Tile of the Week #86

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry, a simple little passage with a side branch and a small pool of water.

Player Version

GM Version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click/save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.

The Wilds - Camped

Start Date: March 28, dawn
Start Status: No damn good in the mud
Start Location: The Wilds, south of the Maze

The Turn

The clouds on the horizon were a sign. Overnight the weather turns miserable. Gusty wind brings rain, thunder and lightning, turning dawn into a gray and dismal affair. Ava managed to do a quick survey of the surrounding woods before the weather got too bad and tells Mordikarr she did not see anything threatening nearby. The party spends the morning moving camp to their chosen site, the small hill with a spring in a shallow cave near the base. Once there, the thoroughly soaked scouts survey the immediate area while the others attempt to create a reasonably dry and safe campsite. The worst of the wet drains away from the site, so the mud is only a few inches deep atop the hill.

GRAV - A First Look

GRAV, by BitMonster, is a science fiction shooter/sandbox with procedural planets, dungeons, building, crafting and more. It's currently available as an early access title on Steam. I was bored Sunday night, so I decided to check it out. Before we begin, you should take a look at the game's original trailer, right here.

Yes, dancing is a thing, we'll get to that.

Wilds - Circling the Maze

The wooded hills and a nearby stream lead the party to believe that they'll find a good campsite soon. After some debate about direction and distance, the group agrees to explore the current area and to extend their search south a ways to eliminate any possibility of an extant threat to the site they choose.

Tile of the Week #85

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry. This is a cavern tunnel with multiple side passages and a few scattered boulders and stones obstructing the way. There's a small elevation change in the passage too.

Player Version

GM Version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.

After you're done checking out the map above, you may want to take a peek at the new Mega Tile Big Deal #1. It contains the first 20 quadruple-sized geomorphs I've done for Dungeons in Blue.

Wilds - Cloudy, with a Chance of Frog Legs

Camping in a swamp, in the pouring rain. What could be finer?

The Wilds - Walkin' in the Rain

The party continues their circumnavigation of Blackpool Maze, both to get the lay of the land and to find a good site for the mules and new guards. Wouldn't do to lose another set so soon.

Early Impression: Skyforge

Skyforge is a new action/RPG/MMO hybrid game from the same development team that created Allods, a traditional WoW-style MMO. I played a fair bit of Allods, so I was interested in the team's Skyforge effort. It went open beta this week, and I jumped in with a couple friends. First impressions follow.

Tile of the Week #84

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry. I decided to do a few random caverns, so this is the first of four similar, quarter-sized tiles.

Player Version

GM Version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.

The Wilds - Back to Blackpool. Again.

The party has an easy go of it for the first few days, but as they reach Needle Spire, that changes a bit. Trouble at the Spire? Trouble with the hirelings?

The Wilds - Out and Aboot

Finally! We're back on the road and badder than ever! It took a while to get the group organized and get past the winter doldrums (which were actually work and summer vacation related). Now we're moving! We're also on the 240th turn of this game. That's... a LOT of turns.

Tile of the Week #83

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry. I'm still pet/house sitting so this was done very quickly, 20 minutes start to finish. A nicely fortified hallway/deathtrap. I think it'll be a nice addition to Blackpool Maze.

Player Version

GM Version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.

The Wilds - Mostly OOC

This is just a brief interim turn to cover some administrative stuff. The party has their plan worked out, but there are still some supply issues to finalize. Next week should see a return to the usual bi-weekly wilderness and dungeon crawling.

The Wilds - Spring Fever

Well, the around-town activities have mostly wrapped up, real-life time sinks are shrinking, and the party is getting ready for their next expedition. There are still details to work out, but... yay, another turn!

Tile of the Week #82

Here is today's Tileof the Week entry. I'm house- and pet-sitting for my sister this week, and my backlog of maps is empty, so I decided to do a very fast maze-like map to cover this week's entry. I blitzed through this in about 15 minutes.

Tile 82 - Player's version

Tile 82 - GM's version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.

Tile of the Week # 81

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry. I did up a few transition tiles with stairs/shafts up and down. This is the last tile in this series. It shows a cave/passage intersection with a nearby staircase.

Player Tile

GM Tile

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.

Tile of the Week # 80

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry. I did up a few transition tiles with stairs/shafts up and down. This is the third of four such tiles and features a couple of shafts leading up/down in a natural cave system.

Player Tile

GM Tile

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.

The Wilds - What's Up?

Despite the lack of posts, The Wilds is still moving, but things are barely moving at the moment. We're dealing with some party logistics and some screwy schedules. In the game, it's late December, and the party has decided they're going to spend the winter in town. Here's a quick recap of the last few so-called turns, plus a short history lesson.

Cold Shades

These are the creatures the party in my Labyrinth Lord PBEM game, The Wilds, ran into a few turns back and then again a few turns later. I thought I'd spec them out, LL-style and share. They're similar to wraiths but colder.

