Some Doodles...

My Mom kept a lot of my old papers, notebooks, etc. from when I was a kid.

I was digging through some of it tonight and I saw this -

definately grate speling doofus...  :)

Impressive huh?  Not really.  It does remind me of my junior high science teacher (Thanks Mrs. DuPont!) but otherwise, not too interesting.  

I did discover a date on another page -- 10/2 of 1981 (I think). 

Here are a couple other pages that should be familiar to the grognards among us --

So that's when I visited the Peaks...  :)

I should key this up as a dungeon...

Found this over at OBI Scrapbook blog --

Looks like 6 levels up and how many levels down?

Anklebiter Art

My grandson and granddaughter drew these up a week or so ago.  We started on the displacer beasts when mom and dad arrived.  :(

Enjoy!

He's an ORANGE dragon.  Get it?

Randomness Motivational Poster

Enjoy!

Dice picture found on the internet; used without permission (please let me know if its yours and you'd like me to remove it.  Truly sorry.)

More Monster Illustrations

Boggart

Tony over at the Savage Sword of Scadgrad has kindly offered to do some monster drawings for the Massive Monograph of Malignant Malifactors!

This is AWESOME!

I have some excellent artists onboard and I'm just thrilled with what Tony drew up.

Go over to his blog and take a look!  Wonderful stuff!  Thanks again Tony!

He has kindly offered to draw up some (well not some, ALL of the) demons too!  I can't wait to see them.

Now to get C finished so we can get on to D!

Technological Artifacts

On TV this morning, I saw this --

-- and that made me think of these --

Just sayin'

:)

Ascomoid

Here's my take on the Ascomoid.  It's a giant puffball fungus that rolls after you and spouts deadly spores.

My little armored stick figure has an EO helmet on.  :)

Ocular Overlord

Here's a pic that I drew for my new monster book.  I'm pretty proud of it.  I know it's amateurish, but I think its still pretty cool.  I have other more talented artists too...   I just can't help myself.  :)

Let me know what you think.

Trampier Easter Egg

Jeff Rients mentions this over at his blog, but I just had to post about it to call it out for those of you who may not have seen it.

In the back of the 1st Ed DMG is a picture of "Emirikol the Chaotic."  This is one of the most iconic images within the whole DMG, or in any 1st Ed book for that matter.  Here it is if you've never seen it:

Emirikol was drawn by the legendary Dave Trampier who is also the author of Wormy, one of the classic cartoons that could be found in The Dragon magazine back in the day.  Here's Wormy:

Here's a Wormy archive if you would like to see and read some awesome stuff...  Read it before it disappears...

Anyway, in the new DUNGEON CRAWL CLASSICS, page 49 has an homage to Emirikol.  It is excellent and a fantastic tribute to a legendary artist.  Here it is:

I want to call your attention to the sign on the wall above "Lokerimon the Lawful."  It's Woimy himself! Here's a detail:

TOO FREAKING AWESOME!

DCC Easter Egg Art

There has been some discussion on the blogs about some of the art in the Beta of Dungeon Crawl Classics.

It seems that some folks believe that a bit of the art borders on "parody" or "rip off".

My take is "inside joke," "homage" or "Easter egg."

You see, some of us old timey gamers will see this stuff and we'll recognize it's original origin.  It puts a smile on my face.  Newbies will just see "art."

I was just leafing through the PDF again and this little number popped out at me.  I've looked at it a half dozen times already, but it finally clicked:

It is an homage to "The Keep on the Borderlands."  Here's the original:

SMILE  :)

Ode to Jeff and Telecanter

Jeff Rients posted a pic of this guy over at his blog.  I saw it and I couldn't resist giving it the Telecanter treatment, so here he is.

Special thanks to both of those fine gentlemen for being such inspirations to us all!

Cauldron Crab

So, in my CotMA campaign, one of the characters, Oryx, got a bad draw (Void) from a Deck of Many Things and his soul is trapped... somewhere...

Anyway, he's encountered the spectre of an evil wizard.  Is he real, perhaps another lost soul, or is he a figment of Oryx's imagination?  He may never know.

He did discover that the wizard has been brewing up a monster in a large cauldron.  I'm calling it a cauldron crab.

I thought you might like to see a picture that I mocked up.  Enjoy!  Picture removed.  I shouldn't have used the stock art here.  Apologies to the artist.

Cauldron Crab

HD: 4

AC: 4 (or AC 0 see below)

#AT: 2

D/AT: 2d8/1d6

MV: 9"

SZ: Large

Morale: 9

Treasure: Nil

Created from baby crustaceans, rare herbs and demon ichor, the cauldron crab is a monster that dark wizards can use to protect their labs or to serve as loyal bodyguards.  Created through a long thaumaturgical process, the cauldron crab must be fed fresh meat at the conclusion or the wizard risks the crab turning its appetites upon him!

