Props to Zombie Nirvana

I would also like to give some love to Zombie Nirvana for an AMAZING series of podcasts that deal with creating fantasy cartography using Photoshop. I recently listened to / watched the first 14 or so episodes and managed to create the following map for my homebrew world, Kildaire.

I am not going to continue the blog with any more posts regarding how to create a map–there are way too many other tutorials out there by people who are much more skilled with PS than I. This does not mean that I will not be continuing my blog on world building, it just means that I will start up soon with my newly redesigned map of Kildaire and being walking through the next series of WBing issues that need to be addressed.

I promise to be back real soon, once I get a few things over at Myth-Weavers settled down and rolling smoothly….

Faded Ruins

This is the second section of writing that I have for my 4e character application over on Myth-Weavers. I have finally figured out, through the writing of this background, how my character views the world and who he worships. I also feel that this background offers a truly unique take on the Avenger class and how the teachings are transmitted. This, of course, is speculation as I have zero experience with 4e or any other Avenger backgrounds. I hope you enjoy.

The Temple of the Tre’Cinq has devoted its worship to Ioun since its inception. The Masters believe that research and documenting history, coupled with a devotion to steeling the mind, will create the strongest disciples the world over. Routine is held as sacred as the methodical hand used to write the tomes which the disciples have poured over for decades. This ideology has served well for most—sometimes, however, there comes a disciple who develops the itch to travel. It is a yearning that’s fire burns hotter by the week. Some have respectfully requested to leave for an extended period of time. Some have been expelled for actions deemed intolerable by the Masters. Some simply leave.

Raepoch’s yearning was the sum of several issues. He could feel, deep inside of him, that there was much more to life than the tomes in the temple. There were bobbles, and magic, and enchantments, and myriad fascinating locations that he had only read about. This fact, that the temple taught of people, places, and things that they had only experienced through musty tomes, was what irked him the most.

He also felt the calling of something greater than himself—something that he always attributed to his well-documented lineage. He knew that his grandmother had been Eladrin—no one had to tell him, he felt it. That he looks so much like the great majority of the others in the temple frustrated him to no end. He was special because the history of the temple documented to lineage, but to anyone who had not read about his grandmother, he looked like any other human. Raepoch cannot help but wonder if his blood has been removed from the outside world for too long. This pondering has done nothing but fuel his desire to set out on his own.

The day came when Raepoch reached his limit. The glyph-laden Wall of Conversion hadn’t glowed in several years. Raepoch sat with his back against a marble statue in the shape of Ioun’s symbol. Next to the garden, which filled the courtyard with wonderful smells, he sat facing the wall, reading a tome on ancient times and far off lands. The glowing was so gradual that he was not the first to notice it, despite being the closest. Eventually the glyphs, fully illuminated, began snaking around each other creating what appeared to be an intricately carved door that opened. Trees formed from the fluorescent lights of the glyphs, as did the glowing outline of a single humanoid.—it walked with confidence. The glowing lights quickly dissolved as the figure crossed the threshold of the wall and materialized into a confident human man adorned with amazing clothes, several trinkets hanging about his person, and a sword crafted with finesse and artistry. Raepoch could not remember how long he stared at the blade of that sword—it was jagged in the right places, smooth for most, and etched with runes that glowed a delicate mint green.

It wasn’t until late the next evening that Raepoch learned of whom the traveler was—not until he and the traveler were many miles away from the Temple of Tre’Cinq. Cymmeiian was his name and, as Raepoch learned, he had once been a disciple in the very same temple. Raepoch could not believe that he was chosen to travel with Cymmeiian. The experience was something that had never been recorded in the endless shelves of tomes and he expected that oddity would still hold true. The Masters spoke of a path few remember—they spoke of a duty greater than any disciple could fathom. The feverishly offered others in front of Cymmeiian to select but his mind was set, as he would later tell Raepoch, “when I first met eyes with the open-mouthed Eladrin.”

Cymmeiian and Raepoch were inseparable for many moons. Cymmeiian knew the flood of emotions, the feelings of being infinitesimal amongst the trees and stars, and the naivety of wanting to travel freely to all of the places that the tomes illuminated. He was a master of teaching from experience and he knew when it was okay for Raepoch to make mistakes on his own and when intervention was needed for life’s sake. Mentor taught pupil that Ioun was not the sole owner of the heavens and earth—that the power of other deities and the necessity to pay homage to all of them was imperative to a long, fruitful life. Raepoch has still not encountered a person so devout in such an individualistic belief.

