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

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

The Hevnar is the strongest support column, acting as a focal point for upwards and downwards travel aswell as being the central support to a specific region. The Hevnar is constructed from a material that baffles the inhabitants of the Steamshaft, the same material is used on the horizontal sheets, domes and chambers that are pivotal to the integrity of the structure. This material is largely responsible for the stability that has allowed the overall environment to survive for so long. Even with this strength, other parts of the Steamshaft have fallen into gross disrepair and collapses are common. Some areas  have even been overrun by terrors too horrible to imagine and so are of an unknown stability or make-up, it is believed that some creatures have corrupted and distorted structures in ways that boggle the mind.

There is more I could say regarding the Hevnar supports but I’ll leave that to a wider commentary on the other supports.

I have recently been writing and thinking about how battle is conducted within the Steamshaft, often the battlefield is confined but as things progress it opens up and tactics must change… Got some very cool shields that are used for tunnel advances. Early on I planned for a large variety of fantasy weaponry but  this list has been shortened greatly. All talk for another time!

-Tom

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.

Furnace Town is likely to be the base camp of early adventuring as the only large settlement in the deeps and one of the most important in the Delvus Major region of the Steamshaft. In this map (My first attempt to visualise the settlement) it should be noted that the central section containing the dead furnace is raised above the outer sections. Underneath this central plate are the last eight districts of the settlement… I’ve sketched a layout for one of these districts. The section jutting out on the top-right is a prison of sorts. Furnace town sits at the heart of a chasm of steam and can only be reached by three supply tunnels, or (at grave risk of death) by the five pipelines to the east.

Furnace Town, The starter settlement for most campaigns.

The next settlement was the result of a day dream on the way back from work (I normally do this, most walks home consist of dreamed worlds, stories and adventures.) while I was pondering a region called, ‘The Creaks’ named because of the instability of the area and the frequent collapsing/sliding of settlements or travel routes… I knew I wanted/needed a settlement in such a risky zone and so we get Shakes Town… the only place that has a surface cow herd (Yes, Milk Shake… I did think it at the time and it does allow room for roleplay group collapse, though nowhere near the standard of ‘The River Kok’ Incident from Titan. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Fighting_Fantasy]). Shakes town is still in note form and nowhere near Furnace town in terms of development but I harbour a soft spot for it based on the chaos it sits atop/within.

Shakes Town, not the easiest place to reach...

I should say that (as with much else) this is only intended to suggest how the area looks rather than a ‘to scale’ rendition, I was trying to get a fix on how the collapsed regions might look. I actually day dreamed travel upto the town and around ‘The Creaks’ in general so I could work out how goods and people traverse the madness, let alone live in it.

I won’t get much sketching or writing done on Thursday, Friday and Saturday because I’ll be baking bread at 3am in the morning and come midday I will be far too knackered to do anything useful with my brain or body.  Sadly as much as I’d like to spend all my time doodling, writing and dreaming I must grunt my way through reality even when it strikes a chill to the noble soul within.

-Tom

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.

The pick claw is a concept for the ratkin, a small race who maintain and have access to areas of the steamshaft that larger races could never hope to reach except by calamity or intentional destruction. I like the idea that PC ratkin could have modified pick claws that act as grapplers or at need, a crude projectile weapon.

The Inheritance pick is something I’m considering as a rarity, a very ancient/powerful/unique/racially significant item… it should be the sort of pick you see on a particularly distinguished or important NPC. The source of quests or campaign reward.

Ideally I want a GM to have an idea of a basic pick/pickaxe for each PC and NPC race, followed by a crafted version and lastly a few inheritance designs, I fully expect a GM to give thought to designs between these three tiers.

As I continue to blog about the world, it should make a bit more sense and you can connect dots between previous articles and newer ones. Hopefully by then I will have sorted the mini-site with a collected body of information, in essence the beta of the free ebook.

As always I welcome comments for good or ill, even if it just alerts me to the fact I have people interested in what I’m doing as opposed to running this as a ‘Howling at the Moon’ exercise.

-Tompl