Tag: fantasy

Dungeon map appears in French RPG eZine La Saltarelle

Matthew Lowes2 Comments

dungeon 002lwOne of my dungeon maps is now appearing in the French RPG eZine La Saltarelle thanks to editor, Fabrice P. This is a little dungeon I drew while experimenting with a stark black and white style. In this map I used gray in the lower caverns to add depth to the levels.

The map appears with a contest (pg 39). Readers can enter by writing their ideas for the history and inhabitants of this dungeon and sending them in. Top two entries will receive a copy of Temple du Dieu Néant or a paper copy of  l’Étrange Manoir. I’m pretty excited to see what people come up with!

There are a couple of different ways you can check it out this eZine, and even if you don’t read French, there are some really cool illustrations to enjoy! You can read in an online reader, or download a zipped pdf.

For more information on this eZine, you can also visit the Editions La Saltarelle webiste.

“Buyer Beware” to appear in Every Day Fiction

Matthew Lowes

My body swapping sci-fi farce “Buyer Beware” will appear in Every Day Fiction sometime in the next two months. This is one of the most comedic stories I’ve written, so it has a special place in my mind.

Readers of my horror stories may be surprised by the ending, but I think there is still a touch of the weird and strange in this tale of a body swapping alien and the woes of unregulated interstellar trade.

Will post again once the story is up. In the meantime, check out Every Day Fiction. They post a short story every day, always under a 1000 words.

Dungeon Map Symbols

Matthew Lowes3 Comments

“Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.”

— Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

dungeon symbols

pdf version – click here

The labyrinth, the dungeon, and the mythic underworld are all time honored traditions in story telling and games, from Theseus and the Minotaur to the “Tomb of Horrors,” from Galouye’s Dark Universe to the mines of Dwarf Fortress. When you start thinking about underworld settings the examples are really innumerable.

Growing up I spent uncounted hours drawing dungeons and labyrinths to use in stories and games. I was always fascinated by the icons and symbols used in maps to represent various things, and symbols for dungeon maps were no exception.

I’ve continued to use my map drawing experience to sketch out settings for my stories and I recently gotten back into game maps. Above you will find my own key to various dungeon symbols for any like minded cartographers out there.

Here’s some examples of my game maps:

grand entrancewater dungeonwizard's lair

*Update 8/26/2015: Posted a key for my simplified symbols for area and wilderness maps.

A Legacy Dark and Strange

Matthew Lowes

320px-FireFantasy, with all its weirdness and wonders, is the deep root of all fiction. Long before people began to write books, for 50,000 years they huddled around the light of fires, under starry skies, in deep forests, and in the shelter of caves to tell their stories. The impulse of fiction was already there, in the myths and legends that were born among them.

Imagine the kinds of stories they were telling. People knew little or nothing of what lay beyond the horizon. And at night, in the darkness, that circle of knowledge shrank to the dim glow of a campfire, if they were lucky enough to have one. The stars were a mystery, animals were otherworldly, and death was a great enigma. A man or a woman who ventured beyond the horizon, or out in the night, might never return. Those tales must have been dark and strange, filled with adventure, monsters, and magic.

There is an element of fantasy in all fiction, an attempt to imagine and understand something beyond ourselves: another person, another life, another world. Modern stories are born from that same original impulse, to weave tales, to entertain, to educate, to warn, and to find meaning in the world and in the often extraordinary experiences of our lives. I like to think my stories can be traced back to the mythic structures and weird tales that started it all, stories woven from the threads of an ancient dream.

Although our horizon has grown wider in a way, there is always an edge, without and within, beyond which dwell things unknown. The unknown is far greater than the known, and that is where horror lives. It lurks in the darkness beyond our meager campfires.

*First published on ShadowSpinners, May 2013.

