Mythoard Adventure Hook Cards

I created a deck of Adventure Hook Cards (system-agnostic fantasy) for Mythoard. A new card from the set is being released with each month's subscription box. These are a Mythoard exclusive; just something new for a bit fun that will be included month-to-month as a bonus. Haven't subscribed to the Mythoard tabletop role-playing game subscription box service yet? Now would be a great time to start! Use special code HOARDTRYOUT25 at http://www.mythoard.com/ when you subscribe to get an automatic 25% Off on your first box.

Cartographer's Cache #002: Belly of the Behemoth

The second issue of Cartographer's Cache is here! This issue features a map of a grotesque dungeon which is actually the stomachs of gargantuan monster. The scene is further set by pools of stomach acid, several gastrolith (digestion stones), bulbous polyps, skeletal digested corpses, and a gigantic pulsating heart.

Versions of maps include griddeed and labeled, gridded & non-labeled, and non-gridded and non-labeled (perfect for virtual tabletop gaming).

Cartographer's Cache is a monthly RPG map series that I am releasing via this blog. Each month I will create a new map and release it as a pay-what-you-want product on DriveThruRPG.com. The theme of each month's map is decided by public vote via my various social media accounts; primarily Facebook.

This month's theme was suggested by Rob Gustafson via the RPG Gamers group on Facebook. 

Each map is released as a compiled PDF that is sized to a full-page 8.5" x 11 template at 600 dpi resolution. Versions for each map included in each release will be suitable for campaign planning, game table handout, and virtual tabletop (VTT) play will be included with each issue.

You can get this product for Free (pay what you want) exclusively at DriveThruRPG.

Huge Batch of New Mini-Dungeon Cartography

I have released over 30 all-new maps for authors to utilize for future Mini-Dungeons. With these, and other very recent releases, I've pushed to up the cartography quality of these maps. Initially the concept was to have quick-and-easy releases, but the series has grown wildly in popularity and is the top selling product at Adventureaweek.com.

Originally the idea was to allow non-cartographers to utilize my "Justin's Mini-Dungeon Mapper" template and collection of actions and elements for Photoshop that I created especially for this series. Nearly the first entire ear of Mini-Dungeon releases utilized these components. However, with the increase in popularity, I've decided to start giving these maps the attention they deserve.

While this requires a substantial investment of time on my part, I feel it's justified as the end result is a better looking and more functional product. Especially with the recent addition of the much-requested Virtual Tabletop Maps (VTT) maps included with adventure purchase.

Here's a sample of some of these newer Mini-Dungeon maps I've created for AAW Games:

AetherCon Online RPG Convention Ticket Manager App

With the core website I created last year for AetherCon completed, and now updated for this year's convention, I moved on to the next list of application requests from Senior Staff. For the past four conventions events have been managed through a service called Warhorn, but AC wanted to bring this aspect of the convention in-house with a custom developed web application.

This need was met (and is now available to the general public) with the release of the AetherCon V Event Manager interface. This complex program handles all sorts of events for the convention from panels, to game tables, to speed painting trails, and other special events.

It functions as a ticket-based system where events, managed by an administrative back-end to the application, can have any number of tickets or unlimited tickets. These tickets are unique records that can be claimed by a user account, which can be created directly the interface.

Once a ticket is claimed, it is removed from the publicly available pool of tickets for a given event, unless it is revoked by staff or the event organizer, or if it is relinquished back to the public ticket pool by the ticket-holder themselves.

The search interface consists of multi-tiered filters including event type, event date, keyword search, or game system (for game tables). There are two available view -- the full view (shown in the image above) and a compact list view which is easier to read, but provides less detail.

Example of printable Itinerary
provided by the AetherCon
Event Manager application.

When a user has a ticket for an event, the application is aware of this when they are logged in and displays a special "ticket" link on those events that directs the user to the "My Events" interface, which allows a user to see hidden information about an event that is only available to ticket-holders. This hidden information can include such information as the URLs to specific virtual tabeltops for scheduled games.

In addition to displaying hidden information, the application utilizes the information relevant to the "My Events" data set to generate a printable, organized itinerary for users.

The third layer of the Event Manager is the interface which allows event managers (which may or may not be AetherCon staff) to update their own events and communicate directly with ticket-holders for each of those events. This includes posting system-wide updates to all ticket-holders as well as direct e-mail to individual ticket-holders.

The final feature of the application is a dynamic RSS feed that is generated and updates every five minutes to output a list of upcoming events based on the current date and time which links to those events in the Event Manager. This feed widget will be utilized on the main AetherCon website during the convention to keep attendees apprised of current and upcoming events with a semi-live feed.

Into the Wintery Gale: GM Screen

The GM Screen I created for the Into the Wintery Gale mega-adventure by AAW Games/Adventureaweek.com is now available for purchase. This screen has been designed to work with the Hammerdog Games GM Screen folder. The screen features a composition of amazing artwork from Mates Laurentiu and Jason Rainville. Included for the reverse side of the screen are easy-reference sheets that provide an alternative method of keeping track of the many random event encounters offered throughout the adventure.

This product can be purchased via Adventureaweek.com, DriveThruRPG, and RPGNow.