If you aren’t in love with this image, you’re bad and wrong and we should probably not play games together.

In seriousness, there’s a lot I love about this image. The greens and blues are both colorfully eye catching, but also muted and somber. I can easily imagine this place shrouded mist. The vast amount of empty space surrounding the two figures makes me think of an eerie silence. The forest would be oddly quiet here, I think, with only the faint rustling of branches to let them know they haven’t gone deaf. And then there’s the dungeon entrance. I don’t know what’s down there, but it’s giving off a blue light. And that’s creepy.

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What in the world are they doing to that ogre?! Perhaps an evil wizard is replacing his blood with magma as part of a dark ritual to transform the brute into an unstoppable killing machine?

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According to the artist of this piece, it took about an hour. Try not to feel as jealous as I do about that.

I normally don’t go in for character portrait type pictures, but I always love this kind of messy, speed painting style. And I love the red beneath the eyes. It’s such an interesting detail on an otherwise very stereotypical looking wizard. Is it blood from catching a glimpse of fundamental threads of reality, or is it the warpaint of a bush wizard preparing to slaughter the enemies of his people?

You may have noticed posting has dropped off rather suddenly here. Some large issues, and larger questions, have popped up in my personal life. Resolving them may require most of my free time for a little while. I considered putting the blog on a month-long hiatus, and I haven’t discounted that option entirely yet, but for now I think I’ll stick to a “post when I have a moment” schedule. Hopefully I can get back to games soon!

SO, this image.

Resurrection is a tricky concept in games. If a character can be brought back to life, then what is the danger of death? It’s a question as old as gaming, and one with a lot of potential answers. The question, and the various answers to it, are all very interesting. I’ll write about them another time.

For now, look at this picture of Orpheus bringing his dead wife Eurydice back from the underworld. The image is terrifying to behold. The juxtaposed affection and lifelessness depicted here are disturbing. And while “you must charm the god of death with your music” is perhaps too high a bar for character resurrection in a game, this painting expresses something I like to see in character resurrection.

It is a herculean task to accomplish, and even when it is done, the resurrected person is never quite the same.

I feel the urgent need to set a game in this location.
Sometimes browsing imgur for embarrassingly large amounts of time produces useful inspiration.

The best monsters are fresh monsters. Not only because familiarity breeds contempt (which is true), but also because the GM is forced to describe the monster without the crutch of shared understanding. If I tell my players they encounter orcs, then they will understand what I’m telling them, but the inherent “otherness” of orcs won’t impact them. They probably won’t even take the time to imagine what the orcs look like. But if the monster the players encounter is one they’ve never heard of before, the GM is forced to do a little more descriptive work, which ultimately makes the game better I think.

There will always be room for the classics, though. In my mind, the natural progression of monsters is to start out as terrifying creatures. As we become more used to seeing those monsters, they become a little less scary and a little more relatable. The minotaur is a good example of this, I think.

While still able to pull its weight as a monster (and they are one of my favorite classic monsters), I more often use minotaurs as exotic NPCs these days. This painting by Paul Reid gives the viewer a look at the minotaur when it’s not menacing Athenians. It looks almost normal.

I’d absolutely recommend looking at Paul Reid’s gallery, linked above. He works in a classical style which I think is significantly underrated by modern artists. And he’s done a lot of work with classical mythology, including several different takes on the piece above.

Before anything else, I apologize for not being able to find the artist for this piece. The only source I can find for it is an audio essay on the BBC’s website. For all I know it could be 1000 years old, or it could have been created specifically for this particular broadcast.

I’ve been on a bit of an English History kick lately. I started reading up on Edward Longshanks, continued forward through history until I got bored with the Tudors, then skipped back to read up on Aethlestan, William the Conqueror, etc. It’s fascinating stuff, and I’m hoping a better understanding of the realities of that period will make me a better GM to boot. Alfred the Great’s life, in particular, might make an interesting campaign. During his darkest days his resources weren’t too far off from what a mid-level adventuring party would be able to call upon.

While there is some fantastic art of Alfred, as well as some really cool statues, I think this is the most inspiring piece I’ve seen. The bright colors and energetic posing makes it seem very pulp-y, which in turn is evocative of oldschool RPGs for me.

EDIT: Apparently this post was mistakenly scheduled to go up at 11pm tonight, rather than 7am when it normally should. Sorry about that!

First, just thought I’d point out that Picture Thursday 25 is on April 25. That’ll probably never happen again. I’ll be damned. It’ll happen on May 30th. That’ll be the last time, though!

If you’ve been reading my recent Deadly Dungeons post, it may have become apparent that I have a thing for statues. While painting and music are artforms which remain strong even today, to my knowledge there’s not a lot of traditional sculpting artists. It doesn’t really fit with the modern world. Who can afford giant blocks of stone? Once finished, how will it be moved? Where will it be placed? The practice of this art form hasn’t completely vanished from the earth, but in my mind statues are most at home in a land of swords and warfare. They speak to me of adventure.

This particular piece, the sculptor of which I have been unable to determine, is of particular interest to me. The photograph was taken Le Monde1. The only other photograph I’ve found shows the statue mounted on the outer walls of Grossmunster cathedral. It depicts Charlemagne with some seriously odd proportions, and bearing a crown and sword which–honestly–look kind chincy  in contrast with the stone.

A statue like this one would not normally draw my attention. Dude sitting with a sword on his lap doesn’t interest me. But the discongruity of the proportions and the cheap-looking accessories has left me staring at it for the last 10 minutes.