what they do yet, but I will explain the card layout. The symbols are for the monster's stats.
Star:  Attack power added to a d20 attack roll
Shield: Defense you have to roll on d20 with your own attack power.
Arrow: Evade level you have to roll on d20 to escape it without fighting it.
Naturally, each monster will have perks and challenges of their own.

The Were-beast is a combination threat that you treat as a monster but can count as a beast. If it defeats you in combat it passes its curse to you and you become the next were-beast and a special enemy to everyone else in the game. You can count on it not being a pushover in combat too.













The Chimera can attack you three times in a row before you get to attack once. That means it rolls to hit your defense three times in a single attack turn. You should hope you've built up your defense or can make just as many tries yourself to even it out. Thanks to its snake tail, its also venomous and will poison you if you lose a fight against it. Poison has multiple effects in the game to include hindering movement, blocking powers or abilities, or blinding you so you can't make ranged attacks. Fortunately, poison is somewhat easy to get rid of since all you have to do is be healed of any amount including zero.

The Harpy is a mean monster that can attack twice in combat. If you beat it, you get to keep its card and gain a special artifact weapon called the Harpy Feather. It grants you a boost to your own attack for future combats.

Power Ghoul is a pretty basic monster with a very straightforward effect. If you beat him, you get a new power from the power deck. If you lose, you lose a power if you had one in the first place. Since New York comes with a full deck of powers, there are more chances to get powers than in any expansion so far.

New York comes with a slew of spider cards thanks to what happened in Chicago in the novel Chaos Rising. This one comes with two attacks in combat and is venomous. Thanks to other effects in the game (traps and events) spiders can pop out at you nearly anywhere or anytime during game play.













That isn't all the cards that count as monsters, but it's a nice sharp view of what is coming. I have some artwork left to do and a rule book and hope to release New York this summer! In my next edition I will spoil the game board itself! For now, here's some links to the other expansions!

CHESSMEN or first edition

EXP 1

Hey, want to know what comes after this? The all new Chessmen card expansion will have all the characters from both Chessmen Novels! All the heroic Chessmen, their allies and enemies will be on hand to merge with your gaming experience. All new special edition cards, team memberships, and more still in planning stage! 

Updates March! New covers and game art!

Greetings heroes! Today I have things to share and the first is a brand new cover for Chessmen: Opening Moves designed by Scarlett Rugers of the Book Design House. If you are even a budding author looking to take serious steps, you should consider her services. She is an award winning designer and a published author herself. So check out the link and visit her page. I just love what she did for Chessmen's first book as you can see here.

As if that weren't cool enough, for now you can get the kindle of the first book of the series for just 99 cents. Far out! Just hit the book links up on the right or HERE and grab it!

I recently finished the last image for game cards for the next installment of the board game series for Galaxy Zento. This game will come with a brand new board with more interactive spaces covering an entire map of New York City. It will have Cursed Artifacts and we are going to look at some of those right here!

This edition of the board game will be directly attached to the novel, Chaos Rising (you saw the new cover for that in my last entry).

The Hearse: The Hearse is a living artifact and a being filled with hate and murder. It's indestructible and will go around the board ramming into players and dealing some damage. If you're lucky and your dice rolls are hot, you can wind up controlling the Hearse which can lead toward victory. No spoilers for the novel so I won't tell you just how nasty Hearse is to deal with by the heroes.

Hourglass of Time: If you get a cursed artifact in the game, you cannot simply rid yourself of it and it limits what other objects or artifacts you can use. And you can't always avoid using them either. The hourglass forces you to use it every time you have a turn. When you do, you get to increase or decrease counters on other players cards by one. This could risk them winning the game, if you want to increase damage that they have taken. OR, it could keep them from winning by reducing their goal tokens. Either way, you risk carrying a bullseye as players come after you for this artifact.

Skull of Sphidra: This macabre helm make of giant spider skull will give you psychic abilities but turn you into a monster in 3 rounds. It will change your character card into the card for Sphidra herself. It will change you from good to evil. The only way to change this, will be for other players to destroy you. And they will have little choice since you can attack all of them at once regardless of board position.


This will be the biggest event deck to draw from yet and playable with other sets. And as always, you don't have to read the lore to enjoy the game, but it helps.

Soon I'll be drafting up the very first edition of the newsletter with even more content that you won't see anywhere else. So be sure to SIGN UP for the mailing list so you don't miss one awesome thing! That includes downloadable printable black and white color sheets for the kids (or yourself). Character spotlight origins! And even flash fiction stories just for readers who sign up!  On top of that, you get Chessmen Opening Moves free just for signing up. Awesome!

