Hello, readers!

Like with these comics, I pride myself on making my own art for my “Hero Time” products.

For the next game, “Bounty of the Gaping Maw”, I’ve made a few illustrations that I think are really good. Granted, there aren’t as many as in something like the “Hero Time Sourcebook”, but the number is fitting for a game this size.

First and foremost is the cover art. You’ve heard that you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover? Well, pretty much everyone on the internet does. If you’re selling something, you have to make the cover really, really good or people will skip right over it. I’m still trying to get better at it, but I think this one is pretty good.

The Gaping Maw itself is a large stone structure shaped like a skull with its jaws wide open. It’s situated in the middle of the swamp, and it comes with stone hands that are held in a gesture that says, “stay away!”. And yet, someone went and hid a treasure inside of it that’s ripe for the taking for anyone foolish enough to go get it. All in all, this is a pretty standard place for dungeon-crawling. That nicely leads in to the next picture.

Skeleton soldiers are a classic nemesis, as average as they come when it comes to RPG adversaries. For that reason, I thought it good to have the heroes fight a few of them, complete with illustrations. But skeletons aren’t the only things you tend to find in old ruins…

You’ve (probably) seen “Indiana Jones”. Traps like swinging axes are standard features in old temples and deserted ruins, and so it’s only fitting for the Gaping Maw to come equipped with some. However, there is one more fairly unusual creature guarding the treasure.

This bad boy is a colossal slime. Now, a slime is sort of like “Jell-o” if it was as big as a large dog and had basic, animalistic intelligence. The colossal variety is about the size of a small house and much more dangerous. As you can imagine, the heroes will not want to run into this thing.

I rather enjoy making the illustrations for the books. It isn’t easy, but it is rather satisfying in the end. If you want to see more, there are some really good ones I’ve made for the website, if you were to read the articles.

And that’s it, thanks for reading.

–Neal

“Bounty of the Gaping Maw” will be released for free on DriveThruRPG on June 22nd.