Legacies: Creating Gytha, a teaser

I case you missed it, a few weeks back, I held a public design session. I assembled a crack team of NeoExodus enthusiasts in the creation of a city that we would be using extensively during this campaign year - and perhaps beyond.

I will commend my team of James, Rory and Steven who came up with some really evil things - better things than I could ever come up with. With that session over, it fell to me to integrate everything: their ideas with mine into a coherent whole. Originally, I had planned on having this book be around 10-12 pages but the final product will be around 28 pages long!

The result, I will say is a very compelling town, the first of the genre of what I hope will become a great series. The book includes a history of Gytha, a series of exciting locations both near and in Gytha itself including the Aquaspire, Iron Graveyard, the Pearl Beds, the Sahuagin Quarter. Four fully-stat'd NPCs with their background and history. New character options including three character archetypes, new feats, new weapons, unique items, a gallery of Janus Horde low-level combatants and no less than four new monsters!

As I write this blog post, I am putting the finishing touches on the document, I hope to have available for everyone by the weekend.

As a first teaser, I will leave you with the following: WIP art of the map of the city itself!

JP

Drawing Maps for NeoExodus

A quick post about maps I drew. If you didn't know I am writing an adventure for the backers of the Dreamscarred Press Kickstarter (here is a link). the adventure - unsurprisingly - uses psionics - and cavians! If you didn't know, Cavians are a race of psionic rat-men in NeoExodus. They are genuinely creepy!

The maps were hand-drawn and then tweaked with Paint Shop Pro. I used a technique I found on a number of websites and that I recently saw on my buddy Mike Azzolino's twitter feed (Mr. San-Fran VC). That is to use alternating lines to show areas where the walls were. I think it looks good.

I posted three in-progress pictures of the map. Nope I won't post the final version just yet. I might decide to change it all... But I think it fits my needs fairly well.

Avatar of the Kaga: Building Mureath

Last night, LPJ and I were talking about a number of things: the Obsidian Apocalypse Kickstarter (where I learned I'm one of the "other" writers) and a few extra goodies we could had for that (they are coming and they are pretty exciting). I offer you . But as usual, the core of our argument rested with NeoExodus. We went through parts of the Upcoming Players' Guide to add things our players have asked us to do on the Paizo Forums, and adventures.

Yes... It turns out that I have written a decent adventure to premiere at Tacticon but as I'm looking over what I have... I don't like it. It has everything the adventure needs and fills the goals I have for it.

But I don't like it.

There are many things I don't like about it, but mostly I feel like it contrives the PCs' choices too much and makes the choices they have to make somewhat trivial and that bothers me. It's not bad. I don't like it.

I may be spilling a few beans here... LPJ is working at getting his web comic, Grand Theft Exodus back on track after a few years of hiatus. I'll admit that the short-lived series was one of my first contacts with NeoExodus. I liked the ideas behind it.

Long story short, I'm now the Creative Director for NeoExodus.

One of my little side projects is the upcoming Nations of Exodus: The Arman Protectorate, wherein I have already a fair amount of work done. Well, turns out that the GTE reboot will be set in Mureath, capital of the Protectorate. As LPJ described the place as he envisioned it, it became quickly apparent that we had some different ideas.

Now don't get me wrong, I liked what LPJ had, but I didn't want to have to re-write everything I had done already as my version (I'm not shy to say it) did take into account some research into the history of Exodus. LPJ's was a lot more visually pleasing I must admit.

So after a bout of arguing - it wouldn't be a design meeting at LPJ Design without arguing. LPJ wanted to be able to give an overview of the city. So he envisioned a multilevel city built on the side of a cliff. My writing had Mureath on a hill. He explained the reasons and (for once) they were valid enough.

So then I explained to him that Mureath was on a hill over looking the Tyranius Straight and that it did not - initially have a natural harbor but that the Arman had quarried the local limestone so much that they created a harbor close by. The harbor could be expanded to the multilevel layout he wanted AND keep to what I had. Win-win.

We both resorted to drawing. It wasn't pretty. There are reason why I'm a writer and he's the business guy. Neither are nor should be considered artists by any stretch of the imagination.

Here was my original draft:

Then we argued some more... So I added his comments:

PaizoCon NeoExodus Map WIP

I have been working on this map in my head for a couple of days now. This map is for Encounter at Ramat Bridge, the PaizoCon NeoExodus adventure. I'm okay with it (its not great, but it should convey what I want. Let me know what you think.

JP

NeoExodus Map WIP

I am trying my hand at map making. Here is a picture of my WIP. This is my attempt at making a map for Kayen'te the home of the First Ones for NeoExodus. It includes a few spoilers such as some of the unique locations to be found therein. What do you think about it? Impressions? Good? Bad?

JP