Hello and welcome to a special episode of the Weekly Scroll
Podcast. We're interviewing a very
special guest today That is Levi Combs of Planet X Games.
How you doing today, Levi? I'm.
Good man. How are you Good.
Not, not too bad. You know we we say that as we
haven't been talking for 30 minutes but but we're here and
we're actually on the pod now so it's good so so for for those
that may not know who Levi Combs is or playing X Games, what's
what's your what's your what's your human pitch like what what
is what is who is Levi Combs. Well, that would be just about
everyone. So that's the life of the indie
game designer and that's okay. I am the the publisher and owner
of Planet X Games creative head. I write some of the some of the
material. I'm an old school gamer from
back in the 80s. You know, I came up on on the,
you know, Dungeons and Dragons and cyberpunk and Champions, all
these, you know, kind of older games that just hated out of the
70s and 80s. And I'm a dad, I'm a son, I'm a
husband. Just a kind of.
I'm an odd fellow. I'm a just a weird dude.
I'm old school monster kid from back in the day.
You know I grew up on a steady diet of Saturday morning
cartoons and Star Wars. So probably a lot like most
people most guys my age at least for you know I that's that's
pretty much the DNA of who I am right there.
Yeah. I mean we were just talking
about this right before we started I I I missed I missed a
lot of that early early TTRPG stuff and every time I have you
know something like you all that like just talked about it in
their eyes just like go bright about it and stuff.
I just I I wish it would have got into it when I was younger
but the last here we are so so you said you you you you started
you you published Planet X Games and obviously right for that as
well. Can you tell me a little bit
about Planet X? Like what?
Why Planet X? Like, how did when did that come
about in your HRPG lifestyle? Okay.
Well, so about six years ago I was just, I wanted to get a
module published. I was trying to get my foot in
the door. I had some ideas, all the normal
stuff, and I knew one guy. I knew one guy in the people
call it the industry, but it's the hobby to me.
We're not really in industry but.
I knew one guy in the hobby, one guy who was professional, and
that was Casey Kristofferson. He worked for Necromancer games
and did some stuff for Frog games.
And so I went to him for advice, like, how do I get my foot in
the door? And he's like, well, hey, let
me, I really like your module. Let me pitch it to to my bosses.
And he did. And they said, yeah, we'll,
we'll publish it, we'll buy it. But it's like, we're going to
take this, this and this out and that, that, this, this and this.
That's what I thought made it special.
I was like, I'm going to pass. You know, I'll, I'd rather sit
on it than see it. You don't, you know, see your,
your baby get gutted, you know, so, so after that happened I was
obviously, I was kind of like you know, kind of down about it.
And Casey said, well hey man, why don't you just publish it
yourself. Like I'll show you how to, you
know, do XYZ and you can go to Kickstarter and I said what is
Kickstarter? So I had no idea what
Kickstarter was, or crowdfunding even existed at all.
So he walked me through the steps.
He held my hand. He introduced me to some folks
who gave me some really great advice early on.
Guys like Jeff Flaney and Matt Finch.
These guys all, like, took my cold call, you know, in the
middle of the day, not knowing who I was, only that I was
Casey's friend and gave me super, super solid good advice
that probably kept me from living in my car in the Taco
Bell parking lot, you know, not messing up my Kickstarter, you
know? Yeah, so I ran my first
Kickstarter. And really, once I realized like
I could get these things funded, it was kind of off to the races.
Nice. And then and then that's
everything just came from there. You just decided Planet X, right
at that time. Did you decide okay I got to
give a name to this thing that I'm doing or?
No, the the Planet X stuff goes back.
It's still a little bit farther. So online I had, I'd had some
stuff. I had an Instagram page.
It came from beyond Planet X, where I would just like
literally like. Like like a thought feed.
You know, if I was thinking about Battlestar Galactica one
minute, I'd post some Battlestar Galactica stuff, the next minute
could be Adrian Barbeau from Swamp Thing.
Then it might dot dovetail into like Dracula for like 6 posts.
And then oh hey, I'm over here talking about TSR belt buckles
from like 79. Like there's no telling where it
would go. But I think that weird stream of
thought that, you know, crazy just consciousness to the.
To the screen sort of approach. It just appealed to some people.
And it was very nostalgic. And we started talking about,
yeah, I started talking about movies and comics and so the
Instagram page caught on, and then it was Twitter and other
social media. And then when it came time to do
the module, it was like, well, let me just call it Planet Next
Games because, you know. It all kind of ties in together.
There's no, like, real, like super huge significance to it.
Like there's no planet 10 out there or like some unknown
planet or conspiracy theory that that I'm listen, there could be
we don't know right? No, no.
I get to ask that question a lot, actually.
Like, yeah, I've had people approach me and be like,
alright, so tell me about Nibiru, the planet beyond the,
you know, I'm like, whoa, hold on, you know, it's great for
you, but I had no idea what you're talking about.
No, but yeah, so it all just kind of wrapped up.
And I had tons of ideas because I've been writing stuff in
notebooks for 20 years, you know, and scribbling down ideas
and of course running games and playing in games.
So it was a very easy leap from just being like pop culture
monster kid to making games. Here you go.
And then you just kind of went off to the races like you said.
I mean, so I have a couple here and a couple more that are in
piles all over the place, but for a little bit of a spread
here, the Phylactre Omnibus, which is absolutely fantastic,
this is all four of the other Phylactres plus a little bit
extra if I'm if I'm not mistaken.
And then we got King Tut's Rootin Tootin.
Weird W extrava bonanza, right? Yeah, and then magic and shit.
So a little bit of a variety of stuff you got going on and it
all kind of leans into, for the most part, either the OSR space
or whatever some people are calling like the newer OSR space
or whatever. But the majority of your content
outside it looks like maybe some some 5E stuff really lends
itself to what you were saying. Some of the the early games and
stuff is that. I mean that's clearly, obviously
the choice. Is that where your focus has
primarily been or do you feel like there's been more of a
spread with it? No for sure.
