Cardboard Standups?

[Dustin]

Hello,

I thought I would throw this out there, but it would be really cool if Green Ronin would come out with creature cardboard stand ups for Dragon Age similar to Paizo's Beginner's box ones or Fantasy Flight's Warhammer Fantasy.

Has anyone else thought this?

[Giorgio]

Yes they are, and they have mentioned it is something they are considering.

[Dustin]

That is good news. I had gotten the Pathfinder Beginner's Box a while ago and those cardboard stand ups along with the map were my favorite parts.

[Giorgio]

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary Box

Bestiary Box Pawns

These are going to be used in my DAPRG game as soon as they come out!

[Dustin]

Man, that is beyond AWWWWWEESOME!!! I have the box set myself and have used some of the pawns (mixed in with my ever growing collection of pre-painted minis & my friend's collection of painted ones).

[Guardian of the Peak]

That would be pretty cool, I'd like to see what GR can do with that.

Though I think I'm going to just buy some of the Pathfinder stuff when I get the chance. Playing mapless and without representations is great and all but there comes times when I just wish we had some way of really figuring out where everyone is. And graph paper can only go so far!

[jgladeb]

For those interested, I'm a GM that recently got my group into the Dragon Age system (and we're really digging it so far!), and I'm a graphic artist. I draw out a lot of my own stuff, and have created pages upon pages worth of creatures and player characters (most of which have complete front and back sides drawn) that are designed to be printed out on my home B/W laser printed, colored using colored pencils, cut out, folded and placed into those little plastic card stands as seen here: http://www.boardgamedesign.com/pages/go_shopping/stands.htm

They are all drawn using a digital tablet and exported to Adobe Illustrator in a vector format (so I can scale them to any size without any loss in quality), and have them set on pages complete with dashed lines to show where to cut.

Currently Drawn Dragon Age Sets:
- Wolves
- Bears
- Thugs (intended to be lesser armed combatants like villagers or street toughs)
- Mercenaries or Bandits
- Blight Wolves
- Revengers (from the Dalish Curse adventure in GM Set 1)
- Giant Spiders
- Skeleton Warriors
- Genlocks (based on Dragon Age: Origins concept art found in GM Set 1)
- Hurlocks (based on concept art and design from Dragon Age 2 video game)
- Emissarys (based on a concept art from Dragon Age 2 video game also)
- Abomination
- Rage Demons
- Desire Demon (less skanky so my wife doesn't freak out...)
- A Shade or Fade Spirit

Previously my group was playing in the Wheel of Time setting, (which is where the wolves, bears, thugs, and mercs came from), but I have sets of trollocs, white cloaks, darkfriends, and Myrddraal as a result as well. I made the decision to try something a bit more open and less restrictive than the Wheel of Time setting and the D&D 3.5 rule set.

I've been planning on setting up a website soon and as a part of that site, having these designs and sets made publicly available for GMs to download and print in PDF format. I was wondering if anyone here thought that was something they could use for their games? I figure free is always something people are after, and these are based and drawn to match the style of the Dragon Age world instead of substitutes from D&D or other worlds.

I'm far from done and I'm still planning on creating more enemies like Ogres, Sloth Demons, Pride Demons, Templars, and Qunari as time goes on. I figured what I had was a good start for people though; including the heroes I've currently created for my players, past and present.

[Dustin]

jgladeb, I would be very interested!

I have a good collection of D&D & Pathfinder minis and about half of them work well for Dragon age, but it is the creatures that I have to "fudge" for this.

Thank you very much

[Caldarion]

Would love this stuff, yes!!!

[Tiger's Heart]

Me too!
Beats the idea of making them from the Toolkit pics I used for Esoterica Volume 2: Bestiary. These are ok for the purpose, but very ummmm... static - I'd always wished I had the talent to draw my own.

Tiger's Heart

[jgladeb]

Cool! In the process of getting everything ready to make the website live to the web. I'm a graphic designer by trade, but outside of creating flash objects, designs, and graphics, don't do much actual website creation--so I'm trying to make it look like a 12-year old didn't put it together... Although that's probably not such a bad thing, kids are amazing these days.

Anyway, hoping to have it up and running very, very soon! Stay tuned!

[jgladeb]

Alright, I took the easy way out as far as the website is concerned--but that's good for you guys!

I have more I'll be uploading in the next day or so. It might not look like much, but these take time. Check them out at the address below. My players have really enjoyed them and I wanted to share with the community! I really hope you guys like them!

http://www.daddymonsterstudio.com/downloads.html

[jgladeb]

@ Dustin

Which creatures do you find you have to fudge for the most? Perhaps I can make them a bit of a priority. I hit most of the major Darkspawn here minus Ogres. It looks like Bioware got rid of race specific Emissaries in Dragon Age 2, (ie. no Genlock or Hurlock Emissaries as they were in Origins) which is okay with me as I only really needed to draw a single one. I could be mistaken as I haven't played much of Dragon Age 2, whereas I played the hell outta Origins.

Kinda seems like Genlocks are Dwarven darkspawn, Hurlocks are human darkspawn, and Emissaries are Elven darkspawn to me after spending time drawing them. Probably not though since Dwarves are tough and Genlocks are decidedly not...

