The Rogues' Gallery

[Lmns Crn]

Welcome to the clubhouse, Randzz. Sodas are in the fridge, and pull up the rope ladder once you're inside.

Please tell us a bit about your homebrew, since you mention it.

[LordVreeg]

Yes.  Welcome to the nuthouse...I mean clubhouse.

[Captain Obvious]

mmm.... open-faced club-house... i mean, welcome

[Etarnon]

Greetings fellow Fantasy Cartographers. I came here after seeing the thread on WOTC.


My Name
I'm Etarnon net-wide and have been since 2003, or so. The name was derived long ago, the name of my 1st AD&D campaign, which started in 1979, that I ceased running two years ago (when it became an NWN1 Server, that's still up).

Map of Land of Etarnon (I no longer run this, but others do, as spinoffs) here:
http://www.adrive.com/public/744d2a7d88726e07d5400d71592b8dd5816a8a2f4fa56093f20ca441f847421e.html
(I did that map in a week with Triumph Studios' Age of Wonder Hex Mapper, and a lot of Photoshop Brush Work)

The original design was based on graph paper sketches that I did in 1979, pretty much.


Things I like
Star Trek Original Series
Twilight Zone
Celtic Music
Clannad
Enya
Campaign Cartography (See gaming systems)
Screenwriting
Foreign Language Study (I speak a few languages)
Astrophysics (My first major in college, before I switched to Eastern Religion)

Real life
I'm retired from the US Military. I'm a Screenwriter, Machinima Director, and Voice Actor.
I work with a few talented people that are Computer Graphics Gurus, and other writers to do a little YouTube sci fi series, that just started this year, under a different director. I've written dialogue for past episodes, and have been asked to write full episode scripts.
I study Zen.
I also study foreign languages by cassette, along with formal classes.
I've had some gaming articles published by some well known, and relatively unknown game companies, under a different name (mostly for sci fi RPGs).

My Creed
"Save all beings from suffering. Diligently work out your own salvation."

Gaming systems you use
Star Trek RPG (Last Unicorn Games, with input from the rest)
Star Wars (d6, now SAGA, like d6 better)
Traveller (Have played them all, I like most of them.)
2e AD&D (+ Birthright = Rocks the House)
3.5 D&D (I like the Worldbuilder Friendly books, the other stuff...meh)
Spycraft 2.0 (Cards Skill resoluton adds a lot)
Alternity (One of the best SFRPGs out there)
Many more I've played and DMed, since 1977...really too many to list, maybe 4 dozen, that I've Refereed over the last 31 years for at least three scenarios.

Gaming Likes
Sci Fi
Space Opera
Horror
Science Fantasy
Post Holocaust
Straight Fantasy
'Mecha
Critical Hit Charts
Maps
Plots & Long Term Story Arcs
Writing Campaign Backstory / History
Characters
Screenwriting style gaming With "Cutscenes, Flashbacks, Plot Arcs" etc. (LUG TREK did a great job on this.)
Low Treasure, Low Magic Campaigns
"Narrative", backed up by "Simulationist" style a la GNS.
Simple Game systems with depth, (Like Classic Traveller)


Gaming Dislikes
Optimization-as-Game.  Stats & Attributes-as-Character.
Combat-as-sole-Drama-Source
Players that bring nothing to the table, other than dice, and problems with authority
Players that haven't played it all, yet trash older systems as "Out of Date"
Players that have no respect for the old school ways, systems, or style.
Systems where it's all about feats, and Class Dip, and Gear for the plusses.
Players (esp on wotc) who claim I as a DM, or my Campaign is broken, without ever having played.
Players who don't want to follow plot hooks, just because "I don't want to be railroaded." or some other BS, like "I did it because I'm CN." "Crack the Scenario."
Players who plot out a PC from Levels 1 to 20, before the game has started.
Players with a fondness for the words "Spiked Chain, Trip, Balanced Classes, and Gish" more or less the whole WOTC forums culture, including flame fests, etc and the rest of the more or less clueless crap.
Powergamers (But I respect their necessity) & Munchkins
Math in Gaming Combat

General gaming history
Started in 1977 with Traveller at age 11. Moved on to Gamma World, And Blue Dragon Cover Basic Set, than AD&D with the big three in 1979.  Way too many to list since then. My game collection is 8 floor to ceiling bookshelves.

