Ostensible Cat

Bah, this winter has been rather crummy due to various forms of crud going around.  I ended up calling in sick to my gaming group due to a new crud that I picked up.  I'm not feeling terrible, but I knew I couldn't really hold up to 3+ hours of DMing.  Ah, such is life.  However, not all is a total loss.  I spent the day mapping my adventure for Polstrus Lev.  I'm going to finish the highly modified Keep on the Borderlands adventure and then entice the players over to the small road side rest stop/holy shrine Restover.  This will become the new base for launching into Polstrus Lev and surrounding environs.  I've established the campaign in a rather wild part of the world known as the Moinar Marches.  There is lots of political tension as the invading Stennish people have pretty much an ongoing conflict with the native Moinar people.  The church of Daegraed, Lord of the Dawn is striving to drive out the older religions and this is just adding to the political strife. 

Wahoo!!!! This Saturday it's game time. I finally managed to have the time, motivation, and opportunity to assemble a gaming group and play some OSRIC/AD&D this weekend! I'm testing out my adventure idea for Polstrus Lev City of Degenerates. I'm a bit nervous as its been years since I've gotten my game on. However, the good news is that none of my group is really experienced in gaming (other than a recent foray into trying out some 3.5) and extremely excited to try out Old School game play. I had them read Matt Finch's excellent Quick Primer to Old School Gaming to familiarize them with the old school gaming ethos. So Saturday it is. Here's an excerpt of my background for Polstrus Lev: Over six hundred years ago, the citizens of Dustchapel Downs established the colony of Polstrus Lev as a detention camp for the diseased, malformed, mentally infirm, and other such undesirables believing that they were the cursed of the gods and they thus sought t

I hope everyone's 2012 is off to a good start. So far, it has been slow going for Team Bingham with a bout of influenza ushering in the new year, but it seems that is all behind us now. So finally back to projects! I'm revisiting my idea for a low level adventure, the Warrens of Polstrus Lev. A while back, I mused on my idea for dark elves. I never really cared for how dark elves have been portrayed. I picture Dark Elves akin to the degenerate humanoids found in R.E. Howard's "Children of the Night" (you can read the short story here ). To me, dark elves seem, well, too cultured and not degenerate enough. At any rate, I've always wanted to do something with that. So, I'm currently working on a low level adventure entitled "The Warrens of Polstrus Lev, the City of Degenerates". I picture it as a pulpy romp through an underground "city" full of degenerate humanoids. Think of Howard's story meets the movie Night Breed and th

OK, GenCon is almost upon us and I am getting prepared to depart. However, I'm still working on my Isles of Maedsid adventure. Here's a map for one of the sulevels here the Kulakir (baboon/avian beastmen) reside. The Kulakir live on a world that is comprised of floating landmasses covered in thick jungle growth. Here's a map of one of the landmasses that's nearing completion: Here's a peek at one piece of art for Maedsid. It's a spectral black dog, one of the guardians of the funerary mound. The drawing is not yet complete, but getting there. I don't know yet when exactly I'll be done with this so I guess the appropriate answer to that is "it'll be done when it is done." However, I've committed to myself to at the very least have a draft version out before the close of 2011 ;). That is something coming from me since I have been working on my adventure "Sinister Sightings at Dustchappel Downs" since 2006 (and I fu

So here's the keyed maps for Maedsid. I haven't really done much in the way of mapmaking so this was a good exercise for me and fun to boot. I just sort of let things unfold organically (i.e. by the seat of my pants). I like the results though. Now, I need to flesh out the actual keys. I'm also working on some art to go along with it. This is my first time really trying to do something of this scope but I really like the process behind it. Being an artist though, that can be dangerous... It's easy to get lost in the process and never generate a finished output. But I'm determined to see one project through to the end before the close of 2011! Maedsid Isles Barrow Mound/Ritual Complex Main sub level Sub Level A Sub Level B

OK, Here's an updated version of my funerary isle (Maedsid) for the Sea of O'sr. I've got to key it up and work up the map for the funerary mound. Oh yeah, this is open gaming content so feel free to use it. I envision this having a definite druidic/celtic feel when it is complete.

I've been working on some location maps for a while now and figured I'd post some of them here. These are hand drawn and transfered rather crudely to Photoshop and had a grid placed over them. This is a standard 1 square = 10' map. The Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow exists on an island that exists in more than one dimension simultaneously. Also, it has the tendency to "blink" out of existence from time to time on some extraplanar jaunt. Viscount Wilven was a rather unwholesome character in the vein of the Marquis de Sade and surrounded himself with a cast of scoundrels, lunatics, libertines and hedonists. Ultimately becoming an outcast, Wilven tapped into the dark arts and created a rift that set his island home adrift on the planar sea. This has had some startling effects and has made the island and the keep a dangerous place to visit. Here's a map of the first level and two lower sublevels of the keep: I've started to key this level and have tw

One of my biggest mental obstacles in regards to adventure design is undoubtedly map design. It is mostly because I gt so damn fiddly and wishy washy that they just seem to get out of hand and ultimately go nowhere. That said, I do like the idea of making maps. Here's one that I did about a year ago under the auspices of using it for my as of yet vaporware old school project. I've got a little bit of momentum built up and would like to ultimately tie together the random fits and starts of my adventure/project ideas. The idea behind this particular site is an abandoned island that as in the past used solely for ritualistic/funerary purposes. There is a funerary complex, a few scattered ritualistic sites to observe celestial/seasonal events, altar sites, a ritualistic cleansing site, and some other ideas. The smaller island is the gatehouse that has was the only part of the whole complex that had any semi permanent inhabitants in the form of priests/monks/nuns that wer