SECRET SANTICORE 2013

Secret Santicore 2013 is nigh! 

But this year I've had to abdicate in favor of the Chosen One: 

Joey Lindsay from Metal vs Skin will be running the show. 

If want to help out head over here, read the FAQ and muck in.

M E T A L vs S K I N

SECRET SANTICORE 2013 CALL FOR HANDLERS

SECRET SANTICORE 2012: Off and Racing!

All the requests are in, and all have been given to their Secret Santicore, so I get to suck daiquiris and club seals for a few weeks til they start rolling in.

PORPHYRY YOU IS GOING DOWN.

SECRET SANTICORE 2012!!!

Secret Santicore 2012 is here! From now til midnight Friday 14th September, Santicore will hear your pleas for succor and do his damnest to deliver! 

Everybody who wants in click on the link below and fill out their request for some specific brand new campaign material--a new race, a location, a one-shot adventure outline, a random table, whatever. The idea is to be as specific as you need to be, but not too greedy (ask for a page or two of material). 

Then I'll mix all the requests up and send them back out to the people who entered. Everybody gets the requests that weekend of the 14th-16th, and then they have til midnight Sunday 30th September to write up something matching the request and email it back to me. Only two weeks?! I hear you say? Last year everyone had two weeks and everyone delivered on time (nearly).I UPDATE: make that MIDNIGHT SUNDAY OCTOBER 7TH. I can be a little flexible, but do try to meet that deadline so that the frothing team of Santicore's Little Helpers can sink their chiseled fangs into it and ensure your gift can be included in the collected PDF that (Santicore willing) will be released just before the holidays kick in. And if you can't wait to share it til then, put it on your blog or wotnot.

Bewdy!

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REQUESTS FOR SECRET SANTICORE HAVE NOW CLOSED, SORRY.

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• Be as specific as you need to be, but don't get greedy. Asking for a d20 table is cool, and a d100 table if you're lucky. but a d1000?--better let your Secret Santicore know that going that extra 900 miles is optional. Asking for a structure is cool, a whole mega-dungeon isn't.
• If you just want art or a map, that's cool too. This year thirteen artists and cartographers have been awesome enough to help out and I'll make sure your request goes to one of them.

• The original requester's name and e-mail address will be on the request unless s/he specifically asks otherwise.

• One request per person. Santicore likes the taste of people who break this rule.

• All human undertakings involving interactions between strangers involve a capacity for misunderstanding and idiocy. Secret Santicore is a gift horse. Do not look it in the mouth. No bad-mouthing people for what they ask for or provide. Serious and simulatory requests may get gonzo answers, gonzo requests may get serious answers, c'est la vie. If you're worried, try to be specific in your request so you get something you can really use.

• If you commit to something - a request, or helping out behind the scenes - then find you can't come through with the goods that's perfectly okay, life happens, as long as you let me know as soon as you know. 

• None of this stuff should get used commercially unless the person who wrote it gets paid.

• While Secret Santicore sprang from the loins of the OSR DIY movement, there's zero reason you can't request something for your sci-fi/supers/horror/whatever-game. You don't have to request D&D-specific stuff. I bet anybody could handle a sci-fi or super request--but just be aware that the pool of people responding to your request will be the pool of people who read Playing D&D with Pornstars and act accordingly.

• This is Open Content.

• I reserve the right to completely fuck this up, but will try very hard not to. If I get swamped with requests, it might be a little late. I'll do my best.

• On the tiny chance that I get absolutely hammered with a bazillion requests I'll have to limit the numbers to some arbitrary figure, based on what I think is possible to deliver within the time frame available. If it's just too big, I'll make sure that your request gets delivered via email, but I might have to limit the numbers on what goes in the PDF. Will reserve judgement on that one.

• Don't post your request in the comments below or email it to me. Use the form. Or Santicore will suck your neurons out your nose.

• Still got questions? Email me on malignicant at gee male dawt calm.

Calling all Santicore's Little Helpers....

After the "award-winning" success of last year's Secret Santicore and the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of requests for more of the same I would like to announce that very soon I will announce Secret Santicore 2012.

BUT BEFORE THEN... I need to get a few things in order.

Basically I was able to wrangle Santicore into shape last year because:

a) I had no idea what I was getting into
b) I was pretty much unemployed and had time to burn
c) it was my first foray into rpglandia and I wanted it to work
d) you would have all laughed hearty mocking laughs if I had failed to deliver.
BUT I DELIVERED (a couple of days late but you were all too fat and full of santicoremas lard and pudding to care).

