Transitory States
Edward:
David S Leyman:
Hisham:
Luke:
James Kight:
king:
Hisham and Sila has been writing stuff down on this weblog since 2005. Sometimes they post photos of family, sometimes they talk about film, books and music, sometimes there is artwork and stuff about tabletop gaming.
Derf requested a pair of Snivvian lovers for his Star Wars RPG campaign. He plays a Snivvian student on Coruscant who has a long-distance relationship with a holodrama scenist back on Cadomai. Painted in monochome digitally with MyPaint, and coloured using GIMP 2.8.
Click here to check out the image (as well as Ryan's "DAWWWW") on DeviantArt.
Here are more interior artwork for DwD Studios's upcoming BareBones Covert Ops RPG. Covert Ops allow players to be part of a crack covert team of agents - military or civilians - and do a bunch of spy stuff. For research, I saw some 007 movies, Mission: Impossible movies, Person of Interest (for the civilian black ops angle) and Archer ("Well there's false flags, dead drops, drop outs, cut outs, active doubles, passive doubles, dangled moles. The often under appreciated honeypot. One of my favorites.") It also helped that I am in the midst of playing a Night's Black Agents campaign. Later, I also realised that Fast Five is a great heist movie that shows player characters as primarily wheel artists.
This batch of art shows activities you can do in the game, such as baking a cake, having a stroll, mowing the lawn, getting a mortgage for your secret island base:
Defeat a tank with a knife:
Get your doctor mad at you for not adhering to your prescribed diet:
Ride on a train:
This is not a full actual play report of the recent Night's Black Agents session gamemastered by Kai, but it highlights one of the reasons why I roleplay. One of the many descriptions of a tabletop RPG is a cooperative storytelling game where the gamemaster (GM) sets up a story and referees in-story conflicts and their outcomes. At the same time, players act accordingly as characters in that story and also provide foil for the GM to feed information and story points back at the players in a dramatically satisfactory way, if possible.
In a way, we are reading a spy novel or watching a spy movie as we are developing it together.
Here's what happened which involved me playing the Bosnian wheel artist Zlatan Kljujic:
Here's what happened beforehand during the first three game sessions of the "Eurovision Song Contest Job":
Sami Härkönen obtained two borzoi hounds which he trained and renamed Abraham Van Helsing and Abraham Lincoln.
The agents received information from Rose of the Camon Gang that they'd found a relative of Vin, their Romany hitter who displayed vampiric characteristics. This cousin is one Milla Cesarescu, a singer for a Romany punk band Half Kingdom who would be participating in Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö. Milla had publicly announced that she was going to unmask racist elements in the Swedish government and upon arriving at Malmö, Jacob, Sami, Abraham van Helsing discovered that a white supremacist terror group had targeted her.
Meanwhile Misha, Abraham Lincoln and a new addition to the company, the cleaner and medical examiner David Verdasco who stayed back in London to monitor the remnants of the Camon Gang witnessed the slaughter of Gary Camon and his men by an unknown group who displayed superhuman strength. The gang's terrified survivors, Rose and Mister Grey, joined up with the agents, informed them that Vin had been taken and wanted their help to leave the country.
Back in Sweden, while Jacob and his media contact Ebba Östberg investigated Milla, discovering that one of the terrorists named Mikko Mikkel-Mikkelsen displayed superhuman strength and limited mind control abilities. Sami and Abraham van Helsing shadowed Mikko while gaining a shadow themselves, one Snorre Dahlquist, a special agent for the Swedish Ministry of Health. Thanks to Sami, Snorre - who had also been investigating the terrorists as well - became an ally.
As Misha and David smuggled Grey and Rose out of England, Snorre, Sami and Zlatan tracked Mikko to a cottage in the woods near Nybro. In the cellar, viewed with a endoscope, Zlatan discovered Nova Lind, the aging mentor of Half Kingdom who disappeared some years ago, strapped to a chair being drained of blood, which is used to give the terrorists the superhuman strength.
Zlatan of course had made his mind up what these creatures are.
Issyka is The Secret DM's fantasy setting for a Play-by-Post game engine. Artwork commission for Issyka? Here you go:
There is a hint of planetary romance with swapped gender tropes. Also, who is actually afraid of who in the drawing? The humans or the Illadon? Watch this space for more announcements on Issyka.
This is the second of two blog posts featuring location artwork of cities and prefectures on the planet Westward, where human colonists have been marooned for centuries with only an exotic steam-powered technology to run their machines. Over the years, new politics, allegiances and social dynamics have driven the inhabitants of Westward.
How would you play characters in an alien western steampunk setting?
Look out for the Westward RPG to be released soon!
There's even a sideslicer on the hillside beneath Fort Gowchain there. Click here to see part one of two.
More Westward RPG artwork were commissioned by Wicked North Games, and for this batch they have ordered location artwork of various cities and prefectures on Westward. Here is the first of two posts of the locations on the (mostly) dry and arid planet of Westward!
What adventures can players experience at these places? Check out Westward RPG to be released mid-year by Wicked North Games.
The hardworking guys over at DwD Studios are developing their own espionage, counter-intelligence and paramilitary game using its BareBones roleplaying system.
