Ostensible Cat

Bah, this winter has been rather crummy due to various forms of crud going around.  I ended up calling in sick to my gaming group due to a new crud that I picked up.  I'm not feeling terrible, but I knew I couldn't really hold up to 3+ hours of DMing.  Ah, such is life.  However, not all is a total loss.  I spent the day mapping my adventure for Polstrus Lev.  I'm going to finish the highly modified Keep on the Borderlands adventure and then entice the players over to the small road side rest stop/holy shrine Restover.  This will become the new base for launching into Polstrus Lev and surrounding environs.  I've established the campaign in a rather wild part of the world known as the Moinar Marches.  There is lots of political tension as the invading Stennish people have pretty much an ongoing conflict with the native Moinar people.  The church of Daegraed, Lord of the Dawn is striving to drive out the older religions and this is just ...

I hope everyone's 2012 is off to a good start. So far, it has been slow going for Team Bingham with a bout of influenza ushering in the new year, but it seems that is all behind us now. So finally back to projects! I'm revisiting my idea for a low level adventure, the Warrens of Polstrus Lev. A while back, I mused on my idea for dark elves. I never really cared for how dark elves have been portrayed. I picture Dark Elves akin to the degenerate humanoids found in R.E. Howard's "Children of the Night" (you can read the short story here ). To me, dark elves seem, well, too cultured and not degenerate enough. At any rate, I've always wanted to do something with that. So, I'm currently working on a low level adventure entitled "The Warrens of Polstrus Lev, the City of Degenerates". I picture it as a pulpy romp through an underground "city" full of degenerate humanoids. Think of Howard's story meets the movie Night Breed and th...

So here's the keyed maps for Maedsid. I haven't really done much in the way of mapmaking so this was a good exercise for me and fun to boot. I just sort of let things unfold organically (i.e. by the seat of my pants). I like the results though. Now, I need to flesh out the actual keys. I'm also working on some art to go along with it. This is my first time really trying to do something of this scope but I really like the process behind it. Being an artist though, that can be dangerous... It's easy to get lost in the process and never generate a finished output. But I'm determined to see one project through to the end before the close of 2011! Maedsid Isles Barrow Mound/Ritual Complex Main sub level Sub Level A Sub Level B

OK, so I've been working on my map for The Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow. I love maps. I like to look at them and imagine all kinds of kooky things. However, drawing maps, well, like my son says "they make my brain go down". At any rate, here' my first scan of level one of the Basalt Keep. I also screwed around in Photoshop and here's another take: I kinda like the second one because, well, it has a feel like th keep is made of basalt. I'm getting pretty psyched about this. But then again, I've got multiple projects going and I'm pretty jazzed about all of them.

I've been working on some location maps for a while now and figured I'd post some of them here. These are hand drawn and transfered rather crudely to Photoshop and had a grid placed over them. This is a standard 1 square = 10' map. The Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow exists on an island that exists in more than one dimension simultaneously. Also, it has the tendency to "blink" out of existence from time to time on some extraplanar jaunt. Viscount Wilven was a rather unwholesome character in the vein of the Marquis de Sade and surrounded himself with a cast of scoundrels, lunatics, libertines and hedonists. Ultimately becoming an outcast, Wilven tapped into the dark arts and created a rift that set his island home adrift on the planar sea. This has had some startling effects and has made the island and the keep a dangerous place to visit. Here's a map of the first level and two lower sublevels of the keep: I've started to key this level and have tw...

No, I didn't participate in the Black Friday spending frenzy. Instead, we actually had our feast last night. Since I live in Italy and had a mix of Italians and Americans, it probably was better that we did it on Friday so the Italians could participate. Well, tonight w are actually having some more Italian friends over for a continuation of the feast. Yeah, it was a big turkey. At any rate, I've returned to working on my OSR project. Today I started to work on the outdoor hex maps for my campaign setting. I really want this campaign to have a pseudo Norse/Celtic/Germanic feel to it and thus taking place in a somewhat northerly climes. Not very original I suppose but go with what you love... As to scale, I've been thinking of doing one hex equals five mile (Wilderlands scale). That is tenative as I have to see how it actually works out.

So I went on a business trip to Heidelberg, Germany last week. I must say that I really have a great fondness for Germany. Afterall, I spent my Freshmans and Sophomore years of High School in Nuremburg, Germany and that was the most active gaming period of my life. So yeah, I've got a lot of gaming memories all tied up with my stint (1986-88) there. Good times. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get a chance to stock up on Germany beer. I have a smattering left but I'll be completely depleted in a few months. A well, hopefully the shopette on post will have a sale on German beer in the near future. Gotta have my Pilsner... But I digress. Since my return to sunny Italy, things have not been quite so sunny. In fact, it has been downright soggy. Post was closed at noon yesterday and remains closed today. So, in rainy day fashion, it's time to pull out the projects and begin working. I've been ruminating a bit on exactly what I...