Shattered Skull Pass

As I've mentioned before, I like to mix in a fantasy painting for our D&D campaign amongst the other stuff that I am working on.

Tonight, I wanted to take one of the cheapo 10 by 20 Michael's brand basic "value" bulk canvases and start a beach scene for practice.

I did this instead.

Berith and Shattered Skull Pass (oils on canvas, 10 by 20)

In our D&D campaign, this is a view westward past the lakeside ruins of Berith toward Shattered Skull Pass and the Orinak Peaks beyond.

I like most of this as a first layer, with the exception of the woods on the near right side of the rocky ridge in the middle distance.

Saint Zantil's Monastery

Every now and then, I like to take a break from trying to paint a "serious" picture and take the time to paint a fantasy scene; generally something related to a Dungeons and Dragons campaign location.

Saint Zantil's Monastery (work in process)

In the semi-post-pandemic era, a few of us have started to gather and play an in-person D&D game, and after returning from a week in Avalon NJ  yesterday, I painted a few shore scenes (more on that later), and then felt like painting something fantastic. So this is that. A location in our game that the players have not been to yet, but may have reason to go to in the near future. Or not. Either way, it was a fun and quick little painting. [12" by 16" in Charvin oils]

When the base layer dries I have some touch up and detail work left to do...

Completed D&D Monsters

A little bit of additional detail work has completed the three new monster miniatures posted previously.

Bone Naga, Giant Snake and Cloaker (Dragonborn for scale)

Next on the painting table are a few more D&D blister packs: Grick and Grick Alpha, Grell and Basilisk, Black Dragon Wyrmling and Blue Dragon Wyrmling. And the Roper from the last post...

I hope to have at least some of these done by the end of the weekend.

Painting Some Recent D&D Miniatures

While the most recent oil painting effort first layer dries for a few days, I have been inspired to go back to painting some Dungeons and Dragons miniatures that I have picked up recently at Games Keep in West Chester, and Showcase Comics in Swarthmore. I have gone to Games Keep a few times in recent months with the express purpose of spending some money to support them, and I went to Showcase Comics yesterday for this first time in over a year for the same purpose. No harm in buying a bunch of stuff that you want but don't really need if it helps the stores that you value and want to still be around when the pandemic ends. Or at least moves into a different phase...

Of the [unspecified] number of packs of pre-primed ready to paint WizKids miniatures I picked up, I decided to start with the 4 shown below: a Cloaker (the manta ray thing), a giant constrictor snake, a Bone Naga, and a Roper (the tentacled stalagmite thing). All are recent releases and are classic D&D monsters, and all would be useful adds to my "painted by me" collection. I know that I have a couple of pre-painted Ropers, and an older pre-painted Cloaker, as well as a host of snakes of all shapes and sizes, but these models are all very nice and will be on the easier end of the painting scale. Not having done any miniature painting in a a bunch of months, I'd like to get back into it with something that can be done effectively and quickly so as to give me the positive feedback to continue with some more.

Dungeons and Dragons minis

The Bone Naga is not that far from done. The Cloaker has some partial base coating only, as does the Giant Constrictor Snake. The Roper has only been glued to his base and had some mold lines scraped and cleaned up. The dragonborn sorcerer is included for scale. These are all big monsters.

As a side note, you can see where I have added Liquitex brand flexible modeling paste to the bases of the snake and the Cloaker to blend the molded figure base into the base itself. It's always good to do this BEFORE painting anything, if you have the patience (and memory) to do so. The Bone Naga is almost done and then the base will still need to be dealt with. I need to fix the Roper base before painting to avoid the same problem I will have with the Bone Naga.

 More to come.

Adventures of Erindale - Part 1

With lockdown continuing on...maybe forever...the need to get some sort of gaming in has become more and more top of mind for me. So if all else fails, do it yourself. In other words, play a solo game. I've owned Joseph McCullough's Rangers of Shadow Deep (ROSD) since shortly after it was released and have always wanted to give it a go. There's no time like the present.

ROSD is a solo (or cooperative) miniatures games set in a dark fantasy world where the "Shadow Deep" is encroaching on civilization. You (or several of you) play a Ranger and their band of companions, playing through programmed scenarios to defeat the evil rampant in the world. Each scenario defines the game board setup, objectives, random events, clues that can be found that tie in to the multi-scenario adventure paths, treasures available to be found, and gives basic artificial intelligence on how to control the evil creatures you are fighting against. No matter how many players you have, you are all on the same side fighting against the evil.

