Lace Featherdawn and the Domain of the Kitty Cats

Back in the mid-2000s I drew a lot of cartoon catgirl art. I was, for a time, really into that aesthetic. I wasn't a furry, in the strict sense. I never identified with the label and I just didn't have much common ground with that community beyond a great love for anthropomorphic cartoon animals. It wasn't a lifestyle or identity for me. I just appreciated the aesthetic of what I still call "funny animals" and "cartoon animals". And I still do, very much.

Drawings like this one are little gems in my catalog. This figure looks really nice, I think. She's sexy and soft and strong and cool. But of course when you mix funny animals with pin-up sex appeal you are treading on the kinky turf of the furry fandom whether you accept it or not. I never fully accepted it.

She's not bad, she's just, y'know, drawn that way.

I guess it's because this is, for me, just another pin-up piece. It's actually part of a broader project at the time to create a fantasy world peopled by these animal-type characters that weren't straight-up reflections of any particular animal. Lace Featherdawn isn't a cat. She's a catgirl, for sure, but not a cat. She's a fantasy character that is part of a fantasy species.

I used to doodle in the margins a lot.

Of course I was probably resistant to the furry label because of all the heavy heavy baggage it comes with. Furries get a lot of shit. They are unfairly maligned by the broader public because at a casual glance it looks creepy and fucked up to be drawing sexy animals doing it (the furry fandom is pretty rife with porn, y'know). I didn't want to be put in that category and since I didn't really identify with the label I didn't feel any need to subject myself to such torture. I wanted to draw sexy cartoon pin-ups and so that's what I did.

Later when I created Rabbits & Rangers I intentionally avoided ever using the furry label. R&R is not a furry game book, it's a funny animals game book. It's Bugs Bunny and Captain Carrot and Usagi Yojimbo in a dungeon. Full stop. But since funny animals are included as part of the furry aesthetic, then if you are a furry R&R is going to be in your wheelhouse even if I don't consider it to be a "furry fandom book".

There's probably a Venn diagram showing some overlap between old grogs like me who read Usagi Yojimbo and young whipper-snappers who identify as field mice. But the similarities, for me at least, are only skin-deep and the divide between me and the field mice person is substantial. Much love to you, mouse. Be your own self and fuck the haters.

All of this reminds me how very interesting the topic is. Like... what is it about animal characters that is so appealing? When I wrote R&R I was absolutely engrossed in making each animal type distinct and hopefully fun to play. Each type was like a mask. And therein, I think, lies the appeal. Cartoon animals are masks. They are stand-ins for ourselves, with the animal bits being character traits we fantasize about - not at all unlike superhero powers. Where's the bright line between a guy who can fly and shoot eye lasers vs. a guy who is a walking, talking alligator? Both are humans at the base (we couldn't identify with them otherwise) and have fantastic augmentations (flying, chomping!).

Maybe there's some book out there that dives into this idea? I dunno.

Project Updates, Black Pudding, etc.

A lot of people have asked me about the schedule for Black Pudding #6 and I have replied with pithy or vague comments such as "someday" or "when I'm finished" or "SOON". Here's where I'm at on that and other projects, in order of importance.

Commissions

I always treat my paid work as primary. I am actively working on or slated to start work on art for Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, Fight This Mutant, Leopard Women of Venus, and an upcoming project for which I don't have a name or website to point to (but I do have money in the bank so it's a lock for sure). These projects get first treatment, within the range of their due dates. As this type of work is basically ongoing, I sprinkle my personal stuff between due dates as I can.

Supercalla

This book is on the front burner. It's a Troika! setting that will come in at about 48 pages, saddle
stitched for the print run, in color. The writing is 98% finished (heading into the edit phase, as well as actual play or "playtesting" as they sometimes call it). 90% of the art is completed, though I will probably add more as needed to flesh it out. My goal is to try to get this knocked out and published by end of the year, but that really depends on the layout guy's schedule (the ubiquitous and sorcerous Matt Hildebrand), which I am not sure about. At any rate, my goal is to give Matt all the stuff he needs by end of November.

