Tool Talk

My camera really sucks

I love the Pental Pocket Brush. It is a brush pen, but not like the normal felt-style brush pens such as PITT or Tombow. Instead, the Pentel's tip is "real". That is, it is composed of actual hair-like fibers that come to a point and behave like a real brush. If you've used a synthetic brush (not made of actual animal fibers), then you know what this brush tip is like. It's basically the same.

The Pentel uses little cartridges, so when it runs dry you can just snap a new one in there. The tip is also replaceable, although honestly these tips don't seem to wear out. I'm pretty gentle with my tools, but if you're aggressive perhaps you'll have to replace it eventually.

Being a real brush tip, it is much softer and flexible than regular brush pens. The PITT, for example, has a firmer feel. You have to press a little bit hard to get it to produce a wider stroke. The Pentel will flair from micro-thin to very wide with the slightest pressure. This gives it a nice flowing vibe, like it is dancing along the surface of the paper.

The pigmented ink is typical for brush pens. I don't have any issues with it. The ink goes on dark but may fade a little with erasing, same as PITT, Tombow, Micron, etc. It takes alcohol markers like a champ.

There are some cons, though. Depending on your needs. For example, I actually love the tighter control of a PITT or Tomobow brush pen. Especially a nice, crisp, new PITT. You can't beat 'em. But the PITT's tip is fragile and will very quickly lose it's point and become a stubby blunt tip good only for fat lines and fills.

The Pentel retains its fine point. You can get ultra-thin lines with a careful hand. And, with a quick stroke, you get a nice dry brush effect.

Another great thing about these tools is they are relatively cheap. Last I checked, it was about $15 for the pen and 2 ink cartridges. You can get 12 ink cartridges for about $10. I checked on tips, but can't seem to find them anymore. Maybe they stopped selling them separately. Which is fine... just buy a new pen if necessary.

Art Post!

Here's a bunch of art I've created in recent times that I don't believe I posted on my blog.

 

Black Pudding HHV1 Review

Welcome to the Death Trap has posted a beefy review of Black Pudding Heavy Helping Vol 1. Very nice. Go check it out.

 

Idea: ROC Art Journal

I've been working on a sketchbook/artbook series. Nothing fancy, just a print-on-demand floppy comic sized thing. Working title is ROC Art Journal and this is the first cover. My idea was to do these as 32 page books that collect my art and comics, willy-nilly, by whatever fancy I feel at the time I slap it together. A permanent testament to things I've created that can live on in print. I went with 32 pages because that's kind of the classic comic size and because I have a TON of material to fill many of them and that means I get to draw cool covers.

Not sure when I'll release these to the wild. Or exactly how. Leaning toward Ka-Blam POD. I could attempt a Kickstarter and mail them myself but god dammit that's a lot of work and I'm not good at it.

 

Black Pudding Comic

The Black Pudding Kickstarter comes with a two sided poster. Here's one side of it: a comic!

 This comic features our heroes the chainmail chick, sinewy barbarian, and eyeball. This was super fun. I drew it on 11x17 inch bristol, a paper size I haven't messed with in years. Loved the extra real estate.

Black Pudding Reprints

There is a Kickstarter for reprinting Black Pudding back issues and printing the latest issue, #7. Maybe you need physical copies? Maybe your dog ate yours? Maybe you used them so much they fell apart? Or maybe your players ran off with them?

Now's your chance to get all of them in print for a reasonable price and flat worldwide shipping. And a cool A3 double-sided poster! And a cool blank journal!

It's PUDDIN' TIME!

(Ok, that's pretty lame. But I need a catch phrase like "Excelsior!" or something.)

One side of the poster.

The Adventure Journal cover.

Rogueland

Over on this post I gave my off the cuff thoughts on Rogueland and Caverns of Heresy hooked me up with this sweet print copy. What a great little game. I could seriously adopt this as a go-to for adventure gaming. Not sure why, but it hits the right beats.

SCL

THREE RULES FOR OSR GAMES

Just a quick set of house rules that sound fun and useful for OSR games. The idea is you can keep the rules as written as much as you like, but just add these as a final layer on top for players to use. These are all situation-driven, so there's no record keeping.

Let's call this set of three the SCL (Solid Crit Luck), for shorthand. Or maybe A-SEAL because it sounds like that when you say it. Doesn't matter.

1. Solid Hits.

This comes from GOZR. If you succeed on an attack by 5 or more, you get Adv on damage roll.

Fighters can choose to divide their damage between up to 3 adjacent targets, even though they only technically hit one of them. Example would be hitting a goblin and getting 10 damage. You could give 3, 3, and 4 damage to three of the gobbos.

If it is a saving throw, and if making the save still deals some kind of damage to you, then a Solid Hit on the save halves the already reduced damage.

If it is any other roll and you succeed by 5+ or by 25% or more, the GM may grant a small boon in some cases. Maybe just name a trivial benefit (see item 3 below).

2. Double Crit.

If you crit and then roll max damage, you have a double crit. Whatever effects your crit normally has, you double them. Obvious example is damage x2 then x2 again. But if you get a benefit, such as an extra attack on a crit, then you get another extra attack.

This one assumes you use crits, of course. If you don't... I cannot help you.

3. Lucky Number.

Roll 1d20. Whatever the result, this is your character’s lucky number. Any time you roll this number on any attack roll or save, you get to name a trivial benefit. The GM can veto or tweak it, of course.

Example: Your number is 11. You roll 11 on an attack. Not enough to hit! But you say “My attack throws him off balance.” The GM agrees and either grants you +1 to the next roll or penalizes the enemy by -1 on their next attack.

This one was inspired by Neoclassical Geek Revival, which I haven't played. So I don't know how it works in that game, I just know it has a similar rule.

Art Videos

I've been watching a few art videos lately. Of course there's the magnificent Cartoonist Kayfabe channel with TONS of videos where Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg flip through various comics. But I think everyone knows about that.

Here's a cool one I found today called CUTE MKUltras explaining the use of some cheap markers they bought. Cool vid, fun, informative. Looks like this guy does mostly graffiti style art, which I dig. No clue about the name of the channel... "MKUltras" is weird for an art channel. Right? MIND CONTROL...!

Gooz Sneak

While we're on a GOZR kick, here's a new piece of art for the next book. Maybe for the comic, maybe for the game book. I dunno. I'm making all this up as I go along.