Elric’s Secret

I’ve started practicing art again for a NUNA. There’s a little teaser of an Elric piece I’m working on inspired by the new RPG news.

The Struggle of Finding RPG Art

RPG art for Nuna is tough.

Especially as an indie creator.

I asked Inuit artists to help.

No answer.

I got a graphic designer to help.

The AI tools in the program he used added fingers.

So I am doing the art myself.

Funny thing is, everyone who knew me as a child thought I'd be an artist.

My grandmother Phyllis Pritchard, my great aunt Jean Crane, my mother were all artists.

We have the gift.

Somewhere along the way I fell off the road.

It is nice to get back to it.

Everyday I am doing art therapy.

Makes the burdens lighter, the road brighter.

TGIF Moorcock + Nuna Art Attack

 Just scribbling away on a Saturday

The Old Moonbeam Road four

Tutauk

Титульный ледоход

AI Art Apology & NUNA

A few followers of NUNA pointed out what looked like wonky AI fingers in some draft art for the game last year. I was totally flooded with the Kickstarter + work + single fathering, and so didn't pay enough attention.

My apologies. I had told the NUNA team that AI art is unacceptable from the start.

I talked to the artist, who is a graphic designer. He uses Photoshop, which has AI tools and enhancements, some of which are options, some of which were hardbaked in. He finds it harder to do without them year by year. The fine line between photo manipulation and AI art is blurring rapidly.

He apologized and returned the pay I had sent him.

Let me be absolutely clear.

First, I abhor AI art. I hate the way it steals from real artists, and detest the schlocky, canned art products it creates. It is threatening the future of art itself - why work hard to be an artist when with a click you can churn out AI schlock?

Second, for my current RPG project, the Japanese social game Giri-Ninjou, I am making all art myself. By hand. I think this is perfect for a small, indie product.

In fact, I had a HUGE problem finding good artists for NUNA. Especially indigenous ones. Some didn't like RPGs, some didn't get the project. Lots that I saw make amateur or folk art, again, not suitable. My own art looks like 90's first time pen ink RPG art, and pales in comparison to all the professional level Kickstarter RPG art I see. Just look at Coyote & Crow, my inspiration, and you'll know what I mean.

Once again, my apologies, and expect nothing but human made art from me.

PS Living out a suitcase in Vancouver now, but on the trail of some academic work. Wish me luck!

Nuna Art

An Inuit woman with child talks to a Mystic Tuniit in its cave. What is it telling her?

Beaten to the Punch!

Looks like artist Jason Thompson has beaten me to the punch and already made a gorgeous poster for The Haunting!

If you want this work of art on your study wall, you can purchase it HERE.

I am not connected nor do I profit in any way.

D&D Album Covers

I think AJJ's The Ghost Mice Split cover looks totally like an OSR art piece.

Any idea who did it?

Listen HERE

Dungeons & Manga #2 - Knowing D&D Part Two

OK, let's jump right back into the action. While in part one we saw that the introductory section of the book Knowing D&D began with dynamic action scenes to capture the reader's attention, its latter half is all action art.

This second half of the text is a"replay", or the transcript of a play session. Replays are HUGELY popular in the Japanese TRPG scene, and the rationale seems to be 1) it is fun to read through someone else's session as a fictional account and 2) you can learn to run a game or play in one by reading replays.

Anyway, on to the art. In this part, instead of explaining every image, I will instead present them with questions and let you try to guess what exactly is going on.

First image - where is the best place to start an adventure?

Next, who invited a snake to this disco party?

Make the 1/2 HD mooks jump!

Uh oh, the TPK heavies just showed up...

Where does this lead to?

 Who best to find their way in the darkness...

A reward for bravery.

Splitting the spoils, making plans...

A summons!

These guys good or bad? Depends how they're shaded...

Taking the block.

Not alone!

About those goblins...

Who does your hair, Baal?

Bette Davis eyes?

Always a damsel somewhere...

She didn't see that coming...

Which edition theses guys playing? BECMI by the ads...

Anyway, so much for Knowing D&D. Excuse the photo quality, but my tablet camera at 2am is about all I can muster these days.

I'd like to thank all commenters - I didn't expect any response, especially any so soon or thoughtful. Good to know there are other people with the same interests out there in the nebulous space of the OSR.

Next in the series - scifi TRPG style, or Furries in Space!

Dungeons & Manga #1 - Knowing D&D Part One

Not having the time to compose the long (winded) discursive thoughts on games I used to, I thought I'd start a new series of posts that would require less time to write for but also provide something interesting for gamers until I can get more time to think and compose. I've turned to my fairly extensive collection of Japanese RPGs, most of which are fantasy games, to present what I call 'Dungeons & Manga', namely manga-style art used in Japanese TRPG books. Whereas English RPGs and D&D in particular took some time before accessing professional artists, Japanese game designers had access to the immense pool of relatively inexpensive manga artists in Japan.

Today, I will be looking at 1987's D&Dがよくわかる本、D&D ga yoku wakaru hon, loosely translated as Knowing D&D Well, or more simply D&D for Beginners. This book is much like a Japanese Judges' Guild resource, and the series it is a part of includes extensively written and illustrated guides on dungeons, monsters, and other RPG accoutrements.

First, the cover (below) presents a whimsical reversal of position of PCs and the dragons they are supposed to be gunning for. It reminds me a bit of the old Dragon magazine comic where adventurers sit around playing an RPG in which they take on the role of office workers. It also shows a high degree of self-deprecating humour, which is still evident in Japanese TRPGs today, but I feel somewhat lacking in self-important western RPGS. Anyway, here it is:

Moving inside, we see that Japanese gamers knew what captured goblins were good for. This is not surprising given the velocity with which unchi rolls downhill in a vertical society...

From the bottom of the dungeon hierarchy we soar to the top. Next stop, dragons!

With the reader's appetite whetted with images of adventure, the tone shifts to tongue-in-cheek comic art to present the classes. There's the fighter:

The top panel is captioned "The fighter is D&D's superstar!!", while the bottom states "However, they are none too smart..." and show the wizard saying "Hey, get back to work!" Unsurprisingly, the next picture is the wizard:

The mage's thought balloon reads "For MU's, choosing the right spell decides your fate." Below that the wizard mumbles "Without magic, I'm just an average human..." and chooses from a golf bag with the words "Fireball", Levitation", "Lightning", "Phantasm" and one other illegible spell name. Next, the cleric:

The cleric thinks "Clerics can't use bladed weapons!" while the elf behind quips "Razors are OK, right?" The bottom caption reads "They have the power to protect the party from undead and injury!" Whereas individualistic westerners might cringe at being in a support position, group-minded Japanese players would instead find supporting the party a worthy and attractive role. In contrast, next up is the thief:

The upper panel reads "The party uses me as a treasure detector..." while the bottom is captioned "The highly dexterous thief also levels up quickly." The thief himself quips "I aim to be guildmaster!", interestingｌｙ using the Japanese term 大親分　（o-oyabun, or yakuza chief) to anchor the character in Japanese culture. Moving on to the elf:

The female elf has been a Japanese fantasy trope since Deedlit of Lodoss War, and that archtype is here. The caption on top reads "Elves can fight, use magic, are intelligent, and long lived...". This totally fits the critique of elves as a token instead of individual characters that appeared on Playing D&D with Pornstars, perhaps implying that this simplification is even stronger across cultures. The bottom reads "But their advancement is also incredibly slow." This same simplification is seen with the dwarf:

"Dwarves are small but tough!" reads the caption, evoking Gimli to an almost painfully stereotypical degree. The humouruous bottom quip "Because we eat minerals (just joking)" lightens this image, but unintentionally adds an explanation for dwarvish miserliness and mining that I would add to any mythos I used in game. How about the hafling?

"Haflings are hard to hit" promises the caption, and the character breaks the fourth wall to counsel " You have to be strong, dextrous, and tough if you want to be me!" Here ends the cutesy art and manga style realism returns for the equipment section:

Chainmail, shield, platemail, and leather are all here.

Hand axe, shortsword, battle axe, and two-handed sword as well...

 Mace, crossbow, bow, dagger, and club...

Ending with lance, spear, war hammer,  halberd and sling. What, no katanas? Oh well, now on to character sheets:

For those of you that can read katakana, yes they have named the thief 'Darth Vader' and the wizard 'Ben Kenobi.' If that seems like a jr high D&D camp type of thing to do, remember that they are coming from another culture, and so are not much different from the L4R players who call their PC Musashi or Nobunaga. Similarly, the fighter is Pendragon and the elf is (wait for it)... Legolas. Sigh, there was also a cleric named Rasputin, but my tablet ate the photo, so I shall spare you.

That's it for this installment, tune in next time for the dynamic action scenes accompanying the sample adventure!

If you liked this post or have any suggestions or questions, leave a comment.

If You're Running A Japanese Horror Campaign or Game...

THESE should all be encounters, and shown to players.

The Other, OTHER Monster Manual & Whatever Happened to Tedankhamen?

Found another great monster manual tonight, Eric Carle’s Dragons Dragons. That’s right, Eric Carle, the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, wrote a monster guidebook. I don’t know for certain whether Carle ever played RPGs, but the title certainly evokes the old Tunnels & Trolls book Monsters Monsters.

If you have kids (what, gamers procreate?!?), this book is a must tool of indoctrination for future polyhedral rollers. It was a big hit with my one year old munchkin.

The book is a beautiful hardcover with Carle’s characteristically colorful paintings of monsters drawn from the familiar Eurocentric myths but also some outliers from South America, Africa and Japan. Each image is accompanied by a poem, mostly from authors I’d never heard of except biggies like William Blake. The book ends with a neat little section explaining the mythical origins of the creatures featured.