In combat, the cauldron crab will try to use its iron shell to keep opponents at bay.  If attacked in melee by one or two opponents, they will need to hit its formidable AC of 0.  If attacked in melee by 3 or more opponents, only one (randomly chosen) will strike AC 0, the rest will be able to attack its softer chiton armor of AC 4.

Once it has been reduced to 8 HPs or less, the crab will retreat into the cauldron and attempt to hide from its attackers.

Please Submit A Monster

Hi everyone!

Michael Kotschi over at HeyMikey.org has set up a form for monster submissions to the "Massive Monograph of Malignant Malefactors."

If you would like to contribute a monster (or monsters) to the book -- ONLY monsters of your own original design please -- you can do so by filling out the form found HERE.  The form will be open for a few months to allow for new submissions.  At some point, I'll turn it off so that I can get on with the final editing of the book.

Michael has provided an example monster on the page.  There's some quirkiness to the way we're doing this book, so you may want to study his example to see how we're statting all these critters up.  If you leave stuff off the form, I might just put it in myself.  :)

That said, I respectfully reserve the right to edit your submissions, but I will do so with great care and consideration for the monster your have created.

If your monster(s) are chosen to be in the book, you will get credit in the book and you will have a chance to win A PRINTED COPY of the book.  (I will draw randomly; one entry per monster chosen for the book; number of copies to be given away subject to my personal budget, but shall be greater than or equal to one.)   :)

For everyone else, the PDF of the book will be FREE and the book will be offered through Lulu AT COST.

If you are an artist and would like to donate some illustrations for the book, please contact me at my email: wilmanric at gmail dot com.  All art will be product identity so you will retain your copyright to your art beyond its use in the print and PDF versions of the MMMM.

Now, here's a song from the REM album "Monster" for your entertainment...

MMMM Art - Borsin

Here's Jef's take on the Borsin...  Enjoy!

MMMM Art - Aqueous Orb

Jef created another bit of art I'd like to share.  Here's his take on the aqueous orb...

The Massive Monograph of Malignant Malefactors Update

A few months ago, I announced that I was planning to take the 0e Monster Book that Matt Finch had put out via the OGL and re-work it into a new book with new features, new monsters and art.

I'm pleased to announce that Michael over at heymikey.org is helping me with the monsters.  He's started at the back (Z) and is working forward, while I began at A and am working backward.  We've each completed three letters so far, so only 20 more to go.

We still have plans to integrate more monsters too.  Bat over at Ancient Vaults has offered to include some of his monsters when we're ready and Al over at Beyond the Black Gate has already given me permission to add a few of his critters to the book!  Thanks again to both of them!

Michael has shared a really cool idea about potentially "crowdsourcing" part of the book so, stay tuned for that!

Last, but not least, a very talented friend of mine, Jef, has contributed some art to the book.  I'm attaching a very rough preliminary sketch below.  He's still planning to add a lot more details.  There will be more tantalizing art to come!

Enjoy!

An imp taste testing the wizard's brew...

PS: if there are any other artists out there who would like to contribute to the book, please drop me a line at wilmanric (gmail) and I'll get back to you.  I'm just looking for clean line-art in an "old school" vein.  I think Jef epitomizes the style well.

Commercial Message... Please Excuse this Interruption...

Hi all,


My sister used to work in the video game industry and for a time she worked for Artifact Entertainment.  They developed a game called "Horizons: Empire of Istaria"


Anyway, she later worked for Rainbow Studios, but was laid off last year about this time.  She's just recently getting back to work and she's had medical bills, etc.


I promised her (as her big brother) that I'd put the word out there -- just in case anyone was interested in these art prints she has for sale on eBay.  


These were done for the artists to use as inspirational character references for Horizons.

"The Power and the Protector"
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290527192270&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

"The Protector"
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290527195197&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

"The Power"
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290527196254&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT


Even if you aren't interested in buying, they are some pretty cool pics of hawt fantasy chicks...  :)  Check them out!


I especially like the first one because of the apparent "magical gate" in the background.


Thank you for your indulgence.  We now return to our normally scheduled blogging...

Merry Christmas!

I've been resisting the temptation, but most of my fellow bloggers are putting Christmas wishes out there -- so, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Here's some fantasy/Christmas-y type art I found on the interwebs that I particularly liked.  Enjoy!

I especially like this one!  Samurai Santa with elf ninja!  Priceless!

Art Books

The Paladin in Citadel was musing about spending good money for an art book.  I wouldn't.

What I would do is convince my talented sister to (ahem) copy interpret some of my favorite art in prismacolor pencils.

Here they are:

She's really good.

Don't know if you can see this in the image above, but she's hidden "easter eggs" in the Raistlin pic.  See if you can find the logo of a favorite band AND if you can tell what's inside the crystal ball...

Edit:  Here's the relevant part -- probably gives it away...

Inspirational Art

Saw these over at Monster Brains.  Had to repost them because they are full of awesome!  Enjoy!