After Earth – Mapping the Galaxy

It’s always fun to try something new, but in this case the something new was a sci fi galaxy map, and the client was Overbrook Entertainment, and Will Smith. The brief was to create 4 maps for the expanded universe around the movie After Earth. There are a bunch of books and graphic novels associated with the film. Those stories had been written in parallel with the movie development and each had added something to the geography of the universe.

One of the writers on the expanded universe material was an old RPG hand, and noticed that what the worldbuilding needed was reference maps – of the universe, solar system, world, and key city. And so I got a call.

Continue reading “After Earth – Mapping the Galaxy”

Killing hex bugs – and the importance of sprite sheets

I’ve been working more on my hex mapping project. One of the requests was to have random terrain placement. So, rather than picking a terrain element, placing it, and then changing to a new one – instead pick a terrain type, and place a load of terrain with the tool taking care of variation. That took a bit of coding, and threw up a nasty bug. Every 7 or 8 times you clicked the base of the tile would place, but not the terrain on top. I tried everything to figure out why – the data was there, when you refreshed the map, the terrain turned up, but it wouldn’t load on click.

It turns out it’s an image load problem. Continue reading “Killing hex bugs – and the importance of sprite sheets”

The Free Cities

The Free Cities map for Game of Thrones
The Free Cities, © George RR Martin, used with permission

Today we’re travelling to the Narrow Sea and visiting the city states of Lys, Pentos, Myr and Braavos.

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Lands of Ice and Fire Video from Random House

I ran across this video from Random House the other day. It’s the best preview I’ve seen out there of the maps I illustrated of the world of Game of Thrones.

Also, everything should be narrated by this guy. He could make the opening of the humblest letter sound Epic.

Wayfinder Boardgame – Free Download

Cover for Wayfinder 6 for PathfinderA new edition of Wayfinder, the perennial free fan created magazine for the Pathfinder game, is out. In issue #6 the Paizonians have headed north to the frozen lands of the Linnorm Kings. The magazine is filled with treasure, monsters and adventure – all rendered with some truly beautiful art. The Wayfinder series gets prettier and prettier with each iteration and is starting to put some pay for products to shame.

Amongst the decidedly nordic themes of the magazine are a number of games of skill and chance. One of these is a game called the Great Hunt, where players compete to kill the Great Wyrm, or each other, whichever comes first. Continue reading “Wayfinder Boardgame – Free Download”

A warm reception for an icy adventure

The Breaking of Forstor Nagar now has 4 5* reviews!

The reviews have some lovely things to say about the project:

This adventure is full of twists and dangers, if your group is up for a dark, challenging game with beautiful maps, take a look at this module.

– Sean Holland (RPGNow featured reviewer) Continue reading “A warm reception for an icy adventure”

Breaking News

Cover for the Breaking of Forstor Nagar Pathfinder D&D adventure

So some people who’ve been following this blog for a while may remember a project I’ve been developing with Rite Publishing for a while called the Breaking of Forstor Nagar. The adventure is an 8th level adventure for the Pathfinder game set in a city carved out of the living ice of the Forstorheim glacier. The city is under siege and the adventurers must break through the enemy lines, secure the target and escape. Of course, it’s never quite that simple…

Well I’m here to announce that the adventure is released tomorrow – in all it’s multi-format glory! You can already preview the pdf over on RPGNow and order print or pdf on Paizo (as well as reading some of the nice things people are saying about it). Continue reading “Breaking News”