Into the Black: Open Call

[Vrylakos]

I can tell you that I've made my selections for the book, but nothing's official until Jim approves, so I'm not going to reveal what I've selected. Rest assured there were a lot of great entries and the final decision was really tough. I changed my mind a few times before settling on the six, yes only six, entries that I picked. Hopefully you'll be hearing something soon.

Hm, could you let us know how many monsters total are going to be in the book?

Vrylakos

 

[tf360]

In the low 20's.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Wow! Only six monsters? I guess we'll get to feel honoured if we get chosen for the book, then.

 

[cleavthorn]

Pick mine! Pick Mine!

 

[Teneb]

The playtest document has already gone out, so if you're in you're already in. If not, then....uh.....not. The picking has already been done.

 

[tf360]

The playtest document has already gone out, so if you're in you're already in. If not, then....uh.....not. The picking has already been done.

Exactly. It was a tough call, but like we always say for the open calls, some monsters fit better than others as well as meeting demand. For Into the Green there was a shortage of plains monsters, so if you wrote up a monster for the plains, it had a better shot of getting in. For ITB, if you wrote up a catacombs monster, it had a better shot of getting in than a cavern monster simply because there were a lot fewer entries and an almost equal need for both environs.

There were a lot fewer acceptances this time not because of any downturns in the quality but because I needed fewer monsters than ITG. The quality of the submissions was outstanding in many cases, but it just didn't fit my needs or overall vision of the book.

 

[Friadoc]

Any idea on when the 'official' word of whose in it might hit?

I'm just curious, since I wouldn't mind doing a clean-up on my beasties, if they didn't make it, and dropping them on my site as samples.

Although I feel a bit heartened that a couple of mine fit into the catacomb slight, in one case almost to a 'T'.

 

[Sulaco]

I too am anxious to find out.

I only submitted three creatures, but I thought one of them was really top-notch (though none were really catacomb-types...dang).

 

[Teneb]

I'm just curious, since I wouldn't mind doing a clean-up on my beasties, if they didn't make it, and dropping them on my site as samples.

If anyone else's monsters weren't accepted, I'd be more than happy to post them at the Hub, my Oathbound fansite. That's where I'll be putting the Ore Creeper and Mineral Golem I submitted. They'd love company!

 

[KingOfChaos]

I am pretty sure I can find a place for my monsters in RoEG products if they didn't get picked for this one.