I would be remiss to note that ROSD is a different-flavored adaptation of the same game engine that runs McCullough's well-received earlier game Frostgrave (published by Osprey), which pits wizard-led war bands against each other in a player-versus-player version of basically the same game, but in a different fantasy setting (and much more oriented toward magic).

Scenario 1 from the rulebook is called The Deserted Village, and pits a brand new Ranger and his companions against swarms of zombies and giant rats while trying to discover clues as to what happened to the villagers. The initial set up is shown below. [I had so much fun fumbling though this first scenario that I forgot to take any more pictures after this one...]

Game Setup - The Deserted Village

A few notes on the scenario (and the setup). The Ranger and his companions start in the center of the 36" square board, surrounded by zombies and rats. There are a few houses spaced around the board, and 6 clue markers (the white beads, some of which are visible in the picture). The good guys need to collect the clues while surviving the attacks of the bad guys and their reinforcements, which come on every turn in the form of random events. I painted the terrain board. The rest are houses and various other pieces from my collection. The figures at this point are almost exclusively D&D figures from the various WizKids lines, although I have a bunch of new Frostgrave figures that I am assembling and painting specifically for ROSD.

I found the rules to be simple but fun, and made for an enjoyable ~2 hours. If I knew the rules better, this probably would have been played in under an hour. The nice thing about the AI for the enemies, and the randomness of the clues and events, is that by some very simple mechanics, it removed the usual issue in solo gaming of how to play the enemy at least somewhat fairly...

As for my mini-campaign, I created a Ranger named Erindale, named for my earliest Dungeons and Dragons character I can remember (an elven ranger from the AD&D days of the late 1970's). Erindale would be supported by his companions Roderick the guardsman, Volko the archer, Irina the tracker, Thomas the recruit and Ethan "Grayblade" the rogue.

In a very quick recap of this scenario, we took some significant damage early, but then had a good run of luck in the mid- and late game, resulting in a smashing success. Nobody dropped to zero Health, and we achieved all of the scenario goals, getting experience points for those, and also killing a bunch of zombies and rats in the process.

The role playing game aspect of ROSD is that your Ranger gains experience (XP) for things that happen in each scenario, allowing you to "level up" after gaining enough XP. This in turn allows you to improve your stats, skills, etc... Your companions can also improve, but at a much slower rate (they get a point of XP if they survived the scenario without dropping to zero Health, and advance at a different rate). A Ranger or companion that drops to zero Health during the game (i.e. out of play) must roll on a chart to see if they are killed, suffer a long-term wound/effect etc...

Since we had such a successful mission, Erindale will advance from level 0 to level 1, gaining some skill points as a result. I can't wait to play the next (and final) scenario in this two part mini-adventure. Which might happen tonight. Or I might work on some terrain, or paint some figures... There are other adventure paths available after this simple 2-scenario one.

Lastly, if you want to see great examples of what ROSD is about, go to YouTube and search for Guerrilla Miniature Games, then look for his Rangers of Shadow Deep playlist and find this scenario as one of the very first videos listed).

Gaming Plans

After a hiatus of the better part of a year, we had just begun to make plans to revive our role playing gaming, and had played a session or two to get things going again.

Then quarantine happened and everything stopped.

Zoom and Skype and the like have taken over work as well as leisure pastimes, so we are taking baby steps toward seeing what we can do use online technology to enable gaming of some sort. There are a bunch of virtual table top options out there, but I am thinking start very modest. Get a few people together on a Zoom call and play something simple, without the aid of a VTT. For now.

This may or may not end up happening, but in anticipation of it, I have scribbled some map drafts. A borderlands region "beyond the mountains" from a fading kingdom... Semi-wilderness. Rugged terrain. Frontier laws, etc...

Borderlands

And the town of Oren, center of the modest Duchy of the same name. The town is divided into Orenspire, or the more affluent section of town built atop a defensible rocky hill, and Orenlee, the lower (and poorer) section of the town built on the level ground in the lee of the hill.

Orenspire and Orenlee

I have no idea what any of this means at this point; it's just a few rough maps.

I'd like this to be the basis of trying out Index Card RPG from Runehammer Games. It's simple, and I think my players would like it. And it is straightforward enough that I think we could play over a Zoom call without any difficulty.

We shall see...

Spring 2019 Painting

I've done a good bit of painting over the last few months, especially in the past few weeks since the new range of Citadel Contrast paints came out. I'm always a sucker for something new. The Contrast paint range is basically just a highly pigmented glaze, so in that respect it's nothing new, but the new range release is notable in that they have released about 3 dozen colors at the same time. More on those particular paints later. In the meantime, here's a few of the smaller odds and ends I have painted over the course of the spring.

WizKids unpainted minis has a blister pack of 3 giant spiders. I bought two packs and painted them in about 10 minutes using just the Contrast paint "Blood Angels Red". One of the molds has wrapped victims on the base. These were painted khaki and washed with a brown shade. I have lots of spiders of various manufacturers (you can never have too many) and these 6 red ones add some variety to an existing mix of predominantly blacks, browns and grays.

WizKids Giant Spiders

I also had a blister pack of 2 pack animals. These were painted over the pre-primed white base coat with a variety of Contrast paint colors (browns, tans and greens, with a couple pops of brighter color). These were good examples of what the Contrast paints do - color, shade and highlight all in one go. These are nice little minis, and can be useful on the table (I like everyday scatter/clutter like these), but with the limited amount of painting time I have available, investing a bunch of time in these to paint them nicely in the traditional manner wouldn't have happened very easily. In an absolute minimal amount of time, I have these 2 done. Not great paint jobs by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly serviceable.

WizKids Pack Animals

A Shambling Mound. A classic D&D monster, and one of the nicer WizKids figs. This was painted the traditional way, using a muted palette of greens and browns. I should have put a human figure in some of these pictures for scale... this miniature is ~2.5 inches tall and ~3.5 inches wide at its widest (the outstretched arm). I have another one of these in stock which I will probably paint in a more "fantastical" manner (whatever that means).

WizKids Shambling Mound

The Treant model is another large WizKids fig (being about 5 minutes tall). I don't like the paint job, but it's done, so that's something. This ended up being one of those models that looks good up close or in person, but will probably look very dark and dull on the table. Maybe I'll find another and try it again.

WizKids Treant

You can never go wring with some torture chamber furniture... Or a mirror.

WizKids Torture Chamber stuff

Lastly, I painted 4 Games Workshop Hormagaunt figs in a hive fleet Kraken color scheme. I posted some pictures of my Tyranid Genestealers in the cotton candy explosion color scheme, and after Grace pointed that out I have trouble painting anything else in that scheme. Maybe I'll do some more Genestealers in these classic colors. [These actually have a little more detail work before they are done, but while I was taking pictures...]

GW Hormagaunts

I've also made some progress on some larger efforts. More on that soon.

Painting Table January 2019

It's been a while since I've done one of these, or for that matter a post of any sort. This thought struck me while I was looking at the giant mess pile that is my painting table in the basement. Most of what is on the table is stuff that is more or less recently-ish in process. So without further ado...

The whole mess

At far right, we have a tray of Warhammer 40k figures used for games of Kill Team with Ryan and Josh. Genestealers in front are basically done. The Eldar guardians in the middle are maybe 50% done. The Space Marines tactical squad and scouts in the back are perhaps 80-90% done. There are some other bits less done on other parts of the table.

Warhammer 40k for Kill Team

Middle-ish we have a bunch of blister packs of unpainted D&D miniatures. Some character figures, some monsters, and some torture chamber scenery. Plus a very large remorhaz figure in the box in the back. There's an earth elemental and an arcane altar on the little paper plate. And the box for a fantasy ruins terrain kit.

Unpainted D&D minis

On the left side of the table, which is the more active side since it is where the lights and the paints are, we have a variety of things. There is a mostly done Shambling Mound figure for D&D, and a group of Umber Hulks. There are some black primed tyranid warriors and smaller critters for Kill Team. I see a torture rack. A few treasure chests. An iron maiden (the torture device, not the band). A couple of character figures that have been started. And the first test piece of the Azyrite ruins set whose box we saw in the prior picture. Oh, and an owlbear with a little paint on it.

The more active bits

On the gaming table, we have odds and ends of a waterside terrain board I am making. And the main bits of a Tamiya 1/35 scale Panther ausf "A" model that I am building. More on that in a separate post. I think I built this exact kit in the early 1980's (it is copyright 1975), and again in ~2000. I felt like building a tank model kit, and I love the Panther. A pretty tank if there is such a thing. And this particular kit is crazy cheap on eBay, relatively speaking.

