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Just started using the program, TOTALLY solved one of my biggest issues for my current boardgame project.. character art!
Below is one of the possible covers:
The character on the left is Narayana fe Anne, former Tali’Centi of Ancient Kharuna. The one in the background is Emyhr Cogan, professional cleric-for-hire that’s often employed by the Captain of the Whitstone Guard.
Both are actually secondary characters in the overall lore for the game, but I thought they fit well together (which is funny, since Narayana would never work with a cleric.. and that’s actually a rule in the game).
I have a few others I’m working on I’ll post up later.
Thanks 🙂
I had previously done some of the characters in different 3D forms (with extensively modded Skyrim being the most successful, dabbled in Daz3D too but it gets really expensive quick for hobby projects), but honestly this is as close as I’ve gotten them to how I’d actually envisioned them.
Looks quite beautiful! I’m working on a fantasy boardgame too, and indeed, art is a difficult issue, if you can draw only stick figures like me 🙂
[quote=”Fasoldgames” post=2179]Looks quite beautiful! I’m working on a fantasy boardgame too, and indeed, art is a difficult issue, if you can draw only stick figures like me :)[/quote]
Totally agree.
I’m fine with CAD software for doing maps and other things, but anything that needs to be fluid or organic I can’t draw at all.
I’ve looked through your thread. Looks like a cool project. Was glad to see someone else around here with an interest in boardgames 🙂
Not showing off my “characters” per se, but a couple of shots showing how I’m using ePic to generate the art for my boardgame project.
With the exception of the leshan with the antlers there, all the characters/orcs on the tiles as well as the paper standie were done using ePic. It’s really making tile create a TON easier.
Looks very nice! Is it a classical kind of RPG with lots of stories? I love those!
By the way, are you producing the game yourself or using a service like http://www.thegamecrafter.com?
I find that the Gamecrafter is an excellent tool for producing prototypes and such.Err… it’s a boardgame, so I can’t understand how it could be a “classical kind of RPG“.
Maybe it’s a great boardgame, sure but I don’t want to argue on this point again. 🙂
RPG isn’t mainly about the story, it’s about the roleplaying. It’s all in the name. 🙂
In the “traditional” sense, most people consider an RPG game to be a Pen & Paper RPG in the vane of Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, 13th Age, Savage Worlds, etc. The game is played more in your imagination and off your character sheet than it is on any kind of board. Talk to any boardgamer and mention “RPG” and that’s generally what comes to mind. The “boards” are usually ‘battlemats’ for working out position during combat and the like, but much of the game is not played on any type of board.
Having said that there’s quite a few boardgames that are what some people call “RPG-Light”. They’re played on a board, feature lots of bits, and include some type of character progression for the play session. They’re usually much more theme-heavy than typical board games, but not as much as full blown RPGs and are generally self-contained. Unlike P&P RPGs these don’t typically have any kind of character persistence beyond their play session (and the game can be won/lost in a few hours), so you start over every time. Games like Mage Knight, Runebound, Talisman, etc. could fall under this category.
ACGs (Adventure Card Games) probably fall somewhere in the middle.
My game falls under the “RPG-Light” category. It started out as a massive houserule for Return of the Heroes, but it got too the point I was changing so much that I just decided to start from scratch. I’ve re-used many of the mechanics and conventions in that game (the counters for example follow the same layout and have similar symbols meaning the same things, I maintained the 16-tile geomorphic board format, etc.), but with all custom artwork, overhauled dice mechanics (converting all the game mechanics from d6-based to d12-based), and a new story-heavy theme. There is character progression in the game (I’ve also added a basic skill system), but like most RPG-Light boardgames there is no persistence between play sessions. I’m also designing it primarily for solo play.
Yeah, well, I’m from a time when there were no so-called computer rpgs and nothing but pen & paper. So to me, RPG means RPG and everything else is something else : boardgame, computer game, mmo, what have you…
Note that I tried many of these, and they are most certainly entertaining. I’m just saying that they are not RPGs, that’s all. 🙂
Not in the sense I’m used to at least. i.e.: Basically : everything is possible, provided it’s fun, you’re willing to roleplay it, and the GM is okay with it. 🙂
And I’m gonna stop babbling about that. If you look carefully, there are already some posts about this somewhere else on the forum. 😉 😛
[quote=”Kelemelan” post=2185]Yeah, well, I’m from a time when there were no so-called computer rpgs and nothing but pen & paper. So to me, RPG means RPG and everything else is something else : boardgame, computer game, mmo, what have you…[/quote]
Sure, if you want to use overly broad definitions.. it just falls apart as soon as someone says “what kind of game is that?”
