The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: Steerpike

Congratulations on the art as always;
What is the story behind the integrated skulls; were they hauled in later, are they made of stone? What about decomposition?

So those of you who've spent any time talking to me about video games have probably heard me extol the virtues of the Souls series, which has become a bit of a phenomenon (through Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, a board game, and other media) and created a term "Souls-like" for a slew of games inspired by their "difficult" playstyle and storytelling strategy. (e.g. Salt and Sancutary, Nioh, Lords of the Fallen). As of late I've also seen various threads and blog posts about running games set the Souls universe, along with various attempts to adapt the combat, NPCs, and general gameplay to the system (or create a new one).

Although it lacks some of the combat features that are iconic in Dark Souls (e.g. the bleed mechanic), I find this ruleset https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2bP0GsXwg9xZnNIUjBYemVzLU0 makes a fairly complete attempt to emulate the experience. Has anyone out there played in a Dark Souls-inspired game, or wanted to? If you did, what'd you use? What do you think of these rules?

Alright, well I just graduated with a GA Bachelors of Graphic Design on Monday. Somehow that doesn't feel as big a deal as I was hoping it would be.

Quote from: Kalos Mer
Well blow me down, I can't believe this place still exists!  I was just searching for some old Tasothilos-related material on a google search and up popped a link to the CBG.  I'm absolutely delighted.

I was I believe member #3 or #4 back in 2006 but vanished in late 2007.  Undergrad was a rough time for me, and I started and abandoned far for projects than I care to remember.  (And ugh looking back at some of my posts from that era... I was more than a bit of a know-it-all prat.)

In the past 10 years, I've more or less given up gaming - I was for much of my 20s a serial starter of games that fizzled after two sessions, and finally figured out it was because although system design was interesting to me, and setting design likewise, "playing" was as much a chore as a pleasure.  But I still casually pick away at Tasothilos, the setting which you can find way-way-way back on the board here, and I've lately been toying with the idea of a novel.

In the personal sphere, I'm getting married in a month, and four years deep in a doctoral program in late antique Christianity  (prospectus is being written.)  Not exactly where I saw myself being when last I posted here in (eek!) 2007, but it's been good.

Welcome back (you might remember be as WitchHunt, MadApe19, or some variation of Troll). We've slowed down quite a bit since you were last here (I think peak activity was sometime around 2010), but there are still some people kicking around. Congratulations on the marriage! You're definitely not the only one whose gaming activity has dropped off over time - lots of us are doing graduate work and/or just have been absorbed by other parts of life. You may find that one of the biggest changes is that there's a whole lot more discussion of systems other than D&D here compared to what it used to be.

Well blow me down, I can't believe this place still exists!  I was just searching for some old Tasothilos-related material on a google search and up popped a link to the CBG.  I'm absolutely delighted.

I was I believe member #3 or #4 back in 2006 but vanished in late 2007.  Undergrad was a rough time for me, and I started and abandoned far for projects than I care to remember.  (And ugh looking back at some of my posts from that era... I was more than a bit of a know-it-all prat.)

In the past 10 years, I've more or less given up gaming - I was for much of my 20s a serial starter of games that fizzled after two sessions, and finally figured out it was because although system design was interesting to me, and setting design likewise, "playing" was as much a chore as a pleasure.  But I still casually pick away at Tasothilos, the setting which you can find way-way-way back on the board here, and I've lately been toying with the idea of a novel.

In the personal sphere, I'm getting married in a month, and four years deep in a doctoral program in late antique Christianity  (prospectus is being written.)  Not exactly where I saw myself being when last I posted here in (eek!) 2007, but it's been good.

It has been a while...but Steerpike, any chance you could please post Rose of Vellum's edited part? I assume the other parts would take far more work, but the part Rose edited presumably is in ready to go format?

Genial Jack is a setting unto himself. Good work as always!

Do you mean the cityscapes I've posted here, or the big map?

The big map was hundreds of pieces of paper, just a ludicrous amount. The cityscapes here usually took 1-3 pages.

In terms of direct artistic influences, 17th-18th century maps, the art of Sean Murray, Giovanni Piranesi, Gustave Dore, Ian Miller, and the videogames Dishonored 1& 2 would all rank high, along with old isometric CRPGs like Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 2.

Thanks, I began working on it. I have a couple of questions though.

#1. Do you draw your buildings piece by piece on a large scale, or do you draw everything on a piece of paper?

#2. What artist inspired the way you draw buildings?