Waterside scenery and a 1/35 Panther "A"

So that's some of the multitude of hobby bits that have gotten some attention recently. If I ever actually finish anything, I will post pictures...

Jungle Ruins

I never got around to posting a finished look at the ruins terrain I wrote about making back in June. I also mentioned more recently working on some scatter terrain for jungle or other densely foliated areas. I have taken a picture of both laid out together.

Our Heroes Explore Long-Forgotten Ruins

I have a few more ruin pieces in process that I will finish at some point. I also have a lot more fake floral bits to increase the number of pieces of foliage scatter. The foliage scatter is a more pressing need...

SAS - Organizing and Cataloging

One of my stated short-attention-span goals before the end of the year was to review the cataloging and organization/storage of my now-pretty-big D&D miniatures collection. This turned out to be more work than I had thought it would be, but I finished this effort earlier tonight.

In short...wow, I've collected a lot of D&D miniatures over the last 4+ years. And it turns out that I hadn't been doing as good a job keeping track of them as I thought I had been doing. I keep a spreadsheet. Or it turns out I was keeping most of a spreadsheet.

D&D Miniatures Collection

Anyway, that's all fixed for now. Every miniature cataloged, accounted for, organized and filed away in storage boxes. Compartmented storage boxes are a wonderful thing, as is a good spreadsheet. If you're into that sort of thing. Which I most definitely am (as those who know me will attest!).

As of now, the collection totals 1,071 figures. Yikes. Not a typo... That is an average of roughly 22 figures a month for 4 years. My one main splurging vice really. Fortunately, a good number of these figures come from "bottom feeding" on eBay, buying stuff at its cheapest, and in batches. Not everything though, to be sure. In addition to a couple of eBay stores as my primary purchase avenue,  also do buy a few blind boxes at the Games Keep store in West Chester for ranges I know I like and have little of yet, but I don't do much of this. I like to buy what I want, not what chance provides me. That being said, I have gotten some treasures (relatively speaking) in the few blind boxes I have bought, and they are fun to open.

Perhaps sometime soon I will post some of the rarer or favorite figures I have collected.

Miniatures Painting Again

This weekend is the HMGS Fall In! convention in Lancaster (PA), and I probably won't make it out there this year, even for a brief fly-by. Even if I no longer feel the need to block out the 2-3 days to attend the whole convention, play in a few games, and perhaps even run a game or two, I still always enjoy stopping in to these conventions for part of a day to wander the event rooms and get energized to go home and do some painting of my own.

That won't happen this time around but I am happy to say that the painting bug has already bitten recently, and I have been properly re-energized as far as painting goes. I have noted in recent posts that I have been painting some sci-fi stuff along with Ryan and Josh (for Kill Team), but the painting binge has extended beyond that.

There is a very nice ongoing line of releases for WizKids unpainted D&D miniatures (and Pathfinder minis). The figures are very nice for the most part, and pre-primed, so all you need to do is break something out of the package and dive in. Below are a few of the things I have been working on over the past few months. I won't discuss backlog of unpainted purchases...

Recent batch of painting - high view

The newly painted lot includes (in rough order of completion) a griffon, 4 gargoyles, 2 rust monsters, a pair of umber hulks (there are 2 more finished in addition to these 2), an earth elemental and a troll.

Recent batch of painting - lower view

These minis are the made from the same softer plastic that the pre-painted WizKids stuff is. I have purchased loads of those over the past 3-4 years. The paint jobs range from pretty good to pretty "meh", but they are ready to go on the table the moment that the magical eBay fairy delivers them to my house from my main supplier in New Mexico (kingsoflight eBay store - great folks...).

I paint better than the mass produced stuff coming over from China, but I also don't have to crank out "x" number of figures per hour. The main difference in my painted stuff versus the pre-painted is that I tend to go for brighter cleaner colors (or maybe I should say lighter cleaner colors). Some of the pre-painted stuff is pretty dark, and can blend into a table pretty well in a not-perfectly lit basement gaming area.

Next up on the painting table is up in the air at the moment. I have sci-fi stuff to finish for whenever we get together for another round of Kill Team. I have a bunch of WizKids character figures to paint that will be a fun challenge, but which I don't really need for anything as far as actual gaming goes. There are a bunch of elementals, mimics and other D&D monsters to get to at some point. And I can always dive back into my prepped-and-primed backlog of historical minis, especially Ottomans and later medieval Hungarians and other eastern Europeans.

