Ostensible Cat

 So for various reasons, I feel like social media platforms like Facebook, Mewe, Twitter, etc. don't really do it for me when it comes down to really getting into the nuts and bolts of the TTRPG gaming scene. I mean I really miss the OSR Blogosphere circa 2008-2012 or so and the various social media platforms don't scratch the itch for me the same way the blogs scene did a decade ago (holy crap, has it been that long). There was a great community where the blogs all kind of fed off each other. Not just that, the blog posts and content was much more substantive that what is viable over a social media post. I just flat out miss those days. Frankly, I just don't really feel like using social media as a tool to get my ideas out there anymore. Don't get me wrong, Facebook groups are great, and really good for interacting in short bursts. However, I feel like a jerk if I jump into a Facebook group and start with the "hey guys, look! Look at what I've got going on..&q

I have been playing around with some of the digital art tools that I have to see what kind of feasability there was to doing some of my artwork totally digital. Right now, I pretty much do everything traditionally, but then scan it in and alter it as needed. I have an older Wacom Intuos 3 that I haven't gotten much mileage out of, but really wanted to take it for a spin. I also have Clip Studio Paint, Corel Painter 2017, and GIMP, that I kind of dabble with off and on. I am a huge comics fan, and I liked how my sequential art pieces turned out for the Astonshing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea hardback, so I figured I'd like to do some comicbook style stuff in my own style for the Basalt Keep adventure. I really liked the contrast piece that I did in felt marker some time back of Wilven in his lab (below) and figured I'd like to try and do something similar - except completely digitally. I tried out my Wacom tablet in Gimp but was having some issues. The pen was j

Right now, it seems the vogue for Old School type adventures is the Hex Crawl or similar, non-linear adventure type. I totally am down with that, but I was wondering, is there room for an “adventure path” series of linked adventures? I know there are a few such as the Sea of O’SR project , and the continuation of the 1e AD&D Giants series by R.C. Pinnell. I’m working on Isle of Maedsid, which I see as actually belonging to TWO “Adventure Paths”. The first being the Sea of O’SR and the second, being part of a series that I’ve been mulling over for about the past six years or so that I call the Shadow of the Umbra Palace Saga. Maedsid, and much of the other adventures such as Warrens of Polstrus Lev, Sinister Sightings at Dustchappel Downs, and Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow are designed to be able to be used as standalone adventures or as part of a wider (perhaps a bit non-linear) story arc. I’m really interested in exploring higher, non-euclidean geometries/dimensions, tran

Mostly at my drawing table finish up some artwork for Weird Adventures . It has been an absolute BLAST bringing to visual life some small corners of Trey Causey's awesome setting. Now with that wrapped up for the time being, I'm going to focus on some of my own projects as the clock ticks down to GENCON. Mostly, I'm going to prep some original art of sale (matted and mounted and ready for framing - if that's your thing!). Also, I've got to key the map for Isle of Maedsid and write it up. After that, on back to the Warrens of Polstrus Lev and Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow and in the future, Sinister Sightings at Dustchapel Downs as well as Shadow of the Umbra Palace!

Slowly, ever so slowly am I working on Polstrus Lev and Basalt Keep. Part of the problem is I tend to get distracted by reading other people's stuff and it sparks more ideas and makes me revise what I'm working on to incorporate some cool ideas that have been sparked by the material I've been influenced by. Lately, I've been rather taken by the whole Eclipse Phase setting. I'll admit to not really keeping up with the Sci-Fi side of geekdom so Transhumanism and other such concepts were not really on my radar as I'm more of a fantasy guy. However, why limit myself by drinking from one well when there is a whole ocean of cool geekdom out there right? I've really been thinking of my projects in terms of a weird/dark fantasy with Cthulhueque overtones. I've been reading up on theoretical physics and non-Euclidian geometery to fuel some ideas. I'm also now thinking about incorporating some transhumanist themes as well. I was really struck by the i

As in sick. Bear, Rosa and I all are sick and feeling a bit rough around the edges. Poor Daisey is harried trying to take care of all of the sickos whilst we have company coming in from Seattle tomorrow and she is trying to finish her online finals tonight for her master's program! Fortunaqtely, Rosa and I are feeling a bit better and Daisey's mom is staying with us for a bit so that relieaves some of the pressure. I've got some catching up to do on artwork but I'm pretty much on track. Once this set of commissions is over, I'm trying to think of what the next project will be. I've got a few things in mind. Probably I'll get back to work on Polstrus Lev and Basalt Keep with some other ideas floating around as well.

Note: The following magic item is designated open game content. The Jaundiced Eye is a magical pendant belonging to Viscount Wilven D’Ava (Also known as Wilven the Yellow). Viscount D’Ava was possessed of several predilections that have ostracized him from mainstream society. A self proclaimed seeker of knowledge and truth, Wilven firmly believed in the ends justifying the means. Wilven proved to be quite adept at the practice of magic and amassed a large variety of magical items to aid him in his quest for knowledge and power. The Eye of Joqua Ha Denaes (colloquially known as the Jaundiced Eye) is a large topaz set in white gold and worn as a pendant. The eye is roughly the size and shape of a human eye. It possesses many magical properties (both malevolent and benign). The pendant is strongly aligned with chaos and any being of a non-chaotic alignment must make a save versus magic or take 1d12 points of damage. Further, any non-chaotic being must make a successful save ve

