Frost Giant Friday - "Mountain of Mirrors" cover by Elmore

I'm not a die-hard Elmore fan, but I really like this cover for the Mountain of Mirrors Endless Quest book.

Frost Giant Friday - "The Giants Alliance" by Andy "ATOM" Taylor

Nice throw-back to "Against the Giants."  By Andy "ATOM" Taylor

Frost Giant Friday - "Four-armed Frost Giant" by Florian Stitz

A frost giant... with four arms.  Do I really need to say more? By Florian Stitz

Frost Giant Friday - An awesome figure by Shinobitron

Thought I'd switch it up with a figure this time.  By Shinobitron

You got to love the full mug of mead....

Frost Giant Friday - "Jotun" by Jeff Fairbourn

"Jotun" by Jeff Fairbourn

Frost Giant Friday - "Frost Giant" by laclillac

I love the realism of the adventurers' look (e.g., the backpack, etc.).

Frost Giant by ~laclillac

Down in the Dungeon at Monster Brains

Monster Brains has posted some awesome art from the 1981 picture book, Down in the Dungeon, by Don Greer and Rob Stern. Check it out at the blog or the Flickr site.

Here is my favorite from the set, The Trap Door:


Also, check out these excellent maps:

A Day Trip to Origins 2010: Part 5 – The Art of Echo Chernik

I took a quick tour of the art exhibit and was quite taken with the art of Echo Chernik.  I’m a fan of Alphonse Mucha, so it's no surprise I like her work.  Here is a sampling taken from her Web site: link

I have no idea what the “Pie Cthulhu” one is about, but I like it.









   


 


 

More Great Art by Brian Thomas

More great art by Brian Thomas of Three-headed Troll Art Wurks.

Dave the Knave's Art

As I've alluded to before, one of my players, Dave the Knave, is a damn fine artist.  Here is a sampling of his work from his deviantArt page.

This is his rogue/monk character, Plum Blossom.  She is second in line to the Survival Trophy.

Plum Blossom again, but an earlier version.

Here is Archbishop Van  Awesome.  A rather grandiose handle for a 1st level cleric he created for a Castles & Crusades one shot.  Dave had a lot of fun playing him and he sounded a lot like Val Hallen of the Justice Friends.

Frazetta Passes On to Valhalla

It's old news by now, but Frank Frazetta passed away on May 10. Still, I would feel a bit remiss if I didn't mention it here as he is my favorite fantasy artist of all time and certainly one of my top 10 artists period.

What sets Frazetta's works apart is how dynamic they are.  He had a knack for emulating movement that few (if any) can match.  Boris Vallejo, for instance, has fantastic skill, but his pictures seem more like window displays than snapshots of action.  In my favorite Frazetta piece, "Snow Giants," you can practically hear the giant gurgling his blood, his throat having been slit by the Cimmerian's sword.  I had a poster of this picture on my wall during my teenage years.  Honestly, I wish I still had it.

Frazetta certainly captured the raw, blood pumping adventure of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories.  I have to admit, it's always irked me a bit that Conan is almost always near-naked in these paintings, despite the fact that he is usually well-armored in the corresponding tales.  Still, hell, if it weren't for Frazetta, Conan might still be depicted like this:

I'll take "half-naked" over "huge, nerdy-looking guy" any day.

Here is another of my favorites.  I love how Frazetta captured Conan's "volcanic" eyes.

I also have to say, nobody drew voluptuous women like Frazetta.  These aren't waif-like damsels, these are women that would make any man's blood race and heart pound.

 Hell, he could even make Tolkien sexy.

RIP Frazetta. You'll be missed.

Fantasy Forest Books and Their Great D&D Art

I took snapshots of some of the interior art from the Fantasy Forest books.  The picture quality isn't the best, but I tried.

Mario Macari, Jr.'s art from The Ring, the Sword, and the Unicorn

Michael Fishlel's art from Ruins of Rangar

Pamela Summertree's art from Dungeon of Darkness

Mario Macari, Jr.'s art from Star Rangers and the Spy 

(Star Frontiers!)

Some Images to Go with Your "What Polyhedral Die Are You?" Results

Okay, I should have worked out some kind of kick-back deal with Dicepool.com, because every frickin' gamer blog out there participated in their "What Polyhedral Die Are You?" quiz after I posted it.  


(I'm sure the fact that Jeff Rients did the quiz had nothing to do with that.  I mean, who reads his blog? Oh yeah, everybody that owns a d20.)


Dave the Knave noticed some rather appropriate images by Lee Bretschneider on Flickr shortly thereafter (you can also find them at Lee's Adventuring Company site). Be forewarned, a few of his images are artistically NSFW.


Here I am in business attire:

This is What Happens When You Piss Off the Gods

I imagine this is what it looks like when Crom is not pleased with you....

Compliments of NASA: link

Cloudy with a Chance of Orcus – Whiteboard Uses for RPG Gaming

In my post about the showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus, Omote noticed a strange “map/poster” sitting on an easel in one of the pictures:

That is a piece of extra shower board/tile board/Melamine. Before I started using my massive battle map, I used two pieces of “whiteboard” purchased on the cheap from Craig’s List. The lady selling them didn’t know they weren’t real whiteboards (neither did I). Anyhow, they were cheap and these extra pieces are damn handy. Oh, the easel is my wife’s, but I long ago commandeered it for my own twisted purposes.

Various uses:

• Mapping - I stand in front of the whiteboard and draw an overview dungeon map as the party explores. This makes me feel like some strange, Gygaxian weatherman, but it works very well. It makes the mapper’s job easier and gives all the players a sense of where their characters are. It may sound like extra work, but it actually speeds up play because the players don’t need to question me as much about dungeon details.

• Initiative Tracking – I often write the initiative order on the board so that everyone in the group has a clear idea of when their turn is coming up.

  

• Extra Battle Room – I bust out these pieces when the battle spills over the area on the large battle map. It happens more than you’d think in a dungeon the scale of Rappan Athuk [especially if the DM (uhm, me) doesn’t start drawing at a good point on the large map].

• Artwork – My girls love to draw on these surfaces.

SKULLS - Web Comic

Black Gate magazine has been posting a web comic called "SKULLS" by John R. Fultz on its blog.  Check it out: link

On a side note, Black Gate magazine is excellent and you should check it out if you haven't.

Motivational Posters

A few years back, I had a lot of fun with the Despair Parody Motivation Poster Generator.  I thought I'd dig these out of the archives and post them here.  You'll note a Necromancer Games theme (what can I say, I'm a fanboy).