A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:

THANK YOU! Thanks to all of you, fans old and new, Horror Fans and Tikiphiles and readers and poets, artists, and madmen, we will soon exhume this marvelous mug! The next few months will be full of exciting updates as I order all this swank gear for you. I will continue to post updates through the manufacturing and shipping process. We have many tentacles all over the web. For more info on this and future projects, also visit http://www.horrorinclay.com and http://www.facebook.com/HorrorInClay we're on Instagram and Pinterest on Google+ as HorrorInClay, and on Twitter @CthulhuMug



You can also subscribe to our newsletter (8 or so emails a year) here http://shop.horrorinclay.com/pages/subscribe THANK YOU ALL!

Help us produce this Pallid Mask Tiki Mug! For people who are into Chambers, Lovecraft, horror, dying multiverses, roleplaying games, oh, and The King.

Somewhere in the infinite multiverse, or just on the other side of this shadow, the King In Yellow awaits. The Pallid Mask is a 8in tiki mug inspired by my love for the linked short stories of Robert Chambers and H.P. Lovecraft. This collection will include the mug complete with artifacts and ephemera including a custom-written D6 tabletop RPG module. Edition of 500+

The production edition funded by this Kickstarter campaign will probably be in the 8in, 14oz neighborhood, and will come in a solid yellow OR yellow and red glaze. Journey with me, dear Collector, into the old town section of Portland, where "The Shores of Carcosa" may or may not serve up terror by the mug full.

Left - sculpted prototype Right - Line art

Limited edition mugs available at the higher donor levels (probably fewer than 20 will be made altogether) will be the same size, but will be hand glazed in multi step, multi-tone process. All mugs will be high-fired ceramic, food and alcohol safe; ready for you to carry through the dim shanghai tunnels and into the darkness beyond.

The mug has been designed, modeled, and sculpted. (see below to see some of the workup to this point).

Add-on reference chart

The designs for these mugs pull from classic orientalia; that special class of tiki-adjacent Chinese restaurant that dumped tiki style, flaming pupu platters, and strong drinks in front of generations of diners. Also, I visited Portland and Seattle some time ago and took a tour of the underground tunnels in Seattle. The trip inspired a love for sunken streets, and the legendary shanghai tunnels of Portland.

sculpted prototype - shown unglazed

Limited edition mugs available at the higher donor levels (probably fewer than 20 will be made altogether) will be the same size, but will be hand glazed in multi step, multi-tone process. All mugs will be high-fired ceramic, food and alcohol safe; ready for you to carry deep into the tunnels below, and perhaps further...

The master sculpt is already made, we have prototyped several of our rewards (enamel pins, lesser sinister mystery gift, demo RPG module) and designed most of the others. Since I couldn't get the phrase "Hail to the King, baby" out of my head while working on this mug, I pulled up elements of my Elvis fandom to incorporate into the mug and module as well. I incorporated a few more messages and references into this piece and backstory updates and collateral for our collective amusement.

The mug has been designed, modeled, and sculpted. (see below to see some of the workup to this point).

After funding is successful, the master sculpt will go to the factory. Production turnaround is 120 days. We plan to debut these at Tiki Kon in Portland (July 15-17) and in a companion event at the new tiki bar Devil's Reef in Tacoma (July 18). The Kickstarter mugs will ship as soon as I return, so I'd expect them to ship throughout August.

In addition the mug, I've embellished the collection with additional backstory and artifacts, including a tabletop RPG module, mai tai glass from the Shores of Carcosa, and an enamel pin inspired by Elvis's TCB logo. As incentive, and as heartfelt thanks, the rewards are not just cunning bits of practical design (glasses, pins, coasters, etc), but all of the rewards house clues and hints about the mug, plus some other fun details.

mug sculpt

Mai Tai Glass - The Cry of Cassilda echos still

Prototype shown. Paint job becoming more subtle.





"An openwork architectural tile of strange material and unknown provenance, comprising both dividers and accents in several areas of the strange restaurant. With tag"

(a hollow, hard resin replica of a classic Chinese openwork architectural "jade" tile, popular in tiki bars, painted in our "Shores of Carcosa" colorway). Multiple available; just add $65 per tile, $60 per tile for 5+ $25 s&h for first tile +$5 each additional.

For this collection we're going to explore the World of Horror In Clay in a whole new way. Two of my oldest friends are veterans of the table roleplaying and LARP gaming industries, and together we've written a module that dovetails with the background I put together to design the mug. The module, called "The Pallid Mask: Shores of Carcosa" follows our investigators through a twisted Portland being suborned by the King In Yellow and his cultists. (Module will include story hooks, encounters, custom character sheets, art and handouts and more..including alternate rules to "activate" other ephemera from the collection in-game. Also, a full playable demo will be available to all backers regardless of level about a week into the Kickstarter.)

