Building Avendar: The Fortfo Estuary, Part I

I write for Avendar MUD, a text-based online game. Building requires game design as well as descriptive writing.

I was asked to add detail to an existing area, the Sea of Lidreau. The Avendar team wanted a section of the area to be dedicated to low-level characters, with new creatures, items, and merchants.

First, I visited the area in question. The southeast corner of the map had been designated for this project. The location had a path along the beach, a path into town, and some ocean. Nothing else. I considered the possibilities, and drew from my personal familiarity with coastal habitats. Tide pools! Sand bars! Those swampy areas where fresh water meets the sea… and so on. Amid thoughts of anemones and stinky seaweed, the Fortfo Estuary was conceived.

For there to be an estuary–the location where river meets sea–a river needed to be invented. I dubbed it the Fortfo river. At long last, the town of Gaald would have a source of fresh water! I also drew a map.

*=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-*
 [                                        ]
 [       FORTFO ESTUARY OF GAALD          ]
 [                                  |     ]
 [       S   ~     ~    ~     ( R   P     ]
 [       A      ~    ~     ~  ( O   A     ]
 [  _    N   ~     ~    ~     ( C   T     ]
 [    \  D      ESTUARY    ~  ( K   H     ]
 [    |  B   ~     ~    ~     ( Y   |     ]
 [    |  A      ~    ~     ~  C ~ BRIDGE  ]
 [    |  R   ~     ~    ~     (     |     ]
 [    P  *   TIDE POOLS  *   *  BIG |     ]
 [    |    *   *   *   *   *   ROCK |     ]
 [  --+- F ----- P A T H -----------`     ]
 [    H                                   ]
 [                                        ]
 *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-*
 +----------------------------+
 |  P: Picin's Seafood Stand  |
 |  F: Fila the Beach Trader  |
 |  H: Hyadth's Stables       |
 |  C: Cmajia the Historian   |
 |  Ilniaf: on the Big Rock   |
 |  Gaandin, dog: by Ilniyaf  |
 +----------------------------+

This map helped me decide which rooms should be which terrain type. Terrain type has mechanical effects for some classes. For example, rangers can mire their enemies in swamps to cause them to lose attacks. The path is ‘road’ terrain, the rocks ‘hills,’ and the estuary ‘swamp.’

Some of the final, in-game room descriptions:

A Well-Trod Shoreline Path
   Waves crashing on the rocky shores of the peninsula far off to the north
 and south permeates the air with moisture, while the mixture of sand and
 rock surrounding the beaten path makes the ground here rough.  Far to the
 east, the massive Yagash mountains dominate the skyline, and to the north of
 them, a dense oak forest.  A number of different tracks and markings have
 been left in the path below, most notably those of large caravans carrying
 goods to and from the town far to the west.  
A Rocky Peninsula
   The rocky shore here has been eroded by the wind and waves.  Deep
 crevices and hollows make foot-travel difficult, but it is possible to pick
 a way through.  Below the tide line, barnacles coat every surface with their
 white, conical shells, and tide pools cradle abundant sea life.  Giant green
 anemones blossom within the pools, pale mint-colored tentacles wafting
 gently.  Tiny sculpins dart between hiding places, and small, varicolored
 sea spiders graze on seaweeds.  Sea stars cling to the rock, traveling by
 inches, outpaced by relatively speedy snails.  Urchins and larger sea
 spiders brave the land, ranging from pools down to the estuary to the north,
 where the Fortfo River meets the Sea of Lidreau.  Directly to the north, a
 sandbar, dotted with elephant seals, protects the estuary, and far to the
 west the city walls of Gaald are visible.  Nearby to the south, more even
 ground opens up to a rutted path. 
A Misty Sandbar
   Whitecaps break on the west side of this sandbar, the waves erupting on
 the rocks in lacey sprays.  Mist pervades the air, suffusing the atmosphere
 with salt and dampening all things brought here.  On the sodden sand, tracks
 from large animals lead into and out of the sea, sweeping clean the
 ubiquitous prints of webbed feet.  Trickles of seawater gently flow eastward
 to the estuary, where the Fortfo River meets the Sea of Lidreau.  Further
 east, a shoreline path can be glimpsed through the mist, and beyond that,
 the looming shapes of the Yagash mountains darken the horizon.  The sandbar
 continues north.  The land slopes upward to the south, growing rockier, and
 tide pools abound on the barnacle-crusted rise.  The path continues along
 the peninsula, eventually reaching the town of Gaald to the southwest.  

