AP (ID) - The Vandern Derelict Session 01

Last Wednesday, I joined a playtest for +Adrian Thoen's new, PbtA, sci-fi game, Impulse Drive, and it was a cluster of fun! The game is still in the works, but it has tons of great stuff going for it already. This post isn't a review of the game but rather an AP for the first session. I may add commentary later, or I'll just write a separate post for it (perhaps after a few more sessions). 

Impulse Drive

The Vandern Derelict

The Space Master

+Adrian Thoen was our intrepid Space Master (SM) - the equivalent of an MC or DM.

The PCs

Willem, the Sage (played by +Radioactive Bears), is a tech-savvy human with a heightened, intellectual curiosity and a distaste for med bays. He's the chief, operating technician of the Nothung and has teamed up with Vex out of necessity to better withstand the dangers that most jobs bring - at least the ones that offer decent pay. Still, it's barely enough to cover the costs of maintaining their ship and paying back their loan.

Vex, the Tempest (played by me), is a proud, regal, humanoid lion from the planet Ryal III. He is the last of his kind, as far as he knows, for his pride and kin were destroyed by the Ragi, a strong but inferior race of lizardmen who saw the Ryalians as a threat. Vex has sworn to destroy them at all costs and regain his rightful status. He's distrustful of most beings but has actually found a dependable, if often frustrating, partner in Willem. He might even dare to call him a friend one day!

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Session 01

Last login: Wed Jan  28 17:05:29 on console
Computer-Log:~ narrator$

RAR Session-01 archive

Extracting from ./ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.session01.rar

Creating ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew                                            OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.playbooks      OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.name           OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.home           OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.description    OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.approaches     OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.foibles        OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.calamity       OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.moves          OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.gear           OK
Extracting ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.crew/The.Vandern.Derelict - ID.bonds         60%

Extracting from ./ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.partA.rar

...               ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.session01/ID-TVD.txt                  80%

Extracting from ./ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.partB.rar

...               ID.The.Vandern.Derelict.session01/ID-TVD.txt                   OK
All OK

The Vandern Derelict by Adrian Thoen

Part A

The Download and the Durak

Willem and Vex were on board a desolate, shipwrecked, derelict ship in an asteroid field which was once the planet Vandern III before it blew up roughly a century ago. They sought out a computer terminal to download an encrypted data file for their employer, Varenia Drake, director of the Taxila Mining Co. on Vandern IV.

No one seemed to know what happened to the derelict ship or the people on board. All Willem and Vex knew was the location of the terminal and the fact that they were being paid 13,000 guilders to carry out the job. It sounded easy enough, but the distant echoes of skittering and clattering of metal made them think twice about how safe the job would actually be. Willem entirely too calm and curious, but Vex's hairs were standing on end.

Listening to the sounds, they realized they belonged to a race of space-born parasites called the Durak. Physically, they were biomechanical, crab-like aliens the size of cats who consumed metal/electronics and could survive in a vacuum. Behaviorally, they were extremely territorial and were considered annoying, dangerous vermin.

Vex heard them approaching from three places: the corridor they had come through and two, ventilation shafts - one on the ceiling and one on the ground, near the terminal console. Vex readied his laser pistol and began moving equipment to cover up the lower vent.

Meanwhile, Willem turned on the console and discovered a video depicting two women of different species with some sort of relationship before starting the download.

It was about a quarter finished when two Durak broke through the ceiling vent and jumped down. Vex shot one dead with his pistol, but the other one quickly jumped on Willem. Vex charged forward to rip it off him, but the Durak's pincer claws punctured a hole in Willem's vac suit. Three more Durak suddenly jumped down and began closing in. One reeled back and launched a spit wad of corrosive acid onto Vex's suit. Needless to say, Vex quickly developed a hatred for the Durak, while the inquisitive Willem was the complete opposite. He hatched an experimental plan, which he wanted to put to the test.

The download was over halfway complete, and Willem grabbed one of the advancing Durak to use as a shield against one of the spitters. He was extremely curious to see if their acid had any effect on their own kind, but Vex grew even more frustrated. Willem's plan backfired, and the Durak he grabbed lashed out at him. Vex sacrificed his own hide to help Willem out and quickly regretted it! 

