Over on the Sixth Circle Gaming Facebook page, Lucifuge Dragon has posted a “help wanted” request, asking for help with 2D art for his board game adaptation of Ultima 7: The Black Gate.

Calling all artists! If you are interested in The Black Gate board game project, now is your chance to contribute! Visit sixthcircle.net for more details! ‪

And indeed, on the Sixth Circle website proper, Lufifuge has a page up explaining his needs (and how to submit content):

All I need, as of now, are small, detailed drawings that are inked in a comic book fashion. Think of old RPG game books. No color is necessary. I don’t require any giant masterpieces, these will be scaled WAY down and printed on a small portion of the game cards.

All I am able to offer for your contributions is being clearly recognized and praised on sixthcircle.net, as well as a yet-to-be-decided Ultima themed trinket made by myself. Is anyone still reading this? Okay, I’ll also include a small bio of yourself in The Black Gate instruction manual! Huzzah! Still interested? Wait! Don’t leave…and stop laughing!

I have a list of things I need drawn which are weapons, armor, monsters, specific items and other Ultima goodness. I would love to have many people contributing with their own style, similar to how Magic: The Gathering cards are a collaboration of hundreds of excellent artists. Somehow it just works and this effect is what I also would like to achieve for the cards in The Black Gate!

Additionally, Lucifuge has posted another article to the Sixth Circle website, in which he opines about aspects of the game that, to his mind, need some additional work in order to bring them in line with the Ultima 7 standard:

First of all I would like to reveal what needs improving with the game. For those of you who have played the original Ultima 7: The Black Gate, you know how much of a presence the Fellowship has. They are the creepy, manipulating cultists who appear welcoming on the surface but recruit every weak minded fool to be taken advantage of for malicious gain. Sound about right?

In Ultima 7 you have the choice, as the Avatar, to become a member. The dialogue is scripted so well and the plot so masterfully written that It’s actually a difficult decision. The forked tongue of Batlin, the leader of the Fellowship, is convincing even though you know it’s a bad decision. Eventually you have to become a member to infiltrate the organization and bring it down. Iolo (who could never see the bigger picture) pleads with you not to join but once you do you are treated differently by some NPC’s and it affects the game slightly. Have I mentioned that Ultima 7 was light years ahead of it’s time?

This was such a critical facet of Ultima 7, one that I want to make as a bigger presence in my game. Currently the way it works is there are Fellowship cards in the encounter deck and if you draw one, then you lose your current virtue and take a blue medallion token. You also cannot enter the dungeons, and must pay gold every turn. It’s annoying, which was the point, but it doesn’t really add much to the game. The only way to lose the token is by dying or meeting a non-member player in the same town. It works but its not achieving what I want so I should either get rid of it or turn it into a stronger aspect. One of the play testers, *cough* Bearington, despises those cards and it makes him a grumpy bear every time he draws one. I do see his point.

Another issue:

When you start a new game of The Black Gate, you get a crappy weapon and, depending on the character, little to no armor. A skeleton from the encounter deck will give you the fight of your life and you spend half an hour running from harpies and such. As you begin to tech up, the things in this deck that used to scare you are nothing but insta-kill fodder eventually. Once in awhile you will find yourself in a pickle but during the later stages of the game the encounter deck just feels like its tedious and slowing you down because you are far more concerned with the lower levels of the dungeons.

So I would like to try dividing the encounter deck into two difficulties. The first half would feature your run of the mill cards (fortune cards, dead adventurers, healers, harmless wisps) with enemies that aren’t too frightening, the 2nd half will have some of the same cards but much more challenging obstacles. Basically the longer a game goes on, the closer you should be to reaching your goal (destroying the three generators and the Black Gate). Since the Fellowship is behind everything, I would like them to also start coming out of the woodwork to attack the players later in the game!

He goes on to muse about these problems in the game’s present design, and to speculate at possible solutions: should Fellowship members get certain advantages (or disadvantages) that non-Fellowship members don’t? How can Fellowship members still work against the Guardian, per the ultimate design of the board game? Lucifuge doesn’t specifically come out and ask for help, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind suggestions; his comment form is open, and some Ultima Dragons have already chimed in!