Update #21: Meet the Artists: James Stowe & Jonathan Hill, Kickstarter-Themed Version

Note: This is a copy of Update #21 from my Kickstarter campaign.

Meet the Artists: James Stowe and Jonathan Hill

If you like RPGs and webcomics, have I got a site for you: SidekickQuests.com. James Stowe's online comic features a small band of sidekicks in your typical RPG fantasy world. What's fun is that occasionally there will be little indicators showing what the character "rolled" for a particular skill, which is then translated to how the action plays out in the comic, as in the sample page below:

On top of that, he's also been developing an actual RPG as well! So James has some experience in combining his illustrations and game design, skills that are also useful in a project like Emperor's New Clothes. Although Emperor's New Clothes is designed for older players, James' illustrations make me want to do a kid-friendly version, too. Well, maybe that can be my next project after I recover from this one.

Jonathan Hill is an illustrator and cartoonist. He illustrated Americus (written by MK Reed), which is about a small town and the controversy surrounding a fantasy fiction series. The story in Americus mirrors the real-life controversies around the Harry Potter series. For this graphic novel MK and Jonathan created their own heroine, Apathea Ravenchilde, and when characters read the books, Jonathan's illustrations bring the stories to life.

Although there are only small excerpts of Apathea Ravenchilde within the graphic novel, MK and Jonathan had developed a lot of the characters and settings anyway. So they created a guidebook to the world, making it look something like a D&D manual written as a textbook for adventurers. (I bought a copy. It's fantastic.) What I love about it is the lengths they went to in order to create an artifact from an imaginary world inside their imaginary world.

You can see more of Jonathan's work at his website OneOfTheJohns.com.

Kickstarter-themed Version

Yesterday I talked about expectations and execution, and the way Emperor's New Clothes is really a collaborative project, that it has evolved due to your input. So here's another themed version inspired by all of the dialogue surrounding Emperor's New Clothes.

Like the Pixel Lincoln crossover version, this is simply a reskinning of the game, with almost all the same gameplay (and one fun change). But as I've said before, simply changing the theme, without actually changing gameplay, can make a tremendous difference in how a game feels when you play it. It's hard to explain exactly why, but imagine playing Zombie Dice with just regular six-sided dice. You could do it, but it would be too abstract. My kids wouldn't like it, and I bet you'd never have a blockbuster hit.

So for this version of the game, instead of a vain Emperor and clothes nobody could see, the game reflects the Kickstarter campaign itself. You've got two Swindlers, myself and Game Salute, and instead of an outfit it's a board game. The Emperor has been replaced by Backers, and the Child will be played by Ken Grazier of Geek-Craft. (By the way, I did meet Ken in person at PAX East and we bonded over a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse. He presented me with a peace offering of custom buttons, and I gave him a set of ROOS PennyGems.)

Here are the rest of the characters:

• Jester = Kyle Scheele of Ridiculo.us
• Minister = BoardGameGeek
• Knight = Kickstarter
• Lady-in-Waiting = Amazon
• Seamstress = Game Reviewers
• Fisherman = Byron Campbell of NerdSpan
• Farmer = Non-Backers

You'll notice there's no Mother in this version, because nobody stopped Ken from posting the spoiler. Instead, we have the Troll: I won't name anyone in particular, but the troll is played by Internet trolls. Here's how he works: anyone who interacts with the Troll in any way (after the roles are revealed) loses 1 dignity, and the Troll scores 1 point for each dignity discarded this way.

You'll notice that this adds some interesting nuances to the game and although it's not a perfect analogy, it's a modern twist on the classic tale.

And what better artist for a Kickstarter-themed version than Adam Rebottaro of Greater Than Games, a company that has had tremendous success on Kickstarter? Adam is, of course, the artist for Sentinels of the Multiverse, a cooperative comic book superhero game which has run several successful campaigns for the base game and expansions. They also have the distinction of being the first project I've backed which delivered the reward before the estimated delivery date.

I met with the GTG guys at PAX last weekend and pitched them on my game, and although a Sentinels crossover wasn't in the cards, I think having Adam involved is still a pretty sweet deal.

As with the Pixel Lincoln version, there is no extra cost involved with this version; when you get your backer survey after the campaign closes, simply pick the Kickstarter version option.