5e: An interview with Lluis Abadias, co-creator and artist of the Retroverse setting.

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview Chris Lock (@snickelsox) and Lluis Abadias (@LluisAbadias), the two mad creatives who concocted the wild, 80s aesthetic Retroverse.

You can find my interview with Chris and catch up on what the Retroverse is and why you should be stoked for it here! Remember, the kickstarter will be going live on April 10th.

Player's Mix Cover © Lluis Abadias.

Here's what Lluis had to say about his involvement and his favourite parts of the Retroverse!

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

Chris mentioned that the Retroverse happened almost by accident?

LLUIS

I started on twitter a month before that, and I’d joined the D&D community on twitter. I was sharing my fantasy art and Chris started making up this flavour text and I really liked it. Then I reinstalled Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and thought it was a really cool aesthetic. I created some art inspired by that. My idea was to make posters based on this 80s aesthetic with lasers, neon, and such. I posted one on twitter and he really liked it and wrote some of his flavour text.

There were comments on the twitter saying “Hey, are you doing this?” I remember going to the Direct Messages part of twitter, opening a message, and thinking “should I tell him we should do it?” Then he messaged me to say “we should do this”! “Oh Okay. Perfect.”

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

It’s a great story. The D&D twitter community is awesome, and this is exactly the sort of thing that proves how awesome it is, with you guys meeting this way and something so cool coming out of it.

Chris mentioned when we talked that you are a big part of the ideas that go into the setting, and that you have a crazy ideas folder that he dips into for inspiration.

LLUIS

Sometimes, like when I’m drawing, I think about subraces, monsters, spells, places. I write it down and put it in a file in the shared folder we have for the Retroverse. Chris is actually very nice and tries to use everything even if it would be hard balancing it. I have no moderation - For example I might be suggesting a giant robot that shoots nuclear missiles, then think it’s hard to balance and we shouldn’t do it, but he’ll reply “maybe we can…”

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

Your art style for this is really cool. I feel like your kickstarter will do really well just because it’s so eye-catching because of your art!

LLUIS

Thank you. I really hope that it’s appealing!

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

What are your favourite ideas in the Retroverse?

LLUIS

The ones I’m most proud of are some of the subraces. For instance one of the races we have finished are the Ceran, a triceratops-people which are awesome. We also have styracosaurus and pachyrhinosaurus as subraces.

Ceran Glitch Hunter © Lluis Abadias.

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

Chris talked about these guys, and that they can summon power from their ancestors which seems really cool.

LLUIS

They’re also not what they seem, because they look like gigantic barbarians but they’re actually pretty calm, slow, and thoughtful. Though because they are big, they can charge and headbutt you, and totally destroy you.

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

Are they your favourite because of the mechanics, because of the story, or because of the art you made?

LLUIS

They’re my favourite because I hadn’t drawn a triceratops since I was eleven years old when I was totally into dinosaurs. I liked to see how much better I’d gotten at it, and enjoyed the nostalgia.

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

That’s kind of a perfect story. Chris was saying that he wanted to appeal to people’s nostalgia for things like playing with toys and children’s cartoons. The fact that the Ceran are your favourite thing precisely because of that kind of nostalgia is really fitting.

If you’re allowed to tell me, what are you working on now for the Retroverse?

LLUIS

I’ve been doing maps for the first wave of the playtest adventure. I’ve never done a map before, but I’m really proud of how they’re looking. You’ll see soon! And right now I’m doing magic items.

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

What kind of items?

LLUIS

There are quite a lot of cloaks. I think Chris has a soft spot for capes and cloaks. But there are a lot of other cool and imaginative items like magic sunglasses. My favourite is the hairspray.

Neon Dragon © Lluis Abadias.

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

Can you share what that does for the interview or is that protected information?

LLUIS

I’ll keep that quiet for now because I’m not sure it’ll be the final version. But it involves bonuses, as you might imagine.

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

You guys have been working very hard on this. You’ve come so far in six months.

LLUIS

Actually, looking at it in perspective it’s amazing. On the first picture I drew for the Retroverse - it was actually called Dungeons & Dragons: Legends from the Retroverse - one of the comments was “when you are putting this together?” And we were like “we’re working on it, just give us, like, six months.” And it’s almost six months and we’re actually almost finished.

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

It’s a pretty impressive timeline for a team of two. Your output doing all of the artwork for it is also very impressive. Most products of this nature would have a lot of artists involved.

LLUIS

Yeah, I don’t know how we’re managing to make it with just two people really.

SPILLED ALE STUDIOS

Obviously you’re swamped right now, but if people would like to commission you as an artist, how can they reach you?

LLUIS

They can reach out to me on twitter, email me, or I have a patreon.

Player's Mix (Print Edition Mock-Up) © Lluis Abadias.