Short answers: A lot and not so much. But let’s dig into this and be more clear. My life has been pretty hectic lately. I suffer from anxiety/depression, and even though I am much better at dealing with this than I was a couple of years ago, things can get complicated from time to time, especially when “real life” gets messy as well. In short, I am OK. I am super tired. I wish I was creating more. But for now I am prioritizing my health (physical, mental and emotional), my family, my kid, and unfortunately the job that keeps a roof over our head and food on our plate. But I am working on getting back on the RPG horse. I miss it too much.
Much longer answer: Old Skull Publishing is basically a fantasy name for a company composed of myself, Diogo Nogueira. It’s almost like a mask I put on to pretend to be something else and have the strength and courage to create, produce, and share this creation with others (and even charge for it). And I LOVE doing that. Creating something, sharing with others, and creating connections through this is one of the things that help give meaning to my life. I am incredibly happy and grateful for all the stuff I’ve created so far, for the connections I’ve made (making me feel welcomed and part of a community), and for the many dear and true friend I’ve met, even if we are thousands of kilometers away from each other. I want more of this. But for now, I can’t dedicate myself to this as much as I did before.
Evlyn is an incredible artists, super hardworking (I wish I had her determination and discipline), that makes this apparently “naive” art that carries so much meaning, story, beauty, and heart.
Her pieces always tell a story beyond depicting a scene or character.
Take a look at any of the maps she makes. They don’t show only locations, regions, paths. They have charactera, they have marks, they tell a story and almost seem to be alive somehow.
Her characters have been expressions that tell so much about them. They are not just making a cool pose to serve your editorial needs. Sometime it looks like we took a picture of them by surprise while they were just doing what they were doing. I am quite sure they have a life on their own when we are not looking.
Maybe this life-infused trait of Evlyn’s art comes from her habit of drawing about het own experiences. These pieces are personal, emotional, filled with emotion, honesty and humanity. They make me few closer to her even though I am literally more than 8000 kilometers (that’s about 5000 miles). It facilitates human connection. I love it.
I had the privilege to have my work published in projects with which she has also collaborated. But I haven’t yet had the honor to directly work with her. YET. We tried a few times and hour hectic schedule didn’t work. However, she has so generously created a few pieces specifically for #PrimalQuest and I am gonna develop a setting/adventure with them!
She is also an game designer and has been making zines/adventures and more for quite a while! And they are REALLY REALLY GOOD TOO! I will put the links below so you can find these gems.
The #Artwork you will find below has many pieces from her Patreon (which you should totally support) and two pieces she created for Primal Quest! Guess which is which?
Anyway, support Evlyn! An incredible artist, creator, and human!
Hand drawing by Hodag, Graphic Design by Diogo Nogueira
I love art. I love creativity. I love looking at something that captivated me, looking for who is the creator and wonder, how did this person created this? Why this way? Why not something else? I watch movies, shows, or whatever and when I am impressed by how well it is made, I love to think “wow, a person thought about this!”. And thank god for podcasts, because now I can listen to these people talk about how they create, how they wrote that scene, how they adapted that on the spot and so on. This adds so much to my enjoyment of the art. No matter what kind.
And the great thing about the Indie RPG scene is that I get to do that too. I am lucky enough to actually be able to directly ask some of my favorite creators about their art. Their work. And there’s always a story. And it’s always unique. And that adds even more value to these games and to this community as a whole. At least for me. And probably for some other people.
However, I can’t help but think AI generated images are not comparable to this. To human art. To human creation. It might be technically sound. It might look stunning even. But it lacks something for me. It lacks humanity. It lacks the simple possibility of explaining its choices of tone, composition, balance, etc. It’s choices have nothing to do with itself, with its story. It’s a pattern they learned and can do really well. That’s not interesting to me. I want the human experience. I want to connect with the creators. Art is not merely the product, but the process too.
There’s a passage in Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work, and how story is so important in art. It asks you to imagine you enter a room with two beautiful paintings of a harbor at sunset. They are, as far as you can see, identical. But then you discover one was painted in the 17th century by a Dutch master and the other, although equally beautiful and technically astonishing, was a forgery made by an art student last week. It then asks you which one looks better now? Which one do you wanna take home?
That’s exactly how I feel about AI generated images. They are technically great. But I want more than that. That’s not actually what matters the most even. There are artists whose work I genuinely love, and who are very unlikely to “draw” as well as these machines. But who cares? I don’t. It’s not about that.
That’s why I played with the idea of making a “Made By Humans” label to use on my stuff. I believe in informing others, who like me look for that humanity in the things they consume, that they can be sure everything created for this thing I made has a human behind it. Making decisions, expressing themselves, and putting a little bit of them in there. That’s all.
This is a “campaign” (is it? Really?) to support, work with, and celebrate artists. Humans who use their creativity, skill, story, heart, and humanity to create something from where once there was nothing. These people are wizards! REALLY!
What this is not is a campaign to persecute others who think otherwise. I am not here pointing my finger at anyone for using AI generated images in their stuff. That’s their choice. I have the same right to make my own. And to make others aware of it. I would like to know. And people are asking already. I don’t think they should be guessing.
