Collapse on the Couch and Reflect

This is my reflection post for the 2013 April A to Z Challenge.

I would like to begin by welcoming everyone to my non-Challenge blog. I feel like blog personalities change slightly when not under the pressure of A to Z. Like getting home from work, or a fancy dinner party with a bunch of strangers. After A to Z, the blog's shoulders relax, it kicks off its shoes, cracks open a beer and maybe lets out a little fart or something. You get to see it when it is not trying to be "on". Sometimes that change is a little different from the vibe given off during the A to Z.

This past A to Z was all about maps for me, but ROFL Initiative is more than a place for pretty maps. Yes, I draw on occasion, but this space is mostly a celebration of all things nerdy. Of things that would make jocks of the 1980s want to beat me up. I would elaborate further, but this past week, Wil Wheaton posted a blog, a video and a picture that also happen to sum up what I strive for in a far more eloquent way than I could on my own. 

You'll be Safe Here, by Dryponder

If you don't follow Wil already, you should check his stuff out. You might like what he has to say. In the mean time, welcome. I'm glad you're here.

On to the reflecting!

This was my third year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In a lot of ways this year was wildly successful.

• My visible followers grew by 50% over the course of the month.
• I smashed my previous monthly page-view record by 200% and broke 10,000 pageviews for the first time.*
• By hand drawing my maps, I actually got myself away from my computer in the evenings and avoided the temptation to work on personal projects during work time.
• I wound up with a collection of stock maps that I have already begun putting to use in my D&D game. This past Monday, my players battled a bunch of undead beasties at an altar.
• Using maps as my theme helped prevent me from phoning in my posts while in the thick of it. In years past, I've always been tempted to just get a blog done regardless of how crappy it was. Not so with the maps.
• I added quite a few new blogs to my feed reader.

 *This was largely due to a wonderful fellow blogger posting about my project on Reddit, which led to it trending as high as #3 on the RPG boards for a day. It'll be interesting to see where things stand post spike.

However, there were also a lot of things that continue to frustrate me about the Challenge, or at least make me pause and say, "I wonder…"

• I had a heck of a time making it to other people's blogs.
• When I did find time, I found myself wondering if I should go to new blogs, or revisit the ones I was really digging. I definitely felt like I didn't have time to do both.
• It generally took longer to make the maps than it otherwise would to write a blog, so more of my time was consumed by the challenge.

Very soon I will add this year's posts to my A to Z archive page. If you would like to check out my entries from years past, you can find them there in convenient lists! Do I think the Challenge was worth it this year? Yes! Will I do it again next year? Not really sure yet. I probably wont know for a while now.

Oh, if you didn't get enough alphabetizing during April, check out Realmwright, who has decided to run a May to Z blog challenge!

Z is for Ziggurat

This is it! The final map of my April A to Z mapstravaganza and my third successful completion of the A to Z challenge. The ziggurat, a mighty monument with a lot of steps that take a lot of effort to climb. What lies in the chamber at the top? Steps down... perhaps to adventure!

Big thanks to everyone who joined me on this A to Z challenge! I found many new blogs to follow and it looks like I attracted many new readers. I will probably take a break from posting... perhaps doing a wrap-up on Friday.

For those of you who joined for the challenge, the mapstravaganza represented an escalation of my New Year's resolution, which was to make a thing a week. I intend to continue with my make a thing a week challenge. The things I come up with get posted every Monday as part of my ongoing Make-it Monday series. Some will be maps. Some will be drawings. Some will be crafts. Some I haven't thought of yet.

Okay, get your printable ziggurat here.

I'm going to stop typing now.

Geoff

Y is for Yeti's Cave

High in the frozen mountains, perhaps near the icy chasm, a yeti has made its lair in a secluded cave. The cave floor is littered with the leavings of the yeti's hunts. Perhaps the beast has discarded some unknown treasures from unwary travelers it has slain. Or if your in the market for a nearly complete dire elk skeleton...

Just one more day left in the A to Z Challenge!

Get a printable version of the yeti's cave here.

X is for Xill's Nest

One of the beauties of D&D is there are tons of things that make use of obscure letters like X! The Xill is a race of 4-armed lizard-like beings that live on the ethereal plane. They are evil raiders who wait in ambush for creatures on the material plane to pass by. They then cross over the planar boundary, subdue their prey and drag them back to the ethereal plane. Xill reproduce by implanting their eggs in their victims (Alien or wasp-style) When the eggs hatch, the Xill larvae devour their host from the inside.

