Monday 16 December 2013

New 'pay-what-you-want' Dungeon Tiles

I'm pleased to announce a new range of modular dungeon tiles for use with 28mm miniatures.


But isn't the market already flooded with similar tiles? ...well perhaps, which is why I've made them available as a "pay-what-you-want" product - meaning that you can pick them up for free -OR- offer up a few coppers if you feel so inclined.

(a small tomb printed out in 'draft' quality on regular paper)


(the same map used as an evil cultists lair)

The booklet contains nineteen different rooms & passages (each measuring 8" x 8"), as well as two pages of smaller stair tiles & dead-ends.

 The Basic Dungeon Tiles booklet is available from RPGNow & DriveThruRPG

Tuesday 3 December 2013

3 years worth of dungeon maps!

As regular followers of the blog will probably know, for the last 3 years I have been sharing a bunch of greyscale (geomorph-style) dungeon maps over on G+ and on the blog itself.

So, since I've just finished the final map for this year (see the previous entry), I thought I'd post a brief recap of my (not so) little dungeon mapping project, and show how all of these maps can be pieced together to create a variety of different size/shape dungeon layouts.

* * * * *

2011

During the first year of the project (which I dubbed 'Map-a-Monday' - due to the fact that I posted a new map on the blog every Monday morning) these maps were simple dungeon 'geomorphs' which could be pieced together in a variety of different ways ...as shown in the example below:

As you'd expect, the project yeilded 52 of these maps by the end of the year ...all of which can be found in THIS G+ Album.

* * * * *

2012

The following year I continued with the 'Map-a-Monday' project - but this time I switched things up a little, and instead of dungeon 'geomorphs' I tried my hand at a bunch of caves and caverns. Once again, these maps were modular in design - meaning that they could be used in much the same fashion as the previous year's maps (or even used together to create a hybrid cave/dungeon layout):

However, there were 53 'Mondays' in 2012 ...and so this (of course) resulted in another 53 maps - all of which can be found in THIS G+ Album.

* * * * *

2013

By the end of 2012, the thought of continuing the 'Map-a-Monday' project for another year had lost some of its appeal ...and so I decided to slow things down to a rate of one map per month - and thus the 'Dungeon-Monthly' project was born.

However, for this year's project I've opted to draw a number of semi-modular dungeon maps (of varying sizes) - which would not only work in conjunction with those from the previous two years, but could also be used in a specific configuration to depict a huge dungeon level all of its own:

An example using two of this year's Dungeon-Monthly maps with 3 maps from 2011's Map-a-Monday project.

All 12 of this year's Dungeon Monthly maps pieced together to form one huge dungeon level.

Note that all 12 maps from this year's project can be found in THIS G+ Album.

* * * * *

So there you have it, that's 117 free* maps over the course of 3 years!

But does it end there? ...probably not - as I'm thinking of continuing the 'Dungeon Monthly' project into 2014 ...that is, assuming folks aren't getting a little bored with them by now :)


*for personal use only

* * * * *

EDIT: I forgot to mention that there's also a bunch of additional stairways and dead-ends (to cap off any unwanted passages) in THIS album. 

Dungeon Monthly (December 2013)

Here's this month's dungeon map ...and the final one of the year:


As always, unnumbered versions of all of these maps can also be found in the following G+ albums:



Monday 2 December 2013

Starter bundle for the Age of Shadow (with a one day 'Cyber Monday' special price)

Today sees the release of a new product bundle for the Age of Shadow RPG ...and since it's that time of the year again (i.e. Cyber/Mega Monday), I've decided to put it on sale for $3 (for today only).

After that, the normal price of this bundle will be $5.99 (which is still a saving of a couple of dollars).


The bundle contains:

  • The Age of Shadow Campaign Guide : which features a brief introduction to the default campaign setting.
  • Campaign Map 1 : a map-pack that depicts the land within the borders of the Northern Kingdom (in various formats).
  • Encounters in the Northlands : a booklet containing several brief adventures/encounters set in the Northern Kingdom.

