I will be starting an artist's residency at a university here in Vancouver next month. Focus is indigenous roleplaying and art.
No more teaching juggling work & family then squeezing in time for games. Producing the full version of NUNA and art for it will be my focus for 6 months. As well as building community and learning the trade.
I am so happy.
Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Making art has always been a part of my life. As a child, I have many happy memories of playing in the kitchen of my grandmother Phyllis Pritchard, a known name in Labrador art whose painting I once found decades later on the wall of the Canadian ambassador to Japan's official residence! Nan was self-taught, and she and her sister supported their families by selling beautiful oil paintings of Labrador scenery and daily life. When I returned to Canada in 2023 after 20 years in Japan, and long after Nan had passed, I found this scrap of art she had done for me, a dogsled on the snow waiting for their master.
| Thank you for this, Nan. |
Having been estranged from art, I have had to relearn a lot on the fly. I always sketched so for NUNA I have experimented with coloring. The biggest art influence on my life has been comic books, as you can see in the 2 pieces from the Quickstart below.
| Inuk woman visiting a Tuniit |
With the Quickstart, I gave myself a strict deadline to, as Nan would say, "shit or get off the pot." This means I was in a sense rushed, but also added some dynamism to what I produced.
| I am proud of this one |
When illustrating for the adventure The Silver Machine, I decided to go for whimsical 90's style line drawings, like this one of the ship's Bridge.
| Thank you Star Trek! |
As I noted in an earlier post, art in RPGs is more polished than it has ever been, which excludes designers without art skills or a budget and pushes people towards AI art. I am blessed with some skill, and I would rather stretch myself for NUNA art than use AI slop any day.
| Very underground exploration vibes with this one. |
I have purchased some art instruction books and have a long list of saved art lesson videos in my YouTube. I will be sketching as a daily practice and expect a marked improvement in the art for the NUNA Corebook.
Take A Look Inside NUNA
Want to take a look at the NUNA rules and art? The Quickstart is available HERE or at the link below.
https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/575172/NUNA-Rpg-Quickstart
OK, Nuna text is finished. Just need to add a half dozen sketches at important points, redesign the covers, and it is off to the printer. I'll also have to get the gameshop launch party planned, as well as online sales set up.
But feels great to have come this far.
My whole life I have been called a Dreamer, but that is how I have made so many of my dreams come true.
I wanted to live in Japan. Spent 22 years there.
I wanted to be a professor. I got tenure in Japan, but quit to care for sonny.
I wanted to be a martial artist. I got blackbelt in karate, then won 2nd place in my city in Japan.
I wanted to learn Japanese. I taught myself to the JLPT level 1, the highest you can get.
I wanted to get my son out of Japan. Now we enjoy life in Vancouver.
I wanted to be a game designer. Now here I am.
In my life, people have mostly been supportive of my dreams. But there are always negative voices, and our inner voice often sides with them against our own dreams.
So I say to you, Dream big!
Don't listen to the naysayers.
Keep at it with incremental action.
And whatever dream you have, you can make it reality.
Nekmek!
Greetings!
I've gone silent running mode the past few days as I have been editing and rewriting NUNA Quickstart.
It is 99.99% done.
WHEW!
I still have to rejigger the PC stats (they were a bit underpowered) and add art. Then it is off to the printers! Then the social media blitz and networking begins.
Exciting. There are so many facets to making an RPG. The making is just the start of it. The connecting to community and getting your name out there is a much bigger part of the process, I have learned.
Wish me all the luck I wish you.
One thing I have noticed, is that Gamer ADD, ie having so many games you don't know which to play, extends to designing games as well. My game of Japan, Giri-Ninjo, is next in my sights. But I have plans for a Call of Cthulhu series of adventures with recurring characters, as well as a Coyote & Crow adventure I ran here in Vancouver.
But as a designer you will NEVER get anything done if you don't commit to finish one game before you work on the next.
In preparation for the final artwork of NUNA, here is the next chapter in Elric's Secret, my satirical mashup of Elric and old time bodybuilding ads.
(NB Had to re-upload the pic as the mesh shirt didn't show)I’m pretty much entirely centred on finishing off the NUNA Quickstart right now, so time for a mental (procrastination) break to think of something larger.
| New NUNA art! |
So the titular question, are role-playing games art? Here are my thoughts.
They are definitely spaces for art. From their inception, they supported writers and world builders, and gave a discernible boost to fantasy fiction. I won’t get into the downside, which is the D&Difucation of the fantasy genre, and how fantasy without any dungeon exploring tropes is now hard to come by. Just look at the history of D&D novels and current domination of works like Dungeon Crawler Carl and Frieren. Role-playing games have definitely contributed much to the continuance of the publishing industry during the digital age, both in the form of novels and gamebooks. And there are many role-playing games that are equally important as pieces of art than as playable games, from Stormbringer to the art books of Tales From the Loop and Alien.