Time will tell....

The Curmudgeon in the Cellar

No. I don't mean me. Although the description is becoming more true as time goes by I suppose.

I mean the title of a series of YouTube videos by Tim Kask, one of the fathers of Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are credited with creating the game, but Tim Kask was an early playtester, proofreader, confidant and editor for Gary Gygax. He was the first editor of Dragon magazine, helped launch the careers of many of the pantheon of 70's and 80's fantasy artists, and helped Gygax split the game into Basic and Advanced D&D in the late 70's. His contribution was substantial, and his stories and memories of the behind-the-scenes goings-on are priceless.

The YouTube video series is now up to 50+ entries and counting (he is still posting new ones as of now), and is a rambling (and sometimes repetitive) series of stories told in the form of answering viewer/reader questions.

For those such as me with an interest in the history of D&D and the behind the scenes stories, these videos are a treasure trove of interesting bits. Gygax and Arneson are both gone, having passed before the proliferation of this sort of thing, and so their memories are largely lost, at least in the format of stories being told directly to you as the audience. Tim Kask is one of the ones remaining who is able to fill this role, at least from the earliest days.

He seems like a nice guy. Curmudgeonly for sure. A bit disdainful, if respectfully, of many of the more modern iterations of the game and the various developments thereof. A true proponent of "original D&D is the game we made, the game we loved, and it's all I need". Which is fine, as those are the stories and viewpoint I am working my way through this series for.

These ramblings and recollections aren't for everybody, but if you have an interest in the history of the game, and RPGs in general, this is worth an occasional listen in on.

Dungeons and Dragons Relics

These recent D&D remembrances have led me back. Back to the basement. Where the relics of the past, in the form of old D&D and fantasy RPG materials live, safe in their bookcase. So here are a few of the prized possessions, in this regard, which I am happy to still own. Sadly, there are some things that I sold off years ago that I wish I still had, but thankfully none of the truly good stuff. I couldn't bring myself to sell them off then, despite their value, for which I am thankful...

The "white box" books; the first three books. Original D&D in its first format. Not the truly first editions, but close followers thereon in the form of 3rd/4th/5th printings of those first three books in a white box instead of the original wood grain box. Also the First and Third supplements (missing supplement #2, Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, which I never owned).

Original D&D

Other TSR stuff.

Rogues Gallery - Pre-generated NPCs

The first set of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons hardcover books. Somewhat the worse for wear after very hard use in the teenaged years, but as with all of my collection, in very good shape all things considered...

AD&D First Printings

A few of the old original adventure modules in the original monochrome printings.

Old TSR Adventure Modules

The City-State of the Invincible Overlord by Judges Guild. Amazing early maps in these, and a tremendous amount of detail. Overkill, we would say these days.

Invincible Overlord

And Dark Tower.

More Judges Guild

Carse, Jonril, Tulan of the Isles, the Black Tower, etc, by Midkemia Press. Authored at least in part by Raymond Feist who would go on to become a famous fantasy author.

Midkemia Press

A bunch of Second Edition era Forgotten Realms materials, some of which are now quite valuable. This is the era of stuff where I owned other things and sold a few of them (Maztica and Kara Tur boxed sets, etc...)

The Shelf of Old Stuff

Included on the treasured Shelf of Old Stuff are such things are the two Ruins of Undermountain boxed sets, the Ruins of Myth Drannor boxed set, a couple old versions of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, the old Waterdeep city boxed set, and some Middle Earth role playing stuff, including the magnificent if unwieldy Moria folio. On the lower pictured shelf are many/most of the first and second edition D&D/AD&D modules. There are also a few editions of basic D&D (Holmes and Moldvay).

Lots of good memories here. (And kids, when I'm gone, don't throw these in the recycle bin please...)

[A quick clarification: Virtually everything above, and everything I own that is old stuff, I own because I bought it when it came out. Despite my recent (2014+) dive back into D&D, one thing I have been able to successfully resist the urge to do, to this point, is to go back and troll eBay for all the things from way back in the day that I didn't ever own, and to buy them now. I'm not sure exactly why this is, as knowing myself and being honest with myself, this is the sort of thing I would typically do... Perhaps it is because much of these old things aren't that good (sacrilege for a different blog post), and without some personal connection to them or memories that they would conjure, I am aware that they wouldn't have much meaning to me. Going back and re-purchasing bulk lots of earlier Dragon magazines that I used to own, sold off at some point, and enjoy owning again is a different matter, and I do some of that...]

Art and Arcana - A Visual History of D&D

Perhaps in an effort to recapture lost youth, but perhaps simply because I have always loved it, Dungeons & Dragons has been a part of my life again over the past 5 years or so. Part of that has been to read some books on the history of the role playing game hobby (specifically D&D), watch some YouTube videos by Tim Kask, Frank Mentzer and others who were involved in the formative days of D&D, etc...

So it was with a good deal of interest that I saw that someone was going to be publishing a book on the visual (art) history of D&D. Co-authors included Michael Witwer (author of Empire of Imagination, a biography of sorts on Gary Gygax) and Jon Peterson (author of Playing at the World, the definitive history of D&D). I have, and have read, both of those books, and loved both of them.

Buying Art & Arcana was a no-brainer. And not to be regretted.

An Amazing Book...

This is a big thick coffee table sized book of terrific production values. It covers the development of D&D from a visual and artistic point of view. It has early art, later updates, and a study of the development of the art and iconography of D&D through the various editions, dating from c.1975 through the current day.

It's an informative and instructive work of obvious love by the authors, and has triggered many a "memory lane" moment for me. My history with D&D is the very first "white box" edition of ~1976 (?) (which I thankfully still own) through AD&D (1st edition) with a little Second Edition, but then with a 25 year hiatus between ~1990 and 2014 (5th edition). I recognize the "earliest days" art, and the modern stuff, but not the 2+ decades of intermediate development. Fascinating stuff.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in D&D and/or fantasy art in general, especially at the Amazon discounted price...

Ruins

I follow a number of crafting web sites for D&D ideas. One of my favorites is Black Magic Craft, and a recent video on modular ruins showed such a nice looking end product that I actually decided to try this out for myself. The video is here.

Two things I will say up front. First, the end result really looks great. Second, this is a time-consuming, fiddly, pain in the butt project. But worth it. If you are into this sort of thing.

Without the Proxon table hot wire cutter, I wouldn't even consider attempting this. With the Proxon, it is fiddly but possible.

You begin by milling a great many individual stone blocks. A great many... I did both large and small sizes. You then build walls, stone by stone. Mine, as in the BMC video, are based on heavy duty cardboard. Some model railroad talus is glued on in bunches afterward.

Building ruins from single foam bricks

When the pieces have been built, they are then base coated with a mixture of Mod Podge and cheap black craft paint. This serves as both a base coat and a level of protection for the foam.

Undercoat black-tinted Mod Podge

To have a useful amount of these pieces, you need lots of them. Lots of stones. Lots of gluing. Lots of painting.

Lots of pieces in various stages of progress

Painting of the pieces, for me, is the same as my painting scheme for generic Underdark terrain or any other stonework. A dark gray heavy brush. A medium-light gray dry brush, fairly heavy. Then a light grayish-white dry brush to pick out the highlights. On some pieces, perhaps not those shown in the picture below, a final wash of brownish-black tones down the brightness and makes the ruins a little dingy.

A couple of finished pieces

A good project, with a very very nice end result, but not for the person for whom this degree of fiddly-ness would make them run screaming from the room. Admittedly, I have a high tolerance, at times, for this degree of relaxational fiddly-ness. But at times I felt like running screaming from the room.

I have done a decent number of both large and small block walls, pillars, etc, and will post another pic of a final set-up soon.

Sketching Fun - April

Nothing much to say here by way of explanation...

As noted previously, I like sketching random towns and settlements for our Dungeons and Dragons games (even stuff that I will likely never need or use). This also gives me the chance to try out different markers, pens, pencils and artists paper, and to try different styles and looks. The below town of perhaps 500 souls is in the style I find myself using currently.

A New Town

The other bit of doodling I like to do, on a grander scale, is world maps. Again, for D&D games that we will never play, and worlds I will never use. Often these are nothing more than evening spare-time killers. The map below is the first sketch of a new world on a 24 inch by 18 inch sketch pad, at 96 miles per inch. So this is a decent chunk of a continent, with islands in the middle and hints of other continents to the west and south.

A New World

I do have the intention of one day coming up with a D&D home-brew fantasy world that has a better overarching design thought process behind it (as opposed to the build as you go world we are playing in now). I like parts of the world we are playing in, and am frustrated by other parts of it.

