Short Video Worth Watching: Odin's Afterbirth

It's hard not to heap too much praise on this short video, but I think it perfectly captures the essence of old school D&D.  I have no idea if the artist (a guy by the name of Joseph Bennett) has any connection to D&D or gaming, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did.

I've been away for several months, so it is possible that this has taken our little corner of the blogosphere by storm, and I missed it.  But if it hasn't, it should.  Please repost and spread far and wide.  (No--I have no affiliation with its creator.  I'm just excited at the prospect of bringing this thing to light in the OSR.)

Watching this, I think of James R, Zac, Barrowmaze, and a whole bunch of others.  I would say that this fits the sensibilities...

It's 14 minutes long.  It is NOT safe for work.  And I think that you'll enjoy it.

(Thanks to io9.com for bringing it to my attention.)

(A Link to) Dwarves and Weather

I just saw this post over at 'Roles, Rules, and Rolls', and I think it is fabulous.

I LOVE it when someone thinks things through in a slightly different (but wholly logical (for imaginary stuff, anyway)) way that expands my view of or understanding of something.  And I hope that Roger doesn't mind, because I may steal some of these ideas.

Fantasy World

What if the world was not a sphere but instead a donut?  This article answers some of those questions.  And the possibilities sound really interesting.

Obviously, the author thought so.  His 'Summary' is this:

"Torus-worlds are unlikely to exist naturally. But if they did, they would make awesome places for adventure. A large surface area. Regions with very different climate, seasons, gravity and ecosystems. Awesome skies on the interior surface. Dramatic weather. Moons in strange orbits."

To be honest, when I think about this for use in fantasy gaming, I'm not sure that the player characters would ever have reason to know what the shape of their world was.  It wouldn't matter to them (unless it was a Spelljammer type campaign) OR the world would seem flat to them, just like another world that we all know pretty well.

But for that brand of DM/GM who likes to know why things are the way they are in his or her world, a torus-world would allow crazy climates, strange (to us) night-day patterns, a very interesting sky with bizarre moon motions, among other things.  It would truly seem fantastic, AND the DM could explain it all.

Artistic Inspiration

One of the non-rpg websites that I frequent on a daily basis is io9.com.  There is always something interesting there, and its updated throughout the day (and night).  This week, I am going to link to some articles there that really caught my eye.  Today will be the first in at least four such posts.

This article presents a bunch of fantastic art by ten different artists, many of whom also have deviantart pages.  Plenty of material here for rpg inspiration.

Why Publish? That's Why!

The Digital Orc wrote a nice long piece about publishing gaming material.  I really enjoyed his take on it.

He talks about why he publishes (four reasons), he talks about inspiration, he talks about his personal process, and then he wraps with a description of his current projects.

I wish that I was as prolific as he is...

Deluxe Dungeon Design

So Telecanter, he of the Receding Rules, posted two times in the last several days things that caught my eye.  The most recent was what prompted the title of this post.  He calls it a Maximalist Dungeon, but I think Deluxe is a fair approximation of what he is getting at.  I've thought about just about everything that he mentions in his list at one point or another, but I like the fact that he took the time to put them all in one place--something that I have never done.

The second thing that he posted (actually prior to the above) was a small post that included old house blue prints.  I LOVE looking at floor plans of houses, old or new or anything in between.  I thought that this post was pretty cool.

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Yeah, so not much posting lately.  I'm still lurking, reading bunches of blogs--just don't have the time to post right now.  Hopefully, that will change sometime soon.

Monsters in Real Life

This flickr site proves that the real world can be just as scary as anything made up in fantasy.

Strange Borders in the Real World

Maps.  I like 'em!

And while this has absolutely NOTHING to do with fantasy mapping, I found it extremely interesting.

City Maps, More City Maps, and STILL MORE City Maps!

If you want to look at a whole bunch of old walled cities, look no further!

This link will take you to a very nice collection of walled city photographs.  The cartographer in me likes the aerial views, but several of the other images are just was striking.

Enjoy!

Elven View of the World (Part 2)

Back in July of last year, I posted a link to a video in a post called An Elven View of the World.

I said back then that, "The Elves in my campaign worlds can occasionally step into states of (what is effectively) suspended animation, for various periods of time.  They typically do this when they are communing with their natural surroundings.  They use this time to rest and separate themselves from the mortal burdens that all of the other races of man around them have to deal with."

