Hi, Family!
School started and life got busy here at Spicy Tuna, but we’re clocking in some good creations and we now have a complete schedule for the next 6 releases. Big Spicy Tuna Update below - but, first…
We’re excited to launch our next Kickstarter next Thursday, September 15th!
The Planet Design Book is a notebook designed for people who love building worlds. Scenarios to conquer or be swallowed by. Areas to become part of and stations for others to immerse themselves in.
It has transformed through several iterations from the feedback of a bunch of creators. Built for artists. RPG writers, module makers, comic creators, sci-fi illustrators, fiction authors, and the lot.
Alongside the notebook we will be releasing the Planet Builder zine, a 16 pager packed with random tables and illustrations to help build any world from the ground up.
Here are a few mock-ups.
It’s not player-facing. Writing in a notebook forces you to get IDEAS to PAPER. For me, what the notebook does is help get some actual USE outta those ideas.
The assistance of the structure is undeniable. I’ve literally created a Karth-sized campaign environment with this*.
Ok, maybe not THAT big. But it is an extensive setting fit for a campaign!-Chris Airiau
You can follow the prelaunch page here
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marcoserrano/sci-fi-worldbuilding-notebooks-zine
The Guac 003 Topics:
Big Spicy Tuna Update
Publication Plans
Schedule + Snippets of 6 Upcoming Projects
Airships and Concept Art from Despicable Me
The Guyaju Caves
Big Spicy Tuna Update
Plans first. We’re looking to scale our publishing efforts in 2023 and plan to release 6 products in the next 12 months.
We couldn’t do this without hiring some amazing writers, artists, editors, and layout artists. We have 5 writers in contracts working on two of the 2023 releases and we’ve been in contact with some awesome talent to get moving when it reaches the art, editing, and layout stages. Plus, you’ll hopefully be seeing more art from Arcvein and Jedzrej + editing from Greenspore who all worked on Knights of Lazarus. We’ll be revealing the teams as they finalize and the projects come closer.
There’s a ton of bonuses when hiring out talented freelancers. We’re going to make better zines, more varied zines, and hiring out allows us to work far ahead of schedule so publications will be completely done or near-finished by the time they start funding on Kickstarter. We should have a 4-8 week turnaround on most projects, if not all all of them moving forward!
For now the schedule:
September 15, 2022: Planet Design Book + Planet Builder zine. (System Neutral)
See above photos and descriptions. Prelaunch page here.
Plus, the spread for threats tables in the Planet Builder zine.
Oct/Nov. 2022: Constant Downpour Remastered (Mothership zine)
Constant Downpour is a psychological thriller inspired by Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain”. Players face foes in a near-hopeless environment that slowly whittles away their sanity.
Originally, Constant Downpour was system neutral and was a linear survival module. The Remastered version will be statted for the Mothership RPG, utilizing the stress mechanics, and become an open world hex crawl. It will feature more NPCs, moer art, and be tied into the Spicy Tuna Universe as well.
Arcvein (Knights of Lazarus Character Artist) illustrated Constant Downpour and you can see some of his work here.
January 2023: Outsourced (Mothership zine)
Outsourced details a corporation that has made its name by making mercs and military personnel “legitimately” disappear on missions. Do you need to get rid of powerful dissenters without arousing an investigation? Outsource has you covered.
(This is also the corporation responsible for sending crews to disappear on Venus in Constant Downpour Remastered.)The zine will detail 3 deadly planets for crews to die on, a missions table, a contractors table, and a complete adventure written by an outside writer! (To be announced soon!)
February 2023: Primal Quest Module TBD (Primal Quest zine for ZQ5)
There a few ideas that have started to form for the Primal Quest module, but I haven’t completely committed to one yet so no big news here except - I’m ecstatic to write a Primal Quest module!!
April 2023: Incorporated Vol.1 (Mothership zine)
5 Corporations written by 5 different writers. The module is focused on plug-n-play corporate fun and providing a sandbox of interactions.
Each corporation will have its own distinct branding and a ton of usable player artifacts such as business cards, ads, posters, statless zines, and more.
This will be our largest project to date and we have all four hired writers starting already!!
June 2023: Heroic Space Opera TTRPG System (Spicy Tuna Engine)
50s-70s Pulp + Retro Scifi meets Power Rangers meets Feng Shui 2 TTRPG/80s Hong Kong Movie Action meets Star Wars Bounty Hunters meets The Warriors.
This TTRPG will be our first in-house developed TTRPG system and we’ve already begun tinkering with mechanics. Characters will be able to perform fantastic feats while weighing choices against the high lethality inspired by NSR and OSR TTRPGs. More to come.
Airships and Concept Art of Despicable Me
I love Despicable Me and it’s still easily my favorite animated film. The way they stretch the designs of everything from Gru’s house to airships and weapons is fantastic!
It’s more than just making the squid launcher or a fart gun. It’s the gonzo design of these things - kissing old-school scifi tropes and exaggerating everything into a suave characterization of practical.
I’ve been thinking about the Airships quite a bit lately, so here’s a few of the images and a link to a ton of the concept art. Would love to see more of this style pop up in TTRPG world!
You can see more here
https://characterdesignreferences.com/art-of-animation-6/art-of-despicable-me
The Guyaju Caves
“350 chambers cut into the rock face across a system of 117 caves.”
These are incredible and teem with inspiration for dwellings!
You can read more about them here.
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2022/05/the-guyaju-caves/143481
That rounds out The Guac 003. Thank you for being here!
If you want to be keep up more regularly with what we’re doing, pass a follow below:
Marco
Spicy Tuna RPG
Big plans! Excited to see how the next year unfold for y'all!
That's a lot of great projects lined up! I'm excited!