Here are the artwork for archetypes that can be used either as PCs or NPCs right out of the box. Each and any of these characters can be found in tactical situations requiring them to use their wits as well as their gear to survive and complete their missions.
Here is part of a large panoramic artwork I made for Kallisti Press's The Vicious Crucible of the Villa Argentate RPG. A bunch of other stuff is occuring in this walled city where the river divides it into the unbelievably rich section, the working class section and the dirt poor section. Meanwhile, an army is camped outside its walls.
You can download for free the first Vicious Crucible game entitled The Vicious Crucible of Verdigris Valley here! (A thumbnail link can be found in the left column under "Complete Tabletop Games".)
I've already run Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG Beginner Game adventure for Irfan, so now I would see how it would fare with half a dozen experienced tabletop RPGers, namely the guys at GOKL.
From the available pregenerated characters in the adventure Escape from Mos Shuuta, Ivan played 41-VEX as a manumitted medical droid, Razzman played the Twi'lek bounty hunter Oskara, Macx played the Wookiee hired gun Lowhhrick and Doug tweaked Pash the smuggler into Nora Romanova. Darren and Kai jury-rig a character generation using the Beta rule notes found online and became, respectively, Qillian Ryn the Triannii assassin and Darter Kel the Zeltron scout and bush pilot. I might have screwed up the chargen a bit because of lack of complete rules.
The adventure's encounters are designed so GMs and players get the hang of the system. For example, the first encounter teaches us about options on hiding in a cantina. The second encounter takes us through combat with a drift of Gamorreans. The third forces players to interact with NPCs to acquire a gear important to the story.
However, GOKL players being GOKL players, things blew up and died in encounter one.
Nora, Oskara, Lowhhrick, 41-VEX and Qillian had crossed the local crime lord Teemo the Hutt, and Teemo's band of cudgel-bearing Gamorreans were now combing Mos Shuuta for them. The group ducked into the Devaronian's cantina to look for the pilot they hired beforehand, namely Darter, just before Gamorreans spotted them and chased in after them.
Oskara flipped a table. Nora jumped over the bar. Qillian slipped his knuckledusters on and crept into the shadows by the doorway. VEX orders a drink - a pitcher of motor oil. Darter, following the band of newcomers' example bounded to the dance stage where the Twi'lek dancer was dancing by a pole. He immediately tried to charm the pants off her.
As the pig guard burst in, the person with the keenest eye, fastest reflexes and swiftest hand moved first. It was VEX. He cooly downed his drink much to the bartender's slack-jawed surprise. However, the guards saw Oskara who was already behind the flipped table with her blaster rifle ready. She had the advantage and blew a hole in the lead Gamorrean. From the stage, Darter wriggled his butt, reached into his tight pants and a dart gun appeared was in his previously-bare hands. He took a firing stance and shot a dart at another Gamorrean, which sadly bounced off his thick bacon-smelling hide. Nora popped up from behind the bar and fire a wounding shot into his shoulder while Qillian snuck up from behind the Gamorreans and punched one with his knuckleduster, dazing the pig guard. All had fallen but one, who turned to the one who had shot him: Nora. But then VEX drew his blaster, spun and fired. The last thug fell.
Nora introduced Darter, their new pilot, to the group and the horrified Devaronian bartender yelled at them to get out of his bar. Darter explained that he too was in Teemo's bad books for seducing Teemo's daughter. The others would have lost their lunches at his story if they had eaten something for lunch.
When Irfan showed me this clay creature he created, I thought I'd take a photo of it and make up some stats for it.
Slugshark, Amphibious reptilian predator
Scale: Character
Length: 150-200cm.
DEXTERITY 2D
Brawl 3D+2
Constrict 3D+1
PERCEPTION 2D+1
Sneak (only when swimming) 4D
STRENGTH 2D
Swimming 4D+2
Special:
Bite attack damage: 3D
Constrict damage: 1D increments per round (Round 1: 1D, round 2: 2D, etc)
Horn attack damage: Strength+1
Move: 10 (swim) / 8 (slither)
Slugshark [Minion]
Brawn 2
Agility 2
Cunning 1
Intellect 1
Presence 1
Willpower 1
Skill: Brawl 1, Coordination 1, Stealth 1
Talents: None
Soak/Defense: 1/1
Threshold: Wound 12
Abilities: Difficulty to see swimming slugshark Hard (♦ ♦ ♦ )
Silhouette: 1
Equipment:
Horns (Brawl, Damage 4, Crit 4, Range [Engaged])
Teeth (Brawl, Damage 5, Crit 4, Range [Engaged])
Constrict (Coordination, Damage 1 and +1 every round thereafter, Crit 3, Range [Engaged])
Oh hey, my first Edge of the Empire stats.
Two more Star Wars Artists' Guild player character art pickups. I love picking up these requests once in a while for a warm-up sketch before work begins in the morning.
Badji Hida is a Devaronian scoundrel requested for oexto's Edge of the Empire game. He wields a DL-18 blaster pistol, presumably with aplomb.