So I started off doing 5E products cuz I was playing 5E at
the time. I was interested in 5th edition
stuff, but gradually as I became disengaged with 5E and.
And just not really playing it very much anymore.
I I stopped making 5B products because I I I want to make stuff
that I want to play. And I I really think that speaks
to the genuineness of of of stuff that that folks like me
do. If you, you know if you're a
small time and be published like me and you're putting out weird
projects, it's probably because this is the stuff that you want
to see. You know rather than either
something you want to play. Like you want to come to a table
and and you these are the things you want to experience rather
than you're just trying to make a.
Cuz if you're trying to make it quick, any publisher and RPG,
you should probably go find another job.
Almost everyone I know that does it does it because they just
love role-playing games. That's why they do it.
So as far as like the breadth of the stuff that I do, yeah, a lot
of it exists in the OSR space primarily because.
You know, you've got Swords and Wizardry, you've got Ostrich,
you've got Dungeon Cross Classics, first edition, second
edition. You've got all these retro
clones in between, you know, in between that even like DX retro
clones that just that dovetail into it really, really nicely.
So you say it's for O Star, you know?
Or you say, oh, it's just for also role-playing games or?
Old school Renaissance. However, HCI for a clone, it's
just immediately available to a huge audience.
A lot of people can play. They can pick it up and go.
I don't have to really fudge much here.
I don't have to change many things or convert.
I can just pick this up and use them.
I think that's very valuable. Yeah.
I mean, absolutely. That's why we here on the show
really dig into a lot of the OSR space and a lot of things that
are now like post OSR or whatever the future people are
gonna call what we're doing now. But that's exactly why so much
of it is so easily adaptable. There's so much in Philactor
that you could in three seconds jump into, like you said, DCC or
or SW or whatever you want. Because it all, I don't know,
feels like it has like the same DNA, at least at least in big
swaths. So it makes it super
approachable, which is one of the things that I really enjoy
about Planet X. And what I have like a bunch of
the stuff is it's just it's so weird and fun and usable, which
is really, really great. So do.
You think it's weird? That's a huge compliment to me
because the idea, that's the whole idea.
It's not, it's not fantasy. It's not even traditional
fantasy. It's not even soared.
The sorcery. Really.
I wanted to be weird fantasy. That kind of Michael Moore cock
meets Roger Zelasni heavy metal. The magazine Heavy Metal Sort of
quasi Richard Corbin. Kind of a strange where it can
exist in a lot of different spaces, but it's definitely its
own strange, weird, bizarre thing is that is that what kind
of pulls you towards DCC? Because I feel like of all of
the ones that we're talking about, I feel like that's the
one that you can kind of get the most weird and it feels right in
as opposed to something like sword and wizard or stuff or it
feels like the vibe is maybe just a little bit more narrow.
Is that is that why DCC is kind of something that that you're
pulled towards with some of your modules and stuff?
Yeah, no, for sure. Like and and DCC has a really
like it's a good space to just create and explore weird ideas
like like. I just ran a module for a bunch
of really experienced DCC players, and.
So one of the characters he died in the first session, but in the
second session we were like, well do we have a new character
or how do we bring him in? And he he just had the old
character. He had like fungus, grew from
the old character and turned into the new character.
Like that's how he explained them.
You know because of the weird chaos magic and the the odd sort
of mercurial effects that come from magic was real easy from
just saying Oh yeah, that's that's what happened and it's
cool. Like he didn't just so hey guys
I'm late to the party or oh, I'm sorry we we we got lost in the
jungle was it wasn't anything like that.
It was like this really cool visual style and it just kind of
helps with immersiveness and making the weird palatable.
To to to actual game play, just little things like that.
And so I was really impressed by it, by by that that that
explanation. So and that speaks directly to
DCC. You know DCC is just one of
those we were talking before the show started.
You know, it feels like 1983 again.
I'm popping open the red box and I'm like I don't know what
anything anything does. I don't know what any of these
monsters do or any of these magic items do.
That's how I feel almost every time I play DCC.
So yeah, that's awesome. And and like we said before,
that's a game that we've been meeting to review because you
know, a mutual friend of ours loves it a whole lot.
A lot. A lot.
And we'll get to it eventually. Maybe we'll see.
But but yeah, listen, I I love that a lot of, you know, we
talked about 5E and I'm not going to dig into 5E too hard,
but a lot of modules are doing 5E and DCC or 5E and OSC and
that's a really, really great thing to see.
I I wish a lot of people would steer more towards DCC or OSE
versus 5E and and and when you put out modules as great as the
stuff that you put out that people can approach in both,
it's really nice to see that you know if they do see the 5E
module they may go. That DCC cover is nice though.
Like I could, I could snag that one, you know?
Well, I can. I can honestly say that if I had
been playing DCC when I released my first modules, I would have
just made DCC modules. If that had been it.
But I hadn't quite entered that zeitgeist yet.
I I played one, I think it when I released Jungle Tim with The
Mummy Bride five years ago. I had played a game of VCC and
that was over. It was, I think, I just want to
say it was over, Not zoom, but like over like a kind of a
FaceTime kind of thing. Yeah, it just wasn't in my
zeitgeist. I was like, oh, this is cool,
But I wasn't playing it all the time.
But now that I, I am kind of immersed into it like so much
more fun for me. Yeah, I and you know I I said 5
E was unfortunately I I was very late to tabletop role-playing
games. I started in, I guess about
almost 10 years ago now with the 5E box set.
And God, I wish I would have got into games sooner and a
different game to start first with.
