D&D Next Covers Revealed!

Over at WotC's website the covers for D&D Next have been revealed. As XStarkillerX notes at The Piazza, the announcement also includes release dates for the three core books, the starter set and new adventures. It is surprising that so little bravado accompanies this announcement. Perhaps they are assuming that bloggers and forum posters will do the job for them? :D

Although the images are fairly small, I dont see any mention of "5th Edition" or "Next" on the covers. The new style should ensure that these books are not confused with previous edition products however.


ENWorld also reveals this logo:

And this one:

What do you think of the art?


-Havard

The Art of Stefan Poag

I first came across Stefan Poag at one of the old Zeitgeist Games Forums way before we set up the Comeback Inn Forum. At the time, he was running one of the few Blackmoor websites on the Net other than the Blackmoor Archives. Poag did illustrations for various ZGG Blackmoor products including Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor.

This Michigan based artist has done alot of RPG illustrations over the last decade. His work has appeared in several of Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure modules and has a prominent place in the upcoming DCC RPG from the same company. Author Harley Stroh talks about further connections between the DCC RPG and Blackmoor here.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that much of Poag's more recent work also show his connection to Blackmoor:

Which Blackmoor cult could degenerate fanatic be obsessing about?

Whether intentional or not, this illustration reminds me of the illustration in the First Fantasy Campaign about the assault on the Black Castle of the Orcs

The Steam Bores of Blackmor is of course another familiar theme and an example of Blackmoor's many infernal machines..

I nicked these illustratios off Stefan Poag's Website. He also has a page dedicated to his art on Goodman Game's Website.




-Havard

[Mystara] Playing Around with Photoshop

Today's entry is related to Mystara, my other favorite world besides Blackmoor. I always found the interior illustrations of the Wrath of the Immortals Rulebook to leave a little to be desired. So I began playing around on Photoshop to see if I could add some color to them. Here are a few early results:

-Havard

Frogman Cleric

Just a sketch I found over at Deviant Art that I wanted to share with you. Looks like a respected member of the Order of the Frog.

Image Source.


-Havard

Age of the Wolf art part 3

Here's more art by Lee Smith, originally intended to grace the pages of the Age of the Wolf book. Thanks to Lee, I am proud to be able to share this with you. These images give us an even better idea of where the designers were planning to take Blackmoor:

Beastman

"The Beastman is a type of humanoid unique to Blackmoor. The beastmen of Blackmoor come in many different colors and varieties, but they all share some basic physical characteristics: All beastmen are a little larger than a large human, with long coarse fur and yellow-gold eyes. They have powerful, barrel-like chests and muscular arms that are almost long enough to drag on the ground. Each beastman’s head type is random, even within family units and clans."

 Its good to see the Beastmen having a role in Age of the Wolf. I have often found them more interesting than Orcs which feature in every setting.

The Hills Have Eyes:

"A pair of unlucky adventurers encounter a band of Mutated Ash Goblins on a rocky ridge. Soon they will be overwhelmed by these vile creatures and taken to the Brood Mother to decide their fate." 

Ash Goblins were introduced in the D20 line, but they just seemed to be an arbitrary monster included in the 3E Sourcebook and I could never figure out why they had used them instead of various other monsters from the DA series for instance. However it seems like they had more ideas planned for this race to be revealed in the Age of the Wolf Sourcebook. 

Brood Mother

" The Brood Mother of the Korkak tribe of mutated ash goblins is a repulsive form that remains only vaguely humanoid. She is a hideously obese and over-sized goblin, wrapped in roll upon roll of loose, flabby flesh. A tiny head with greasy hair stares with maddened eyes from above, while vestigial arms and legs flail and twitch without purpose. Various vermin crawl from between the folds of skin. Incapable of movement, bereft of any prehensile dexterity, the brood mother is utterly reliant upon her tribemates to survive."

