Tuesday 30 April 2019

2500 Subscribers Giveaway Over on YouTube

Just in case you missed it, I hit 2500 subscribers at the beginning of the month - and so I decided to do another giveaway.

Anyway, today is your last chance to get your name entered into the prize draw ...so if you want to be in with a chance of winning a set of the latest pre-printed textures, just follow the instructions in the video:


(note, in order to keep it as straight forward as possible, I'll only be counting the relevant comments on the youtube video itself)

Good Luck ...and be sure to enter before midnight (GMT) tonight!

Saturday 27 April 2019

VTT Maps - still going strong!

I know that the blog has been featuring a lot of the 'print & paste' stuff recently, but I wanted to point out that the smaller (VTT style) maps are still going strong :) ...and that the library of 'cave maps' is steadily growing.

So, here's a quick look at a layout I've just put together that features some of the newer tiles...


...and I have to admit that they do have a bit of a 'tiled look' at the moment ...but this should become less of an issue when I get more 'feature caverns' and multi-tile caves drawn (the latter being similar to THIS).

Furthermore, I've also been trying some of these maps out with this new (at least I think it's new) 'Astral' virtual table top (that DriveThruRPG has teamed up with)...


...and, as long as you change the map to a grid size of 50, all of my tiles snap to the grid without any fuss - plus it seems to have dynamic lighting in the free version (which is nice):


Anyway, as you might already know, I have a Patreon campaign tied to these particular maps (though none of the final maps are hidden behind a paywall or anything like that), which you can find HERE.

Or, if you're not a fan a Patreon (for whatever reason), I'm also compiling them all in THIS lengthy album ...or you can find them (in a slightly more organised fashion) over on GOOGLE DRIVE.

Anyway, here's hoping you can put them to use!

Thursday 25 April 2019

Make your own miniature beds

Hot on the heels of the Chests & Crates release, I'm pleased to say that I've also put a new pdf file together that will allow you to make a bunch of beds...


And, as always, you can pick up the new pdf file over on DriveThruRPG (note that it's a pay-what-you-want download - so pay as much or as little as you like), and the assembly instructions can be found in the following video:


So, if you're looking to add some interest to your inns, barracks, bandit lairs, etc., hopefully these will help you out!

Thursday 18 April 2019

Make your own chests & crates

You might be pleased to hear that I've just released another set of 'Print & Paste' textures ...and this time the subject matter is chests and crates.

(note that this pic also includes a few barrels & sacks for a bit of added variety)

So if you're looking to run a few encounters in the warehouse district, down by the docks, or in the cargo hold of a huge ship (or if you just want to add some more clutter to an old dungeon) ...then these new pieces should come in handy.

And, as always, I've put together a video that shows how they are assembled...


...and the pdf file can be found HERE (note that it's a pay-what-you-want product - so feel free to pay as much/little as you like).

Anyway, here's hoping you'll be able to put them to good use!

Sunday 14 April 2019

Printing exactly what you need!

Around a month ago I posted a quick tutorial that showed how you could alter the colour of some of my (print & paste) textures to make a few alternative bits and pieces for your dungeons (you can read the article HERE).

Well, I thought I'd take it a step further this month and show how you can use a similar technique to print out custom sheets that only contain the bits you want (a whole page full of 'book textures' for example) - so here goes...

* * * * *

OK, we'll first need to open GIMP (a free image editing program), and import the relevant page from the pdf file in question - just like we did in the previous tutorial (i.e. Choose FILE > OPEN and locate the pdf, and then open the page you're interested in - making sure to input a value of 300 pixels per inch, and turning off anti-aliasing ...as I say, it's all explained in the previous tutorial HERE).

Then, we're going to make a new image as well - and we can do this by selecting FILE > NEW from the menu,  and selecting either the 'A4 (300ppi)' or the 'US LETTER (300ppi)' template (depending upon which page size you're using), and press OK.



And as you can see (if you look at the highlighted area near the top left corner), you'll now have two documents open (the page of the pdf we loaded previously, and a new blank page) ...and we can flip back and forth between the two by simply clicking on these thumbnails.


OK, next we'll need to make the 'textures' page visible (by clicking on the thumbnail in the top left corner that I just mentioned), and then select the 'Rectangle Select Tool' (highlighted in the top left of the following picture), and draw a box around the pieces we are interested in (in this example, all the 'bone pile' textures).


Then press CTRL & C together (to copy the selected part of the image), go back to the blank page (by clicking on its thumbnail), and press CTRL & V to paste the previously selected part of the image into this new document.


However, if you don't want it located in the middle of the page, you can simply drag it nearer the top - like so...


...and if you want to print a whole page of the same texture, just press CTRL & V again (to paste more of that texture into this document), and drag the resulting copies into position (or you could also copy and paste textures from several different pdf's to suit whatever you're building at the time).


And there you have it!

It's a pretty simple procedure (and I often do something similar myself) - which will save you wasting paper and ink by allowing you to only print the textures you want/need.

Anyway, I hope this has been of help - but if you have any issues, please feel free to get in touch.

* * * * *

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please feel free to alter the textures as much as you like for your own personal use ...however please do not share any variations of these files publicly. Thank you.

Monday 8 April 2019

More Dungeon Textures Available In Print

Sometime last year I was approached by SquareHex (a UK company that produces various roleplaying stuff) to see if I would be interested in them producing hard copies (i.e. pre-printed sheets) of my 2.5D dungeon ...to which I obviously agreed (note that you can see the original blog article HERE).

Well, it would seem that the 'starter set' has gone down pretty well (as we're now into the second printing :) ), and so we've been chatting again, and decided to print a new set (that complements the first one rather nicely).


So, as you can see in the picture above, this second set (which is available HERE, for just £3)  provides you with a wide variety of textures - all of which can be used to produce various bits of furniture and scatter terrain for your dungeons. In fact, if you check out the following video, I quickly run through the kind of things that you can make with some of these.



Furthermore, the release of this new set has coincided with the YouTube channel reaching its next milestone of 2500 subscribers (which is pretty amazing) ...and to celebrate I'm giving away a set of these new textures to one lucky winner.

So if you want to be in with a chance of winning, check out the following video, and leave a 'Count me in!" message in the comments section of the video itself:


And that's it for this little update. A huge thanks goes out to everyone that's supported me thus far (and a big thanks to SquareHex for making this happen). Here's to the next 2500 subs (assuming I ever make it that far)!


Tuesday 2 April 2019

Print & Paste Miniatures : Goblins

If you've been following me via any of the social media platforms (BTW way HERE's some of the places where you can find me), then you've probably seen some of my recent posts about making papercraft(ish) miniatures.

It started off (a while back) with the animated book swarm (note that I've recently made another of these during a livestream), and then the more recent Twig Blights.

Well, I thought it was about time that I actually put together a dedicated pdf for this kind of thing (rather than just repurposing some of the existing textures) ...and here's the result:


As you can see, this first set provides you with a way to populate your dungeons with a whole host of goblins - without having to spend a fortune on mini's :)

Now obviously, I am (and always have been) a fan of regular metal/plastic miniatures - but I thought it would be a nice idea to have a bunch of these papercraft(ish) goblins available for those folks who have no interest in painting (or who simply can't get hold of miniatures in their location) ...plus I've always dreamed of a miniatures range of my own - and this is probably the closest I'm ever going to get :)

So, as always, here's the video showing how I put them together...


...and the pdf file can be found HERE (note that it's a pay-what-you-want product - so feel free to pay as much/little as you like).