And you know, but I'm glad that we have this now, we have this
here. It's interesting, you know
because even five years ago the space wasn't nearly as big as it
is now. You know, when you get things
like, you know, like Planet X, like Exalted, like all these
other places that are really pushing these games and OSC
blowing up and things like that. I feel like we have entered, you
know, what feels like even though I missed the first one,
like a second or third or fourth, I don't know, like a
golden age of tabletop games. Now, you know, partially because
nerd culture is acceptable in the mainstream.
Not like it was previously, but it's really fantastic to be able
to have Someone Like You, someone like Planet X.
You're putting out a lot of this content for numerous systems,
but like for stuff that I missed and now I get to experience all
over again. So it's really great to see such
such such good content so. Thanks.
I don't have a system of my own. I'm not trying to hawk up or
promote a system of my own, at least not yet.
There is one of the works, but that's some time off.
But I want to support the systems that I enjoyed.
That's why you see. I'm doing more DCC stuff now.
I'm doing more OSC stuff now. I just in fact, I just did a
book for Exalted Funeral that was OSC and I've got modules for
OSC planned out all through like the next two years.
So there's a lot of stuff coming and none of it is 5 E It's all
either DCC. So let's see.
Or some sort of retro clone and and I've got a weird frontiers
adventure coming too just because I love playing weird
frontiers. It's such a cool cool game.
I really like Dave the creator and and the whole community
around weird frontiers. So I was like you know what I
should write a I should write a I should write an adventure for
that. I already kind of did with the
the, the king, tut's root and tutin.
Weird Westex. Dr. Bonanza, that is.
Yeah, that's 1000% inspired by Weird Frontiers.
So there you go. I mean, it definitely is weird,
I'll tell you that. I, I, I don't even remember what
the 1st Planet X thing I saw was.
But you know, as soon as as soon as you see something from it,
you're just like man. Like it might have.
I don't even know. But like magic and shit is such
like a great like is a great scene but even just like the
cover like you got like the the the horns wizard on the front it
looks kind of spray painted like it's just so vibey like it's
very clear like you you get a huge sense you know of who you
are and what you're putting out just by the the games that
you're putting out. By the content that's in it by
the systems that you're choosing and even by the art that's like
on the on the coverage of the book and it's just it's it's
awesome it's a it's a great vibe and and that Instagram I'll tell
you what I've never followed some of the posts so much.
It's nice to see the the stream of consciousness come out
throughout the day. Yeah, like literally, If I'm
like driving down the road and I'm thinking, I started thinking
about, I don't know, like some movie I saw when I was a
teenager and I'm like, oh, yeah, I wonder whatever happened to
that movie? And then I pulled over to the
grocery store and I'm like, in my car for 20 minutes
researching it and looking it up and posting pictures and talking
about. It's just, it really is a stream
of conscious. There's no telling what's
whatever's going to be on there, It's.
Yeah, you're you're getting like, radio signals from my
head, just unfiltered just right onto it.
I struggle to post like once a week just to be like, man, I
should probably tell people that we have a podcast episode out.
I just can't. I can't.
I just can't wrap my head around doing that much.
It's just not the way my brain works.
But it's nice to see. It's really cool to see when
people are capable of doing that.
It's it's fun. It's really interesting to see
see all this stuff and now we've talked about these projects
coming out, all of these modules coming out.
You do crowdfund your projects or at least you have in the past
are are how, How's that? How do you how is crowdfunding
for a lot of like any modules and stuff like that?
Well, I mean if you're not coming from, you know a place
where you have a serious bankroll, you know, if you just
like a normal guy like me with like a family and job and you
know the whole 9 yards and you know.
If you want to make something cool but you know you're not you
don't want to just to be the bare bones crowdfunding
definitely helps. It's it's like it really is a
nice step and in my my day job is logistics like, so I have a
pretty good handle on like like all right well this is what I
need. I have a plan let me time it out
you know, yada, yada yada. So I'm able to.
That was kind of a step in my favor, I think, when I started
because I was already organized, you know, and I already had the
Instagram and the the the, the social media and stuff not so
much dialed in, but like I I wasn't getting lost, you know,
trying to juggle at all. So yeah, so in the publishing,
it's hit or miss. Like it's it's probably not
going to be your only job. I mean, at least I hope not,
unless you're coming from, like I said, deep pockets or you're
sitting pretty already, like, you know.
It takes a minute to get there. I think if you want it to be be
your only job, like I know guys who have made it their only job
and but you know they they started out having other jobs
and they eventually got to that, got to that place.
It would be great if this was something that I was still
doing. You know when it comes time for
retirement that that would be wonderful.
When it's when it's time to take take a break or you know sit
back on my laurels or whatever. I would love to keep, in fact
even do even more of this because I love it so much.
That's the plan that would that would be, that would be great.
But in the meantime, like, I'm just happy making cool stuff and
working with my friends and meeting new people, going to
cons, playing games, running games, and just kind of being in
the food chain of everything, you know?
I'm not trying to be publisher #1.
I'm not competing with anyone, which is something I always tell
people like it's not a famine, it's a feast.
There's a place for everyone at the table.
Just, you know, you don't have to fight.
Like nobody needs to fight over that fight over that bone or
that last scrap of me. Just let's all be friendly to
each other and help each other out.
So, but yeah, Life is any indie publisher is pretty sweet.
You get to make cool stuff for your friends and and hopefully
it resonates with other people. And then how so you're, I mean,
I know you're not competing with anybody or whatever, but like
you're one of the guys. Like you're one of like, you
know when we started this podcast, it's interesting
because like people like when you're in like a niche, it's
interesting to have like micro celebrities, you know what I
mean? Where it's just like for some
people that are really into the scene, it's just like that's so
cool. But like so many other people
are just like, all right, that's a person that's cool or
whatever. And here on the show, like we,
we get that a lot where it's just like, you know, some,
they're not a movie star. But to us it's just like it's so
cool to like talk to these people and you're one of those
people. It's really fantastic to talk
to. And we were talking before the
show starts. You're just like, Oh yeah, I
talked to like this guy all the time and that guy all the time.
