World Building

I started drawing some continents and I wanted to include some concepts of continental drift in the design of the continents of the world. These are not strict continental drift ideas just some of the more simple concepts, for example the contents were originally together as a single Pangea continent and later drifted a part and rotated. Here is my first drawing:

In this drawing I first used a blue colored pencil to rough in some random shapes. I then selected contours from the sketch to form approximate outlines for the continents. I made them so the fit together like a puzzle, but not too closely. I added mountain ranges, hills, bodies of water and major rivers, and directions of rotation and movement for the continents. Note that plate tectonics would have the different plate either moving apart or together and there would be plates for the oceans as well. I did not get that sophisticated for this set of drawings.

The first continent I drew was from the bottom right in the above world map. This one has been rotated clockwise. The bottom of it should reach the southern polar region, and the top the tropics. I intended that the drawing should not match the upper sketch exactly. This is supposed to be the continent after millions of years of drift. I also put in some impact craters from meteorites since this planet is in a system with relatively frequent meteor impact.

I thought I should do the land masses from largest to smallest so the next one was the continent in the upper left. Rotated and redrawn. I also decided to add some glacial modification to the upper regions by adding some hills and lakes.

The next continent, have not gotten too far with this one yet. I still have the blue lines on this one which I will go over and erase after I trace over it with black marker.

Next is the smallest continent.

Finally is the first continent with additional detail and colored with colored pencils.

I added tropical jungle regions in the north near the equator, deciduous forest regions near the rivers and coniferous forests near the mountains. There is a desert in the upper center and some broken lands at the bottom center.

I used GIMP to combine these into a single world map:

I next selected this map because I thought the narrow waist might prove an interesting area like the panama canal. I figured this would be an important trade route with some large ports. I first labeled some typical creatures or themes that might be found in these areas such as fey, seelie and unseelie, nordic, mythic, etc.

Next I selected an area near the center where I could start things out. I selected this region in GIMP and increased the brightness so there was only a faint outline when I printed the page. 

I did not want to start out in the big city, the large ports. I added a scale for the map and started converting each mountain into a large mountain. After looking up some actual sizes of things and thinking about what distance I would need to go from arctic to tropical at least 2000 miles I discovered that each mountain would more likely represent an entire mountain range. Each single tree should represent an entire forest. I decided to use this for a scratch paper. I added some size scales and some approximate travel times in days.

I added more detail on the creatures. Instead of goblins, I now have the Goblin Hills with the three main types of goblins. I started coming up with names for things. I decided to combine two different languages to come up with the names. The noun is based off of Romance languages and the adjective is based off of Nordic languages, adjective following the noun. I then modify the names to make them sound better. For example Port is Puerto changed to Parto. East is Ost. So East Port is Partoost which I changed to Partus. The Port of Partus. Parto vest becomes Partovest. The inland sea is Lande Mare or Landemer.

The sea comes in pretty far at this point so I thought there would be some sort of canyon or rift at its furthest point. The west seems to have more monsters so it seemed a good site for a sorcerer on the coast and near the forest.

The river forms a marshland before it flows into the sea. In ancient times this would have been a city but now it is a ruins inhabited by frog folk and undead.

This one is now redrawn with some creatures added and some names. The little kingdom is Regnolitt which could become Renolit in simplified form. I started adding some roads, towns, and bridges. The lake is good fishing so there is a town on the lake. They have to get the fish to market in Partus so there must be a road connecting them. Renolit sends goods down the river but they have to go by land to get to Kudafis or Partus in order to avoid the ruins at Rovimyr.

At this point I would be all set to start up an adventure sandbox near Regnolit.

Three Way Dungeon

Lizard Marsh

This was my overview of Lizard Marsh south of Waterdeep.  I made this as a big Sandbox.  "The Bog" is the the local inn where PCs can stay without leaving the marsh.  The main quest was to find out what was going on in the boggard region.

The x's mark the path the adventurer's took.  My PC was Grillup Yellowbelly, a grippli shaman (level 7) who as a backstory had accidentally turned the grippli chieftain into a gibbering mouther.  He was later killed in battle against a group of fire casters due to a poor initiative roll.  My backup character was a lizardfolk fighter named Osikias Sharptooth who had a gamling habit and had a large amount of debt owed to some saurians in the Lizard Marsh.

The boggards were being influenced by a hydrodaemon and so they had greatly increased their territory, driving out the grippli.

The lizard folk could be allied against the boggards.  The dragon was remaining neutral about the whole thing so far but would take action if the boggards grew too powerful.

An unfinished lizardfolk encampment.

The boggard stronghold was heavily fortified using advanced boggards from the Pathfinder Monster Codex.