Mentor taught pupil how to handle swords and picks and axes. Raepoch learned the true power of prayers and how to swear oaths that connected his essence to an enemy’s. He learned how to harness dormant powers within himself, gifted to him through the blood of his grandmother. He learned how to survive on his instincts and his senses. He learned how to read the intentions of others. He learned that he only had one more day with Cymmeiian.

While Cymmeiian explained that he had been traveling and serving his faith for numerous years, shock seemed to arc through Raepoch’s body—Cymmeiian was growing older by the breath. Wrinkles began etching themselves near his eyes, the corners of his mouth, and across his brow. His hair seemed lighter that it had been. The idyllic luster of his jade eyes seemed to dry out.

That night, Raepoch wept upon a straw mattress in Eller’s Inn. Mere minutes ago he had shared a bittersweet meal of pheasant, spicy potatoes, fish stew, and mead with the one who had breathed life into his soul. As soon as Raepoch finished his last burning-sweet nectar, Cymmeiian extended his hand and arm—it took the pupil several moments to grip his mentor’s forearm. Raepoch squeezed with an underlying desperation. Cymmeiian slowly withdrew his arm, reached over his shoulder, and began sliding his sword and sheath over his shoulder.

“You know in your heart who your prayers need to address. You know in your heart what must be destroyed across these lands. You know in your heart that one day you will be doing this very same thing. You know in your heart that this is what must be. Raepoch Tryv, you are now the Avenger of Tre’Cinq and your duty is to fulfill the destiny that you create for yourself. You will, many moons now, feel a yearning to head back to the temple—it is neither homesickness nor a curiosity as to how the others are faring. It is the ultimate compulsion that undeniably begins guiding your feet without you being conscious of their direction. You will, at that time, discover your replacement. You will, at that time, mentor him or her as your instincts guide you. You will, at that time, pass down your responsibilities and leave to where your heart guides you.”

Cymmeiian extended his sword, gilded with the mint-green runes, into Raepoch’s numb, shaking hands. As the weight of the falchion tugged him back to reality, Raepoch watched in confusion as the runes’ glow faded and returned the deep metallic color of the blade.

His Morning

This is a piece of writing that I have tried working on a bit tonight–it is the idea for my first D&D 4th Edition character. I am trying to conceptualize an Avenger and the initial foray into 4e has me sort of scrambling. I am having difficulty conceptualizing a race and god–I owe the majority of this issue to my inexperience with 4e and a stubborn mind resisting learning a new setting/system. I will, however, state that I do not like how little information there is about the races and the gods for 4e thus far.

His Morning

Most mornings were spent the same—rise, rinse, recite. The musk of burning potpourri made his lips sticky—it was the taste of morning to him. The masters thrived on routine. He learned to stomach it. This morning was exactly the same in every regard—weak citrus colors ebbed across his face and walls through the stained glass clerestory. He wet his lips, tasting the earthiness, and starred at the intricate glasswork. The scene was always inspiring in the morning.

There was a knock at the door. He stood quickly, almost alarmed, as this was an oddity he could not remember experiencing before. Quickly he reached for his morning attire, a robe colored with the rainbow of a peacock—it was barely on before the feeble wooden latch, apparently meant to grant privacy and a false sense of security, levitated independently. The door opened quicker than necessary and through it strode the impressive figure of Master Oriel. His face was drained of color—it was not apparent if a startled waking or the inability to fall asleep was the culprit.

The puzzling morning, hurried conversations, and lack of recitations was but a blur to him. They talked of new information about The Chaos Scar. They droned on about duty and responsibility and commitment to the cause. They whispered conjectures, theories, and gossip just as they do when someone discovers the temple. They revealed the truth—he was, as stated between the lines, expendable. There were others with more extensive training—they were working on more important matters. There were others with more promise—they were busy obliging the Master’s every command. There were others with more personality—they were eagerly pouring honey into the Master’s ears. He chose not to play favorites. He chose not to engage in politics. He chose not to show too much ambition. He chose his lot long before this morning.

World Building – Creating Geography: Step 2

Okay, so after taking a break and reflecting on my last post a bit, I feel that this information, to date, is probably pretty standard stuff—sorry if I have been boring you. Tonight I am going to work on getting the geographical landforms illustrated on the map and then, possibly, getting some of the locations placed and named. For the remainder of this map-making extravaganza, I have decided upon the two land map. It makes the most sense for these purposes for some reason.

So, I think it is time that we give out lands a name…something that rolls off of the tongue and it easy enough to pronounce. I cheated with my actual campaign setting, Kildaire, as it is a county in Ireland. Not a lot of people in my neck-of-the-woods know that though, so I went with it. For these purposes let us call the lands Tahqua.

So, as I look at the very general outline of Tahqua, the first thing that comes out is that it really needs some definition—some nooks and crannies and isthmuses and jetties or fjords.

So here is the outline from the original thumbnail drawings.

Now it is time to lay your paper over top of these shapes and make it more interesting…or add a new layer in Photoshop. I will illustrate my overlay in orange because it is my favorite flavor, except in Kool-Aid terms, then its green. Please notice a few things that may be considered ‘drastic’ changes to the perimeters…I do this mainly because I am a huge fan of plate tectonics and I like my lands to look like they may have, at one time, been one larger continent…again, Pangaea anyone?

Now that we have the lands set, it is time to get rid of the original, inspiration-granting thumbnail and get down to aquatics, flora, climatic oddities, etc. Because I am doing this in Photoshop, I found a few neat brushes that will help with the mountains and the trees—olde schoole map icons like ^ for mountains and the cloud-like trees with line trunks are totally acceptable (that is how I illustrated Kildaire).

So let me start with water features…I tend to favor lakes and rivers and the likes so my maps are typically heavy with these sorts of things. I will hold myself back a bit for this though. Not only do I just love the imagery that water can offer to a role-playing session but also there is the very real fact that it is just so much easier for the players’ transportation.

As you can see I have several major rivers, a mammoth lake and the area of 10 lakes. Remember that you map does not have to include every detail of the geography for your players…they should not be handed everything. It is nice to surprise them with a giant marsh where a sparse forest should be. Typically I just start drawing pretty freely with my rivers and there is little rhyme or reason at this point as to why I place them where I do. It helps to keep your mind open at this point and let things happen organically if possible. That being said, most of us have at least one ‘really cool’ land feature that we have to have…go for it! What I like most about the organic development is that it can really help you come up with interesting locations to explore. While I am writing this, I keep looking at the 10 lakes area and I am asking myself why are they there? Perhaps it is a very rocky, hilly area and they are present for lack of drainage. That works…meh. However, what if they were a series of ‘craters’ for lack of a better term, and they are all interconnected underground. Now, that means they can be home to very cunning dragons that use the underground waterways as a labyrinth to confuse their prey. To me, that is much more interesting.

For me, the next step is adding mountains. I like to get my elevation set early as it affects some of my later decisions (namely deserts). Again, going off of the plate tectonics interest, I typically have coastal elevation, which would be the cause of colliding plates forcing the earth upwards. This time it is not as extreme but there is still subtle influence.

So three mountain ranges have been established and they are all substantial stretches of difficult terrain. Please remember that fact; mountains = difficult terrain. That slows travel, possesses great threats to the characters, and makes for wonderfully well-defended strongholds.  You can also add any number of mountain rivers that are sourced from snow melt as well.  I will also note here that where there are mountains, there are foothills. I typically illustrate hilly areas but to keep this simple and clean I am going to leave them off.

After the elevation comes the vegetation. Typically I have several large stands of forest and they vary from coniferous to deciduous. I love large stands of Jack Pines, where the lower branches die off and create an open, easily traversable area for characters. I also favor sugar maples due to the intensity of fall colors, which can create very dramatic imagery for gaming.

Notice how I have 2 different tree icons in place—these can represent either coniferous versus deciduous trees of they can be used more literally as being spooky willow trees and barren hardwoods…its totally up to you.

Now, as I mentioned a bit earlier in the mountain section, I like to use my mountains to create interesting climactic issues. For this last portion of mapping, I am going to use the westernmost mountains to create a rain-shadow, or absence of rain, which will produce a desert area. Deserts offer a totally different aspect to gaming—an aspect where survival is pushed to the Nth degree. I played in an online, homebrew setting where the animals could smell fresh water for miles away and they were upon that smell in minutes. It was devastatingly difficult and frustrating as your character could very well risk their life for taking a drink (which was probably being taken to avoid risking their life).

