tome of Shadows 2.. Progress??

[Neo]

Well, couldn't find any mention of it elsewhere on the new forums..

So how is the editing going?

[Bleak Knight]

Hi Neo. Welcome back.

Apparently, ToSII is in the works, but on hold, since Nif is working solo on it, and has his final graduations to work towards. Once those are done, there should be some progress. Finally.

[Nifelhein]

Neo, welcome back to us!

As Bleak said, it is currently on hold, I am doing my graduation work, whuich must be at least 40 pages long, once I am done with this I am both finished with school and unemployed and that is when I will resume work on the Tome, right now i have to work through 2 chapters only, one requires a lot of attention (Monsters Chapter).

I can't speak of a time frame right now, mainly because my wishes with the graduation are for it to be done by the middle o November, but it can take longer if my teacher asks me to change things, or if I can't finish it in about two weeks. Once I get back to it I will let you all know here.

I know it has been a hell of a delay, but right now that is all.

[Neo]

Neo, welcome back to us!

As Bleak said, it is currently on hold, I am doing my graduation work, whuich must be at least 40 pages long, once I am done with this I am both finished with school and unemployed and that is when I will resume work on the Tome, right now i have to work through 2 chapters only, one requires a lot of attention (Monsters Chapter).

I can't speak of a time frame right now, mainly because my wishes with the graduation are for it to be done by the middle o November, but it can take longer if my teacher asks me to change things, or if I can't finish it in about two weeks. Once I get back to it I will let you all know here.

I know it has been a hell of a delay, but right now that is all.

Thanks guys, nice to be back

(2006 been a horrible year so far... but anyway)

Thanks for the heads up, real life concerns must of course come first.  Good luck with it too Nif I have every faith in you to do well.
Once that is out of the way and you get back to it, if you put a thread up like wehad before on the old site and put what needs to be done and what you need help with ill try and do what I can to help.

[Nifelhein]

I hope to do what is needed now, not really caring if it will be good or not, i am just tired of college after all the time I spent there. But I think toS2 won't be long once I get back to it, really, if i need help at any moment, I will surely ask too, but right now i think i can handle most of the work involved.

And with the old site currently dead we have one more reason to have it out too, to give back a little of what the old site could produce, even though we have a lot of things around here there are some great stuff we won't see again unless the attempts to get it back online suceed.

[Nifelhein]

Well guys starting tomorrow I will be getting a lot of spare time, this will be leaving me some time to work on the Tome of Sorrows volume 2 and finally get it out of the shadow's grasp and to yours, it won't be an easy or quick task, since I have a lot of things to update to make them compatible with 2nd edition material and many monster stats to revise.

I plan to keep an steady pace on the work though, doing a bit every day until it is done, more as I can stand. So far there is no plan on doing a version filled with artwork, mainly because I am the one doing the job and I don't own a scanner to make quality pieces out of the books I own, and I don't own all of them too.

It has ben a long time since this started and right now there is a lot of content in it that you will not see anywhere else anymore. I hope this helps put some of the old site goodnes back into the fray.

Cheers,

Nif.

[Bleak Knight]

No artwork? Hmmm, wouldn't it be possible to contact FFG and ask for some of the stuff they have?

[Nifelhein]

We have had their authorization to use any piece of artwork from the books in the netbbok when the first tome was in the works, this was reiterated for the second one, thing is i don't own a scanner neither pdf copies of any of the books beyond the first edition and against the shadow supplement.

If people with the pdf are wiling to export the images and send them to me (make zip files for each book, discarding borders) or those with a scanner are willing to scan them and send them over to me then we could have images in it. But right now I am focusing on the content and the first version will surely come without internal illustrations, I don't mind addign them for a second version though.

[Glacialis]

If there is artwork you need, let me know. I have PDF and physical copies of most of the books, though not the last 2-3 published ones.

Are you planning to update the ToS vol1 material to 2E? I should have some time to help.

Still trying to get the archive site back up, but it's quite a pain. :-/

[Nifelhein]

Well, I will first focus on the content and after that is done I will gladly seek the books for fitting artwork, I wll let you know oncec that comes up, as tothe first tome, I haven't thought about that but there isn't that much material to change, it is a good idea, once we have this one done, of course.

