Good goldenagers, wonderful backers, fellow participants in interesting times.
The last month has been wild, hasn't it? Events, big and small, just flooding ... uh ... the zone. But we're not in them, so we'll ... ahem ... return to a gentler world, of Golden Age Gods and absolutely no impending doom.
First: From the Book Mines
The last chapter spread, fully illustrated. Also, if you look carefully, it may include part of Poncho's origin story (that's a medium-deep cut for longtime fans).
So, the big news is, I suppose, that I finally gave up on any pretense of reusing old art to pad out the VLG and wrap it up faster. This is one of those unfortunate realities of backing an artist-writer: they're also answerable to the muse. In this case, the hard work of the editors, the encouragement of UVG players, the feedback of dozens of folks in the discord, all conspired with that grecian demi-deity to tell me one thing: "Forget the dang'd shortcuts. Do your best."
Thus, I'm going to do my darndest to make sure this is a work of art. Couple more weeks yet and you'll get to see the Ultimate Final V2 final-final version.
OK, I'm joking. The text is nailed down and I am adapting the last pieces of art.
—Luka, February, 2025, Seoul, South Korea.
*** Week 24 - Feb 11–Feb 17
The Work: Finished the chapter spreads. Tailored more spot art. The last big section that I really need to art up is the section on powers and magics.
International Randomness: So, uh, did you see the Ukraine stuff?
On the intro spread I wasn't quite happy with how the old one took an existing analog-digital piece and expanded it digitally. So ... I redrew it to fit the layout. Then I also adjusted the table colors to fit the page. I think this new layout is really much better.
The rules chapter spread used art from the golem wizard in the Uranium Butterflies, but I wasn't happy with how it fit with the layout. This one ... was a challenge. Two false starts for rearranging it, but finally I got it working together in a way I like. I think I'll still tweak the scroll art later, but for now, not terrible.
*** Week 23 - Feb 4–Feb 10
The Work: Filled out the spare spreads: added the wards. More spot art.
International Randomness: So, uh, did you see the Gaza Riviera stuff?
Based on feedback for what the 6 spreads I saved in the final layout could hold. Wards! Magic defenses! Yay!
***
Week 22 - Jan 28–Feb 3
The Work: Much of this week was a write-off. Well, aside from some art. See lunar new year. The Monday was good for setting up the new content—specifically, a spread on NPC variants. Planning to also add a spread of wards—magical defense equipment, basically. Hey, bonus content!
Lunar New Year: Nine days without childcare, a toddler, and a baby. Help.
I can't believe lunar new year was just ~2 weeks ago. It feels like a month. Anyway, these NPCs add function to the UVG and the OGA both. Hope you like them. Another spread based on popular demand from backers in the discord.
*** Week 21 - Jan 21—Jan 27
The Work: Final revisions. A few edits required a bit of creativity, so that’s what happened.
VLG Art: A few filler pieces. Nothing major.
Small Personal Holiday: After finishing all the edits, my wife kindly allowed me to take a night off. Booked an affordable local hotel and went to hide from the world. Well, from diaper duty anyway.
Lunar New Year Begins: No childcare. Chaos will come.
Muse's case in point: I could have tossed in some old art that more or less fit. Instead I decided to illustrate the armors on the page. Not all of it is new - the greenlander in red armor at right is an older piece that I integrated.
*** Week 20 - Jan 14—Jan 20
The Work: Finished reviewing all the editing suggestions. Expanded a few sections per comments. The VLG is now in place for the spot art. Also found a few spreads left over for some bonus content. Have to thank the folks who’ve taken the time to review in progress versions on the discord and offer feedback as well. You’re excellent humans and your help is much appreciated.
VLG Art: some more new pieces.
Here's the colored Yellowlander. I think this is around where I started to realize the muse wouldn't let me half-ass things where it came to color.
*** Week 19 - Jan 6—Jan 13
The Work: Got back to work, time to tackle those 550 odd editing suggestions for the Vastlands Guidebook from the estimable Brandes Stoddard. It’s pretty slow-going, navigating the need to work with the urge to run and see what is going every time the baby makes a sound. Something nobody ever told me about home offices: it’s emotionally hard to work while your child is making sounds, even if someone else is taking care of them!
VLG Art: Colored some pieces, added some new pieces because I couldn’t help myself.
I couldn't help it. I now see it was the daemon muse whipping me to illustrate more than I had planned.
***
Then: Golden Eyeburners
Yep, folks, this update is a two-for-one. We got our first test batch of eyeburners a while back and now we're showing them in a case, under glass, gleaming and all.
This tintype rendergraph doesn't show the 100% final neoöriginal golden eyeburners. We found out the d4s came out a little undernourished, so we're feeding them some more technoplastics to bulk 'em up. Still, the gold paint is working well. I'm a happy glod-eater.
If you'd like to add them to your pledge reach out to us at [email protected] and we can help you!
Now: PDFs Available of Previously Released Titles
PDFs of all of the previously released titles are now available to download on your BackerKit survey for those backers that purchased them as add-ons! You can access them by going to your survey here and then clicking on the "Get Your Digital Downloads" button. Here are the titles that were sent out:
Ultra Violet Grasslands (UVG 2E)
UVG 2E Referee Screen
UVG: Grand Map 2
SDM: Eternal Return Key
SDM Codex 1: MAGITECNICA
SDM: There, A Red Door
Longwinter: Visitor's Guide
Longwinter: Referee's Guide
Witchburner
Let Us In
Just a reminder that your survey must be locked and your card charged in order to receive the PDFs.
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Right-ho. Third person time.
Luka's gonna try to do the next update faster and shorter. Again. He's got this bad habit of trying to both focus on finishing the work as fast as possible and make a perfect update and then ... takes a bit too long with the updates and you get these giant updates.
Eh. If only threatening to fire him would make him work harder. But, turns out, threatening to fire folks doesn't help with longterm motivation. What a corundrum [sic].
Also, you know the drill: if you want to visit the paint-sausage factory and see Luka screaming into the electronic void as some pixels escape is oh! pixel corrall, the discord is a good spot (https://discord.gg/sEc6suMCmE). Some of y'all are already there and have been a great help in motivating the reprobate artist.
If you're the more relaxed kind of goldenager and like these "once-in-a-few-weeks" letters, then worry not. They'll keep coming till morale improves (and all the books are finished and delivered).
![Our Golden Age (OGA): An Ultraviolet Grasslands RPG []equel](https://bk-prod.imgix.net/active_storage/backerkit_production/blob/w3x8sovt158sexgb2brviuof2eia?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&auto=compress%2C%20format&cs=srgb&lossless=true&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop)