HOWEVER I COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT without the generous contributions and support of an awesome team of Little Helper Elves. Who are only now returning from the round-the-world tickets they scored (not from me).

This year things are a little different cause:

a) I know what I'm getting into
b) I am now so overworked I clock in about 4 hours of sleep a night as it is.
c) There might be a few more people who want to give give give (and receive) so it might be a little bigger
d) I just happen to be selling my house, moving overseas, looking for a job and wrangling devil midgets all before Santicoremas.

SO... if Secret Santicore is to happen again, I just can't shoulder as much of the burden as I did last year. So a coupla things: one, I know no-one's feeling all Santicorey yet, but the sooner I get this thing rolling the better so I can have a couple of months to get this thing sorted instead of 3 weeks, and two:

I NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

If you are:

• an rpg artist who'd be willing to contribute an illustration or two or three;
• a graphic designer willing to layout a couple of articles in Indesign;
• an editor with an eagle eye willing to proofread a few pages;
• a project wrangler happy to oversee some of the production; or
• just an awesome slab of humanity willing to give blood, sweat, bones and thinkmeat to the cause...

LET ME KNOW ASAP by emailing malignicant at geeeeee male dawtcalm with an indication of what you think you'd be willing to contribute.

MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE TO ALL WHO HEED THE CALL. Santicore is watching the rest of you veeeeerrrrrryyyy closely indeed.

AWESOMELY NIFTY SS LOGO by the unestimable Jeremy Duncan. HE WHO NOW SITS BY SANTICORE'S TREMBLING KNEE. FEAR HIM.

Bewdy

Jez

UPDATE: Just to be clear, this is a call out for people to help organise and create everything around the actual Santicore requests and articles, not the articles themselves; that call out for those requests will come soon.

Santicore 2012, Lulu, Porphyry, LotFP and Stuff

I'm calling this one early: the Misers have it by basquillion to one, so I'll start prepping a black and white version of Secret Santicore for Lulu. Which I completely get given the price diff, but still, would like to see in in colour one day...

...but none of this happens til I've slain the mighty beast that is Porphyry. Over the hump but still a fair whack of illustrations to go, big push over the next fortnight to try this wrapped up pronto. Cause on the horizon lurks two if not three FOUR modules for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Great Adventure Campaign, plus a few more surprises from James Raggi, as well as the designwork for The Secret DM's Gary Gygax Birthday Competition Thing.

I'm kinda disappointed that more of Raggi's adventures didn't fund. I had put my hand up to do all 16, which prolly would have broken me, so that's a relief; and in a way not having so many is good thing:

I'll have time to put together Secret Santicore for 2012.

The catch is that at some point late November/early December I'll be moving country – which means packing and selling the house, selling the kids, all the usual. I'm kinda expecting there to be a few more Santicore entries than last year, too. The combination means preparations will have to be in place preeeetty early, and I'll probably have to share the load a little to git it dun in time. I'll be putting out the call for artists and editors and proofers and wranglers soon. You have been warned :)

Gotta say it's been a good year for gaming. A very good year. Thanks!

Secret Santicore: Poll for your print preferences

K so Secret Santicore 2011 will soon be made available in print thru Lulu! Only question is do peeps want GLORIOUS COLOR or MISERLY BLACK AND WHITE. Either way I'm only gonna prep the files once, so... if you care at all, please make the gargantuan effort to click on the poll just over there on the right side of this blog. You've got til end of the July to speak your mind OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE.

Also, a truckload of typos have been sorted and a coupla new pieces of art dropped in – big thanks to S.L. Shirley and Boric Glanduum for the proofing, and Jeremy Duncan for the extra arty goodness.

SO GO GET YOUR SHINY NEW PDF NOW. CLICK HERE.

Why Wampus Country is the best blog around

Insightful, informative, and rather dashing really.

That is all.

Secret Santicore 2011!

Here it is... in all its warty, unwashed, typo-riddled glory: Secret Santicore 2011! 

104 pages of generous creativity for your game, and it's all totally free. Not a cent.

BUT... if you do end up using some of the material herein, take the one minute out of your day to shoot an email over to the guy who wrote the article and let him know how it played out. He'll get a kick out of it, guaranteed.

I know I will. And that's worth something.

Click here to download (13mb)!

And click here if you wanna know what Secret Santicore is all about!

To all the Squid-hugging Ink-hoarders: yes, I know it's full color, and yes I know it will chew through your inks in no time. But fear not; in a couple of weeks, when I get back from holiday in the Land of Poison and Fire, I'll go through the doc and do a black and white version. Just for you. 

