The Artifact RPG

“Do you know where Steve Jobs is?”

I was introduced to that name by a little animated moose that would hilariously attempt to speak what you typed in it’s window. It would also randomly say a collection of phrases, one of which was the above.

Of course I was already using a Mac and I remember looking at the Lisa with my father at some kind of computer convention. I just didn’t care back then who was behind the devices, I just used what my dad brought home. I remember making character sheets for Star Frontiers on MacPaint. I typed my first RPG on a Mac (and every RPG after that) and printed it on our laserWriter.

I didn’t become aware of the name Steve Jobs until we were playing with the Talking Moose and I was trying to figure out what it was saying. I asked my father and he told me that the man that created the Macintosh was forced to leave Apple computer. I remember being annoyed at that.

I think Mr. Jobs is the Henry Ford of our day. Henry Ford did some amazing things and was also a little nutty. Steve Jobs may not have been forcing immigrants to renounce their homelands but he did stick to some odd ideas. He also used his odd ideas to revolutionize computers and by extension, phones and tablets. I seriously doubt Apple will be able to bottle the edge of crazy that Steve Jobs had. You either think like that or you don’t.

I can still hear the sound of that warbly voice asking the question.

I’m still plugging away at the GM Screen art. I’m learning a lot of little tricks for the painting process. I don’t know if I could put them into words though which is what I’ve wanted someone to do for me so I could have a primer on how to do this. Part of the trick is to learn how to get the basic form of a figure down, then slowly refine it. It’s something like throwing down a block of clay and then molding it with your hands.

You make this lump of a color that has something of the shape you want. Use the biggest brush you can to lay it down quickly. Then with a smaller brush and in a darker shade of the color you’re using, lay down sketch lines of the most basic shapes. Then you refine those sketch lines by using the original color with a medium sized brush. I think this is the weirdest step for me. I color over the shapes inside the lines with the airbrush tool. It cleans up the shaky lines that I get from the tablet and a small brush.

Then I use a lighter color and a really small brush to highlight lines. After that I use a burn layer to shade the shapes.

After that I repeat the refining process several times. Look at it from a lower magnification and try to pick out mistakes.

Getting There

I think it’s coming along. I still don’t think the scales are right for the buildings but they’re closer and unless I’m really ambitious, it’s good enough for me.

I think I need another Kerdi on the wall, and some more Hunter E-Suits behind the hounds. Besides that, I’d like a little rubble around the buildings, like they’re crumbling.

I ‘m looking at the perspective of the picture and thinking that it’s almost like you’re one of those Kerdi checking out the poor Scout and E-Suit. I wonder if I should paint in the back of a Kerdi hanging onto the building on the far right to emphasize that. What do you think?

So here’s the progress so far on the GM Screen. It’s set in a Res Hex, that’s what the tube things are, the buildings in the Residential areas. I don’t think I have the scales right yet so I’m just playing around with the background right now. From left to right there’s Kerdi wall walking, an ASO character, a TF, a downed Rall, a downed Scimrahn Carrier, and to the right I want a few Chezbah Hunters coming around the other building and maybe some hounds.

I’d be further along if I’d remember to save my work. Twice I’ve been set back because GIMP hung on me and I hadn’t saved in a while. The first time I had just finished the Kerdi and lost that work. The second time I had done some work on the TF and finished the Carrier that made it look really good. I don’t think I’m back to where I want to be on those yet.

I might do another Kerdi to fill the picture in some more and the background needs a lot of work. I’m an illustrator and drawing like this is really more like painting so I’m just learning. One of the main differences is that with line drawing, there’s really only so much you can do before a picture looks cluttered. With this, the more you do to the picture the better it seems to look. It becomes more organic and lifelike.

I do like what I’ve been able to do so far, I just think it needs to be polished up a bit.

It was early when I wrote yesterday’s post and apparently my brain hadn’t warmed up yet. In any event I meant a GM’s screen, not shield. I could have just gone back and edited it but I make mistakes and everyone is just going to have to get used to that. 😛

I have the data half of the screen done. I was surprised that I had to go searching to find things to put on the screen. It makes me happy that I didn’t have to leave things out that I wanted to have on there and that apparently three pages is enough to cover nearly all the tables you’d usually have to use. I seriously thought I would be leaving a lot out.

So here’s what I have so far.

GM’s Screen PDF

There’s no artwork yet, I might put something on the GM’s side and I need to start on the player’s side. I have an idea of something to put on it but I’m not sure of it yet. I’d like this to be done by Friday but I’ll admit, making a large format picture like that from concept to completion is a tall order for me. I might post my progress as I go (hopefully there is progress).

I’ve got this idea in my head to make a GM’s shield for The Artifact. I figure I might be able to get it done in a week here if I get the time. I’d like a landscape shield more than a portrait and some recent discussions I’ve read about GM’s shields makes me think GMs tend to like the landscape because it doesn’t completely cut them off from players.

The back pages are probably easier than a front picture so I’ll start with those. All I need is all the tables from the rules section along with frequently looked up stats and lay them out.

My problem with the front picture is two fold. I don’t know how I’d scan such a large format picture for one. I’ve heard of people using digital cameras to “scan” a large painting but I’ve never been able to get the lighting right. I might have to do the artwork all by tablet which I’ve also had trouble with in the past. To quote SB – “But then, when have I ever backed down from a bad idea?”

The other problem I always have is trying to come up with a single image that represents the entire game. Rob Lang was the one who kicked me in the butt about the image on the blog here and told me to make a montage picture. It didn’t occur to me before that (so thanks Rob). But now this is kind of the same problem.

Maybe to alleviate both, I should do three separate but thematically connected pictures?

So this week I’ll post the parts as they get finished. I might miss a post or two Wednesday and Thursday to make more of my time in drawing for the front. I’m a little out of the habit of drawing these days. I can get a concept down on paper more quickly in type than I can in pictures these days but pictures are faster to take in for the reader so I guess you get what you pay for (in time that is).

On to working on the shield!