Shores of Carcosa demo module





An RPG Module? Seriously? Totally. As a teenager I played AD&D, gold box computer games, Shadowrun, RIFTS, and Paranoia regularly. I collected pretty much all the Ravenloft box sets and Von RIchten guides diligently. In particularly the box set with the Taroka cards and dice influenced how I put my tiki mug collections together in the first place! My early interest in RPGs helped me make friends I'm still in touch with today, and two of them, Chris and Ann, who develop games as Freestyle Science, wanted to help get a module made using our combined brains and the research I did for the mug. Chris did most of the writing, but we all brainstormed and assembled the module into it's final form. We also love strange game mechanics, so we incorporated some gimmicky things we hope are fun alongside the open source D6 module rules. So, welcome to the first module set in The World of Horror In Clay. If it does well there may be more, and if not, well, now I've made one. ^/|\^

We've partnered with DriveThrough RPG to get the playable demos, final pdf modules, and printed module books that will ship with your rewards.

Add $15 to your pledge to get a physical copy of the module and pdf (will retail for $20 after the project closes)

Add $10 to your pledge to add just a PDF of the module to any level



PLEASE include a detailed note explaining what your increased pledge is for.

2 Inch Enamel Pin

Also:

A ticket to see "The King In Yellow" - image coming soon

Coaster

hints and history card

a faux silk wall scroll map - image coming soon

Sinister Mystery Gifts





HELP ME

Back Us! - Just click "Back this Project" in the sidebar.

Share Us! - Please help share and boost the signal for this project!

Tweet This: “Back the #PallidMask #KingInYellow #TikiMug from @CthulhuMug NOW on @Kickstarter #RT "

After funding is successful, we will send the prototype on its journey to have molds made. Time from signing the paperwork to having the mugs in hand should be less than 150 days, so I should begin shipping these out in July.

ADD ONS UNLOCKED!

Add $15 to your pledge to get a physical copy of the module and pdf (will retail for $20 after the project closes)

Add $10 to your pledge to add just a PDF of the module to any level

Add $20 to your pledge to add a Mai Tai glass

PLEASE include a detailed note explaining what your increased pledge is for.

A In addition to the TCB enamel pin, we'll create our Yellow Sign enamel pin.

B Enamel pins upgraded to better pin-backs and glow in the dark enamel

All mugs will get "Shores of Carcosa" chopsticks (to use as swizzles and garnishes)

Stickers

More art for the RPG

MORE GOALS





March. 06 - Kickstarter Closes

March 21 - Funding clears, all collateral ordered, prototype sent for production run molding

June 21, 2018 - (estimated) production completed, mugs in transit early July, 2018 - (some mugs will be on hand for sale in Portland at Tiki Kon and in Tacoma at Devil's Reef)

August 1 - mugs in hand in Atlanta/shipping

Timey wimey things seem to be going strange....

The Pallid Mask / King in Yellow Tiki Mug was conceived and sketched by Jonathan M. Chaffin, an Atlanta-area graphic designer who has lived with this project every day for about the last year, designing things, researching, and running down production costs etc. After successfully launching four other tiki mug Kickstarters and fulfilling their Kickstarter obligations, Jonathan and his wife Allison launched and maintain www.HorrorInClay.com and www.MugCrate.com (the quarterly tiki mug and Polynesian Pop subscription box). They will also host the Inuhele: Atlanta Tiki Homebar Tour.

Chris and Ann at Freestyle Science took on the nuts and bolts of the game development portion of our show, and from the bits of background I provided and tons of original research and creativity crafted this amazing interactive roleplaying experience. (I provided a lot of feedback and the art and layout duties, but I can't overstate how well Chris and Ann did with the writing and story telling).



COLLABORATORS

This mug couldn't have gotten as far as it has without the hard work of some very talented collaborators.

The team at Munktiki Imports, and Jason Yungbluth, helped with translating my design into the prototype featured here. Munktiki Imports will shepherd the mug through the overseas production process. There are many more people I'd like to thank for many more reasons; here are some.

My talented friend Andrew Bones is back again to help me with casting Chinese openwork tiles, also called garden tiles or Jade tiles. Bones is in special effects; he's head of the ID3 Group mold shop and a prop fabricator working in the Atlanta area. He and his wife Kennia also design/vend as Bonesart. Check out his work here. Bones is a member of IATSE 479.



THANKS !!!!!

• Most of all, thank you to my wife Allison and to our daughter who are pretty used to this "living with boxes of ceramics" thing, and who are going to have to live with me in a world of boxes again if this works. Also to all of you lovely people who love this stuff the way I do.

• To Pauli, who is one of my staunch supporters from the beginning of this mad journey. (He's also willing to don a certain mask and Elvis costume on my behalf from time to time.

• To Stephen "The Professor" Candy for providing peerless product shots and the occasional awesome milkshake www.StephenCandyPhotography.co.uk



• To Dimitri and Anias, Simon Li, and Julian Lee for translation assistance.



• To Cliff, Alex, Jamie, and Pynk for copy-editing and general cussedness.



• Thanks to the Devil's Reef, Tiki Kon, BookHouse Pub, Tacoma Cabana, SOS Tiki Bar, Hale Pele, TikiCat, Hidden Harbor, and anywhere else that still serves tiki drinks the right way: in a frosty ceramic mug!