Wounded and infuriated, Vex's eyes turned an icy color as electric blue sparks surged through his body. He let out a destructive, deafening roar that forced all the Durak to recoil and cower in hesitation and fear. 

With the download finally complete, Vex roared to Willem that they needed to leave stat. Willem, ever so calmly, thought of another plan. By tinkering with the computer systems, he managed to reverse the polarity of the gravity in the room. "You might want to hold on to something," he said, but Vex was caught off-guard and didn't take well to the gravity shift. As a result, he developed a slight phobia of zero G but still managed to offer a second solution to help them escape. "Hold on tight," he growled, as his eyes glowed azure blue, and he threw his gloved paws up facing the wall. Willem knew what was coming, and his eyes grew wide with interest, for he'd never seen Vex's telekinetic abilities until now. 

A psychic blast erupted from Vex's paws, and they went flying backwards, through the corridor and into the next room, taking some dead, Durak with them. Since the gravity was normal there, they fell hard on their bums, and Vex felt uneasy again. They heard sounds of more Durak approaching - a swarm - and Vex grew frightened. Willem thought they were fascinating and wondered if he could use the dead Durak to make him and Vex blend in with the swarm, so-to-speak. He asked Vex to punch a hole through the wall and grab him some wires in an effort to polarize the Durak's organs and attach them to the wires. Vex was mildly impressed, but it seemed to work. Willem was having a blast! He even mimicked a crab walk which annoyed Vex. Together, they pressed on toward their ship.

Willem and Vex eventually reached a gap and could either risk getting across, thus saving them time, or take the longer, safer route which would take them twice as long. Under normal circumstances, they probably would have chosen the safer route. However, Willem's punctured vac suit was almost out of air, and Vex really wanted to get off the derelict ship ASAP. Vex told Willem to hold on to him again, as he turned his back to the gap and projected his paws toward the floor before releasing another psychic blast. 

The good news is they got across and boarded their ship, the Nothung, without a problem. The bad news is that Vex felt his space sickness kick in, and he did more than cough up a hairball inside his suit. 

The Nothung

Stats

+1 Helm (controls and systems for flight, navigation, and maneuvering)

0 Tactical (control sensors, communications, weapons aside from basic, short-range weapons that deal 1 damage)

+1 Engineering (monitoring ship's vital signs, controlling onboard systems i.e. life support, shipboard communications, rerouting power from one system to another, fuel reserves, and faster than light travel via an Interstellar Drive)

-1 Drive (all basic Drives start at -1 and can be upgraded at a later time)

0 Rep (starts at 0; represents how well known you are and what you're known for)

Interstellar Drive

Simple, sub-space drive

Secondary Systems

• Medbay
• Ram scoop
• Flak mines (proximity mines used for setting traps or behind a fleeing ship to provide cover and avoid pursuit)

Part B

Recuperation, Running, and Renegotiating

Willem and Vex spent a day recuperating in the Nothung whilst staying by the derelict ship. The Sage couldn't stand being cooped up in the medbay but did so to keep Vex company.

The next day, they finally took off. Vex steered them through the asteroid belt toward Vandern IV, but along the way, they were hailed by a mysterious ship and a strange woman with light, purple skin named Maria Valez. Coincidentally, she resembled one of the women in the strange video Willem and Vex found with the file they downloaded. She told them she was boarding their ship, but Vex stubbornly refused. She threatened them with a warning shot and said they couldn't outrun her, but Vex was determined to prove her otherwise. When she asked them what they were doing on the derelict ship, Vex told her they had something she might want - for a price. Vex told Willem to upload the video they found. Upon seeing it, the woman looked shocked and fired several more warning shots, unwilling to negotiate. Vex knew that was their cue to run, and he took off as fast as he could, weaving and dodging through the asteroid field with relative ease.

