Jul 31, 2009

Special Effects you won't see in your typical vault submissions

I've been doing a lot of scripted effects lately. You can really get bogged down though doing fairly unimpressive things that take a lot of work. Knowing this I've added a lot of "sizzle" scripts and spared the steak if it wasn't necessary.

Examples are an earth elemental who dies, but splits into two with a little flash vfx thrown in, and my latest: A stoney graveyard of petrification victims, complete with the ability to smash their statuey forms into rubble:

Rolling Stones!


simply click to see the three stages of the process.

Jul 15, 2009

The Setting


Far to the west of the southern sword coast, an archepalego that is completely unknown to the outside world thrives with a small population of mostly humans. Scarecely more than a generation ago, the their grand parents fled the continent of Faerun and escaped the cruelty of their lords and masters. They named their new home the Avorin Islands.

Led on an impossible year-long voyage by a man who came to be known as "The Founder", they gave up everything and took a single boat on a journey in so long that all food would spoil, and no one could possibly follow.

It is here the hero and his childhood friend were raised, well schooled and trained on the history of Faerun and other continents, but yet secluded in the peaceful community of the small islands.

Master Fane was less than a father but more than a mentor as he trained the hero of the story in a rounded curriculum, including combat, history, and law. The fate of the PC's parents is unknown, but what is known is that Fane was not born of the Avorin Islands, but rather settled here shortly after the hero's birth, as he sought "retirement" from his adventuring days.

Fane seems a tad young for retirement however, and as the hero reaches age, they start to find their surroundings a little snug for their liking. Soon after however, the Avorin Islands are revealed to be somewhat larger than at first thought... and somewhat more dangerous, as a new threat is about to unfurl...

The Resurrection

Few remain who would remember when I joined the community over a year ago and announced the development of a campaign named Islander. I have been purposely quiet about it since as it had more or less been worked on faithfully for about 3 months and then more or less ignored during a college school year.

At this point it continues, some re-working, re-learning and some actual progress. The main hurdle that kept it back so long was a lack of pre-planning. Now with a main plot path ironed out it moves rather quickly. So I will be adding information here to re-introduce the concept and help me keep on track.