Black Pudding #6

This one is probably next. And I simply cannot put a date to it. My process for creating the zine has always been to wing that mother. I don't plan these things out. I create pages as inspiration strikes and when I get 24 inspired pages plus covers I roll with it.

I checked the folder for issue 6 and it looks like I have 12 completed pages... halfway there! I also have a cover, which I drew months ago and will probably be the one I go with. I wanted this issue to have several more highly detailed pages so some of the ones I worked on were very time consuming. I hope it is worth the wait.

I am in a Troika! mood lately so it's a little harder to think about B/X stuff. But I don't want to muddle the content of the zine with other game systems. If it had been a mix of old school games from the beginning I'd be OK with it, but the thing has been almost laser-focused on B/X style content. I want to maintain that focus, at least through issue #6. I have no idea what will come next. I don't have any reason to think I'll end the series but it might go on de facto* hiatus as a result of me doing other things for a while. Dunno.

*Is that the correct use of "de facto"? If not, I've been using it wrong my whole damn life.

Rabbits & Rangers

This is always, always, always on my heated backburner. Technically I don't have to ever touch it again because it's already published as a Labyrinth Lord supplement. I can walk away. But I can't walk away because I want to do more with it. Either a standalone game or a follow-up LL supplement. I'm still not sure which. But eventually I'll get it figured out and deliver something cool that will hopefully scratch that itch. And it might be after Black Pudding #6. Maybe.

Holy shit I had about ten typos in this post. I really need to slow down when I write.

Bad Bunny Landing

Here's a re-colored version of an old drawing. I like this much better. More atmo!

Hold Critter

The classic Hold Person spell becomes Hold Critter in a world of talking animals.

Droono Duckshar

In one of the last Rabbits & Rangers games I ran, the PCs went up against Count Drake-Yulla in his forbidding haunted castle. They never encountered his arch-rival, Droono Duckshar the Fowl Wizard!

This was a random thing I drew last night. I am in the midst of a bit of creative blockage so anything I manage to put down on paper (digitally or otherwise) is a boost to my confidence.

This was interesting because the entire time I doodled it I was pondering the direction of the game. As it stands, R&R is a perfectly fine Labyrinth Lord supplement. You can see that I referenced several things from the book on this sheet. But the ultimate question I've been asking since the book came out is what is R&R going to be in the future? Is it a LL supplement or a game of its own? If a game of its own, then I have no reason to stick with pure D&D rules. I've posted many times about this topic. I have written lots of versions of the game that are not D&D-based. But something keeps me tethered to the old rules. It's as if R&R was always meant to be funny animals in dungeons... so why would I use alternate rules? I have no high-and-lofty theme in mind beyond funny animals with swords. I could write this as a standalone game with an original rule set, going the way of Ironclaw or The World Tree. And that would be fine, except I feel like anyone playing it will simply say "this is just D&D with different rules".

And yet there are plenty of people who will look at the current R&R and say "this is just more D&D stuff... with goofy talking frogs."

You can't please 'em all.

When I think about it and let my hair down, this whole thing can be summed up in a simple equation:

Looney Tunes + Conan + D&D = Rabbits & Rangers

So you'll know what to expect when I know what to expect.

Krita Colorize Mask

I was playing around with Krita, coloring some existing drawings. In Photoshop, I used a filter called BPelt to do quick flat color fills on line art. It worked very well. All you had to do was create some line art with closed loops... that is, you couldn't have any open shapes. Like if you had a person's eye you couldn't leave the ink line open or else it would just fill the eye with the same color as the face.

BPelt would fill with random colors. So then you could easily use the paint bucket tool to click and fill each area with the color you prefer. Then it was just a matter of the fun work of doing highlights and what-not.

