D6 Magazine: Down Below

Halloween, being a permanent fixture to the month of October, has inspired the upcoming issue of D6 Magazine to have horror-themed articles. The third issue of the online magazine continues to deliver articles, adventures and interviews for the Open D6 gaming community.

Here is a sneak peek to illustrations I did for a horror adventure set deep under the sea, entitled Down Below.

Yes! That's a baby dumbo octopus in the bottom illustration there. Watch out for the third issue of D6 Magazine due to be released at the end of the month.

Play Argyle and Crew With Your Kids!

Argyle and Crews: Adventure in the Land of Skcos is a simple and fun role-playing game produced by Benjamin Gerber which is designed to be played with very young children... using sock puppets! I contributed three pieces of art for this project, including line art for the cover.

The game is released under the Creative Common License. Purchase Argyle & Crew at:

• DriveThruRPG
• Lulu.com

or you could legally Torrent it using the following torrent file:

• AndCtorrent (right click and save this file)

At the very least, you don't have to throw your old socks away!

Azamar RPG Is Now On Sale!

The Azamar RPG Players' Guide has been released by Wicked North Games and can now be purchased from several online sources.

Here's an excerpt from the Introduction chapter of the book:

Exploring Azamar

Azamar is a world where many worlds touch and overlap through Magic.

Each world separated by a barrier the people of Azamar call a Fabric. The Fabric is not something most people can touch or understand. Most commonly used for referring to the Fabric between Azamar and the Blur, a world overlapped with Azamar where the inhabitants are immensely powerful and deadly magical beings known as Fiends. The Fiends serve a council of some kind referred to as the Fiend Lords. At any given time, ten Fiend Lords direct and govern the other Fiends in the Blur.

While the Fabric is not tangible, the Blur-Touched or those who can perceive Magic may concentrate and see where damage exists or holes are open. When damage comes to the Fabric, it reverberates and releases Magical energies, if uncontrolled, have physical or otherwise powerful repercussions capable of damaging the breadth of Azamar.

Azamar can be purchased online at two locations:

• Wicked North Games store
• DriveThruRPG

If you have the inclination and the cash to spare, try out the Azamar RPG which runs on the Cinema6 system which is the offshoot of the OpenD6 system.

Click here to check out my comprehensive Azamar gallery on deviantArt.

Trail of Cthulhu: The Watchers In The Sky

And so it came to pass Kai attempted to run Trail of Cthulhu role-playing game which he bought at DriveThruRPG. For a demo run, he also purchased The Watchers In the Sky scenario. All he needed were volunteers to run through the scenario who would sacrifice their sanity for the game.

There emerged seven ill-fated volunteers.

And Then Some SWAG Character Requests

It's the couple of days lull before I leave town for Eid-ul-Fitr vacation at the in-laws, so I had some free time to take on some Star Wars Artists' Guild requests. Here are three character requests I picked up. I used a new Copicmarker Ciao ink brush I just purchased for their line art. Click on their individual links to read their request threads at the forums:

Ka'ron Quinch

Smuggler as requested by vinnie3.

J'zzzt the Hutt

A Jedi Hutt as requested by Viscious the Jester.

Doctor Adram Zanedi

A Republic Military officer and a physician during the Mandalorian Wars, requested by Jalaila Tarin.

Azamar - Template Art Part Four

Here are a few more Azamar RPG character artwork for templates! The book is now for sale at their online store!

Female Bu'Col Priest

Male Bu'Col Shea'akh Warrior

Female Enfri Wizard

Male Enfri Wizard

Female Human Asceromancer

Male Human Wizard of the Veil

The Great Nerd Archaeological Dig of Sitiawan

Earlier this month, we went back to my hometown of Sitiawan where I dug up my old stuff in my cupboard and wardrobe, then posted them on Google+. Here is a compilation of the posts, along with further elaboration, as well as a new photo near the end.

Ancient cache of geekery unearthed at my parents' house included a single Bill Mantlo / Gil Kane's Micronauts comic. I'm sure there was another where the 'Nauts battled a gentleman by the name of Professor Prometheus - at least on the cover. I don't remember much of what's inside.

I found a pair of old Dazzler comics - featuring the mutant disco performer who transduced sound to light - still readable with their pages still intact. Several years later, she would be a member of the X-Men.

I bought the West End Games' Star Wars RPG module titled Crisis on Cloud City, and they had a set of sabacc cards with rules. Cropping cardboard into equal sizes is harder than it looks, even with a metalwork guillotine.

At the back of an old receipt are illustrations and game stats for a Star Wars light freighter named Nasty Nervosa. I didn't name it, the players did. Don't ask me why.

Remember the old Star Wars sunday strips. I believe I culled these from the New Straits Times. Every week there was a panel that featured a character, vehicle or technology drawn by Al Williamson. I tried to collect them all. A futile effort, really.

SWD6: The Rancid Putrefaction of a Cosmic Caterwauling Cabal

Last Sunday, I ran a Star Wars RPG D6 game for the GOKL group. It started out as a one-shot, but who knows; the tale might continue another time.

The Rancid Putrefaction of a Cosmic Caterwauling Cabal

Episode 312: All Heaven Broke Loose

Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, aboard the space station Kwenn that served as deep space commerce and transport hub, there was a Rebel cell, who sat all day for days in a spacer's cantina named The Drunken Dewback, waiting for their first mission. Then one day the young bartender gestured them to the bar. She told them to go to Anchorhead on Tatooine where they will be given an important mission briefing.

Chapter One - We're So Starving

The Rebel cell consisted of Avril Mantessa, Pew Pew and Tyvokka.

Avril was a young Jedi who had been cloistered away and trained by her Jedi parents in secret after the Jedi Purge. She has yet to use her lightsabre in combat. Pew Pew was a short furry Ewok gunslinger who wore a wide-brimmed sombrero, a poncho and a pair of blaster pistols. No one knew where he came from. And finally, Tyvokka was a Wookiee who owed a life debt to a pirate who died recently. Finding himself without an aim in life, he signed up with a group of rebels.

Lompy watches as Tyvokka the Wookiee mulls over his next step with Pew Pew the Ewok strapped to his chest baby pouch.

The trio headed down to the spaceport levels and entered a bay filled with light freighters and transports.

Bare Bones Cover Process

The Bare Bones Game System published by DwD Studios - the rules-lite, role-playing game featured in the previous post - also required a cover art. I was commissioned to produce a comic-style scene of the characters in the fantasy template cards appropriating loot.

Here is the step-by-step process of how the cover came to be.

Click on the above to view the full artwork. Or you could also scroll down to the end of this blog post for it. 

I start with a rough sketch of the cover in black and white, overlaid with the margin and bleed marks.

Bare Bones

The Bare Bones Game System - to be published by DwD Studios - is a rules-lite, multi-genre role-playing game formatted onto playing card-sized cards. Here are artwork for players that will be printed on card-sized character sheets for a standard fantasy-type world with the usual suspects: Human, Elf, Halfling and Dwarf.

Azamar: Owog

Owog

Owogs - feral, ferocious creatures that leaked through into Azamar from the Inferium and domesticated into tracking hounds by Orcs - are generally unpleasant little things. Also, keep an eye out for their Strength+18 bite and Strength+12 foreclaws.

Because they frickin' hurt.

Artwork for Wicked North Games' Azamar fantasy role-playing game.

Mithius Cragmoore

Commissioned by the guys at Wicked North Games for their Star Wars RPG game group, Mithius Cragmoore was born on Coruscant to an Imperial Admiral and is now a bounty hunter with the House Benelex. He wields a pulse rifle, a blade and wears a stun cloak.

Inked and painted on paper, the original artwork was mailed to them, a first for me as a freelance illustrator.

Thanks for the commission, guys. It was great to have illustrated this character.

Click here for a larger image on DeviantArt.

Revisions of Azamar

Here are revisions of several illustrations that was made for Wicked North Games' Azamar RPG. 

Revenant

Click here for a bigger image of this flaming skeletal monster on DeviantArt.

First Aid

Click here for a bigger image of a Shrave administering first aid to an injured Immyr.

Guradiin Ithural

My first Azamar art redone! Click here for a bigger image of the Immyr city.

