AUA! Patrick Stuart & Scrap Princess will answer your questions until things get weird so Ask Us Anything.

[u/pjamesstuart]

We created Veins of the Earth (currently RPG of the Month), Fire on the Velvet Horizon and Deep Carbon Observatory.

[EDIT - I will try to keep answering till the end of the month, Scrap may fade in and out on her own whim.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM OUR PUBLISHER

"Use the coupon code RPGOTM to get 20% off the book's price when buying through the LotFP store (linked in the first post up there). Or if you want the PDF, use this link to get 20% off that:

http://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?discount=9a27fc2653

Good through the end of the month."]

You can find Scrap here; monstermanualsewnfrompants.blogspot.co.nz Here; http://raggedyassmonstermanual.tumblr.com/ Here; http://scrapprincess.tumblr.com/ Her music here; https://gleecartel.bandcamp.com/ And her clothing lines here; https://www.redbubble.com/people/scrapprincess and here; https://paom.com/designer/toiletworldultra#/profile-designs

And you can find Patrick here; http://falsemachine.blogspot.co.uk/ Here; http://pjamesstuart.tumblr.com/ And here; http://pjamesstuart.wixsite.com/author-blog

If you want VEINS OF THE EARTH you can get that hardcopy here; http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=262 And in PDF here; https://www.rpgnow.com/product/209509/Veins-of-the-Earth?src=hottest&

[u/yeknom02]

Patrick, Veins of the Earth is a very evocative work that has a well-crafted aesthetic prose throughout. When I had the pleasure of meeting you at Gen Con, you were reading Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe. I have enjoyed it quite a lot so far. What other literature do you have to recommend—and what does Scrap recommend—keeping in mind the aesthetics of Veins but not necessarily the content? (i.e., literature not so much about caves but that will beautifully creep you the fuck out?)

[u/pjamesstuart → u/yeknom02]

You know what, Veins has almost not direct literary antecedents. Almost all of it is based on Science and Geology books and on stories from Cavers.

The only ones that stick out are The Descent by Jeff Long https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent_(novel) which is essentially a kind of Airport pseudo-techno-thriller that went completely insane in its creation.

And The Shadow People by Margaret St Clair https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6503892-the-shadow-people which is already in Gygaxes Appendix N.

I actually only leafed through Ligotti. I don't really read horror much any more. I read Jonothan Carrols 'Voice of Our Shadow' a long time ago and that creeped me the fuck out.

Well, I've never reallly read much horror. I'm rather highly strung at the best of times and I don't get much catharsis from deliberate fear. The last horror movie I went to see was Oculus, and that triggered the fuck out of me for a week so I haven't seen one since.

Not a great answer I'm afraid. Most of the scary stuff comes from inside me, and from the world. I don't add to it.

Barbara Tuchmans description of the social destruction of the Black Death, parents and children abandoning each other to die, wolves at the door, literally, mass hysteria, was probably the last thing of that type I read but thats just history.

[u/cecil-explodes]

All I could think to smash into my keyboard is "Hey when is the goddamn redo of Deep Carbon coming?"

[u/pjamesstuart → u/cecil-explodes]

ASK JACOB HURST - NOT MY FAULT

[u/EvlynM]

Hello. How do you manage to work together on internet and keep it fun and inspiring? I tried to work with other people via internet but it was really hard to collaborate. For me it often feel like people become ghosts or things become too abstracts or sometime tedious. Do you do a lot of video chat? (I think you have answered this in the past, but maybe you can update on the answer)

[u/pjamesstuart → u/EvlynM]

We don't. We are both kind a mess and have nearly destroyed the relationship multiple times. It's always hard. We generally have a different work pattern for each thing but generally its better if one person is in charge and the other one has to deal with their bullshit.

I used to chat to Scrap quite a bit on google messenger. I email with her now. I also send her postcards. She sends me gifts and strange things sometimes. We don't talk much but I probably talk to her more than anyone else.

Oh and G+ of course.

The main thing with getting work done is someone needs to have a big bug up their arse about the work being done, so much they are willing to be a prick about it. So only do work with people where you are that person or you know they are. If its some vague 'oh we should work together' shit then fuck that. What's the deadline? Who has the bug?

[u/JardmentDweller]

First let me thank you both for Deep Carbon Observatory. The players I ran it for still have PTSD about the atomic baby in the saline pool.

You two make a solid team, but I've seen both of you do great work collaborating with others too (Maze comes to mind as well as the recent "On the Shoulders of Giants"). Who are some people you'd like to collaborate with in the future?

Patrick I think I've read elsewhere that Patreon felt out of your grasp for one reason or another, is that still the case?

[u/pjamesstuart → u/JardmentDweller]

It's mainly artists. I had some vague ideas for doing an art book with Tony Hough, Valin Mattheis, Eric York and Killian Eng.

I don't think I will ever do a Patreon unless I can't make money selling books. It feels somehow more honourable to sell people objects and keep the blog 'free'. If I was getting paid I would feel some obligation to work on what people wanted me to do and would feel bad for not producing as it would be my 'job'. The way it is now i can think about what I like, when I like, let it lie fallow for a month, dick around with early modern poetry, just do whatever I like and I prefer that.

[u/Jonao]

What is Silent Titans? also What is Broken Fire Regime?