Strengths and weaknesses in game design
I'm good at Maps, History, Plots, and Character Backgrounds, in that order.
My weakness is dialogue in game, math in combat, and running stuff "on the fly" or with "Zero prep time"
My wife thinks I'm a much better worldbuilder than DM. She's likely right.

What published settings have you used/do you like?
Birthright
Dragonlance
Greyhawk
Arduin
Early Forgotten Realms
Talislanta
Gamma World
Canon Star Trek, and Star Wars
Dawnforge
Also, too many more to list.

Major influences on your world-building
Old ICE Books like Character Law, Campaign Law - Revolutionary
Digest Group's Grand Survey & Grand Census (For Traveller, but use it with WBG)
Rich Baker's World Builders Guidebook
Birthright-as-Political Wargame / Plot Generator

Campaign I'm Working On
I've just started a new campaign setting called Selmist, that I want to use for writing novels in the near future. I'm building it with:
AD&D 2e
Rich Baker's World Builder's Guidebook
Grand Survey
1e AD&D Wilderness Survival Guide
Iron Crown Enterprises "Castles & Ruins" & "Campaign Law"
Mapped by Campaign Cartographer 3, with help from CC2, City Designer Pro
Initial Terrain generated by Wilbur (A world fractal design program) by Joe Slayton
A few other Fractal Terrains programs by Joe Slayton (I'm on his Wilbur Yahoo Group)
WOTC's "CityScape" and "Races of-" books
Chasosium's ancient, nearly lost to history, "Cities" Book
Plus some of the concepts for the ancient history from FFG's Dawnforge
Cosmos / Planes Building with hints and tips (when I get to the planes design) from my internet buddy Richard T. Balsley who wrote "Cosmos Builder" for Troll Lord Games, about a year ago, when Gary Gygax was still alive.

RE:Selmist
The rough idea at this point is a world much colder than earth, where at the equator, it's subtropical, (i.e. Not too many jungles, if at all) and the poles, and highest mountains are super-arctic. Not sure on seasons, or axial tilt, at this point. At least two moons, maybe two or three dramatically different suns, not in close orbit, but placed such that mechanically they affect the weather, but not to the point of making it like "Helliconia".
A Trinary System, or some long cometary orbit Dark Nemesis that messes things up, periodically. Still deciding.

I'm going to have to rely on freeware calandar Generators , and graphing calculator to rig this up properly, it's gonna get complicated really fast.

I'll be doing weather and temperature charts, which will affect where glaciers are at, and so forth. Mostly from 1e Wilderness Survival Guide Weather charts to start, backed up / Confirmed by Traveller Book 6 Scouts (Revised by L. Guatney), and Grand Survey, then I'll write an app in QuickBasic to gen it up at need, once it is where I like.  

The High Elves (as a sort of land-dwelling Atlantis-flavor / Precursor race) have a big part in the ancient history, some 6,000 years ago.

Not sure yet where humans come in, but it's gonna be a human-centric setting, pretty much, with much of the knowledge of weather and celestial mechanics and what not lost to what passes for modern civilization, (which is kind of a dark ages+ Birthright.)

The ancient days when the world was new were flush with magic, heroes, and epic deeds, such that it was a "Golden Age".

All of that is now long gone, except for legends, history, and the occasional High Elf survivor, who lived through the last days of it, some (at this point) 900 years ago.

All of the above subject to revision / Refinement as I pull these ideas together.

I'm still working on it. I've got a continental map that's 1600 X 1600 Miles, with the major contours (500 foot levels from sea level to 29,000 feet) filled in, working on rivers. I've started the High Elven History (got about three pages so far, and some genealogical charts for the Elven Families, A list of Elven, Dwarven, and Human Family names, (Broken out by Culture) Dragon Names for specific Dragons plus their lineage, and an Index / Encyclopedia of Things, Places, and NPCs. It's slow going, because I want to prep it to eventually become  a softcover Complete Guide, even if i have to self-publish it.  I'm using a database to track all the Encyclopedia entries.