Warning: players in my Wilds game keep out!

The Wilds - Some Meta

Since the party is dealing with logistics, levels and such...

When this game started, it was going to be a dungeon-crawl game, and because I run it via email, the pace is slooow. I didn't do a lot of prep for the game before I started it up because I wasn't sure how long it was going to last. I needed a map, because I always need a map. I threw together the current overland map of Hembard Wilds as the area west with minimal thought.

That was 2 1/2 years ago.

Recently, in part because the party has become more interested in town/civilization things, I've been doing some research/work on figuring out exactly how big the place is and how many people live there. Guided by some material gleaned from ACKS discussions and an excellent article on medieval demographics as they relate to gaming...

Behold! The Wilds, realm 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.

• Total area: 6000 square miles, about 3.8 million acres (Connecticut-sized).
• Farmed acreage: 238,000
• Rural population: 81,000
• Urban population: 7500
• Total population: 88,500 (Connecticut: about 3.5 million)
• Average population per square mile: 19
• Overall size of economy: 2.36 million GP annually

Households:

• Tenant Farmers: 11,000
• Freeholds: 1400
• Manors: 59 (essentially super-sized freeholds)
• Wilders: 1000 (trappers, hunters, woodcutters, etc.)

Map-wise, the area claimed by Thambar is the exposed portion from just west of New Town to Highcliff Keep and Auslaug in the east. Now I have a hex by hex breakdown of population to work with and some grasp of the local economy. Doing actual land-area calculations is a bit of an eye-opener. I can see that:

• Thambar has a huge amount of land available, probably too much to be held effectively. I need more second tier nobles around.
• The area is very thinly populated. Overall, about 6% of the land is in use. That makes some sense based on the map and local history. Quite a bit of it is forested/semi-wild land and the inhabitants are doing frontier clear-cut farming. Auslaug, the oldest town, and Highcliff, the main castle, were both founded about 100 years ago. Hustwood and Brekkevale are 80-90 years old. All in all, it's a recently settled area.

One upshot of all this is that the main towns probably have more businesses than I'd thought, and I'll be adding some stuff to the main towns during the course of play going forward. Next time I set up a sandbox I'll definitely be paying more attention to the local economy and demographics before I start.

• Go to game index

Tile of the Week #79

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry. I did up a few transition tiles with stairs/shafts up and down. This is the second in the series, an intersection with connection stairs.

Tile 79 Player

Tile 79 GM

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.

Wilds - R&R

Back in town, the party takes care of business. It was a profitable, if costly, trip, and quite a few characters gained a level. Most of the group is 4th level now. The loss of Jonquil, Tesso and Gorvil has inspired Saurabh. He has asked to join the group as a full-fledged adventurer, leaving behind his hireling role.

The party is giving serious thought to holing up in town for the remainder of the winter. None of them see the appeal of spending January and February out in the ice and snow.

Wilds - Townies

Ingvar the reeve does his job quickly and efficiently, haggling a bit over some of the jeweled items, but willing to set a fair value. As you progress through the various piles of furs, gold, and jewelry he makes careful notations on his tablet. Ohwatoo does the same on a piece of parchment. The whole process takes over an hour, and the light is all but gone by the time you're done. Ingvar glances at the sky, then at the long list of items on his tablet. "It will take some time to transcribe this and create the import manifest." As he speaks, several guards approach, and trade off with the pair who are hanging around you. Those two head toward the bridge, and as Ingvar continues to speak, they close and lock the gate. "The clerk is gone for the night. This will be on his desk first thing tomorrow. I'm sure you'll want to take care of your beasts and find a place to camp for the night." He gives a nod and goes back into the building.

Tile of the Week #78

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry. I did up a few transition tiles with stairs/shafts up and down. This is the first of four such tiles.

Wilds - Civilized

The party comes over the ridge with Maro, Grendor and Durego in the lead. The others follow, spread out in case of trouble. They're half-way down the ridge before they draw attention from the people among the tents. Someone nudges an armored guard (?) and points. She looks up, studies the group for a moment, then whistles. A few other guards join her, and move to meet the group as they reach the west end of the settlement. A handful of other folk gather behind the guards, and Maro notes that many of them are armed, a mix of daggers, hand axes, cudgels and other common weapons. "Hold there!" calls the woman in mail, who seems to be in charge. In the fading evening light you can see her shield is emblazoned with the seal of Highcliff Keep. "Who are you and where are you from?"

Tile of the Week #77

Here is today's Tile of the Week entry. This is the fourth of four quarter-sized, dead-end tiles, each with a different connecting passage type. This is a dead-end sewer complex with a couple small side chambers.

Tile 77 - Player version

Tile 77 - GM version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle if you're feeling lazy.