Unnatural Selections Volume 4

We are closing in on having another celebrity writer! If we hit that goal before the night ends, I'll put up the voting poll tomorrow and run it over the next few days so you all can decide which writer will come on board!

Meanwhile, the manuscript is getting finished up (adding those 10 monsters you awesome backers added), and art is still coming in.

Thanks for all your support, and I hope those celebrating are having/had a magical Christmas!

Lou

The Backerkit campaign for the “Unnatural Selections Volume 4” post-apocalyptic monster collection has gone smashing, and backers have been so generous!

Being 2 days out, I don’t think we will hit the stretch goal to bring in celebrity writers in to design new monsters for the project, and that’s OK-it has funded and I’m very content with that! Still, when I sent word out that I was looking for writers to throw-in a monster or two if these goals hit, I was overwhelmed by how many people responded emphatically, “yes!” and how many of them even turned down the stipend I was offering if we reached the goal.

C. Aaron Kreader worked with me on my last project, “A Mutant for All Seasons,” and he offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse. Not only would he create a creature for this collection, but he offered to illustrate it as well! So, in honor of all the generosity I have received and in the tradition of this holiday season, I am offering this (unedited) PDF of Kreader’s creation, “The Fungtech.” This artifact-inhabiting colony fungus falls into one of my favorite types of monsters, the kind that can do interesting things and is neither ally nor enemy. It has the potential to help a party fix, change, or understand tech but they must overcome a barrier of culture and communication to possibly obtain this aid. Its abilities are interesting and surprising and can be woven into an encounter (with a bit of planning) to create wild situations!

Enjoy this free PDF, an actual (edited) print version will appear as part of the “Unnatural Selections Volume 4” project. I hope everyone out there is having a good holiday and I wish you my very best!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FQfHJirU6kQm_XOM7EuQA0WPON-SGJRT/view?usp=sharing

Wow, the funding has been going great, and I am pleased to announce some cool developments. 

First, the back cover and the initial sticker sheet are done! I’ll be showing them off on the Backerkit page soon, so be looking for that. Art continues to roll in for the monsters and Santiago Iborra continues to just astound me with how wonderful an interpretation he gives to each monster. Even the ones I was ho-hum about (ones that needed to exist for completeness sake), his illustrations elevate to a, “I can’t wait to encounter that!” level. He keeps hammering away. Below is his sketch for the entry for “Cybernetics” (most of you know how much I love to share art as it comes in).

 

I’m burying the lead a bit though, the big news I wanted to share with you is that several of the BIG NAME folks I’m working with on the stretch goals have either reduced their rates greatly or even waved them off. Inspired by that spirit, I am changing the funding levels for the stretch goals. The second sticker sheet will happen at $4000 and the extra guest monsters will happen every $500 after that!

 

Finally, Matt De Micco (of "Xcrawl Rodeo: Hell on Hooves") reached out to me with an offer to cross-collaborate our projects and offer a little something nice to folks who back both. We are only now figuring out what that might be, but you can bet it will be monster-filled! More to come on that soon!

 

Thanks again for your support and keep telling all your mutant-loving friends about the project!  Thanks.

 

 

Luau Lou

Dandyline Games

Wow, we're funded and - EVERY SINGLE MONSTER SPONSOR SPOT HAS BEEN TAKEN! Folks, I can't describe the warm feeling you all have given me tonight. I was hoping that this final volume would be met with enthusiasm, and I was not disappointed.

I'm now in suspense, hoping we can get some of these legendary writers off the bench to put a monster in the pile for this one. You can see the list on the story page, but there are almost a dozen of these authors and I want to see them all participate. If you woudl like to see that too, please consider throwing a link out to this project on your preferred social media site.

I could go on-and-on about the merits of EACH of these fellas, but this time through, I think I will just point out one of them, whose "voice" has been a big guide as I designed these tomes of monsters. James Holloway (not that one), is the host of the Monster Man podcast. His show has gone through and dissected almost all of the original TSR monster books, and as a professional anthropologist, he gives such as great spin on the origins of some of those monsters and what makes them interesting or troublesome to use. James has agreed to be on call for doing a monster for the collection, if we hit the stretch goals. So, if we can get it to $5,500 all backers get to vote on the guest writers they would like to see, and from that point, we start adding them in order of popularity every time the project gains another $500 in funding.

One last bit of housekeeping. You may notice a confusing reference to a "Bonus Trash Compactor" monster. This was a mistake that I unfortunately can't go back and fix. I hired an artist to do some bonus monsters for me to give away on this campaign and also at special conventions. There was a miscommunication between her and I, and I thought she was working on a monster called the Trash Compactor, when she was actually working on one called the Creeper Crop. So, the REAL bonus monster for this campaign will be the Creeper Crop. Any mention of "Trash Compactor" should be replaced with that.  Sorry and thanks!

"Luau" Lou Hoefer
Dandyline Games