See you all around here. Much friendlier it seems than WOTC, where my ideas and gaming philosophy were not well-received, except by the old schoolers, in general.

I'm hoping it works out here, and hoping to aid others (especially with custom Campaign / Planetary Mapping with CC3, which I've done in the past)

- Etarnon

[Lmns Crn]

Not sure on seasons, or axial tilt, at this point. at least two moons, maybe two dramatically different suns, not in close orbit, but placed such that mechanically they affect the weather, but not to the point of making it like "Helliconia".

I always think it's rad when people start pulling in these kinds of factors. An astronomy class was how I got started with my world, so this brings back memories.

Welcome!

[LordVreeg]

General gaming history
Started in 1977 with Travaller at age 11. Moved on to Gamma World, And Blue Dragon Cover Basic Set, than AD&D with the big three in 1979. Way too many to list since then. My game collection is 8 floor to ceiling bookshelves.

I still have my black box with the three origanal books inside as well.  You are indeed welcome.

[Alexius Carthwall]

Why hello everyone! A friendly chap by the name of Jharviss pointed me in the direction of this site.

I'm a gamer at heart, I've played DND for over 10 years and over the years a large number of computer based RPG's and RTS's as well. Yet the thing I love most about games is being able to design the worlds in which they appear. From warcraft maps, to whole DND Worlds and Cosmologies, World Creation is what I love.

About Me
Most of my time is spent working at an engineering Firm in College Station Texas as a drafter, I love using the 2D and 3D Design software, but I hate my job. When I'm not at work during the day you will usually find me playing roller hockey or frisbee golf. When the sun sets however, I am most likely to be found at home playing/preparing for DND.

I worked for a long time with Jharviss on his original world and campaign setting Aldreia. During which time I penned the name Alexius Carthwall, Cartographer and Explorer by trade. I started a new site for Aldreia that was from the view of Alexius Carthwall,
 Travels Abroad, and Guide to Aldreia, however it was never finished.

Strengths:
- Maps! Let me know if you need any maps created, I love making maps and generally just have trouble coming up with reasons to make more of them.  A few links to some of my maps Le'Resh,  Varsylis,  The Underwater Nation of Araval, and this last one is a fairly lame map, but I was experimenting using flash to make rollovers  The BrokenLands.
- I am a medieval fanatic in the non fantasy world sense. I have books upon books on castles, warfare, daily life, etc, etc, and tend to try and put alot of the "real" life things into my fantasy worlds.
- Past that you'll just have to decide for yourself what my strengths are based on my input around the site :)

Weaknesses:
- >.< My biggest weakness in game design is that if I dont have someone to consistently talk things over with and get feedback on I tend to burn out and slowly lose interest...

Major Published Settings I've Played:
- Forgotten Realms
- Greyhawk
- Dragonlance
Those are the only published settings I've ever really played and even them I haven't played much <_< making my own worlds has been far more interesting :P

Major Influences in my World Building:
- 1100-1500's Medieval Europe
- South American Cultures (Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Inca)
- A mish mash of hundreds of fantasy books I've read over the years

Current Campaign Setting Under Construction:
AFTERWORLD: A world in which the former glories of an age of magic have been demolished by an onslaught of otherworldly creatures and plague. Now much of the world lays in ruins and what few points of light in the darkness still glow, cling together to fend off the overwhelming shadows.


So thats it,I've already looked through a bunch of the site and seen a lot of everyones work and can't wait to get involved :D
~Alexius Carthwall, Cartographer by Trade

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Welcome, welcome, Welcome all ye newbies.  Alexius, what style of map making do you do?

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Welcome to the guild, Alexius.

Nice work on the maps. Have you joined the Cartographer's Guild?

- South American Cultures (Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Inca)

Always nice to see diverse inspirations. Check out sdragon's setting, Xiluh for the CBGs most developed South American (style) setting.

