Dungeon #4

Clearly the Dyson Logos Hatching is the industry standard in dungeon geomorph fill.

I'm starting to wonder what sets the morphs apart from each other.  Take this one, f'r instance.  It's another sudoku dungeon.  Leaving aside the DungeonWords there are three connections that don't exactly connect, and two of those are stairways to other levels.  True, one could just take any dead-end and turn it into a stairway.  But one can just as easily whiteout any stairway and be left with a dead-end.  What's the point in having such features on the geomorphs at all if they're not making GMs think about them and try to make sense of 'em?

Dungeon Geomorph #3

You just gotta have a spinning fireplace in your dungeon.  It's tradition.

Still experimenting with ink and DungeonWords (love that CamelCase) and other things.  After another several dozen of these tiles I may just get the hang of it all.

Dungeon Geomorph #2 Revisited

Had to fix the damn thing.  To fit the space properly I turned the secret door in the bottom left to a boring old open doorway.

Dungeon Geomorph #2

I did a bit of experimenting on this one.  First off, I tried out Greywulf's sudoku dungeons guide.  It's definitely a good tool to jump start a stalled brain.

Next, I inked it before scanning it.  Before now I had just scanned the pencils and skreeked the contrast curves in the computer to make the blacks blacker, the whites whiter, and give it that lemony-fresh scent.  I guess it's OK but if I ink again perhaps I should get a finer pen and a little better quality of paper?

And as you can see, I followed Tim "Risus Monkey" Ballew's idea of writing words in a few of the rooms to serve as imagination fuel.  I just used the table from the sudoku dungeons post as the source 'cause I'm terribly lazy right now.

Something I need to avoid in the future is placing a secret door on the edge connections.  You're left with either half an "S" or an ugly white strip breaking up the fill pattern.  In any case, it's yuck.

D&D Ain't My Game

The first time I laid eyes on a D&D set was in a little hobby shop in Grand Bend.  Haven't a clue what year.  Not even sure if it was Before Star Wars or After Star Wars.  I didn't have money for the box and couldn't convince my grandfather to spring for it.

And that was pretty much it between me and D&D for quite some time.

Oh, sure, I've played since, in sessions here and there.  Read scenarios and stuff in White Dwarf.  Even owned the Holmes and Mentzer sets.  But that was after one of the Steve Jacksons had got into my noggin with The Fantasy Trip.  I've spent more time with Car Wars autoduels or Fighting Fantasy gamebooks or GURPS campaigns than with D&D.

And yes, I know the FF books weren't by "Texas" Jackson (except for the three that were) but that's beside the point, which is "D&D Ain't My Game."

So I find myself in a peculiar relationship with D&D.  Interested, but not participating.  Everybody's either so far ahead of me that I can't contribute much of anything to the D&D conversation, or they're completely disinterested and there is no D&D conversation.  I'm in limbo.

Wilderness Tiles Need Help, Badly!

I'm still sickish.  I'm trying to work my way through a haze of hot lemon flavoured acetaminophen, but I'm not satisfied with the results.  I mean, just look at this...

I guess it's an O.K. start, but I can't figure how to finish it off.  Do you have any advice in jump-starting a stalled brain?

Wilderness Tile #3

Sorry I missed yesterday.  I came down with something that made my eyeballs feel like they had been overinflated.  Probably just a cold, really.  But you don't care about that.  You care about this...

I first thought this would come out at a couple lakes with forest between them.  But I then thought that swamp would be more fun, especially if you can't tell where the swamp ends and the lakes begin.

Wilderness Tile #2

The word of the day is "empyema."  If you don't know it then look it up.  Your players will thank you for it.

Another Day, Another Geomorph

Well, of course I'm going to draw up some Dyson Logos style geomorphs.

These are such fun little ten-by-ten tiles of goodness.  It's no wonder everybody's making them.  Besides, I've got to get working on level two of this...

Hello. Have a wilderness geomorph.

Hello.  I'm Glenn Jupp, and it's time for me to start a proper blog.

I'll use this thing to post my stray thoughts about role playing games and war games and maybe even some video games.

My first thought?  Well, I quite enjoy Tony Dowler's Year of the Dungeon.  His whimsical little dungeons and bits of town and countryside are terrific imagination fuel.  But Tony's on a well-deserved micromapping hiatus right now and I find myself suffering a sort of withdrawal.  So I've started making my own little wilderness tiles, like this one...

So that's me trying to match Mister Dowler's format and style, if not quality.  Roads go to the middle of an edge.  Rivers and coastlines go to the corners.

That's all for now.  More stuff as and if I think of it.