In Krita, there is a tool called Colorize Mask. You click it, then you get a mask on a layer and you can just sort of draw color lines where you want color to go. So you want the ork to be red, just draw a red line in the ork's body. A blue line across the sky, a brown line across the adventurer's face, etc. Then when you finish the mask it will fill those areas with those colors.

It's pretty nifty. For flat colors, this is the only way to fly. Believe me when I say there's no fun in carefully "hand coloring" vast areas of a drawing with a totally flat color. Might as well let Krita do it for you. Then you can pump your efforts into highlights, color adjustments, shadows, textures, or whatever.

Krita and the Dog

I saw Krita a while back, maybe 1 or more years ago. I think it was actually last December right after I got my XP Pen tablet. I have been using Photoshop 6 or 7 for YEARS. I was using 6 when 7 was released and I switched over a year or two later. So I was still using PS 7 until this week.

All of you young folks and/or digital art geeks are grasping your chests, gasping for air. WHY would anyone continue using an old, old, ancient graphics program for that long??

Well, because it works for me. I'm a simple kind of guy and I want to use my art tools, not learn them. I dislike the learning phase because it makes me feel hobbled.

Anyway... I saw Krita and was drawn to it (pun intended) because it was current, well supported, and open source. So I downloaded the bastard and discovered that my cursor was offset by a mile. I tried to re-calibrate and all the usual tricks. Nothing worked. XP Pen and Krita did not get along. So I let it go and continued with PS 7.

Then recently I happened upon Krita again and decided to give it another whirl. This time I found the right answer online (you have to set your tablet as primary monitor) and WHAM... I'm cooking with fire.

Below is the first finished drawing I have created with Krita. The learning curve is not too steep. A lot of my beloved hotkeys are not the same (though I can modify that if I want). But Krita, so far, has not failed to do all the things that Photoshop 7 was able to do (well... the Save For Web function is PH is fantastic and Krita doesn't have it... grumble). What's more, I like the workspace better, the pre-installed brushes are better, and the whole thing seems to work more smoothly.

Still going to take some time. I had a few functions built into PS 7 that I'll have to work into Krita. For example, when I hit F4 in PS it would expand the current selection by a few pixels, fill the selection with black, then deselect it. I really got used to using that for fills. Also I had a lot of custom brushes in 7 that I already miss. I'll have to brush up on how to make more in Krita.

Straight inks with some halftone using the #5 round brush... a classic.

Added flat colors with some highlights.

R&R: Ready and Willing

Here's a new Rabbits & Rangers drawing for the upcoming project. This was based on a sketch that  had been sitting around for at least 3 years, maybe more. I had actually started inking it over a year ago and finally sat down and knocked it out this morning. Turned out pretty cool, I think.

I don't like predicting what I'll do in the future because I'm constantly changing my mind and in the end what I do is what I end up doing. Hell, that's what Black Pudding is... just the stuff I do, not the stuff I planned to do. There's a difference. If I did all the stuff I planned to do I'd be the most prolific creator in history.

This drawing made me think about flying rules, which I cover fairly well in the current book. I am going to re-write that section to make it simpler, less fiddly. But the point is simple. A bird character can't fly and carry their normal amount of equipment. The bird in this drawing cannot fly without doffing their cloak, at least. I say in the book that you can hold one small item and still fly. So the staff would be out too. But I'm considering some ways in which a flying caster could still fly with a staff, as part of the fabric of the setting. Like a spell or special skill they learn. I'm not sure yet.

Werepig in a World of Piggies

In Rabbits & Rangers I have a short section on lycanthropy. It's a weird idea, isn't it? A world of talking animals... what do the lycanthropes turn into? I suggested in the book that a PC infected should randomly roll what type of animal they transform into. In that way, you could be a duck bitten by a wereskunk and then you transform into an evil, bloodthirsty werepig.