[Alexius Carthwall]

Style? hm.. just kind of depends on the scale of the map and whats on it. I do all of my work in Photoshop. I tried to post some different types in my post above. I tend to try and stay away from the cartoony look, but that just because i haven't done many like that. I'm always up for experimenting though :)

~Alexius Carthwall, Cartographer by Trade

[Randzz]

Welcome to the clubhouse, Randzz. Sodas are in the fridge, and pull up the rope ladder once you're inside.

Please tell us a bit about your homebrew, since you mention it.

I put a small explanation about it in the Salutations thread.  If I can find the PDFs I'll link 'em there.  

[Mock26]

Me:
My name is John, and I'm a gaming dork.  Man, it feels good to get that off of my chest.  Afterall, they say the first step is to admit your addiction.  I think, though, that I don't want to move past that first step.  I'm happy with my addiction and plan on fueling it for years to come!   :D

On the internet I've been Mock26 for over a decade now.  I actually got the name because my girlfriend at the time was Mock25 and it was so "cute" that I took the next number.  (I know.  I know.  Please let us not speak of this again.)


Gaming Systems:
At the moment the only system that I really use is 2nd Edition AD&D.  


Gaming History:
I started gaming with Basic D&D back in 1981, back when I was in the 5th grade.  My first character was a thief with a crossbow and we were playing on Mike's back deck.  Over the years I've tried a lot of different games such as Traveller, Star Frontiers, Star Trek, Gamma World, Boot Hill, Paranoia, Car Wars, historical wargaming, BattleTech, Axis & Allies, Marvel Super Heroes, Middle Earth Role Playing, various GURPS games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Robotech, Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf, Magic: The Gathering, Munchkin, Killer Bunnies, War Machine, BANG!, Apples to Apples, Ticket to Ride, a ton of various video games, and a whole lot of other games that I can't recall.  Except for some of the board and card games BattleTech is the only game that I still play on a regular basis, and I've been playing that since 1986.  (For the most part I primarily play an online version of it called MegaMek (www.mekwars.org)).  Even though I am lucky if my group can meet once every other week I consider myself an avid gamer (I even have a BattleTech tattoo!) and I attend GenCon every year.


Other Hobbies:
Cooking, painting miniatures, hunting, hiking, sky diving, roller blading, golf, paint ball, biking, going to the movies, travelling, reading, and photography.  In addition, I love great food!  I consider myself to be an avid foodie.  While I love going out for a really great dinner with a nice bottle of wine I also live a really good hot dog or hamburger, and I am also a bit of a hot dog connoisseur.  (If you live in the Chicago area or are visiting here you must check out www.hotdougs.com!)  I also love a great beer or a great scotch.  Basically, if you can eat it or drink it I will try it, and if it is really good I'll love it!


Published Settings:
Pretty much just the Forgotten Realms.  I like that it is a very well-thought out and detailed gaming world that is easily adaptable to any campaign.  My campaign takes place down in the Vilhon Reach area.  I have added about 50 cities into the region and written up 1-page descriptions of each city (along the lines of those listed in the Forgotten Realms Adventures book).


World Building:
I'm still a novice at this.  I picked up Campaign Cartographer 2 years ago and played around with it a little bit but didn't really have the time to fully explore it.  I recently updated to CC3 and have picked more than a few of ProFantasy's products, including Fract Terrains.  At the moment I am slowly working on three projects.  Two of them are very similar and are the creation of two continents for use in gaming.  One is one of the Terra Incognita continents of the Forgotten Realms setting and the other is one I'm designing from scratch.  Both of them are going to be quite similar to each other in regards to kingdoms and such.  The Forgotten Realms one is for my campaign, but I have a very tiny dream of someday publishing the other continent.  The third project is an entire world called (at the moment) Icen.

