New Oe/1e/BX Monster: Qiqirn

DESCRIPTION Qiqirn (s. and pl.) are large, six-legged canines that are bald over their bodies, but have hair on their feet, ears, mouth, and tails. Though ghastly in appearance, qiqirn are not naturally aggressive. They are, instead, quite skittish. A qiqirn is surprised on a 1-4 (on 1d6) and will immediately flee. Even on a result of 5 or 6, they will still be reserved from engaging. Their white coloration of the qiqirn provides it a natural camouflage in their native icy and snow-covered areas, allowing them to “accidentally” surprise on 1-3 under such conditions. Furthermore, because their appearance is downright ghastly, all creatures that have been surprised by a qiqirn and are standing within a 20' range must save vs. paralysis or be overtaken with convulsions (of fright) which will last 1-6 turns. If the convulsions last three or more turns, creatures so afflicted must make an additional saving throw vs. paralysis or suffer complete amnesia for a period of 3-18 days. A remove fear spell will cure the convulsions and/or the amnesia; a single spell will remove both if the amnesia sets in before the convulsions end. The one exception to the qiqirn’s skittish nature is their natural hatred of arassases. In the presence of these massive catdragons, qiqirn become downright foolhardy (with qiqirn morale increasing to 11 in the presence of an arrassas).

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Very rare NO. APPEARING: 1-3 ARMOR CLASS: 6 MOVE: 15" HIT DICE: 3+3 % IN LAIR: 10% TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: See below DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Semi- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: M PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 6 HIT DICE: 3+3 MOVE: 150' ATTACKS: 1 bite DAMAGE: 1-4 NO. APPEARING: 1-3 SAVE AS: Fighter: 1 MORALE: 3 TREASURE TYPE: Nil ALIGNMENT: Neutral

Is "The Heap" a Shambling Mound?

From the 1953 story "The Heap" which appeared in the comic book Black Magic #18,
produced by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Let's see... half-vegetable, and half man... with a carrot-like nose?

Can anyone say, "shambling mound"?

Really Old Old-School Artist: E.R. Vogenauer

During my typical extended digging through Archive.org, I came across another really old old-school artist. Today's featured artist, Ernst Rudolf Vogenauer, I found by way of a German-language version of The Nibelungenlied. This particular edition was published around 1920, and the influence of Expressionism (and the Germans' love for it) is more than a little obvious. Compare Vogenauer's style to somebody like Willy Pogany, whose work is characterized by the fluidity of Art Nouveau, which was happening in France and England concurrently with that heavy-handed expressionist stuff from (mainly) Germany. But that's what I like about Vogenauer's stuff here... the weight, and the violence! (Look at that spear through the body illustration!)

Of all the folks I've featured as part of this series, I think Vogenauer's work is the closest stylistic predecessor of a lot of current OSR illustration (think Stefan Poag).

Of Dice and Men: Additional Interviews

Most of you have probably seen others post the NPR interview with David Ewalt, author of Of Dice and Men. But yesterday, Dallas NPR affiliate KERA had a chance to interview David as well. Here are links to this podcast (along with the NPR interview).

:: Podcast: Krys Boyd of Dallas NPR affiliate KERA interviews David Ewalt (8/21/13)

:: Podcast: The NPR Weekend Edition interview of David Ewalt (08/18/13)

:: Q&A with David Ewalt at Topiama

:: The Of Dice and Men Web Site

:: Of Dice and Men at David Ewalt's Web Site

BX DM Screen Part II

Here's the 2nd set of panels for the BX DM screen I'm working on. The inside left panel has hireling/henchmen recruitment information, including mercenary types and pay, as well as specialist types, salaries, and abilities. The middle panel is movement and encumbrance. And the inside right panel is equipment costs and treasure type information (using my d20-based treasure type table, instead of those damned percentages that make calculating treasure a bitch).

The thing I'm particularly fond of is the outside. I love the way the Arthur Rackham illustrations lined up to create a sort triptych. I just hope the printing holds up based on the type of scan this is. Speaking of...

I've got pricing on doing some digital prints of this (en masse), and my buddy at the print shop is going to run me off a couple of samples to show me the how the cover stock will work on the the digital press, as well as how the scans will hold up in digital format. Hopefully, I'll have those some time later this week. Other than that, it only needs a little bit of proofing before I decide how to proceed with this.

Oh, and to answer a question from the previous post... these are not physical mockups... yet!
These are just computer "renderings" from the final art/layout.





And for quick comparison, here are the first panel layouts...

Cool Free Runic Font

I found a cool font today called "Pixacaism." It's sort of a post-modern runic thing (see pic). You can either follow this link to the page where you can download it (but you have to scroll pretty far down to find the download button), or you can just use this link to download the zipped file directly.

New Term: Rigamarole-playing Game (RRPG)

n.

Any role-playing game where the burden of character creation, combat resolution, and other related processes outweigh the enjoyment of exploration, discovery, and decision-making by the characters and players.