I still like that idea. But in the new game I'm going to leave some of it up to the Ringmaster's discretion. I'm trying to keep my rules and text more open to rulings-not-rules. While I am very proud of the R&R book based on Labyrinth Lord, I still find even that to be a little too fiddly for funny animal fantasy as I want to experience it.

Anyway, yes, I'm currently working on the new game. Still no real idea about when it will be ready. I'll share more as I get more into it.

Also... should I make this game in color or keep the interior art black and white? My instinct is black and white, as that's my wheelhouse. But I suppose I should at least consider doing this in color. Right now I have to be honest: I'm 75% leaning black and white for the interior.

Rabbits & Rangers RPG

While working on the new R&R document I keep noticing little errors and omissions from the first book. For example, I just realized I mention Hawks having the ability to see 80' in the dark but I failed to actually list them with Night Vision. Hah.

I don't actually have any idea how far a hawk can see in the dark in reality. I just know they are good at it. But that's a repeating theme I keep running into when doing research on animals for this game. A lot of animals have a reputation for a certain skill but finding hard data on just how good they are is not always easy. Swimming is a great example. I actually encountered instances where the same animal was described as being a good swimmer in one text but in another text it was said to NOT be a good swimmer.

So all of these descriptions are my best effort at distilling an animal's talents down to simple OSR style modifiers that must be weighed against other critters to make sense. I mean, everyone knows how agile cats are... but have you watched fossas climb trees? Makes me want to wear a "team fossa" tee shirt.

Oh... I guess that also means I'm working on a new R&R. Not sure if I posted about that yet. This is a standalone RPG. I started with basic OSR and I'm building from there. But more on that later.

Update on Life and Thoughts on Rabbits & Rangers

Since my last post I've been struggling with family health issues. My mom is sick. She has liver disease and diabetes and lots of complications as a result. She's doing "ok" right now, but it's always tentative and I'm in fear of the worst. So I've been a bit flighty and only sporadically productive.

I did manage to start my Dead Wizards campaign, though it was in the middle of all this personal stuff and I haven't given it the tender care it really deserves.

What I have been thinking about lately, in the creative realm, is Rabbits & Rangers. Specifically a standalone RPG. I'm quite proud of the book I created in 2016, but I've always wanted this to be a game of its own. Here's what I know right now.

• It's going to be OSR. Possibly a clone of B/X, with animalized changes.

• It'll have 100 animals instead of 50. The babirusa and pronghorn have already joined the ranks, along with a handful of others (horse, lemur, etc.).

• I hope to publish some modules/adventures for the game as well. I have a big fat list of ideas, many of which are parodies of existing modules. Last year when I playtested the rules I ran Sheep on the Borderland and Castle of Count Drake-Yulla... so those need to be written up and published for sure.

• The possibility of a Kickstarter is on the table. But right now it's only a distant notion, not the actual plan. I include this as an option in my planning because I'd like to see a nice physical book I can provide that would be a step above print-on-demand. We'll see how things shake out first.

I have no timeline for this. There's far too much work to do before I get there. It might be a summer thing or it might be a 2018 thing. I don't know yet. But it's probably going to be a thing.

Rabbits & Rangers Character Sheet

Here's a sheet for your funny animal gaming fun!

PDF

Rabbits & Rangers in PDF and Print

Bears? Tigers? Stoats? Fossas?

Yes to all.

Rabbits & Rangers, a Labyrinth Lord supplement, is now available in PDF and print. If you like funny animals and fantasy then I got you covered.

Rabbits & Rangers!

At long last, Rabbits & Rangers is live and available for download! It's rascally.

Rabbits & Rangers: Sheep on the Borderland

My Monday group finished the first playtest adventure for Rabbits & Rangers, a Labyrinth Lord based guide to running cartoon animal campaigns. I cobbled the adventure together without writing much down. I decided to riff on B2: Keep on the Borderlands and I called it “Sheep on the Borderland” (naturally).