Like how? How does it, how is it in like
the indie scene, like going to all the cons, knowing all the
people like running into Errol Otis or talking to, you know,
Jeff or Brian and stuff like that.
Like how how does it feel like in the scene?
As like being one of like the the kind of movers and shakers
in it. Well, a couple things.
One, if there is a totem pole of celebrities, then I am on the
very, very I'm underneath the ground brother.
Let me tell you that that's that doesn't resonate or like that's
not like part of my daily thing at all And as far as like being
a mover and shaker like. I I don't really see myself that
way either. Like, I I I like to think I make
cool content and sometimes it connects with people.
If that's what you mean by that, then I will take it because
that's what I'm hoping for. But you know, I just as many
things that hit with people that I have lots of stuff that misses
too, you know? So like I sometimes I'll write
something and I'm like, you know, what was I thinking?
You know? Like you know that was great at
the time, but you know not so much now but going to cons.
Is probably the like, my favorite thing in this whole
like thing to do because I get to run games for for new people.
I get to playing games with new people.
I get to meet all the kind of all the people who are into the
same thing that I'm into. You know, like we're all like,
like, like, say I run into the epic levels guys, you know?
They're like so friendly and so nice.
Like we're not just playing games together.
Like we're just hanging out. Like we're just hanging out the
booth or maybe we're going to like somebody else's late night
game or we're going out for burgers or something later.
Like it's a hang. Like and like just like hanging
out with with folks makes it like a cool community sort of
vibe. And it's, it kind of reminds me
of my bartending day is actually because that was like I worked
in dive bars, so it was always like a hang.
That's what you were trying to like.
That's the atmosphere you were trying to make was was a hang
you didn't like. Nobody was in there talking
about loud. My next project is, you know,
yadda yadda yadda, and I'm trying to make, here's my
Kickstarter metrics. No one cares about that.
Like they're in these hangs. It's just dudes just hanging out
and talking like, you know, just talking nonsense and having a
great time and being supportive and being like communicative
with each other and helping each other out and knocking down
those those. You know, kind of those gates
and doors that are traditionally barred entry into the hobby in
the past. You know, now that we're all
helping each other out, like, you know, you might see me
talking about this game, but then a couple months later they
might be talking about my game. So we're just helping get the
word out and like making it a kind of more like a community
event. Like, really?
Like, you know, cuz that really is what?
What gaming should be, it's a community.
Like, I don't know about you, but like, it was always like
about sitting around with my friends around the table.
And just as much time as we spent talking about what we were
doing in the game. We were talking about movies or
comics or that TV show we were all watching, or hey, this
happened last week. So again, community and all
about that hang man. That's that's really what
resonates with me. So you do you go to a lot of
cons. I know the world was in flux you
know for for a while and things are for a lot of people at least
are attempting to get back to to what it was before.
Do you get to go to a lot of cons and and the the real
question is do you actually get to play games a lot with like
your friends and with people? Like is that something you
actually get to do? Yes.
So I go to. Roughly 6 or 7 cons a year and I
don't go to any of the great big ones.
I don't so like I don't go to like Gencon.
I don't go to Origins. I don't go to any of the the
packs cons that that aren't near me.
There's one in Philly that I go to but it's it's I'm it's just
as a as a I want to just walk around and talk to people you
know and and I mean it's really an excuse to to hang with some
of my friends to be honest with you.
But oh hey come on. Sorry.
That is for podcast Lynn out there.
That is the pupper. Yeah, sorry, my, I have a little
tiny puppy and she's very, very aggressive.
If anybody walks on the street out front, she wants to protect
us. But when it comes to cons, like,
cons are definitely like as an independent publisher, they're
like probably like the number one thing.
That like help me start to get the word out about the stuff
that I was doing and meet new people and make connections, You
know, especially like when it comes to like a collaborative
project or you want to publish with somebody else or hey, maybe
you're going to publish something together or share
artists or information. Then going to cons was like
invaluable for that, like just just meeting people you know
face to face and doing those sort of things.
You know, when it comes to playing games like I, when I go
to the cons, I try to run as many games as I can, but I also
want to play some because like what's the point if you don't
get to actually, you know, play in the complete.
And I usually end up playing in the games of people that I
either admire or that are friends previously.
So I usually if I if there's like a four day con, I'll play
in like 1 game a day, you know, and then I'll run one or two.
So at any of this time at the booth and the whole line, you
know, the whole 9 yards, so. That's another thing like I I I
get a because because I run a booth with like six other dudes.
Like we're all shifting in and out and you know, some, some
sometimes these guys are running the booth, sometimes I'm running
it. So we all know about each
other's product, we know how to explain it or sell it.
So it gives all of us a lot of leeway and freedom to not only
run games with the the you know, but to play them as well.
And do you, do you actually get, do you have a home game?
Like, do you have like a continuous game that you get to
play? So I did.
But again we we just moved. We like we've only been here
like I don't know, eight months or something and we're still not
even unpacked. So like this, you know, it's a
layer. We were previously an Air Force
family, so there's just, you know, still boxes and and totes
of stuff everywhere. But there are some local game
shops. I have stopped by and talked to
folks. I've got some, I made some
connections with people. So I'm, I'm hoping for that.
I do have a Friday night game that I that I play in.
Is a DCC game. I play with Bob.
Yeah, Bob Brinkman and and his crew.
So a lot of play testing like right now we're play testing
Caverns of Thracia which is is the DCC conversion of that.
So that that's just been awesome.
And I'm really lucky because Bob's a fantastic judge.