It took Willem and Vex another day to reach Vandern IV, and in the meantime, they discussed what had happened and how their predicament could be much bigger than they anticipated. Vex asked Willem to make a copy of the encrypted data file and decrypt so that they could learn what information they were dealing with. Willem had to be careful not to leave a trace, but he successfully duplicated the file and opened it. Quite a bit of information about Varenia Drake was revealed.

A group of exiles and criminals called the Black Mandible took refuge in the asteroid belt and had fallen to piracy. The data confirmed that Varenia was a Black Mandible pirate in the past, when they were squatting in the derelict ship, and that she had some sort of relationship with Maria Velez. Varenia had plans to infiltrate the Taxila Mining Co., either to work as an insider or to go legit.

Following the revelation, Willem and Vex weighed their options carefully. They initially thought about selling the information to Varenia, the Black Mandible pirates, and the Taxila Mining Co. to get paid three times. Ultimately, they didn't want to sully their reputation but figured they could squeeze more money out of Varenia plus a favor, redeemable at any time of their choosing, no questions asked. Willem also went ahead and deleted the copy to ensure their reputation stays intact. 

After they arrived on Vandern IV and went to see Varenia Drake, Willem took the lead on the negotiation, while Vex stared at her with a cold fury. It was a classic good cop, bad cop routine. Once they spilled the beans about knowing what was on the file, Varenia reached for something, and Vex pulled his laser pistol on her. She was simply turning off all security cameras and recording devices, ready to renegotiate. 

In the end, Willem and Vex managed to broker an additional 22,000 guilders from her along with that favor, but in return, they had to fly back to the derelict ship and destroy the computer console whilst providing evidence in the form of a video recording. Willem and Vex agreed but also requested additional equipment to borrow such as a tactical pack for Willem and an assault rifle for Vex.

End of Session 01

Will Willem and Vex make it back to the derelict ship in one piece?

Will they encounter Maria Valez and the Black Mandible pirates again?

Will Vex's phobias of zero G and the Durak get the best of him?

Will Willem come up with a genius scheme to destroy the console without risking their lives?

We'll play to find out later today, when +Adrian Thoen runs Session 02. We may even have three more players, making it a full crew!

Image Credits: 1) Willem by +Adrian Thoen; 2) Vex by Misha Polonsky (myself); 3) The Vandern Derelict by +Adrian Thoen 

Cover Art for The Prophet - From Start to Finish

I have some awesome news and a WIP commission to share that's taken up my last three days of #dailycreative and will likely take up several more for sure.

+Damian Jankowski asked me if I could illustrate the cover art for his new DW playbook, The Prophet. Damian already has two excellent playbooks out for sale on DriveThruRPG called The Damned and The Cloak respectively. I didn't create the art for those playbooks, but I've been hired to work on The Prophet, and I'm really excited to be doing this piece!

Damian said he doesn't mind me sharing my WIPs, so I've been posting them on G+ as part of #dailycreative, and I wanted to share them again here.

Here are the first, preliminary thumbnails for the illustration. 

07.15.14

07.16.14

07.17.14

As soon as I get the green light on the final thumbnail/direction, I'm going to get started on the large, 8.5x11" piece for the final illustration. The thumbnails are still pretty rough, but I'll fix all the details and clean it up for the final. This is already proving to be a fun journey, and I'm thrilled to have been given a chance to work on this.

07.18.14

One reason I love posting WIPs on G+ as part of #dailycreative is that other artists can offer critique, insight, and helpful suggestions such as trying out an orange background to help make the violet colors stand out more. I may not always follow other people's advice, but if it helps me, I certainly will.

+Adrian Thoen has been extremely helpful on G+ and I thank him greatly for it. He's also been sharing some awesome artwork as part of his #dailycreative exercises and posting videos of his process on his YouTube channel.

Anyway, the final thumbnail has been greenlit, so I started sketching the large, 8.5 x 11" image out, but I really wasn't happy with the initial construction and composition.

07.21.14

I didn't get a chance to work on the piece over the weekend, but my sister was kind enough to pose as the Prophet so that I could take some reference photos with candlelight. Tonight, I redid the sketch from scratch, and I'm much happier with the result. I also added some really rough shadows to get a sense of the lighting. The next step is to clean the piece up, ink it, redo the shading, add color, and it should be done before the end of the week. I only have a few hours each day to work on it, but I seem to be getting more done in less time with each passing day. I definitely call that progress! More updates to come.

