Saturday, December 26, 2015

Star Wars D6: Playing with family and some drawings (crude tho they may be)

The Force Awakens just hit theaters and as with the rest of the world I went and saw it. I am not really here to talk about the movie, so no spoiler for those of you who live under a rock. 

I spoke briefly to +Adam Muszkiewicz at U-con about having never really played start wars D6 and this all culminated with the following.

What happened though is I finally got up the gumption to actually run a game I have had forever, but have not had the drive to read it all, learn the system (which it turns out is super simple, hand to forehead) which is the West End Games Star Wars D6 game. I have the second edition, fourth printing from 1994, along with the sourcebook. And thats it. 

The kids and wife were on break, so what better way to celebrate the holiday break than with a family game of Star Wars D6. 

Here are the three starting scripts:
 The first is Jayce Twoburner a human played by my 11 year old. He is a rookie transport pilot on his first intergalactic run. 

This is Gizmo (Ewok Trader) played by my 8 year old. He is travelling from one system to the next with two Bantha's which he is trading for a speeder. He has spent every credit getting them shipped and has high hopes of making it rich.

The final is my wife's script she is playing the "lynch-pin" character a female human droid sales/fabricator working for a large company who has Imperial contracts. Things get complicated. 

The story starts off with Jayce piloting the transport ship under the tutilage of Bill Watoona a sulustan. Mid way through the journey from Nebula 9 (made up system), to Sigma Base (made up system) the empire shows up. 

Bill Watoona tells Jayce that he is transporting contraband (the two Bantha's for Gizmo) and does not want to slow or stop for Imperial inspection crews. 

Needless to say things go from bad to worse and the transport ship crash lands on the Castell Moon, a lightly inhabited planet of purple grasslands and steep plateaus. They see a city in the distance upon one of the plateaus, and a host of tie fighters enter the atmosphere shortly after crashing. 

Only our three heroes escape, and find themselves thrust into action. Gloria, a business woman has no weapon, Jayce has but a hold out blaster, and Gizmo has a force pike with blaster attached (made up weapon). 

They also see a bounty hunter ship enter the atmosphere (though they do not yet know it is a bounty hunter ship) and a troop of imperial stormtrooper scouts on speeder bikes heading their way. 

After a fight with the scouts, they gather weapons and scout armor and head for the city, a small spaceport called Colmar. 

A bit of artistry here, but a basic outpost rendering that worked quite well for the game. 
When entering the outpost Gizmo heads to the weapons shop to try a bit of "burglary" as he is quite broke and they left his Bantha's on the plains after they commandeered the speederbikes after the fight with the scouts. 

He runs into a troop of stormtroopers and quickly gives up any idea of such nonsense (he is eight) and joins Gloria at the cantina. 

Meanwhile Jayce (dressed in scout trooper armor) heads to the hangar area in an attempt to steal a ship out of there.  He runs into a troop of tie fighter pilots and after they asked for his operating codes, he makes a run for it, leading them back to the cantina, where they narrowly escape. 

Gloria, meanwhile recieves a message from her boss, telling her: "Negotiations have failed, get the codes to Diesal Vines on Aquilon 5" (made up system)

They leave the cantina only to run smack into a bounty hunter and his lackies. After a shoot out on the streets with him, and Gloria taking a serious wound, they head to the hangar and steal a junk freighter called the "Dustpan Delight" Pictured here. 

Again, a bit of quick rendering: 

With little thought to the consequences they jet into the atmosphere and run into an imperial blockade a super star destroyer and a flight of tie fighters. Finding that none of them know how to run a hyperdrive they send their ship into a dead spin, until Jayce makes a nearly impossible roll and hits the hyperdrive. Off they zoom. 

end of Episode 1. 

A lot happened and I learned alot about running this game. 

The next episode finds our heroes fleeing the empire with contraband codes, being chased by the bounty hunter that survived the street fight. They also have to find this Diesal Vines on Aquilon 5, evade the rebellion (unless they head to them instead and give over the codes) and oh by the way the junk freighter they stole is owned by a pretty nasty dude name Terik who is a Yuzzum junk dealer, wanted on 4 systems. 