So, if you combine this bundle with the (free) Age of Shadow core rulebook, you'll have everything you need to get your party of heroes off on the road to adventure!

You can get the starter bundle HERE
...and the free Age of Shadow core rulebook HERE

Saturday 30 November 2013

1st video review of the Age of Shadow

I've noticed that The Age of Shadow RPG has been downloaded quite a few times today - which has led me to believe that someone, somewhere, has probably mentioned it on a blog or something similar (as is usually the case).

However (much to my surprise) I've since discovered that it has received its first video review over on YouTube (by Kurt Wiegel of GameGeeks):



Also, this seems like the perfect time to say that, if you're thinking of picking up either the Campaign Guide, the encounter booklet, or the map of the North Kingdom, then you might want to hold off until this coming Monday, as I'll be putting a bundle together for a special one day* 'Cyber Monday' deal.

*note that the bundle will still be available after Monday
but for slightly more than its  'Cyber Monday' sale price

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Dungeon Monthly (November 2013)

Here's this month's dungeon map, and the penultimate one of the year:


And, as always, unnumbered versions of all of these maps can be found in the following G+ albums (making them ideal for use with virtual tabletops and the like):



Tuesday 29 October 2013

Tiles of the Dead - $1 Halloween sale!

With Halloween fast approaching I've decided to put Tiles of the Dead on sale for just $1 (from now until the day itself).


You can get them over on RPGNow & DriveThruRPG

(Note that Tiles of the Dead is a zombie/horror themed set of tiles that can be used to represent the interiors of small houses and apartments.)

Saturday 26 October 2013

Into the Wilderness: Map 5

I'm pleased to announce the release of yet another map-pack for the Into the Wilderness range.



Map 5 features an area or marshland, and (as is usual with these map-packs) is provided in the following formats:

1) A pdf booklet containing three versions of the map; one with a square grid overlay, one with a hex grid overlay, and one with no grid overlay at all:


* * *
2) Each map (i.e. the square grid, hex grid, and gridless version) is also provided as a jpg image optimised for use with virtual tabletops:


* * *
3) In addition, all three versions are supplied as multi-page, miniatures scale, pdfs - so that they can also be used as impromptu battle-mats:


* * *

Into the Wilderness: Map 5 is available for just $1.50 over on RPGNow & DriveThruRPG

Monday 21 October 2013

Age of Shadow counters

Now that the Encounters in the Northlands booklet is available, I thought that it would be a good time to share some tokens that I made a little while back which can be used to represent some of the characters & monsters in the Age of Shadow RPG (though they can of course be used for any game/system).

- Darothan leads the charge into a beastling patrol -

As you can see, the idea behind them was to have them print out at a size that can be glued to the top of a one inch square miniatures base (as seen in the photo above) - so as to give them a little more weight and durability.

Obviously, they are no substitute for nicely painted character/monster miniatures (at least for folks like me that are a fan of such things) - but because the images are fairly abstract, they can be used to represent whatever monster/creature you desire (for example, in the above photograph the PCs are facing off against a beastling captain (1), his three bodyguards (A, B, & C), and his dire-wolf tracker (2) ) ...not to mention the fact that you can just throw them into a small plastic bag for transportation & storage.

If you want to grab them for yourself, you can find the pdf file HERE

Friday 18 October 2013

New 'Into the Wilderness' map

I'm pleased to announce the release of the latest map-pack in the Into the Wilderness range.


This new map features a circle of standing stones, and (as is usual) is provided in the following three formats:

1) A pdf booklet containing three versions of the map; one with a square grid overlay, one with a hex grid overlay, and one with no grid overlay at all.


* * *

2) Each map (i.e. the square grid, hex grid, and gridless version) is also provided as a jpg image optimised for use with virtual tabletops.