I've come across another fantastic video that I think shows again what I meant.  This is how elves can see the world--when they choose to do so.

LEGO Hogwarts

So I am a HUGE LEGO fan.  I have been my entire life.  I still have (almost) all of the sets I ever received growing up, including (almost) all of manuals.  Don't get me wrong--it's always more fun to create your own thing, but it's nice knowing that I could still build those sets from my youth.

Unfortunately, my kids historically have not been interested in playing with them.  That is, until about seven months ago, when a new family moved in down the street.  Their kids are almost identically aged to ours, and they have become great friends.  One great thing about their kids is that they are all LEGO fanatics.  They have more sets than I had and have many creations on permanent display.  This, of course, prompted my kids to get interested in them.

We've purchased a few sets for my kids, and they are really enjoying playing with them.

My middle boy is a huge fan of LEGO Heroica.  We've played a lot of that since Christmas.  We have four of the five sets and really get into it.  I plan on writing a longer post about Heroica another time, so more about that then.

My oldest received the Haunted House for Christmas:


She and I have been slowly putting it together since Christmas.  It has made for some really nice father-daughter time.

She and I are also reading the Harry Potter series at bedtime.  Before now, I had only ever read the first book.  Together, we are 15 pages from the end of Book 2 and about to start Book 3.  We are really enjoying it.  The reading is making for some really nice father-daughter time as well.

Tonight, as I was browsing the interwebs before dinner, I came across this photo:

                                 

To see more, go to this Flickr page and look through all of the photos.  How absolutely amazing is that Hogwarts LEGO creation?  I wish that I had that kind of free time on my hands--or the disposable income to buy all those bricks.  Of course, I flipped through those photos with my kids oohing and aahing the whole way.  Pretty impressive.

Then we came to this picture.  I asked, "What is a thestral?"  Keep in mind that my daughter has NOT seen any of the Harry Potter movies yet, and that we haven't gotten to any thestrals in the Harry Potter books.  (Frankly, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that there was such a thing as a thestral in the HP books until I came to that photo.)  My daughter answered, "It's kinda like a ghost horse." "Oh, well, how do you know that?"   Because, seriously, I was curious to know where she had heard of them.  She replied, "Dad, when you read as many fantasy books as I have, you just come to learn these things."  I LOVE IT.  My daughter is a huge fan of fantasy, and I didn't even have to try.

If you want to read more about that LEGO Hogwarts, go over to The Brothers Brick to read an interview with the woman who built that thing.

Photographic Inspiration for Your Game

Subterranean Design.  Build a Dungeon from Me.  Dungeon Inspiration.  All websites that provide ample material to amaze and inspire you.  All three of them are fantastic.

A few days ago, I came across 500px, another photo sharing site.  Lot's of really nice images there.  Then I came across this guy.  Wow.  Flip through the several pages of his gallery.  I guarantee that at least ten of his photos will spark some bit of creativity in your cranium.

Landscapes.  Locations for adventures.  NPCs.  Great stuff.

I want to sit down and write an adventure for at least ten of his photos.

Enchanted Likenesses

Here's a link to another video that I just came across today.  Scary.  Inspirational.

I could easily see this as the basis for an adventure, or at the very least a small set piece in a larger dungeon.

The PCs come across a collections of statues that are quite obviously likenesses of them.  "That's strange," they think.  And the one character who is not as cautious as the others begins to closely examine the one that looks like him or her.  Without thinking, he touches the statue...

Or maybe you turn it upside.  Perhaps the PCs actually desire this outcome.  Maybe, rather than what happened in the video, they gain some ability or boone in exchange for what has happened to them.  Or at least, they thought that they were going to.

Nice Insights from LHotP

Bighara over at the Geekcave wrote a nice little piece about (yes, of all things) Little House on the Prairie.

He is reading the books with his daughters and provides a few thoughts on how life in pre-industrial times was--as taken from the writings of that series.  I think that his observations are spot on.

Like him, I also read those books with my oldest daughter a few years ago.  Children's books, yes, but I actually really enjoyed them.  I thought that they were fascinating.

Even Aliens are Susceptible to a Robopacalypse

I am continually amazed by what 'amateur' filmmakers can accomplish these days.  The dividing line between a studio production and an indie production is growing thinner daily.  And the dividing line between an indie production and a one-man production is likewise growing thinner.

