Artist Spotlight: Adam Vehige
June 21, 2008
Back before EpicTable was “EpicTable”, when its name and image were still bits of uncongealed thought floating in the primordial ooze that was Realityforge LLC, I was looking for a mascot. I needed a logo, but what I wanted was a mascot. As a long-time Iron Maiden fan, I wanted my virtual tabletop to have its own Eddie—an iconic character to represent my product line through the many versions, twists and turns that lie ahead. Arguably, I spent way too much time trolling through online artist communities, but in the end, I found Adam Vehige. Read more
Special Dispatch: Character Sheet Development Update
June 20, 2008
It’s time for another development update. Last time, I talked about leaving the world of mapping to delve into character sheets. Since then, I’ve been busily fleshing out the character sheet concept in EpicTable—especially user-defined character sheets.
My recent forays into indie and story games have had a profound impact on EpicTable’s character sheets and game systems. I’m not prepared to show you screenshots yet, but I can give you some insight into the direction EpicTable is headed with respect to character sheets. Read more
Welcome to the Sideshow: The Dark Art of David Hartman
June 15, 2008
I don’t recall how I stumbled upon David Hartman’s site: http://www.sideshowmonkey.com/. Maybe I don’t remember how I got there because I spent the next couple hours lost in this dark little world he’s created.
Did I mention it’s dark? Yeah, a lot of David’s work is pretty dark, and it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (which is an oddly inappropriate expression to use when talking about monsters, zombies, and the like), but there’s a comic/pulp feel his work that I really like. Read more
Pulp gaming inspiration: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
June 15, 2008
I just saw the latest Indiana Jones movie: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Now, I can’t give you a very objective critique of the movie, because it has crumbly jungle ruins, crystal skulls and monkeys. And if there’s anything that blows my objectivity, it’s crumbly jungle ruins, crystal skulls and monkeys. Read more
New feed: EpicTable Forums
June 13, 2008
I’m trying a new feed. I noticed that I didn’t have a feed for new threads in the EpicTable forums (other than…um…my own, which get there via the blogs) This seemed needlessly self-indulgent, so I added a feed for the EpicTable forums.
The only downside is that since both blog posts and development blog posts go to the forum (for the sake of comments), the forum feed has some redundant content if you happen to be subscribed to the blog feeds already. However, this might be an option for you if you’re interested in a feed of new threads started in the forums and can bear the cost of seeing my posts twice.
You can see the full list of EpicTable feeds at: http://www.epictable.com/subscribe/
Fear Itself - The Sacrifice
June 13, 2008
Did anyone happen to see the recent episode (”The Sacrifice”) of NBC’s new horror anthology, “Fear Itself”? I just got around to watching it, and I was surprisingly impressed. There was kind of Colonial Gothic horror feel to it, with the bestial vampire, the old-fashioned dresses, bloody axes, an old fort…. Even the premise–a community protecting the outside world by keeping a creature contained within their midst–was pretty cool.
One has to assume that the place is warded to keep the creature in, and I’m sure there are other logical flaws (like why did it take so long to think of burning the creature in the pit used for sacrifices?), but the atmosphere and visuals were very nice. I can definitely imagine this as a chapter of a Gothikus game (a story game in development, chronicled over at Polyhedral Hepcat).
Thoughts on “My Life with Master”
June 7, 2008
In a recent post, I talked about the value of trying other game systems, particularly the so-called “narrative games” or “story games”. All this was a little abstract, and it strikes me that saying “this is a good thing” without really explaining why isn’t terribly helpful. In this post, I look at a specific example: my recent experience with My Life with Master. Read more