Blue Dangers Forever!

    Hello again! Sit awhile and attend to the tale of why this might be my favorite art piece ever:

    At the end of last year I wrapped up a two year campaign putting Suns Apart through its paces in a long form campaign setting, interacting with a lot of adventure content from different sources, but especially the epic Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City pointcrawl by Luka Rejec. This was in part a bucket list item for me, since I had been dreaming about playing through that book “in full”, and we done did it! I learned a ton of lessons about game design, where I want to go with Suns Apart, how to pace a long campaign, as well as play culture and logistics stuff. I'm sure I'll be posting more about it in the future, or even going back to do some session reports since I audio recorded most of it, but for now I wanted to share a special commemorative art piece and the lovely interaction that led to its creation.

    In May, I shared my excitement at nearly finishing that campaign on the Stratometaship Discord server (an extension of Luka's Patreon), and received a nice response from the creator of the UVG himself!

    The Iron Road is like 80% of the way from the Violet City (the start of the UVG) to the Black City (the end), but the campaign still had quite a ways to go as there were lots of side adventures, plus lots to accomplish even after reaching the Black City. In December we finished the campaign, and a week or two later I posted again in the Stratometaship server celebrating completing the campaign:

    In an incredible display of generosity, Luka (who again is the author and illustrator of the very adventure we had just spent two years playing through) offered to illustrate a custom piece for us!

    The screenshot within the screenshot is me sharing Luka's offer with my players and asking them what scene they'd like illustrated, and one of them asking if the artist has a gallery (thinking I was getting some freelance artist to make a piece for us). You can see their reaction when I pointed out that they were already quite familiar with the artist's work! I sent Luka a bunch (probably way too much) of information about each PC and some details of their adventures, and let the man cook.

+++some context for the resulting piece+++

    There is a settlement detailed in the book (UVG 2E, pg. 68) called Cerulean V, in the region of Fallen Umber. Here is an illustration of it from the UVG book:

Here's how it's described in the book:

Cerulean Five is a remote, yet thriving, settlement, some days’ trudge south of Fallen Umber. Dusters, cutters, mercos and merchos rest in the oasis en route to the Plantation of the Porcupines, south of the Plasteel Slag. Dilettantes and aristos often go out of their way just to visit the fabled Sky Well.

...

The Sky Well is the heart of Cerulean Five. It pulls water from the air itself, a network of condensers tunneled into the petrified hulk of a gigantic cactacean dryland coral and powered by the grumbling crystal machine, Bessergott VI, that pulls energy from the Fast Stars as they flitter overhead. Saint Wavy, grizzled veteran of some Limbo War, tends to Bessergott and keeps the waters flowing.

...

A hulking structure of petrified spiny dryland coral rising on eleven pillar-like legs to form a honeycomb lattice dome above the Fountains of Cerulean Five.

    When the Blue Dangers (the PC party's self styled moniker) first came to Cerulean V on their way out West, it was going through a particularly rough patch. The region was suffering from food scarcity, and trade routes were all but cut off by the presence of a violent cult known as "The Cult of Inceraugh", or simply "The Mage Hunters" as they have taken a particular interest in abducting youths from Cerulean V due to the discovery that habitual exposure to the waters of the Sky Well cause greater than normal rates of children manifesting arcane potential. The Blue Dangers spent a significant amount of time there, including hunkering down to endure a brutal winter made worse by the Mage Hunters' intentional destruction of food stores. When spring broke upon the land, the party went out of their way to locate the cult's base of operations and slay their profane god, elevating themselves to the level of mythic heroes in the eyes of the Cerulean V community.

    On the way back East from the Black City, the party stopped in again to check on the community and regale them with tales of their adventures. Luka framed his illustration as a commemorative stele inscribed by the Cerulean V villagers to commemorate the visitation of the Blue Dangers. He incorporated loads of little details relevant to the PCs, and really went above and beyond with this (as if freely making a custom art piece for a random fan isn't already above and beyond!).

Behold!

Top: the villagers of Cerulean V streaming forth from the iconic coral sky well to greet the adventurers and quaff beverages at Cafe/Bar, the adventures’ unfolding food truck

Center: the various vislae and vagabonds comprising the party known as the “Blue Dangers”, who either inspired the cocktail of the same name or are named after it (the legends conflict!)

Bottom: villagers attend to the story of the Blue Dangers’ escape from the Black City, told in their own words

    I cannot stress enough how cool it is that the modern indie TTRPG environment allows for interactions like this. TTRPGs are sometimes enjoyable simply as books to be read and marveled over (and the UVG certainly satisfies in this respect), but ultimately they are seeds for an experience to be had separately from the text, and their fullest expression is a group of people actually getting together and playing a game, in much the same way that the script of a play is most fully expressed in the actual production of that play. It's cool to be able to tell a creator, "hey, I actually played your game/adventure/module/scenario and enjoyed it! It fulfilled the goals you had for it!" I imagine that must be validating.

    Whew! What a glorious adventure. What's next? I'm taking a break from GMing for a bit. I have dozens of potential session reports  to write if anyone's interested in that. I have begun updating my public documents for Suns Apart with all the tweaks I made in response to playtesting over the course of the campaign (Makers and Goetics in particular were significantly reworked), and could document some of that here if anyone's interested.

    Have you ever completed a multi year campaign? Have you ever had a pleasant interaction with the creator of one of your favorite pieces of media? Tell me about it in the comments!

    And lastly, a massive shout out to my dear friends and incredible playtesters:

Glister - Jordan

Naniz - Paul

Drohira - Kim

Iziki'el - Michael

Harrow - Sarah

Üngul - William

    You are all immensely talented players  and I am honored to have walked/driven/teleported this long and winding road with you. Blue Dangers forever!