Storn

Okay. Let me break down inking into two catagories.

Pro. You wannabe a pro. Do NOT use pens, rapidiographs or tech pens. They suck. They give a dead line. They are easy. Too easy. Get yourself several #1 and #2 brushes from various companies and play around. Be prepared for tons of frustration. learning to ink with a brush is really, really hard. But you will get a lively, thick to thin line and it is what the really good inkers use.

If you want a bit more control, but a bit sketchy line, dip pens are great. All kinds of nibs are available... I suggest trying out 5 or so, different types to find your favorite.

On most of my illos , I use about 80% brush and 20% dip pen. I use dip pen for hands, fingernails, eyes...when I really, really need control in a small space.

I also highly recommend "The Art of Comic Book Inking" by Gary Martin, Dark Horse Press. It will show you the proper way of holding a brush.

Be warned, go back and look at Normals Unbound. That is my work when I'm just beginning to use the brush (and I was using a #4...WAY too big). My artwork suffered for years because my pencils were better than my inks. Now look at my current work, my inking has caught up.

Last tip, pencil your sketches very tight. Teh more decisions you have solid, the easier it is to ink.

Amateur artist: You don't want to be a pro. Ink with whatever you want. I do use Millennium Tech Pens for very mechanical stuff.. like some sailing ship diagrams I'm working on for AEG.

Re: Re: Not to add more die rolls, but...

Originally posted by RDU Neil

Whoa... Paul posting on a gaming board. I think that's a sign of the apocalypse!

 

Stun often recovers so fast, that even if they are taken into negatives, it is only fifteen to twenty seconds and they are back up and moving.

 

So... the question would be... how do I best simulate the PCs left lying on the battle field, incapacitated, bleeding out and screaming for a medic!

Here is my fix. Add +1 Stun multiplier across the board. For every 20 stun that gets past defenses, take 1 extra Body.

If you go, below -1 to -10 Stun, you are incapacitated, bleeding and screaming... you aren't unconcious. Even if you didn't take any Body, your "body" is in such pain that action isn't all that possible besides yelling, groaning and screaming.

If you recover out of that -1 to -10 thru Recoveries, then you are walking wounded for this fight at least. A -2 to OCV/DCV/Skill rolls. Can make it a -4 if you want to. Whatever, things in your body are broken.

If you go -11 plus; you are knocked unconcious or pass out from pain. That -11 to -20 range, you might recover from in a combat but the above applies. Anything more than -20 generally doesn't get up in this fight.

Bleeding: I would make it simpler than Hero does. At -1 Body, you are bleeding. If you still have Stun, unlikely, but can happen, you are still on your feet. But again, -2 to OCV/DCV/Skill rolls is in effect (or -4 if you think that is too weak of a hinderance).

Bleeding can stop on its own or be insignificant enough. To reflect that, Make a Con roll at -1/per negative pt of Body. If the roll is made, the Bleeding stops. Only one roll is made. Bleeding can be stopped by someone with a Paramedic roll. Every phase/action the Bleeding character takes, an add'l 1d6 Stun is applied. This is cumalitive, so when it reaches 20 Stun, that is when an extra Body is applied. If the bleeding character does not move or take action, no 1d6 is applied. This will give incentive to PCs to sit behind a wall and yell "medic!"

Time of Bleeding: Bleeding out in Hero is WAY too fast, unless an arterial hit is made...but I think that is just "more damage" on the roll. So my feeling is that w/o medical care, someone on the battlefied is going to Bleed out sometime 60 to 120 mins (like the previous poster mentioned) and die. Most rpg combats don't happen in some remote, mud filled field where no medical care is going to get to. So no rolls, no hard and fast rule, just 60 min to 120 mins bleed out. The body coagulating and stop bleeding has already been taken care of by the Con roll.

If it is a race of helicopter against bleeding out situation and ya want the random drama...1d6+6 x 10 minutes.

Neil, I believe you upped the damage in Cyber Punk and Dark Champions, not because Hero at it's baseline wasn't doing a good job of giving you the spread of damage options...

...but because in both genres... body armor is prolific.

And now I hear reports of US army body armor stopping 7.62 rounds!!! Dead center shots, not deflection. Body armor has been getting queitly better on us just in the last 15 years. That is freakin' amazing!

Now in a Danger Internat'l campaign, it would probalby be easier to get .50 Cal Barret sniper rifle than it woudl beto get a vest of that quality. But in cyberpunk or Dark Champions... that is dress de riguer. Now weapon of choice against that quality of body armor is going back to the shotgun... you might not even get a scratch in... but the guy is going DOWN with a +1 Stun Multiplier.

