Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Not Dead, But Dreaming

You've probably noticed that things have been a bit quiet, but that doesn't mean nothing is going on.

I've been working on a couple of things that, hopefully, will start to come to fruition by the end of this week. First on the agenda is a new run of the Miskatonic Antarctic expedition patches, since I'm down to a few lonely survivors of the batch from last November. I'm also in the process of hiring a real artist to start producing some items that are simply beyond my ability. If the person I'm talking with signs on and we can work out some details I think you'll enjoy some of the things coming your way.

I'd also appreciate any feedback you might have about a couple of prop projects I've been considering. Here are some of the ideas I'm bouncing around, in no particular order.

Arkham Police patch- I've been thinking about doing a run of these, but I'm not sure if there would be enough demand. The design would be based on period patches from around Massachusetts, particularly port cities like Salem and New Bedford. The final price would be around $5-$6.

Arkham Postcard set- A collection of 5-10 postcards based on locations in Lovecraft's fictional town of Arkham. These would serve as both game props and as conventional postcards you could send to another Lovecraft fan, similar to the Arkham Train Station card. Price would run from $5-$10 depending on the number of cards I end up including.

"Life in Arkham" prop set- 10-15 pieces of ephemera from Arkham including trolley and theater tickets, business cards, menus, trade cards, postcards, etc. The kind of things you would find cluttering up a junk drawer in your grandmother's house. I absolutely adore stuff like this, having collected real world ephemera for years, but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. With a price under $10 does it sound like something you would be interested in?

The Dyer Materials- The expedition patch and photo set are already part of this, but there are a few more items needed to complete the package- Dyer's sketches, a soapstone star stone, his actual manuscript, and secondary materials like maps, notes, and general ephemera. Most collectors can run off the manuscript themselves (by downloading the story, reformatting it with a decent typewriter font, and printing it out) so I'm going to concentrate on the paper goods first and then see about coming up with a decent design for the star stone. Again, to keep things affordable I want to keep each collection under $10.

Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email with your thoughts.

3 comments:

Emmanuel said...

I'd sure be interested in the Dyer materials (but it seems to me keeping it under $10 is a bit optimistic ; I'm ready to pay more), and probably the Arkham postcard.

Propnomicon said...

I think I can maintain the <$10 price point as long as I'm smart about breaking up the project into manageable chunks. My whole reason for starting Propnomicon was to try and produce quality props within that limitation while also giving people the tools to do things for themselves.

In the case of the Dyer materials that approach has worked so far. The initial runs of both the patch and photo set hit that target and I'm pretty sure I can bring the other facets of the project in on that budget. Knock on wood.

Anonymous said...

I'd be interested in the police patch. That sounds fun. And I could get into the postcards, too.