I realize that my last post was a bit lacking since I didn't have any kind of visual reference to illustrate how astounding Rob Lazzaretti's maps are. This is what I'm talking about:
http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/tags/maps
Start at the bottom of the page and go up to get to the goodies.
I love how simple and colorful the maps are without making things appear too cartoony. I want my adventures to take place in medieval/fantasy towns and villages, not the Disney theme park version of a medieval/fantasy town or village. I like the ambiance of dwarves and halflings wandering about with brigands and sell swords, not Snow White and Mickey glad handing 5 year olds.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
A good week to be a geek
Can you believe it? Another post within a week of the last one? I'm a little surprised my own self. Guess I got a bit used to splashing something only every other month or so. Anyway, just thought I'd share another of my faves and brag about the new awesomes I got (yes, the awesomes mentioned in my last post).
A week ago I spent a doosie of a hangover at the local "game and geek", it's a brick and mortar hobby shop known by the name of Hastur Games and Comics. Except for the occasional rattle of dice from one of their many tables and a raucous burst of laughter from geeks enjoying their sanctuary, it was rather quiet and pleasant. I was even surprised and impressed to see females in the store - I guess geekdom knows no gender bias. And why should it, really? Anywho, I grabbed a pile of 5 or 6 Pathfinder and D&D books to flip through at a corner table and stumbled across some Pathfinder Map Folios on the book rack. I consider myself a bit of a wordsmith, but I honestly cannot convey how spectacular these maps are!
I was gaping at the artwork/cartography of Rob Lazaretti just on the plastic wrapped covers. I swore to myself that I would return Friday when I got paid. Being a huge map geek I didn't even wait until I got off work Friday evening - I went over on my lunch and nabbed them! It's a good thing too, the nice cashier (another female) said they'd just got them in the previous Friday and she was amazed they'd lasted as long on the shelf as they had. I of course opened them at work and showed them off to another writer/geek friend of mine. I think I got a few concerned glances when I oohed and aahed at what must have appeared to be a multi-panel centerfold to folks who couldn't see anything other than the glossy back of a poster. I think they were especially surprised when my bud Megan came down and agreed at their amazingness and laughed stating she'd never seen me so happy and excited.
I looked on Amazon and Google to see what else might be out there along the same lines and I'm very excited to find several other map folios by the same artist(s) in the same unlabeled style so I have much more freedom with them for my own uses. In fact, I ordered another one today.
Anyway, blah blah mappity blah - that turned out to be much longer than I intended, but I seriously cannot shut up about these new funzies!
And to finish things off, here's another fav link:
http://www.rdinn.com
This Red Dragon Inn site is great for just about everything! I love that people take the time to post/keep up resources like this! Many thanks to all y'all.
I mostly use the Armoury's name generators and Sal's Outfitters. I just love how the names sound, especially the dwarf names, and the fact that you can use "Realistic" or "Fantasy" for both given and surnames. The elf names sound elfish without being too touch-twistingly Tolkien. Sal's Outfitters is great for having an established base for gear, tack, weapons, etc. Having a dice roller is great too - especially for those days that you might need to generate a random roll, or several, without wanting the thunderous racket exacerbating your hangover :) To drop a Matrim Cauthon reference on you, sometimes I hate those bloody dice rattling in my head.
A week ago I spent a doosie of a hangover at the local "game and geek", it's a brick and mortar hobby shop known by the name of Hastur Games and Comics. Except for the occasional rattle of dice from one of their many tables and a raucous burst of laughter from geeks enjoying their sanctuary, it was rather quiet and pleasant. I was even surprised and impressed to see females in the store - I guess geekdom knows no gender bias. And why should it, really? Anywho, I grabbed a pile of 5 or 6 Pathfinder and D&D books to flip through at a corner table and stumbled across some Pathfinder Map Folios on the book rack. I consider myself a bit of a wordsmith, but I honestly cannot convey how spectacular these maps are!
