A picture is worth a thousand words. More than a thousand when it's by a master artist like
Kevin Jenkins. So I'll keep this short. Kev has been madly busy on visual design for the next
Star Wars movie - or maybe the next but one - but he cleared some time recently to do a few sketches of the cover for the seventh Fabled Lands book,
The Serpent King's Domain. And when I tell you this is one of the designs we rejected, you'll get a hint of how amazing the finished cover is going to look.
Kev says of this one: "Our hero is taking down an attacker while being surprised by a second assailant, below massive jungle waterfalls with temples carved with massive stone faces." Of course we apologized for dragging him away from a galaxy far, far away but he added, "Believe me, after four years on the same subject it was nice to sketch a dragon."
An awesome guy and an awesome talent. We're lucky to have him. And anyway, I'm a Trekker.
... I didn't even notice there WAS a dragon in the background. Having said that, I always enjoyed the Fabled Lands covers since ti is packed with more than one focuses. :)
ReplyDeleteI missed that dragon myself at first. And that's one of the reasons we decided against this cover design. Once the title text was put on top, nobody would notice the dragon or the temple.
DeleteIf that's what was rejected, I cannot wait to see the actual cover.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity it won't be a full triptych like the original cover paintings, but I'm just glad we were able to get Kevin at all.
DeleteBack in the day I mostly bought the few game books that were translated into Swedish and I probably never even heard about Fabled Lands. So it´s time to remedy that and I just ordered the lot from amazon UK. I have a tendency at the momement to buy books that looks fun but then never getting around to actaully playing them. I don´t think that will be a problem in this case with all the rave reviews in mind and since I´m super curious about finding out how the open ended system works.
ReplyDeleteCome back and tell us what you think, Mats. It's a shame FL wasn't translated into Swedish back in the '90s... but never say never.
ReplyDeleteSo got the books in the mail today and since I´m home alone tonight I dived right into the Wartorn Kingdom.
DeleteI decided to play as an evil troubadour. My goal is to play reckless, stir up trouble wherever I can find it, take lots of chances and see where it leads me. Usually when i decide to play evil in rpgs I can´t help myself from becoming a hero sooner or later anyway. This time I´ll really try to stay bad.
After a bit of exploring I ended up in Marlock city and found the gambling den where I lost all my money. Then I robbed some poor guy, became an initiate of Sig, went back to the gambling den and lost all my money once again. So it seems I´m an evil troubadour with a gambling problem.. :-) Anyhow right now I´ve left the city and are out in the wilderness exploring. I´ve just found a sweet weapon and things are looking up for now.
Great book so far! I´m really enjoying it.
The main thing is to stay alive long enough to get a resurrection deal. Of course, to do that you're going to need to start winning at the gaming tables :-)
DeleteThe final dispatch from an evil troubadour. Things never got much better for the poor fellow. He travled across most of the map covered in book 1 but just couldn´t catch a break. He took a chance from time to time but they mostly resulted in him falling down from high places or getting punched in the face.
DeleteSo with still zero cash and now just one stamina remaining I decided to return him to Marlock city. There he can be found slumming it in the alleys, playing his dark and broodníng tunes about death and despair for the occasional coin and some scraps of food.
Meanwhile I´ve started over with a new character and I´m off to a much better start. This time I´ll also try to be smarter about my money. :-)
The most interesting stories don't have to end with gold & glory (to coin a phrase). Maybe that troubadour will be back? :-)
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteIs the book going to be available to those of us who completely forgot to back the Kickstarter?
Hi Matthew - the plan is that after Megara have sent the hardcover edition out to KS backers, Fabled Lands Publishing will do a paperback edition which anyone can buy. I don't have a date for that yet, but hopefully before the end of the year.
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