Dungeon Pets

Dungeon Pets

My second offering for Zinequest 2 is a project that I have working towards for over a year now. It is an offshoot of my weekly monster drawings, but made up of Monster, you can train and take as pets in a D&D game.

I launched the Kickstarter today to see if I can get it in print. You can click on the Dungeon Pets name above, and it will take you to the Kickstart page. Some of what I am going to talk about here is repeated on the KS page.

Dungeon Pets is an RPG art zine full of strange and fantastic creatures that adventurers in a roleplaying game can take on as pets. These creatures are similar to animal companions but have no class or level restrictions in regards to who can be their owners. Just like a house cat or a dog, an adventurer can purchase these pets and, with time, train them for many different takes to make them valuable companions while out on an adventure.

What is a Dungeon Pet?

These strange and fantastic creatures that exist in a living fantasy world. They are not Monsters that attack villages and adventurers seeking gold, blood, or power. But are just cute critters that live in the world who are a bit more amazing than the typical cat or dog. 

One such pet is the Necro-Hamster. These undead critters make the best pets for those who often forget to feed or water other pets. Though many religious groups might frown upon their existence, these cute monsters only use their necromantic powers for the good of their owners.

Sample of the Books Layout:

The zine has few game mechanics. There are rules for training your pet, what kind of skills they can acquire, and rules on pet health. They do not have the standard 5e monster stats but instead are left open for easy conversion to other game systems, only using D&D terminology to help guide a Gamemaster in using these creatures in their games.

Pet Health.

Exploring the deadly regions with your owner can be dangerous. Below is an explanation of how a Dungeon Pets health works.  Every pet has two parts to their health; a select number of Heart Boxes and a Hit Die type, these range between D4 and D12, which are used in place of tracking Hit Points.

This idea comes from Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers book, but in this case, I simplified the process by making it an HD roll instead of a CON Saving Throw.

Final Thoughts.

The Kickstarter will be going on for 2 weeks and will hopefully be as well-received as The Black Pyramid has been. I am looking forward to a full spring of proofreading and publishing. As the Kickstarter moves ticks long, I'll be making more posts talking about a few of the pets to give you an idea of what to expect from the zine.

The rise of the Batfolk

All art by me, Josh "Skull" Dixon

Batfolk

Another week and another new monster, but for this site, this will be my first post about a weekly monster drawing I made. So I think it's is great that a creature that turned out really well should mark this occasion. I would suck if the first Monster drawing post I had to make for this site was for a monster that I thought was less than what I was hoping for.

The Process

The way I create all my monster drawings usually follows the same process and the Batfolk monster is no different. almost every time I sit down to start drawing I don't have an idea in mind. I come to the board seeking something awesome and see where the session takes me. Some times it is good to let your mind wander and to express itself however it wants. this practice helps you generate ideas that you probably wouldn't have thought of and allows you to stretch and grow as an artist.
Most of the time, when I start, I begin by creating a silhouette. I use a Concept artist technique, where I just create a random shape and from there find the creature or person that the shape inspires me to make. I have many examples of this up on my Youtube Channel, which you can find a link to off to the side of this page. So check them out if you want to see how the random silhouette works in a timelapse video.
Once I find my inspiration, I break the silhouette down into shapes and build out the character from there. I don't stay strictly to the shape of the silhouette, I break out of it when needed, to create a strong character pose.
Once that is done I draw the final version of the creature in black ink and then color the whole thing, staying in a 3 color process for the whole thing. This is not that I only use three colors, but that at most there is a Base color, a Shade, and a Highlight (when needed).

My Thoughts on the Creature

As I draw I usually think about what this creature is, how it moves, what it eats, etc. This all helps me try and reflect this through the pose and some of the characteristics I choose to add tot he creature. So for the Batfolk, I knew I didn't want it to be a brainless creature. So I made it standing upright like a human and gave it clothing and tools. I wanted them to be scary looking, but I didn't want them to be a clique, so I gave them some of the colorings you see in fruit bats. The Orange chest hair for instance. I could have made them a flying race but I didn't want them to be like the Mna-bat from Batman. I imagine if any of their race does fly, maybe its the females. Maybe that's how you can tell them apart. I also thought it would be great if they were vampire hunters and so added Silver jewelry to this guy above. I also wanted to make his head huge just because I love the contrast between that and the rest of his body.

Anyway, hope you like the drawing. This is all thanks to my patron who encourage me to keep up with these drawings by supporting me on Patreon. As well as all you people who give me high fives and heart emojis when I post art on Social Media.
Until next time, Have a good weekend.

The Rise of the Black Pyramid - A Mothership 3rd party Module.

Zinequest

Zinequest 2 is happening right now and fortunately, one of the many projects I was working on fits the requirements of this fun community effort. A lot of amazing RPG zines came out of the first Zinequest last year and this year is looking to be even better. If everything works out, I'll be adding at least one, if not two Zines to this year's Zinquest.

Mothership

The Zine I hope to release first is a module I wrote and designed for the game Mothership, by Tuesday Knight Games. If you have not heard of this game, then you need to check it out. Mothership is a Scifi Horror game inspired by movies like Alien, Event Horizon, and The Thing. Its a game of exploration into the unknown, set in the greatest location of unknown possibilities; space. Here you'll explore derelict ships, strange alien worlds, and confront the horrors you find out in the black and maybe even survive the experience. I feel in love with this game and see so much potential for it. So much so that for the 2019 One Page Dungeon Contest, I designed a one-page Dungeon for Mothership and over on my icht account you can download this one-page dungeon with all the extra Mothership content that was not part of the original submission I sent in for the contest. A lot of people have checked out the one-page dungeon and really enjoyed it and this has inspired me to create more content for this game. 

Enter the Black Pyramid

My next Mothership project is more than a single map. It is 36 pages of Inspiration, Story, NPCs, Random Roll Tables, Artwork, and Three Great Maps ( if I can toot my own horn ;) ) called The Black Pyramid.

The premise is pretty simple but full of possibilities. A large unknown superstructure is found out in deep space. A superstructure that has perfect geometry and recognizable shape of a pyramid. No analysis can be made because it resists any scans. It is so completely undetectable that even navigational systems will never notice its existence until the ship has already crashed into it. Fortunately, for the trucker who discovered it, he noticed the odd patch of black blocking out the distant stars. The module is about the specially selected team put together at the last moment to explore this new discovery. They are tasked with discovering what this structure is and what is inside the Black Pyramid.

One of the best things about the OSR and the RPG Zine is that they encourage people to take their content and use it in any way they want. And this module follows that same tradition. I'm looking forward to releasing this module and seeing what everyone thinks. And I am looking forward to designing more adventures for this game that I can share with everyone. Currently, I am waiting to hear back about the 3rd party product agreement that I sent Tuesday Knight games, but I'll make a post when I put the Zine up on KS. Below you can check out some of the Art I made for this to give you a taste.

All Art by Josh Skul