Okay, that is gross! This is a new addition to the Ash Goblin ecology. Seems like a pretty interesting idea for a creature and it also makes the Ash Goblins more different from regular Goblins. This is a good thing. In the 3E version just seemed like Goblins with a few modifications and I was wondering if it was really worth it. Now that they were developing their society and ecology more, I am beginning to see the sense of including this creature. You know, in spite of the gross nature of these ladies...


Dragonborn Bombardier

 From the all-dragonborn city-state of Rodhin, he is part of a secret group, called the Bombardiers of Rodhin that serves the dragonborn king. Originally, the bombardiers were archers. Since Rodhin started developing greater technological prowess, they have replaced their bows with mechanical bolt-throwers powered by explosive steam power.

 I've been wondering about Rodhin since I noticed it on the Age of the Wolf map! From the 4E sourcebook on, we knew that they would be giving more room to the new 4E races. Not sure how interesting this would be to long time Blackmoor fans, but if you are going to include Dragonborn it makes sense to have their city in the Dragon Hills. It is also interesting to see that they were planning to introduce what appears to be gun powder weapons into the Age of the Wolf.

Revelation Death Priest

 "The Revelation Deathpriests are part of a crazy cult obsessed with the act of re-animation, and have been driven mad by their desire to reconcile the gulf between science and magic. The cult’s activities involve tinkering with life and death, and result in the creation of rather a lot of tech-infused undead."

 Another disturbing image. These remind me of the Necrotech I suggested for the Egg of Coot. I have no idea if this cult is linked to the Egg, but it would make sense in my opinion.

Finally, I would like to take another opportunity to thank Lee Smith for finnishing these wonderful paintings even though the project has been cancelled. At least we can get another glimpse at what this product line was intended to be like, even though it never saw the light of day. I hope you guys enjoy seeing these as much as I do!







-Havard

More lost Age of the Wolf art!

Last month, I shared a painting that artist Lee Smith was comissioned to do for the now abandoned Age of the Wolf line for Blackmoor. Here's more!

Inventor:

The artist's comment:

"A Character class illustration for a project that was cancelled. This guy is an inventor, able to piece together artefacts or powerful weapons from various components. I like to think of him as a 'fantasy MacGyver'"

The inventor class first appeared in Blackmoor Clock & Steam and it has long been known that it would be converted to 4E in the Age of the Wolf sourcebook. This further suggests that the rise of technology was going to be a prominent theme in this Blackmoor subsetting.


Tiefling Relic Hunter:

The artist's comment:

A character illustration for a cancelled project, this is a Tiefling Relic Hunter. He is employed to track down arcane artefacts.

Not all fans will be happy to see  Tieflings in Blackmoor. The Blackmoor: First Campaign Sourcebook (4E) introduced this 4E core race. The race description in that book did hint that this race would become more important in the future, so having them appear in AoW is no big surprise.


Gravesworn:

The artist's comment:

Illustration from a cancelled project, this is a type of undead that are animated not by the will of power-hungry necromancers, nor by the tragedy of their death, but by a force called arcane pollution -- their souls killed by wanton use of arcane magic, and then returned to animation by the same forces. 

This last one is perhaps the most interesting painting. The concept of arcane pollution and the idea that this can create undead is pretty fascinating. This is perhaps the explanation for the legion of undead following the Herald of Thanatos?

I like all of these paintings. They are very well done, and its hard to pick a favorite. I would like to thank Lee for sharing them with us!










-Havard

Age of the Wolf Art Revealed!

The Age of the Wolf product line for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor was cancelled. Artist Lee Smith was comissioned to do some of the illustrations for the project. Above is one of the pieces he made. The cap for the illustration reads:

The Herald of Thanatos is a massive mechanical construct that roams the lands, in its wake the dead rise from their graves and follow the machine as a legion of undead warriors.

 It's really interesting to see this wonderful illustrastion. It gives us alot of room to speculate to what the Age of the Wolf was really about. Based on this illustration alone, I'm getting associations with the Iron Kingdoms, perhaps with a hint of post apocalypse? The challenge with such a setting would probably be how to preserve the Arnesonian touch to the setting. I hope to reveal more news on this topic in the coming months!






-Havard