Should be fun. 

Here is the bounty hunter's ship:

Here is a quick drawing of Terik. 

Honestly, I will get back to regular artwork for clients soon! 

Thanks for reading along, comments always welcome. 


Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Castles & Crusades Isometrics III

It has been a few weeks, but there is news on the Lost City of Gaxmoor front, for which I illustrated 9 isometric buildings. It has been released as a pdf on drivethrurpg.com, I think it is listed at $3.99, which is a steal for these isometrics. It will probably make print after the first of the year so stay tuned. Go there, download it check it out. 

Here is another sample of what you will get when you do. 

Caretakers Residence Iso by Del Teigeler, Mavfire
Copyright Del Teigeler 2015. Licensed Troll Lord Games 2015.

This is one of the few smaller buildings I did for TLG but I think it is one of my favorites. It was simple, and straight forward, not to mention it is located in the heart of the crypt district. The interior is loaded with all sorts of items, including a foyer, a sitting room with wine rack and banner with a " "G" for Gaxmoor, a pantry with hanging sausages, for those late night forays into the crypt, there is a claw foot tub, a study with shelves of books, and a bedroom. No basement, but for some reason I really want to put one in there, with like barred tunnels leading to the "undercrypts."

Very fun project to work on. It looks like I will be doing more of these soon for TLG as well. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome. 



Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Sketch Cache

Sketching: we all do it, even if it is just doodles of randomness that occupies our time during meetings, impromptu coffee shop time sinks, or actually sitting down to generate concepts for a living. Even if you think you have no talent at all, you've sketched something. From a stick figure to a crayola doodle of life at six, sketching is what we do to show representation of what we "see" in our head, and what comes out of our implement. Some are better than others, some make a living at it, some just do it for themselves. If you have a blank anything, from paper to stone to the inside ceiling of a cave as a canvas, and you have an object that can impress upon that object and leave a mark, you can sketch. Cave men did it, Egyptians did it, the greats like Leonardo, and Michelangelo did it, up to modern times. 

Wow, not sure where the diatribe came from but its staying. Anyway, its a good opener for me to showcase some of my more recent sketches. Some are concepts for current projects, others just studies, and some are failed attempts at the gathering of random lines drawn on paper. 

I wont comment on all of them, but then again maybe I will. 


Perfecting something, or maybe not. The center one leaves something to be desired for sure. 

Waiting room sketch with an ESPN magazine for reference. These were done with a ballpoint I believe. All I had at the time, I like to constantly work on faces, expressions, shapes hair, everything. 


Concept sketch for an upcoming +Thork Hammer project. This looks nothing like what the final will eventually look like, but I was working out the perspective and shape of the thing. Background of rough trees, and some hills, are jotted in very hastily. It will eventually be larger, and more detailed but this gave us a place to start getting our brains synchronized from what I read in the draft to what he saw in his head when he wrote it. 

Final pencils for the same project, this will be inked and finished up with a background.
Initial sketch for a potential client. Fast rendering of a dragon statue, and a dead dude, with on onlooker. 

Here is the same scene where I made it a bit more dynamic, and tightened up the composition of the sketch. Does it look better? Which do you prefer? Comment below. 


Here are a few more for the same potential client.  The first I had the figure up to the edge of the platform, looking out over the mist shrouded valley. 

Here I have moved the figure back in the scene a bit to better represent his size in relation to the tablets along the edge. It also fills a lot of that empty space at the bottom of the page. 


Here are a few rough concepts for another new project. 

That shark just sort of invaded the space. Must have been mind wander while I thought of other fishy type things. 



Working out the perspective of a perspective town. 

Close to finished pencils, not sure what I am going to do with it yet. This was a brainstorm sort of sketch that I just went with. Didnt turn out too bad, and I will submit it as well to the previously mentioned project. 

Well, I hope that gives everyone a bit of insight into more of my process, how my brain sketches and how my hand interprets what is going on in the cranium. I also felt bad that I have not been posting as regular and thought I had to make up for it. Hope this helps. 

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome.