In my search for more inspiration for the style of the Grymvald setting, I ran across Dan Cruger, a cartographer and artist, whose work dates back to the Mid-Nineties as used in the second edition of the Middle Earth Role Playing Game (MERP) from Iron Crown Enterprises (I.C.E.). Although I only played the system a couple of times, I always found the work of Cruger to be elegant and compelling. As a long time Tolkien fan, I was first drawn to the system for reasons of nostalgia but perhaps my prediliction to fashion my own stories, at the table and with the players, free of the constraints of a literary giant kept me from doing more with that particular game.
Nevertheless, I just love the work done by this master of maps and illustrations. Cruger began posting some of his old work on his blog, Tales from the Tower, back in March and April of this year but it is only with his recent August post of more of it that I caught up with his work again. Some of his blog posts include work highlighting Dol Guldor, Gondor, Moria, Lake Town, Minas Tirith, and Mirkwood. Check it out and I'm sure you'll agree on its fine quality.
A recent astonomical discovery of a planet made of diamond has been reported. Hurtling around a small neutron star about an eighth of the way toward the center of out Milky Way, it is made up primarily of carbon and so dense that astronmers speculate it is essentially a huge diamond. It's orbit is so small that the planet and its star could likely fit within the sphere of our own sun. No word yet on whether De Beers will bid on the rights to regulate just how much of this planet could be mined or brought back for sale here.
As I clean up some portion of my campaign setting, that began as a homebrew back in the Seventies, I thought I would do some quick and basic searches to be sure my ideas of what a setting should be has not become dated or supplanted by new trends or thoughts on the matter. From our friend Wiki -
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place. Usually a campaign setting is designed for a specific game (. . .) or a specific genre of game (such as Medieval fantasy, or outer space/science fiction adventure). There are numerous campaign settings available both in print and online. In addition to published campaign settings available for purchase, many game masters create their own settings, often referred to as "homebrew" settings or worlds.
Hasn't changed a bit. Later this month I'll be revealing some information about the upcoming Grymvald Campaign Setting. I'll discuss how it was built, how it fits with the genre of rht upcoming rules system from CMG, and why I've had so much fun with it for nearly forty years.
If you've been keeping an eye on the CMG Blog Triad, then you know I've been preparing a new campaign setting for release in October called the Grymvald Campaign Setting. Grymvald is the second smallest of five continents in my campaign world, one that has served me well for about thirty-seven years since I began GMing shortly after the first RPG was released back in 1974. It's a good starting point for a campaign as it is populated by all of the major player character species options in my campaign as well as plenty of creatures and challenges for years and years of gaming.
Since the final play-through of the Medieval Fantasy Wargame and Roleplaying System, due for release in October, is currently underway, I wanted to redo some of the maps that I'll be using, particularly what the players will get to see. Even though I am a firm believer that a GM should homebrew a setting of their very own I also recognize that not everyone has the time to spend to get things just right. Naturally, it makes sense then for me to concurrently release a ready-made setting in the form of the Grymvald Campaign Setting along with a Grymvald Gazatteer and Player's Guide to accompany the GM's material.
In my efforts to find a good tutotial for Photoshop to produce a parchment background, I came across this YouTube video I thought I would share with would-be cartographers. I use NBOS Fractal Mapper 8 for the map details but use Photoshop for the background and some detailing afterwards then do the labeling using InDesign from Adobe Software. I hope you find it as useful as I do. It's pretty simple but you can see how easily you can take what you will learn and go a few steps further to make something really stunning. Have at it!
According to deadline.com, Ridley Scott has signed on with Alcon Entertainment to produce a new Blade Runner movie, though it is unkown yet if this will be a sequel or use the original movie as a jumping off point. If you're a fan of the original, based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, then you know what a mish-mosh of a setting it is. I often through that the hit Joss Whedon television series Firefly had been influenced in part by this previous work. They both have a real world cultural kitchen sink approach that manages to feel both familiar and surreal. There's more on the potential Blade Runner here. Steve E. Brown has some great insights on why people love the film in an article on astranovescifi.com with a great image of a street level view of the setting.
According to a recent article at LibraryJournal.com, Neil Hollands takes a look at how speculative fiction has been stacking up in 2011. While the trendier corners of genre fiction like urban fantasies, zombie mashups, and steampunk seem to be producing fewer new authors, Fantasy has done remarkably well against more traditional science fiction. Read more at the link above and perhaps you'll find a new series to read and spark your setting creation imagination.
It's a good idea to create a setting that isn't static. Not only does a setting need to change as a game progresses, but it's good for it to have a rich and diverse past. Not all of it needs to be explained to players whenever they stumble across some ancient mystery, but be sure not to allow each and every new discovery sidetrack what is happening in the present. It is worthwhile to let players know that just because they find a cave painting in a cavern they are exploring, it is not necessarily a clue to the particular adventure they are currently undertaking. The following videos provide some inspiration for starting points in creation of a setting with a past.
