Tolrendor DM's Blog

April Fools (Not…!!)

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Tolrendordm

It certainly isn’t at Profantasy Software! The first of the (any…) month is always one to look forward to, as it’s the release of the next Cartographer’s Annual issue!

April’s issue is a new style from Jonathan Roberts, one of my favourite cartographers! Even better, the style is based on his wonderful Midgard Campaign Setting maps that he created both for the setting books, and the iPad app: Midgard Atlas. This month’s Cartographer’s Annual Challenge entry certainly won’t be a chore … except for deciding what to map 🙂

In keeping with the Midgard theme, the issue even includes a Midgard Preview, which has a couple of short stories, a new race and an short overview of the wonders of this setting. (If you’re not a subscriber, this preview can also be downloaded for free from the Kobold Press website … just click the image …). If this isn’t enough info to get you excited, you can of course browse my multi-part review of Midgard 🙂

Happy Easter from TolrendorDm’s Blog!!

Posted in Cartography, Midgard Campaign Setting, The Annual Challenge | Leave a comment

The Cartographer’s Annual Challenge: March 2013

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Tolrendordm

Ok, so I’ve now got caught up in the Challenge (just) after a late February entry!

The March Annual issue returned to a more normal type of style, after a couple of months of quite different offerings. It is an overland style derived from a map posted on the Profantasy forum of a Viking inspired region called Myrr

As I’m in the process of re-imaging the northern parts of my fantasy world Tolrendor (as described here), it seemed a great idea to use this month’s issue for mapping the region:

This is a first draft of this region, which you can tell from the lack of place name detail! I have lots of thinking and creating to do before this can be filled in!

In the southern-central part of the map you can see the town of Fallcrest, and the Nentir Vale region (from the 4E D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide) which is the setting for the Amber Tower campaign I’m running for my children. The rest of the map is designed to provide a Viking/Medieval Baltic-type setting, with plenty of fantasy twists of course (Like the frost-dragonborn raiders from the fjords!).

The Annual style was a good choice for a ‘draft’ map, as it uses bitmap fills for terrain features rather than symbols, making it pretty easy to fill in the high-level detail quickly. The textures and sheet effects are lovely, although I think I’ll need to fiddle about with some of the individual sheet settings to get it just how I want it for a final map. What I really love about this style is the coastline effect, with the bevelled edge of the land blending with the sea – particularly striking where the narrow fjords cut into the northern-most landmass. The textured text and text border is a highlight also!

Posted in Cartography, Columns, Roleplaying with Kids, The Amber Tower Campaign, The Annual Challenge, Tolrendor Gazetter, World Building | 2 Comments

World-building: History vs Geography

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Tolrendordm

In the real world, it’s clear that History, the march of human events across the slowly unravelling scroll of time, is driven by Geography. Natural mountain barriers, impassable terrain, waterways and seas, climate, land fertility; all these factors have had a significant, if not dominant, impact on the ebb and flow of human civilisation, migrations, kingdoms and even empires.

It’s true that I may have been thinking about this subject partly as my daughter has recently had to choose between these subjects for her GCSEs (UK national exams), but primarily its because I’ve spent the last few days musing over a region in my world of Tolrendor!

The north-eastern region of my main continent has always been a sketchily imagined area, beyond the vague concept of wide steppes and migrating hordes. However, inspired in part by the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ vibe of the ancient Grand Duchy in the Midgard Campaign Setting , I’ve been reading up on the Hanseatic League, the Teutonic Knights and generally the medieval history of the Baltic Sea. A fascinating period, and certainly an area that I was less familiar with than the western regions of Europe.

So what do I do to integrate these ideas into my world. Well, the strange thing is that I approach it in the opposite direction. My first thoughts are about the human (or fantasy races…) events and and backdrop I want to create. For example, my reading has inspired ideas such as:

Heavily armoured (human and dragonborn) knights crusading against (conquering) the eastern pagan tribes
A powerful merchant league of cities with their own fleets, armies and trading stations spread across the region
Dragon ships of the wild Northmen raiding the coasts and even deep into the heart of the continent on a network of rivers and lakes.
Merchant barges and pirate galleys clashing along deep river valleys, overlooked by seemingly inaccessible castles perched high on rocky outcrops.
A complex, inter-related myriad of nobles, clerics and powerful town guilds locked in a political battle for supremacy in the region.