D6 Magazine: Issue Two Artwork

I have been illustrating for an article for a new issue of the D6 Magazine. This hilarious entry by Mike Fraley, entitled "Graiv's Magical Curiosities", is a marketing drive by the eponymous business owner trying to sell off some strange and unconventional magical artefacts that seem utterly useless at first glance. Would you purchase...

The Great Razor

Using the razor would cause an inhumanly quick hair growth where blade touches the skin.

The Oversensitive Torch

The flame from this torch cannot be easily doused by water... but human voice will cause it to go out.

The Pacifist Dagger

This dagger will slice through everything except living matter.

The Blue Ring

...with a bunch of other stuff

The Blue Ring just turns the wearer's skin blue. Also depicted here are the Trackless Shoes, the Ever Empty Tankard, the Nevertied Rope and the Compass of Impeding Doom. Read about these magical gear and more in the upcoming issue of D6 Magazine.

Click here to download the previous issue.

Check out my cover to issue one here.

Azamar Deities Part Three

Herein are two more illustration for Wicked North Games' Azamar RPG.

Syndia

Syndia of the Cliffs, the Goddess of the Moon, the Enlightened One, the Shining Lady... enemy of the Ash Lord and the thwarter of Mo's mischief. She vigilantly protects her charges on Azamar from otherworldly threats.

Balmaritch

Balmaritch is the deity of truth behind illusion, with an abundance of disguises among others, clockwise from top left - Hanath the crone, Vankoln the warrior, Naalateth the magician, Marvanock the miser and Parkoxina the thief. (The final artwork has a few modifications done to it compared to this version.)

 Click on the links to see Parts One and Two of the Azamar Deities illustrations.

Azamar - Template Art Part Three

Final part of the three-part series. Something like the Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes but less LSH and more artwork from character templates available in Wicked North Games' Azamar RPG core book.

Tre'uoall Sword Chanter

Enfri Shadow

Human Wizard of the Veil

Immyr War Priest

Immyr Soldier

Azamar - Template Art Part Two

Continuing the series of character template artwork for Wicked North Games' Azamar RPG:

Wyvine War Scholar

Bu'Col Priest

Bu'Col Shea'Ahk Warrior

Urbane Noble

Azamar - Template Art Part One

Over the last couple of weeks I was working on and are now finished with the character template artwork for Wicked North Games' Azamar RPG. The playable races of Azamar are numerous: Human, Urbane, Tre'uoall, Wyvine, Immyr, Enfri and Shrave.

Here are four playable character templates, right here in this post:

Shrave Archer

Shrave Monk

Tre'uoall Archon

Urbane Assassin

Azamar Deities Part Two

More powerful beings - reality-changing and interdimensional - that has made their mark on the world of Azamar. 

Mo

Mo is the deity of laughter, change, and trickery, and manifests in the form of a jester with a dazzling outfit of ever-changing colors - though he rarely ever manifests.

Nooks and Crannies

Nooks and Crannies are factions of a powerful type of beings from a world which was devastated by a war between the factions. They've travelled to Azamar using their magics and set themselves as deities, sowing chaos and demanding sacrifices and tributes from their followers. The war between Nooks and Crannies have now come to Azamar.

Xujof

Xujof is a deity also known as the grim, a deity of death, life, and the delicate balance between them, often referred to as the equilibrium. Xujof normally manifests as an elderly Human, typically wearing contemporary apparel, mingling quietly within the various societies of Azamar.

Azamar Deities Part One

Ash Lord

The Ash Lord, also known as the Eater of Souls, sends dark beings who manifest as Humans, who make deals to grant the wishes of others, who soon bargain to relinquish their souls in trade for these deals.

Shilutozenon

Shilutozenon is the deity of nature and of the natural order and make attempts to repair and restore the natural order of Azamar.

Sychorax

Sychorax is the deity of beauty, compassion, desire, and persuasion which manifests typically as a blazing ball of light.

Xaraxamarath

Xaraxamarath is the deity of creation and destruction, often worshipped by a small faction of wizards known as Conjurers, who devote themselves to understanding the magic of creation and destruction within Azamar.