Steamshaft

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20
Apr 10

A break from TSSC

A typical Dwarf of the Steamshaft (Derwent Inktense)

The bulk of the writing work on TSSC has been paused for the past few months and will not resume for a little while yet, some of the art has be tackled during that time, largely map making and Inktense work, some of which I’ll add into this entry to prove I’ve not been lying in the hiatus entry about working on a lot of material but not finding time to blog about it… :)

Map work 'The Deeps'

If you have stumbled here by chance and like the sound of the setting and perhaps fancy running a play test in the future, get in touch through Twitter and I’ll keep you in mind.

A typical Clod of the Steamshaft (Derwent Inktense)

An 'aether touched' Human (Derwent Inktense)

-Tom

Edit: Comments are now disabled after two weeks have passed, I decided that I agreed with some views on commenting systems and since this blog (through my own numerous faults) does not garner much commentary anyway… I’m not losing out too badly. There is always the option to seek me out on Twitter and give direct feedback or response.

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12
Feb 10

The Steamshaft evolves…

The one thing the early sketch of the Steamshaft lacked was settlement labelling, at that point I was only sure on the location of three or four of them and I was always inclined to work on a digital copy. I have finally sorted out a full version of that map as part of layout design and art work I’m pushing through at the moment.

I won’t say final as yet but this is a very close to final version of the map.

Doodles / Steamshaft — Comments Off
2
Feb 10

TSSC Cover

This is the first draft of the cover, which I’ve been working on today. My intention is to overlay clean hero art (Probably three) between the title and the license fluff. I want to get the official license but at this stage I’m not sure (if alone) I can reach the levels they are asking for in terms of professional layout and art (HIGH production values, as they say). Under the Fan license of course I can’t angle for donations (to allow those who liked it enough and wanted to support future projects) and wouldn’t be able to use any other means of generating a small tidbit of revenue. The official license would allow me to sell the physical book and take donations on the PDF which I’m still keen to make freely available.

(^ Click for full image)

I feel very isolated at the moment, not only because I’m miles away from friends and loved ones but because I’m writer, illustrator, editor, layout designer and manager/promoter of this little island. Carrying the workload over all the areas isn’t easy, especially when you’re doing 39hrs a week baking bread from 3am – 11pm and juggling apprenticeship paperwork, sometimes it just overwhelms me and I’m faced with that tough choice, work on this or play L4D/TF2 etc. and relax for a few precious moments. Sleep continues to chase me around with a cricket bat, adieu!

Update: I had to redo the parchment background for the innards due to a very silly dpi blunder on software I’m unfamiliar with… here is the redone copy. I may yet tinker with the final design.

-Tompl

Doodles / Steamshaft — Comments Off
27
Dec 09

Steamshaft Chronicles, a Savage World?

The biggest slowdown on work at the moment involves pinning down a first drafting of magic notes. I’ve scrapped two approaches thus far because the things I want to do with it seem to tug in different directions. *sigh* I am going to be forced to compromise somewhere along the line.

Current thoughts involve limiting elemental/natural magic to the Elves, this slots into their appearance fluff which denotes that their hair (eyes and other features too depending on power) reflects an elemental origin. I am suggesting to GMs that they offer Elven mages a chance to develop features that denote an increase in power by whichever level-up marker they feel best. The additional reflections of power tend to be a shift in skin hue, arcane tattoo about the face or chest and in some cases a rare (but beautiful) mutation. Other forms of magic are more open, or device dependent.

Anyway, I digress… The more I suffered on the subject the more inclined I was to look at Savage Worlds again and so I’m preparing the work with more of an eye to Savage Worlds. Notes are still going to be made for use with Anno Geometrica. In keeping with this I’m going to try and release an open draft to download at some point, this will involve me stalling settlement work a little to release it with only Furnace Town active. This means I can get feedback from generous playtesters and drop the time-consuming settlement work in at later stages.

