Quick update for backers: The first batch of refunds was supposed to go out this week. That didn’t happen. The problem is that PayPal is dawdling in confirming the transfer of funds from my checking account to my PayPal account. Until the money is actually in my Paypal account, I can’t send it to you.

What they’re doing here is holding onto the money for a few extra days so that they can earn a little more interest out of it. I’d forgotten how much of a pain-in-the-ass PayPal is. In any case, PayPal is telling me that the money should clear in the next 2-3 business days. So my expectation is that the first batch of refunds will actually clear some time next week.

And if you were an L&L backer and you have no idea what I’m talking about, go here and follow the instructions.

(Note: The first half dozen or so people who responded to my e-mail have received their refunds. I sent those out using the small balance I had standing in my account.)

Exit, Pursued by a Monster – Alex Drummond

I did a series of teasers for the Art of Legends & Labyrinths awhile back at a time when I thought we were gearing up for the eminent release of the book, but it ran aground on the rocky shores of the project. I’ve still got a half dozen or so pieces that were completed but never previewed and I’m going to go ahead and roll those out now for everyone to see.

One of my goals for the art in Legends & Labyrinths was to have it representative of what actually happens at the gaming table. It’s one of the reasons that I offered an illustration based on a backer’s campaign journal as one of the reward levels for the 8-Bit funding campaign: I wanted to have the visuals of the game drawn from actual play.

This piece is one example of that. Here’s what the original art order looked like:

A cavern which has been excavated to reveal the ancient remains of a city. The surroundings have the feeling of great age; the dust of Sumerian clay. We are looking toward an ancient tower half-embedded into the cavern wall.

On the floor of the cavern in front of this tower a huge, mob-like melee is raging: Tor, Elestra, Ranthir, Tee, and Nasira (or some selection thereof) are fighting large, ogre-like creatures with ebon black skin who are being commanded by a small cadre of robed cultists. (These are the same guys Tee was about to ambush in the illustration for page 67.)

One moment ago, Agnarr leaped through the upper window of the tower – from the third floor or thereabouts; high up. It’s like a stunt out of an action movie and Agnarr looks totally cool in mid-air; like some sort of combination of Conan, James Bond, and John McClane.

What we’re looking at right now is a massive creature which has smashed through that window and large chunks of the wall around it. It looks like a sandworm from Dune except that its mouth is rimmed with needle-like teeth and it’s got two lanky arms thrusting out from its sides.

So: Tower window being smashed open; chunks of masonry hanging in the air. And a giant worm chasing Agnarr in a race to a floor which is filled with a crazy melee.

For those following along at home with the Black Book Beta, this piece was intended to appear on page 74 (replacing the photoshopped placeholder of the volcanic dragon).

Inaki Lind posted a review of the Legends & Labyrinths: Black Book Beta at RPGNet awhile back. Check it out.

Of course, you can also download a PDF copy of the Black Book Beta itself now. That’s over here.

To pull something of a silver lining out of the 8-Bit Funding version of Legends & Labyrinths getting a final axe to the head (as painful as that remains for me): I am now free to share the Black Book Beta with all of you. (And I know there are many people who didn’t have a chance to fund the project who have been begging me for months or years to get a peek at it.)

The Black Book Beta was designed to give funders a usable first peek at the rule system and it’s exactly what the name says it is: A beta version of the rulebook. Most notably the volume is missing an index and the full versions of the Grimoire, the Treasury, and the Bestiary. Fortunately, the game is 100% compatible with 3rd Edition, so you can just use the spells, magic items, and monsters from the books you already own (or use the online SRD if all else fails); so the Black Book Beta remains a fully functional and fully playable game.

For those of you currently unfamiliar with Legends & Labyrinths, check out this post describing its many virtues. Because it’s 100% compatible with 3rd Edition, you can use any supplement or adventure module for 3rd Edition in Legends & Labyrinths without any conversion whatsoever (despite the fact that Legends & Labyrinths is a massively streamlined and simplified version of the system).

The flip-side of 100% compatibility also means that you can rip out some of the awesome sub-systems of L&L and use them directly in your 3rd Edition campaign. For example, you should check out the stunt system, the hazard creation system, and the monster creation system. (The last of these also makes it really, really easy to convert pre-3E material to L&L or 3E.) Oh! There’s also a streamlined, budget-based system for building encounters.