Geography for Worldbuilding and Fantasy Maps

Matthew Lowes3 Comments

crusoeWhether you’re creating a setting for a novel, story, or game, it’s a good idea to think about some basic geography, so things make sense … for the most part anyway. I consulted a geologist about some basic guidelines for the geography of imaginary worlds. Of course, there are always anomalies, and fantastical explanations for unusual features or even entire worlds, but if you want your world to be vaguely earth-like, these simple guidelines may help in your worldbuilding:

  1. Large mountains almost always occur in ranges.
  2. Rivers flow from mountains and hills down into bigger rivers or open bodies of water.
  3. Forest can occur almost anywhere there is sufficient water for trees.
  4. Grasslands and hills can occur almost anywhere.
  5. Swamps, marshes, and lakes occur in flat areas with a lot of water.
  6. Canyons are carved out by rivers or streams.
  7. Major deserts are a regional function of the trade winds, but small deserts often form inland, on the far side of mountain ranges.
  8. Springs and oases can occur almost anywhere.
  9. Volcanoes occur in chains or regions of vulcanism. This usually happens closer to coastlines or islands.
  10. Glaciers, like water, flow downhill, and glaciated areas tend to have broad U-shaped valleys.
  11. Towns and cities need a source of fresh water. Larger cities often occur on trade routes.
  12. If you’re looking at huge timescales and you want some billion year old ruins, the centers of continents tend to be the oldest geologic areas.

Weird Roleplaying Cover Art

Matthew Lowes

WEIRD coverThe Weird Roleplaying cover concept features art by Brian Hendrickson. I wanted the cover to have a classic feel to it. The art had to speak to the theme of weird fiction, since that’s the inspiration for the game, but be ambiguous enough to relate to a wide variety of settings and time periods.

Brian’s web comic “Call of Cthulu: The Musical” is published in Weird Tales and featured on his own site, Qualestation.

Weird is still in the development and writing stages, but it’s a playable game at this point, and ongoing play tests are already happening in-house. More information about the game can be found on the Games page.

“By the Sword” to appear in Hyperpulp

Matthew Lowes2 Comments

HyperpulpEN

“By the Sword” will be published in Hyperpulp, the Brazilian bilingual magazine of fantastic literature and arts. I like the magazine’s literary take on genre fiction and am excited to reach new readers through a Portuguese translation. The story will appear in issue #5, due out at the end of December.

“By the Sword” is the first of several stories I wrote set the islands of Nara, a fantasy setting inspired by medieval Japan.

Isei must discover the true meaning of the sword when Hideo Yamashita returns to the Mizuhashi sword school. It’s a classic battle between good and evil, between the truth, and the tyranny of lies.

I’ll post more information when the issue become available.

My First Post to ShadowSpinners

Matthew Lowes

ssbadgelarge200x154I’m honored to have been invited to join a handful of wonderful writers at ShadowSpinners, a blog from good people who write about bad things. I’ve been in the trenches with many of these writers, cranking out short stories at Elizabeth Engstrom’s ghost-story and fantasy/science fiction weekends, and the initial salvo of posts were a great read.

My first post is up today. I hope you’ll check out the site, link, post, and share. This promises to be an interesting blog for anybody who likes in horror, mystery, and dark fantasy fiction, writing in general, and all things related.

There’s a new post every week!

http://shadowspinners.wordpress.com/

Roleplaying Games in Development

Matthew Lowes

roleplayingAnnouncing the development of not one, but two roleplaying games: Grimstone and Weird. I have been quietly developing and writing these games for a while now and look forward to having early playtest versions done soon.

Grimstone Fantasy Roleplaying is a traditional fantasy game based in the 3.5 OGL. It will be largely compatible with early editions of the Original Fantasy Roleplaying Game and with the numerous games of the Old School Renaissance. However, Grimstone features a unique class system with specialized feat lines, a fully developed skill system, and a unified system of magic. I am writing the entire game from scratch, including all spells and monsters to acheive a cohesive streamlined system that represents my ideal in fantasy gaming.

Weird Roleplaying is an original universal rules-light system inspired by weird fiction throughout the ages. It is being designed for fast character creation, streamlined gameplay, and easy adaptiblity to any genre, setting, or source materials. I’m very excited about the possiblities for this game. Weird is like a skeleton key for roleplaying games. It is designed to minimize GM prep time and to make improvisation and adapting adventures from other systems easy and intuitive.

Grimstone and Weird will ultimately be released through my company, Ealdanleoht Books and Games along with a number of original adventures for each system. Stay tuned for further developments.