Fantasy maps created using Xara Xtreme

[guyke]

Great stuff, Michael. What a skill, what a perseverance !
Thanks for sharing.

[Gamerprinter]

So in an effort to fund 3 printed soft cover books for the Kaidan Campaign Setting, we've started a Kickstarter Project today - link HERE.

Although the printed books will have B/W interiors (to keep costs down), full color PDFs of each book will be available, which means more maps, and more art, but not just mine, but from a host a great artists.

I'll be posting more maps and art as they are created.

[Gamerprinter]

Hopefully I'll be able to post some maps soon - here's an ad designed for a PDF only RPG magazine called Pathways, for my current Kickstarter project.

Good news, we're 16 days into the Kickstarter and have already received $3716 or 92% to being funded ($4000) - or 53% to Tier 2 goal ($7000), and less likely 30% to Tier 3 goal ($12,250) - whatever books get funded is all we'll produce. Whichever do not will see it's own Kickstarter sometime after the release of the products from this project. Things are looking good.

Here's a Xara created 1 page ad (mentioned at top of this post) for the Kickstarter...

[Gamerprinter]

We're officially funded! Hurray! And with new incentives added, the existing patrons have upped their pledges and we are not at 110% to goal with $4507.

Hopefully we'll be able to reach the third Tier goal - we have to try!

[Gamerprinter]

In the last 50 or so hours left in the Kickstarter - we have achieved our Tier 2 goal of $7K and striving for a last ditch "Hail Mary" play to possibly getting something of a Players Guide, which we are now doing as 32 page increments at $1250 each. If we can get any last hour pledges we might get there. I will be posting regional maps of all the islands of Kaidan soon. Wish us luck!

[Big Frank]

Good luck!

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, Big Frank.

Woot - I'm overjoyed! With 27 hours to go, we've got 185 backers at $8318 - which means there's now going to be a 200 page GM's Guide, and a 32 page Player's Guide, but we still have 27 hours left. We must try to get $1182 in pledges in the time we have left to get a 64 page Player's Guide which will mean Player Options and PC point of view description of the setting.

Thanks everyone - we're beyond where I thought we'd be, but we still have more time!

Michael

[Gamerprinter]

Some new maps. I am working on a new product series for my Kaidan - Japanese Horror RPG setting (PFRPG), called the Haiku of Horror Series. The first of this serial will be the Autumn Moon Bathhouse, and will feature a haunting and ghost story.

Each product of the serial will contain an iconic Japanese location. This will be a defined complex encounter location and not a full adventure module, just a place that can be easily inserted into an existing game, or have an entire adventure built around it. The mapped location could just as easily serve any game system requiring a Japanese site, not just for my setting or system.

Each location will feature GM labeled maps, plus sliced (and full dimension) print ready maps at 1 in = 5 ft scale (plus additional grid sizes avaiable.) A full room-by-room gazetteer detailing each rooms descriptions. Then included will be a full cast of Non-Player Characters, statted with back stories and agendas (in varying Challenge Ratings), as well as a statted monster, a new monster (ghost template), 3 haunts and a curse (all properly formatted for PFRPG).

Below are the four levels of the bathhouse: 1st floor is the bathing chamber, 2nd floor is the tearoom/restaurant level, 3rd floor is the staff communal quarters, and the fourth floor is the proprietor's office and quarters.

I plan to create a bathhouse grounds map with oriental garden and outbuildings, soon.

I'm calling it the Haiku of Horror, as I intend to precede the content with an illucidating haiku poem that invokes aspects found at each location. For this one a ghost using the Japanese horror trope of long, black wet hair. The haiku for this one is as follows:

Scented waters stir,
unbound strands aching search
for a lover's touch.

Here's the progress so far...

GP

[Gamerprinter]

Ah, what a dumbass - I forgot the word "in" in the second line of the haiku above, so I didn't even have the proper 5-7-5 required format. Here it is corrected:

Scented waters stir,
unbound strands aching in search
for a lover's touch.

In addition the product will contain appropriate additional mechanical game bits to add to the playability as well as the creepiness of the concept. Here is one of the haunts included in this product:

Wet Hair haunt CR 3
XP 960
NE minor haunt, persistent
Notice perception DC 13 to notice a disturbance on water surface in a tub as if movement below.
Knowledge check (planes or religion) DC 15
hp 2460; trigger proximity; reset 24 hours
Caster Level: 6
Effect: vengeful spirits of a tormented women can sometimes manifest as great piles of water soaked hair found in springs, wells, ponds, or containers such as pails or ofoto bathtubs. Hidden in the water are volumes of long, black hair that float to the top, then suddenly begins to animate and attack as *strangling hair spell. The hair can reach up to 10 feet in length attempting to strangle victims. The hair is resistant to fire and due to both it's wetness and unnatural properties.
Destruction: must lay the yurei no kami, Kana, to rest.
*Ultimate Magic

The yurei no kami, mentioned in this haunt's destruction descriptor refers to a new ghost template I've created. Yurei no Kami is the grappling hair ghost. In addition to rejuvenation and a special drowning touch attack, this otherwise incorporeal being, has animated hair on her head with corporeal properties allowing the ghost to grapple, strangle and pull victims towards her drowning touch attack. She is a murder victim drowned in one of the tubs by an assailant still free and unaccused. Laying this ghost to rest requires revealing the truth behind the murder, leading to the arrest of the perpetrator and appropriate consecration ritual afterward. As noted, laying the ghost to rest is the requirement to end all the related haunts as well.

Also included is a specific curse, called the Ju-on (grudge). This follows concepts from the movie, The Grudge - to add an extra bit of horror to the site:

Ju-on (grudge) curse
Type curse; Save Will DC varies
Effect: target becomes hunted by a specific ghost with a CR greater or equal to the curse victim (ghost attacks and attempts to slay victim, after the victim fails 3 saving throws) plus 2 points of Con damage. If the ghost is destroyed, but not laid to rest, it will rejuvenate every 24 hours, attacking the victim until slaying him or is itself laid to rest.
Cure: Lay the ghost to rest. Attempts to remove curse or break enchantment suffer a -10 penalty. Failure to lay the ghost to rest results in rejuvenation and the ghost continues to attack victims where ever they happen to be, while in Kaidan.

A CR chart will be included with this curse to determine the required ghost CR that accompanies the curse. [CR is "challenge rating" a score to let a game master know what is the expected challenge level and what character level are players required to have to make a given encounter appropriately balanced for game play.]

So the product will include custom designs, as well as detailed maps.

[Gamerprinter]

It's been a while. Here's my entry for this month's Mapping Challenge at the Cartographers' Guild. The rules were to create a map that is partially submerged. In order to make this a challenge for me, I decided to (first time) try to create an elevation cross-section map (a cut away view) depicting a sunken pirate ship in some treacherous inlet, but the ship has sunk into the silt. The cut-away view shows the interior of the ship beneath the silt. Lots of cool sealife, including a very cool octopus in that little cave at the base of the cliffside shore. Xara only provided shading and some shadows, as well as layout for the final map.

Here's a link to the full size map (96 dpi, 24 x 36 JPG): Brigatine's Rest

Enjoy!

Michael