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Sunday, 13 November 2011
On the Workbench: Harlequin Giant Forest Troll - Complete
Yesterday I posted a progress photo of my first miniature painting project in rather a long time. Here's the finished miniature (apologies for the crap photography).
Saturday, 12 November 2011
On the Workbench: Harlequin Giant Forest Troll
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| Giant Forest Troll |
I was given this miniature many moons ago as a birthday gift and I had one abortive attempt at painting it soon after moving into my new home 9 years ago. The miniature is a multipart casting comprising of torso, legs and a huge log club which the troll wields with both hands. So the first order of the day was to de-flash the parts and then pin and glue them together with superglue. The gaps (and there are plenty) were then filled with milliput and textured. I then mounted the miniature to a Foundations of War 60mm Round - Battlefield Debris Base and sprayed it with black primer.
I never liked the painted image on the box lid as it was far too troll-like, so I decided to make mine a bit more generic so it could serve equally well as a giant or a giant ogre. I use Miniature Paints (the ones in the little glass bottles), they're cheap and have a reasonable consistency and don't seperate too much unlike other paints I've tried in the past. My painting style is to build up layers of colour from a black base getting gradually lighter and lighter and I find that this gives a good balance of detail at a stand-off scale, particularly when you are painting a bad casting.
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| Progress: face and skin all painted |
The giant troll is wearing a sort of animal skin toga which barely covers its bum but the painted example on the box shows no trousers. Clearly this creature is fashion concious ( and enough of a seamstress to sew an animal hide toga) so I decided that it wasn't going to be comfortable without trousers. These I'll paint as a patchwork of different smaller pieces of cloth which it has clearly picked up off the battlefield (including a rather fetching red gingham tablecloth).
Thursday, 10 November 2011
RPG Mapping Tools Part 3 - Region Maps
In part 1 and part 2 of this series I looked at Battlemaps and Dungeonmaps which conventionally use a square grid. Now I zoom out a little bit more and look at options for Regionmaps and enter the realm of the hex.
Regional or Wilderness Maps
Regional maps use a variety of scales, my own maps use a notional scale of 1 hex = 50 miles. Erin Smale over at Welsh Piper has done some amazing work with a trio of hex templates which you can download in PDF and Hexographer format which use, 125 mil, 25 mile, 5 mile wide scales. Welsh Piper also has articles about demographics and campaign building for a low fantasy campaign and comes highly recommended. However, the purpose of this series of articles is to explore and evaluate the free (or as near as free as it gets) software tools available to the budding cartographer, and for the purposes of demonstration, I will be using a sample from TSRs HRW2 Kingdom of Nithia a Hollow World sourcebook and the usual 1½ hour (or thereabouts) timelimit to see what is possible.
Hexographer (www.hexographer.com)
A free Java based map editor (There's also an offline Pro version available for $24.95) which comes complete with the majority of icons you will find on a standard TSR map. I have had trouble running this software before on my mac which is notorious for its Java implementation but a quick look in the support forum got me the answer I needed and I was up and running in no time. The interface is fairly self explanatory and after a bit of trial and error got some great results on the Hollow World map. I particularly like the option to fill the bottom half of each hex for the "features" such as towns and cities which is so characteristic of the TSR style of regional maps. 9/10 - "Almost Perfect"
HexMapper (http://www.mentalwasteland.net/HexMapper/)
Not to be confused with Hexmapper, is an interesting Java application which focuses on a single hex and allows you to drill down to smaller and smaller scales. Unfortunately the interface is a little cumbersome and there's not much of a manual to go with it. The colourset the tool uses is roughly similar to that of the sample map, but there is a limited amount of terrain choice and icons to depict settlements. I'm sure that given more time I could make a good looking detailed map as I learned how to and when to use the various tools. I especially liked the line drawing functions but it wasn't enough to keep me interested enough to persevere beyond the time limit. 4/10 - "Interesting... but no more than that"
Old School Hex Mapper (http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/old-school-hex)
An interesting project from Alex Schröder which generates black and white wilderness hexmaps from ASCII input. Although it seems simple on the face of it getting the syntax right can be a bit of a challenge and there aren't many feature options. As an exercise in ASCII to Hexmap it's a bit of fun and I expect it was more of a development challenge than an attempt to create something genuinely useable. One thing I did like was the oriental caligraphy aesthetic which was most pleasing on the eye. 2/10 - "because Alex could..."
Other Notable Tools
WildGen (http://axiscity.hexamon.net/users/isomage/wildgen/)
As its name suggests Wildgen is a random hex terrain generator and is an excellent resource for the time-poor DM. It just generates the base terrain and there's no options to edit or add features such as settlements or roads, but if you are world building in a entirely random fashion it may have some uses.
Conclusion
I was quite surprised that there aren't that many options out which are cross platform bar the excellent hexographer (which has been around for a while). Perhaps there are some enterprising HTML5 developers out there who feel like a challenge?
Regional or Wilderness Maps
Regional maps use a variety of scales, my own maps use a notional scale of 1 hex = 50 miles. Erin Smale over at Welsh Piper has done some amazing work with a trio of hex templates which you can download in PDF and Hexographer format which use, 125 mil, 25 mile, 5 mile wide scales. Welsh Piper also has articles about demographics and campaign building for a low fantasy campaign and comes highly recommended. However, the purpose of this series of articles is to explore and evaluate the free (or as near as free as it gets) software tools available to the budding cartographer, and for the purposes of demonstration, I will be using a sample from TSRs HRW2 Kingdom of Nithia a Hollow World sourcebook and the usual 1½ hour (or thereabouts) timelimit to see what is possible.
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| Nithia |
Hexographer (www.hexographer.com)
A free Java based map editor (There's also an offline Pro version available for $24.95) which comes complete with the majority of icons you will find on a standard TSR map. I have had trouble running this software before on my mac which is notorious for its Java implementation but a quick look in the support forum got me the answer I needed and I was up and running in no time. The interface is fairly self explanatory and after a bit of trial and error got some great results on the Hollow World map. I particularly like the option to fill the bottom half of each hex for the "features" such as towns and cities which is so characteristic of the TSR style of regional maps. 9/10 - "Almost Perfect"
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| Hexographer Output |
HexMapper (http://www.mentalwasteland.net/HexMapper/)
Not to be confused with Hexmapper, is an interesting Java application which focuses on a single hex and allows you to drill down to smaller and smaller scales. Unfortunately the interface is a little cumbersome and there's not much of a manual to go with it. The colourset the tool uses is roughly similar to that of the sample map, but there is a limited amount of terrain choice and icons to depict settlements. I'm sure that given more time I could make a good looking detailed map as I learned how to and when to use the various tools. I especially liked the line drawing functions but it wasn't enough to keep me interested enough to persevere beyond the time limit. 4/10 - "Interesting... but no more than that"
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| HexMapper Output |
Old School Hex Mapper (http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/old-school-hex)
An interesting project from Alex Schröder which generates black and white wilderness hexmaps from ASCII input. Although it seems simple on the face of it getting the syntax right can be a bit of a challenge and there aren't many feature options. As an exercise in ASCII to Hexmap it's a bit of fun and I expect it was more of a development challenge than an attempt to create something genuinely useable. One thing I did like was the oriental caligraphy aesthetic which was most pleasing on the eye. 2/10 - "because Alex could..."
Other Notable Tools
WildGen (http://axiscity.hexamon.net/users/isomage/wildgen/)
As its name suggests Wildgen is a random hex terrain generator and is an excellent resource for the time-poor DM. It just generates the base terrain and there's no options to edit or add features such as settlements or roads, but if you are world building in a entirely random fashion it may have some uses.
Conclusion
I was quite surprised that there aren't that many options out which are cross platform bar the excellent hexographer (which has been around for a while). Perhaps there are some enterprising HTML5 developers out there who feel like a challenge?
Other Posts in this Series:
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - G is for Games Designers Workshop
As I've said earlier I started roleplaying in the 80s with Tunnels and Trolls and then gravitated to AD&D (1e) but my first experience of Sci-Fi roleplaying was as a player in a Traveller campaign.
Although I never owned the LBBs (Little Black Books) or the boxed set I did (and still do) own a copy of Double Adventure 1: Shadows / Annic Nova. At this time White Dwarf was still covering all RPGs and regularly featured scenarios for traveller, a favourite of mine being "The Sable Rose Affair" featured in WD#17.
I loved the hard edge that traveller put on the whole Space Opera genre. It wasn't so much about racing through the galaxy to rescue the princess, it was about dealing with the day to day minutia of staying alive in the cold depths of space and yet trying to eke out a living and possibly making that big score. In other words more "Alien" than "Star Wars".
Believe you me, this was hugely influential to my 11 year old self whose Sci-Fi diet at that time was limited to Doctor Who, the odd episode of Blake's Seven, Battlestar Galactica and re-runs of Lost in Space. Traveller also heavily influenced one of the breakthrough 8-bit computer games Elite by David Braben and Ian Bell which I spent many hours playing on my school's only BBC Micro. Yes back then the entire school shared one computer!!
In 1984 GDW released Twilight 2000 which focused on the plight of the survivors of WWIII assembling their rag tag militas to fend of the remnants of the soviet army. This got quite a bit of play at the club I was a member of at the time, but it never fit in with my cold war childhod as I recall most of the scenarios being set in the US.
Towards the end of the decade GDW released Space: 1889 which in hindsight shows how groundbreaking GDW were when they published the first victorian Sci-Fi RPG before cyberpunk had truly emerged never mind steampunk. In recent years I have come to enjoy victorian sci-fi more and more, partly as a refracted, quintisentially English, vision of Empire and partly as a result of my fascination with the aestetic of heavy engineering during the industrial revolution (with brass finials and plenty of scroll work).
