Archive for the ‘artwork’ Category

Art Preview: Conflict & Madness

Posted: December 10, 2011 in artwork, games, Memories & Madness, storytelling
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Here’s another of George’s stunning interiors for Lost Days of Memories & Madness to keep you busy whilst I talk about the mechanics at the centre of the game: memories, conflict and madness.

We talked about memories last time, so this time I’ll talk about how they fit in with the mechanics of the game when the dice hit the table. Remember in my last post I talked about bidding for memories, and how the amount bid for a memory was its value? Well, in a conflict, you get to roll a number of dice equal to the value of any related or relevant memories, so the more powerful a memory, the more potent it is when you draw upon it in a conflict.

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Art Preview: the Value of Memories

Posted: December 2, 2011 in artwork, games, Memories & Madness, storytelling
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I thought I’d post up another of the stunning interiors for Lost Days of Memories & Madness by George Cotronis today and talk a little about another aspect of the game, this time the memories that make up the core of play. Once again it’s such a shame not to show the art off in colour, even though it’s in black and white in the book.

As I described last time, at the heart of elven culture are their memories, some of which are their own, some of which are stolen, traded or otherwise acquired from others. These memories make up the core of the game as well, defining your character and what he can do in a conflict in much the same way as a skill, trait or aspect might in other games. The difference is, memories are written on index cards and over the course of the game can be traded, stolen or lost, so not only do the elves change what they can and can’t do, they also change what they know and who they think they are.

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Art Preview: The Elves of the Eternal Court

Posted: November 28, 2011 in artwork, design, games, Memories & Madness, publishing, storytelling
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Yesterday I showed off the cover for Lost Days of Memories & Madness, my game of intrigue and insanity at the court of the elves. Today I thought I’d post up another piece of art and talk a little about the background for the game, as this piece forms the opener for Chapter 1: The Elves of the Eternal Court.

I’ve posted it up in full colour because I wanted to share George’s awesomeness, but the book is in black and white. You can see for yourself now – I’ve put the PDF up on RPGNow for sale.

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Lost Art of Memories & Madness

Posted: October 20, 2010 in artwork, design, Memories & Madness
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The game I’m hoping to publish next is Lost Days of Memories & Madness, which was my Game Chef entry back in 2007 (the same contest that Paul Tevis’ A Penny for My Thoughts came out of) that turned out to be rather fun in play. Rather unusually for me, I’ve not gone about commissioning art and then writing the game, but have written the game and am now commissioning art.

I’ve admired the art of George Cotronis for a while now, even since he did the cover for Don’t Lose Your Mind, in fact. There was something sinister, otherworldly and faintly insane lurking beneath the surface of his art that was unique, and a perfect fit for Memories & Madness.

Anyway, here’s the rambling art brief I sent him on Monday – hopefully I’ll be able to share some of the ensuing illustrations soon.

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Genre Bending

Posted: May 6, 2010 in artwork, Dead of Night, design
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The largest new chapter (scenarios excepted) is titled Genre, and is about emulating pretty much every horror movie genre in Dead of Night, from splatter horror to psychological horror and everything in between. In all there are 12 genres covered, including a sample scenario synopsis and set-up for each.

I’m really proud of this chapter, although at times it’s been a slog to do. At its most basic, the chapter is great for inspiring the reader to try out a different genre or style of horror movie. Did a little deeper and it provides suggestions for how to capture the feel of the genre chapter on the tabletop, including Tension settings, Survival Point ideas and suggestions for pacing the scenario.

Here’s a look at one of the genres, Body Horror, as well as one of my favourite bits of art for the accompanying sample movie, Symbiote.

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Art Preview: Dead of Night Cover

Posted: April 12, 2010 in artwork, Dead of Night
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With last week’s preview of Unhallowed, you should have a taster of the style and look of the interior art. This week I thought it time to unveil the front cover, again by Paul. The cover of the first edition, by Eric Lofgren, was a really distinctive image, depicting a pack of werewolves tearing apart a victim.

When approaching the cover for the second edition, I wanted to capture some of the imagery of the first edition, so I asked Paul to “put a werewolf on it”. No doubt this caused some howling and gnashing of teeth (no pun intended), as Paul explained to me, “Fur can be a pain to render.”

Well, as you’ll see from the finished results, it was worth the wait for me… and hopefully the pain for Paul!

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Art Preview: Unhallowed

Posted: April 5, 2010 in artwork, Dead of Night
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I made passing reference in my post about running Unhallowed that it was inspired by Paul Bourne’s illustration. Rather than leave the illustration to your imagination, I’ll post it up here. The game is about ready (it goes to Paul for layout) in a couple of weeks and the art is all in, so I thought it a good time to start showing it off in all its glory.

I had quite a strong concept for the art when I started chatting about it with Paul – I wanted each of the ten illustrations to be a fake movie poster, complete with credits and critical acclaim. Paul took this idea and ran with it, delivering a series of posters that absolutely blew me away. Each could be for a real movie, and I’d pay good money to see each of them at the cinema (or at the very least, on straight-to-video DVD).

Right, without further ado, the movie poster for Unhallowed is behind the cut. I’ll be posting up more illustrations, as well as the stunning cover, over the next few weeks.

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