Privateer Press was founded by artists with a great love for fantasy and science-fiction artwork. The worlds they created and the games that grew out of them have always been driven by a passion for visual creation. The very first book Privateer published—Book I of the Witchfire Trilogy: The Longest Night—received the EN World gold awards for Best Interior and Best Cover artwork for an RPG product for the year it released, establishing the company as a visionary creative studio.
After nearly 20 years and literally thousands of illustrations later, the images that have adorned the games and novels of Privateer Press will be collected into a long-anticipated beautiful art book, sure to become a favored gem among any art lover’s library…but only if this project funds by January 25th.
Pledge at any Art Lover or Curator tier
The Art of Privateer Press will be an 8 1/2˝ x 11˝ hardback book (dimensions are approximate and may vary slightly), printed in portrait orientation on 80# glossy paper with a spot varnish finish on the cover. A foreword penned by Privateer’s founding owner and Chief Creative Officer, Matt Wilson, will describe Privateer’s history and approach to visual creation. And every backer of The Art of Privateer Press will have their name listed in the book’s dedication, because if it were not for the fans of Privateer’s worlds and stories, the games wouldn’t exist, and neither will this book.
Between the foreword and the dedication will be wall-to-wall illustrations featuring the best images from all of Privateer’s worlds and games, including the Iron Kingdoms, WARMACHINE, HORDES, Monsterpocalypse, Level 7, the Skull Island eXpeditions fiction, and more.
The book will be a minimum of 144 pages in length, but how big it gets is up to you. Privateer’s art archives contain enough images to fill an entire shelf of books, and we want to get as many of them into this tome as possible. At select stretch goals, we’ll add more pages to the book with more tantalizing artwork from acclaimed artists such as Andrea Uderzo, Susan Luo, Svetlin Velinov, Johan Grenier, Néstor Ossandón, and many, many more talented individuals who have contributed to Privateer’s artwork over the years. But how big it can get will only be up to our backers…and the limits of physical reality.
To push those limits, we’ve created some exciting rewards for your wall as well as for your tabletop. And if we get far enough, we might just inspire the creation of some new original artwork.
We have wanted to produce an art book showcasing the illustrations of Privateer Press for many years and we know many players of Privateer's games have desired this as well. Our primary business, though, is making games, and the distribution network and retail stores where our products are sold do not typically move art books at a volume that would warrant the expense and effort that goes into producing one. So, we shied away from it for a long time, unsure of how best to approach it. Kickstarter gives us an opportunity to determine if the demand for this book is real by engaging with the actual people who want it, and based on how the project funds, we'll be able to tailor the scope of the book and produce the best possible publication within the constraints of a known budget.
In addition to the titular reward motivating this project, we have a spectrum of reward tiers and offerings to inspire your pledge, some that will be available from the start of this campaign and others that will be unlocked as Add-Ons as we progress through our Stretch Goals. While this project is focused on the illustrations of Privateer Press, Privateer is also well known for is its miniatures, so we’ve made sure to include something in that arena to appeal to everyone. We also have a variety of prints for any budget and the potential for additional volumes containing even more artwork from Privateer Press.
Pledge at any Eye Candy, Art Lover or Curator tier
We know that some potential backers live in parts of the world that may be prohibitively expensive to ship a weighty art tome to. If that describes you, or if you just like having digital copies of your print publications, we will be producing The Art of Privateer Press as a downloadable PDF. All reward tiers will receive a digital copy of The Art of Privateer Press.
Pledge at any tier with “FULL METAL” in the title or ADD-ON for $17
Riot Quest is an upcoming miniatures game set in the Iron Kingdoms that we’ll share a lot more about in the coming months. However, we wanted to offer something new and exciting for backers of The Art of Privateer Press, and we determined that the Iron Maiden character was a perfect fit. Her original artwork was featured in the Monsternomicon way back in 2002. As you can see from the original pen & ink artwork, there was just no way she was ever going to be producible as a miniature with all those blades and talons, which is why she’s not made it to the tabletop yet. So, she was reinterpreted for Riot Quest in a fashion that could, in fact, be made into a miniature. And while Riot Quest will be a stand-alone game, all of the miniatures in it will be compatible with WARMACHINE and HORDES, so backers of a reward tier including the Iron Maiden will be able to put her on the tabletop well before she’s released next year.
In WARMACHINE, the Iron Maiden is a slicing, dicing, tornado of blades. Best of all, she’s a mercenary that can be put into any army…and she’d kill to work for you! (Check out her stat card below.)
Another reason we wanted to include a miniature as part of our reward offerings is because we know it can be a long wait for Kickstarters to deliver, and we really wanted to offer something you could put your hands on sooner than later. We anticipate shipping the Iron Maiden by May of 2019 (Note: domestic U.S. shipping is included in the pledge, additional shipping will be charged for international orders after the campaign. See Shipping Section for full details.)
The 30mm scale Iron Maiden will be hand-cast in metal by Privateer’s expert miniatures artisans and is supplied unpainted and unassembled with a plastic base. Also included will be this character's Riot Quest stat card and Riot Gear card.