From these ideas, I start to imagine the map. Clearly there will be a sea linking the mainland with the land of the northmen (and other fell races), and many interconnected river valleys and narrow lakes. The mainland regions will need to have lots of natural features that help to break the region into smaller realms, sites that suit strong independent towns and cities etc. So here I have History driving Geography! 🙂 After all, in a role-playing world, it’s the story that comes first!

I don’t always work this way. Many times I have started with doodling a map, and progressed to fitting my story to it; but then often find myself getting frustrated because the geographical features don’t quite fit my ideas, and so the map has to change! A design process is necessarily iterative 🙂 This is without doubt in my opinion one of the most enjoyable parts of the world-building process, when nothing is set in stone, and your ideas can clash and twist and eventually the geographical and historical elements blend to create a setting ripe for new stories to be told!

What about you? Does this sound familiar? If not, how do you approach the early stages of building a world setting?

Next, hopefully I’ll have a map to show off!

Posted in Cartography, World Building | 6 Comments

The Cartographer’s Annual Challenge: February 2013

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Tolrendordm

Yes, I’m aware it’s March! 🙂

This is my (late) entry for the February Annual in my own challenge, in which I attempt to create a meaningful map for Tolrendor using the Cartographer’s Annual issue for the month. I have to say, after taking this on, Profantasy didn’t exactly help me out, with the first two issues of the year being quite different from the normal fare!

February’s issue was a style for drawing isometric building views. This is not something I’ve ever attempted before, so it took me quite a long time to decide on my subject for this month. Eventually I settled on mapping a small way-fort in the Havenscoast, used by a mercenary company called the Blue Riders, who specialise in escorting caravans along the Traders’ Way. So here it is:

I’ll be honest, I can’t see this being a style I’ll use too often! I found it pretty fiddly to get it looking right, for example having to move bits of building back and forth to get them in the right order. Also, the need to have separate symbols for each angle meant that you’re pretty much limited to whatever is included in the style.

However, it’s always good to try something new – you don’t learn otherwise! Now I just need to get cracking on March’s issue, and see if I can catch up on the Challenge!

Posted in Area Map B4: The Havenscoast, Cartography, Columns, The Annual Challenge, The Havenscoast Project, Tolrendor Gazetter | 1 Comment

Wizards Watch: Phew!

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Tolrendordm

Work and (work) travel have pretty much blown March away so far! So this Wizard’s Watch post is bit random, and just based on some of the things I’ve been keeping up with on the internet!!

Have they finally clicked!?

An interesting Legends and Lore column on the WOTC site a couple of weeks back. To quote Mike Mearls:

“It might be strange for the guy in charge of D&D R&D to say this, but here it goes: After the core rules for the game are done, we really want to stop adding so much stuff to the mechanics of the game and shift our emphasis to story.”

Hallelujah!! I wrote about this (IMHO) failing of the 4E model a good while back! Endless player options simply bloat the game rules. I realise that one of the reasons the publishing model has gone this way is an attempt to access a wider ‘purchasing client base’; with an assumed 5-1 ratio of players to DMs, WOTC obviously want to produce products to cater for the whole group. But here’s the rub: I would put money on the fact that even now, a majority of actual product purchasing still comes from the DM! I’ve never DMed for a group of players where it wasn’t primarily me buying the material!

Don’t get me wrong. I love the fact that in 4E a nicely thought out power can bring tremendous flavour to a character, but there is still a limit to how many of these options are needed. I also think a significant part of Paizo’s success with the Pathfinder RPG is down to their steady stream of Adventure Path and setting products, something 4E has simply failed to achieve. If WOTC have finally got this message, its good news for D&D Next!

Does it have to end!? 😦

Chris Perkins seems to have been pretty much holding the DnD website together over the last few months: his weekly The DM Experience column has been one of the few with any real ‘meat’ to it, and look at how many Dungeon adventures of recent times are written (or at least co-written) by him!

So very sad news on the WOTC website this week that the column is to end after the next instalment! This is definitely not good, although I appreciate that as his 4E Iomandra campaigns have come to an end, it’s a natural break point. Lets hope a PDF compilation of all the articles is released – as Chris says, he’s written enough to fill two Dungeon Master Guides – so it would be great to have them collected in one place!

And Chris, please start the column again when you start your DnD Next campaign!!!!

Oh, Kickstarter!

A lot of space in interweb land has been given over recently to continuing problems with a number of RPG Kickstarter projects. Tenkars Tavern has been keeping watch over a number of late projects, especially the Dwimmermount project that looks like it may never finish with $50k down the tube. Ouch! Another interesting article here from Gothridge Manor with some interesting commentary on the status of projects he has backed.