I started plotting my own Old School Gaming project back in 2006. Actually a little earlier due to some traffic at EN World discussing old school projects. With the advent of OSRIC, I really started to feel like things were going in the right direction and that I would really be able to create something and release it back to the community. I had a ton of ideas, but of course I'd always scrap them and move on. It is hard for me to really follow through on a project if I'm really the only driving force. I tend to move on to new shiny things. Yeah, I'm bad at that. However, today I actually finished the maps for Basalt Keep! I've also numbered the encounter areas. 160 of them total! The keep itself has four floors, a tower with six floors, and two sublevels. I'm actually quite pleased that I've maintained this forward momentum. Now I need to key the map areas. Like I said in my earlier post, not sure how long it'll take but I think with the curren

I finally finished hand drawing the maps yesterday. Much to my chagrin, my computer crashed so I had to start rekeying everything I had done so far. Not tooo big a deal. I just glad to have them finished and scanned in. So, I'll generate the map keys from there. I'm not sure how long that will take yet but I should have a good idea in a few days. I'm going to release a no art, map and text only Open Game Content version of the Basalt Keep once it is keyed up. For what I have in mind, it's probably going to be a fairly high level adventure, but we'll see once I start fleshing it out. It seems most adventures out there so far for the Old School Renaissance have been in the low to mid level range so I want to fill a gap that is not represented well yet. On another note, I just finished watching the new trailer for the HBO Game of Thrones series. I'm pretty darned excited about this. It starts in April, but of course that means I probably won't get to

I want to expand a little on yesterday’s topic of having shared touch stones in OSR projects. There is some really cool stuff going on with megadungeons like Stonehell as well as Zak Smith’s Gigacrawler shared world. I’m very interested in those projects. I’d like to have some shared resources as well. Think something like the Eternal city of Tanelorn that was open sourced so everyone could use it. It could make an appearance in Gigacrawler or in Stonehell or in whatever campaign. Again, I interested in people, places and or things that are free to use in other settings. I really like the idea of being able to pick up a module and seeing Baba Yaga’s Hut in Greyhawk as well as it appearing in someplace like the Wilderlands or someone’s mythic Russia campaign. I’m going to open source my Basalt Keep for just that purpose. I’ve almost finished with most of the maps of the Keep itself. What I intend is that the Keep is essentially a temporal/spatial hopping artifact. I’m going t

Played a game of Dungeon! with the whole family today. My three and a half year old daughter won the day. Let me tell you, she has got what it takes to be quite the fearless delver. My son was quite a bit more reserved and calculating. My wife even had a lot of fun (she came in second). All in all, much fun was had by all. Eventually, I’d like to see if I can get the gang hooked into a game of Mentzner Basic D&D or Labyrinth Lord. Patience, patience… I worked on a campaign map today. I’m doing it entirely in Photoshop and learning about stuff alone the way. So it’s slow going but valuable since I’m learning some things along the way. Since I’m taking the week off (and I’m feeling better) I’m hoping to knock out quite a bit of art projects (as well as work on the Delve! Board game and Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow Labyrinth Lord Adventure). I’ve got a couple of new art projects that I’m really excited about. I had thought about trying to work up some more Petty Gods s

I didn't get as far this week as I'd hoped on my mapping for the Basalt Keep. I do think I've got the rough outlines for the above ground levels. There are essentially five levels to the keep and six or so for a tower that sits atop the keep. I'm pretty jazzed about the whole idea and it keeps flowing nicely as far as the mapping goes. Once that is done, I'll go back and flesh out the keyed areas. The intent is to have this place populated with entirely new critters. The Basalt Keep is a temporal/dimensional hopping location, so the whole will be populated not just by strange critters, but by strange and in some cases horrific locations, items, and events. Viscount Wilven D'Ava is essentially a hedonist/libertine with a character in the Alister Crowley/Marquis de Sade vein. Add to that the inhabitants that the keep and the island that it sits upon from the multidimensonal wandering that has gone on and you'll get the idea. As far as my work on Delve!

Work continues on the Project that Shall Not Be Named (actually, I can't be bothered to give the campaign world a name yet). I'm still working on the Basalt Keep Maps. I've tweaked them a bit from my last posting. As I've mentioned, mapping really is something that I've struggled with but I think I'm begining to come around. As for the map of the campaign world, I'm still working it but I need to decide on the scope that I wish to encompass. I'll get back to that at some point, I just want to go with the Basalt Keep and flesh that out. At any rate, I was lurking around the message boards as I am wont to do and was reading up on some projects that are very much of interest to me. Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea ( here's a link to the product and one for the thread at Dragonsfoot here ) by North Wind Adventures and Swords and Cthulhu: the World of Zultoom ( link ). These two projects are very similar in flavor to what m

I finished four map levels and numbered the rooms for the map key today (I changed them a bit from the style below). I stand at three levels for the Basalt Keep with a total of 107 keyed areas and two sublevels with a further of 29 keyed areas. I have at least one more above ground level and at least one more level for the lava caves under the Keep. Then it will be time to write the keys and other stuff. It'll have a weird fantasy/horror feel (at least right now - I am pretty fickle so it's subject to change depending what I come up with when I'm fleshing out the keys). I'm thinking about sending this to Fight On! or perhaps going through and putting it out on Lulu. since I'm primarily an artist; I want to do quite a bit of art for this. Anyway, I'm tired so it's time to read a bit then off to bed for the evening.

Ok, here's an unedited peek at levels two and three of the basalt keep. I intend to add one more ascending level and then start on some underground levels. I've been ruminating on an OSR project for almost five years now (ever since my initial involvement with the OSRIC project). I've finally decided upon a hex crawl campaign world. The basalt keep will be one location. It's strange dimensional properties should make it easily incorporated into any campaign. I've also got an idea for another weird fantasy location involving a strange, sorcerous space/time tower that I've tentatively called the Strange Geometries. One project at a time...

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