All Quiet on the Western Front

Sorry for my lack of activity as of late.  I started a new job this week and have been both busy and exhausted.  You should see a return to normal after this week, but for now I apologize for the general lack of content.  

Next week you should see movie reviews for Kick-Ass and the new Nightmare of Elm Street.  I'm also working on a list of my top 10 RPG books of all time (no easy task I assure you) that should be up sometime next week as well. 

Return to Hackmaster

My group and I are now officially playtesting Advanced Hackmaster!  I'm not sure I can put into words how excited I am.  Obviously none of us can speak about the rules, but we can still give tales of the group's adventure, which I plan to do weekly. 

I'll be running the game, Revil and the Profressor will be players along with AngryBear and Moonxine.  We are starting out with Frandor's Keep, which only adds to the excitement. 

Unfortunately we won't be starting until May 11th (AngryBear has finals coming up), at which time we will commence a 2 game a week schedule.  Tuesday will be Hackmaster, and Pathfinder will continue on Thursdays. 

Overall this is an amazing opportunity and I can't wait to dive in.

Dice Quiz

Everyone on the network has been taking this quiz over at Dicepool.com.  I've been fighting it but today while over at Geek Ken I finally caved and decided to go take the quiz. 

How did I do?  See for yourself...

"You are a d8: You are the true adventurer! Dragons rescued, princesses slayed, and all that business while O Fortuna plays in the background. Your social calender is crammed with heroic deeds, and you've personally saved the world from ultimate destruction at least twice. You are reliable, perhaps a bit predictable, but overall a shining example of what happens when courage meets determination."

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Religion Map

I've done a couple of copies of the Caliburn map to show religious affiliation throughout the continent in much the same way that the previous map showed ansestry. 

Originally this map showed three religions but as Constelanity, the religion of the Nordish people, is found in such small pockets throughout Northern Caliburn I didn't think it was worth displaying on this map.  Rather I focused on the two main religions, Druidism (a sort of Pagan tradition that was the original religion of Caliburn) and Seraphism (sort of a blend of several real world religions that has taken hold in most of Caliburn).  The conflict between the two religions is a central plot running throughout the setting.  The Old Ways are slowly but steadily being beaten back by the New Religion, and soon there may be nothing left for the supporters of the Old Ways to save.  I think you can get a sense of that when you look at the map.  The red has eaten away at most on the continent starting in the east where it was first introduced.  Now even parts of the far west are falling under its influence.

Now if I could just finish the regular map.  I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

How to Make a Great Map in Five Minutes

Alright here is the first ever true tutorial here at the Cartographer's Corner.  This is method I developed yesterday while procrastinating when I was supposed to be finishing my Caliburn map.  It's simple and above all fast.  This tutorial assumes you are using Adobe Photoshop CS4.  Older versions of Photoshop will work though some of the menus or short cuts may be a little different.  So let's get started.

Step 1:  Create  a new project.  I used the following settings: Width 8.5in, Height 11in, Resolution 300px, Color Mode RGB 8-bit, Background transparent.

Step 2: Create Clouds.  Filter > Render > Clouds

Everything should now look like this.  

Step 3: Use Difference Clouds to Create the Base of your map.  Filter > Render > Difference Clouds.  You'll need to repeat this roughly 15 times so go ahead and just hold down ctrl and press the F key (that will repeat the last filter you used) repeatidly.  The final step for this is to expand the layer five times to get a sort of zoomed in version.  Click edit > transform > scale then at the top imput both height and width as 500%. 

  You should now have something that looks like this.

 

Step 4: Color in the Ocean. Create a new layer and name it Ocean.  Then click Edit > Fill and choose a nice blue color that you would like for your ocean.  (The example map has R: 62, G: 87, B 120)  Your whole screen will now be blue with nothing showing through.  Set the blend mode on the layer menu to 'Color'.

Everything should now looks blue

 


Step 5: Color the Land.  Create a new layer and call it 'Land'.  Now you'll need to take the magic selector tool and find select a Gray area (NOT a white area).  Then choose select > similar.  Now select edit > fill and choose a green color that you would like for your land.  (The example uses R: 85, G: 100, B: 73)  Again set the blend mode of this layer to Color.

 It's really coming together!

Step 6: Higher Elevations.  Create a new layer, call it Mountains.  Now take your magic selector tool and click on a White area.  Now choose Select > Similar and you should have only the lightest areas selected.  Next chose Edir > Fill and choose a brownish color (the example uses R: 106, G: 91, B:61).  Again set the blend mode 'Color'. 

And there you go!  The map is pretty much done.  Everything else is window dressing.  You'll see my finished example below where I  did some country outlines and some labeling, and a border, but that's all to taste.  You can do it anyway you want, or leave it blank and let your players explore, labeling as they go.

From here you can do whatever you want.  Experiment, that's half the fun!  Email me if you have any questions, or if I have omitted a step from this tutorial (as is likley!). 

The Five Minute Map

I created this map in under five minutes using a strange new technique I created in a moment of inspiration today.  I am currently working on writing a tutorial post that will walk you though the steps you will need to create a map just like this in only five minutes.  I hope you have it up tomorrow, but if not then the day after is a certainty... eh... probably.

More Great Miniatures

Dark Sword Miniatures is back at it with some more great ones.  The detail on these is as staggering as ever, and they continue to capture the feel of Martin's ASIF.

First up is Eddard Stark.  He is carrying his Valyrian steel great sword Ice and looking as somber as ever.  The second picture really shows the amount of details on his face.  My compliments to Tom Meier who sculpted this piece.

Next up is Shea, notice she is wearing the Hand's chain of office. 

The chain of office underwent several revisions.  Here is a view of the final version.  Shea was also sculpted by Tom Meier.

Again by Tom is Samwell Tarly, the portly man of the Night's Watch.  Sam The Slayer is shown carrying his Dragonglass dagger which he used to slay an other and claim in nickname.

Finally a new piece by Jeff Grace, Euron Greyjoy.  Crowseye is depicted with his deadly horn here.

A second version, depicted here, shows Greyjoy with a bag of gold in place of his magic horn.

Again you should check out other angles of these excellent minis as well as some of their past works at Dark Sword's website.