My own experience is not so bad, so far, but then I have only backed 5 projects, and 4 of them have been from what I would term ‘real RPG companies’ rather than ‘hobbyist-publishers’. 3 have been Midgard projects from Kobold Press, and delivered (or are delivering) just fine. Wolfgang Baur, who runs the company, is of course a long-time and highly respected industry professional, and in fact was running successful patronage projects for years before Kickstarter became all the rage!

The other is the Realmworks project from Lone Wolf Development which I posted on recently. This hasn’t delivered yet, but I have no qualms about it, given LWD is a company with a history of real products (Hero Lab etc), and also seem to have the new product in good shape already.

Which leaves one … the iBooks e-module I backed last summer. This is very late, and has no demonstrable progress to date! From the minimal updates and comments, it looks to me like the project owner has got bogged down in writing the adventure, when in actual fact I think most people backed the project to see what could be achieved in the iBooks format, rather than for the module itself! An update is promised for this coming Sunday, so lets wait and see…

All-in-all Kickstarter does seem to be a very valid platform for sourcing funds to create great RPG projects, but it certainly is going through some teething issues at the moment, and a lot of people seem to be getting very wary about projects, and quite vociferous once they start to have problems.

Posted in 4E D&D, Columns, DnD Next, Wizards Watch | 2 Comments

RPG Tech Talk: Realm Works

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Tolrendordm

Just got an update email to say that the Kickstarter for this project by Lone Wolf Development has funded! Great news!

It’s a different style of project from some, in that the software is pretty much already developed, and has been in Beta for some time now, so the Kickstarter funds will be used to get it over the line successfully and with a number of extras, especially the cloud service and the community server. This is a great idea, which brings huge possibilities in the future, such as being able to purchase game material from publishers that is then directly available in your gaming database for use.

I’d been watching the Realm Works page on Lone Wolf’s website for some time, and to be honest was getting a bit frustrated as the ‘Coming in …’ banner seemed to keep moving further into the future. I learnt about the Kickstarter quite late (thanks Thomas for commenting!!), so very pleased to have got into this in time – I’ve signed up at the Arctic Wolf level so I can get hold of the pre-release two months early 🙂 Can’t wait longer …

It’s hard to completely tell from a few video clips and screenshots, but this application does seem to have many of the features that I described as a wish-list in my previous RPG Tech Talk: Taking Notes post, such as easy linking, snippets of information being combined in different ways, ability to handle PDFs and other media seamlessly etc, as well much much more! Check out the feature lists and videos on the project site for more info!

The Kickstarter still has a few days left to run, so there’s still time if you want to get in on the project – and only a little more is required to add a full module from Kobold Press/Open Design to the rewards! What’s not to like 🙂

Posted in Columns, RPG Tech Talk, RPG Technology | 2 Comments

Midgard: Campaign Setting Review – Part 5

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Tolrendordm

Welcome to the last post in my review series (you can find the whole series here) of the Migard Campaign Setting. It’s been quite a journey, and we’ve encountered some strange and wonderful places, peoples and more along the way. But we’re not finished yet! Our final stop on the tour is enough to chill you to the bone: literally, as we head into the frozen wastes of the Northlands, before turning our attention to more mystical matters: the Midgard pantheon of gods and demi-gods.

Chapter 9: The Northlands

The Northlands of Midgard are separated from the rest of the regions we’ve encountered by the sea known as the Nieder Strait. It comprises a number of jagged peninsulas, covered by lofty peaks and frozen tundra. Clearly a land apart, the beginnings of the chapter strongly emphasises this with an extensive section on the climate, the culture and the politics. This has heavy ties to the Icelandic and Viking cultures of our own world, with of course the fantasy elements of reaver dwarves, giants, trolls, rune magic, and the Nordic (with a few twists) pantheon.

The chapter continues with brief descriptions of the various small kingdoms that make up the region, an interesting mix of giant, human, dwarf and were-kingdoms. What’s not to like about an armoured polar were-bear king ruling over a mixed population of were-bears, fey bears and Vikings? As usual there are reams of interesting adventure possibilities here, some of which are highlighted in the ‘Adventures in…’ section which accompanies the description of each realm.

