An Update From The Wilds

Since I've been working on other writing projects I thought I'd share an excerpt from my play-by-mail campaign, a Labyrinth Lord game I'm running for nine of my friends. This is two rounds of action from the group's current encounter. They're... having some difficulty.

Not Dead Yet

It's been quiet here, but never fear, the blog is not dead. In November, having found myself unprepared to take on NaNoWriMo, I decided I needed to focus on a novel project that's been bouncing around in the back of my head. That plus the holidays and a PbP game have been sucking down quite a bit of time. I'll be back in another 65k words or so.

Friday Map - Inkscape

I've been messing around with Inkscape as a mapping tool, and ended up with this as a result this morning. I already have a blank image set up with the grid lines drawn into it, so this didn't take long. I started with the polygon/star tool, and set the rounded and random fields to .100 and .200 respectively. Then I drew a bunch of random polygons, randomly changing the number of corners to values between 3 and 8 as I went. Once I had a bunch of polygons I dragged them around to something that looked good, and drew a few connecting shapes with the freehand line tool to create closed paths. I tweaked the paths using the node tool and simplifying the ones I drew by hand (Path/Simplify).

Once I had something that looked good, I used Path/Union and Path/Difference to turn the collected shapes into a single path. I duplicated the path and applied Path/Outset a few times, giving me an interior path (the caves) and an exterior path (the shading). I applied Filters/Distort/Pixel smear to the caves, and Filters/Scatter/Air spray to the shading. Tweaked down fill alpha a bit and played with colors a little, then exported to png. After a little cropping with Gimp, here it is:

The Wilds - They're Off

After some starts and stops, the gang in my play by email game is on the road, headed to the Cold Caves to see what's behind the recent attacks on the surrounding farmsteads and settlements. The tea and cakes were delicious. As usual I'll be using TiddlyWiki to manage the game, and writing two main turns a week. We've found this pace gives everyone a chance to participate, including the folks with heavy work schedules.

It's not Friday, and not Five Minutes, Either

This is a quick map I did using Inkscape and GIMP. It's one I'll be using in my play-by-post Labyrinth Lord game, and represents the player's idea of the place they're going to check out. As noted in the Announcement, there are possibly kobolds here.

• Visit the game index.

The Announcement

In game announcement that is. I'm about to kick off my Labyrinth Lord play-by mail game, and here's the announcement I sent out to the players:

In the name of Thambar the Prudent, Lord of Hembard Wilds, Defender of Highcliff Keep, Recognized Lord of the Peerage of the Kingdom of Jal, Meisterburger of Auslaug, Hustwood, and Brekkevale, TAKE HEED: The following ANNOUNCEMENT has been announced:

Better Late Than Never

Oops, almost forgot to do a five minute map!

Partially Worked Caverns

Extra-fine roller-ball on  3"x3" PostIt.