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Nwain Page 114

Nwain Page 114

Nwain is my animated comic. Click the blue highlighted panel to play animations. The dots in the lower left corner of a panel indicate there are more animations. When the dots are full, you have seen all the animations in that panel.

Read the comic at Nwain.com!

Support the comic on Patreon, or send a contribution with Cash.me.

Get Nwain items in the Shop – including free downloads like pdfs and photoshop brushes!

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Betamaze Digital Kit on Gumroad

The Betamaze Digital Kit makes it easy to construct your own betamazes.

Files Included:

– Illustrator File with full alphabet
– Photoshop File with full alphabet
– SVGs of individual letters, numbers, and punctuation marks
– Transparent PNGs of individual letters, numbers, and punctuation marks
– Sample maze in photoshop and jpg formats.

Download the Betamaze Digital Kit on Gumroad. Leave a tip, and I will prioritize making more Betamaze resources.


Betamaze Digital Kit

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Betamaze is set free!

The Betamaze alphabet lets you encode messages in mazes.  Originally created in 2003 by Terrana Cliff (me), Betamaze first appeared on Omniglot.com. Over time, Betamaze has been used in ARGs, puzzle games, tattoos, and quilts.

As of 2017, Betamaze is now officially free to use! It is released under a Creative Commons Zero license, a worldwide public domain license. Anyone may use Betamaze in any project, including commercial products, without fear of legal retribution. Hooray! Go have fun!

CC0
To the extent possible under law, Terrana Cliff has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Betamaze. This work is published from: United States.

This section of my site will feature Betamaze creations from around the world! If you have a creation you want to share, please let me know at rillani@yahoo.com , or send it to the Betamaze facebook page!

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Dragon Dodge Card Art

Element spell cards

 

Tile spell cards

One challenge with these cards was making sure the element cards and tile cards look different enough that they would not be easily confused with each other. To that end, the card borders are ‘made’ of different materials – paper for the element cards and stones for the tile cards.  The backs have very distinct patterns.

Another challenge was creating icons that are clear and distinguishable for people with low vision. When designing them, I would frequently step away from my computer to check if they were clear from a distance. I also used an adjustment layer in photoshop to check if the cards remained clear in grayscale, for people with colorblindness.

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Nwain Page 73

Nwain Page 73

Nwain is an animated comic. Click the blue highlighted panel to play animations. The dots in the lower left corner of a panel indicate there are more animations. When the dots are full, you have seen all the animations in that panel.

 

Read the comic at Nwain.com!

Support the comic on Patreon, or send a contribution with Cash.me.

Get Nwain items in the Shop – including free downloads like pdfs and photoshop brushes!

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Dragon Dodge

Dragon Dodge

Project: Dragon Dodge

Company: Hidden Creek Games

My Work: Illustrations for box, cards, and tiles.

About Dragon Dodge:

In the magical game of Dragon Dodge, two teams of wizards put their spellcasting to the test where dragons move at your command and the last team standing wins…

A simple yet strategic card-driven, grid movement team game with a modular board.

Story:

I met Hidden Creek Games at the Evergreen Tabletop Expo in Tacoma.  I was selling my dice bags and displaying my webcomic, Nwain. They liked the art in the comic, particularly that it is about a lady knight. They said they were working on a board game and looking for an artist. They had been having difficulty locating an artist who could draw a female wizard without making her “too sexy.” They wanted the game to be family-friendly, and with two young girls, they wanted female wizard characters that inspired traits like intelligence and activity–not standing around looking like a sexy halloween costume. We exchanged business cards, old school style.

Months later, we met at a cafe and got down to details. I illustrated the box art first, and we slowly branched out to character portraits, tiles, and cards.

The Kickstarter was a success!

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