Monks come from Blackmoor

I have been re-reading all my old original D&D books lately.  Fun stuff.
But I caught something today that I know I have read before, but now it jelled differently.

The Monk Class was introduced in the Blackmoor supplement.
Monks come from Blackmoor.

Now I am thinking for my Blackmoor, whether I use an OSR game or 4e, will have monks.  Sure it might not fit, but it is certainly an interesting concept.

Of course when most people think monks they think Kwai Chang Caine or Oriental Adventures. What if this sect of Monks were still psychic ascetics who trained their mind and body, not so much for a higher religious purpose, but more like something from the psychic awareness boom/New Age we saw in the 1970's.  So less Caine and more Uri Geller.

Yeah, the more I think about this idea the more I like it.   New Agey, crystal wearing hippie monks with psychic powers come from the "forgotten lands" of Blackmoor.  In the community of Blackmoor they replace the clerics as the spiritual leaders, getting people to work out their problems through peace, love and understanding.  When that doesn't work, they go all Neo on you and bend a spoon on your ass.  I'll look over  the "Mystic" class again in my 4e version of the Blackmoor book and see if there are any parallels that I can make work with this concept.

Blackmoor is quickly becoming my go to place for doing some cool Old School sandbox creating.

Elmore Art for Old School

I am working on Eldritch Witchery for Elf Lair Games and I have the bulk of it written now.  There are some editing issues and I need to tweak a few of the spells and monsters to fit the old school theme a bit better than when I originally wrote them.

But I do have a question to pose to the OSR.  Elmore art, use it or not?

I love the art in the Spellcraft and Swordplay and would love to have something very much like that in EW.  I also am a fan of Larry Elmore and since for as long as I can remember (or at least since 1986) I have wanted to do a witch book with Elmore art.  It's a thing.

I know that the original version of S&S that had Elmore art was criticized and the new art is a lot better, but Elmore and witches have such a close relationship in my mind that I would not be doing myself justice if I didn't include at least one piece.

I know many in the OSR equate the advent of certain artists to be indicative of "the end of the Golden Era" (mini rant here: Yeah like the art in the LBBs was so excellent it could never have been improved on!) Which I have to say is not very fair to the artists in question.

But at the same time I do respect the feelings the OSR has.  After all if it were not for that passion 90% of the old-school/retro-clone games would have never been made and I would not have had the chance to even do this book.

So Old Schoolers, what do you say?

Ghosts of Albion updates. Gen Con and More!

I am pleased to be able to post some positive updates to Ghosts of Albion!

First, news from Eden Studios.

Ok its been a while so here is an update.

Last year I had planned to release a bunch of product - it started off good - projects were moving through the pipeline and all looked well.

Then as I sent two projects to press BEFORE GenCon I was hit with a very serious legal issue that threatened financial ruin for me personally and threatened to take Eden down with me. I can't go into too much detail about it but basically I made the call to cancel the print projects I had in the pipeline to get my deposits back from the printers so that I could have that money set aside to deal with the legal issue. It was a hard decision to make... but I didn't want to hurt my relations with my printers if I was forced to pay those legal issues before we were able to collect from distributors moneys from new releases, that would have also meant not paying freelancers and everyone else. So it was easier to just push everything back and put Eden on a holding pattern (again).

As of last week a ray of hope arrived, no let me word that - a miracle happened with the legal issue. As of March 15th I will be absolved of this issue. At a HUGE financial savings. Which means I can put the money I set aside for lawyers back into the Eden coffers to release Ghosts of Albion and ConX ETs book... and then proceed with the Books of Flesh reprints and new AFMBE material.

At this time Ive begun reworking the Eden website and will hopefully have it go live in a few weeks.

As soon as I can I plan to send Ghosts and ConX back to the printer que.

Also we are planning to have a booth at GenCon this year... with new releases (other than Ghosts and ConX ETs).

Once again I ask you to be patient. I know many of you may have moved on but for those of you who are still here... thanks for all the support.

George Vasilakos Zombielord Eden Studios
http://edenstudiosdiscussionboards.yuku.com/topic/7226

This is of course fantastic news!  So we could be seeing a Ghosts of Albion core books in stores soon and at Gen Con.

Speaking of Gen Con, I have three Ghosts of Albion games lined up.
Two sessions of "Obsession" and one of "Dinosauria!".  Details on those when I can.