Cover art for Unveiled Masters: Guide to MindFlayers

[JoeGKushner]

This book's going to have a hard time winning me over. If it's as good as Lords of the Peak, I'll be pleased but, and here's the but...

Take the Slayer's Guide to Sauhagin. Wasn't bad but TSR/WoTC did those Monstrous Arcana books on it. A full color book with a follow up of three excellent modules.

The Mind Flayers also have such a book out on them. And of course this doesn't touch on the very excellent dragon articlest that have been done on them in the past. Don't have the specific issues with me right now but I recall some very interesting mind flayer varaints.

Should be an interesting book but I have faith that Paradigm will bring some new insights.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

OH... MY... [nearly speechless]

That is... amazing. I will buy this for the cover art alone.

And it will be my desktop too... as soon as I get home from work...


Wulf

 

[ParadigmPrez]

Hello Joe,

I think you will be quite surprised at the variety and depth of this book.

As you all may know, the Mindflayer stats, etc may be OGL, but the term Illithid and the background created for them by TSR and later WOTC is not.

Given that, I tasked Mssrs. Kenson, Maliszewski and Parent with creating a fresh background for the Illeths (as they are called in Unveiled Masters) while keeping to the spirit of the mythos commonly known.

In my humble opinion, they succeeded beyond all my expectations.

I'll try and get a full contents run down in the next few days, but I truly feel the book is spectacular and will satisfy even the most ardent of 'Flayer fans.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is this Unveiled Masters is not the Player's Guide to Mindflayers. Like Lords of the Peaks, it is a GMs toolkit with loads of information on how to give depth and breadth to Mindflayers in your campaign, how to use them as an Uber-villain worthy of the most Epic of battles or at the very least, scare the bejeezus out of the most jaded of PCs with new Feats, Psionic abilities and PClasses specifically tailored for our favorite Tentacled Horrors. (The Violent Line - "Paladin-like" Mindflayers created by Jason Parent immediately springs to mind).

As a side note, you may also keep in mind that given the new influx of players into the RPG hobby, not everyone is lucky enough to own the excellent Monstrous Arcana Mindflayer book by TSR. I am lucky enough to own it and feel the two books compliment the material within rather than rehash it.

Best,

 

[HellHound]

Yeah... it IS my desktop too.

As for Joe's concerns... yes. We had to break from the Dungeons & Dragons canon for writing this book (although not THAT far from cannon, mind you - you can easily move 90% of the material in this book into an Illithiad style game) but, then again, I couldn't crowbar the "new" (read: Illithiad) "illithids" into my games anyways, since I had a detailed version of the mind flayers (and three campaigns set up around them) LONG before they became Illithids.

I think you'll appreciate what we did with this book, Joe.

 

[sidonunspa]

Unveiled Masters ~ Comments

Hi everyone!

Well I don’t post often to the en-world message boards, being a professional lurker and all…

I had a chance to look over the manuscript turned in by Mr. Parent, and it was nothing short of amazing! If it’s any indication, as I was reading the manuscript had Notepad open on my computer. By the time I was done I had notes for a home campaign as well as a 4 possible story arcs for the Living Arcanis campaign.

Soon after that I called Eric, Nelson, and Henry to say “Oh my god! We have to tell everyone about this!”

I’m not going to even tell you what happened when I had a chance to see the cover!

Peter B
Living Arcanis Coordinator
Paradigm Concepts Inc.
www.livingarcanis.com
www.paradigmconcepts.com

Living Arcanis the fasting growing member run campaign in the RPGA, want to be part of it all? Join LA_Talk@yahoogroups.com

 

[HellHound]

I had a chance to look over the manuscript turned in by Mr. Parent, and it was nothing short of amazing! ... By the time I was done I had notes for a home campaign as well as a 4 possible story arcs for the Living Arcanis campaign.

(bashful grin)

Shucks!

 

[thegodofchuck]

Wallpaper it is!

Since so many people like this as a desktop wallpaper (myself included!) I went ahead and did a little cropping and pasting and made a more nicely-sized image. If anyone would like to use it, feel free!

With a "darker" version of the Paradigm logo:
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze34t22/logo.jpg

With no logo
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze34t22/nologo.jpg

They are currently sized 1:1 for a 1024x768 desktop. Enjoy!

Brian

 

[Nightfall]

Definately NICE cover art! Harkens back to 1st and 2nd but with more 3rd edition/BoVD undertones. Congrats Eric and the guys at Paradigm concepts for another STUNNING artistic masterpiece (IMHO).

 

[Khan the Warlord]

Re: Wallpaper it is!

Since so many people like this as a desktop wallpaper (myself included!) I went ahead and did a little cropping and pasting and made a more nicely-sized image. If anyone would like to use it, feel free!

With a "darker" version of the Paradigm logo:
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze34t22/logo.jpg

With no logo
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze34t22/nologo.jpg

They are currently sized 1:1 for a 1024x768 desktop. Enjoy!

Brian

Thanks! These make much better pieces for wallpaper.

 

[JoeGKushner]

All the comments so far are making me anxious to see how it ties in with Plot & Poison as well. I'd like to see more links than were present in Lords of the Peaks and Hammer & Helm.

Sounds great!

Hope to see some more innovative material ala Lord of the Peaks.