I was gaping at the artwork/cartography of Rob Lazaretti just on the plastic wrapped covers. I swore to myself that I would return Friday when I got paid. Being a huge map geek I didn't even wait until I got off work Friday evening - I went over on my lunch and nabbed them! It's a good thing too, the nice cashier (another female) said they'd just got them in the previous Friday and she was amazed they'd lasted as long on the shelf as they had. I of course opened them at work and showed them off to another writer/geek friend of mine. I think I got a few concerned glances when I oohed and aahed at what must have appeared to be a multi-panel centerfold to folks who couldn't see anything other than the glossy back of a poster. I think they were especially surprised when my bud Megan came down and agreed at their amazingness and laughed stating she'd never seen me so happy and excited.
I looked on Amazon and Google to see what else might be out there along the same lines and I'm very excited to find several other map folios by the same artist(s) in the same unlabeled style so I have much more freedom with them for my own uses. In fact, I ordered another one today.
Anyway, blah blah mappity blah - that turned out to be much longer than I intended, but I seriously cannot shut up about these new funzies!
And to finish things off, here's another fav link:
http://www.rdinn.com
This Red Dragon Inn site is great for just about everything! I love that people take the time to post/keep up resources like this! Many thanks to all y'all.
I mostly use the Armoury's name generators and Sal's Outfitters. I just love how the names sound, especially the dwarf names, and the fact that you can use "Realistic" or "Fantasy" for both given and surnames. The elf names sound elfish without being too touch-twistingly Tolkien. Sal's Outfitters is great for having an established base for gear, tack, weapons, etc. Having a dice roller is great too - especially for those days that you might need to generate a random roll, or several, without wanting the thunderous racket exacerbating your hangover :) To drop a Matrim Cauthon reference on you, sometimes I hate those bloody dice rattling in my head.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Oldies, but goodies
I really feel I owe it to the blogosphere (blogger-verse?) to be more on top of posting. It's not like I have a shortage of ideas for content or a limited cache of resources. But it does make me feel a lot better to realize that several other bloggers also get a bit behind....then it makes me feel a lot worse because I realize it's because they're actually producing the content that goes in their posts.
As such I shall spoil y'all with these 2 (that's right, count'em, 2!) links to more of the awesomes from my favs list:
http://conceptships.blogspot.com/
This is one I came across forever ago while browsing http://conceptart.org/. All in all a fantastic site with a horde of remarkable talent, but I always get lost while cruising. Or I'll find a really awe inspiring piece (like ALL of them!) and it will get stuck in my brain, but I can't remember which insanely good artist did what, how, where, etc. It's maddening!
http://www.planetside.co.uk/content/view/51/81/
This is another treasure that I found whilst obsessed with landscapes as keys to inspiration. Can you believe these aren't actual places? They make for incredible wallpapers.
Maybe this will keep us all satiated for a while since my computer will not be available from approximately 10/18 - 11/2. If I can find it buried within my tattered soul maybe I'll get something else up in the next week or so. I'm getting some new toys/marvels tomorrow night, but there's a good chance they'll distract me and come 10/19 I'll think to myself "Damn and blast! Why didn't I post while I could and save the new goodies for 'no compie' time?!"
As such I shall spoil y'all with these 2 (that's right, count'em, 2!) links to more of the awesomes from my favs list:
http://conceptships.blogspot.com/
This is one I came across forever ago while browsing http://conceptart.org/. All in all a fantastic site with a horde of remarkable talent, but I always get lost while cruising. Or I'll find a really awe inspiring piece (like ALL of them!) and it will get stuck in my brain, but I can't remember which insanely good artist did what, how, where, etc. It's maddening!
http://www.planetside.co.uk/content/view/51/81/
This is another treasure that I found whilst obsessed with landscapes as keys to inspiration. Can you believe these aren't actual places? They make for incredible wallpapers.
Maybe this will keep us all satiated for a while since my computer will not be available from approximately 10/18 - 11/2. If I can find it buried within my tattered soul maybe I'll get something else up in the next week or so. I'm getting some new toys/marvels tomorrow night, but there's a good chance they'll distract me and come 10/19 I'll think to myself "Damn and blast! Why didn't I post while I could and save the new goodies for 'no compie' time?!"
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