Archive for category ICE Rolemaster
The Shadow World
Posted by craig in 3D, CJ Productions, Craig's Sketchpad, Digital Paintings, Hand Drawn, ICE Rolemaster, Illustration, Logo Design, Shadow World, Vue on February 15th, 2010
Yet another gap since my last entry – but this time I’ve been productive …honest!
I’m very excited to be involved with the illustration and design of the Shadow World Player Guides.

This is the roleplaying campaign setting created by Terry Amthor for ICE’s Rolemaster ruleset. And by Campaign Setting, I am of course talking about an entire world!!!! Basically, think of the realm of Middle Earth, with all the different cultures, lore and history and then cube it. The Shadow World is not a one continent land, it consists of 14 continents in the western hemisphere alone!
The Player Guides, as the name suggests, are to help the Players better understand the world without requiring the Game’s Master to waste playing time describing the different elements to them including the basics of time keeping (hours, days, months, seasons, years etc), climate, geography, inhabitants, magic and gods etc. It will also include a lot of location images of the various lands and places of interest.
The first one released will be the World Guide but then there’ll be a lot of more specific info dealt with in the more Regional Guides to follow including local customs, history and lore, inhabitants and any ‘local gods/spirits’ common to these places.
Here’s a taste of some of the location shots planned on being used in the Guides…
The Emerald Forest in Emer

The Quon Jungle in Emer

One of Eidolon’s Sky Ships

The Aalk Athimurl, the fortress of the Dragon Lord in Jaiman

A Navigator’s Obelisk used to summon a Navigator

These were all created using Vue Complete, a 3D landscape application. For larger versions of some of these images, take a look at the 3D Sketchpad Gallery.
Updates
Posted by craig in 3D, Craig's Sketchpad, ICE Rolemaster, Illustration, Personal, Vue on December 29th, 2009
A boring title, I know – but this is just updates so tough!
I’m working on a Shadow World Players Guide which will have a lot of Vue landscape renders as well as some drawings. As it’s still in progress, I can’t add any images here so I have a couple of other things to show.
A Vue render trying out a technique for ‘hyperterrains’ – the name given to the creation of the unusual shaped terrains which aren’t possible in the traditional terrain creation process.
An old-school Vector in Adobe Illustrator. Some subtle object blends but mostly a line work. Michelle is the woman featured and she has a gallery here.
That’s it for now.
Kobold Lair Map
Posted by craig in Craig's Sketchpad, Digital Paintings, Hand Drawn, ICE Rolemaster, Illustration, Personal on September 2nd, 2009
It’s that time of the month again – it’s ICE’s map contest! This time it’s a lair for Kobolds (a lesser goblin type creature).
I was going to enter the old-school hand drawn map that I uploaded here – old-school map but after I added a little bit of texture to it, I just had to carry on!
Here is the opening spread describing the tactics the kobold’s would use to defend their lair and a larger map view is below that.
And here’s a close up of the textures so you can see it at it’s actual size
This is the cover illustration used for the PDF depicting the nasty trap the Kobold’s have in store for unsuspecting adventurers!
Click those images for a larger version!
NEW – Craig’s Sketchpad Gallery
Posted by craig in Craig's Sketchpad, Digital Paintings, Hand Drawn, ICE Rolemaster, Illustration, Personal, Photo Manipulation on August 14th, 2009
Finally, I’ve added an image gallery of some of my work at my Craig’s Sketchpad blog! That blog is specifically for the ‘illustrational’ part of my work but there are occasional overlaps with this blog as well.
Check it out – Craig’s Sketchpad Gallery
…and ironically, this post has no pictures.
I’ll also be adding a gallery here which will include more of the ‘design’ projects covering both web and print work but I’ll let you know when that happens.
The Majestic Griffin
Posted by craig in ICE Rolemaster, Photo Manipulation on August 1st, 2009
This is an entry into a chimera creature contest from ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises) – the first entry of many.
I thought I’d start with something recognisable and I think the Griffin is perhaps the most well known of all the composite creatures. There’s a close-up and a whole image as well.
As usual, you can click on them to see the larger versions.
I’ve shown the source images in the main image so you can see the separate elements. All were edited in Photoshop CS3 (yes, I’ve still not bought the upgrade and as time progresses, I’ll probably wait for the CS5 version now).
Crypt Map Contest – The Arunmar Jungle
Posted by craig in ICE Rolemaster on May 16th, 2009
This is my final entry in ICE’s (Iron Crown Enterprises) Crypt Map Contest. Pictured is the cover and some interior spreads. This is the final Crypt Map PDF, click to download it. Information on the contest can be found in the ICE’s web site – ICE web site.
My final entry into the Temple Map Contest had a runners up prize and I’ve taken a different tack with this entry, I’ve made it a lot smaller in scale which meant it didn’t hit the 2GB max file size for 1 file and working on it was a whole lot quicker!
Click to see larger versions.
Have a look at my Sketchpad for more images and the process I went through.
Why am I seeing this banner?
I’ve included this banner on all blog posts that have used a Vue product. Primarily Vue Complete.
Temple Map Contest – Azreith
Posted by craig in ICE Rolemaster on March 29th, 2009
This in my final entry into the ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises) Temple Map Contest and a few of the interior illustrations. Click on the cover image on the left to download the PDF. The file is 19MB.
Here’s the rough digital painting I did for the cover as well as the intro spread to the PDF where I’d dropped in some of my biro sketches.


My entry was a runner-up. The PDF map included a ‘Master the MapĀ©’ feature which allowed you to select one of the three options – the ground floor, the first floor or the secret locations – and the pages would update within the PDF overlaying the base image of the Temple which allows you to show a lot or a little leaving the choices up to you.

ICE are going to be doing more Map contests and I’ll include my future entries on this site – the next one is a Crypt Map.
In the meantime, they’re running a different contest concurrently; it’s a Chimera Creature creation. I’ll add some of my early versions next.
Iron Crown Enterprises are the creator of the Rolemaster, Spacemaster and Harp roleplay rule sets.
The Chimera Experiment
Posted by craig in ICE Rolemaster on March 27th, 2009
There is a contest at ICE (developers of the Rolemaster roleplaying rule set) for Chimera Creatures.
These are but the 2 initial creatures. Hardly bone chillingly fearsome until you realise that the Lick is 10′ tall!
As for the Wabbit, his bite is certainly bigger than it’s bark!
The Licken (Lizard & Chicken)

The Wabbit (Wolf & Hare)













