I haven’t been idle all of this time.  I’ve actually been doing the icons for the characters in the upcoming story.

They might be small (as they should be, being icons), but they actually took a bit of work to get to work right.  First three up are Cinders, Berrand, and Anishta.

The hardest part that I’ve found in writing for the current campaign is that I’ve become too used to writing encounters and story according to a specific ruleset.  Meaning that most encounters come away feeling a little mechanical in nature because I’ve become so used to looking at the numbers that I don’t see a larger picture.

After reading some posts by other people running games, namely Gabe from Penny Arcade and an incredible encounter he put together (with props no less) I’ve come to realize that I need to write the story and/or encounters first, and then figure out the rules and logistics for them afterward.

I have a few encounters that I’m actually reworking in this way.  Its not easy shaking myself out of the rules heavy skillset that third edition bred into me (The system itself is fun, but extrordinarily heavy on rules and numbers to the point that you become scared of slipping up).

Story is another thing that could use some tweaking.  Especially when it comes to thinking in a little more abstract terms.  Admittedly I had some problems with characters that were just too bizarre, to the point where they were annoying enough that I had to ban them from the game entirely.  I think this might have made me pull back too much though, and become far to conservative when it comes to Felwroth and its environs.

Thoughts like: “Why didn’t I put in that Mushroom forest?  Just because Warcraft has it, doesn’t mean I can’t nab the idea and run with it” or “I like this rogueish character, but the whole thing with the face-paint and split personalities due to a cursed tattoo put on her when young is a little too odd”.

Then again, I can’t let things get too bizarre.  Talking penguins or vampires in love with a tree that has the spirit of their dead faerie lover embedded in it that drives them so bonkers that they talk to themselves and believe that milk is the only holy cure are oddball just for the sake of oddball.. Not for the sake of story development or even interesting enough to be able to hook a story arc or two to (Well, the vampire might be, but lets just say the character was far, far too disruptive and screwed up for anyone to logically want to be a companion with it).

I’ll see how I do with the upcoming story arc.  I have tons of time, luckily, because I’m actually *gasp* playing in another campaign for the first time since second edition (Over a decade ago o.o ), so there’s a pause in my campaign that gives me a great deal of time to get writing.

I’m working on getting icons of the characters in my current D&D campaign and so far the sketches are quick to do since I have to limit myself to a certain size.

This isn’t all of the characters, there are still a couple more to finish up, and they will be finished off in colour before I post the first bits of the storyline.

Its funny, but with the trickle of information that has started on Dark Sun it has me thinking more about the smaller details of Felwroth.  I like the idea of arcane magic that drains life from all around it (Or if they have the preservers in the updated version, arcane magic that finds a way to bypass draining too much life from nature).  I like the idea that other magic is more prevalent, especially now that other magic isn’t as stunted as it used to be in older editions of the game.  Druids could be very interesting as guardians of scattered patches of preserved nature, and can be just as painful an adversary as a mage, for example.

But what really sold me were the thoughts on lighter to no armor being the norm, with other things added to perhaps make up for AC shortage.

I’ve always liked the idea of Felwroth as a slightly more gritty world.  One where wearing plate is extraordinarily rare, or even ceremonial.  Certain peoples wear heavy armor.  Dwarves are a good example of a people who could make plate work.  But to the average human plate  is something that a royal guard escort would wear.

To the Javarran, even the civilized Kulvarri, anything beyond chainmail is egregious.  The Khavijas don’t wear armor at all most of the time, being very tribalistic in nature, they rely on the elemental spirits around them to protect them.  Midlothi and Midlands Lorrnath would be hide or leather wearers, not having the means to make plate beyond perhaps hardened scales or animal shells fastened to leather harnesses.  The elves of Felwroth are almost ferally wild.  Plate is next to useless when skulking through the old growths of the world.

A world without heavy armors makes it feel a little more real, a little more dangerous, and less like Lord of the Rings where every other soldier seemed to be sporting sets of full plate.  I like the thought of not relying on gear to save the day, but skill with the blade (or skill evading the blade altogether).

I’ve always loved the idea of a more Conan-esque, or Scorpion King-esque (is that a word?) world with spoonfulls of high fantasy/magic thrown in.  With the Conan series, all magic was sorcery, and drawn from demons or devils.  With Felwroth that’s only partially true, with other sources being elemental or drawn from the world around them.  Yes, there are cities of fantastic spires and airships, but a great deal of the world has the dark almost barbaric feel.  Huge swathes of unexplored lands (In fact, a nearly wholly unexplored western continent, primeval in nature).

Its going to be a huge balancing act however.  There have to be boundary lines somewhere as to what I can draw from.  If I take too much from other sources and toss them liberally into the world, I end up with a world that isn’t very continous from region to region.  I end up with too much of everything that washes away the identity of the world itself.

So for now, Felwroth is a dark fantasy setting, with some high fantasy points along the way.  I might perhaps simply start work on another planar world in the cosmology that more follows the darker, primal barbarianism (I had thoughts of turning Zhar’Anoth, one of Felwroth’s moons, into such a world).

So the next setting was revealed from Wizards of the Coast, and it turns out to be Dark sun.

I’m a rabid plunderer of setting ideas.  Felwroth has a fair share of inspiration from other settings.  Everything from the old school Greyhawk, to a bit of Forgotten Realms (more just the cosmoplitan feel in some cities) even to Eberron (Though I claim that I made my spired city and had flying ships in my realms far, far before I saw Eberron.  Back in 2E to be honest).

So when Dark Sun was announced, I wondered what tidbits I could modify for Felwroth and the campaigns I run there.  I don’t want to wholly just plunk down a chunk of Dark Sun into my world setting since it has such a very different vibe.  So it got me thinking about perhaps introducing another conduit world.

Felwroth has several pathways to various worlds (and even times).  I’ve been toying with introducing a desolate world that was once part of a large empire that fell to ruin after magic went absolutely mental there.  Some of the things that would benefit it are:

• Psionics: I like the idea of psionics as the more base-line magic.  While the arcane and divine would still exist, perhaps they’d have caveats in their use.
• Heavily Tribal Influence: I used to be into a more tribalistic/clan vibe for my stories and worlds.  While that has shifted somewhat to introduce far more cosmopolitan and civilized areas, I still love the idea of things like stone weapons, shamans, spirit guides and perhaps a revamping of the Javarran in Felwroth depending on what Dark Sun introduces.
• Dragon Kings: I mean, c’mon.  Dragon KINGS!
• Clustered defenses: Going along with the ‘points of light’ style that 4e introduced.  Where civilizations band together against a very chaotic wilderness.

Those are just a few things I was thinking of.  I’ll have to wait for more previews, but I know I’ll be taking a lot in from the upcoming setting, as it was one of my favorites.

And hey, if you can’t get BROM to be the artist for the new setting, Wayne Reynolds is just as incredible in my opinion.

I’ve been trying to avoid social or personal commentary on my site.  Its not here to serve as a soap box or pulpit from wich personal issues are chanted from even though art is almost always tainted by the politics of those who view it.

But I haven’t been very prolific lately.  In fact I’ve pretty much dropped off of the map.  A great deal of that is that I fail at being sociable, that’s a given.  I know a few folks enjoy what I post now and then, but this isn’t about posting into a vacuum or not knowing how to market myself.

I’m suffering a severe burn out.  Not just creatively, but wholly life in general.

Its not some vague depression that’s causing it.  The reason is actually physical:  I have a heroin addict as a neighbor.  Technically he’s not the neighbor, he’s the offspring of the neighbor.

I feel like I literally get the life sucked out of me whenever this idiot shows up next door.  I won’t go into everything that’s going on, but his antics have been uttelry destroying my urge to bother writing or drawing anymore.

This is, of course, pointless, and I know I’m sort of talking to myself here, but I had to get this down somewhere as some kind of catharsis.  Maybe also as a way to explain why I haven’t been terribly creative lately.   It sounds like an excuse, but I assure you that what goes on would shatter the will to bother with anything of even a saint.

By now I had hoped to have regular features here, and have this as my main hub for art/writing pertaining to everything from Felwroth to musings on the creative community.  I don’t know how or even where to make contacts though.  I’ve all but lost interest in everything but trying to get a decent night of sleep (Which right now is 4 hours uninterrupted).

I’m sure this is rambly and sounds extremely self-indulgent and whiny, but its one of those times I’m just losing faith in bothering anymore.  I’m not trying to make the ridiculousness that is my art or writing into a career (Its not real work unless you cripple yourself in this province).  I had hoped that this could have been a pretty good hobby though.

Back to the void though.

Be good to one another.

Who says you have to be one of those fashion skeletons to be sensual?  Short n’ stocky can be far lovlier in my opinion.

I have promised Lyn to stop tying bows into her hair though.

From the northern reaches of Valhadrune are the small Lorrnathian people known as the Midlothi.  They are sturdy, rugged and very rustic.  Some would see them as primitive, being that their clans are tribal and that they don’t smelt the finest metal into their weaponry, but what they lack in refinement they make up in pure sturdiness.

Lynsharri of the clan Candlehome is one such Midlothian Lorrnath, she’s a mercinary, often overlooked and underestimated, until she has you at the end of her blades or in her furious sights.

Despite her war-like nature, she, like anyone else, enjoys getting in out of the rain and enjoying a good meal by he hearth once in a while.

Lorrnath sub-species.

I haven’t fallen off the earth, honest.

Lately I’ve had some things going on with sleep and the switching around of ‘paychecks’ that led to even less sleep and a few more grey hairs.  I had planned on having the story hour well under way by this time, but it was delayed due to everything under the sun (and in a way, because of the sun.. Its been abysmally warm here lately).

I still have a few image I need to get scanned so I can at least get the story hour of the campaign I’m running (which will be tweaked a bit to make a good story, of course).

In all of the down time, I’ve actually become a player in another campaign for the first time in over a decade, and have been having a riot with it.   Which should give me even more creative things to do if I can get back into a trend of sleeping regularly.

So while I’ve delayed, I’m still posting.  Just slowly over the summer months.