That is, pretty much, establishing your terrain for a continent. Please do not feel like this is all that you can do because the possibilities are endless. In a fantasy setting, anything is possible and this will become extremely apparent when I show you Kildaire, Land of the Five Ashes where there is a two-tiered ocean, which separates Kildaire (the mortal continent) from The Land of the Five Ashes (the home of the gods).

The only thing left for this map is to add some underlying color for the oceans and for the land. This is extremely simple in Photoshop so here is my final product for this phase of WBing. There is a distinct lack of a compass indicator as well as a distance key on this map. I am going to leave that up to you for now. I have always used the very simplistic rule that ‘North is Up’ and, for these purposes, distance is not an essential element right now.

Roll your Spot checks now as I will be coming back soon with cities and named landforms amongst other things which really get us into the meat and potatoes of WBing!

World Building – Creating Geography: Step 1

For this portion, I am going to show you how I address one of the base issues in creating a defined world.

Geography, for me, is a very crucial element in world building [WBing]. I like to know what bodies of land and water I am working with. However, to date, I have only created one or two continents at a time and I have never addressed the issues of an entire planet. Furthermore, I have very little interest in Cosmology, so I have never worked on how multiple planets interact with each other. This is my preference and you may decide that knowing how many planets, suns, moons, constellations, etc. there are in your campaign setting [CS] is very crucial to how weather, travel/navigation, etc. operates…. that is awesome!

So, with Geography being so important to my WBing process, I find it best to physically define what the land looks like. For Kildaire, I went through dozens of pieces of sketch paper trying to come up with a land that I deemed suitable for my purposes.

I am going to demonstrate this process, step by step, so that you can have a visual.

Step 1: Scribbles (blind or otherwise)

As you can see, I basically just put pen to paper (figuratively seeing as how I mocked these up in Photoshop) and allowed my hand to scribble and squiggle. Try not to over-think this process…your imagination already has some preconceptions as to how this will form, so let your brain translate those energies via your hand.

After you have a page or two or twelve full of doodles, you must now start scanning them and looking for individual ones that stand out as having potential. Perhaps this is done by a process of elimination or maybe there are a few that seem really interesting to you right away–whatever works for you. It is important to remind yourself that this is preliminary—you will have time to refine the drawing later.

Here are three that I believe have potential.

Out of this batch, there are a few that were immediately eliminated (i.e. the Playboy Bunny-esq one in the upper right corner). The highlighted three show the most potential aesthetically and also, in the case of the two with multiple pieces of land, the potential for border tensions/political issues.

I am going to break down, briefly, why I picked each one of these three individually.

This single continent has aesthetic appeal in that the lower left segment is a large peninsula and it is bordered on it’s right side by a very large bay. To me these two features are appealing to me as it offers a portion of the continent to have drastically different political views on the peninsula in comparison to the ‘mainland’. Peninsulas are harder to defend, are more susceptible to weather, etc. All of these issues come in to play for me during this process.

The two continents here have a nice feel to them. There is a play of dominance and yielding between the two. That may be reading into the sketches too much, but believe me, if the shapes of your lands give you ideas that you could incorporate as underlying mood or overarching plotlines then you are that much farther ahead of the curve. I also really appreciate how this came out because the two appear as if they could have, at one time, been a part of the same landmass….Pangaea anyone?

Granted, to me, this one almost has too much going on. I included it anyways for demonstration purposes. Talk about having border/land struggles and an easy way to incorporate several types of political systems. This one could also be a great way to separate different racial groups if your world is not racially inclusive. In my studies I have learned that it becomes more difficult for a political system to govern its populace the farther away from the core the location is. This is crucial to remember in fantasy settings and that is what intrigues me the most about these three lands. Long and skinny is a ruling body’s nightmare and that, or course, creates great flavor history for your CS.

So this is Step One. Once you have selected which base doodle you are going to run with, it is time to break out a clean sheet of paper and a light table or create a new layer in Photoshop.

Roll your Spot checks now as I will be getting the next segment up very soon. Within the next few posts, you will be able to see various aspects of the major undertaking that I have been piddling with for the past several years…Kildaire, Land of the Five Ashes.