Icen is a world with a lot of thermal activity at the poles and a massive continent that spans the entire planet around the equator, except for one channel that is about 150 miles wide.  These mountains are massive and soaring and rise to heights that are far in excess of our own Himilayans.  The mountains are also covered by a massive glacier.  It is well nigh impossible to cross the glacier and the mountains without the aid of magic.  Once every 5-10 years, though, there is a shift in thermal currents and a tunnel melts beneath the glacier where it crosses the channel.  Then, for about 4-6 months there is a flurry of travel and trade between the two halves of the world.  It is not uncommon for wayward ships to be stranded on one side or to be caught in the middle when the currents shift yet again and the channel freezes over.  The two halves of the world are for all intents and purposes cut off from each other.  I haven't worked out exactly what these differences are, but there will definitely be some unique monsters on each half as well as natural evolutionary divergences of other species.  I am still at the early design stages and am still working on the terrain and haven't even fleshed out any kingdoms or even added any cities.  The only detail that I have worked out is a hidden valley beneath one section of the glacier.  Thermal vents (and a bit of magic) have kept this valley hidden beneath the glacier and allowed life to grow here.  It started out as a community of mages looking for an isolated place to study their craft and has since grwon to a small kingdom.


Major Design Influences:
Really none other than bits and pieces of geology that I've picked up from watching various documentaries my entire life and from various other sources (such as The Atlas of Middle Earth and the Atlas of the Forgotten Realms, both by Karen Wynn Fonstad).  One other influence is the maple tree in front of the house I grew up in.  The base of the tree had some really cool looking nooks and crannies from the roots and as I kid I used to love playing with my plastic army men around that tree and the roots made for a really great 3-dimensional battle field that fueled my imagination.  I used to spend hours imagining it was a world map and my armies were advancing and defeating the evil soldiers who had taken over the world.


Other Influences:
My dad, Star Trek, by brother, Gary Gygax, and J.R.R. Tolkien.  My dad introduced me to Star Trek as a kid when we used to watch it every Saturday night at 6 pm.  Without that introduction I probably wouldn't be a huge fan of sci-fi and fantasy and I probably wouldn't be a gamer.  My brother was introduced to D&D by a friend and my brother introduced it to me.  Gary Gygax was then a natural big influence because of the game that is associated so closely with his name.  It was only natural that after I started playing D&D that I would discover Tolkien, and his writings were my introduction to fantasy literature.  I love his skill inn the depth that he gave his worlds, something that I find lacking in so many fantasy writers.


Well, that's me in a nutshell, though not a complete nutshell or a full one, but definitely a nut.  

[Neubert]

Welcome Mock26!
I really like what you posted about your world Icen. Will you only be writing about Icen or all three of your projects on here?

[Mock26]

Welcome Mock26!
I really like what you posted about your world Icen. Will you only be writing about Icen or all three of your projects on here?

Thanks for the welcome!  I look forward to "mocking" everyone here!   :D

As they get more detailed I'd be glad to write about all of them.  With the two continents my utlimate goal is to write them up along the same format used by TSR back when they did their "Tour of the Realms" in one player's/DM's guidebook that came with the Forgotten Realms boxed set.  

But, I need to read through the forums a bit more to get a better idea of what people are writing about!  In the mean time, though, here are some links to images of all three of my projects.

Icen:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Mock26/ProFantasy/IcenG.jpg

Lands of Dagosti:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Mock26/ProFantasy/LandsofDagosti2.jpg

Tharis:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Mock26/ProFantasy/Tharis.jpg

Tharis is the Forgotten Realms map.  Please bear in mind that at this time these are just early stage renderings.  Also, there was a fair amount of quality degridation when the maps were saves as JPEG's.


Take care and have a great day....



ciao,
john.

[Randzz]

Welcome to the clubhouse, Randzz. Sodas are in the fridge, and pull up the rope ladder once you're inside.

Please tell us a bit about your homebrew, since you mention it.

I put a small explanation about it in the Salutations thread.  If I can find the PDFs I'll link 'em there.  

The PDFs are now linked in the Salutations thread.  Enjoy the reads & lemme know what you think. One more thing, (more for Spirit Hawkfellow if he reads this) I had started on a 3rd PDF when my PC decided to drop dead & considering what my focus is atm it may be quite awhile before I get back to it.  

BTW, I echo what the other guy wrote: welcome Mock26