Paladin: Warriors of Charlemagne Kickstarter is live!

Heya folks,

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up, Paladin: Warriors of Charlemagne Kickstarter went live yesterday and was funded 2 1/2 hours after it started!  More after the break!

New Art - Nerovens de Wylye, Breton Knight

Heya folks,

Here's my latest piece!  This is Nerovens de Wylye, Breton Knight and godless pagan.  The pose is based off a photograph that I found online.  His heraldry was actually designed in a program called Coat of Arms Design Studio, the full program is available for download for a few bucks but they also have a web based version that is free, its pretty cool so go check it out!  Heraldographer

This piece was also drawn on bristol board with pen and ink and then colored in Photoshop, here are a few of the steps:

Pencil block in.

Pencil refinement.

First pass with the pen and ink.

Shading done and ready for scan!

I also made a character sheet for him in Pendragon, check it out below!

New Art - Cyfan y Arth, Breton Knight

Heya folks,

Here's a new piece of art from me this week!  This is Cynfan y Arth (the Bear), Breton Knight and all around badass.  I actually made this piece to accompany a character I made for the Pendragon RPG, I'll post his character sheet below.

The pose is based on an Angus McBride illustration of a Breton Knight.  I changed the shield, sword, face, added a beard and dagger.  It was done in pen and ink on Bristol board and then scanned into Photoshop and colored.  I struggled with the color profile, once I was done I tried to save it but the colors were wayyyyy off.  I had to go back and change the color profile for my monitor to get things to gel.

More after the break!

Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Nassr (Pendragon Character)

I had so much fun the other day creating a new character for Pendragon RPG I decided to give it another go. Here is Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Nassr, Aristocrat and Knight-Wanderer from the land of Araby. I wanted to make a continental character, one that was outside of the standard Lorges Knight. The process was quite easy, options for creating continental characters in the Book of Knights and Ladies are a little more restricted. Most of the charts dealing with the characters father and his class go out the window so the process is a little quicker.  

Some of the changes from the standard British Knight are that he is of the Saracen religion which holds different personality traits in high regard. He is several years older than my previous character, making him a little more experienced. He does not have a manor or hold land as he has recently arrived in Lorges and is son number four, which is why he is out wandering the world and not at home tending to his fathers lands. Nassr is wielding a scimitar and a compound bow, which is considered "unknightly" by the local British knights. He wears light chain-mail and has a round shield and is skilled in the use of Medicine which covers both First Aid (a knightly skill) and Chirurgery (a non-knightly skill).  His mount is a Barbary Charger, swifter than the standard Chargers ridden by the local knights.

Overall I really like this character, he was fun to make and offers a chance to play and outsider that is considered exotic and strange.  Fun stuff!

Cynfan y Arth (Pendragon Character)

Say hello to Cynfan y Arth, he's a character I recently rolled up for Pendragon RPG. I've been pulling some of my old games down off the shelf and rolling up new toons for the heck of it. Cynfan is a Cymric Knight who was recently knighted and took over his father's manor, Burcome. He is known as "y Arth" (the Bear) due to his barrel chest and huge beard.  

The character sheet I used is from a newly available PDF called the Book of Records, available from http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/ for around four dollars. You can type right into it and then save your file, it's very handy. It also auto calculates the Glory you gain as well, good stuff all around! 

The shield was created in a little program called Coat of Arms Design Studio, its available here; http://inkwellideas.com/coat_of_arms/  I believe it cost around 20 bucks, its a tad bit expensive and a bit finicky but overall it's a very nice tool for creating shield designs. You can add creatures or items, ordinaries (pale, scarpe, bend, quarter sinister, etc) or divisions (per chevron, bendy sinister, etc).  Each of these many options can be adjusted for color and location. To finish it up you can add a scroll (like the one at the bottom of the shield above) or mantling/helms at the top.  

Here's the back of the character sheet:

Overall I really like the look and function of this character sheet.  Its got a nice design and the ability to type right into the .pdf with only Acrobat Reader is really great.  Now I just need to find a game to join!

Games I Love - Pendragon

Today I wanted to post about one of my favorite role playing games, Pendragon.  This is a game I have been following since the fourth edition in the mid 1990's.  Its a game of chivalry and romance, knights and ladies and the tales of King Arthur and his companions.

This is a game created out of a great love of the source material.  Greg Stafford has spent years perfecting the game and has lavishly researched the material.  The current version is 5.1 which was recently updated, I have not had a look at it yet but I plan to purchase a print on demand version off Drivethroughrpg.com, but a bit more on that later.