While Star Fleet Battles and Settlers of Catan are both boardgames for example, they’re about as different in theme, scope, and complexity as possible, and one in no way can serve as a frame of reference for the other.
Describing an RPG as “like Dungeons & Dragons” likewise describes games with common mechanical or thematical elements, it also implies some very specific traits and in no way encompasses the breadth of the genre… like Mythic for example, that can be played entirely without a DM/GM.. or Traveler that takes place in space and uses an entirely different mechanical system.
My point being like “RPG” is overly broad and inadequate to describe the breadth of games available under that umbrella, likewise is “boardgame”. You mentioned in another thread you think of boardgames as things like monopoly or chess, but that’s an outdated and very limited definition. Some boardgames in my collection like Leviathans, Crimson Skies, and Renegade Legion have a vastly more interesting story and universe with significantly better mechanics for roleplaying in them than many RPGs I’ve seen. Crimson Skies won’t do if you want to figure out what you have to roll for initiative before combat, but there’s not a single RPG on the planet that would beat it for role-playing a fighter pilot in an alternate 1930’s universe. Not. One.
So describing some boardgames as “light RPGs” is the most accurate definition. The term “Adventure game” used to be more common, but that term has likewise become too broad to really mean much.
Note that I tried many of these, and they are most certainly entertaining. I’m just saying that they are not RPGs, that’s all. 🙂
..they’re not traditional P&P RPGs. But I don’t think anyone could make the sane argument that the RPG genre wouldn’t encompass games like Mage Knight or Magic Realm.
Lucky for you, most boardgamers hear the term RPG and still think about P&P games first and foremost 🙂
Some more art (because honestly, I’m having so much fun messing around in ePic I’m spending as much time creating character art as I am doing anything else on this project… lol)
These are some more counters that were made using ePic:
And the “raw” characters that were used to create them (well, some of them anyway)..
This one is a scout for the Kellenian army:
This is Stéphane La Rue, a Lieutenant under Captain Donnovan Krafton (one of the playable characters) who serves as the close combat instructor at the fort outside of Whitstone:
(I actually notice after I did this that I used the same hair on the army scout -I’ve since changed Miss. La Rue up a bit with a new hairstyle and re-don the counter, but since I had to do a layered export for her boots I haven’t re-don the full size picture yet).
Annaleigh Garnet. An incredibly talented sorceress, who was at one point hunted by Donnovan Krafton (back when he was a Lieutenant) for murdering another sorceress. She managed to wipe out more than half of his men (and some in some pretty gruesome ways.. she chained one to a support beam in a millhouse and set his plate armour aflame) before disappearing after being confronted by Krafton and Marcellus. She was teleported away, tipping her hand that she wasn’t working alone.
She doesn’t actually make an appearance in the first run of Whitstone, but I have plans for her if/when I do an expansion.
She’s another one that required several layered exports.
Marcellus ser Ri’Lan, along with Narayanna one of the few remaining Tali’Centi of Kharuna. Expert swordsman with a bitter attitude toward most people. Like all Kharunians he’s highly distrustful of mages (this is a personality trait that actually has an effect on the mechanics of the boardgame), except for Penelope Cadwell. Though bitter he’s also good at heart.. just worn down after years of seeing what’s left of his people and his culture being wiped out. He’s basically the “main character”, and is the common thread through all the other characters and the plotline.
Godfrey. A reclusive hermit that lives in the woods outside Riltar (one of three towns on the gameboard). A druid of sorts, and old friend of Marcellus.
Penelope Cadwell. Young and talented sorceress that serves as a court adviser to Lady Milner of Whitstone. She is hot tempered and quick to anger, at the same time determined and driven. She often gets into verbal sparring matches with Donnovan Krafton (who claims she lacks a sense of humour). Penelope and Marcellus have a somewhat turbulent relationship, and she’s possibly the only mage he actually trusts.
These were characters I created when I was just messing around in ePic, liked the result, and decided to use them for.. uh.. something.
This one here I think I’ll use for my “necromancer” storyline, which is one of the two main storylines that can be played in the game.
This one here I actually don’t have a purpose for.. yet. I just liked it :). The bow is from a different set, was exported and clipped separately then photochopped onto this character.
Still got more of them to come 🙂
Very interesting. I like the backgrounds of the characters, and they look good too. Your game seems quite interesting, if ever you need playtesters or what have you, I would like to volunteer!
In regard to the RPG argument, I think both you and Kelemelan are very intelligent and can stop showing off now 🙂
I am but a simple person, to me RPG means anything where you can make a character and roll a dice. But then, I’m rather backwards in the ways of the world 🙂
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