But without further ado, here we go:

(click for PDF)

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

PREVIEWS & DESIGN NOTES
8 Reasons to Buy Legends & Labyrinths (Even If You Never Play It)
The Three Pillars
100% Compatibility
The Most Subversive Chapter
Hazardous Business
Stunts vs. Combat Maneuvers
On the Importance of Character Creation
All the Minor Tools
Size Does Matter?
Sidebar Reference System
The Long Road
Design Notes: Polymorph
Design Notes: Grappling
Class Preview: Fighter
Race Preview
Preview: Example of Play
Beta Character Sheet
Blog Round-Up
Funding Video
Announcing Legends & Labyrinths

THE ART OF LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS
#1: The Cleric – Viktor Fetsch
#2: The Rogue – Bonnie Tang
#3: The Barbarian – Alex Drummond
#4: Dove City – Alex Drummond
#5: Dungeon Encounter – Alex Drummond
#6: Snowmancer – Viktor Fetsch
#7: End of the Adventure – Alex Drummond
#8: Alchemist Witch – Alex Drummond
#9: Mountain Temple -Alex Drummond
#10: The Adjudicator – Viktor Fetsch
#11: Forest Encounter – Alex Drummond
#12: Sketching the Cover – Viktor Fetsch
#13: Roughing the Cover – Viktor Fetsch
#14: The Cover Arrives!
#15: Exit, Pursued By a Monster – Alex Drummond
#16: The Struggle – Alex Drummond

BLACK BOOK BETA RESPONSES
#1: Black Book Beta Response
#2: The Human Feat
#3: Human Feat Poll
#4: Alignment
#5: Cleric Domains – Keep ’em, Dump ’em, Change ’em?
#6: The Art You Hate
#6B: Art Critique – Take Two
#7: Morale and Loyalty
#8: What Type of Action Is It?
#9: Material Components

To make a long story short: Legends & Labyrinths is simply the most blighted project I have ever worked on.

Over the last two months there are three major new woes to add to the pile: I had another artist pull a vanishing act. The printer I was going to use for the books went out of business and quotes I was getting from other companies made it clear that printing the books was going to cost a lot more than I’d originally budgeted. (Penalty for being 18 months overdue.) And then I had one of my previous artists crawl out of the woodwork and threaten to sue me because I didn’t pay him for art he never actually made or delivered. (Or I suppose maybe he did make it and just refuses to attach it to an e-mail so that he can get paid. I don’t know.)

You can’t really make that last one up. But you do have to deal with it.

Now that the “artist” has been dealt with, however, I can move forward. Unfortunately, the “forward” direction in question is not a particularly positive one: Taking a deep assessment of the product I promised in the 8-Bit Funding campaign and comparing it to the product I’m actually capable of delivering at this time, I’m not satisfied with the results. I could push forward and deliver something that would technically fulfill the promised rewards, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable standing behind its quality.

Which means that I’m officially cancelling the project as it currently exists.

That’s the bad news.

The good news, for backers at least, is that your money — as I’ve indicated in the past — was never in jeopardy. The only money that was ever withdrawn from the project fund was to pay for the art from Viktor Fetsch, Alex Drummond, Bonnie Tang, and others. I’ve restored those funds from my personal accounts and refunds will be going out.

Here’s how that’s going to break down:

Registered Adventurers: These backers have already received their full rewards, so they won’t be getting refunds.

Warriors, Prowlers, Conquerors, Lord of the Labyrinth: These backers will be getting full refunds.

Labyrinth Exemplars: Exemplars will be getting full refunds, but if the final version of the game ever appears their characters will still be used in the SRS sidebars as promised.

Legend in Your Own Time: These backers will receive full refunds, but they will also receive a digital copy of Alex Drummond’s art depicting their adventuring party. If the final version of the game ever appears, this art will also appear in the rulebook.

And, of course, backers will obviously get to keep all of the bonus PDFs and other digital rewards which have already been delivered to them.

As this suggests, I have not completely given up on the idea of L&L appearing at some point in the future. But it was time to, regrettably, declare the 8-Bit Funding project a failure.

If you were a backer of the project and you have not received an e-mail concerning your refund, please check your spam filters and then contact me ASAP at legendsandlabyrinths@gmail.com.