{KICKSTARTER] The Atlas of Fantastic Worlds, coming very soon !

[_PAM_]

Hello everyone, this time I have good previews to show !

Here is a project I work since a few months, It's an Atlas of 160 pages with 17 worlds each draw by a talented artist !
The Atlas will also have an introduction to tabletop role playing games and how to use this Atlas as a tool to enhance your creativity and imagination.
Oh and the book is in French and English on the same book (don't worry my english here is bad but for the book I will have a proper translator to help me with !)
Here is the cover :


And some samples of what the artists have start to do, it's not fully finish yet but still you have the big picture :






This project will be soon on kickstarter and as I'm not an editor, the success or not of this campaign will decide the fate of the Atlas.
It's also why we start a pre-launch campaign to try to get people on board !
So if you are interested please click on that link, it will send you a warning when the project is launch and it will also help me to relax a bit because I admit I'm nervous for my project to succeed.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ntastic-worlds

I also have created a facebook page, I plan to drop more preview of the book before the launching of the campaign :
https://www.facebook.com/AtlasofFantasticWorlds/
If the project seems to be good from your point of view it would be really great if you are in the mood to share this two links by the way
And I can also post more visuals here if you are interested.
You guys are the guild of cartographers, and this project is just full of maps, so your opinion is super important to me and I'm maybe more nervous to show you all this.

Let me know what you think,
Have a great day !

[_PAM_]

Hello everyone,
I just want to know if I did something wrong here ?

I wonder if it's my english and the fact I try to "sell" my project who finish to look tactless to you all ?
I was thinking that my first post about this project was not showing a lot of stuff but I don't really understant why these one don't have any reviews from you.

I'm sorry if the kickstarter commercial things are not well taken by the community. I was indeed working on it while I discover your guild and gladly join in.
But yeah I'm also here because I love map and really want your thoughts on my project.

[Redrobes]

There is no doubt about it that each of the images has great art and I would expect the book to be interesting and a good buy generally. But lets say your role playing, the bit I am having some difficulty is how the images help in the game play ? I can see that they are indeed imaginative and creative. I think what people look for are game aids to help with the running of a role playing game where maps are important and images of characters and monsters can be used to describe the world they are playing. The image with (I hope I get this right...) Valentin Selch looks promising and useful as a map of an interesting place. I like the idea of a huge skeletal feature. I am having some difficulty seeing how the other examples shown would be useful and maybe you can describe some more how you see this "Atlas working as a tool".

[_PAM_]

Yes okey, these days I am actually trying to find a good way to talk about that subject.
To be clear about the RPG part of that Atlas :
First it will include an illustrated "how to play" at the beginning of the book.
It will be made with simple rules so people who don't know about rpg tabletop can learn and try.
I think to be able to play without some expensives rules book can be a good start and lead people to see more and by more advanced book if they want to improve.
Mostly this part will included advises for players and game master that I think can be useful to everybody even people who have already play.
To give you an example those illustrations will be a part of explaining how to think like your character and use his/her ability to do an action :


After that, let say your are a game master now able to create a game, using a rulebook or not :
You create an adventure where your player have to find a treasure in a cave.
With the Atlas you can pick a world and put your adventure in it, doing so will be a lot easier for the game master to add details in his adventures, encounters and such.
It can even be a help during the game to improvise, if your players go in a way you didn't think at first, the map can help to find encounters like giants if they goes near some montains (just an other example)

Some says that one picture is worth as much as a thousand words and I believed that. So in some books you can find spreadsheet to find encounters, locations etc. I just wish to do the same but only with pictures.

I did not ask for the artists to make "rpg maps" like the ones withs squares to be able to deal combats and such. It's also to let artists goes in their ways and let them created things of their own.
This way I have a collection of worlds really differents and who goes a bit away from "classic fantasy".

My wish here would be to use the same things that everybody use while reading a comic book. When you draw a comic book you don't have to draw the background in every frames because after seeing once the reader unconsciously picture it anyway.
So if playing a rpg tabletop game with one of those world, let say with an old cartoon style, players will affecting their way to pictures what the game master say in a cartoon way.

All that make me say that this book can be an useful tool. It's not a magic tool but i trully think it can be really cool.
Did my explainations looks good for you ?

Anyway thanks Red for the review, I appreciate it and it's a good exercice to try to explain my project better.

[Tiana]

Hm, maybe it's the sort of thing you should try pitching in a parent's group, since to you it serves as a way to introduce someone new to the joy of an RPG.

[_PAM_]

Hello Tiana, what do you mean by parent's group ? things like regional/world mapping but more about RPG?
Thing is the RPG part is only the beginning of the book and useful as I think it can be, it's also optionnal for people who don't have any interest in RPG tabletop.
Most of all it is an Atlas and if I post here it's more to show and talk about maps than talking RPG.