synDCon

I will be attending synDCon on the morning of Saturday 4/2/2011 and will be stationed at the NevermetPress table. If you’re in the DC area, come on out and say hello!

This will be the first gaming con I ever attended, and the first of any kind of con that I attended as a ‘vendor’ (sorta), so to any/all of you pros out there – feel free to give me any tips and or tricks that you think would serve me well.

I’ll look forward to seeing you there!

Edited To Add: Super Lame Heroes

Over at his blog, Parka has started a new contest. It’s all about creating heroes with lame (but still supernatural) powers. I love the idea, and I think that I’m going to enter. That’s where you guys, my faithful minions, come in. I have a little bit of time before the contest deadline, so I thought I would pose the question to all of you – what lame (super) power do you folks think would qualify as the funniest? Leave me a note in the comments below. If I select your suggestion and we win, I’ll give you your choice – an original character portrait, or I’ll paypal you $20. (The winners of his contest get a book valued up to $40.)

So the newest product from Nevermet Press is Brother Ptolemy and the Hidden Kingdom. It’s a product that I’m more than a little proud of. I contributed a series of different images for NPCs and villains, and this is the first time that I feel like I’ve contributed enough to help change the look and feel of a book. To have that first be within something of this caliber is enough to make me puff my chest just a little bigger.

There’s a plethora of storyline, npcs, critters, and items between the covers. I think that it’s exactly the sort of supplement that rides that line that so many try but fail: to be enough information without being setting dependent. Plug this information into any existing campaign easily. Don’t take my word for it though – check out Greg Schuster’s review over at The Dump Stat.

Speaking of reviews – they just seem to keep rolling in – and the bottom line? They all seem to be pretty happy with the content! I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Dr. Jonathan Jacobs is a driven man and the creative minds at NMP just keep kicking up productivity, creativity, and the quality. It’s an adventure working with them, and one I’m quite happy to be on.

Want to see some of those reviews I just mentioned? Check them out:

• Game Knight Reviews says “Brother Ptolemy makes one heck of a scary villain in my book.“
• Reviews at RPGNow.com give it 5/5 stars!

I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next reviewer has to say!

In the meantime, if you like what you’ve read/heard so far, how would you like a copy for free? Nevermet is running a contest through the month of November. Check out the post related to the contest here. We thrive on feedback, and we want to know what you think. Share your thoughts, and win free stuff!

Ahhh, the joys of the net.

Yes, the book has been available for a while now. What can I say? I’m playing catch up.

Truth is, I couldn’t be more proud of this book if I had written it myself. Like its predecessor, the OGT v2 is a collection of the best articles to come out of role playing blogs over the past year.

Through an extremely impressive efforton behalf of Dr. Jonathan Jacobs, a collection of tremendously dedicated reviewers, writers, editors, and my fellow artists, we have managed to refine, tweak, add to, and re-tweak a collection of entries that could keep any group of gamers in new ideas for quite a while.

Inspiration? No problem. Rules / crunch? No sweat. Philosophy? You betcha.

Go. Check it out. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve been a gamer to varying degrees for roughly two dozen years and I’ve seen all manner of software come and go when it comes to gaming supplies. For many years, smaller companies have tried to take on the Big Boys in an effort to squeeze out some small piece of the market pie. The problem is that gaming is, at least for most of us, a hobby. Hobbies sometimes get a good chunk of people’s spending cash, but I’ve always delighted in the fact that gaming can be inexpensive.

Yes. Inexpensive. Aside from the basic rulebooks, a pad of paper, some pens and pencils, and a set of dice, I’ve spent very little directly on the hobby of gaming. Practically nothing. That’s what I want to talk about today – software that costs us nothing and yet is greatly useful for your gaming group.

Google Groups

Google Groups are a great way to collaborate online. It’s how Nevermet Press is able to collect all of our Content Developers in one place and review / modify the many projects we’re working on all over the world. Create Pages, Discussion groups, upload/share files, and maintain email lists all via this simple and oh yeah, free tool.

Google Docs

Use the services of Google Docs in combination with Google Groups, and you have yourself a nice stable means of storing/editing just about any documents you might use in your game. Character sheets, maps, tables and more are all easily accessed wherever you have an internet connection. In fact, you can even read most documents on your cheapy cell phone and (I believe) all documents on your smart device! You’ll never have to hear “I must have left my character in my other folder…” again.

Open Office.org

Yes, I use Google Docs for most of my document editing and storage, but I use Open Office’s suite of software to do some of the creation of those docs – especially map creation. I’ll be creating some tutorials for just that purpose soon, so keep an eye out here. Also? You can keep a portable version of Open Office on a thumb drive so you don’t have to lug your laptop around if you’d rather not. It really is a spectacular suite.

Inkscape

Inkscape is a burgeoning software package that allows you to create vector graphics much like Adobe Illustrator. Vector graphics are great for the creation of maps because the can be scaled to any size without the deterioration or pixelation of bitmap images created by programs like Adobe Photoshop or the Gimp. The downside? Detail work tends to take a bit longer to do in vector oriented programs.

The Gimp

The Gimp is the other option that I use for mapping purposes. Because it’s a bitmap oriented program it is a bit faster for the detail work than something like Inkscape. The downside is that bitmap images break down when you blow them up past a certain point.

Wilderness Mapper

The last program I’d like to point out today is Wilderness Mapper created by Bruce Gulke of Mythosa.net. The Wilderness Mapper is a simple program and it’s functions are slightly ‘basic’, but in the end, I find that it’s like so many things created by Apple – simple, basic, but stable and easy to use. Sometimes you don’t need something completely unique – you just need a good solid map with plenty of information.

Bruce has been developing Mythosa for many years, and he has long had what I consider one of (if not the) most professional, clean, and well thought out campaign sites on the net. His Tablesmith software is also one of my favorite programs for gamers, but as it’s technically shareware, it will have to be part of another post. Minor note: you’ll need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to get to Wilderness Mapper.

So how about you? What freeware do you like to use in your game?

I know, I know – it’s about time! Well, I’ve finally added some of the images I did for Nevermet Press to the Finished Art gallery here on the site. Many of you have seen these in one form or another already, but they’re new here to the site, and if you follow my art more than you do the world of RPGs, then this may be your first time seeing them.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy them and I welcome thoughts, comments, advice, or whatever.

Also – tonight, I went to see another rockin showing of the Joe Trainor Trio at Mojo 13 and enjoyed it immensely! Check out their current CD Drive at CD Baby or their new and improved website. I’m currently working on some artwork for use on their upcoming new cd, so I’ll be sure to post that here once they release the album…