abyssalbrews
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Tiny House
🕑 Added 2023-02-16 16:00:03 +0000 UTCGreetings adventurers!
When a person rolled into our shop telling me they had a house to sell, at first I was taken aback and then very disinterested. I’m no realtor or rentor, I explained that we were a shop of magical wares and nothing else. They persisted and I must admit that I admired their determination so I said why not. That’s when they plopped down a small keychain. I will admit I had a good laugh at first thinking it was a clever joke, but then they uttered 3 words and became no larger than an ant… We quickly agreed upon a price.
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Design notes from Matthew:
This was far more complex than I ever expected it to be. The initial idea was pretty simple, take a phrase “tiny house” and make it extremely literal in a way that could only happen in a magical world. What I didn’t recognize was how freaking hard that would be to do in a way that didn’t make it exploitable. 5E is a bit of a floaty game so many of the rules are open to interpretation so I have to constantly fight against that to make things work the way I want them to and only the way I want them to.
I wanted to make sure that people didn’t become these tiny superfast beings so I had to put a speed limit. I didn’t want folks to be able to cast a massive fireball from within the house while they were tiny so I had to put limits on that. I didn’t want people to be able to turn tiny and run away from the house to get up to whatever else so I had to put a distance element on it, so on so forth.
I guess that’s something that can be taken from this. Sometimes the simplest ideas take a lot of work to make properly. Some players will constantly work for an advantage, so you have to figure out ways to make sure things do only what you want. That’s what this one was an exercise in.
Illustration notes from Fernando:
I’m a character artist at heart, I approach our items like they are characters, imbuing them with as much personality as I can. My two blind spots when it comes to art have always been buildings and landscapes, it’s something I continue to work on, and one of the reasons I love AbyssalBrews, it makes me flex art muscles I normally wouldn’t.
I did a ton of research for inspiration before I did the first sketch, once I found enough reference material and other images I loved I started with a very loose sketch, not paying any attention to perspective at all.
Next I cleaned up the drawing with proper linework, this time, using Procreate’s excellent perspective guide tools. This helped a ton with making sure things lined up and had the proper scale. The painting part was the easiest and funnest part since it was just back to my comfort zone.
Much like a real building, the key to illustrating one for me is to have a strong foundation in the form of a well done base drawing.
I will say Fernando’s artwork on this one really set it apart. Buildings are harder than a lot of people realize. He put a ton of detail into it and made it feel like this real little chunk of safety in what is otherwise a dangerous adventuring world. I love how it came out.
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Rewards for Patrons!
Kraken's Kollaborators ($10 Tier)
There’s no place like home,
- Fernando & Matthew
Comments
AbyssalBrews
Well it's a magic item so stepping on it certainly would be enough to destroy it. If they're attacked within it with a melee attack or something of that nature, I would assume nothing pleasant as they would be jostled around inside and more than likely take damage. If we're talking about a spell attack then they would come under the effects of that spell. It doesn't shield you from damage in any way. I would say adventurers should take care to hide this piece well.
Gray
Since it’s a physical item and not a pocket dimension, what happens if the home is stepped on or something attacks?