Thanks for all your help and effort, Chris, let me know if you think i can help with any of that.

[Exile]

Good to hear that it's on the way again.  Hope that this means that you've got a masterful graduation dissertation out of the way....

[Neo]

Did we hit another road bump?

Was almost done as I recall before Christmas, any more progress reports?

[Nifelhein]

I got the image files to make the final layout from Dain, he still will be sending me a image file with the cover borders sometime soon, meanwhile I am checking the files for any errors and conversions I might have overlooked, it shouldn't be long now, I expect to have a final version done and ready in about a week and a half, having no money to be out of house for anything other than problems also means I have more time to be doing this baby now.

[arnon]

I'm getting giddily excited upon hearing this

[Nifelhein]

Just noticed that the cover border is in the file Dain sent me, this means I have all images to make the final file, not including illustrations and the cover image. I already said before and reinstate here that I won't be making internal illustration selection and addition in the first file to be made available to the public.

I still have to select a cover image though, one that correctly captures the theme and name of the book (labelled Tome of Sorrows vol2: The Shadow Ascendant). The monster chapter is the greatest reason I have been delaying the thing since last year's end, try to check the stats and convert this many monsters and you will see why.

I am hoping this will be a good tribute to the old site's content.

[AvatarArt]

I will first focus on the content and after that is done I will gladly seek the books for fitting artwork, I wll let you know oncec that comes up

Nifelhein, would you want new artwork for the book in the nearish future?  i.e. stuff that is specifically for ToS2?

Steve G.
http://avatarart.com/

[Nifelhein]

Well, that was one of the ideas we had, to tell the truth, we even tried to get it from those interested in showing their skill, but it filed miserably, we never got what people offered, a very unfortunate event, in the end I wanted nothing but a cover image that was meant for it, but that too failed.

I would like to say I want them still but I know how long it takes and I am already nearing the release and won't be able to give you a deadline you can meet, the tome will be out this year, in fact I would say that it is now 99.9% ready for release already. But given how this is a netbook, new versions can always be made.

I really wish you had offered a month ago.

if you thinkw e can work on a later version artwork instead, send me a Pm and we can talk about it.

[AvatarArt]

I really wish you had offered a month ago.

A month ago, I wasn't even aware of MIDNIGHT.  Let alone a newly-spawned fanatic.  I vaguely recall passing by the 2nd Edition book but not bothering to even pick it up. 

Why?  The whole '4-horsemen' thing.

Don't get me wrong, its a cool image, but it best belongs inside the book introducing the Night Kings instead of showing who they are. Instead, I'd have gone with all text, something to the effect of:

In the 1st War, Darkness was beaten.

In the 2nd War, Darkness was barely beaten.

In the 3rd War, Darkness won.

Then stick the MIDNIGHT logo on top.  Voila.  Gamers are awash in countless sourcebooks and numerous campaign worlds.  The concept of MIDNIGHT stands out and the cover art should follow suit.

PM relied to, btw.

Steve G.
http://avatarart.com/

p.s. also, 'Epic Fantasy' tends to call up visions of High Fantasy, whereas MIDNIGHT is clearly a Low Fantasy setting.

[Nifelhein]

Steve,

Well, I can say your life has been a lot mroe interesting since you picked up, that is for sure. I have to say i don't care much for the Night Kings in the advertise of the setting myself, it was actually the rest that caught my attention, then reading the short story of the wanderer ibn the FFg website and finally the reviews on the net.

The cover for 2nd edition was the first one to bring the 4 night kings in their glory though and while they can be seen there there is no clar fact t what they are, even Ardherin's appearance is not anywhere near any of the elves, despite how much like an erunsil he might look like he is still alien.

On the other hand 1st edition cover didn't do anything close to what 2nd edition does, so that is an improvement already. And oen thing is certain, midnight's style is so appealing that D&D 4th edition's implied setting will now be dark with bits of light, not truly as underdog, but nowhere near what Forgotten Realms is...

link added, btw.

[randelgrey]

hey guys, silly question here. how does someone down load Tomb of Sorrows one and two?

[Nifelhein]

you can either click on the links on the images on the frontpage or go here:

http://www.againsttheshadow.org/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item6

http://www.againsttheshadow.org/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item56