So why then for me does this chapter not have the ‘zing’ of those I’ve already covered? I can’t quite put my finger on it: I love Viking culture and mythology, and the ideas here are a good blend of historical and fantasy tropes. That may be part of the problem; maybe it’s all a bit familiar, and therefore does not have the ‘wow, what a cool idea’ impact of the other regions. Also, there’s not really any crunch in this chapter, and although I’m the first to state I don’t read campaign settings for the rules (especially as I don’t play the PFRG), some well-developed crunch can really enhance the flavour of the material. For example, I’d have loved to see Rune magic in greater detail – I suspect that this is contained in the Northlands regional guide that was released a while back – I don’t have that book, so can’t comment further – although just a side-bar of information is enough to put it on my wish-list, so maybe the kobolds got it right after all! 🙂

Chapter 10: The Pantheon

This is a big chapter, with a large number of gods presented in different regional pantheons, roughly corresponding to the main chapters, from the northern gods (closely modelled on the Aesir of our own Viking mythology), all the way to the ancient southern powers with an Egyptian feel.

At the start of the chapter quite a lot of space is given over to rules defining the domains and game aspects necessary to ground clerics and other divine characters in the setting. It never feels however as if this overwhelms the setting material: in the description of each god there is an introductory header defining the domains, symbol and preferred weapons of the deity, and then the remainder is information on the rites, major temples and shrines, high priests, holy works and other setting material. Each god is rounded out with a section on ‘What <this god> demands’ – which can be a rich source of trials and tribulations (and adventure) for your divine characters and of course their companions 🙂

One of the most interesting ideas in the chapter is the concept of Masks: that each deity as their worshipers see them may only be the aspect that the power wants them to see, and that the actual god may be something entirely different, or in fact simply an aspect of another power. This is a fascinating concept which mirrors real-world mythology, for example how the pantheon of the ancient Greeks morphed into the Roman deities, taking on aspects that were more suited to that culture. It is quite clear that Wolfgang Baur (original creator of Midgard) sees the way the gods interact with their followers in different regions as a key part of the flavour of the setting.

Appendices

The first Appendix is a set of backgrounds, talents, specialisations and spells for using the the AGE (Adventure Game Engine) system with the Midgard Campaign Setting. I don’t profess to know anything about this RPG system, so I won’t pretend to review this material. Suffice to say that a lot of the backgrounds seem to present iconic Midgard character options which players can use to engage with the setting. Looks fun 🙂

Finally the tome rounds off (Appendix 2) with some regional random encounter tables. Whether you like this sort of material or not, it does serve to give some ideas to the monsters found in each area.

And thus, after 295 pages of Midgard goodness, we are finally at the end of our epic journey!!

So what next? Well the grand summary of course!!

So would I recommend Midgard Campaign Setting? You bet!

As easy as that? Yup!

I have read and re-read this tome with great enjoyment. Obviously, I was a patron of the project, so have some bias, but I don’t think I’ve let that colour my views to any great extent. I didn’t contribute to the project, so essentially I’m just a pre-ordering customer.

But to put it simply, this product delivers ideas in spades. They leap out at you page after chapter after page. I don’t like everything in the setting – I’m sure you won’t either – but what I do know is that the material gets me thinking – of epic adventures, grand cities, ancient cultures, weird magic and just plain old D&D fun. In the final analysis, that’s what a campaign setting should be about!!

As I’ve posted before, I rarely run my own campaigns in published settings; I enjoy the creation of my own settings too much. However, I grew up in the RPG hobby alongside great settings such as Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, etc.

The Midgard Campaign Setting has joined that group in my mind – a iconic D&D setting ripe for plunder, and ready to become either a richly detailed background to your group’s adventures, or an inspiration for your own world and tales.

Get it, and enjoy!!!

Posted in Midgard Campaign Setting, Reviews, World Building | 2 Comments

February Update

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Tolrendordm

Well, here we are in the second month of 2013 already!! There’s a cliche in there somewhere … 🙂

January was a great month for TolrendorDM’s Blog: after ending 2012 on a high with the highest monthly total of hits; this month was near double!! Very pleasing, and it helps inspire me to continue a good level (for me…) of posting. Thanks to all who stopped by!

I was very happy to get two maps done for the blog: my normal Map of the Month column, which for the first time in some months featured my own work; and the first Cartographers Annual Challenge. I cross-posted both of these maps onto the Profantasy user forums, and was proud to see yesterday they’ve both been added to the ‘user round-up’ on their blog for January. If you want to see some of the great maps that people are creating with this software, keep a watch on this blog!!