Mano Vector is a human Special Agent of the Senate Bureau of Intelligence (before it eventually evolves into Imperial Intelligence, shudder). He was requested by one Agent M.
The second part of Night's Black Agents game run by Kai continued two weeks later with everyone present, namely Shiina "Misha" Mikado the Japanese grifter and heavy hitter, Jacob Novazembla the Dutch hacker, Sami Härkönen the Finnish grunt and Zlatan Kljujic the Bosnian driver! The spy stuff adventure in London continues from the last episode.
I did not have the time to produce a play report in my own words, so here's Kai's diligently written report (with bonus GM's Commentary in italics.)
During the events of the previous blog entry, the GOKL gang also presented me with an early birthday: A Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner Game boxed set.
At first the Star Wars RPG used the D6 system when it was licensed to West End Games. Then it used the d20 system when it was with Wizards of the Coast. The latest role-playing game to be adapted from Star Wars by Fantasy Flight Games now uses the special dice with symbols instead of numbers, much like the Warhammer Fantasy Role Play 3rd edition.
You'd think it'd be complicated, but when I ran it the Beginner Game's scenario entitled "Escape From Mos Shuuta" for Irfan it felt easy enough after we both got the hang of the rules. At some points Irfan was interpreting the dice rolls faster than I was.
Maulidurrasul, a national holiday, fell on a Thursday, and the GOKL guys invited me to play the new GUMSHOE system RPG Night's Black Agents. The venue was at Doug's new place which was not 3 klicks way from me along a straight road. I was happy to join them.
Night's Black Agents allow players to roleplay spies in a contemporary setting... where vampires exist in the shadows, and some of them call the shots.
The group consisted of Shiina "Misha" Mikado the Japanese grifter and heavy hitter, Jacob Novazembla the Dutch hacker, Sami Härkönen the Finnish grunt and me, Zlatan Kljujic the Bosnian driver. We had been called to the Stafford London, a hotel at Saint James's Place, which was across the way from Buckingham Palace by Air Marshal Morgan Prince of the British Ministry of Defence.
The community driven D6 Magazine issue 5 has been released by Wicked North Games. This is the space opera issue with lots of space-based scenarios and stats for the Open D6 game system.
Six pieces of artwork were commissioned from me for two articles.
The first three are used for the scenario Outpost 1717, a sci-fi horror adventure written by Peter Schweighofer.
Click on the thumbnail above for a larger view of the space scene.
It was way back in 1989 when I received my first tabletop RPG, the first edition Star Wars The Roleplaying Game and the Star Wars Sourcebook by West End Games. I read through the rules and thought, let's try this out. I didn't even start with "Rebel Breakout", the introductory adventure that came in the book. I took a school exercise book and created a maze of corridors and rooms and thought, "Okay, this'll make a great Imperial space station interior." Actually the map wouldn't make a lick of sense as a military installation, but it was my first try.
Sila decided to be a bounty hunter and rolled up a player character whom she named Shanna Toarinar, and she went on to play Shanna for another ten years in realtime thereafter. And the campaign would go on for many years until I was able to fill out a sourcebook using story elements from different sessions.
Shanna was a bounty hunter who wears dark combat fatigues, grey flak armour, arm greaves and shin guards. Her parents were killed by Imperial stormtroopers when she was five and now she only hunted Imperial targets.
Shanna arrived at a secret Imperial space station orbiting the planet Sirsee. Deciding that she would have better luck hunting and killing Imperials, she had decided to join the Rebel Alliance. But as a trial of her skills, she was given a mission to retrieve a stolen prototype A-Wing fighter. This fighter's computer had encrypted plans and schematics for a new X-Wing extended range variant. The A-Wing was located on this station.
She arrived at the station hidden on a Lambda-class shuttle. Although she succeeded in sneaking off the shuttle as it was refueling, a remote sensor in the hangar bay registered her motion. Klaxons blared and the station went to full alert status much to her annoyance.
A scout trooper spotted her immediately and tried to stop her, but she put a bolt on the scout's chest armour via her long, slender custom blaster rifle. She slipped out of the bay, crept throughout the cramped corridors and reach a blast door. A bored stormtrooper was guarding it. She snuck past him and crossed the blast door threshold.
Tarrasques are the most lethal creatures without a destructive breath weapon in the Dungeons and Dragons mythology. You don't need a lot, just one will do in any RPG campaign if you need a continent or two levelled.
This is either a very young tarrasque from the planet Falx (if we're playing in a Spelljammer campaign) or a midget tarrasque. In both cases, I think the city in the image will have an hour or two before it's reduced to rubble.
Click on the thumbnail to view a larger image:
Cover for Brent Newhall's upcoming OSR Handbook, which will be a guidebook of all existing Old School Renaissance games available.
Watch this space for announcement of its release!
...Roleplaying games:
...Comics:
Just a couple of participation photos from various activities on Google+.
A follow up post from the earlier D'Kathi alien concept design, here are the final artwork commissioned by Christopher Mennell for his Across The Stars science fiction game setting. While it starts out looking and feeling Star Trek with a lot of analogous signature elements, it diverges in many ways and has the potential for imaginative game masters to take it into high concept science fiction.
