Star Wars Artwork: The Stratt (First Wacom Test)

Happy Birthday to me.

So I got my Wacom Tablet, and here's what I've done with it....








































All and all, I'm really happy with my first attempt with it.  I can't wait to play around some more with this and see what I can do.

I definitely think I need some more color theory work, practicing highlights and shadows of clothing.

But hey, it's a start and a decent job on a coloration work.

Star Wars Artwork: The Stratt (work in progress)

Occasionally, I do art...

This is "The Stratt", a Zorro-like character from the Taipani Sector.  The neat thing is this; this is a Player Character.  He hasn't appeared "on-screen" yet, but after the next session of my Order 65 campaign he might.

Done originally in pencil with ink.

I intend to work this file as one of my starting "projects" for when I pick up my Wacom tablet for my Birthday.  All and all, I'm really pleased with how this one is progressing.

Another Longshot:: First Pass

This is the first post for the development of my next campaign, likely not to start until 2012 or even 2013.

I find it very interesting to write that; it may not start until 2013.  I remember campaigns I've whipped up and started in weeks.  I don't think I've ever planned for a game so far in advance.  Sort of mind boggling.

Anyway, like my three other campaigns I have running currently, I started an Obsidian Portal page for my upcoming game, titled "Another Longshot".  Given that the original campaign centered around a Venator-Class Star Destroyer re-named the Longshot, I knew I wanted to bring her back for the sequel, and how.  I have some plans and some plot elements that tell the story what happened to the Longshot.  To help tease that, I went looking for some screen-captures from the Clone Wars cartoon.  The episode "R2 Come Home" centered around the crashed Star Destroyer Endurance.  After finding a pair of pictures that conveyed what I wanted it to, I took it into Paint Shop Pro, cropped it a bit, and added the title to the campaign.

Boom, instant banner.

(As an aside, this image should make the PCs from the old game either drool or twitch with dread.)

It's at this point that I start jotting down Ideas.  Chapter names, themes, scenes I want to have, characters I want to use, planets I want to run adventures now.  I just write them all down.  Obsidian Portal has a great benefit that I can write these things down on pages that are "GM Only", pages only I can see and access.  I'll be able to access these pages anywhere, on any computer. To the cloud!

Oooo...that reminds me, I've got some aerial encounters I want to run.  Better write those down too.

At this stage I'm adding characters as either NPCs or as GM-Only NPCs.  GM-Only NPCs are NPC profiles that only I can see.  If you look at the entries of characters for my other campaigns, there are likely an equal number of NPCs that are GM-Only as there are visible to all; especially in my Order 65 campaign.  There's a ton of soon-to-be-revealed characters in there.

So I have three NPCs right now; the first is a throwback to the previous campaign, B4-NDT, otherwise known as "Bandit".  He was the astromech droid for the smuggler's ship in the previous arc.  Part Astromech, part humanoid mechanic droid, Bandit had a tendency to start sentences in Basic but would occasionally switch to beeps and whisltles of the Binary language as he spoke.  I don't have much else down for Bandit right now, just that I know I want to use him again as a connection to the previous campaign.

More later..

Another Longshot

First off, the "help Phil buy a Wacom tablet for his birthday" Paypal button is only active for another week and a half. I will find the tablet very useful for an upcoming project that not only will benefit my PCs, but hopefully the greater Star Wars Gamer Nation at large.

I'm starting the development of my next campaign; Another Longshot. I ran a Star Wars campaign several years back using the Revised Core Rules of the Star Wars RPG. The premise was something between "The Hunt for Red October" and "Battlestar Galactica".

In short, the PCs were all fighter pilots working for the Rebel Alliance. The Alliance had a plan to steal a Venator Star Destroyer from an Imperial Boneyard, refurbish it, and use it as a symbol of the Alliance and the Old Republic. The mission was dubbed "Operation: Longshot" because the resources they could commit to it were barely enough to accomplish the task. The enire operation was fraught with bad luck and sabotage, but after 14 months of limping on a back-up hyperdrive the PCs succeeded in bringing the old ship, renamed the Longshot, to Mon Calamari for recommissioning.

The campaign ended, in part because two of the PCs moved to Atlanta, GA, but mostly because it was designed to be a set story with a set ending. A sequel was possible, but not while one of the main PCs was in Georgia for the next four to five years.

Now, I find myself drawn back to the Longshot campaign from time to time. I think about it, it's execution, it's storylines. I think about the advances the Star Wars RPG has undergone since then; the arrival, run, and ending of the SAGA Edition line. I think about the creation of the Legacy Era, which incorporates all the fun and interesting elements from every Era that came before. And I think of a promise I made to myself to try and write a complete campaign, one with at least a couple adventures that could be considered "Publish Worthy" (or at least ePublish Worthy).

So I've started to get some ground work down on the sequel to the Longshot campaign. It will be a SAGA Edition campaign. It will take place in the Legacy Era, with Darth Krayt's Empire firmly in place. Where it goes from there will be something I'll be sharing with all of you as I develop. My goal is to share development ideas, map making design tips, tricks I find around the web to make this game not only fun but able to be run by other GMs.

So here we go again, Phil starts work on another campaign. I'm a little concerned about momentum and ability, but if there's any thing I'm going to write about that might actually make it in the end, I'm glad it's about the Longshot.

She's got a way of beating the odds.