Oh well.

Sketching and doodling and daydreaming is fun. Not the most productive thing in the world perhaps, but a fun way to spend some time after the kids have settled down and the house is quiet...

Map Work - Underdark

As noted previously, I enjoy sketching out town and location maps as a means of mindless winding down at the end of a long work day.

A recent project has been to begin drawing an Underdark city, the city of Nurgilokk. Nurgilokk exists in the upper layer of the Underdark, and has connections to a number of other locations, notably the human above-ground city of Crygar.

Underdark city (Nurgilokk) in Progress...

I envision this city as a meeting place of many races and cultures. A tense but civil trading location where disparate peoples come together to do business regardless of what their more widespread racial conflicts might be.

I envision connections to the surface at Crygar to the northwest. Connections to a small drow (dark) elf city to the southwest. A river connection to a large underground lake to the south, where kua-toa boatmen would guide small rafts and boats back and forth. Kobold farmers in caves to the east and southeast. And the "main road" connection to the deeper Underdark to the north/northeast.

Whether or not the characters in our campaign, or any characters in any future campaigns, ever visit this place is irrelevant. I will sketch it out and have fun doing so. Maybe I'll finish it. Maybe not. Perhaps it will get used at some point in the future in a way different from what I originally intended. That's fine too.

If I ever finish the map, I'll post it here as well...

Lava Caverns Crafting

There is a situation developing in our D&D campaign that has me needing to put together some lava terrain for an ancient fire elemental temple cavern complex. Taking a cue from some terrain building I had seen recently on Runehammer Games' YouTube channel, I decided to do mine in a similar vein.

Walkways, platforms, monuments and passages were all carved from 3/4 inch foam insulation board, with a sharp beveled edge and linear geometric patterns. This was all done with simple free hand carving using an Xacto hobby knife. I didn't bother to base coat the pieces since they would be getting multiple layers of paint.

Stage 1 was a thorough coating of a ~60/40 mix of Craftsmart "Wine" and Black. This was liberally applied with the most important thing being that the recesses were filled in. The flat surfaces were less important to get an even coat on, since they would be getting 3 more coats.

Stage 1 - 60/40 mix of "Wine" and Black

Stage 2 was a heavy sponge of "Wine", unmixed out of the bottle.

Stage 2 - Heavy sponge of "Wine"

Stage 3 was a medium sponging of Craftsmart "Terra Cotta". This was done heavily enough to lighten up the pieces pretty substantially, but not so heavy as to completely obscure the darker "Wine" color underneath.

Stage 3 - Medium sponge of "Terra Cotta"

Stage 4 - Seen below in action (complete with Arian the Sorcerer's lightning bolt template!), the final stage was a somewhat random and somewhat heavy dry brush of Folk Art "Yellow Ochre". This simple step was the magic ingredient that took the pieces from "nice" to "yeah, that's what I was going for!"

Stage 4 - Light dry brush of "Yellow Ochre"

We used these pieces in our most recent D&D session, and they looked great. More on that over on my D&D campaign blog...

Folk Art acrylic craft paints are probably better quality than Craftsmart paints, but the local Michaels store now stocks a broader range of Craftsmart colors than Folk Art, and at 70 cents each (compared to 1.59 or so for Folk Art), you can't beat the value. For bulk use in crafting projects like this, I'm liking the Craftsmart paints a lot.

Map Work - Ishtala

Sketching recently has resulted in a draft map of the desert city of Ishtala, in the Kossaran realm of Marishtana. I love these 18 by 24 inch sketch pads...

Ishtala work in process

The heroes of our D&D campaign may (or may not) find themselves in this place at some point in the not too distant future...

Standing Stones

In a D&D game, there are a few types of must-have terrain to keep in your back pocket for use as your players and their characters bumble and stumble around the world (if you are into that sort of thing...). Standing stones, obelisks, and forgotten monument stones rank high on that list.

When the mood strikes me to make something in the way of fantasy terrain, and I can't figure out something specific to do, it is an easy choice to carve up a few standing stones, monuments or forgotten altars (blood-stained perhaps...).

Standing stone and forgotten altar miscellany

These take virtually no time at all, and consist of a little bit of knife-carved foam coated with a darker gray undercoat and a light gray sponging overtop. Throw in a little dark green or light green weathering for a change of pace. Easy Peasy.