In return, role-playing games have also given a huge boost to visual artists. In Japan especially, the master of fantasy art, Yoshitaka Amano, cut his teeth on art he did for the Japanese edition of Stormbringer, as well as the original Sword World RPG and the CRPG Final Fantasy. Frank Brunner's Stormbringer cover is equally iconic, and I will fight anyone who says its deeply atmospheric depiction of Elric isn't art.
| Russel's shadowing and mastery of form here is breathtaking |
| Amano did both the game and novel translations, and adds a dreamlike quality |
If you are a gamesmaster, then you’ve served as both script, writer and director for your own narratives. Josh Whedon reportedly based Firefly on a college Traveller campaign, which could explain his career success in those roles.
Similarly, players are also actors, and the role-playing table is a space that allows people to polish their acting chops without fear of sanction. The professional actors I know have all had to deal with a high level of criticism for pursuing their art, whereas playing in an RPG is decidedly nonjudgmental. Go look at Audrey Plaza's performance in the Harmonquest series, and you can see what heights an unfettered actor at a gaming table can aspire to.
With all these examples, it is pretty clear that rpgs are an integral and modern inspiration for many artists, from a variety of art forms. They may not have the cachet of exclusive high art, but that is an elitist domain and thus not a great loss.
But I think asking the question Are role-playing games art is actually an example of looking in the wrong direction, barking up the wrong tree.
Instead, if we see role-play games as essential incubation spaces for various genres of art, then we can see both their social and artistic relevance. And at this moment of history, rpgs are also an important canary in the coal mine in the conflict between AI and human art. The debate over AI art in games, the rise of AI GMs who will run your game for you, both point out the danger of not defending art - that we will be cut off from others and turned into captive individual audiences for corporate AI products.
And that would be the end of art, of games, and of our humanity, which is rooted in interaction with others.
Work is ended, time for ART ATTACK!
| Anyone know what this is based on? |
FREE LEAGUE and/or GOODMAN, I am open for commissions!
I’ve started practicing art again for a NUNA. There’s a little teaser of an Elric piece I’m working on inspired by the new RPG news.
RPG art for Nuna is tough.
Especially as an indie creator.
I asked Inuit artists to help.
No answer.
I got a graphic designer to help.
The AI tools in the program he used added fingers.
So I am doing the art myself.
Funny thing is, everyone who knew me as a child thought I'd be an artist.
My grandmother Phyllis Pritchard, my great aunt Jean Crane, my mother were all artists.
We have the gift.
Somewhere along the way I fell off the road.
It is nice to get back to it.
Everyday I am doing art therapy.
Makes the burdens lighter, the road brighter.
Just scribbling away on a Saturday
| The Old Moonbeam Road four |
| Tutauk |
| Титульный ледоход |
A few followers of NUNA pointed out what looked like wonky AI fingers in some draft art for the game last year. I was totally flooded with the Kickstarter + work + single fathering, and so didn't pay enough attention.
My apologies. I had told the NUNA team that AI art is unacceptable from the start.
I talked to the artist, who is a graphic designer. He uses Photoshop, which has AI tools and enhancements, some of which are options, some of which were hardbaked in. He finds it harder to do without them year by year. The fine line between photo manipulation and AI art is blurring rapidly.
He apologized and returned the pay I had sent him.
Let me be absolutely clear.
First, I abhor AI art. I hate the way it steals from real artists, and detest the schlocky, canned art products it creates. It is threatening the future of art itself - why work hard to be an artist when with a click you can churn out AI schlock?
Second, for my current RPG project, the Japanese social game Giri-Ninjou, I am making all art myself. By hand. I think this is perfect for a small, indie product.
In fact, I had a HUGE problem finding good artists for NUNA. Especially indigenous ones. Some didn't like RPGs, some didn't get the project. Lots that I saw make amateur or folk art, again, not suitable. My own art looks like 90's first time pen ink RPG art, and pales in comparison to all the professional level Kickstarter RPG art I see. Just look at Coyote & Crow, my inspiration, and you'll know what I mean.
Once again, my apologies, and expect nothing but human made art from me.
PS Living out a suitcase in Vancouver now, but on the trail of some academic work. Wish me luck!
Looks like artist Jason Thompson has beaten me to the punch and already made a gorgeous poster for The Haunting!
If you want this work of art on your study wall, you can purchase it HERE.
I am not connected nor do I profit in any way.