Spectre Press Needs You!

[Matt Drake]

Unless you suck, in which case I don't.

Spectre Press is a new e-publishing venture that uses lots of contributors to make a bunch of cool, smallish items and bundle them together for a virtual 'magazine' of meat variety and fun. Spectre Press uses freelance contributors exclusively, unless I write or draw stuff myself, which I don't really like to do because most pros are way better than me.

There is an upside to working for Spectre Press: I will pay you. There is also a downside: I won't pay you much. Not only that, but I am not interested in looking at your online gallery if all you have are a bunch of unfinished pencil sketches of guys standing around looking cool. What I need are good artists and writers with samples of their work available online, and who have no pride - I mean, who are willing to work for a small amount of money because I don't really have much, and how much do you think I'm going to make off an e-publishing thing, anyway?

Yeah, that's what I meant to say. Anyway, if you're an artist or writer with good, professional samples, and you have lots of talent and a crappy self-image - I mean, you're willing to work cheap, drop me a line. Or just tell me to go blow a goat, because I'm a crotchety old tightwad (which I'm not, by the way. I mean, I am crotchety, but I'm only 31, and I'm giving you people all the money I have!!!)

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

[Rick Hershey]

It's times like this that I remember why Matt Drake is one of my favorite guys to work with. . . who else would give such honesty.

I support working with Matt just to get his colorful e-mails every once in awhile, and he does pay. . . hell, I remember just the other day I went to his house and asked for some money he owed me. When he said he didn't have it he gladly let me and the two large guys I brought break his thumbs and loot his garage for compensation. I dare you to find such a giving person.

Anyway, it's good to see up and about Matt, and all of you artists would be better off working with a guy like him.

Later,

Rick Hershey
Art Director
rpgaction.com

[Matt Drake]

Good to see you, Rick. My thumbs are almost healed, and just last week I was able to finally patch the hole in the garage wall. And don't worry about the mower - I bought a goat and penned him up out back, so I don't really need a mower any more. Though I will need to buy that dryer back - the goat keeps eating all my socks off the clothesline.

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

[NPC Kim Bernard]

Hello! My name is Kimara Bernard (you or Rick may recall my name). I have a user name on here, but for some reason... I cannot log in currently. I've emailed them to tell them the problem.... I really don't know what the deal is.

Well, my artwork isn't much more than a bunch of people standing around, so I'd say ignore it. My writing and editing skills are much better. I have one short story on my web page, and as Rick might know (hello!), two on rpgaction.com. I'll also be published in Rifter #18.

My web site is http://www.sunflower.com/~kaerondaes. As I said, there's artwork in them thar hills, but I'd ignore it, unless you just want some good chuckles. My email address is on the web page, but just in case, it's Kaerondaes@hotmail.com

Thanks,
Kimara Bernard

[NPC NPC-Rick Hershey]

I have to say Kim is both pleasant and talented, in fact I was going to contact you to see if you could edit this story I'm doing for my comic strip "Fistful of Heroes" for rpgaction. My only hesitation has been lack of money. Hell, money is that stuff I find in the couch cushions when company leaves. Anyways, I give her High reccomendations, and that goes to anybody looking for a hardworking, talented individual.

Later,
Rick Hershey
Art Director
rpgaction.com

p.s.- Kim~ the link to your site didn't seem to work for me. . .

[NPC Eric Lofgren]

Hey Matt, can I come and break something now? And did Rick leave anything of value in your garage?;}
In all seriousness, good things are coming from Spectre Press, people.

Eric Lofgren
www.ericlofgren.com

Is anyone else having a hard time logging in, or is it just me? (from the silence, I'm thinking it's just me..never mind)

[NPC Matt Drake]

Originally posted by NPC Eric Lofgren
Hey Matt, can I come and break something now? And did Rick leave anything of value in your garage?;}

Well, Rick pretty much took anything useful, but you can have the headboard to a king-size bed that he couldn't fit in the truck he brought. It's a little scratched up, but it's nice enough.

As far as breaking something, I had a Hell of a time typing with those broken thumbs. If you could settle for kneecaps, that would work a lot better for me.

But you might want to wait a couple days - your checks in the mail. No really, your check is in the mail. I just mailed it Monday. If you weren't in friggin Canada you'd have it already.

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

[David Goodner]

Howdy, Matt. You're in Arlington now? Cool.

I'm probably going to LoTR at the Eastchase tomorrow night. I was going to the Cinemark on 635, but the IMAX has switched over to showing Beauty and the Beast.

Oh, yeah. Business.

So, what kind of things are you looking for specifically. The guys in my pencil sketches aren't even standing around and looking all that cool, but I have some writing I could share. It's all short fiction, though. I'm guessing that you'd prefer game stuff like scenarios and cool characters.

David G.

[Just Me]

My question is pretty much the same as david's above. What type of short fiction are you looking for?

I do meet the other qualifications. Low self esteem and pride issues aside I enjoy the writing especially for very little money- what I mean to say is please let me know what you're looking for so I can send you some samples of my writing.

You can post it here or email me at showards@holmeshq.com

Thanks

[Matt Drake]

If you download the sample Survival Kit, you can see exactly the kinds of work I need. Specifically, I need writers for the villain, the Silver Bullet, the story and the Thrilling Tale. The site is at:

www.spectrepress.com/download.htm

If you think you can write for any part of the Kit, please forward writing samples to:

matt@spectrepress.com

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

[nadin brzezinski]

Email incoming shortly

Nadin

[David Goodner]

I guess I could e-mail or call you, but other people might be interested, too.

Is Specter Press aiming to stay strictly d20/fantasy-ish, or do you intend to branch out into other areas?

If you want them I have ideas for cyberpunk-ish stuff all over the place right now since I'm getting ready to run a Shadow Run game. I also have some old Supers ideas hanging around that I'd love to share.

If not, I have a couple of fantasy things which we can discuss later.

David G.

[Eric Lofgren]

Thanks much, Matt. Looks like your kneecaps got a repreave and I didn't need a headboard anyways.:D

Later,
Eric
www.ericlofgren.com

[Matt Drake]

OK, here's more specifics:

Because e-publishing is such a small market, Spectre Press aims to please as many people as possible. For that reason, most of the rules material is quite generic. In order to provide hard stats for conversion purposes, most Spectre Press products use the Phantom conversion rules. These are not game rules, per se, as much as they are a method of describing statistics in a manner which can be easily translated to nearly any rules set.

As far as themes and content, it's all about diversity. Fantasy stuff is the mainstay of the RPG community, so there will be a disproportionately large amount of fantasy material on the site. A rough estimation is that about half of everything will be fantasy. The rest is everything else. Spectre Press is currently offering a sample Kit that is pure fantasy, and Kit #1, which has a strong sci-fi theme.

The primary product that Spectre Press publishes is called the Survival Kit, a collection of short stories, adventure seeds, art and props. The Kits are designed to be similar to a Dungeon or Dragon magazine, providing a variety of content for a reasonable price. In addition, the Kits aim to take advantage of the digital medium by including products like Disposable Heroes, a set of paper miniatures that you can print out as many times as you need and have virtual armies of inexpensive and attractive minis.

Other Spectre Press products are in the works as we speak, and like the Kits, are designed to take advantage of the digital medium. A large map project will allow the users to rename the continents, cities, regions and geographical features to design their own world. Negotiations are currently being finalized for an original and exciting game that will not use the Phantom rules. Long-term, we have other products in mind - board games, card games, other useful props, etc - and we're excited about all of them.

I am looking for talented artists and writers who are willing to work dirt cheap. I am VERY interested in creators who would like to present their ideas for publication, and for those people willing to allow Spectre Press to publish their original games and supplements, I am offering a percentage of the sales. If you have a killer card game idea, or a great board game, or a neat RPG, or any other cool idea that can be done justice in a digital medium, feel free to e-mail me and we can discuss possibilities.

Any other questions can be posted here, or you can feel free to subject me to a barrage of e-mails. I love getting mail.

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

[NPC David Hamilton]

Matt,

I would really be interested in providing artwork for projects at Spectre Press, and working dirt cheap is not a problem for me....Hell, I do it every day at my regular day job.
I am mostly just interested in the experience and the exposure.

I promise, if you give me a shot, you'll have your own personal art-flunkie for life....no matter how big I make it, no matter how successful I eventually become, I'll be your illustration-step-n-fetchit boy forever. ;)

You have seen some examples of my work already, from my recent posting in these forums, but I have some updated sketches and stuff that I could send you via e-mail if you are interested. I even have a few suppliment ideas that I have been sitting on for a while, and I have been known to write up a fairly decent adventure once in a while.

Lemme know,

David
dbhamilton@earthlink.net

[NPC Orion]

Hi, I'm a newb to the RPG.net forums (as this is my first post). I was just wondering when you say you're looking to publish creator's works, what kind of things do you need from the creator?

[Tenacious B]

Originally posted by NPC Orion
Hi, I'm a newb to the RPG.net forums (as this is my first post). I was just wondering when you say you're looking to publish creator's works, what kind of things do you need from the creator?


Orion,

Check Matt's post; it begins with "Okay, here's more specifics." That should give you a good idea as to what he is looking for.

Welcome to the site!

[Matt Drake]

Originally posted by NPC Orion
Hi, I'm a newb to the RPG.net forums (as this is my first post). I was just wondering when you say you're looking to publish creator's works, what kind of things do you need from the creator?

If you have an idea, bounce it off me. If it sounds like it will work well as a downloaded product, and it sounds like you can accomplish it in a reasonable amount of time, I'm probably interested. If it sounds bland, or recycled, or like a blatant rip-off, I'm probably not interested. I can't say, 'this is what I need,' because until I hear your proposal, I won't know what I need. So, like the title says - Hit Me.

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

[Steve T. Laws]

Hello Matt,

I'm looking to gain a little exposure, and apparently flashing people is against the law. Uhm, I'd have to know how much spare change you'de throw my way for doing art for you before committing to a new piece. If you don't mind using stock images I have a couple of those. I could probably help out that way.

I'll put a link to my junk here. (http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/list.pl?gallery=809)

[Stormprince]

Bah! Money *chuckles* If I wanted to make money, I wouldn't be freelancing ;)

Hence, why I'm biting the tantalizing hook, mainly because the website looks spiffy, the magazine sounds like a winner, and I'm going to try my best not to get pigeonholed ;)

I'll send a writing sampler your way, as soon as I finish this post!

[Eric Lofgren]

Matt, that was a pretty sound review you got in the review section, congratulations! I was happy to be samll part of that and I hope to again.

Good stuff coming from Spectre Press! Keep it up.

Eric

[Matt Drake]

Yeah, I'm pretty darn happy with the review. A good honest review, though I think she was nicer than she had to be. All in all, I am sure happy to see it.

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

PS Chris, I got your sample. Looks good, but I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing. I'll drop you a line when I finish.

[Stormprince]

Thanks for the reply, Matt! It really made my night. :D