Saturday, July 6, 2013

Thay Jeweler

The next HarnQuest is done and should be shipping very soon. I thought I would post a few screen shots of the Sketchup models I made as reference for the articles, the first oddly was a model I ended up not even using. I was going to do an exterior view of the building, but ended up doing an interior personality shot instead.
But since I did the work, here are the models for the Jeweler [B9] located right outside the castle gates in Thay. 
Here is a view from the castle wall.
Thay sketchup model
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
Here are two other views.

Thay sketchup model- Jeweler
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Thay sketchup model- Jeweler
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The illustration I ended up doing shows the assistants dumping out the blank coins from the mold and the other stamping the designs into the silver.
Thay Jeweler, the assistants, Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
Having read the article there are a few adventure hooks that could be taking in a few directions. I added a touch of emotion to the image. The assistant on the right seems a bit worried. What is that about? Well, let's leave that up to the game master.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Barbarian & Friend in 2 pages

The next HarnQuest will contain the first of a new series of articles that I am pretty excited about. These 2 page locations will be short articles on specific location through out Harn. We have a long list of them on our To-Do list, and a pile of them developed to some degree.
Basic idea of these two pagers is to develop specific sites in already published material. These will develop guilded occupations(Apothecary, Weaponcrafters, etc.) , non guilded (Artist, Baker, Fisherman,etc.), Religious sites (Temples, shrines, and graveyards), Wilderness locations (Caves, Trader huts, and barbarian sites), and Lairs for any manner of beasts.

The next HQ will have 3 of these sites: a Thay Jeweler, Clord Woodcrafter and the Seven Brothers site in Taelda territory in the Sorkin mountains.
The front page of these articles will have a portrait, information about the location and the individual, The back will have plans, location information and some adventure hooks. Below is the the Taelda guardian of the Seven Brothers. Also in this upcoming HQ is the article on Weasels of Harn, so I gave this barbarian a badger friend.
Tluk, Taelda guardian of the Seven Brothers,
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Torchbearer

I have always enjoyed doing work for Luke Crane's Burning Wheel game books. He recently contacted me to do 3 spot illustrations for his newest project Torchbearer with game designer Thor Olavsrud. It is a throw back game to old fashion dungeon crawl, Dungeons and Dragons type games.
They are funding the project on Kickstarter which still has 4 days left as I type this blog post. It is doing very well, so far attracting enough supporters to take it to $40,000 over the initial funding goal. Serious KickStart! I probably should have charged about $10,000 more than I did, but I suppose that is not really fair.
Varg Submerged
Copyright © 2013, Burning Wheel and Richard Luschek

The format for each of these illustrations was a challenge, at 2" X 7". Most of the illustration requests were tough as well- the description for that shown above being:
 "Varg submerged, holding breath and swimming into a secret tunnel at the bottom of a natural cistern while insectile legs probe the water behind".  

I was not sure if I could do vertical or horizontal, so I tried both at first and sent Luke the following quick sketches.


Studies for Varg Submerged
Copyright © 2013, Burning Wheel and Richard Luschek 


I was initially more excited about the vertical image, as I thought it showed the depth and space I needed. But the format of the books required horizontal so I had to push that one to finish. In the end I think it made for a much better image, I has better lines and is a simple design.
I sketched the final design out in pencil, inked it, and scanned it into Photoshop to paint in the the values. This project was unlike my typical work, but the challenge was quite fun.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