I’ve started using Derwent graphitint pencils to work-up sketchy artwork for the system, I don’t think the scans do them justice but I’ll work on that when I have a bit more time to tweak settings. I promised I’d show off some of the work done with them so far, so here are the first two pieces…

The above reflects my current ideas on the elemental nature of the Elves, this particular Elf draws the power of air, I have referred to him as an acolyte of storms…

The above is an equipment draft for Dwarven PCs, their tower shield is one of the mightiest tools at work in tunnel warfare along with the Jade-core Splinter. The Jade-core Splinter is mildly arcane, giving off a faint glow and increasing the chances of penetrating magical shields, barriers or armour.

Apologies for the lack of updates for the last few months, every single time I got close to typing up a new entry something more important jumped on my back and forced me down.

-Tompl

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30
Aug 09

Fantasy Buildings (Mini Sketches)

Just a very quick share of two tiny sketches as I pondered the nature of Steamshaft buildings… currently my mind is settling on actual houses/structures of some kind in special regions designed to support such features, often under the control of Elves. For more common buildings I am having to sketch and give thought to the sorts of buildings that might exist on a settlement by settlement basis. I hope to eventually have each settlement offer a unique way of life within the Steamshaft. But enough waffling, I’ll end up going into a much longer entry if I’m not careful!

I’ve had little to no interest in the moo.com challenge, a shame really but then my blog doesn’t extend much of a reach so it was half-expected. Still, I’m going to give it a bash on my lonesome and perhaps some people will join as it goes.

-Tom

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22
Jul 09

Steamshaft Chronicles: Sketch Diary Three.

This will be a slighty shorter entry than usual and is about one small part of the internal structure that makes up the Steamshaft, largely one type of support column… The Hevnar support.

tsc_hevnar-support

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14
Jul 09

Steamshaft Chronicles: Sketch Diary Two.

In this second sketch diary I will be sharing a very quick part of the wider world. Many settlements are still in a creative infancy but they are coming along strongly and as other features of the setting get the stamp of finality I can lockdown parts for release and make more certain strides on the way some settlements work or serve the PC and NPCs alike.

tsc_thesteamshaft_d01

The Steamshaft is broken up into three segments, the Delvus Minor, the Crux Delvus and the Delvus Major. Within these segments there are large regions that have acquired names of their own from the peoples that call them home. The blacked criss-cross near the middle was originally intended to be of no consequence but I have now written in a very interesting bit of background and information about what is hiding there. I will say only that it ties in with the larger story and is likely to feature in any large campaign, though a GM may opt not to use it.

The above does not feature the thousands upon thousands of outward digs, with the exception of a few specific areas I am writing, these oft-dangerous outward regions are at the discretion of the GM who can create as many as he/she needs.

While this is an early concept I am likely to leave it unchanged, beyond making it visually stronger.
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13
Jul 09

Picks of destiny!

2009-07-13-picksofdestiny

This featured entry is going to be consumed by The Steamshaft Chronicles!

Perhaps the best part of world building is found when you get to concept sketching little details. The pick and pickaxe is an important symbol and tool of life in the Steamshaft… a source of income, a weapon at need and indicator of wealth or heritage. So I’ve been spending some time thinking about how each race approaches the pick, even the Elves who would rather not dig any deeper (or outwards for that matter) have ornate and less functional incarnations.

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6
Jul 09

Steamshaft Chronicles: Sketch Diary One.

Every other week I’m going to offer a sketch from my Steamshaft Chronicles sketchbook for viewing, along with a little bit of information regarding the world setting and how the sketch relates to the work in progress. These sketches won’t be worked on before upload but many will be produced in a better format for later use.

This week I am going to talk about factions, I like the idea of reputation and I’m going to play test one such system as an expansion unit for the AG core rules or the fantasy variant of those rules (@DrMagister seems to be hooked on making the fantasy transition and since I’m building TSC to work with the AG rules, it makes sense to delay some rule modifications.) at some stage. I am largely working on the idea of two main factions, rather than a multitude of small factions whom are the key to extra perks, privileges, and dangers.

The Steamshaft Chronicles: Climbers faction. (Faction Crest)

The Steamshaft Chronicles: Climbers faction. (Faction Crest)

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