Till next time, heroes!

UPDATE: New card layout!

People are liking it and its official! You get to see it first right here! It's the new card layout for the Galaxy Zento Adventure game. And it's happening right in the first expansion set. All the symbols are the same and definitions are unchanged. Only arrangement of information is different. As you can see, the borderless art stands out even more and information is all in one simply location. I'm working feverishly on getting these done right now.

Click on images for a better look. If you are playing "good", finding this artifact could mean finding a new ally! That would be non other than the top hero of GZ himself!

Fighting him won't be easy and recruiting him isn't a snap either. If you do get him for an ally, the only drawback is that you can no longer evade your enemies. That's because KF never runs from a fight. If you want him as an ally, neither will you.

Let's look at a beast next. In this case, you may find yourself dragged under mid fight! If he rolls a natural 20 against you, your next attack is stuck being and escape roll. Meanwhile, it keeps using its turns to attack you further. Good thing evading it isn't too hard (unless your just having horrid dice rolls that day).

Traps will have the same zing as always. This one is one example of how expensive they can be. Who keep setting these traps anyway?

There are only a few new events in this set, but I guarantee they will shake up the whole table. This one will probably be considered the most drastic. These are adventures where reality itself can take a turn on a dime.

Don't forget powers. The handful of new powers in this set will redefine game play in cool ways. Now you can mess with your opponents or just give yourself a better chance on the draw.

Special art cards. A few, and only a few, will have this special arrangement of art and information. These cards will have action and bright color for added fun. Obviously I couldn't do this with all card art because it just wouldn't work for some of them. I hope the few that are there will give you pause for their special appearance.


I'm really excited about the new look and there are even more surprises still ahead. So stay tuned for the next update. It's not far away!

Homage to MORE guest artists!

Today I want to talk about artists, very particular artists who have agreed to jump in and lend their talent to GZ. Mind you, this is even if they don't have work that's in the set for any reason, they either offered or said yes when I approached them. These are artists you need to know. I'm writing this because I'm grateful beyond words either way.

Big Rob Beltran: This is the man who made my hat. A hat that has lasted for a good 3 years through hot sun and rain storms. It's as awesome as the day I paid 40 bucks for it. This guy will put anything you want on a shirt, hat, shoes and even a bicycle! Check out his Deviant Art page HERE. He's well known in his area conventions and heralds his own special artistic style. People know me better for my hat than without it. That's thanks to this guy.

Dave Bain: Keeping the hits rolling, you get the amazing styles of this artist who is also on his own convention routes. I got to meet him at Southern Geekfest and hope to do so again. He has a sharp line style that's hard to miss. Check out his work HERE. I can tell you he already picked what he wants to do from the card list, but I'm not going to reveal that today. You'll just have to be surprised.










Gavin Michelli: Another of my good friends with Southern Geek who I met at the convention and every bit as talented as anyone on this list. Check out his amazing TMNT work right HERE. The colors will blow you away.

Ken Davis: Rounding out a trio from Southern Geek (they are an awesome bunch of people check them out), is this man. He's already contributed and at both cards have been shown off online so far. If you missed them, just check past blog articles or visit the Facebook page via links upper right. Ken also has his own signature style and some bookwork under his belt that you can check out HERE.













Billy Barnette: He was the first to jump in and offer assistance in the art and he's been a great help. He also has his own distinct style and a few of the cards he's helped with have been posted! His work has been freelance of late, but I did do a guest artist spot on him some time ago and his work could be seen HERE.

Kevin Woolfork: Speaking of prior articles, I wrote on on this man too. He did the gridwork for the first game board and now he's back! Just look at what he did for my character, Major Xeroh! And of course you can see his work HERE.  What he's going to do for the game cards coming up; well, you'll see. Kevin is well versed in photoshop and great with his colors too.





Jay Morgan: I've mentioned my fellow local author before and I'll mention him again. Examples of his art will show strong colors. For now, I can only send you to his authors page HERE. But you can be sure he's going to fit on this list just as well as the rest.

Ali Lamkin: Last but not least and newest is this man. He's a great form artist with talents he hasn't shown us yet, but just look. The pic is drawn by him and colored by Kevin Woolfork.

Some people may wonder what I'm doing. Well, over half the art is still being done by yours truly with some new twists and tricks. I'm working hard to get this together so that Galaxy Zento the board game will be as truly customizable as it's meant to be. You can bet there is going to be so much more to show and very soon.