* * *

3) In addition, all three versions are supplied as multi-page, miniatures scale, pdfs - so that they can also be used as impromptu battle-mats.


* * *

Into the Wilderness: Map 4 is available for just $1.50 over on RPGNow & DriveThruRPG

Monday 14 October 2013

The Age of Shadow : Encounters in the Northlands

It has been a long time coming, but I am finally able to announce that Encounters in the Northlands is now available for sale:

  
Encounters in the Northlands is a 52 page booklet for use with the Age of Shadow fantasy role-playing game, and features the following four adventure scenarios:

The Enchanted Forest
The Enchanted Forest covers rules for traversing areas of accursed woodland, and features a number of different (and often treacherous) encounters that can be had within.

The Shadowstone
A traditional style of adventure that pits the adventurers against fearsome undead creatures in a dungeon-style encounter.

Aleglin & Elmina
This is a scenario in which an elven lord had returned home after long years of imprisonment only to discover that agents of the Enemy have proceeded him.

Mathgar Ruins
Mathgar Ruins* is not an adventure in an of itself, but rather a fully detailed encounter location that the GM can tailor to his/her own quests and adventures.

* * *

Also included in this product are a number of VTT maps and miniatures scaled battle-maps that can be used in conjunction with the encounter locations detailed in the booklet.

Encounters in the Northlands in available from RPGNow & DriveThruRPG for just $3.99 (approx. £2.50).


*note that this is a slight reworking of the existing download that can be found on the AoS website (containing better maps and a few improvements/changes) - and has been included in the Encounters in the Northlands booklet as an added bonus.

Friday 11 October 2013

Printing at 28mm miniatures scale.

Earlier in the week I received a question about printing the 'dungeon monthly' maps at a scale suitable for use with miniatures (i.e. 1 square = 1 inch).

So, if that sounds like something you'd be interested in trying out, then this little tutorial will show you how to do just that (note that I'll be using the free GIMP image manipulation software to do this - so that anyone can give it a try).

_ _ _ _ _

OK then, the first thing you'll need to do (assuming you already have GIMP installed) is download the relevant image from my G+ gallery. Note that in this instance I'll be using a map from the 50 pixel per inch gallery (found HERE).

Once you've done that, simply open that image with GIMP.



Next you'll need to go to the View menu and make sure that the Show Grid and Snap to Grid options are selected.


Now that's done, you should see a grid overlay similar to that shown in the picture above. However, in order to get this grid to line up with the squares on the map, simply click on the Image menu and choose the Configure Grid option - which will bring up the options shown below.


Here, you simply enter a value of 50 into the Width and Height fields - and the grid overlay should now line up perfectly with the squares of the map in question.

Next you'll need to select the area that you want to print. For the purpose of this tutorial I'm going to select an area of 8x8 squares - as this fits nicely on a sheet of 'US letter size' paper (and also because the map itself can be split into eight such pieces).

To do this, click on the Rectangle Select Tool from the toolbox (it's the one on the top left of your screen), and draw a box around the area you want to print (note that because we have the 'Snap to Grid' option selected, the box you draw will automatically snap to the nearest grid intersection).


Once you've done that, the area you have selected will be highlighted with a dashed line (as shown in the image above).

Then click on the Image menu and choose the Crop to Selection option...


...which will crop the image down to just the part that we want to print.

Then all you need to do is go to File > Print (or hit Ctrl+P) and when the dialogue box appears click on the Image Settings tab and change the resolution fields to 50.

 

And that's it - this 8x8 section of the map will now print out at a scale of 1 square = 1 inch.

To do the rest of the map simply hit undo a few times (Ctrl+Z) until you get back to the stage before it was cropped, select the next 8x8 section that you would like to print, and repeat the procedure until you have printed out the entire dungeon.

The whole thing might sound a little long winded at first, but it shouldn't take more than a few minutes once you're familiar with the process.

