Thanks and Updates

First, I would like to thank Patrick for following me over on Ko-Fi. Following me over there is completely free and you'll pick up some insight into what I am working on. 

This evening, I'm working on a map for my upcoming project. I decided to start big and get smaller. This map of the capital is 50 feet per hex. In this view, you probably can't see the hexes. 

Map made using Worldographer^tm

Obviously, the capital is on the coast and is desperately in need of a name. Worldographer has the ability to generate maps via a seed process and some pretty cool tweaks you can select at the beginning. It will happily layout streets, drop in houses and businesses based on population plus a few other things like foliage. 

To make the process more manageable, I cut the population to 1000 so the area is sparse. As I work through the city, I'll add buildings in neighborhoods flavored by the underlying terrain. 

In this campaign setting, the city has been at peace for decades. They have gotten a bit sloppy with the trees and buildings close to the walls. I plan to remove a lot of the trees as I work, but there needs to be a balance between clearcut areas, the possibility of sloppy care, and being visually pleasing. 

This is a fortified city with the majority of people living outside the walls. Inside, there are garrison houses, towers, and a citadel for defense. I am picturing 40-foot tall walls, and 50-60 foot tall towers. The citadel was built first, before the city. It is ill-suited for its location as the citadel walls are only 30 feet tall. The central tower is 50 feet tall, which is not high enough to see over the walls. 

But the citadel has a magical defense. 

This is a view of the southern gate. Outside the walls is a lonely structure called the Tower of Eyes. This is the citadel's first line of defense. It appears to be a somewhat larger copy of the citadel's central tower. And "copy" is a perfect description. You see, all around the city are several Towers of Eyes which are magical copies. If one stands at the top of the citadel's tower and squints just right, one will see the view from any of the Towers of Eyes around the city. 

While this special vision is an illusion, as are the Towers of Eyes, the defenders can reconnoiter the whole area from a place of safety. While it's impossible to interact physically with the Towers of Eyes or the area it views, it is said that magic users can hurl spells down on to anyplace near the Towers. 

Strange magic, eh? 

Hop, Skip and Jump Over the Shelf

Time isn't just flying, it's hopping, skipping, and jumping. If you look at the time to the right, three days came off this morning as our scheduled move-in date changed for the better. 

This morning, I began prepping some of my games for transport. But before I did that, I took a shelfie to share:

You can't really see what's there, so I will describe some of it. On the front, left edge of the shelf are my lucky orange dice plus my Dollar Store dice.  Next to that are three more important things, my watch, my glucometer, and a copy of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. The Prophet is the first book I bought for my wife on our first date. It was the first book I ever read aloud to her and the first book she purchased for me after the fire. 

(Editorial commentary: After the fire, we discovered that my wife had a copy of the Bible in her glovebox and I had a copy of "What is Dungeons and Dragons?" in mine. After the fire, we each a copy of the Bible and "What is Dungeons and Dragons?" in our cars. Just covering the bases, you can't be too prepared.) 

On the next shelf are tools: flash drives, a Chromebook and bookmarks. I'll skip the third shelf for now and move to the fourth, pictured to the left. 

These are some classic books that I am sure everyone will recognize. Clearly, I love old-school AD&D, Star Frontiers, Battletech, and Star Wars. I have a few other interesting books there, too. 

On the far left are my sketchbooks, I typically burn through one every 3-4 months, so this meager stack is more than a year's worth.

 

On the right side of the shelf are more books. These are relatively new to my collection and the ones I have been looking at recently. 

The far right-hand side of the shelf holds my notebooks and journals. They are all grid paper. I burn through the spiral and perfect bound books about once a month. 

I am much more careful and conservative with the black faux leather-bound books. I use one of those every 2-3 years, so I have a decade or more of writing material in them. They go everywhere with me, like the lucky orange dice, which I guess makes them lucky, too. 

The first leather-bound book contains a handwritten copy of all six books I have written and offered on DriveThruRPG, plus notes for the next six. 

I only write important things in these faux-leather books. On March 6th, I wrote down some interesting notes while at work. We (the teaching staff) received word that there would be some sort of State of Emergency in the next few hours or days. I wrote it down as if I would forget. 

Like anyone would forget... Nothing was written again until March 20th, when I labeled the section "Pandemic Friday" and noted the stay-at-home order. COVID is the reason I write so sparingly in these books and keep a large supply of sketchbooks on hand. I ran out of supplies during the pandemic. 

Let's circle back to the third and most important shelf. 

On this shelf are some really great items, aside from my all-important reading glasses. The top box is "5 Minute Dungeon". Underneath that are print-at-home books, presumably from DriveThruRPG: Master of the Rogue Spire Volume 1 and Volume 2, a copy of both the 1981 basic and expert D&D rules, and the notes I took in my last B2 Campaign before all of this mess. 

What makes all of these so great is someone I'll call "Blackrazor" read about the problems we were having and gifted me these books, plus dozens of more. I have yet to say, "thank you" enough. These items were well-loved, providing many hours of entertainment and distraction for me and my family. 

As time permits, I will probably comment more on these items. But in the meantime, the gaming stuff goes into boxes until the move is complete. 

Again, thank you all. For everything you have done and will do.