[Loswaith]

I dont tend to use stand ups, but I like the images, and they look like they would lend themselves well to being digitally coloured as well as being coloured by hand, or even left as the uncoloured line art.

Nice work.

[Dustin]

Really it has been the Revengers (I just use some ghoul looking figure) and Genlocks (goblins), Hurlocks (Orks) my PF troll for the Rage Abomination. Everything else we have played could use regular D&D & Pathfinder stuff. I have not run this game to the 2nd box set yet (despite reading it).

Man, those are nice drawings, btw! Thank you so much for this! You rock!!! \m/

[Caldarion]

Absolutely great work!

[Alchemus]

Hey jgladeb,
My group actually just played our first session last night, and no one has expressed any want for anything like this yet, but I'm definitely going to keep these in mind.

As far as darkspawn go, you are mostly right. Darkspawn are birthed from broodmothers, who are females taken and changed by the taint. Dwarven broodmothers create genlocks and human broodmothers create hurlocks. Ogres come from qunari broodmothers and shrieks come from elven broodmothers.

Emissaries are just super smart, magic wielding darkspawn alphas. I'm not sure why they cut emissaries down to just one type in DA2 though.

+Alchemus

[jgladeb]

I'm glad the response is positive! It's always a little unnerving to put yourself out there.

When I was younger and playing/running tabletop rpgs I never used miniatures for any of the battle or combat encounters either. Now that I'm older and running adventures/campaigns I really like keeping track of where everyone is at and what they are doing. I think it helps with strategy and overall my combat encounters run better with them. It can be a bit of a mess to have the multiple battle maps and such during a particularly combat heavy adventure, but I think overall it's worth it. It doesn't hurt that I'm older and have the tools and know-how to create custom miniatures either.

I have several D&D tilesets, one of those huge laminate grid posters that can be drawn on with dry erase markers, and a large 17" x 21" grid paper tablet that I got from Staples that I draw specific encounter areas on. I swap them out when I need them and it's worked out pretty well so far. I can see how some people might feel like it takes some of the imagination away from it all as it makes the combat kind of play like a board game, moving pieces around and whatnot, but I like that it gives more concrete distance for my ranged attackers, and when units die my players like to knock the pieces over to show them down and dead--something we are starting to use to signify the Knock Prone stunt now as well.

@Alchemus - Yeah, I remember hearing something David Gaider said about Qunari Broodmothers being where Ogres come from. So the rest really makes sense and falls into place nicely. Man, I remember the Broodmother from Origins... <Shudders> So there's another darkspawn to create I guess, though I'm hesitant as disgusting as (she/it) (was/is). She's going to have to be massive. Though my players aren't anywhere near being able to face one--nor close to the Deep Roads to find one. Yet...
Still great info though, thanks!

[Jekias]

They look great

Just one question, whats the best way to use these on a table? I was looking for place card holders on ebay but couldnt really find anything suitable, plain and cheap? Anyone else got a handy link they can share or a name of an item to get for this?

Cheers!

[jgladeb]

Hey all,
Just a quick update. I've uploaded pretty much all the miniature cards I have created on my download page now, Wheel of Time sets included. People here may not use them, but I wanted to get them out there since they took a fair amount of time to create and it would be a waste to have them just sit there on my hard drive.

@Jekias - Obviously these work best with those little plastic card holders that many RPGs with printed cardboard pieces use. I got mine here: http://www.boardgamedesign.com/pages/go_shopping/stands.htm I can understand that dropping $30+ for 100 of these things might be a bit much. Looking at the site it seems one can order less, but honestly, I've really gotten a lot of use out of mine. And even though there are never 100 pieces on the table at any one time, I like to get all of the creatures that I'm going to use for an encounter placed into the holders before the game starts so I can just set them out quickly rather than pull the paper pieces out and put the new encounter miniatures into holders.

Alternatively, I imagine one could probably come up with a cheaper "DIY" solution. I left some room at the bottom of most of the images so that the card holders would cover up as little of the artwork as possible. Perhaps after you cut out and fold the cards on the dotted line, you could fold the bottom parts toward each other and use a little bit of scotch tape to hold the bottoms together? Not ideal perhaps, but I think it would work.

Or, after coloring them if you so choose, you could laminate them and use a little bit of putty to create a small base for each and just push the laminated cards into small bits of putty. There are options if you're creative enough. It doesn't hurt that my wife has a laminating machine and all kinds of implements for scrap booking that I put to use from time to time for my more crafty projects...

[Dustin]

Thank you again!

[jgladeb]

Not a problem. I'm glad you like them! I'll probably be running the Amber Rage campaign before too long. So ragers are next on the list followed by Avvarian Hillsfolk, a red lion, and then probably Templars and Mages for general encounter stuff. (I have a rebellious Circle Mage in my party...)

[jgladeb]

Added some more creatures and another PC to the downloads today.

- Mabari Warhounds (I needed at least one for A Bann too Many)
- Ogre
- Bereskarn
- Ragers (I do plan on running the Amber Rage adventure next before I consider branching out into custom adventures)
- Dwarf Female Warrior PC added to set #1 (most of my players and their PCs are girls for some reason...)

Always open to suggestions if anyone has creatures or perhaps PCs they would like to see.

[Dustin]

thank you again! Wow, you are AWESOME!!!

[Allensh]

These are anazing! Thank you!

Allen