07.24.14

I didn't have much time to work on this the past few days, but I finally got most of the inking done tonight. Some elements still need work, and I'm working on redoing clean shading and highlights next, followed by some minimal color and adding the title bar in the end. I'm shooting to finish this piece by the end of the weekend.

I quickly added in the background, but I'll probably redo it as well. I'm including four versions here: one with the BG and energy lines, one with the BG and no energy lines, one without the BG but with energy lines, and one without the BG and without energy lines.

07.26.14

I've been watching YouTube videos by Jonathan Rector, whose art and workflow has really inspired me. I first found out about him after backing the PbtA superhero RPG, Worlds in Peril, since he's working on art for that game. 

Here, I took some workflow tips from Jonathan and started working on the shadows for this piece.

07.27.14

I continued working on the shadows with cross hatching for mid-tones, and I added some minimal color. Here are a few versions I did based on what was requested.

Damian was pretty happy, but he felt the background still distracted from the foreground, which I completely agreed with. He also felt that the piece was still lacking some energy and gave me a brilliant suggestion, so I took his advice and tried a lens blur effect with a Screen blending mode after darkening the background, reworking the hands, some of the hair, shadows, minute details, and adding a brighter candlelight coming out from under the card.

In the end, this is the final, completed piece, which I absolutely love. Damian's really happy with it too, and he's going to work on the layout for the rest of it (title bar, The Prophet title, illustration credits, etc.)

All in all, this has been an extremely fun and fairly challenging commission for not having worked on any commissions in a long while. I do need to work more on my speed and efficiency, but I've only been back into my art for a month now, and I learned a ton while making this piece which is what really matters.

Damian has been an awesome person to work with, and it's been a real pleasure creating this piece. I definitely look forward to doing more future commissions for him, whether it be DW playbooks or something else entirely, and I can't wait to see The Prophet playbook hit the digital shelves of DriveThruRPG in the near future!

If you play Dungeon World, and you're looking for some awesome playbooks, I highly suggest checking Damian's previous playbooks, The Damned and The Cloak. Both are on DriveThruRPG. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=6935

You can also find Damian's playbooks on his website, Semi Dark Arts.

http://www.semidarkarts.com/

Magic Item Monday - The Bone Wand of Beshlanishutli

So there's this thing called Magic Item Monday over at the Dungeon World Tavern on G+, and as part of my #dailycreative, I decided to do a light/color study and practice some digital painting, both of which are weaknesses for me that I'm trying to improve upon.

The item I picked for MIM is one that a group of PCs are currently carrying in a Dungeon World PbP I'm running on GotEXP called Sagas of Mahr-En.

I went in trying to draw the bottom half of a femur with some metallic rings and inscribed runes, but as several people pointed out in the tavern, it came out phallic-looking. That really wasn't my intent, but it is pretty funny. I guess I was too focused on capturing light, colors, and values to notice.

The Bone Wand of Beshi or The Bone Wand of Beshlanishutli 

A cursed bone wand from the Jungle of Beshi, it was originally crafted by Beshlanishutli, King of Devils and Sultan of Death. It attracts any undead within near range and glows a bright teal color whenever undead are nearby.  

Certain undead creatures (nightwing, ghosts, banshees, possibly more) may be absorbed by the wand which cause its runes to light up with the same, teal glow. Anyone capable of summoning or manipulating the undead may then draw them back out of the wand.  

I haven't quite figured out what happens when all three runes are fully glowing, but I'm sure it will be terribly evil and detrimental.  

It's also indestructible and unable to be lost or thrown away. If whoever is carrying it attempts to do so, it just comes back to wherever it was stored.  

In the game I'm running, the PCs are on a quest to keep the wand from falling into the hands of Beshlanishutli, his demon offspring, and his minions. Since the PCs can't destroy it, lose it, or throw it away, the only means they have of getting rid of it is by imprisoning it in a special box deep within an ancient, underground temple dedicated to Beshlanishutli. 