Cards of the Boardgame: The PC's

I've tried doing a video series called Card Talk, to show how the cards work in Galaxy Zento the board game. Sadly, I just don't have good lighting or a location conducive to making the videos right. So it's time to go the blogspot way.

PC means Player Character. During game setup, each player is dealt a PC at random. Each PC has specific strengths and weaknesses. Fortunately, you can build on the weaknesses if you're even slightly lucky. The game has 6 PC's (but more are on the way) so let's go over them. First a quick explanation of the symbols/stats:

Star: This is the PC's attack modifier. When ever a d20 is rolled for an attack, this number is added to the result in order to reach the target's defense.

Shield: This is a PC's defense. The number that has to be reached on a d20 roll for a hit.

Speech Bubble: This is the recruitment ability. Possible allies have to be recruited with a d20 roll. This modifier is added to the result to reach the recruitment number on an ally's card (shown in the same symbol).

Arrow: This is the modifier for evading enemies. Basically sneaking away from conflicts instead of fighting. This is also done with a d20 roll compared to the requirement on a character or creature card in the same symbol.

Not all abilities have symbols. There are modifiers for Spells (if the PC can use them at any time), Traps (to escape them) and Obtain for grabbing mystical artifacts (which are not the same as items). As a note, I will tell you that there are powerful items coming that will require an obtain roll.

So on to the 6 PC's that you can play in GZ. (Click on images for better view)

WIZARD: Why not start with possibly the coolest of the bunch? As you can see, the Wizard is not a hand to hand combatant. He gets no modifier for combat. His defense is low, so you'll want to get him an ally as soon as you can or items if you can find them. Where he becomes a super power is that he is the only one of the six who starts out able to use spells. Spells come from their own deck and get drawn at the beginning of your turn. You don't have to reveal them until they are put into play. The Wizard's modifier for spell use is a 10, making any combat he uses spells in, much better. If he attacks a PC with a spell, there's a good chance he'll hit. And he can be at a comfortable range to do it. As an added bonus, unlike anyone else who gains magic use, he can draw 2 spell cards for his turn instead of 1. When he wins combats with spells, he gets an extra achievement token (used as wild card modifiers where ever you want).

PSYCHIC: The Psychic has decent numbers because, well, being psychic has it's advantages. She's excellent at recruiting allies or avoiding trouble with enemies. She's average at dealing with traps too because she can "see" her way around them. Where she's really great is her special ability. Once per turn you may look at the top card of any deck. You may put that card on the bottom of the deck. You can use this ability to give yourself a chance at a better draw for for your turn, or to prevent the person after you from getting a cool card that happens to be on the top of the deck. If you gain spell use, you can use this ability on the spell deck for yourself. But, you can also use it to mess up spell draw for someone who can draw them. You can only use this trick on your turn though, so use it wisely.

STRONGMAN: The brute of the game. He's good in combat, and that's really about it. He gets a great modifier against beasts and monsters along with gaining an extra achievement token for winning combats with beasts and monsters. Don't be too quick to dismiss him. With his head start in combat (which is extremely important) he only gets better from there as you find things to build him up with. Thanks to his bonus, he's also one of the best PC's to have against a beast called The Monstrosity. We'll get to those later though.

SOLDIER: Extra good at combat, average at recruit and evade, but makes up for it as soon as you give him a weapon item. Modifiers from weapon items give him an extra +2.  His defensive power of +2 attack and defense if attacked by another PC makes him a thorny target. The bigger he gets, the meaner that becomes.

SPEEDSTER: Arguably, the most awesome stats of the game. Super speed is super cool. She gets awesome attack and defense stats and her evade is monumental. A +3 to movement doesn't hurt either. She can either keep far away from PC's that would attack her OR stay close to those she wants to target.  Check out her "disarm" special ability. Once per turn, during movement, you may make an attack roll on an adjacent opponent. If successful, steal 1 item from that player. Continue your movement. So, basically, you're running along, pause next to someone, snag something from them, and run away. How annoying can you be with that?




INVENTOR: Another PC who really doesn't start out as a combatant. He's good at recruiting help and is a master with traps. Giving him items is also awesome. With him, the +4 from a laser rifle becomes +8. Then his attack shoots up to a +10. His tinker ability is also very handy. During your turn, you may discard an item to take any item (not artifact) from the discard and put it into play for yourself. You also don't roll to obtain items (which will be more useful with upcoming expansions).

I'm happy to report that the first expansion for GZ will have 18 new PC's to really spice up your gameplay possibilities. I'll do a report on them later on, when closer to release.

To see more of what this board game is about: go HERE.  To catch the books that the game follows, click on my Author's page link in the upper right.