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| GDW Traveller |
I loved the hard edge that traveller put on the whole Space Opera genre. It wasn't so much about racing through the galaxy to rescue the princess, it was about dealing with the day to day minutia of staying alive in the cold depths of space and yet trying to eke out a living and possibly making that big score. In other words more "Alien" than "Star Wars".
Believe you me, this was hugely influential to my 11 year old self whose Sci-Fi diet at that time was limited to Doctor Who, the odd episode of Blake's Seven, Battlestar Galactica and re-runs of Lost in Space. Traveller also heavily influenced one of the breakthrough 8-bit computer games Elite by David Braben and Ian Bell which I spent many hours playing on my school's only BBC Micro. Yes back then the entire school shared one computer!!
In 1984 GDW released Twilight 2000 which focused on the plight of the survivors of WWIII assembling their rag tag militas to fend of the remnants of the soviet army. This got quite a bit of play at the club I was a member of at the time, but it never fit in with my cold war childhod as I recall most of the scenarios being set in the US.
Towards the end of the decade GDW released Space: 1889 which in hindsight shows how groundbreaking GDW were when they published the first victorian Sci-Fi RPG before cyberpunk had truly emerged never mind steampunk. In recent years I have come to enjoy victorian sci-fi more and more, partly as a refracted, quintisentially English, vision of Empire and partly as a result of my fascination with the aestetic of heavy engineering during the industrial revolution (with brass finials and plenty of scroll work).
Thursday, 3 November 2011
RPG Mapping Tools Part 2 - Dungeon Maps
Dungeon Maps
These usually conform to the scale of 1 square to 5ft and come in a variety of styles from the original D&D module "Blueprint" style to isometric maps for complex multilevel dungeons. For the purposes of comparison I will attempt to recreate small sections of maps from each of the TSR modules B1 In search of the Unknown (a 2D map) and DL1 Dragons of Despair (a 3D map). Again I am restricting myself to only using free tools or web based apps and from start to finish each map should take no more than 1½ hours to create.
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| 2D Map Sample | Isometric Map Sample |
Google Sketchup (sketchup.google.com)
Free to use 3D modelling application (Windows/Mac OSX) which has a 2d export function. First thing, make sure that you position the camera to be facing the "Top". Then you can start off by creating a grid (Sketchup is very flexible when it comes to unit measurement so if you want to create 5ft grids do just that, using the appropriate template) it is possible to use the draw line function to draw in all the floors doors and walls. Sketchup is always trying to fill enclosed shapes, so bear this in mind and make sure that when you close a shape you either delete or fill the "face". It isn't really designed to do this, but the learning curve is shorter compared to other free vector graphics tools like inkscape or CC3. Once you have a flat map it's trivial to use the isometric camera and Parallel Perspectives options to turn it into a full 3D map. Extra depth can be instantly added by extruding (google calls this push/pull) a short distance, you can even animate the result (Cue spinning Death Star animation). 7/10 - "Who's The Daddy?"
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| SketchUp 2d Output | SketchUp Isometric / 3d Output |
Tiled (http://www.mapeditor.org/)
This is a free bitmap level editor (Windows / Mac OSX) designed to create level maps for 2d scrolling games and although it's not designed as an RPG mapping tool it is seriously versatile as it supports an unlimited number of user generated layers. However, you do need to supply it with an image of your tiles to begin with so this tool is more of a DIY approach (ie: if you don't have a good bitmap editor then you'll struggle). Here are my classic blue tilemaps if you want to try it out (the tilemaps are set at a size of 50 pixels square). It can do isometrics but I spent far too much time putting the 2d tilemaps together to get round to drawing an iso tilemap, but I'll get there as this tool is just a joy to use.
The interface is really easy to learn and if you've struggled with Pymapper like I did try this with my DT1 tilemap. In my opinion this could also easily replace Dunjinni for Battlemaps, and the ability to have all your objects instantly available in the tileset window is infact a big advantage, so no more struggling to locate that one particular tree which you accidentally loaded into the wrong folder. 9/10 - "The future so bright I gotta wear shades"
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| Tiled 2d Output | Example of Battlemap Output |
RPG Map Maker X (http://fmteau.perso.neuf.fr/rpgmapmaker/rpgmapmaker.htm)
A Mac OSX native donateware tool ($37 to buy) which has been around for donkeys years. Although the feature set is huge as it has autogenerate dungeons, I found the interface frankly bewildering at almost every stage. The output is also quite primitive in comparison to other free options I tested and given the low pain threshold I have I couldn't even be bothered expend the extra energy to persevere with it beyond the 2d sample. 2/10 - "There's better fish in the sea"
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| RPG Map Maker X 2D Output |
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