Like, he's just a a great, fair and super knowledgeable dude
that can describe things in a way that doesn't give away the.
The mystery and wonder of things.
So yeah, nice, nice. So, you know, talking about
colliding on projects, like you just said, there's a project you
have going on right now on Kickstarter and you know there
is. Why don't I'm not even gonna
talk about it. What do you got going on in
Kickstarter right now? What is?
What is this project? There's a Zine on Kickstarter
right now called Closet of the I Wizard.
And I wish I could take great credit for it, but I I really
can't. This is really the genesis and
the the brainchild of our mutual friend the laws, the eye.
He gathered together this fantastic.
I'm really a murderer's row of artists Like we're talking like,
you know, Peter Mullen, Doug Kovacs, Chris Arneson and all
these great guys. Some of which are are well known
for their DCC work and some who are are you know not known for
doing that kind of work. But regardless the the the list
of that that 16 artists, list of like list of collaborators is
just incredible. But then on top of that, he went
out and he basically picked 16 writers that he admired and
matched them up, matched up with a piece of art and said, hey,
can you create something based around this art?
So what you get when you get Closet of the I Wizard, you're
getting not just something that's like a resource for
role-playing games or DCC specifically.
You're getting half of that is like an art book.
You know, you're getting an art scene.
So every time that you open up a splash page, it is a
representation of of that artist and that writer collaborating.
You're getting, you know, stats here, but you're also getting
this, this, this. Some pages might be black and
white. Some pages might be double
spread, Some pages might be color.
You just don't. Yeah, but every time you turn
the page you don't know what you're getting.
And I find that really, really intriguing and just kind of a
cool approach to doing a Zine. Yeah, I mean, it sounds crazy.
When Las was first talked to me about it, even just just a a
splash of the names across it. You're like yeah how could you
not have this LFOSR, Max Moon, Mesopha, Bakir.
I mean, I mean you even have like Gabrielle Caroga and stuff
like that who's like hell knight and war plan and stuff.
I mean the the width and breath of of of the talent across the
entire world is is insane and I can't believe this many people
are going to be in like 1 Zine. It's.
Yeah, that's another thing. It's a it's a global scene.
Like you're getting people from all really all over the world,
but then you're getting people from all over the kind of, I
don't know, the I don't know how you the headspace of RP G's like
people who do all sorts of different RP G's.
You know, like you you mentioned Gabriel and there's all you lazy
lich and all all these guys that that that are there from all all
do different things, you know? You know, there's not a whole
lot in common for like one page is, you know, Jim Wampler wrote
it, but then the next page, like Brian Shutter wrote it.
Those are two very different approaches to, you know, to to
writing. So it's it's just cool to see.
I think it's a really cool idea and it really, really is a
community project. It's kind of for the community,
by the community, you know what I mean?
So that that that really appealed to me and what so you
said Laws really kind of put a ton of this together.
What did he come to you with the idea for the project, or how did
it actually get to real life and actually get out on Kickstarter
and get ready to get going? Yeah.
So we had communicated previously a couple years for a
couple years previous. And he he and I were going to do
something for I believe it was Knock magazine.
We were going to do like an article about he had a he had a
a map from Alex Gnarl monster. I'm struggling with his last
name but Gnarl Monster beautiful map from Alex and I wrote a
dungeon around it but it was it was kind of the dungeon was kind
of too long for for Knock. You know Knock has that, you
know, one and two page. You know, every again, every,
every, every time you open it up, every, every page you go to
is different. And it just didn't kind of fit
the format for Knock. And we kept reducing it,
reducing it, reducing it. It just just didn't fit the
format, unfortunately. It would have been, it would
have been a great article. But then I said, hey man, I
really like this. Why don't we just, why don't we
put it in the flattery? You know, I really, I love this
map. I love the idea behind it.
I love the fact that it shines a little light on On Laws, who's a
fantastic member of the community.
And it kind of furthers the whole mythos of the of the I
wizard himself, you know? So we did.
We ended up putting it into, I think it was Philactory 4 and
then it was, of course, in the Philactory omnibus as well.
So that was just a great collaboration.
Like, he was very easy to work with.
You know, all the observations that he made about the writing
of the art were just always spot on.
So I was just really happy to collaborate with him and work
with him. So then he says, hey, I've got
this, all these pieces of art, and I'd like you to write a
piece based around this piece of art and that it was the one that
ended up being in the closet of the eye Wizard.
So I wrote up a hat that was kind of like inspired by.
Inspired by like Gride House films.
And then like, I was like, what movie is all about the hats?
Like what? You know, there's got to be some
movies that are, you know, so I landed on like the Blues
Brothers and the master of the Flying Guillotine because those
are both very, they have important hats in, you know, in
those in those movies. So I I kind of merged the two
concepts together, made a magical hat out of it, filled in
some lore, and yeah, I was really happy with the way it
came out. And then after that he's like,
well, hey, we should, you know, would you like to publish this?
And I said I would love to publish this.
This is a really cool book. So yeah, so we got a cover from
Raphael and that's another amazing piece of the book if
you, if you look at the cover on that.
But yeah, it's just all kind of gelled and it turned into a
really, really good collaboration.
So I'm will be very proud to publish this.
Yeah it's it's gorgeous. And that that cover piece is
absolutely fantastic. It's so like old school comic
book it's got such like a grit on it.
It's just it's beginning to end. It looks it looks fantastic.
And for those for those listening in who might not know
who Laws is if you first of all go to our YouTube and watch like
the not one but two different unboxing specials we did for
their boxes which you can see here and here and here and like
three of them on the shelf behind me because I don't know I
probably I think I have like 10 plus of them right at this point
they do amazing work for that you can get you know custom but
have also been putting out boxes for for projects.
