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.

Anyone who has read my mini-rants on Twitter will know that I’m really liking the Inktense pencils from Derwent, the above gallery tracks my work this morning on @DrMagister in wondrous re-enactment mode…  (I added a tiny bit of graphitint cloud/cool grey to the background white, can see them in the final photo snap. )

-Tompl

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

Managed to colour an old sketch earlier that I love. While it fails on an artistic level for various reasons my intent was purely to liven the original in a way that pleased me. I still prefer the sketch as it was but I was determined to splash some colour to it eventually and have thankfully done so.

The original sketch was for my beloved lady as a Valentine gift in 2005, I really like drawing her and she really likes faeries, dragons and all kinds of mythical and fantastical things. This is a scan of the original made before I framed it for her:

-Tom