the-backstage-pass

GenCon Schedule

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:48:04 +0100

GenCon Schedule

Aug 5 - Thursday
10am - Seminar - "Ins & Outs of the Publishing Industry
1pm - Seminar - "Breaking into RPG Writing"
4pm - Seminar - "Podcasting: An Introduction"

Aug 6 - Friday
10am - Seminar - "It's Cool to be Oldschool - Discussing the OSR"
12pm - Auction
4pm - Seminar - "Podcasting: Content and Distribution"
8pm - Ennie Awards

Aug 7 - Saturday
10am - Seminar - "Eureka!Cooking up adventure plots with Gnomestew"
1pm - Seminar - "World building 101"
2pm - Seminar - "World building in an hour"
3pm - Auction

Aug 8 - Sunday
10am - 130pm - Dealers floor

Those dang room descriptions!

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:03:45 +0100

I've still been hacking away at my next VisionVenture module called "Into the Darkness". I seem to be having a problem with room descriptions and writers block has set it.

It got me starting to think outside the box.

Why do I have to have room descriptions when the mapped room shows what's in it?
What about adding some bullet points versus a lengthy descriptions?
What if I only describe the room in basic ways
1. Size 20x20
2. Light: none
3. Furniture: broken
4. Monsters: Kobold (stats)

I know it's not the "old school" way. But I'm pulling my hair out here!

Tell me what you think?

To many gods?

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:51:20 +0100

I've been hashing out the major religions and faiths in Ebonyr the past few weeks. I want one or two monotheistic faiths as well as polytheistic. I have two other religions that are "mystical" in nature. I was having some problems actually creating the polytheistic faith. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks last night. Create what the classical world had, have different polytheistic religions in different parts of Ebonyr. See was creating one, world-spanning, poly religion and that wasnt woking out at all. How could one culture on the other side of the world know about a certain god of war, etc.

So, this is how it's going to go down. The main poly faith will be the Cartha Pantheon, which will only have 5 gods. The next will be the sea gods of Prim. So I think I finally have the faiths down so that it makes a little bit of sense.

Changed maps format.. yet again!

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 20:03:02 +0100

Maps, maps, maps… I try one format and like it till I see something else that I like. All I really want is a simple, colorful map that gives the basic layout of the city or town. Added points of interest should be easy enough. I saw the current map format on some Middle Earth site last night and I decided to go that route. I was getting tired of creating each building in the city using AutoRealm. Don’t get me wrong, I like using Autorealm for more "close up" views of a certain area of the city or a specific building.

I can't promise that I'll change the format again. However, I really like this format because it easy to complete in Paint Shop Pro.

Flags, flags and more flags

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:06:34 +0100

Well I think all the nations of Ebonyr has a flag now. I'm working on Coat of Arms for some of them. I've also created some new maps for the major cities.

Level 2 map for "Into the Darkness"

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:58:03 +0100

Just finished the 2nd level of the Visionventures module, Into the Darkness. I have the encounters and rooms partially written. I'm going to start sketching out level 3 in the next few days.

New map for "Into the Darkness"

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:41:01 +0100

I was messing around with Autorealm tonight and came up with a cool map for the adventure module, Into the Darkness. I wanted a map that can be printed pretty easy with as little ink as possible.

Ebonyr on Knightvisionstudios.com

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:25:55 +0100

It looks like my web company, Yola.com, has updated some widgets and the WYSIWYG editor. So I decided to move the Ebonyr campaign setting back over to Knightvisionstudios.com vs. my Google Sites page. This way its all in one place and easy to navigate and update. I've added some new maps, nations as well as flags.

I'm also working on city maps using the Autorealm program.

Dungeon Level 1 Map

Sun, 16 May 2010 21:15:12 +0100

We'll I had an extra couple of hours to kill today, so I started working on the level 1 dungeon map or "Into the Darkness". I'm going to use an arrow icon to show stairs up/down. Again, I used Paint Shop Pro to make this map.

"Into the Darkness" has started

Sat, 15 May 2010 22:10:37 +0100

I started fleshing out my notes for the next Visionventures module, Into the Darkness. This module will use the Swords & Wizardry core rules and be for 1st and 2nd level PCs.

The PCs will be tasked to explore and map an abandoned prison complex. I've created several maps to start out this adventure.

Prison complex surface map

Central tower map