Old School Inspiration

The cover of the AD&D Manual of the Planes was always something terrifying to me. That big cyclopean lobster-handed dude rising up out of some gaseous ether of another realm was so striking the first time I saw it. It begged for adventure and I never forgot the image or the feeling it gave me. I feel like that’s what good art does, it burns an image into our brains so we never forget. The sketch here is from really early days of FAL when I was trying to get a feel for how I wanted the art to look. You might see some vague resemblance between our friend on the cover of the Manual of the Planes and the Mountain Lord featured in the early sketch.

New Logo and Font!

I thought, with a second edition, it would also be a good thing to have a revised logo/font for the game. In all honesty, I was never that keen on the original FAL logo/font. It always felt a bit halfway to me. Sorta flat and boring. Maybe it’s one of those things you spend so much time on and it loses its appeal or you lose focus. Like re-reading a word again and again until it loses meaning. This is called semantic satiation and I wonder if there is a design/visual/art equivalent for that?

The original font is a text I created modified from an existing font (I don’t remember the name of it anymore). So, the original wasn't even a font, just an image that I kept copying and pasting and resizing and… ugh. No more. You might notice on some of the recent branding stuff that the new font looks different. I’ve just been testing here and there to see what works. What you see here is most likely the final design and primary color. I wanted to stick with red and white so it feels familiar but the old font has been replaced. Something a bit more streamlined.

Finding Footing in FAL

In the early days of Far Away Land, around 2012 or so, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do with the world. I had loads of characters and ideas floating around but things were nebulous and I was finishing graduate school and super stressed. FAL was very much my catharsis in those days. It was a place I could go to escape and explore and there was no judgment and I had no expectations of myself. 

This is an image from a sketch for a Poomkin settlement. I think a more refined version of this found its way into the original Tome of Awesome. At this point in the art process I was largely trying to figure out the style for FAL. In the early days I would draw everything in pencil, scan it, redraw it in vector using Inkscape, and then finally drop it into Photoshop for the finished coloring. The results were fine but I always felt limited simply due to time constraints. I didn’t want an outside artist and I didn’t want art that looked like art in other games at the time. I wanted something that stood out, something colorful, something that seemed playful and fun while hiding a world where everything was dangerous. I'm not a fast drawer so this process was incredibly slow. Of course, that all changed once I moved into digital but early on it was a crawl. 

In a future post I’d like to talk about the proto-FAL game I made where I was figuring out the style of the game along with the type of mechanics I thought would fit best. I'm going to be posting some more early sketches as well as I thought it might be fun to see the evolution of the game. 

What draws you into a game concerning art? What is it you gravitate toward?

Cause... spikes

Cause spikes make it better. Akro are the Antiverse version of Orka. Often times, the alternate/parallel/bizarro universe offers up an opposite version of the “normal” character but with evil facial hair or an inversion of alignment, demeanor, or attitude. Akro, unlike Orka, have two eyes and a ridge of spiky growths on their heads (unlike Orka who tend to grow horns from the back and sides of the head). Unlike Orka they are highly emotional and aggressive. This particular fellow seems to have an affinity for spiky gear as well. Not sure what’s up with his breastplate. There is no substitute for a fiery sword and a good shield… with spikes of course. 

New Magic System in Far Away Land (part 3/3)

(This is the third of three posts on the new FAL magic system). I wanted to do a final follow-up post concerning the new magic system as it is a big change from the original system. While it is a departure from lists, there is no reason those who enjoy the lists must abandon them completely. The actual mechanics in the 2nd edition are still the same as the original game so lists from before could be integrated and simply treated as any new spell would be. The new magic system allows for spells to evolve as a PC’s Arcane Boon increases. So, for example, a low-level wizard with a spell that creates light might be able to conjure up something like the light of a candle while a high-level caster with the same spell might be able to create a flash of light blinding a room full of goabs! (the high-level caster would even have the option to adjust the spell as needed for the situation). Again, old list spells could be adjusted if players were so inclined. 

New Magic System in Far Away Land (part 2)

(This is the second post on the new magic system in FAL). In recent years, I have been fascinated with procedurally created worlds and systems, the replayability in video games like #Minecraft and #Dwarfortress, to name a couple of the procedural games I have spent way too much time on, specifically. In a TTRPG, I am really intent on players being able to create stories and narrate as much as possible during play. I think it is an easy way to get players involved in the game and give them a sense of ownership and agency over their interactions and actions. It gives them that wonderful moment to shine and be the center of attention. That feels good.

I wanted a magic system that reflected this style of play, so in the second edition FAL Enchiridion, I have done away with the spell lists of old and replaced them with a more freeform system. The goal here was to allow players to come up with their spells and definitions based on the type of character and play they want. The system uses two keywords, a descriptor (like provoking or weakening) and an effect (like plume or blast). With this two-word combination, the player then uses the guidelines provided to determine the spell specifics. So, while a freeform system, it is not necessarily an on-the-fly freeform system, as spells do require preparation. In play, the system has been incredibly rewarding and fun to test. Spells now feel intimately linked to the PC and grow with the PC over time, not just in the number of dice rolled and damage but in actual descriptions and effects. Also, as a side note, the descriptors and effects don’t need to be the name of the spell (like weakening plume), they are simply the ingredients providing direction for the spell.

Part 3

The New Magic System in Far Away Land pt1

Not all wizards have beards. But all wizards, sorceresses, mages, necromancers, and other practitioners of magic definitely cast spells. The new magic system in FAL allows for a more freeform approach to magic by providing players and GMs a list of descriptors and effects to build the basic description of a spell. As a character increases in their magical abilities, the effects of that spell likewise increase. In the next few posts, we’ll break down the new magic system and give some examples.

Check out part 2 here.