Note: the Coat of Arms Design program is now available. Read more about it at this link.

For the past few months, I’ve been hard at work on a Coat of Arms web-based computer program. (In addition to writing articles here, writing other software, etc.) I’ve had several people alpha testing it for the past few weeks and it is finally nearing a point where I can show it to anyone interested

The screenshot to the right is the current state of the program. I still have some work to do before I can let anyone beside the alpha testers use it, but I think that will happen within a week.

The coat of arms under design in the screenshot is particularly “busy” because I wanted to show several things: the background is a fur, then we have a bend ordinary with a unicorn rampant on top. Above all of that is a division covering the southern half with three roses. Finally we have an optional scroll with a name.

As for the rest of the screenshot, under the shield is a list of objects in the coat of arms. Buttons below the list allow an object to be removed or moved above or below the other objects. On the top right is an “About” button that pops up some information about the software. Below that is a selector for the shield’s overall background. Below that are several controls that specify the name on the scroll under the shield and some colors and a font size. Below that section is a series of controls to edit the currently selected object which in this case is a Rose. The rose can be enlarged (width and/or height) moved horizontally or vertically, rotated a number of degrees, flipped, and the parts of the rose can have different colors. Finally, that column of controls ends in a “New Object” button that puts a new object on the top of the list of objects.

What’s left? Add more charges (I hope to have about 50 creatures and symbols on the day of the launch), allow for quartering the shield, make the divisions nicer, allow dragging of charges, and some other minor things like make the font a little smaller in the edit window, and keep the selection set in the “objects list”, etc. Not all of those will get done before I open it up, but it should be more than decent at that point and it will only get better!

LarryElmore.com can easily fit both the “site of the day” and “rpg inspiration” features of this column.  Anyone who has looked at the covers of game books, fantasy adventures, or even computer game covers is familiar with his work.  He became popular while working for TSR in the early and middle 80s.  He did the covers to the early 80′s D&D boxed sets, then moved on to the DragonLance project and branched out from there.

On the website, you can purchase prints and even originals, participate in the message board, or find out where to meet Larry at a convention.

The Terracotta army dates back to 210 BC when the first Qin Emperor ruled.  There are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses in the army. The soldiers stand six feet to six feet five inches high, depending on their rank.

Their purpose was to aid the emperor to conquer a new empire in the afterlife.  The excavation site is impressive enough on its own merits.  But how much more fascinating can it be in a fantasy world?

Perhaps these soldiers are part of some prophecy and have taken a vow to be ready for when their country needs them most.  On the other hand, maybe they were supposed to be part of a great battle, but they were cursed allowing the other side to win.  Or perhaps there really is an afterlife where they will aid their emperor.

Additionally, there are many stories of statues coming to life to defend an area.  Perhaps seeing the Terracotta Army will aid you in creating a more modest encounter for your characters.

Remember there are several creatures that may turn a creature to stone: the medusa and the basilisk come to mind at first.  Perhaps they had a hand in creating something like the Terracotta Army in your fantasy world.

Dungeon Mastering is a very active and dynamic website/blog about roleplaying games.  The weekly feature “Monday Morning Speedlinking” keeps you up to date on game current events.  The site also has advice specifically targeted to game masters (excuse me, dungeon masters) and it has other features such as reviews and maps.  It is a very well designed site full of great ideas!

The Complete Mage book introduced the concept of reserve feats and it detailed many of these reserve feats. Reserve feats are feats that give extra magical powers to spellcasters as long as those spellcasters keep a related spell of a minimum spell level in “reserve” (in other words they haven’t used a particular spell yet that day.) Reserve feats also include a secondary benefit which is typically a +1 bonus to the spellcaster’s caster level for the reserve feat’s spell type.

For example, the “Aquatic Breath” reserve feat gives the spellcaster the ability to breath underwater if the spellcaster has a 2nd level or higher water spell memorized. If the spellcaster did not choose an appropriate spell for the day or he has already used it, he still has a +1 bonus to his caster level when casting any water-based spells.

With that background out of the way, what makes a good reserve feat?

Continued…

Sticking with the recent theme of castles and showing that they can vary in many ways, today’s inspirational place of the day is the Citadel of Karim Khan, located in present day Iran.

The structure features large circular towers with ornate designs in the stone.  Small windows separated by tiny arrow slits dot the top of the towers and each wall.

The entrance gate of the citadel features tile works depicting legendary tales.

Photo by Zereshk.

While there are other web-based d20 SRD web sites with their own strengths, I love the design of The Hypertext d20 SRD website. It is very clean, I like the background (any similarity to the background of Inkwell Ideas is purely coincidental!) and the hyperlinking to other parts of the SRD is very complete.

Because of the new 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons and the new 4th edition license, Wizards of the Coast (the company that owns Dungeons and Dragons) has rescinded the older d20 license.  If/when they have to switch to the Open Game License I expect the new version of The Hypertext d20 SRD website to be as intuitive and nearly as complete.

In order to compare how different castles can be, today’s inspirational place of the day will be Neuschwanstein Castle.  The most recent other inspirational place of the day was Blarney Castle.

While Blarney Castle is beautiful and noteworthy in its own way, Neuschwanstein is the prototypical fairytale castle.  In fact, Cinderella’s castle is said to be based on Neuschwanstein.

The castle has beautiful white walls, round towers with minarets, is built on a hilltop with amazing views of the countryside, a long winding road leading up to it.

The castle’s interiors are even more amazing with murals throughout, large windows, hot air central heat and flushing toilets.  Exquisite furnishings complete the look with chandeliers, ornate beds, etc.

Johnn Four has been putting out an almost weekly newsletter called Roleplaying Tips that has made it to over 400 issues. As he states, “I created RoleplayingTips.Com to help improve my own game mastering and roleplaying skills by sharing my roleplaying tips and tricks through my newsletter and then asking for feedback from avid roleplayers like yourself.”

The newsletters are full of excellent ideas and occasionally he collects related articles into compendiums, as he did with the 80+ 5 Room Dungeons compendium.

Castles are a fundamental part of a fantasy world, but they can vary in many ways. When you need to describe a castle it helps to look at a few real castles for ideas. For example, the picture to the right is Blarney Castle.

This picture shows several differences from other castles such as the vegetation climbing up the outer wall, some damaged areas that have been repaired, some damage that hasn’t been repaired, a very square primary structure, a separate out-tower, distinctive battlements, and very small windows in the center of the castle walls.

Not only does the castle have distinctive features but the castle’s website has stories about the castle, it has pictures of unique internal castle features and pictures of the castle’s views and grounds.

(Picture by Guilhem D. using the Creative Commons Attribution license.)