The gist was this. A band of adventurers called the Sheeple (all Sheep) went missing after making a journey to an ancient ruined keep northwest of the great city of Zyn Dweomer. The sister of the Sheeple’s leader enlisted the PCs to help her find her lost brother. Her name was Bree Arkus.

I took the map of the Keep and drew a ruined sketch of it. I put a huge rift in the earth next to the Keep, related to the dark magics that were at work in the area.

The PCs explored the surface of the ruin, where nearly all the walls and buildings were reduced to rubble. They fought hammerhands, who were responsible for most of the smashing of walls. It’s kinda like cats clawing… they gotta smash stuff.

Anyway, the culmination of the adventure was an encounter in the only remaining intact structure… the Chapel. So here’s a sketch of the Chapel layout.

There were stinky diseased goblins, Sheep, Monkeys, giant spiders, giant snakes, slithering snake people, and a half bull half sheep demon. It was fun. I learned a great deal about the tension between cartoon style mechanics and straight Labyrinth Lord play.

Next playtest begins Monday… In the Castle of Count Drake-Yulla! I hope to write this one up as a module to supplement the book.

The text for Rabbits & Rangers is finished. Right now I’m focused on playtesting and doing art for the book. I do not have a release date yet. It will depend on when I get the drawings done.

Rabbits & Rangers Update

Rabbits & Rangers is a game supplement for use with Labyrinth Lord. The book will give you the necessary rules to play cartoon animals in fantasy settings. It includes 50 animal races, each with unique perks and drawbacks, and it includes a small selection of optional rules that help promote the “cartoon” side of the idea.

The text is written and edited and playtesting has been going on for many weeks. I’m working on art and I hope to have the whole thing put together in a few months.As I get closer to finishing I’ll narrow that down to a more specific date.

I plan to follow the book up with further animal races and perhaps some adventure modules. We’ll see how that goes. I also want to invite others to publish materials compatible with R&R, once the book is “in the wild”.

I started thinking about this game years ago and I have written several versions of it using original systems, which I may or may not publish in the future. But this version is purely OSR and I wanted it to be firmly grounded in Labyrinth Lord rules. I tried not to add any extra baggage, though as a necessity there are a couple of rules that should be observed in order to get the flavor across.

For example, size really matters. So I include in the game a very simple way to deal with the mouse who fights the elephant.

I also include a “luck point” system inspired by the old Conan adventures published in the 1980s. This is the kind of system I use in all my OSR games and I felt it would be a good fit here too.

Animal PCs have a “nature” that reflects a strong emotion or other characteristic. This is a way to convey behavior similar to cartoon characters who have an exaggerated personality or physical schtick, such as being grumpy or greedy.

For the truly cartoony campaign, there is a whimsy rule. This can be used if you want those pianos falling from the sky or PCs painting doors on the sides of walls and walking through them.

All of these are optional. You can use all of them or none. The list of animal races, which is the meat of the book, can be utilized in any OSR game without the need for nature or whimsy. My goal was to make this book usable.

Here's an example animal from the game. The art is not final.

Wolf

Medium mammal

AC Mod: no adjustment

HD/hp: d6 min

Move: 120' (40')

Abilities: +1 to any two ability scores

Tooth and Claw: 1d6 bite; 1d4 claw

Night Vision: 30’

From the scruff of your neck to the pads of your feet, you are the romantic subject of every Bard expressing her inner animal nature. Rightly or wrongly, you are seen as the original wild animal who can’t be tamed by the fineries of civilization.

Howler: You can issue a haunting howl from a distance, causing your enemies a -1 to hit for their first attacks against you and your allies. You shake their nerves!

Loyalty: You gain +4 to saving throws against magic or other effects that would cause you to betray your friends and allies. When acting in direct defense of an ally you gain +1 to hit and damage and +1 to saving throws for 1d3 rounds.

Pack: When coordinating attacks with allies you gain +1 to hit for 1d6 rounds. You must actively engage in coordinated attacks to gain this advantage, requiring at least 1 turn of planning prior to the battle.