World Building – Off My Chest

I cannot tell you how many worlds swim in my imagination. I am unsure if I will ever be able to fully actualize all of them, even if I worked at it full time. I have, since I started RPing, always been fascinated with campaign setting and world building. That being said, I have never played in or ran a game based in a manufacturer’s campaign setting. I have always been content frolicking through the core-book’s lands or the homebrew worlds of my DMs. I know of Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and DragonLance, yet I have always resisted playing in them (there is one major exception and that was playing a short-lived campaign in the DragonLance setting, where Dutch’s knowledge is so damn extensive that he was only comfortable DMing in that capacity…and hey, I wanted to play damnit!). The same goes for Earthdawn and Shadowrun too. I never wanted to set sail for Thera or play in Hong Kong—the core settings of Barsaive and Seattle were more than enough for me.

This leads me to a nagging question: why is that? How could I get so much satisfaction out of so little content (lets compare the almost non-existent amount of setting info in the core D&D3.5 versus the seemingly endless stack of splat books for the FR setting)? The answer, I believe, is intrinsic. To me, less is more. There is an exception to this but I will get there in a minute. Less information to start off with (flavor wise, not mechanically speaking) allows one’s imagination to really take off, conceptualize details that ultimately helps the game feel very personal as well as molding the setting to perfectly fit your character. If I want to live in a hamlet called Glammis that was a matriarchy decided upon by an old crone’s reading of chicken bones, then hey, guess what…I can. Obviously the stipulation to this is DM approval but I have never had an issue (especially in tabletop groups) getting a DM to accept the ideas that I develop for character background and flavor. This open-endedness is what makes RPing such an enjoyable endeavor for me—I have a hand in shaping the world my character is involved in. Even as I began to DM, I always allowed my players the opportunity to create their character’s hometown and any flavor components that they wanted.

There is the above-mentioned exception however. Remember?

“To me, less is more. There is an exception to this but I will get there in a minute.”

Well, for me, more is far more satisfying…when it is YOUR OWN WORLD! There is nothing more pleasing that designing an entire world, from shape to geography to climate to politics to pantheon. It truly is, for me, probably the most gratifying process in RPing (okay, okay…next to seeing a character progress from level one onwards). I am somewhat unsure as to why I have such drastic views between these two areas or why I shy away from campaign settings. I think the issue lies in knowledge retention. I have a difficult time grasping settings that I do not have a hand in creating. How could I embrace Earthdawn’s Barsaive or Seattle in 2072 then? My only explanation is that I was much younger when I started playing Earthdawn and I spent a great deal of time with eDubs on the shores of Lake Michigan reading splat book cover to cover for weekend and weekend. That utopia of childhood memories is so deeply ingrained in me that I am pretty positive that I will never forget the settings or concepts of Earthdawn or Shadowrun…ever.

This all being said, I want to talk extensively about my process for world building in the near future. I want to share how I begin getting the myriad ideas, intricacies, quirks, and oddities from my convoluted mind out on to paper. I hope this will also allow me to refocus my mind towards a few lofty projects that I have in store for Kildaire.

Roll your Spot checks now as I will be writing new posts that deal with my aspirations for Kildaire very soon.

Intentions

I continually create new blogs then abandon them within a week or two.  I hope to continue this blog for quite some time to be honest.  D&D is my passion.  Most who really know me would call it a closet-obsession…they would be right.  I have never been able to break the grip of gaming and I truly enjoy the experiences when they come these days.

I started my gaming about 17 years ago and I still remember the excitement of rolling my stats, the disappointment of rolling a crumy one, and the pleading that ensued with my best friend to allow a reroll.  My most vivid memory comes from the very first session that I ever played in the game, Earthdawn.  It’s my very favorite game and I will be writing a different post which talks about the game, that session, and why I miss it so much.

As for now, in the present, I am sucked in to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5.  I am not sure if I will convert to 4th edition even though it has been out for a while now.  The main reason for this is the fact that those of our gaming group who are still around hold no interest in relearning the game from the ground up and there is still so much to do in the homebrew campaign setting that I have been working on for the past few years.  I have much to talk about on the subject of homebrew worlds but that too is for a different post.

Anywho, here is where I will be writing my musings about role-playing and what it does/has done for me as well as a place to work out my myriad thoughts and ideas for the future games and characters that will be arising with my local players.

d20+8…I’m out…