Spear Vs Swordsmen

 I found this video entertaining. It shows how reach really is a major factor, much more so than most RPGs account for. Also it shows how important amor would be as most of these 'hits' wouldn't go through quilted armor let alone mail or plate. I also found it interesting how the fight takes up a lot of room. Nobody is sticking to their 10 foot square. I'm sure Hema's probably done this sort of thing, I'll have to find it.

AI Artwork

 I've never really thought AI artwork was a good idea. We near the point where entire professions will be wiped out. A buggy whip sort of moment and I take that personally because I trained as an artist even if I let my drawing skills atrophy a bit over the years. Perhaps things will be better once AI has been trained and looks less soul-less and the hands aren't as creepy and all that but it'll be a painful road getting there.

The AI art program I've played with produced garbage. Maybe I'm not good enough at picking the exact words as I've seen other peoples samples that looked pretty good, but  mine all result in abominations. Perhaps for Gamma World art that might work but not for what I'm looking for. 

Having said that I read a post on Tenkar's Tavern titled Is AI in our industry really that bad? (Dungeon Alchemist). I like the samples I've seen from Dungeon Alchemist and never really considered AI for dungeon maps. After all Drawing Dungeon maps is kind of fun. Yes drawing really good ones can be a choir (I lean heavily on Dyson Logos amazing maps a lot). Still this seems a niche AI might be good at. So when I stumbled across Imagine.art, an AI program I hadn't used before I started blasting away at commands and I was actually happy with the results. 

I used the text "Isometric dungeon room with near walls removed to show table, benches, and other furniture" The near walls removed didn't really work right, and what's with the windows and no exit? Still the room has character and with photoshop I might be able to clean it up and make it to my satisfaction. Doing a whole dungeon would be painfully slow though (guess Dungeon Alchemist fixes that).

Here is another. Same text (I think) but set to Disney Style. Why Disney style gives a low wall instead of wooden fence I don't know. AI works in mysterious ways, still I kind of like it. I'm not sure how I can use it but I'm always looking for isometric dungeon dressing and there is a lot of that here.

A third one for good measure. The prompt this time: "Isometric dungeon room with near walls removed to show torture equipment and victims chained to wall". The result, well we still have a cheery little window and no victims, but the rest is kind of nice.

And lastly Most of my corridor attempts "with no windows" had windows, clearly it doesn't like corridors and Hallways and loves windows. So I typed "Isometric dungeon hallway with no windows" and the AI gave me Mickey Mouse in a crypt or something (I think Disney is gonna sue someone). So it's far from perfect but the crypt looks nice. 

So AI isn't totally terrible for some things.

Drivethru sales

are not great. 

I put Maritime POD up for sale half a month ago and still no sales. The pdf sold consistently and then died off around the same time. I'm very proud of the product and think it's very usable at the table. I've never really liked how so many folks constantly pimp their products but it's become very clear why they do. If you don't remind people constantly a product slips out of sight out of mind on Drivethru. At least until you've created enough products and hopefully developed a solid reputation with those that purchased those products to justify them buying your back catalog. 

Sad because I'm not a self-promoter. Not at all. But I'll continue publishing things because I sort of feel a drive to do so. For now, Maritime is still available as PDF and POD on DriveThruRPG.

Maritime POD now available

My little book is now available on Print on Demand at DriveThruRPG for those that prefer hardcopy. If you get the POD version the pdf is bundled pretty cheap.

Spell Memorized and Q Branch

So in every James Bond movie you have an opening scene with amazing stunts and then Bond meets with M and Q where he gets a cool gadget. He only gets one or two gadgets per movie and he never gets to take gadgets that worked well before (except the Lotus). Then at some point later in the movie Bond gets into some sticky business but it turns out the cool gadget is exactly what he needs to get out of it. How did Q know? Because the screenwriter knew.

Spell Memorization works something like that, except the player have to pick spells without the screenwriters help. They have to guess what spell might be useful today which is a somewhat impossible task and promotes more generic dungeon-useful spells. 

For Clerics, selecting spells for the day seems silly. They have no real idea what they are getting into. Clerics worship a god, and that God is represented by the GM who knows what they'll run into during the adventure. The GM should pick the Clerics spells based on the challenges they are likely to run into. Yes the Cleric should have a wider range of spells available to pick from but the GM should pick. Let the Cleric wonder why they woke up knowing Resist Cold and Lower Water this morning when they are in the desert. The GM can fill out the list with generic ones as well.

This would give the Cleric a bit more mystery, a bit more 'God' and possibly foreshadow things coming up. It acts as a really vague augery. The GM can build a few encounters specifically with spells in mind. Not rooms that require the spell as they will be fired off too soon in many cases, but even then the Cleric will knock their forehead and go that's what my God meant.

This would also work for Warlocks in 5E but does nothing to remove spell slots which are another matter entirely. Anyway just a though, maybe players would hate it.

Print on Demand at DriveThru

 I read somewhere on the internet that you should prepare the POD version before you post a product online. I ignored that and wish I hadn't. The POD proof of Maritime. It is taking a while and it just feels a bit incomplete not having both available. Also I'm curious about sales differences between POD and PDF on such an inexpensive book.

I doubt anyone cares but I want the notes for the next time. So the proof showed up and it looked okay, except for some reasons some greyscale didn't work (light grey boxes with black text came up as black) while on the same page the illustration above appeared in perfect greyscale. Not sure what that was all about but good to know. Also empty table cells came out as random grey values? Anyway I think I've worked around the errors, so now it's waiting for another proof to be sure.

Maritime for sale at DriveThruRPG

 My first product is now for sale. It is called Maritime. 

Rules and Stats to add Ships to your campaign because there were ships before the age of pirates and you’ll want to know what your ship can do.

Maritime contains rules for ships: sailing speeds, ship combat, and ship stats for the most common ships up to the the early galleons, as well as cargos and profits. Compatible with OSR and 5E games.

Includes stats for ships from the East and West up until very early Galleons. If you want ships decked out with cannon this book isn't for you.

Stats for: Rafts, Bireme & Dromon, Caravel, Carrack & Nau, Cog, Dhow (Large), Dhow (Small), Drakker, & Birlinn, Galleon, Junk (Big), Junk (Cargo), Junk (River), Junk (Treasure), Knarr, Nef, Sampan, Trireme & Venetian Thin Ship, Turtleship, War Galley

My first product on DriveThruRPG so if you say any obvious rookie moves, please let me know.

The cover shows a Carrack (the Santa Maria of Columbus fame was a Carrack) rigged out with square sales, leaving Genoa harbor as painted by Quinto Cenni. The image is care of the NY Public Library's Digital library, it is in the public domain and it's a beauty.