So what’s to come in February? More of the same I hope 🙂 My review series on the Midgard Campaign Setting from Kobold Press will definitely complete. I’ve enjoying reviewing this product in detail and writing about it, and the posts have generated a lot of interest and views. More maps are on the horizon; the Annual Issue for February is a style for creating isometric building views. I have no idea how I will use that for the ‘Challenge’, so I’d better find my ‘Cap of Inspiration’. The first Content Corner column is also scheduled, an article on the Blue Riders, a mercenary company of the Havenscoast region.

Posted in Cartography, Columns, Miscellaneous, Reviews, The Havenscoast Project | Leave a comment

Wizards Watch: DnD Classics dot com!

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Tolrendordm

It’s been foreshadowed on many blogs for several days, and now it has come to pass: a new website (dndclassics.com run by DriveThruRPG) is now live offering a large range of TSR and Wizards of the Coast products in PDF form. The titles cover the whole range of editions from Basic D&D through to 4E titles, with more to come I understand!

On the one hand, I find this a bit annoying and frustrating, especially as a 4E customer. This is clearly the ‘how to create a revenue stream while we don’t publish anything new for our current edition for 18 months while we work on a new edition’ play. It may be couched in different terms, but lets face it, WOTC have always had the back-catalogue, but they’ve always resisted having previous editions officially on sale, so I find the ‘official’ reasons somewhat unconvincing. Wizards withdrew completely from the PDF market several years ago, citing piracy as the main reason, but there’s nothing in the new venture that addresses that problem, it’s simply that their needs and strategy have changed.

On the other hand …. ok, this is well cool! 🙂 Browsing through the list of products released on the site is like finding a treasure chest of ‘nostalgia’. There are titles there I’d forgotten even existed. I’ll definitely be picking up some of the Historical Reference books – their release co-incided with the beginning of my hiatus from the hobby, so I never purchased or used these, but they look a great resource for bringing elements of historical cultures into your campaign. Another treat will definitely be the Greyhawk sourcebooks – of all the TSR campaign settings I collected over the years, this is the one which (for reasons unknown…) I no longer have! So being able to grab it again is fantastic!

The truth is, I really don’t care what the real reasons behind the move are. Having access to the modern digital versions of the old edition rules and sourcebooks is definitely a great thing, and I’m sure many others will agree – with their credit cards!! I hope it is successful – and in the final analysis, if it gives the Wizards’ R&D team the time and space to complete DnD Next properly, without rushing it, I guess it will have been worth it 🙂

Posted in Columns, D&D Nostalgia, DnD Next, Wizards Watch | 2 Comments

The Cartographer’s Annual Challenge: January 2013

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Tolrendordm

I think it’s obvious from this blog that I love the awesome Cartographer’s Annual from Profantasy Software! However, too often I download and admire the new style, but don’t get round to actually using it in my mapping!

So, a few weeks ago I (perhaps foolishly…) set myself a mapping challenge for 2013. My goal is to use each issue of the Annual in the month that it comes out. The map however, can’t just be a random ‘play-around’ with the style, my mapping time is too precious for that! No, the intention is to create a meaningful map for my world (Tolrendor) or my 4E campaign (The Amber Tower).

So, a bit of a dilemma when the first issue for the 2013 Annual turned up – and it was a ‘Investigation Props’ style aimed at modern/horror/sci-fi games!! Hmm, how to turn that into my first ‘challenge’ effort …

Well, as my D&D campaign progresses, the number of NPCs and rumours etc that the kids are involved with is increasing, and often they forget some of the details (especially when we don’t get to have sessions as often as I’d like…). I’ve been using a technique from Chris Perkins ‘DM Experience’ column ‘Previously in Iomandra’ to recap at the beginning of each session (if you’re not reading this column, you should be, regardless of your RPG of choice!), and thought a graphical representation as a handout might help! So here is my effort (click on the image for full-size view):

Of course, as my campaign is a D&D one, I decided that white- or cork-boards didn’t really fit my needs, so after using the style to create the basic handout, I added a ripped parchment background (from a previous Annual issue) as well as some more ‘medieval’ props like wax blobs to hold the images on, nail-heads etc! Hope you like it!

Now that I’ve got the basic image template, my plan is to update this for each session as a prompt to the kids of all the information they’ve gleaned!

Posted in Cartography, Columns, The Amber Tower Campaign, The Annual Challenge, Tolrendor Gazetter | 4 Comments