The Xill nest takes advantage of their ethereal nature. It is located on the ethereal plane next to a material road where prey is plentiful. The brood chamber and that of the Xill leader have no doors. This allows ethereal Xill to pass while trapping material beings within.

With that, we are done with the final full week of the challenge. Just two more posts to go!
Get a printable version of the Xill's nest here.

W is for Waterfront

or wharf... or whatever.

I'd like to give a big shoutout to Dyson Logos and Dante for posting about my A to Z mapstravaganza on various sites yesterday. Apparently the Reddit RPG forum got ahold of it and my traffic spiked to the point that I got a month's worth of traffic in a single day!

Today's map depicts a seedy fantasy waterfront, complete with vikingesque longship in honor of the Swedish invasion my site underwent yesterday. I love the potential weirdness that can take place in dockside neighborhoods. The combination of ships coming in from exotic locales, and ships headed out carrying folks with places to go, folks with people to flee and folks just looking for adventure makes for a crab pot of excitement just waiting to boil over.

Speaking of crab pots, I once worked up an in-game dockside bar called Peggy's. It was run by a dwarf with a peg leg. He had lost his leg in a battle with a giant crab, but managed to take one of the crab's claws in vengeance. He felt fine about it until he learned that crabs grow their claws back. Now ol' Peggy makes regular pilgrimages to re-take his nemisis' claw. The walls of his bar are festooned with the fruits of his labor.

At some point, I would also like to create a seaside bar run by catfolk. It would be called the Crusty Starfish. If you own a cat, I'm sure you get it.

Oh, also, now my 20% gray pen is starting to fade, so I only used it for small bits of shading. I did the shady sides of the rooftops after the fact in Photoshop. Do I go to the art store again or try to get through these last three maps?

Get a printable version here.

V is for Village Square

It all starts here. The ubiquitous village has been the jumping off point for countless D&D games. My campaign started in a tavern in a village much like this one. Cliche? about as much as you can get, but it wasn't for my players who had never played before that.

Just four more days left!

Get a printable version here.

U is for Undercity

Beneath every city lies a world of secrets where things discarded by accident or intention go to find new purpose. In the sewers, theives and the destitute can find refuge from judgment and prying eyes.

U is also for "Uh oh, out of ink." My 50% gray marker I bought specifically for the A to Z challenge ran out of ink partway into shading this drawing. I had to continue with the 80% gray marker and then adjust the curves in Photoshop. It's kind of cool that I managed to draw a pen dry in less than a month, but it does mean I'll be stopping at the art store before moving on to V.

Get a printable version here.

T is for Thunder Vale

Thunder Vale is a valley high in the Cloud Peak Mountains, named for the booming echoes made by two waterfalls pouring over a cliff at its southern end. The stronghold featured yesterday is located atop the cliff in Thunder Vale. In my game world, the stronghold and vale were given to my players to serve as their base of operations. When they found it, the stronghold was in partial ruins, and a group of refugees had settled nearby fleeing a plague (of the zombifying sort) that was sweeping the land. The players have begun to fix up the keep and many of the refugees have chosen to stay, beginning to establish agriculture and herding within the vale.

Get a printable version here.

S is for Stronghold

Welcome to A to Z week four! I went waaaaaay overboard on the first map of the week and ended up doing four maps. One for each level of a simple stronghold, from the basement to the top of the guard towers. This map is unfurnished due to the sheer amount of time it took me just to finish the structure.

R is for Rookery

We have reached the end of week 3 of the A to Z challenge, and I'm still hanging in there. For this week's finale, I give you the rookery for the Royal Turimori Griffoners! Just one more full week and a couple extra days! I may deviate from my original list for the next couple maps... not completely sure yet.

Q is for Queen's Court

A to Z Day Q. Though Q is a tough letter to use in Scrabble, I've never had a hard time with it in the A to Z. The queen sits in the grand hall of the Thunder Throne. Don't cross her royal magesty, or you just might get a lighting bolt in the teeth.

Get a printable version here.

P is for Potion Shop

A to Z day P! Ah, the friendly, neighborhood potion shop. A must stop for any adventurer on the go. Stock potions are kept in the main shop. Top shelf brews in the back room. The basement, however, is off limits unless you are of a particular disposition.

I felt a bit conflicted about mapping such a small space. I've been trying to keep all my interior maps at the same scale, but couldn't bring myself to draw a ridiculously huge potion shop. Also, it's really tough to indicate potion bottles when drawn from above.

P is also for pageviews. Yesterday my pageviews for April passed the total views I had during April 2012! Hooray for expanding audiences!

Get a printable version here.

O is for Outpost

Ah the old frontier outpost. Like the Motel 6 of a high fantasy universe. This collection of buildings marks the final taste of civilization on the edge of the great unknown. Rest up, grab an ale and hire the most trustworthy guards you can find before heading through the gate.

O is also for Otis. If you haven't had a chance, go check out fellow drawrer, Kyle Henderson's A to Z offerings.

Get a printable version here.

N is for Naiad's Pond

Deep in an ancient forest, this sylvan spring is home to a beguiling water spirit. What lies on the island in the middle? Fey treasure? or does the watery tart run a thriving sword-distribution business?

Get a printable version here.

M is for Mushroom Forest

Beware of myconids and feral smurfs while roaming through the mushroom forest. Welcome to week three of the A to Z challenge! M is also for mid-point. If you have made it this far, you are halfway to the end of the challenge! How are all of you holding up?

Get a printable version here.

L is for Lich's Laboratory

Okay, closing out A to Z week two with a bang! I present you with a lich's laboratory, complete with cosmic orrery! For those of you unfamiliar with liches, they are evil undead wizards (kind of like Voldemort from Harry Potter.) They give up their soul in exchange for eternal life so they can pursue their mad quest for power and knowledge (kind of like Voldemort from Harry Potter). They are tough to kill, because they store part of their essence in a phylactery (kind of like a horcrux from Harry Potter.) If you take away anything from this, it should be that Voldemort is a lich.

Get a printable version here.

K is for Kobold Warren

Kobolds are one of my absolute favorite D&D beasties, and I have posted about them before. I love the idea of little hordes of devious beasties setting traps and laying in ambush waiting to take down bigger, stronger prey.

This map shows part of a kobold warren I ran my players through some time back. I also included a copy of the full map I did for them at the time. Can't remember which software I used. I would have hand-drawn the whole thing, but I am trying to limit myself to a single sheet of graph paper for each map in this exercise. My vision of a kobold warren involves lots of twisting halls with arrow slits to shoot through, secret doors with narrow bolt holes where the kobolds can use their small size to their advantage.

Here is the original full map I made:

get a printable copy of the hand-drawn excerpt here.

J is for Jungle Ruin

We go from an icy chasm to a steaming jungle for my J day A to Z post. This jungle ruin is dedicated to some sort of being associated with armed snakes. What lies beyond the secret door in the altar chamber? Only an intrepid explorer with a keen eye for traps will ever find out.

get a printable copy here.

I is for Icy Chasm

We're mid-way through the second week of the April A to Z Challenge! I feel like I'm keeping up with my posts okay, but I have had a heck of a time getting to check out other peoples' blogs. I've seen a ton of stuff that I've been interested in and meaning to comment on, but I just haven't had the time! Anyone else feeling that way? How do you balance the writing and the reading/commenting obligations of the A to Z?

This map was tough. I had to do a bit of figuring out before I found a visual way to convey "icy" using just my usual mapping tools.I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out, and quite happy with the fact that I drew this in just about an hour. (My last few posts had been taking about twice that.)

get a printable copy here.

H is for Hag's Hovel

Hey, if you are gonna be forced to live in a one-room shack in a festering swamp. You might as well build it on the back of a giant turtle! Amiright!?

H is also for hand-drawn maps. If you are interested in how I make my maps. It's really straightforward. I start with a printed sheet of graph paper, and a mechanical pencil. I sketch out the basics of my map and then fill in the pencil lines with either a cheap ball-point gel pen or my .5 mm micron pen that I picked up from my local art store. Once I have the lines all inked, I add shading with my three gray pens. They are 20%, 50% and 80% cool gray. That's it for the hand drawn part. After that, I just scan the image into Photoshop on top of a parchment background. I change the map layer from "normal" to "multiply" which turns the white bits transparent. Then I add text and save. Simple as that!

This is all you need to make a great map...
in fact, all you really need is the paper and a single pencil!