Interstellar and Baba Yaga's Hut

Over the weekend I watched Interstellar at the theater with my wife. As the story unfolded there was a scene that reminded me of Baba Yaga's Hut from my favorite issue of Dragon Magazine. What in the universe could Interstellar and Baba Yaga's Hut possibly have in common?
A tesseract.
Ok, for those of you who hate spoilers that is as close to a spoiler as I'll get. And I don't think it is much of one. Considering the movie deals with worm holes, black holes, and relativity, it should be no surprise that the concept of a tesseract makes an appearance in the movie. It also happens to be one of the more clever sci-fi aspects in the story. In case you're wondering yes we liked the movie very much and would recommend it. You should see it at the theater, Imax if you can. It's that kind of experience.

So, back to Baba Yaga's Hut. In Dragon Magazine #83 is an high level adventure featuring Baba Yaga written by Roger Moore. The layout of her hut's interior is a tesseract. This was not only the first issue of Dragon I had purchased, it was also the first time I'd learned about a tesseract. And my imagination was ignited by the potentials. There are so many strange possibilities in a 4th dimensional object and all the fascinating things you could do with it. It took a while to wrap my head around the concept, but once I grokked it, my mind was opened to dimensions I hadn't considered before.
There is a scene in Interstellar that is one of the best visual representations of a tesseract I've yet seen. And once you see it, the maps in Baba Yaga's Hut will make a lot more sense.

I never have had a chance to play through this adventure. However since reading this issue of Dragon, Baba Yaga has become one of my favorite fairy tale characters and I've read a lot about her over the years. I've gotten to do a few illustrations about her for various publishers. Like this one in Legend of Badass published by HarperCollins:

TSR revised the adventure and published it in a module called, the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga written by Lisa Smedman. I recently acquired this artifact, but haven't read all the way through it. Based on my skim through it looks like it is more inspired by Roger Moore's version than an actual rehash. It still looks pretty good. Though the few reviews I've read by those who have actually played it report that players quickly become frustrated by the layout and the various traps and puzzles in it. I can see how moving through a tesseract could be bewildering for 3-dimensional beings like ourselves.

There is another Baba Yaga product by TSR I have, one of those choose-your-adventure books. I have played through that one, and enjoyed it quite a bit. But that is worth a post of its own.

WotRP Update - The Lost Vault of K'Ral

Warriors of the Red Planet continues to gather momentum. Since it has been available on Lulu.com a lot of copies have been getting out there and into player's hands. The feedback has been universally positive, many are surprised that we're calling it a "beta" when it is more polished than much of the stuff that's being published out there.

I'm working on a few things in general, like fixing typos, making illustrations, and collecting feedback on where things need to be clarified and improved. This work cannot be done without your help, so please chime in on anything you've noticed that we can make better.

Specific things I am working on are a map and world guide of Barsoom, and an introductory adventure. I've chronicled the challenges of making a map of Barsoom here a few times, the biggest hurdle being that no two sources agree on locations of places according to the books. Every map I've looked at has contradictory information. So I'm distilling the best sources I can, and letting intuition be my guide to fleshing it out.

The world guide itself is just a matter of how much detail to go into, and how much additional material to make up for the sake of creating fun adventure locations and possibilities. This has been one of the most enjoyable parts of this endeavor. I'm looking forward to sharing more of that here. Also it is restricted to the first five books which are in public domain. But that is more than enough information for a world filled with adventure potential.

The adventure I have been writing, The Lost Vault of K'Ral, has gone through playtests and revisions (how many adventures actually get playtested?). I'm detailing out the various locations with essential information without getting too wordy. And of course making some very cool maps and illustrations.

Ok, that's a pretty good update for now. Here is a little sneak peek of one of the maps in The Lost Vault of K'Ral:

A few links that might be of interest:
A Google community has formed to talk about Warriors of the Red Planet: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/108276475924117137694
I occasionally post on the Old D&D Forum: http://odd74.proboards.com/board/56/warriors-mars-1974
A thread on The RPG Site: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=25185

Transmogrify Tuesday - Giant Illustration

I had so much fun drawing the Beautiful Witch illustration for Halloween, I thought I'd continue with the theme of being inspired by some old RPG illustrations. Here is the giant from Underworld and Wilderness adventures. I'm not sure if he is supposed to be an early version of a fomorian giant, or a malformed hill giant. Anyways, he does have some personality and I wanted to capture something of the expression and attitude. And add a bit more storytelling. Here is the old one:

And here is a new drooling giant. Here he looks like he's about to squish a little fighter. Anyways, I hope you enjoy.

Citadels of the Locust Gods

Megadungeons. Those monolithic, massive, dense labyrinths of adventure that exist to tempt characters to find untold riches or an ill fate. They are filled with horrific creatures, treacherous traps, and epic quantities of treasure. This is a work in progress of an idea for megadungeons I've been playing around with: Citadels of the Locust Gods. They swarm like locusts, flying across the darkened skies and setting down on wealthy, bountiful lands. Once on the ground they unload swarms of beasts to plunder the region, strip it and leave it barren. When their cargo holds are full, the creatures return. The citadels launch, darkening the skies once more and they move on to some other doomed land.

This megadungeon has a lot of advantages for the game master, since she can place a citadel anywhere she likes in her game world and it has appeal to a wide variety of play groups. Those that just want to plunder dungeons for treasure can dare to enter, or those with a more heroic bent that want to save the land can attempt a more ambitious cleansing of the foul den.
It is very much a work in progress, and here is a first pass on a layout for one of the levels inside a citadel. I'm not sure how many levels it should have, maybe each one is different. This version has 3. The characters have to figure out how to get to the top where the entrance is, and work they way down to the heart of the citadel, perhaps one of the locust gods is awaiting them in the bowels of this dreadful and foreboding fortress of evil.

Next up I'll have some stats and an illustration for one of the locust gods. Just putting the finishing touches on it now.

Crypt of Galsharak

I was experimenting with some ways to hand draw a map and then digitally age it with parchment textures, and adding some finesse.

And here is a little drawing of Galsharak, whom's crypt this is.