A friend asked me what’s the point of this #MadeByHumans, and if I believed this AI image generators can be stopped. For me the question is: Do they need to be stopped for me to continue to support, work and celebrate human creators?
I don’t think so. We can do it right now. Hell. We can continue to do what we have been doing. I don’t see a reason to change. Do you?
Another person asked me “Will there be enough demand for human generated art for it to remain a viable profession, particularly in the fields of graphic design and commercial illustration?”. Was there demand a few months ago? Talking about OUR COMMUNITY here! Was there? If it was, there’s no reason for this to go away. It’s on us. It’s our choice.
In the end, I know AI generated images are inevitable in this world we live in. Most people are more interested in the result and not the process. That’s a great parable of modern times to be honest. A great cause of anxiety. But I digress. Yes, it is inevitable that others will use it. But I choose not to. It does not interest me. It doesn’t interest a lot of us.
So that’s it! I want to support, work with, and celebrate artists. If you feel the same, join me. Or not. Do your own thing.
Anyway, I will be using the #MadeByHumans hashtag when I talk about my work and the work of other artists I work with.
And I would like to invite everyone who is working on a similar idea, who has made a logo about this, or who would like to contribute ideas to reach out. I want to create a repository of resources, maybe with all the logos, and who knows, maybe a big spreadsheet with concat of humans who work in this community and share these ideas and are looking for work.
Oh, and I would like to point you to a very interesting article about this whole thing. It talks about the removal of humanity from art as an optimization. Very, very interesting.
BTW! I went down this rabbit hole after seeing the great Gavriel Quiroga (creator of Warpland and Neurocity, and fellow Latin American Game Designer) posted his version of this logo/idea.
Made by Gavriel Quiroga
F.A.Q.
If someone uses the X function inside the Y app? Can they use this then? A: The idea of #MadeByHumans is that humans were an integral part of all decision involved on the creation of that thing. If there’s something else making decisions for you, than it’s not made by humans. A tool is something that assists you in manifesting your will. But you still do the work. You still create it. If this so called “tool” is doing the work in your place, and has a “will of its own” (deciding on tone, shapes, composition, style or something else), then it’s not a mere tool. In the end, this distinction cannot be based on specific functions or techniques, as these will inevitably change over time. In the end it’s again about humanity and the decisions, choices and will behind the creation. If they are not controlled by a human, then it’s not suitable for #MadeByHumans.
Cover art by Łukasz Piwiński and Title Design by Łukasz Kowalczuk
You are a Petty God, an entity of immense power, great influence, and even deeper sense of self importance.
You want to exert control and influence over mortals and the places they call home. You want to leave your mark in the Mortal Realms. You want to be worshipped. You want champions to fight for you. You want to be more than those other Petty Gods.
But you are bound by the Ancient Laws of Divinehood. So you use your Playthings.
Petty Gods & Playthings is a fantasy role playing game about ambitious gods, their machinations, and the mortals entangled in them.
In this game, players assume the role of a Petty God. A supernatural being with great power, greater responsibilities, even greater ambitions, and very little restraint. Luckily, rules bind these entities in a way they cannot freely unleash havoc on the Mortal Realm. But they found another way to exert their influence.
They control Playthings, mortals whose essence has been infused with a Divine Spark, setting them apart from others around them forever. Promising them a destiny they desire, these gods move them as pieces in a cosmic chess set. Sometimes elevating them to such high stands as kings, archnages, and grandmasters, but other times condemning them to their ultimate doom.
And all of this happens primarily at the grandest city of all: KORGOROTH! The City of the Purple Flame. The City in the Middle. The Hive of Scum, Villainy and, sometimes, Heroes. A city with many titles, many more secrets, and infinite stories to tell.
And you are going to tell them with Petty Gods & Playthings!
I am still developing this, but I am truly excited for the possibilities it will bring to the table. Gameplay in two levels, meta gaming turned into diegetic gameplay, shared world building, and exciting sword and sorcery adventures in a weird and ancient city-state!
I love XP for gold. I especially love the effects this rule has on game play, game design, and theory behind much of what we know of the OSR. I am a firm believer that the way the game rewards play seriously influences the way we play the game (yeah, we play to have fun too, but it’s still there, nudging us in the right direction). Basically, earning XP is like “winning” in an RPG that uses them.
However, I’ve been reading a superb book on Game Design called Theory of Fun by Raph Koster (y’all should totally get it), and one of the insights I had, and one of the big lessons in the book, is that games teach us stuff in a controlled space. That’s mostly its main function. Most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happening, but that’s where the “fun” comes from in games, from learning and figuring out solutions to problems/challenges. And game designers can purposefully create games to change specific things. And that’s what I would like to do.
Spot art I made for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
XP for gold is great because it teaches us to find better solutions to tough problems. PCs won’t always resort to violence. Violence might very well become the last resort, as we all know our style of play isn’t big on balancing encounters perfectly.