I have the down we go box like right there so amazing member of
the community like you said who's just so just lives and
breathes TTRPG's and and really like just has their their finger
on just I don't know the pulse of the entire like OSR scene and
and going back all the beginning but obviously I mean let's be
honest it's DCC like if if there is the biggest cheerleader for
DCC out there I'm I'm positive it's laws so but there's a great
person great part of the community and it's really
awesome to see them put this together and for and for you to
put it out so and it is on Kickstarter right now and you
guys decided to do a pretty it's pretty short Kickstarter it's
only about two weeks right. Yeah, it was just two weeks, but
that that isn't any kind of testimony to the the product
itself. It really had just has to fit in
with the schedule of things, other things I have going on.
So it was a matter of getting it in really before there's a
Halloween project coming. Another Zine, I mean that's a
Halloween themed Zine. It's also a collaboration
project with a bunch of people you probably know.
So there's So it was just a matter of fitting that in and
making it timely. But really really cool things
about it when I now that I'm talking about it is that it's
already done. Like this is already put
together. The PDF is already already here.
So once those funds clear, people get immediately get the
PDFs and it immediately goes to the printer.
Like I've already got some the printer that I use, I've already
got them to do the. Do the proof and it looks great.
So it's we're just in a really good space with it.
It's it's timely, it's fun. It's like I said for the
community, by the community and I'm just very proud to publish
it. Yeah, it looks, it looks
fantastic. I can't wait.
And I love when projects, you know, are ready to go and just
need to get that money so they can put it out.
I mean I understand when people you know you know you need the
money first to to get some parts of the project.
But I also I'll tell you right now like every project that I
have that's four years old is people that didn't really write
it and are got stuck somehow and you know so it's really nice
when a project is done is ready to go and and you're able to put
that out and that's that's really neat and and for for
those that may be on the fence or haven't looked at the
Kickstarter page like what can people actually get.
I know that you said the PDF is done, but as far as actually you
know what they can get, what what can they get from the
Kickstarter? Since we we kept it really,
really simple, there's. But only a couple stretch goals
and they're really more like fun stretch goals more than they are
like you know like serious stretch goals that will improve
the overall size and compatibility.
You know, nothing like that. There's we just wanted to do fun
stuff. So again, because the project is
is pretty much done, there's you can get the normal cover, which
is that beautiful cover by Raphael.
And then there is a limited edition cover which is a cover
that that Laws did that will only be available to Kickstarter
backers. Like you won't see it on the
Exalted Funeral, you won't see I won't have copies of it at cons.
If you want a copy of it you need to get it on the on the
Kickstarter. It's just it feel like his his
previous work, especially with the stuff of the boxes and.
You know all the stuff you see behind you, if you like that
sort of thing then the the that other cover will will definitely
appeal to you. There's a retailer's you know
tier for that. There's a, you know, one tier
where you can get it all, you know, kind of the standard, the
standard thing. But that's for the for the main,
like Zine, that's what it is. And then we have one stretch
goal that's that's down, that's a.
That's a patron write up by Dieter Zimmermann from Malhore,
the Mushroom God. I don't know if you're familiar
with dieter's writing, but it's super cool, super weird.
This got, you know, very DCC, super talented dude.
And then we have some MP3 dungeon synth songs coming from
from some other collaborators that are going, it's going to
be, you know, fantastic. And you know what, like we might
just release those anyways. Who knows?
Like it just depends on what everybody wants to do.
Like I said, it's collaboration. So I'll, I'll go with whatever
those, whatever those guys want to, however they want to roll
with it. So, but it's cheap, you know,
it's like it's it's 20 bucks and you get a really cool, you know,
D&D book that's also, I'm sorry, not a D&D but RPG book.
That's also kind of an art Zine as well, so.
Yeah, so I hope that it appeals to folks and that they have as
much fun checking it out and like enjoying it as we had
creating it, cuz it was a really fun project.
Yeah, I mean I can only imagine. And the cover from Laws is
great. Like it's so laws.
It looks like, it looks like the cardboard like boxes that he
makes that are all around us. It looks absolutely.
As soon as I thought I was like, Oh yeah, that how could it have
been anything else? That's really great.
Plus here is going to cover. So I mean of course I went for
the one of everything because how would you not want to have
both covers? That's also what I do with all
the case studies right back. But it's fantastic.
And you know this is one of those things I'll tell you right
now like if you were listening and you're in the indie space at
all, you're in the DCC, you're into like pretty much anything
in the scene. You this is one thing you want
to grab because I guarantee if you're just kind of in the scene
a little bit give it six months and you're going to have read or
run stuff or seen art by. Pretty much everyone in this
theme. So you can be like, Oh my gosh,
I'm so glad I got this this the Bruno Museco art from like you
know this book over here that's also in the eye wizard book.
So like it's it just seems like such a really really fun cool
project And like you said it's really inexpensive.
I mean for the PDF and two books including the special edition
one is what like 30-7 bucks like that's that's crazy.
So it's it's, I don't know it's really fantastic and it's
funded, which is great. I mean it'd be cool to hit.
Did you say there was it was the the MP3 S you said?
Were that the only stretchable left that that is still trying
to be worked on? Yeah, I mean those are just cool
like dungeon synth, you know music that I personally I'm, I'm
actually really looking forward to it because yeah, I like, I
like playing stuff like that in the background while I run
games. So that's that's that's Cthul
again. So, right.
That's gonna be putting that out.
Yeah, dude, because I saw Max Moon.
I don't think that's the name that we've mentioned before,
Max, this entire shelf from here over, it's pretty dedicated.
And Max, one of the, you know, greatest people I know, I love
them so much. And The Cthuligans has done some
awesome stuff that they've done recently with Fairyland with
Demon Lord coming out. So having having more Cthuligan
stuff is never a bad thing. So it'd be really, really
fantastic. Yeah, really, really, really
cool to get that. So gosh, I hope, I hope that
goes there. So you said it's a it's a short
project this when we got about 8 days left.