Actually, with our house rule of 20 Stun gets thru = 1 Body taken, upping all Stun Multipliers across the board *might* do th trick. Certainly that will "simulate" being taken out of a fight, yet not killed. A helmet might stop the bullet, but a whole heck of a lot Stun is going to get thru from even a decent roll.

Good Illo!

something a bit different from most superhero portraits. This is my longest running character (the guy in the middle). He has been in the superhero biz for over 10 years of his life. I realize I had to update his portrait and put some gray in his hair and some lines on his face!

Since this is my main character, I can wax poetic a bit here!

From left to right, Hope, Max and Karen St. Clair. Max is better known as Vector and is a telekinetic. Karen is better known as Oracle and is a Precog and Mentalist and used to be a member of Sentinels of the North (Canada's superteam). She is actually a published character (Champions of the North, 4th ed Hero) who Max fell head over heels for.

Hope was born Jan 1st, 2000 (to steal a page from Jenny Sparks... the good borrow, Genius steals!). Game time is about 2 or 1 and 1/2 years behind our own.

The t-shirt is an homage to one of the superteams, the Mavericks, Vector help create. Mavericks are NYC's premier team now, lead by Wildheart... hence the little heart symbol... auntie Megan is so nice!

Vector's armor is important element of RDU, made of Crystaltech and responds to his telekinesis.

Thanks to RDU Neil for allowing me to bring this complex character so far!

sent five down the pike.... I'll send more tonight or tomorrow (Have to convert from large publishable files)

Originally posted by RDU Neil

Holy Crap, Storn. That is awesome.

 

I'd think James would plotz when he sees this.

 

Fun, fun. I spend a day outside, gardening and raking, and get rewarded with great pictures for the game.

 

Again... totally rockin', Storn.

THANKS NEIL!!! High praise coming from you... all jadey and such.

My Uncle was the Doc Destroyer wannabe... Doctor Draconis. My father and mother were both 60s superheroes.. Dad just came out of retirement. And my cousin is Victrix and is a teke just like me.

Oh... I wasn't offended at all. I just want a chance to show my color too.

Ben, I'll take you up on that. Leave Thorn there.... I think that was colored just fine... I can get you all of Eurostar in color... that sound good?

Its Chango!!!

(this is James's PC/ Nuada on these here boards.)

Originally posted by Evil Toki

It is definitely a cool character design... I like it Storn.. any chance we will see more Iconic characters from the RDU?

Yes. I have an idea for a makeover for my longest running character. And I have James's character inked, but not scanned or colored yet.

As for Bill's iconic character Thermal... you might recognize this:

This iconic Champions character was sorta "dad". "Dad" has been usurped, replaced, as is custom. So, if you download the sucker, you can see I've drawn this character a couple of times (FReD? and CKC)

I would like to say though... if you are going to use one of my illos (like Thorn or whatever his name is) I would prefer that you use my color version (if there is one...some I did do in gray only).

Not a knock against anyone's coloring, but well... every pic I do is my baby. It is simply proprietary emotion.

This is one of our iconic characters, Locke (Eric's PC), getting a makeover due to a rebirth.

Originally posted by Bedlam

WOW thats all i can say about The art! so many great pcs. I just need to find a game where there is that much dedication! Got any openings Storn?

 

 

Thanks

 

Bedlam

I'm not the main GM, RDU Neil is. It would be his decision. I would start talking to him if you are serious. I co-run (using Mutants and Masterminds, while he uses Champions). The game is in Ypsilanti, so it is a bit of drive for me (but worth it).

I don't know if you have checked out this Green Ronin thread, but it has a bit of what kind of game I'm running...

http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1570

RDU is a complicated universe... the game has been going 15-16 years, I've been a part of it for a decade.

Originally posted by BarryB

I never make it up to Origins, though it should probably be on my list of 'things to do before I die.'

 

It would be neat to have a couple of prints hanging on my wall of the hero groups of the two major Champions campaigns I've run. Do you charge more for group shots? No individual portraits would be needed unless the players request it. Okay, maybe one for a character of whom I would be interested in seeing your conception. Of course, that one would be the standard rate. Oddly enough, he's not really a favorite character; I've always had trouble visualizing him and would enjoy seeing what you could do with him.

I charge $45.00 per figure in the picture. So a group shot of 5 would be $225.00. Of course, 5 seperate portraits of 1 figure each would cost the same amount.

Here is another character portrait.

No details yet. My players are lurking about. But I got it done and felt like posting.