While I typically do not delve into science fiction on this blog, I am making an exception for this post.  Go watch this video.  It think that it proves that even aliens are susceptible to a robopacalypse.

Of course, it could easily serve as inspiration for a fantasy rpg campaign:  What would happen if all the golems, automata, and other "created" magical beings in the world suddenly rebelled from their wizard creators, banded together, and attempted to take it over?

Dungeon Inspiration

Several days ago, I mentioned Build a Dungeon From Me.  Well, I'm here again to recommend another tumblr site that I just came across.  I think that it is just as inspirational.

Behold: Dungeon Inspiration!

Pure awesometivity.  (Why hasn't anyone else pointed this out before now?  Or have I been living under a rock?)

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I'd like to also point out a slight update to the blog.  Off to the right, I've split out my links into various lists.  The two new lists are self-explanatory: 'Maps Maps Maps' and 'Inspiration' (which includes Dungeon Inspiration).  I don't think that you can go wrong following any of those links.

(BTW, it would be much easier to write blog posts and push forward on other important projects if it weren't for so much gaming goodness out in the blogoverse.)

Old School Inspiration: The Deep End

Take a look at this video.  It's only a minute long, and I think that it's pretty nifty.

Build a Dungeon From Me

I've long been a fan of Subterranean Design, the tumblr site that is a repository of photos of underground locations and other dungeon-like places and things.  I've commented about it before, and I still believe it to be a great source of inspiration for all things gaming-related.

I only today came across Build a Dungeon From Me, another Tumblr site that is a repository of photos for general fantasy inspiration.  Fantastic and highly recommended!

Beach Creatures

I'm always looking for real-world sources of inspiration for gaming.

I came across this video awhile ago and think it to be pretty cool.

Perhaps the things depicted are the ancient works of crabmen, before they lost their technological dominance.  Perhaps they are a form of golem created by a mad wizard imprisoned on a desert island.  Perhaps they are the living skeletons of creatures no longer known to the world.

Who knows?  Go check out this video.

Inspiration for Me: City Ruins

One of my reasons for maintaining a blog is to build an online library of things that inspire me, creatively or otherwise.

This post is purely for that purpose.

I came across something in my internet wanderings, and I don't want to lose it.

The topic is City Ruins, and the source of the inspiration is the Hill Cantons.  Thank you, ckutalik, for this blog post that is 3+ years old.  You have inspired me.

The inspiration comes from a quote in that blog post about the ancient city of Constantinople.  Good stuff.

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Now that I stop and think about it, fantastic city ruins have occupied a large plot of mental real estate in my mind lately.  Three different ruined cities actually.

#1: The first is the city of Tharrenton Deep, an ancient dwarven stronghold in a piece of fiction that I am writing.  Megadungeon exploration in fiction.  Enough said, for now.

#2: The second city is that which appears in the classic AD&D module, Dwellers of the Forbidden City.  I, like many people before me, absolutely adore the map of the city that appears on the inside cover of the module.  Some have said that that map is the first example of an isometric map to appear in a TSR module.  Don't know if true or not, but it's a fantastic map.

Recently, I had a crazy idea.  Why not create a map of the city in a 10'/square scale instead of the (I believe) 50'/square scale that it originally appears.  I figured it out a while ago: Assuming 5 squares/inch graph paper, the map would come in at about four feet by four feet.  You could map the interiors of all the buildings shown on the original.  You (meaning me, if I actually attempted it) could do a second map (or mutliple maps)(same size) that depicts all of the upper levels of those buildings.  Do another map that shows the sewer system, basements, and catacombs, and perhaps one final map that shows a deeper level.  What you end up with is 5+ maps, sized four feet by four feet, that depict the Forbidden City in typical dungeon level detail.

FANTASTIC!  I even considered going one step further: Make it a kickstarter project and see if people would actually back such a thing.  Because, honestly, without some kind of forcing factor, I don't see myself being able to plod through all that effort.

#3: The third city is a ruined city located in a cavern that I hint at in Locales, Volume 1, the first product that I released at RPGnow.com many years ago.  I was on the website looking at the product and re-read a review that said, "The maps for the Caverns are wonderful, creating an entire underground complex ready for adventuring. The only complaint I have for these maps is there is no map for the ruined city."  (Emphasis added.)

I guess I just have a thing for ruined cities.

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And here's the map from Locales, Volume 1 that shows (in very little detail) the ruined city:

(The scale for the map was 100ft per segment of the scale at its bottom.)