Monday 7 October 2013

Dungeon Monthly (October 2013)

Here's October's map (perhaps some kind of catacomb-like section of dungeon):



And, as always, an unnumbered version of this map can be found in the following G+ albums:



Sunday 6 October 2013

Fresh from the painting table... (3)

The painting bug hit me hard this past week - so much so that I’ve managed to finish off my German WWII infantry platoon:

 

...and another picture from a slightly different angle:

 

I’ve painted these up primarily for use with Warlord Games’ Bolt Action rule set (though they should prove equally useful in other WWII games, or even a Weird War RPG), and all but one of the miniatures are from Black Tree Design.

And for anyone who’s interested in the exact make up of each of the specific units, they go something like this (note that the home-made pin markers to the left of each unit acts as a key in this instance):

1. 2nd Lieutenant and one extra soldier (both armed with SMGs)

2. Sniper team

3. Infantry squad (9 men)
1 x assault rifle (NCO)
1 x SMG & panzerfaust
1 x LMG
1 x LMG loader
1 x rifle & panzerfaust
4 x rifle


4. Infantry squad (9 men)
1 x SMG (NCO)
1 x SMG & panzerfaust
1 x LMG
1 x LMG loader
3 x rifle
2 x assault rifle


5. Infantry squad (9 men) - armed the same as unit 4.

For a grand total of 500 points of regular troops.

Saturday 28 September 2013

Dungeon Monthly (September 2013)

Ooops ...I almost forgot to draw this month's dungeon map:


As always, unnumbered versions of all of the 'dungeon monthly' maps (suitable for use with virtual tabletops) can be found in the following G+ albums:



Wednesday 25 September 2013

Colony 19 : The Facility

I'm pleased to announce the release of the latest set of tiles for the Colony 19 range.


This tile-set introduces a new style of flooring to the range (meaning it can be used as a stand along product -OR- in conjunction with the other C19 tiles), and includes 12 pages of printable rooms, passages, and objects for use in most sci-fi/near-future games.


In addition, the (free) 'Colony 19 : Doors' booklet has also been updated, and now includes door counters that can be used with this new style of flooring.

Note that the Colony 19 product range is scaled at 1" per grid square (when printed out), and are intended for use with 28mm miniatures.

Saturday 21 September 2013

Fresh from the painting table... (2)

Well, I've not got all that much (miniature) painting done in the past couple of weeks, but I'm still plodding away at my Bolt Action German platoon ...and so here's a quick look at the few miniatures that I've managed to splash some paint on since the last update.

First up is a third LMG team (in this case an MG34) for another infantry squad:

I've also painted up a sniper team (note that all of WWII mini's that I've painted so far have been from Black Tree Design, but the kneeling rifleman shown here is from Artizan Designs):

And finally I've got another three soldiers (armed with an SMG & panzerfaust) finished - one for each of the three (9 man) squads that I'm putting together:


And that's about it for now. I've still got another dozen or so miniatures to get through before I reach my 500pt goal ...but I'm getting there slowly :)


Friday 13 September 2013

More Tiles For Colony 19

A little earlier in the year I released the (free) Room 2 expansion tile for the Colony 19 range, and also hinted at the possability of designing a new set of tiles that would be done in a similar style (so as to offer some variety to the steel floor look of the existing tiles).

Well, that possibility should be turning into a reality sometime this month, and so I thought I would share a quick mock-up picture showing how some of the tiles look when pieced together:


However, to add a bit of extra detail to the (otherwise bland) flooring, I've been adding a few C19 logos here and there - but I was wondering if folks would prefer these left off the final version of the tiles? and stick to a more obvious square grid pattern?


I'm also using the working title of 'The Facility' for this set ...though if anyone has a better idea, then let me know ...and if I use it (assuming you're OK with me using it) I'll send you a free pdf copy of all the C19 tiles to date (as a little thank you from myself).

Sunday 8 September 2013

Fresh from the painting table... (1)

Now I'll admit that I'm not much of a wargamer (even though it is something I'd like to get more involved in) - but every now and again I get the urge to paint up a small army of some description ...with the hope of putting them to use someday.