To all the Type-O Nazis: you're gonna have fun with this one; the turnaround was just far too tight to get proofreaders to go properly through it, but rest assured, once I'm back I'll get them all fixed up. If you do feel like proofreading, lemme know. 

Lastly special thanks is due to the following people for general asskickingness:

Zak for saying go for it, when I said I think I could.

The contributors: for being a great bunch a guys. It was a pleasure.

The artists: Cover artist Peter Seckler (where's your portfolio Pete?), Stuart Robertson and especially Jeremy Duncan, for producing such excellent art in such ridiculous timeframes.

S.John Ross for the generous use of his fonts.

The Emergency Elf support crew: Dylan Atkinson, Mike Evans, Erik Jensen, Iain Jones, Jeff Rients, Stuart Robertson, Peter Seckler, S.L. Shirley, and Telecanter for stepping in when help was needed. Seriously couldn't have done it without you.

And extra extra super special gratitude and love to Vanessa, for covering my ass and letting me run wild with the opportunity. I'm so glad I married you and not me. 

Well she's done, she's dusted. Sun's coming up. Time for a beer.

Bewdy

Jez

P.S. Lady-gamers, where the hell were you? 

Secret Santicore : 8 page teaser!

Can't wait til Christmas Eve to get your paws on the Secret Santicore collection? Here's an 8 page preview just to whet your appetite, with sample pages from 7 of the 42 entries received. 

Click here to download.
Tell me what you think!

Secret Santicore : Contents Preview

Secret Santicore is on its way! Here's the contents page from the PDF with over 100 pages of Santicorey goodness. Awesome holiday reading awaits, available for download from 24th December! Totally FREE!


And if you can't wait til then look forward to the 8 page preview tomorrow! Be sure to spread the word! For now though, lemme know which entries catch your eye. Which entries can't you wait to see?

Skirmishers

Santicore again, this time for 3llense’g.

Down and Out in Gothmagog

Another one for Santicore, this time for Jeff.

Wart Goblin

Another one for Secret Santicore... this time for Paolo.

I got my eye on you...

More ink and brush work for Secret Santicore...

If you go down to the woods today...

I've been inspired by the inkwork of Jeremy Duncan and thought I'd have a go: an ink brush illustration to go with one of the Secret Santicore entries.

Secret Santicore

Zak over at Playing D&D with Pornstars put out the request, and yeah: I give you SAGE with bells. And eggnog. Same deal as before, only the dates and email have changed. 

So from now til December 1st everybody who wants to participate e-mails me a request for some specific brand new campaign material--a new race, a location, a one-shot adventure outline, a random table, whatever. The idea is to be as specific as you need to be, but not too greedy (ask for a page or two of material). Then I'll mix all the campaign stuff requests up and e-mails them randomly back out to the people who entered. Everybody gets the requests, and then they have until December 21st to write up something matching the request. Then you post the material on-line or just send it back to the person who asked for that thing in the first place.

UPDATE: REQUESTS FOR SECRET SANTICORE HAVE CLOSED. 


YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE FINAL SECRET SANTICORE PDF COLLECTION HERE!
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Send your requests, with the (all caps) subject SANTICORE REQUEST to malignicant at gee male dot calm.

Be as specific as you need to be, but don't get greedy. Asking for a d100 table is cool, but a d1000?--better let your Secret Santicore know that going that extra 900 miles is optional. Asking for a structure is cool, a whole mega-dungeon isn't.

I will stop taking new requests on December 1. Which is also when I'll re-mail them all out to respondents.

Then everyone has until December 21st to write up responses to the SAGE request he or she got.

From then til December 25th everyone must either post their product on-line or e-mail it to the original requester.

The original requester's name and e-mail address will be on the request unless s/he specifically asks otherwise.

One request per person.

All human undertakings involving interactions between strangers involve a capacity for misunderstanding and idiocy. Secret Santicore is a gift horse. Do not look it in the mouth. No bad-mouthing people for what they ask for or provide. Serious and simulatory requests may get gonzo answers, gonzo requests may get serious answers, c'est la vie. If you're worried, try to be specific in your request so you get something you can really use.

None of this stuff should get used commercially unless the person who wrote it gets paid.


You don't have to request D&D-specific stuff. I bet anybody could handle a sci-fi or super request--but just be aware that the pool of people responding to your request will be the pool of people who read PD&DWP and act accordingly.

If you want art, accept that some people (non-artists) may merely google some interesting art on the subject and e-mail it to you. Everybody entering is probably a GM, not everybody is an artist.

I reserve the right to completely fuck up since this is the first time, but will try very hard not to.

This is Open Content.