Weekly Update - 207 - 2/26/24 (Patreon)

I strive to provide you all with spoiler-free previews of The Next Page whenever I can. Looking over the page this week, this is pretty much the only panel that qualifies. There's just a buncha stuff happening on this page and I'm excited to know what you'll all think when you see it!

Comic this week? Ye! I mean I'm pretty sure ye. Probably not ne. More likely ye than ne.

Drawing: Pages 188-194. And I wanna try and force myself to do something extra this week again too. Everyone likes extras, even me!

Playing: Rimworld (Again), but also back into Age of Wonders 4 when the new DLC drops tomorrow.

Ramble:

I've been writing, just, tons, pouring my heart and soul into this God Slayers game system idea I have. This week I want to share one of the passages I've written that's supposed to sorta set the scene and the tone for roleplaying in Kuserra, and I'd love to hear your feedback on it!

Introduction to Kuserra
"It’s no wonder they call it the Deadlands. It’s an uninhabitable region of lifelessness where the ground is hot enough to burn your paws off in some places and the air might freeze off the remainder of your digits at night. There’s geysers that spew poison, acid or molten iron all over you with no warning, there’s bottomless, uncrossable canyons that stretch on to the horizon, and there’s razor sharp edges that’ll slice you open everywhere you turn. Then, every once in awhile, a Bladestorm rolls through just to make sure to strip the rest of your flesh off so your bones’ll stop wiggling. “Wasteland” is just too kind of a word for such a place, so we call it the Deadlands.

Kuserra sits as an oasis in the middle of all of this, and nearly everyone that ever finds themselves lost in the Deadlands with a shred of their life remaining ends up there. Nestled at the base of a mountain, sheltered from the storms and all the rampant unchecked death that’s all around it, Kuserra is a sprawling ruin of an Ancestor metropolis replete with fresh water, food, and shelter. Its fancy name, if you believe the tales, came from some old bastardization of the Ancestor word for “shithole.” We do like to call things like they are.

It might be a shithole, but it’s no wonder that life thrives there, given that it’s the only settlement in sight that affords even the basic necessities for living. The rest of the world isn’t uninhabited. There’s a few neighbors we know of, settlements closer to the edges of the Deadlands, and some further still, where things are reputed to suck a little less. There's trade caravans that are occasionally mad enough to visit, bringing news and goods and trading for our scrap and water. But leaving Kuserra? Not likely. The options for leaving suck way more than just staying. You could buy your way onto a Caravan, maybe, for a huge pile of watts up front, but there’s no guarantee that you won’t be killed for your pelt or sold into slavery. Or you could try braving the Deadlands by yourself. Hah. Good fucking luck.

Why leave anyway when everything you need is right here? You got a hole to sleep in, a soggy rat to chew on, and a relatively clean gutter to drink from. What more could anyone want?"