V = Villagers: 2-3 Boggards 

G = Guard post: 2 Boggard Brutes (CR 3 Fighters) 1 Boggard Hunter (CR 5 Ranger) 

T = Watch tower: 1 Boggard Farcroakers (CR 3), 1 Boggard Swampseers (CR 4 Mystic), 1 Boggard Champion (CR 7 Fighter) 

1. 3 Savage Boggards (CR 3 Barbarians), 2 Scarred ones (CR 6 Barbarians) 
2. 2 Boggard Brutes (CR 3 Fighters), Frog father (CR 5) 
3.  1 Abyssal Warrior CR 8 with 2 Farcroaker guards, 1 Stalker (CR 9 Ranger) with 3 Hunter CR 5 trainees. 
4.  Summoner, this summoner has a ring of Daemon affinity and the ability to cast summon monster VI. There are 3 boggard brutes and 2 boggard champions guarding the summoner. The summoner is attempting to summon more Hydradaemons. 
5.  5 Slurks are hanging out here. 
6.  1 Boggard Prophet (Mystic CR 5) and 3 Boggard Swampseer Acolytes (CR 4) 
7.  Boggard Prison Pit, this is a pit where captives are held, there is a merchant and her family, 3 grippli, and 2 lizard folk. The boggards are sacrificing them as part of the summoning ritual. 
8. Boggard Keep: Boggard Priest King and Boggard Hydradaemon. Hydradaemon summons mud elementals 
9.  Breeding Pond The 
10. bogwiggles are here (CR 1) 
11.  A pair of merrow are guarding this (south) tunnel 
12.  A froghemoth is guarding this (north) tunnel

Ruins of an Ancient Civilization

Planetary ruins

Space Ships and Space Stations

Started playing a Starfinder campaign so I started working on some space ship and space station floor plans.

This one is a two level space ship:

Next is a space station on an asteroid.  I realized later I should have left the labels out.  This one shows a little more of the process.  I start with a blue pencil and make some rough shapes.  Then go in and fill in a bit darker.  Finally go in with a fine tip marker and fill in the final shapes.

The following scans show my process a bit more.

1. Start with a sketch with two different styles on each side of a center line and scan it.

2. Use photo editing software to create a mirror image:

• Create a new drawing large enough to hold the images
• Draw a selection box around the half you want to mirror.
• Copy and paste the selection into the new image as a new layer
• Duplicate layer
• Flip layer horizontally
• Move the two layers next to each other
• Flatten the image, crop the image, and save the image

3. Rough in the walls with blue pencil, creating one layer of the ship on half of the image and another layer of the ship on the other half.  Once the walls are decided fill in with a marker.  Remember this is going to be mirrored.  After the ink is dry erase the blue pencil lines.

4. Scan the new image and mirror the two sides, make the new image large enough to hold both layers of the ship.  Increase the contrast and brightness to eliminate gray levels and lines.  Ready to print.

 

Some more space ships:

New Maps

Some recent maps

Sample Scenarios from Movies and Literature

1. The plans to a dangerous new weapon are stolen and come into the hands of the adventurers.  The plans must be brought to the rebels in order to defeat an oppressing regime.
2. A magical creature shows up in the village and is defeated by the hero.  The village sage sends the hero on a quest to find out why the creature came.
3. A group of adventurers sets out on a quest to restore their homeland from an ancient evil.
4. The adventurer inherits a powerful artifact that must be destroyed by going on a dangerous quest.
5. A former ally has turned evil and set up a fortress.  The adventurers are ordered to find him and defeat him.
6. A hero must infiltrate a group of powerful enemies who are holding a group of hostages.
7. A group of heroes must protect a village from an overwhelming force.
8. The group is sent on a mission to explore a mysterious outpost.  When they do a dangerous monster is released.
9. The adventurers are held as slaves and gladiators and must fight their way to freedom.
10. A researcher creates a group of powerful creatures that escape their cages to terrorize the region.
11. A hero is sent from the future back to the past to try and change the future.
12. The adventurers must protect and save a benevolent monster from those who would do it harm.
13. The adventurers find themselves in a mysterious world of magic and try to find their way home.
14. The adventurers discover that history is being influenced by a group of mysterious beings and set out to find out more about it.
15. A powerful artifact has been damaged and must be restored through a dangerous quest.
16. An evil villain killed the adventurers family.  He was thought to be destroyed but is found to be still alive and regaining power.
17. An innocent creature is prophesied to defeat the evil ruler.  The adventurers must save the innocent.
18. A prophesy predicts that whoever obtains a certain artifact will become the new leader.  A member of the party obtains the artifact.  Those who want power plot against them.
19. A hero goes on a dangerous mission to prove his love.
20. A group of heroes discover that magical monsters are not actually evil and must prove it to the rest of the village.