One person in the Tavern post also made a good point when they asked: 

Also, if the wand can't be lost, does that mean its location is always known to at least one person? Let's say the PCs succeed in their mission; they bury the wand deep beneath the earth of the demonic temple. Even if no one else knows where it is, the PCs all know. When all the PCs die, the wand's location becomes unknown again, which I read as "being lost". So what happens?

I didn't go into much detail regarding the 'special box' and wanted to include it in the drawing, but technically that's another magic item in and of itself. The point is that the box is the only means of imprisoning the wand. I haven't fully decided why that is, exactly, but the PCs know that whatever magic it holds, it's certainly powerful enough to keep the wand imprisoned.

Here are the drawings. The first one is actually from over a year ago; I quickly drew it up for the game, but tonight I wanted to recreate it in a more realistic style. 

Next time, I'll try and go for a less phallic-look, though that's hard when bone wands are concerned. ;)

Drawing from over a year ago.

Tonight's attempt at a digital painting and light/color exercise.

DW - Another ZoR Sketch

Today, I worked on another sketch of ZoR, one of my Dungeon World PCs from the floating city of Aetheron. It's supposed to be a WIP, but I'll probably just treat it like another drawing exercise. One of the other players in the PbP game mentioned how the previous poses seemed too graceful for ZoR, which I agreed with, so I tried to tone that down a bit, but now this pose isn't dynamic enough.

There are other bits I'm not too happy with either. The arm holding the sword seems off, and I want to play around with other hairstyles to make Zornosh and Raz more distinct, even though they're supposed to be twin heads.

I also don't have a lot of experience drawing chainmail armor, especially one that's supposed to be elven-made. I've been looking up references, which have helped, but it still needs work. I think I'll spend a day on armor studies real soon.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how ZoR's turning out. You can be sure to see a lot more drawings of this character in the near future. Once I nail down the right pose, features, and setting, it'll be well on its way to a nice, illustrated piece.

World Cup - Gestures and Quarterfinals

As I watched Germany play France today, I simultaneously drew quick, 1-3 second gesture poses of the players and this is the result. The first two sets of poses are from the first half of the game, and the latter two are from the second. You can clearly see how stiff the gestures were from the first half in comparison to the second. The cool thing is that I can totally use these for action poses that don't necessarily have to be football-related.

1 

2

3

4

DW (Aetheron) - ZornoshRaz Sketches

I pulled up a couple of sketches of that I did a little while ago and decided to work on some more dynamic poses and gestures with the character. The latter two with the chainmail are from tonight.

Meet ZornoshRaz, the Ettin Wizard from the floating city of Aetheron and respected member of the Seven.

ZornoshRaz is a PC I play in a PbP Dungeon World game over on www.gotexp.com. Zornosh is the male head, while Raz is the female. They usually go by the shortened nickname, ZoR, and each head has opposite personalities. Zornosh is methodical, more of an intellect, and prone to melancholy, while Raz is feisty, quick-tempered, and more of a fighter.

There are elements I'm happy with and elements I'm not so happy with. I'll keep plugging away at this character to find the perfect pose for a full-fledged illustration.

NPCs - Character Faces

Here are the first few drawings I have to share for my #dailycreative endeavor over on G+, which +Adrian Thoen started to get some creativity flowing each day, whether it's in the form of digital drawings, writing, painting, etc. I actually drew these sketches five days ago, but I thought I'd use them to kick things off.

Some of them could definitely be used as NPC portraits, and I may revisit them to polish the drawings up more (see below).

Today, I took one of the faces and tried some shading/coloring using a workflow method that +Adrian Thoen shared with me on G+. There's still a lot I have to work on, but for someone who's always had extreme difficulty with light/color, I don't think it turned out too bad.

One thing I love about #dailycreative is sharing comments and critiques, getting tips, and learning new methods that'll help improve my art. Adrian shared some great things on G+, and hopefully, by sharing our exercises and WIPs, we can all help each other out.