We're running this live. We're on.
I think it's what, Monday morning.
So if you're listening to this, when does what day does the
project actually end? I believe it's September 5th.
It is. Yeah, next Tuesday.
So yes, September 5th, that's right.
Yeah. So you got about a week to back
this. So if you're listening to this
and it's before September 5th go, just go back to the project
like just you're gonna want this.
This is not a thing that you're gonna wanna miss.
It's really neat. It's really fantastic and it's
awesome that you're doing this with Laws and with the whole
community. This.
It's, I don't know, we need more projects like this.
I think it's really fantastic. Yeah.
And again I just, I I really need to speak to to the kind of
like person that laws is and how he put all this together.
And you know he just, he did a really good job.
And I don't know that there's a lot of people in the in the
community that that could have brought everybody together that
way. You know, he he basically
wrangled 32 different artists and said hey, I want to pair you
up this way. I want to do it this way.
I'd like this. Yeah.
And then said, here's the freedom to go and do basically
whatever you want, you know, deliver it however you want it
to look, write it however you want.
Just, you know, here's a very small margin of guidelines.
You know, it needs to be DCC. It needs, hey, it needs to be
one page. You know, do do do this.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. It's DCCI.
Don't wait laws, Laws said it has to be DCC.
Are you sure? I don't know if that sounds like
him. But you know, the way most of
those are written though, like yeah, it's DCC, but you could go
in there and with very little effort it could very quickly
become, you know 2 EAD&D or Swords and Wizardry.
Or it could become Hyperborea very, very with very little, you
know, having to, having to convert anything pretty much on
site. Like you look at it and go, OK,
it does that, you know and that's what's great about the
whole about all of the whatever OSR, BX stretch of clone, like
the whole chunk of the scene right there is it's so easy to
port stuff back and forth to the little subgenre of that weird
fantasy that you like. So that's really fantastic.
And so and aside from that, Planet XI know you talked about
a couple of things, you talked about some DCC modules coming
out, you talked about some other C modules coming out.
You talked about some Halloween modules come out.
Did you want to, did you want to say, did you want to talk about
any of those? Is that anything that you want
to talk about or are we just going to have to wait and see?
No, I can. I can buzz through some stuff
briefly. Like, I I tend to plan out for a
long time and I'm, you know, by the time you see something on
Kickstarter. I've already been working on it
for like a year, you know? So like the thing that we have
coming up next after Closet of the I Wizard is.
Another very unusual project, and it's another community
project. Not quite to the extent that the
closet of the eye wizard is, but it is basically me and my
monster kid RPG buddies getting together and making cool stuff.
It's called Reverend Werewolf's Old Timey Monster Mania Family
Hour. And it's, it's well over my
typical 48 pages now. So it's probably more in the
space of like 56 or you know, 60 pages.
But it's a Zine and it is directly influenced by like all
the, you know, issues of famous monsters of Film Land and
Fangoria and all the old horror comics I used to read.
And you throw you throw that in a like, a like, a Tumblr, like a
dryer with like. Oh, here's a couple issues of
Ghost Rider. And here's all those, like
watching USA up all night or, you know, Joe Bob Briggs or any
of the, you know, weird small town horror hosts that I, that
you know, that I used to watch every every weekend just so I
could catch like an episode of like The Twilight Zone or watch
The Tingler Or, you know, it was like, oh, hey, here's some, you
know, crazy. Monster magazines from the 70s
that were at the used bookstore, it's kind of like an omash all
of that, you know. So it has a very retro feel to
it and a lot of the guys that have come on board to do to do
articles and just make cool things for it.
Our guys, I just generally admire in, in just in general,
you know, like, I just, I like these guys.
All around. But they're also RPG creators
that I, I follow their works. I buy all their stuff.
So you've got Joy Royale from Joy's Pizza Party.
He he he does The Fabulous Weird Heroes of Public Access, which
is probably the best game that I've played in I don't know 5 or
10 years. It's really, really good.
It's right to me it's it's it's it's right up there with the
like weird frontiers. It's, you know, it's it's.
It's a great system. He has Ninja City, He did one of
us. It is a fabulous creator.
Brian Shutter from Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastelands.
We've talked about him before the show.
Like he's another great creator, making some super cool, unique,
but yet still nostalgic stuff. John McGuire from 321 Action,
Pam Bone from the Vintage RPG Podcast.
He came on and did some really, really cool stuff.
There's Andrew Hind is a just a buddy of mine.
He he he worked back in the early days of like the sword and
sorcery and like third party publishing.
But he's just been writing his own books ever since then.
He he writes a lot of like books about like ghost towns and
supernatural events and things like that.
So he was for the stuff that he worked on in the in the in the
scene. He was like the perfect dude to
do that. And then my my best friend since
5th grade Lawrence Hernandez, he's done a ton of stuff for
Planet X in the past he did some writing and he did some art like
if you ever opened up an issue the flattery and you see those
save versus disbelief comics in the back, he's the guy who who
who did that which is obviously kind of a riff on the old you
know Ripley's believe it or not so but you know RPG based.
So he did. He's he did some work on this as
well and just a couple other creators who've kind of dipped
in with like little minor things and they worked on it.
It's all being like wrapped up by my friend Cheese
Hasselberger, who he's the guy who laid out and drew most of
the illustrations for three Curses for Sister Saren.
He did some of the art in the King Tuts, Root and Cooton.
Weird W extriba band and Zine that that we were talking about
earlier but he's done a bunch of stuff for you know for
philactory and for some some other stuff.
But he's a fantastic independent artist cartoonist and graphic
designer. He's been in the game for like
20 plus years. He's just a crazy talented dude.
