Thursday, March 11, 2010

Age of the Wolf Art Revealed!

The Age of the Wolf product line for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor was cancelled. Artist Lee Smith was comissioned to do some of the illustrations for the project. Above is one of the pieces he made. The cap for the illustration reads:

The Herald of Thanatos is a massive mechanical construct that roams the lands, in its wake the dead rise from their graves and follow the machine as a legion of undead warriors.

 It's really interesting to see this wonderful illustrastion. It gives us alot of room to speculate to what the Age of the Wolf was really about. Based on this illustration alone, I'm getting associations with the Iron Kingdoms, perhaps with a hint of post apocalypse? The challenge with such a setting would probably be how to preserve the Arnesonian touch to the setting. I hope to reveal more news on this topic in the coming months!






-Havard

5 comments:

  1. Exactly my thoughts.
    --I see more clearly how the Iron Kingdoms was informed not only by Gamma World, but Blackmoor, Greyhawk, and Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

    Looking forward to more details. :)

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  2. Funny, how a picture and caption can ignite the imagination....

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  3. "I see more clearly how the Iron Kingdoms was informed not only by Gamma World, but Blackmoor, Greyhawk, and Wilderlands of High Fantasy."

    Good point TS! Blackmoor first introduced concepts that were used by many settings later on. I guess it is only reasonable that some elements are borrowed back into Blackmoor. I think Blackmoor is more about human sized robots and androids than the huge type mechs (Warjacks) of the Ikron Kingdoms though...

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  4. Wow, what a fantastic image! I've been considering the future of Blackmoor a whole lot lately, especially how I would like it to contribute to my understanding of Mystara (and of course any future campaigns I run in either setting). Your comment about the Iron Kingdoms hit the nail on the head and funny enough, that's a setting I've been considering mining for inspiration. There are a few steampunk/clockwork settings out there and I've been debating how I want Blackmoor's ultimately apocalyptic pseudo-tech to develop and what role I want it to play. This image gives hints about where Zeitgeist was thinking of taking it.

    Strangely enough, I'm reminded of the old Earthshaker module... :)

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  5. Ray,
    good point about Earthshaker! Gigantic mech-like creatures have been around in Classic D&D for a long time. There are also the Meks from the BECMI rules.

    Iron Kingdoms is a great source of inspiration for a Blackmoor campaign, especially if you want to give technology a more prominent role. Even if you dont go all the way with including the Warjacks (which would significantly affect the setting), there are many other ideas that can be borrowed from that setting. :)

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