However, I'm not a fantastic painter or anything like that (as most of what I do are done to what I would consider a good tabletop standard), but I thought I'd start sharing a few images (here on the blog) of stuff I occasionally throw some paint at (or anything else hobby related) - for those folks that might be interested in such.

So, since I recently picked up the Bolt Action rule-book (a WWII skirmish game), and also because I have some interest in that particular conflict, I've been splashing some paint on a few miniatures from Black Tree Design's WWII German range ...and here's what I've got finished so far...

Leutnant

Infantry Squad

Infantry Squad

These mini's represent the compulsory units for any army (i.e. one HQ and two infantry squads), and as such, are what I've concentrated on getting finished first.

This particular configuration comes in at just under 200 points (as I've included MP40's for the NCOs and an MG34 team in each squad) - though I hope to get another 100 points done by the end of next week (which will mostly expand upon the size of the infantry squads).

In addition, the idea for the home-made pin markers came from HERE ...but mine are a little smaller, as I've used a UK penny as the base and a few tiny 7mm dice (though they might prove to be too small to be practical ...but we shall see).

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Another Quick Update (encounter booklet maps)

I thought it was about time to take another quick look at how the encounter booklet is coming along, and (as is usual with me), things are taking more time than expected :)

However, for this little update I thought I'd post a sneak peak at some of the maps that'll be included in the book:


These accompany The Enchanted Forest (which is more of an encounter table than an actual adventure in and of itself), The Shadowstone, Aleglin & Elmina, and the Forgotten Halls* adventures/encounters.
*working title

I've also spent most of the bank holiday weekend redrawing the 'keep' maps from the Mathgar Ruins location - as I'm thinking of including a slightly updated version of this as a little added bonus at the end of the book:

(original maps are shown on the left)

In addition, when the booklet is released, the plan is to include VTT versions of all the tactical maps (at 50 pixels per grid square), and also blow them up to '1 square = 1 inch' so that they can be used as impromptu battle-maps (for use with regular miniatures). These will be included as part of the product at no additional cost - so that folks have everything they need to get things started.

And that's about it for now :)

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Dungeon Monthly (August 2013)

It's that time again...


Note that unnumbered versions of all of the 'dungeon monthly' maps can be found in the following G+ albums:



Wednesday 31 July 2013

A Quick Update

I had planned on getting some serious work done on this during the past couple of weeks...


...however, thanks to a nasty cold/flu-like bug, I've barely managed to do anything.

Anyway, now that I'm starting to feel a little better, I'm back to work on it - though I have to admit that converting my simple (sometimes cryptic) game notes into fully fledged encounter/adventure scenarios is far more work that I'd like to admit :)

That being said, the first draft of the three main encounter/adventure areas are almost complete, and work on a possible forth one has begun.

I'm also thinking of including a slightly reworked version of Mathgar Ruins in the booklet (with better maps etc.) ...as an added bonus - though I'm not sure if this might be mistaken as an underhanded way of increasing the product's page count with content that's already available for free (even though it's inclusion would have absolutely no impact on the cost of the product whatsoever) ...so the jury is still out on that one.

And that's about it for now, though I will add that I'd be intrigued to know if anyone would be interested in doing some additional play-testing of these encounters (with their own gaming group - using the Age of Shadow RPG) ...and if so would a free pdf copy of the final product (along with a play-testers credit - if desired) be adequate compensation for your time?

 - Kris -

Friday 19 July 2013

Purple Mountain - Battle-Map 5

A little earlier on in the week, Purple Duck Games released the latest instalment of their Purple Mountain mega-dungeon (for the Pathfinder system) - the maps for which were drawn by yours truly.