The list of monsters has interesting implications for a gameworld based on it. They are as follows:

Dragon (fire breathing green on the cover)

Drake (inside cover)

Dragon

Roc

The Yeti

Minotaur

Basilisk/Cockatrice

Leviathan

Amphisbaena

White Buffalo Woman

Rainbow Crow

The Phoenix

The Griffin

The Unicorn

Pan

Kappa

The Centaurs

Mermaid/Undersea

Chinese Dragon (big pull out splash centerpage)

Ganesha, Ganesh

Sphinx

Pegasus

Bunyip

Garuda

Quetzalcoatl

Kraken

Cerberus

Chimera

The Hippocamp

Anansi the Spider

Okolo the Leopard Warrior

The Manticore

Dragon

Any fantasy campaign run with this book as its monster manual would feature a lack of lootable evil demihumans and a load of heavy hitting monsters and demigods, thus would probably feel like Shadow of Colossus, with PCs running from most encounters or trembling in abject terror. The book’s selection makes it more of a mix of Monster Manual and Deities & Demigods than straightforward monster book.

Anyway, great mind and eye candy for little ones of all ages.

As to where I have been, the answer is trapped under the burning timbers of my phd thesis. My plan back in September of providing an antidote to the tsunami of D&D 5E posts fell through, but on the good side I have one chapter deadline to go this month, a final edit next month, then freedom.

Wish me luck, and expect posts infrequently until December when I’ll be diving into blog and gaming therapy for my stress and exhaustion.

Tedankhamen

Forget Rifts, Give Me Mutant Chronicles!

Just look at the great gonzo, British grotty art!
How did I miss this gem back in the day?
Apparently getting a re-edition.
I am so glad io9 has RPG news.

Japanese Art Inspiration – Bounty from the Sea

The above painting is by Shigeru Aoki (1882-1911), a Japanese painter of fantastic scenes who sadly died before the age of 30 from tuberculosis. Aoki is known for using impressionist and western religious painting techniques and applying them to Japanese myths. Aoki was of samurai lineage, and some of his paintings have been named important Japanese cultural properties.

Many of Shigeru’s paintings, with titles such as ‘Path to the Underworld’ and ‘Paradise under the Sea,’ are great inspirations for fantasy gaming. Look at ‘Bounty from the Sea’ again. Could it depict a group of Tanaroan tribesmen from the Isle of Dread returning with their catch to feed the village? Or perhaps a band of sea-elves bringing in shark heads as bounties to the fishermen who pay to keep their fishing grounds, traps and nets free from such predators?

Kyoto Gaming Inspirations – Mt Kurama

I live just 20 minutes outside of Kyoto, a city brimming with roleplaying inspirations. From its hoary old temples and shrines, to its moss covered stone buddhas on lonely trails, bamboo groves sighing and chiming in the wind, and old stone bridges where samurai once strolled, drank sake, composed poems, or lopped off heads, Kyoto is an inspiring place for an Oriental Adventures/Ruins & Ronin/L5R etc game.

From time to time I’d like to introduce a real Kyoto site that would fit sweetly into a roleplaying campaign. I’ll start today with Mount Kurama.

Mt Kurama (鞍馬), literally ‘Mount Saddle Horse’) is a 30 minute drive in the hills north of Kyoto. Founded originally in 770 AD by the Tendai sect of Buddhism, in 1949 it was bought out by Kurama-Kokyo sect (basically a cult shot off from mainstream Buddhism) and they tend its temple-encrusted and forested peaks now. Their pamphlet tells of Mao-son, a god-king who descended from Venus a million years ago to fight evil and yadda yadda Scientology-sounding BS. Yep, they’re a cult.

But the Kurama-Kokyo pamphlet could also easily serve as a B1- In Search of Adventure style module for Oriental OD&D. The outer side has a numbered woodblock art map on one side with descriptions of all the temples on the other. It is literally begging to be statted out with monsters, traps and treasure.

Look at that map a bit closer. These are not measly 10 x 10 squares! The trip over the mountain took me 3 hours, and was pitch black and treacherous as hell descending.

The inner side contains more woodblock art with descriptions of four major festivals. Although the festivals themselves could be great seeds for adventures, taking the pictures out of context inspires some great adventure antagonists.

Are the two demon-dogs guarding a hoard of coin? Are the bamboo staff wielding berserker monks a force to be reckoned with? Who is this procession of blankly smiling candle holders, and what secrets do they wish to keep from interlopers? Finally, are these henchmen carrying cannons? If so, to what end?

Yes, Mt Kurama is equally inspiring in person, with meditation waterfalls whose icy falling streams will pound the daily worries out of your shoulders, giant trees and gates stretching into the sky at seeming impossible angles that are hard to look into, and mysterious monks wordlessly on their way on secret errands (probably just paying the gas bill…).

So, if you have the chance to visit Mt Kurama in real life, I can heartily recommend it. If not, at least visit it in your gaming. If you do stat up or use Mt Kurama, drop us a line to tell us how it went!

Tedankhamen