View from the Docks

The recent Cherafir publication by Columbia Games offered me the opportunity to draw a misty afternoon scene. As has been my recent way of working, I take the maps into Google Sketchup and do a quick model (not really, but lets pretend I do this fast)- especially with some of these complicated views.Actually, luckily for me a few fans had modeled some of these areas already, so I just had to tweak and adjust.
Cherafir Alienage, foggy morning
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
I thought it would be interesting to paint a view with the docks veiled in thick fog. I knew I wanted the Palace of the Golden Dome in the background- a corner of the docks with traders and fishermen unloading their wares.
Here is the model I used as reference. The great thing about sketchup is the warehouse of models already made. So I can search for a medieval barn and find a few to load into the model. While it may not be exactly what I want, it is probably close enough.
 Below is the basic view-point used for the image. The one thing I was worried about was that from this view the space of water between the dock and the Seaman's guild disappears, making it almost look as though the building is right off the docks- but of course it just looks that way, especially if the water is a few feet below the dock.
I also got to draw a little Sarajin Shrine set up outside The Bronze Anchor. I tried a few sketches do decide on a look.
I thought it would make the most sense to have it be a wooden totem, with a shelter. I liked the idea of it having a roof over head. I really liked the idea of it being a boat part, so I settled on a totem with a piece of a damaged ship overhead. The writer suggested the female Elkyri called Alaryr, to whom the drunken sailors would pray to before their journey.
Here is the final image. There is a small prayer and even some graffiti carved near the altar. Translate it if you you are interested. Could even be a clue for your players to find.
Prayers to Alaryr
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek


Thursday, April 4, 2013

Building a Better Mouse Trap

A while ago, about 3 years in fact, an article was written on the Small Mammals of Harn. It was to be released with the Hunting and Trapping article rules. Well, CGI decided it wanted the article expanded, and the groups of animals to be fleshed out a bit more.
I like drawing beasts and creatures, but usually prefer that they be snarling, nasty, and huge. Also, it would be nice if they are firebreathing.
So, with a list of animals that one would consider pretty mundane, my job was to come up with interesting images, that are useful for game play and are fun for me to do.
When it came to the intro page for Rodents, I got the idea that it would be fun to paint a medieval manuscript page image as it might appear in a Peoni illuminated manuscript on the saints. Just so you know, I will be doing these instead of the woodblock images I have done in the past for Harn articles.
St. Vusa and the Mice
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
I chose a peaceful religious image of a saint dealing with a plague of rodents damaging crops (I know, it has been done). I got to thinking, this could be a miracle or even an example of a Peoni invocation at work. Maybe a prayer is said that will drive out pests from a field saving the villages crops. For the text I chose, "Saint Vusa of the Garden Drives out the Mice". We looked at the Harn Religion Team page for info on the Saints and I thought St. Vusa fit the best. Special thanks to  Rob Barnes, who I have do all my translating into Harnic. I  use the Harnic Font to type the text and then draw over, twist and pull it to give it a more natural look.
Fanon Opportunity!
(first a definition of Fanon for those that may not be sure what that means- Canon is the conceptual material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. Fanon is any material written that is not accepted as official, basically fan fiction based on canon)
 I want to offer this image up for use in any fanon Peoni invocation article that someone may want to write for this illustration. The image is a story all its own that could use a good imagination and some text to flesh out. Anyone? Comment or email me if you are interested in using this image in your fanon article. I thought a single page invocation on this, the saint and possibly the book it is found in would make a good little fanon addition. Could even be used for a Peoni temple article if the manuscript is in the library. Maybe this invocation is on a scroll found stored away that is found by the players. Anyway, someone do something with this image?

The other image in that article I was particularly proud of was the Harnic Squirrel. The text was changed after I drew the image to include info about them being 'pack rats' that collected shinny things. This little gray squirrel could result in an entire adventure hook. Say a player spotted a squirrel in a tree with something that looked like a gold coin. Or.... if a party buried a chest of coins in the woods only to come back to a dug up and nearly empty box, as a PC sees a squirrel scamper up a tree with coin in its mouth. What fun having to scour the woods for your hard earned treasure. What a great way for a game master to torture their players.
The Hoarder
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I hope you enjoy this article and can find some interesting ways to incorporate it into your game- even though rodents are not your typical fantasy game beasts.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Moving Brick and Mortar

For the recent HarnQuest release for Columbia Games, I had to color a very old illustration of Kiban. I believe this was first published in the original HarnView in 1983. Wow, 30 years ago!
Here is the original image as it appeared then.
Kiban
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc.
I had to color the image and update it for the recent expansion of this Harnic Castle. The original is by Eric Hotz and I believe the inspiration is taken from a real world castle in England called Bodiam Castle
 Along  the way, a map was drawn for the fictional Harnic version. As I started updating the image, I realized that the mapped castle and the image did not quite match up. So I started tweaking it. Also I thought some of the castle above looked a bit like a building in ruins rather than a living breathing fortress.

