Update for Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners!

Send out the criers and the messengers. Have the herald hoist the flag. Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners has been updated with several new classes, some campaign notes from history, and many rewritten sections for clarity.

Ever wonder what the difference was between a papermaker and a parchminer? How about a leather worker, a lorimer and a tanner? What is ostracon? What is the difference between amate and papyrus? All updated to answer your questions.

I was thinking of holding off on this until November, but had the chance to get things done this week.

Everyone who purchased the old product can download the new product from their Library on DriveThruRPG.

If you haven't looked at Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners, let me tell you what it is and is not. In B/X and AD&D, characters were permitted professional skills to supplement their backgrounds, with nary a word on what those skills would be or how they would work. After decades of play and having my players want to have useful and memorable NPCs or codified professional skills, I wrote a set of rules to outline many common professions in historical times.

This expands in the information from D&D and AD&D, in a way that is very different than "skills" or "feats". Each commoner class member can advance up to 5 levels, from apprentice to master with hard work. Level determines the ease of success when operating as a professional class. Each class has distinct tools and skills, and where crossover exists, I have explained how these characters would work, while leaving the rules open to interpretation so they can fit into any D&D or AD&D campaign. 

There is commentary on economies, hiring, firing and all other aspects of gaining skilled tradesmen. Make no mistake, these are not alternate adventurer classes, they supplement the player characters, not replace them. It is not a sieve or character filter. In fact, this rule set can rescue hopeless characters and save you time at character generation.

It also answers some age old dilemmas about who can do what and why.

Price at PWYW, this rule set can enhance your campaign. Go ahead, give it a try.

#Inktober2019, Artwork for Timeout.

Inktober is on. I have been binge watching TV while working on my main project for the month. I can't say I am getting a lot done, but I am learning.

My main project is a copy of New Mutant's #50, in stippling. One of the issues with this design is, I need a background which I pictured in black. In stippling. 8.5x11 mostly back composition in stippling.

Mmm. What did I do?

Anyway, my binge watching has been BSG. Being a space show, everything in the background is grey or black. I gave myself a timeout project which includes an all black background. I used BG 5 and 9 plus 120 black for these ships. I am not good with tones and color, so again, I am learning.

It's super rough, you don't even need to enlarge the image. Smaller is better.

#Inktober Update - Day 4

I didn't do an update yesterday, but I have continued to work on my project. Magik's hands and arms are causing me some trepidation, so I been forcing myself to work on them. I've also been working on the hair. For the horns and right hand, I think I need a glare or shadow effect. Not sure how that will work.

After the arms are complete, I will be working on the sword. I wasn't sure how this would go, so I did a quick straight to ink practice run. Not perfect, but a good practice run. 

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 28 - The Retort

Since my campaign seems to have died, it's time to get back to 52 Weeks of Magic. This week 40 and The Retort is item 28. Twelve more to catch up.

The Retort is a magical weapon, which initially appears as a leather wrapped handled, with no blade or guard.

The weapon counts as a +5 weapon, but has no bonuses to strike or damage. When the holder is threatened, The Retort will magically appear in the owners hand and ignite into a magical blade 4 feet long. If the user does not have a free hand, the weapon will appear between them and their opponent, waiting to be grasped. The weapon is usable by all classes.

The blade is a cracking field of energy which follows the form of a blade but writhes and twists towards the opponent or opponents. This amorphous form reduces the wielder's AC by 4, making them harder to hit because the energy causes fear. The blade is obviously dangerous. It's light will illuminate a 30 foot area to full daylight.

On a successful to hit roll, a living target must make a save vs. death. If successful, they take no damage. If failed, the target's hit points are reduced to one hit point and they are rendered unconscious for 1d6 turns. No matter how many times struck, the weapon will always leave one hit point. The Retort is not exactly cursed, but holding it will cause the wielder to deal with all threats with The Retort and not switch to another weapon. This obviously prevents the user from issuing a final blow to kill a target. 

If the target cannot be rendered unconscious (such as undead or a golem), they will be encased in a field of energy matching The Retort's blade and take 1d4 points damage for the next 3 rounds. Each hit will increase the duration of the field of energy by one round. While this field has some of the aspects of a flame, it is magical damage, not fire. 

The Retort allows the user to see invisible or astral creatures and will leap to the user's hand when confronted with such threats. Against otherworldly creatures such as demons or creatures summoned, the weapon will leap to the users hand and radiate a circle of protection for 10 feet. The wielder can lash out at these creatures with the blade so long as they are within 6 feet of the circle of protection. It is a one-way barrier to physical attacks, not magic or missiles.

If the wielder strikes themselves on purpose, they will be surrounded by a corona of flame which will will heal them to full hit points immediately. The owner must be under some sort of threat, such as eminent combat to use this power. People who have healed themselves in this fashion will feel numb and cold and the wound will burn with flames like The Retort's blade.

Once the immediate threat is ended, The Retort will try to extinguish itself. If the user wishes, they can force the blade to stay lit. The user will lose half their current hit points and will be unable to sleep, meditate, pray or study spells. The blade will remain lit for 24 hours, during which time, the holder cannot be healed by any means, except a wish. Wishing for healing will also extinguish the blade for a week, rendering it useless for that time.

If the wielder dies or is reduced to 0 hit points while the blade is lit, they cannot be revived, reincarnated or resurrected until they are physically separated from The Retort. If the weapon is taken up by another person, it will refuse to operate for the previous user. If the weapon is thrown away, it may return the prior owner. To prevent this from happening, the former user must save vs. magic.

#Inktober2019 - First Rule. DHYB - Updated

I'm watching people upload their videos for Inktober. I don't have the equipment but still want in on the game. I made a 20 second video demonstrating my personal technique.

The first rule is, Don't Hold Your Breath. I also tend to draw standing up and really don't care which way the image is orientated. Turn and turn.



Thank you Nathan for the camera work.

Edit - I think I'll combine all of my updates into one post to save time and energy. I really want to work on the sword, but the ring around Magik's legs is more important. However, there is one problematical part - the hands. I am not great a drawing hands and if I botch it, I'm starting over.

It seems ok. I find hands and feet to be the hardest part and in this image, that are is swinging across her front. A mistake here is unfixable. I  think I handled it well.

Before I start with the teleportation ring, let me give some background as to how I did this. I took a pyrex bowl lid and held it over the drawing and traced the outline. This gives the disc a 3 dimensional shape. Sort of cheating, but an interesting cheat.

Since the lid had depth and a rim, I could see the drawing distort through those edges. I actually wanted to do something different with the disc. The first thing that came to mind was water, but then I had a different idea.

What I want to do is combine some of the aspects of water, like refraction. But I also wanted to have a distortion of the disc to perhaps eat up some of the background. I thought that the light lines of an accresion disc would do nicely. I already have the refraction lines drawn, those are the horizontal marks in the disc. This would be her legs shifted left and right in alternating bands.

Next will come the halo. The image below is of a black hole's disc, and you can see the back edge extend "upwards". It's not actually "upwards" of anything. As the light passes around the edge of the black hole, the shortest path kisses the edge of that sphere, revealing more of the disc than could otherwise be seen. I didn't draw it like this, but I am hoping to copy some of the effect to lighten the background.