As is usual, CSP also provides an accompanying battle-map (or in some cases multiple battle-maps) for each level of the Purple Mountain ...and, as you've probably guessed, today sees the release of those that can be used in conjunction with level 5:


However, I think it's worth noting here that these 'battle-maps' are simply enlarged versions of those maps found within the adventure itself - blown up to miniatures scale (i.e. 1" per grid square), and spread out over several A4/letter size pages for ease of printing.

- one of the maps in action -

As such these maps are not intended to be comparable to high resolution dungeon tiles (which can consume a lot of ink and look best on glossy paper) - but are instead meant to offer good results when using cheap 'photocopier-style' paper and the low/ink-saving/economy mode of your printer.

The battle-map for level 5 of the Purple Mountain is available from

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Drawing old-school dungeon maps (part 3)

Note that for this next part you will need some form of image manipulation software (like photoshop for example). However, seeing as how this tutorial is meant to be something that anyone can try, I'll be using GIMP (a free image manipulation program) in order to carry out a few minor tweaks to the dungeon map.

* * * * *

In the example dungeon that I have drawn, the size of the whole map is 15 squares x 20 squares.

I also stated at the beginning of this tutorial that, when exported, each of these squares will measure exactly 70 pixels x 70 pixels in size ...so surely the final image should measure 1050 pixels x 1400 pixels right? ...so why is it's actually 1053 x 1403 ?

The reason for this is because of the thickness of the 'stroke' on the grid we created ...for example, if you look at the image below it shows a blown-up version of a rectangle (on the left) and our grid (on the right).


As you can see, the width of the line extends past that of the rectangle - therefore increasing the overall size of our map).

For most people, this will be a non-issue, but if you want to get rid of this extra pixel or two (for example, if you want the image to line up perfectly with the inbuilt grid of a Virtual TableTop) then there is a relatively easy way to go about it.

* * * * *

While you're still in Inkscape (but before you export the image) use the 'Create rectangles & squares' tool to draw a rectangle a full square larger (in each direction) than the map itself. Once you've done that, send that rectangle to the bottom 'layer' of the image ...and you should end up with something that looks like this:




Note that the colour of the rectangle doesn't really matter at this point (as we'll be getting rid of it in GIMP a little later on) but it is imperative that the rectangle itself has no 'stroke' or we will have the exact same problem as before.

Once that's done, we can export the image at 300 dpi (selecting File > Export Bitmap from the menu bar) and it should give us an image with a size that is divisible by 70 in both directions (in this case 1190 x 1540).

However, we've now got an ugly black border around the edge of our image - so to get rid of this, the next step is to open the exported .png version of our map in GIMP:



Then (while in GIMP) you'll need to select (from the main menu) Edit > Preferences and change the 'Default Grid' size to 70 wide and 70 high (i.e. to match that of our image).


Now, when you select View > Show Grid from the main menu, you should see a grid appear on top of our map which lines up with our own blue grid perfectly (note that this is very similar to what most VTTs do).


Before continuing any further you first need to make sure that the View > Snap to grid option is selected, and then using the Rectangle Select Tool (which is the very first tool in the tool bar) simply select the area that you want to keep (i.e. just the blue part of the map ...which the tool should automatically snap to if everything is going according to plan). Then simply choose the Image > Crop to Selection option from the main menu to crop the image to the correct size.



This should leave us with an image that looks something like this ...and also an image that is exactly the right size for a '70 pixel per square' VTT.



However, I'm not quite done yet, as looking at the image I think that the blue I have chosen is a little too bright. So what I'm going to do now is go to Colours > Hue-Saturation (from the main menu) and put a value of -25 in the saturation box:



Which I think gives a much better shade of blue.

And now that's done, the only thing left to do is export the image as the file type of your choice (usually a jpg or png file), and you're good to go.

Anyway, I hope this little tutorial has been useful ...and if you decide to give it a go and draw some of your own old-school 'blue maps' using this method, then I'd very much like to see what you come up with :)

* * * * *

Note that the final png file for this map can be found HERE ...and if you want to download the Inkscape file for reference ...then that can be found HERE.