Kiban
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc.
If you compare you can see, towers were moved and adjusted. The tops of the castle were cleaned up, and a lot of the windows had to be shifted around to match the floor plans in the article. Once everyone agreed on the adjustments I started in on color. I try to use digital coloring like water colors, doing washes over the line work- well, technically in photoshop, the color is done under the line layer.

Kiban
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc.
I usually erase any lines in the sky and just paint the clouds in. After I was done one of the writers pointed out that the front window was still wrong. It was not one big single window on the floor plan, but two smaller ones.
The same eagle eyed writer also commented that on the map the bar of land in front of the castle was mostly stone and would not have grass on it. I of course ignored this comment as we all know rocks in a stream can and will accumulate silt and allow river plants to grow at the edges of the rocks- So Shut The Hell Up!

But in order to try to appease I offered this image as a possible solution. The knight covered the window and takes care of the grass.
Kiban
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc.
This image was rejected for some reason by Tom at Columbia Games as being "inaccurate".

Monday, February 25, 2013

Keserin Mine

Keserin Mine, by Richard Luschek
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
I just finished the newest Columbia Games article- kind of last minute. This article was ready for art last month and I was supposed to be done early in the month, but I had a few setbacks. We still hope for it to be printed  and shipped in February, but of course there are only three more days left of this month. Too bad this isn't a leap year.
A bit about Keserin mining camp:
Keserin is an isolated forest hundred in Rethem’s Parachshire, where heavily forested foothills meet the low rocky spurs of the Rayesha Mountains.
This is the site of a mine held by the Order of the Red Shadows of Herpa, an Agrikan fighting order based in Menekai.
The mine nestles in a deep ravine carved by the white waters of a tributary of the Gomisen River. A small settlement clings to a level plateau of waste mine rubble, beyond which rises the rough-hewn timbers of a high stockade around the mine. Outsiders are not encouraged at the mine.


 It is a dark and nasty place of smoke filled air, polluted waters, sitting in a barren, clear cut locale. Add to that the fact that with the Agrikans in charge run the mine like a prison camp.
The geography of the camp was a bit tough to imagine, so as is my usual practice, I dropped the map into Google Sketchup and did a very rough model that I could look around in. One interesting fact that I figured out, that not even the writer had envisioned, was that the mine entrance itself is forever in the shadow of the rocky cliffs above, adding to the gritty feel of the place.

Birds-Eye view of Keserin Mine, by Richard Luschek
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
View from Gomisen trail of Keserin Mine, by Richard Luschek
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
North west View from across the river of Keserin Mine, by Richard Luschek
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
View from high ground across the river of Keserin Mine, by Richard Luschek
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek
I decided the last one offered the most useful view of the camp. It has good look at the smelting furnaces, most of the working buildings and the the important features of the landscape- including the mine entrance. It is also a view that would most be used by scouting Kuborans or Garguns preparing for attack. As you can see the model just offers a very rough idea of placement and lighting. Some artistic license is needed to get a pleasing image for the article.
This article is a bit different from the typical locations that have been published on Harn. I could see an entire campaign run in or around this mine. Of course I was only able to illustrate a few views of the camp, but I hope these Sketchup screen-shots help get you excited enough to torture your PCs in this dreadful place.
To receive this article I suggest you sign up for HarnQuest or wait until it is posted to for PDF download on RPG Now or related site.

Inside Keserin Mine, by Richard Luschek
Copyright © 2013, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek