Tuesday 4 November 2014

10 Things I Don't Know About You

Wil Weaton asked his fans to respond to a survey, on Google+ today, for an upcoming article in the Washington Post and it's something I've been meaning to do for a long time. 

So after 4 years of shouting blindly into the blogosphere, I'd like to know a little bit about you, my readers.

Take part in my 10 Things I don't know about You survey

Thanks

RPG Mapping in Sketchup Part 2 - Simple Buildings Walls and Roofs

In this second part of the series I show a quick and easy technique to draw simple buildings with the 3 most common type of roof shapes; the Gable, the Hip and the Double Hip Roof.  Using this technique you can use sketchup to quickly construct models of buildings for use in your own RPG campaigns maps or as scene setting handouts for your players.



In the next part I'll demonstrate techniques to create the Cross Gable, Gambrel and Mansard roof shapes. 

Related Posts:

Part 1 - Unhiding the 3rd Dimension

Friday 31 October 2014

RPG Mapping in Sketchup Pt 1 - Unhiding the 3rd Dimension

As you know I got commissioned by Joe Wetzel for his Dungeonmorphs 2 Cities and Villages dice project on kickstarter, which requires me to make lots of geomorphs with buildings on them.

After a while you look at your collected sketches and think OMG all my buildings look the same.

Sketching out the idea process - not sure if any of these will be in the final product
This is caused mostly by the constraints of making sure the design is legible and that they fit on a 1inch d6.  In search of inspiration I decided to experiment with roof shapes and turning them into 3D buildings using sketchup.  Enjoy...

Wednesday 29 October 2014

My post apocalyptic future needs... Motorcycle chariots

In the 80s we had our fair share of visions of a post apocalypse future, my favourite being Mad Max, which had motorcycle gangs but sadly none of them had motorcycle chariots...


Is this not a sport fit for the "Ayatollah of RockandRolla"?

There's a cool article on Viral-Nova with more photos and a video of ex pro wrestler Buff Bagwell's attempt at a chopper chariot.  Googling also found this neat Fallout 3 concept art

Fallout 3 "Chariot" ConceptArt
and dakkadakka member wyrmalla's recreation for miniature wargaming.

Wyrmalla's mini wargaming version of a Fallout 3 Chariot vehicle

Monday 27 October 2014

Citymorph Dice Kickstarter from Inkwell Ideas

Who woulda thunk it?  Citymorphs has spawned a kickstarter!!

Roll your own Cities!!
Inkwell Ideas head honcho Joe Wetzel has gathered together a few of the RPG communities morphing cartographers, myself included, and is kickstarting a version of his popular Dungeonmorph Dice but this time with city designs.

The aim is to produce a set of 5 dice with which you'll can quickly "roll up" your own city map.  There's pledge levels for all sizes of pockets with PDF/Font versions available from $5 and a set of dice for only $20.  They're pretty substantial at 1 inch square (so have dictatorial thunk of authority when they hit the table).  Unlike a lot of custom dice which might just predict the weather, random direction or what body part you've hit, these also function as regular dice and are pretty unique. 

The first set is a mix of City/Village designs,  but the project has far higher aspirations and includes stretch goals to create further sets with designs for Ruins, City Walls and Harbours.  The more money Joe can raise, the more designs he can get into production and the more variety you can create.  With plenty of stretch goals to unlock on the way like free bonus dice and dice trays available, it's a win win situation! 


Pull them out in your group and hear your friends gasp in amazement as they lust after your cool new dice, buy them for your roleplaying partner as a gift, they'll love you all the more for it.   

So if you're interested go to the Dungeonmorphs 2 kickstarter page and become a backer.