But yeah I'm already going way, way long on that so but yeah
that's it's it's going to be a killer killer Zine.
The the the preview that I got on the I got on the cover.
Not quite done yet. The preview I got, like when I
got it, just blew my mind like I was like I was looking at a
Basal Go Ghost cover for like a 72 issue of you know, Famous
Monsters. So very, very cool.
That's awesome. Is that coming to crowdfunding?
Yeah, that'll be on Kickstarter. Probably like mid-september,
late September on through early early October.
It's right around the corner. Yeah, yeah.
After that we're taking a break for a couple months just to
catch it up. I'll make sure everybody gets
all their stuff and everything's all.
Our attention's kind of pointed towards that.
And then we're going to hit with some DCC modules and OSC module.
And then for for Zenquest next year, we're doing issue five of
the Philactory. So that'll be a nice big fat,
like double stuffed issue of the Philactory for Zenquest Just
keep. I mean, are we going to get like
20 plus issues? Are we going to do flattery
until we retire? Is that what we're doing?
I will continue doing them as long as I enjoy doing them, you
know, and I really think that's again that's the that's the
that's the secret ingredient like to making Rpg's as if you
enjoy it and it's genuine then. It'll come across as genuine and
people will enjoy it or have it or have the opportunity to enjoy
it the same way that you do or in their own space.
But if you're just trying to make something for money, people
will sniff that out in a heartbeat, man.
And they'll go, oh, this is just garbage, you know, so I don't, I
don't, I don't want to do things like that.
So as long as it's still like fun for me and I'm having a good
time and people seem to be enjoying it, then I'll keep
making them. But the moment the moment that's
going hands off it's you know it's so it's really nice.
It's I don't know I I love that about Planet X and and
especially now that you know, I've met you and talked to and
stuff you seem like such a genuine person and it really is
true like is if you you can tell when someone is just making
something at some supplement for this or something for that or
this is popular someone do that and then you can tell when
someone's heart is really into what they're doing.
And you don't really get things like big eyed chunkis you know
from someone who's just making stuff just to to to get a buck.
And that's really awesome. Like I said you know throughout
a lot of the content it's so evident that you love what
you're making and what you're doing and having fun doing it.
And it's it's really enjoyable. It makes it really fun to read
really easy to support you know. So I'm I'm you know it's it's
it's been a pleasure talking to you.
I'm really glad that you got to come on the show and I just want
to say that you will have a forever supporter here on the
show and and so much just because of like what you just
said just that it's it's it's so clear that your heart is into it
and your and your mind's into it and it's in the right spot to
just make cool stuff for for people that you know that you
love and for people that that love the kind of stuff.
So you know, it's it's, it's it's great, so.
That's very, very kind of you to say.
Like that's that's a way better compliment to me than than just
about anything else to be honest with you that that's great, made
my day good, glad and and listen hey, anytime that you have a
project coming out in the future, you let us know because
I will absolutely be talking about it here in the podcast.
You know like like we said everything you've done has been
really fantastic. This project they're doing right
now with Laws is really fantastic and and I'm excited
for the next thing that comes through.
So you know if you're listening to us here on the pod plan to
hear some Planet Up stuff going forward and you'll probably see
some played here on the show at some point sooner than later
too. So we'll see how that goes.
Right on. Yeah.
So hey, listen, Levi, I super appreciate you coming on the
show. Is there anything else about the
Kickstarter or anything else you want to just make sure that we
get to before we go or or or did we hit everything that we need
to? I think we hit everything we
need to. I just, again, I really want to
say, really want to point out really that this was this latest
Kickstarter, the closet of the I wizard.
This really is the baby of of of laws.
And without him it wouldn't exist.
Without him, this collaboration of incredible artists and and
creators would never have been gathered.
I'm just very fortunate that he chose me to be the person that
published it and the handed, you know, hand his baby over to.
So thank you Las, and thank you to all the collaborators that
that put their hard work into the book.
Like I said, I can't wait for that project.
So as far as we've talked about a lot of your stuff, where can
people actually find all of your the stuff that you've put out?
So all my stuff is on the Exalted Funeral.
So if you just go to Exalted Funeral in the search bar at the
top, you just spread in Planet X Games or even just Planet X.
All my stuff will come up and not just or, you know not just
the stuff that that I do. If you put in my name Levi
Combs, you'll see some other stuff that I've done.
Most recently I did a project for them called the Vorpal
Almanac that I'm that I did with a very talented artist from New
Jersey, Sally Cantorino. Just a fun, super fun project.
And then, you know, Zalted gave it the.
Give it the the a really golden touch to it.
The book looks fantastic. There's a gold foil cover.
You know there's a sweet you know bookmark the whole 9 yards.
So like it's it's a really nice nicely presented product and we
had a good time doing it. So yeah, it's all the funeral
man. You can find me on Instagram at.
It came from beyond Planet X I'm still lingering on Twitter as it
slowly dies and and and falls into.
Falls into the sea piece by piece, but you can find me there
at Planet X Games Co like company and then Levi Combs on
Blue Sky and then I wanna say just Planet X Games on Facebook.
So there we go. All right, listen, like we said,
check out all of the stuff that he just said.
Definitely follow the Instagram. It is a trip every single day.
You'll have fun following along with that.
And and and we didn't even get to talk about the Four
Blaumonic, but goddamn, that's a good looking book.
So I can't wait till that comes in the mail.
I'm very excited for that. But once again, seriously, thank
you so much for being here. Really appreciate it and and and
for everyone listening. If it's before the 5th go back
clause of the eye wizard and if it's after you better hope you
get a copy because this is not one you're going to want to
miss. So thank you all so much for
being here once again. Anybody.
Thank you so much and everyone out there listening.
Have a wonderful day. Bye everybody.