I illustrated that illo that you are talking about. A couple of words. One, I asked if any of hte characters had been done visually, but they had not and not much info was forthcoming. So I thought I had free reign.

Shadowboxer, I come to find out, is a powerarmor hero... imagine my chagrin when flipping thru MC. And my Scarlett Shield doesnt match up quite to the other interior artist's interpertation.

However, I have to say, that I really like my Shadowboxer better... gritty, Detroit (home of Joe Louis, after all), defiant. But then again, I'm pretty biased.

Nuadha is right.

I have done work for Green Ronin, but for their fantasy lines, not M&M.

Neil, you should also say something how you've managed to adroitly marry Dark Champions sections of your campaign world to a much, larger, more Champions world. That both exist in the same campaign world. No easy task.

"friendly nudger" storn

Originally posted by BarryB

I can print at higher resolutions than that, but I'm more interested in keeping as much information as possible in the file. Are you limited to 300 due to technical reasons? Or would paying more than $45 allow for higher resolutions?

 

Just curious; I'm casually interested.

 

Any chance you'd be at DragonCon in August?

Oh, if someone requested a higher dpi, I would certainly accomadate. It is just that color at 300 dpi can usually make it past everyone's firewalls. Anything larger tends to get tripped up somewhere along in the process.

Most likely, I would have to burn a CD-R if it was 600 dpi. I wouldn't work any larger than that, simply because it would take every thing I did extra time if I was working at 1200 dpi.

I have no plans to attend DragonCon (thats Atlanta, right?). I should be able to make it to Origins though.

Consider Feng Shui.

Sorry folks, to be a contrarian.

However, Feng Shui is very good at very easy martial arts...especially if all the players have an understanding of the Tsui Hark, woo Ping, Run run Shaw, wire fu, wuxia etc. etc. Not the world, but the martial arts themselves are pretty fun.

My second choice would be Hero. Even over my love for M&M. M&M just doesn't have the martail arts crunchiness yet... its fine for a Martial Artist within a super hero group... but not so good for entire martial arts cadre.

Currently, in RDU Neil's game, he is running "The Dragons" campaign, 9 martial artists with Dragon motif destined to open Japan from its several years Jade Shield. This is "mini" or "sub" campaign is set in a greater super hero campaign, but the Dragons is primiarly martial arts. Its been a blast. A sub plot brewing is the Tekken (of the console game fame) with some of the Tekken characters and are own characters entering hte preliminary bouts. It was a blast to have matches, not worrying about hostages or killing or being killed. Lots of respect and laughter and fun. And we are using Hero to run this.

So, a super martial arts game is a blast and can be done. I also recommend, like others, the Ninja Hero book and Mike Susanno's website, which has a plethora of martial arts stuff... check out the Other Genres section to find Susano's web address.... I don't have it handy.

Originally posted by Enforcer84

Can I just say again how much I think your work has improved, Storn? Really, I had no problem with your earlier stuff, I think the first work of yours I saw was in Dark Campions, and this is miles ahead of it in terms of form and style. You give me hope crush my dreams at the same time; hope that I will indeed improve over time and crushed because you keep setting the bar so high

 

/obsiquiousness off.

Thank you Enforcer, that is really nice stuff to hear. But if I can improve, anyone can. So don't sell yourself short.

I was doing Dark Champions stuff while in art school at 26...that was 10 years ago. I was told that art school would take 10 years to sink in, to really grasp, after graduating. I think in many respects my teachers were right. I'm only feeling that I'm starting to "get it" right now.

so, Im an old fart, not a wonderkind by any stretch.

On RPGnet, Freelancers section are a couple of the pieces I did for Millennium City. Including 2 in color.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=799294#post799294

Repeat after me; "Martial Block is your friend!"

Get +2 OCV/ +2 DCV.

A sucessful Block grants first action next phase regardless of Dex. If you are using the Speed chart (our group does not), then it is possible that the "blocked" attacker might go faster... but on those tied phases... nope.

Combined with Hold Action, Block and Dodge are the foundations of good martial arts tactics. note: takes less END too! (than most attacks).

This is Scale, the leader of Triple S, a Viper team. He has the ability to judge weight, mass, velocity... which gives him an edge in combat. He is brilliant, but a bit arrogant. He's is precisely the type of villain to tell you his evil plan AS he is doing it to you. "do you know that it only takes 3 pounds of pressure to snap this hostages' neck?" kinda-thing. But for a snake mutagen guy, he's got a sense of humor and is pretty well-adjusted.... for a Viper villian.

Oh yeah, the continuing saga of UNTIL Black Ops has been posted, along with Scale's MM stats on my Green Ronin thread...

http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=29025#29025