Check this out. Not sure I’m going to pitch something, but a very cool idea.
Originally shared by Andy Kitkowski
All My Planescape Stuff, Lots of Signed Tony DiTerlizzi Stuff (OMG OMG OMG I just noticed he’s on G+, Awesome!), giving it all away in a contest.
Click through the album to see what I’ve got. And if you’re not familiar with Planescape, google it and strap in!
So, here goes… I’m moving (back) to Tokyo very soon, and one of the last things I did was play “ship, give, or toss” with pretty much every object in my life, including all of my gaming stuff. My gaming collection was pretty easy to get through for the most part, until I got to my D&D 2E Planescape Collection.
While Dark Sun is my favorite D&D setting, Planescape ruled my creative sphere in the 90s. I loved the hell out of it, and was very much inspired by Tony DiTerlizzi’s ethereal art style (fun fact: DiT illustrated the Dark Sun supplement City State of Tyr, adding something awesome to the setting that Baxa/Brom missed IMO). I picked up some of the DiT-heavy art supplements for this line, like the Factol’s Manifesto and the big boxed sets.
Now, I’m giving it all away. Many of my local gaming friends (who already have their own copies of much of the DS line) think it’s a bad move, that I’ll regret it. However, I really haven’t been using, referencing, or playing any of it in years. For me, my gaming stuff is all about what I can Use; if I’m not Using it, it’s time to move it on to someone who will. Someone like you!
So I’m holding a contest of sorts. See below for details.
You’ll note that this isn’t the entire line of Planescape stuff: I at one time had a lot of the supplements, but ended up moving them on. The core of this set is the original Planescape Boxed Set (PBS), and the Planes of Chaos boxed set (POC). POC is honestly the best product in this entire line: Super evocative, heavily illustrated, supreme amounts of visual impact as well as adventure seeds, adventure seeds, and more adventure seeds. Truly inspired, not in only explaining these weird fantastical realms, but also giving you hints at things to do in them. All tied together with whopping amounts of DiTerlizzi artwork. Fans of Planescape note that I don’t have the Planes of Law or Planes of Balance supplement. Back when, I just didn’t find them as inspiring as POC, alas, so I moved them on.
Out of the PBS and POC, all materials are included (including super outdated “Hey TSR fans, Join the RPGA!” flyers), and in solid condition (scruffing on sides/corners from reading, etc). The PBS box is kinda warped in the middle of the cover; long story short there was a torrential thunderstorm in Wisconsin and this box top was a victim. Still, holds together awesomely. But seriously, between the two boxes and other books (see below) there’s like eleven or twelve 6-8 page fold-out maps, illustrations, “quest board items”, etc. That alone is a creative cartography goldmine; every single fold-out map page loaded with adventure fodder and inspiring features.
The books I have are The Factol’s Manifesto and In The Cage: A Guide to Sigil (the featured main city of the campaign setting). Back at some GenCon (95?) I pestered Tony DiTerlizzi to sign my copy of the Factol’s Manifesto, A Lot: So there’s little illustrations and designs on a few pages, plus a dedication on the page where he revealed his favorite color art piece from the book. Man, this book. Gorgeous. This comes from the End Days of TSR, where improper bookkeeping and overreach caused them to way overproduce some Planescape supplements, cramming them with art and vision. While it sunk them, it created a few inspiring works. This is definitely one of them. It’s basically a guide to the “Philosophers with Clubs” factions of the game, including the organization, major locations, and leaders. In the process, it became yet another adventure-seed laden mess of awesome.
This one… The Factol’s Manifesto is the one book in the set I was really torn on giving away: I was like, “…maaaaybe I should hold on to this one, you know, just in case…”. After thinking about it, I decided that I’m going to dive in, make this Real. So it’s staying in the set.
In The Cage: A Guide to Sigil is basically the setting book that explains the premier city featured in the game, the otherworldly plane-linking City of Doors ruled by the Lady of Pain (one of the coolest feature NPCs of any setting. Elminster can suck it). It’s a little heavy handed in how deep it goes: I didn’t think any more details than the boxed set needed to be set about Sigil to use it in games, but that kind of thinking doesn’t push game supplements, so there I guess. Still, it’s definitely at the top of Sturgeon’s Law, avoiding the 90% of setting books that are boring lonely-fun reading.
Finally, there’s the art: I have two original art pieces from Tony DiTerlizzi: One (the wandering guy) was won in a contest back in 1997/1998: Back when I was living in Japan the first (second, technically) time and bored close to the new year on a cold night in Gunma, on a whim I searched THE INTERNET (it was still kinda new, I was on Dialup; those were the days before Japan rocketed to All Fast Internet, Everywhere) for Tony DiTerlizzi, and he and his publicist were having a contest of sorts: “Ask Tony an interview question”. I did, and won, and got this print as well as some other books!
The other piece is a demon-looking dude. After that said GenCon, I commissioned a piece of art from Tony. It was for like $60 or something, which for a poor college kid was like All The Moneys. But I had to get a piece from my favorite gaming artist. So I sent a poem of sorts (how geeky is that! admittedly, it was a short poem but still) and asked him to draw something inspired by it. I was thrilled with the results! My mom, who passed the next year, even went out to frame it for me as a present.
So, that’s what I’ve got. And I’m giving it away. But in a kinda specific way. Thanks for suffering through all this text, BTW; I don’t have the time or energy to be brief, alas.
I Want To Give This All Away, But Only To Someone Who Will Do Something With It. That’s my criteria for looking for a new owner. I wouldn’t toss this stuff, but I’m very earnest in looking for someone who won’t just go “Awesome!” and put it on the shelf next to a ton of other unused gaming books on a +4 Shelf of Collecting; but who would rather use it in part to do something cool at the table.
So here’s what I’m looking for:
* I’m not asking any money for this except the price of shipping (domestic will likely be less than $25, Intl will probably be about $50), which I would ask for.
* You simply have to tell me what you want this set for. How you plan to use it. And then, most importantly…
* …You then have 12 months to do that thing you said you were going to do. Show me and the world what you did.
* And that’s it!
So, you don’t have to go nuts creating some larger-than-life project. But I do want you to go through with it, finishing (or at least visibly starting if it’s an ongoing thing) within 6-12 months. That’s the duty you assume by taking all this cool-ass stuff.
What kind of project? That’s up to you. Think about what you would want to do with it, and go for that. Some random things I’d imagine people might do with it is:
“Convert it to the FATE system and run a campaign with it”
“Run a mini-campaign, and have a friend illustrate events from the campaign”
“Play several sessions online in some sandbox format using Pathfinder and Ryan Stoughton’s E6 Hack, with your own peculiar take on Sigil/the Planes inspired by the set”
…again, these are just examples. Don’t try to appeal to my interests that much (“I’ll do a Planescape/Tenra Bansho Zero crossover!” “I’ll make sure to make those sketched characters into the central NPCs in an epic!” etc). Just be you, I’m looking at:
* Passion
* Creative Usage
* Realistic Goal (in other words, that it seems that you would be able to meet the goal in 12 months, and not too lofty that it would kill you in terms of effort)
To enter this contest-of-sorts, just either email me (Gmail lets you do that now), contact me through my Kotodama website ( http://kotohi.com/ ), or create a private G+ post to me. In it, tell me your idea, your basic plan of how to get there, and the risks involved. Be brief or long as you need.
Thing is, there’s very little time before I start having to pack and make very hard decisions. So I will need to have your submission by 11:59PM PST Sunday, March 2nd (just five days away). That way we can work out shipping fees and all (I’ll insure it from my side for you) and settle up over Paypal. I’ll announce the Receiver of the Stuff by next Tuesday.
Feel free to reshare this anywhere!
(oh, and hey, if you’re a Tony DiTerlizzi fan, he’s on G+ so go Circle him!)
-Andy