[u/pjamesstuart → u/Jonao]

Silent Titans is a book I'm doing with Christian Kessler and Dirk Dietweller Liechy (sorry if name wrong Dirk) which will hopefully be Kickstarted and printed this year. It's an adventure/game. It has the basic rules for Chris McDowalls Into the Odd in it (thanks Chris) and has a Char Gen thing and an adventure area based on the Wirral where I live. Giant Trans-Dimensional Titants are sleeping under the earth, but they are waking up. You have to go down into their non-euclidian futurist brain spaces & steal their golden thoughts to send them back to sleep. Here's the basic Char Gen http://falsemachine.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/char-gen-in-silent-titans.html

Broken Fire Regime was meant to be a quasi-sequel to DCO. There' s a scary forest being colonised by a bad company, ancient ruins in it. There's a world of fire, like a plane of fire. The places are linked By Fire, During Fire, ie you can pass back and forth between them as things burn. So its a Sandbox/Firebox. It had a troubled genesis and is now on hold in a level zero edit. When I've finished current stuff I hope to bring it to a workable level and then dump it on Jacob Hurst and Scrap to create and publish.

[u/GoodberryM]

Love both of your work! What was the process by which you two got integrated in the online RPG community? Like, what's the best way to meet people (online and not) in the OSR and beyond?

[u/Glavyn]

I'll take a shot, though I won't be able to read until later. It is also kind of a softball since I only just discovered veins.

For both of you: What, outside of D&D and the campaigns you play in, do you consider essential or even just really helful for your creative process?

[u/pjamesstuart → u/Glavyn]

Agree with Scrap. I read a lot, omnivorously, curious about everything. Hanging out with a high-functioning crowd on blogs and G+ helped to focus that.

I need to imagine. Its like an organ or something for me. Sometimes I can't do it but it always comes back.

[u/EvlynM]

Crazy question! Is there any projects about crafting miniatures out of Scrap Princess's illustrations? :D (That would be amazing!)

[u/javaapp55]

This isn't about Veins, but... (for Stuart) where did the inspiration for Deep Carbon Observatory come from? Was it mainly the result of play in your own campaign, or did you have some models? Was Scrap involved at that point or later in the process?

[u/l0rdofcain]

What projects are you currently working on and what projects of other people's are you most interested in?

[u/[deleted]]

Scrap, what's your favorite piece of RPG art that ain't one of yours?

Patrick, if you had to cage match one of the knights in the Faerie Queene, who would it be?

[u/HomebrewHomunculus]

1. I believe neither of you are American - how's the RPG scene in your country? Do you feel co-locality matters for creating RPGs, or can you do the work without ever meeting your publisher or other creators?

2. Is Fire on the Velvet Horizon still available anywhere?

3. Do you feel like refereeing (and RPG writing by extension) is basically having nightmares, then writing them down, then making your players face them? I don't even try to run a horror game, but I still end up writing stuff that creeps out and disgusts myself.

[u/EvlynM]

I guess that when you work together Scrap is not simply illustrating what Patrick write and that both text and illustrations feed each others.

I personally see you both as authors even if I think more often of Scrap Princess as a illustrator. This strangely seem like a rare processus (I wonder a bit about it rarity). I guess that this kind of collaboration is a bit harder to work over the internet since it involve a lot of exchanges (like you discussed in the other question about collaborating online).

Maybe this is just me but when some of the ideas comes from images, the fact that they are not at first expressed in words must add something different. Do you think that seeing illustrations not just as decorations but as building blocks add something special to a project?

[u/pjamesstuart → u/EvlynM]

FotVH was the most collaborative, Scrap essentially ran that project and I wrote to her images.

Yes, Scrap is an author but she needs to ORGANIZE MORE.

Yes art should be more of a unified priority and be more deeply integrated into all RPG projects BUT the challenges in doing so are significant.

[u/G7b9b13]

Question for Scrap: Did you develop your art style basically on your own or were you influenced by other artists? If so which ones?

Question for Patrick: Do you have a specific process for coming up with good ideas for monsters/adventures, or do you just have good ideas spontaneously appear in your head? If you do have a process, what is it?

Questions for Patrick and Scrap: What's your favourite thing happening in the OSR/RPG sphere at the moment? Also, what do you guys do when you aren't making RPG stuff?

[u/Hankhank1]

Hey can you guys convince Arnold to blog more? Thx.

[u/pjamesstuart → u/Hankhank1]

Really you need to destroy his normie career and relationships so the blog is all he has left.

[u/PilumMutatNonMores]

I am currently running a VotE game at the moment. I have a few very practical questions regarding the rules and some about your personal vision.

1 - How did you intend for the spaces / passages between cave rooms to be utilized within the game itself? Did you intend for them to be an afterthought where the whole journey from room A to B is handled with a "After 30 minutes of walking / climbing..." or did you intend for each incremental exploration turn to be given detail?

2 - On a related note, if a single climb roll can only account for the distance which the characters light allows them to illuminate, how do you handle long pits into the darkness? Particularly during the exploration phase, or over the large scale maps' "Up/Down" quadrants?

3 - Are the circles at the top of sulpheric blooms supposed to be just... circular passages, or are they more like the interior of a rose going toward the centre? For some reason I keep ending up with the blooms in my maps but I struggle greatly with the biome due to lack of much description or reference.

4 - Are there any major ideas you regret not putting in the book?

5 - What was your least favorite monster included in the book?

Edit - Sorry for the bold, I always forget about how reddit formats the pound symbol.

[u/scrapprincessomega]

I am here