The Pink Dice Chronicles

Here's a modern warehouse with living quarters that I've been working on for my Port Wayne game:

So the games I am running online these days are running out of maps.  The internet is a decent resource, but very shallow.  So, since I am focusing on online gaming for now, I figured it was time to try my hand at cartography. I looked around at various pieces of software and decided to go with ProFantasy's suite of tools:  Campaign Cartographer.  I got the bundle with the dungeon and city builders and picked up some extra symbols, in particular, for modern. Installation is taking a while, but I hope to have it done tonight.  Over the next couple of weeks I'll see what I can come up with.  More info to come...

The daughterlings and wife won't stop passing along germs to me, so rather than playing Pathfinder tonight, I get to write to everyone in a blog post.  Anyway... so todays topic is rivers.  I'm sure that most people have had to sit through the hours of being taught over and over again about early civilizations and how important rivers were in establishing cities.  As a source of fresh water, food, and transportation, rivers have a major impact on determining where large cities could thrive.  They also provide a key piece in the overall character city.  After all, what would London be without the Thames, New Orleans without the Mississippi, Cambridge without the Charles? In our fantasy settings, rivers play a major part in setting the tone and establish useful parameters in the game.  Here are some various aspects to keep in mind with rivers: Rivers provide freshwater to allow large cities to exist.  Think about your favorite fantasy set...

I've been looking at movement speeds across RPGs and noticed some huge differences.  How can something so well-known vary so much across representations?  Here some quick stats (cursory pull from core rules for first level characters, but representative). Shadowrun Round: 3 seconds Walk: 8 to 15 m Run: 20 to 35 m DCC Round: 10 seconds Single Move: 20 to 40 feet Double Move: 30 to 60 feet Pathfinder Round: 6 seconds Walk: 20 to 30 feet Run: 100 to 150 feet AD&D Segment: 6 seconds Movement: 120 to 150 feet Summary               MIN                       MAX Shadowrun            6.0 mph                   26.0 mph DCC                     1.4 mph                       4.0 mph Pathfinder ...

And so the party gathered together to venture into the temple.  The cavalier was leading the way with the rogue close behind, casters near the back, and Kiva riding Chum in the last position.  The white temple stones gleemed in the sunlight as they climbed the long stairs to the top of the temple platform.  Melee guards clad in shining armor with the symbol of the Morninglord stared unyieldingly forward as the party passed.  3 platforms adorned the top of the pyrimidal temple, one with the entrance surrounded with archers, and two off to the side with battle priests ready to defend. The party was surprised to find the temple in working order with gnomes and priests about.  The first level below was a speaking room, enchanced with magic to allow the large hall to be split into 4 podium areas with benches without having voices carry too far between the various areas.  AA search of the area turned up confessional rooms.  Don tried to entered but was...

The Friday night Pathfinder group is working on further upgrades to the Thornhold, so I made the following map for reference that includes the current Firewurm.

I just have to share this awesome page of maps.  The blog is a good read too! http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/

I had a lot of time over the summer to stay inside while avoid allergens and heat and air quality ozone action day alerts.  Cruising around the net brought me to a blog talking about an old school map -- I think it was drawn by Gary Gygax.  The image conjured up a lot of memories from when I was a kid and I would spend hours drawing maps on notebook and graph paper.  I'd even make my own graph paper so I could make maps. So I started drawing, and drawing, and drawing.  It was just a simple dollar store mechanical pencil on a tablet of graph paper, but the layouts just flowed.  Tombs, halls, secret doors, hidden rooms all were fit masterfully together into mazes and puzzles on 8 1/2 by 11 sheets.  Beholder tunnels appeared attached to caves.  Pencil shading filled in the negative space.  A large multi-level temple took form.   Unfortunately, the more a made, the more faded my first drawings became.  Pencil smudg...

I have become a big fan of kickstarters for RPG material.  A couple of the kickstarters I am excited about are in danger of not being funded.  Please take a look and see if you'd like to donate.  If you like them, please also pass the word along. RPG and Miniature Gaming Battle Maps Hallowmas Both projects have awesome artists that will be bringing them to life if they are funded.

A little eye-candy to get the players excited:  3' x 5' map of waterdeep: