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Post by wildagreenbough on May 12, 2014 18:12:43 GMT -9
Wonderful! I love the Jara Jara Bird racers. Having the riders wear racing goggles is a wonderful touch. Children of all ages (3-100) are going to love this game. Again the dynamic energy of your artwork makes these figures just so appealing Aaron.
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Post by aaron on May 13, 2014 6:48:03 GMT -9
Thanks so much ! I used something similar in a different game so I thought I would incorporate it into the splinterwood fantasy. there is actually a back story and advanced game rules to Jara Jara racing. for instance Griffin is the largest and oldest of the racers and was found on a battlefield his rider had been slain. he's so large and aggressive that even the Splinterwood elves thought he was a small Jara Bird. He was taken by a talented racers by the name of Marlow Carliah and she trained him to run in the races. because of his battlefield experiences he's still to aggressive to ride normally so she has to use reins to control him. they also act as a quick muzzle when he tries to attack the other birds. special rule whenever Griffin is the third from the front roll the d6. on a roll of 1 he moves to the first bird and attacks it. that bird misses the next turn. there is a similar back story and special rule for each bird (it makes the game more interesting and unpredictable) I love the idea that your adventures could go to a Jara Jara race and bet their gold/ geld/ currency of your game or you can always assign side quests to elves betting at the track. I.e. there is a pesky pack of knolls attacking a particular village if your party bets 100 gold against your knoll problem on streak then if they win they get 200 gold if they lose they have to hunt down and take out a pack of knolls .... that's how I used it anyway. Also there will be lots of vendors around the race track selling Splinterwood goods and services. you need a guide if your going to the coast step up and hire a guide at Finnwell's Splinterwood guides! the race track would be the center of commerce and trade in the Splinterwood (such as it is )most Splinterwood elves and other creatures live off the land and have no need for (and in some cases have never herd of money) Gold is worthless to Splinterwood elves it's not strong enough to make anything out of and jewelry is not something they even care about. you can't eat it or drink it it's makes a lousy bed and is to soft for building with, Most Splinterwood elves trade information and favors as currency. ok so if you use Eldufice as a forest spirit or elemental or something then it really doesn't matter what you do with him but if you use him as Eldufice then your adventurers need to feel like standing in his presence is like stepping into the eye of a category 6 hurricane. It should be like Gandalf says "this foe is beyond any of you" They need to feel like their lives could become very unpleasant in the next few seconds depending on what they say or do. Eldufice speaks all languages but just because he can doesn't mean he will. He refers to the denizens of Splinterwood as his children and he has a fierce love for them so if they are brought before Eldufice for some crime (then they are in serious trouble) the only way out is the hunt. Eldufice is a hunter first and foremost. he will give them a half hour head start and will then unleash his Baoui hounds and the hunt begins. If the Baoui hounds catch them then they are taken back to Eldufice and will be put to death. if they can evade the Baoui hounds then they have to evade Eldufice himself. He will chase them to the edge of the Splinterwood but no further. if they can get out of the woods then they have earned his respect and they are free to go and never return on penalty of instant death. If they just stumble into his glade or are brought there by the elves to pay respects again they need to feel like he's a force of nature (because he is)but unlike his siblings Eldufice is Jovial and likes to laugh, drink and tell stories. though he has no concept of time per say and will drink and revel for days on end and it's considered rude to just eat and run. the players should bring gifts to Eldufice of meads brewed outside the Splinterwood. Eldufice particularly loves ails and meads of foreign origins but after a few polite sips he will always return to his HUGE mug of splinterwood ail. Splinterwood ail is VERY alcoholic as it is infused with the life force of the forest and only a few sips will intoxicate most people and even elves. along with all the usual veshnoggering effect of the beverage after only a few sips anyone drinking it will develop a fiers love and protective feeling for the Splinterwood and feel like they would do anything to protect the people who live there. If a player or person drinks 5 or more of these Brews they will not want to leave the Splinterwood and will almost forget why they were there in the first place. It takes several days of Detoxing to get over this feeling and even then they will pine for the forests of Splinterwood for the rest of their lives as that is the life force wanting to return. If a player can make Eldufice laugh with a good story then they will be accepted to the glade and made Splinter Kin while the summer lasts. Having the Favor of Eldufice is no small thing. It means you can move freely throughout the entirety of the Splinterwood and it will offer up its bounty to you as you go. the only places he will warn you about is the Deep, and the Glades of his sisters and the path of his brother. but other than that you are free to go where ever you will (all this providing that the Splinterwood elves didn't kill you for trying to enter their woods in the first place.)
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Post by aaron on May 13, 2014 10:05:12 GMT -9
as I said before it was going to be a big boy. ok so I made the queens separate so you can use the dragon without her if you want to. if you want to use her then make the dragon first.Print the wings twice so there should be two on each side fold them in half and set them aside, then Cut out the square with the queen in it and fold it in half first but don't add glue. then cut out the flags/scarves whatever the cloth flowing from her saddle fold them in half and add glue. now fold the queen in half and add glue but put it on the dragon before you glue it. i'm going to make a tutorial soon
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Post by wildagreenbough on May 13, 2014 11:46:31 GMT -9
Oooooooo dragon I am just sooooooo tempted to rush off immediately and print him off and put him together. Aaron, I love the backstory for Jara Jara racing and the special rules sound very interesting. Any chance of you being able to let us see the complete rules for Jara Jara racing? I would imagine the Jara Jara race track must be neutral ground if it's a centre for trade, or am I reading it wrong? As I'm working on assembling a Forces of Nature army for Mantic's KoW rules I'm sorely tempted make use of your Eldufice figure as well as the Kl'cari as members of this army. You are a great storyteller Aaron and the backstory for Eldufice is excellent.
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 13, 2014 12:03:54 GMT -9
Can I adopt you? I love this game and so will my players! Hats off to you, aaron, my friend!
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Post by aaron on May 14, 2014 2:41:37 GMT -9
yay! I'm finally going to be adopted!! Jara Jara advanced rules ... hummmmm It will take some digging but I think I can find them ! This is the first I have heard of Mantic's KoW but now that I have you will need some stuff like spear men and the rank and file guys right? their always the ones who take the biggest chunk out of the old wallet. I'll see what I can do... something like this ? wip
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Post by wildagreenbough on May 14, 2014 2:59:46 GMT -9
Oh they would be perfect Aaron. Squeee! this is going to be wonderful. Thankyou so much
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Post by hackbarth on May 14, 2014 8:11:43 GMT -9
I'm already modding the archers to thick black borders myself. The figures are easy, but the bows are a pain.
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 14, 2014 8:49:23 GMT -9
yay! I'm finally going to be adopted!! Welcome aboard, my son!
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Post by migibb on May 14, 2014 9:39:40 GMT -9
I'm already modding the archers to thick black borders myself. The figures are easy, but the bows are a pain. If aaron has no objections, I would love if you could share the modded figs hackbarth....
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Post by aaron on May 14, 2014 10:59:49 GMT -9
I have noooo problems what so ever ! I would love it if Splinterwood was like Linex and all open source. I would love it if everything I make for Splinterwood ended up in the forum hoard! I want people to get some use out of it. Hackbarth I think I can make black boarders pretty fast I have the originals without boarders so I can make it happen wit a few clicks... just give me a few minutes how's this?
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Post by aaron on May 14, 2014 13:46:42 GMT -9
this is for miss wildagreenbough ( and anyone else that wants to use them! )ye old rank and file now I am on to the Jara Bird Knights .... that sounds like a movie doesn't it? here's a sketch to wet your appetites ! or completely lose your interest either way.
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Post by wildagreenbough on May 14, 2014 15:05:49 GMT -9
Aaron I could kiss you! Thank you so much for creating these spear-Elves for me I like the look of the Jara Bird Knight sketch. They should be excellent as fast light or medium cavalry.
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Post by aaron on May 14, 2014 16:07:23 GMT -9
WOW Adopted and Kissed all in the same thread! If I had known all it took to win a ladies affections was a handful of sweaty elves with spears .... ALL THE WASTED YEARS!! why didn't you tell me Squirmy dad?? LOL
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 14, 2014 16:29:24 GMT -9
Uh-oh! Did we just create a monster? I like your drawing of the Jara Bird Knight, but I thought you said in your back story that only females could ride the Jara Birds, or am I missing something?
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Post by aaron on May 14, 2014 17:26:03 GMT -9
you are missing something and it's a common mistake , lots of people make it.
as I said eariler .... "it's very common for outsiders to get the Jara Jara confused with the common Jara bird though they are close cousins they are not the same bird." I said only females can ride the Male Jara Jara Bird. The females don't run far from the nests so they don't race well...
The Jara bird is much larger and more docile in some ways. Though when the Jara Jara bird attacks something or someone usually they are doing it to get away as their prey animals are fairly small. When a common Jara bird attacks something or someone it's a completely different experience they are attacking something to kill it and eat it. The fully grown male Jara Jara bird weighs in about 250 lbs and will stand about 6 1/2 feet tall. the fully grown Jara Bird stand almost 9 feet tall and weighs in at a monster 600 lbs. the bone structure of the Jara Jara bird is hollow and and the muscle structure is actually coiled around the birds frame acting like a giant spring and allowing the smaller more aggressive Jara Jara bird to display bursts of incredible speed. Unburdened a Jara Jara bird can go from 0 to 75 Mph in about three steps. unlike their smaller cousins the Common Jara bird is a behemoth both in size and weight. the Jara bird is built to be an ambush predator waiting for the right moment then in a short burst of energy they pounce all 600 lbs of claws and beak stabbing ripping and tearing their prey to oblivion. though and ambush predators they live and hunt in flocks making them social creatures and making them the perfect mount for the Splinterwood knights. The common Jara bird can carry almost twice it's weight and though it lacks the Speed of the Jara Jara bird it makes up for it in stamina as it sometimes has to track it's prey for many miles. once the common Jara bird's egg is brought to the Splinterwood Rookery where it hatches and is hand raised by the Splinterwood knights because of this it treats all the knights as it's flock and will protect them with it's life. Both male Jara birds and females are large and dangerous but also extremely smart. so it's not uncommon to find them in all their glory on the battlefield. sometimes the birds instincts to outflank and ambush prey leads to creative attack strategies on the part of the splinterwood knights. Its not completely unheard of for the knight captain to let his Jara Bird lead the charge. because of their uncommon qualities other races seek after the Common Jara bird as a mount and though it's not uncommon to find them outside the Splinterwood it's not exactly common some one has the temperament to deal with a 600 lb predatory bird either.
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 14, 2014 18:02:49 GMT -9
Ah! Thank you for that clarification. Now I understand.
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Post by aaron on May 14, 2014 18:04:42 GMT -9
LOL I knew you would your Awesome like that... here's a wip!
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 14, 2014 18:10:28 GMT -9
Wicked! I like!
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Post by wildagreenbough on May 15, 2014 6:00:10 GMT -9
Things are definitely looking up for my Forces of Nature army, though with my printer going futt it has put a spoke in the works until I can find a replacement. Part of tonight's model making session was spent on the continuing labour of cutting out the One Monk Halloween Tree as I'm using it as the centre piece of one of my unit bases (KoW ruleset). It's a marvellous tree, but I'm glad I'm only going to be using one of them! It will be very nice when I can make a start on basing up Aaron's lovely Splinterwood Elves and I'm very much looking forward to that.
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Post by hackbarth on May 15, 2014 6:23:25 GMT -9
I have noooo problems what so ever ! I would love it if Splinterwood was like Linex and all open source. I would love it if everything I make for Splinterwood ended up in the forum hoard! I want people to get some use out of it. Hackbarth I think I can make black boarders pretty fast I have the originals without boarders so I can make it happen wit a few clicks... just give me a few minutes how's this? How's that? It's awful! You just did in a few minutes a better job than an entire afternoon I spent on GIMP! How rude!
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Post by aaron on May 15, 2014 7:02:31 GMT -9
LOL no worries I will try harder in the future to be less efficient and take more time doing it... I suppose ... LOL
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Post by migibb on May 15, 2014 9:39:42 GMT -9
hackbarth - don't let aaron and his 'awful' efficiency stop you from using your talents for the common good as well though!!!
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Post by aaron on May 15, 2014 9:59:10 GMT -9
I bet you thought I forgot about the dryads didn't you .... ok on second thought I don't bet betting ends up with entire races being created .... ok this is going to be a bit of a long posting it has to do with the creation of the Splinterwoods and the creation of Elves in general. To understand the Tree-Kin you must first understand where they came from and that takes us back to the beginning of all things. In the beginning of the world or the age of the Dawn, there were elves living in the Miasma of Magic that flowed through the world. In that time there was only one race of Elves they are called the Dawn Elves. in this time Magic was in them and they in the magic were one. then the great calamity happened and the world broke. the magic that flowed so freely was absorbed into the world creating the mountains, the oceans and the most of the world magic formed into a collective conscious and became the spirit of the Splinterwood. For the Dawn Elves this Calamity was the end of their world as the magic that sustained them was now gone and they faced the terrible reality of being mortal. As time when on the Dawn elves searched out Magic wherever they could find it in any form and like a true Junki only thought about their next fix. As they searched the world some of the Dawn elves found their way to the splinter woods and started to draw upon the life energy that was there. though it was enough to satisfy their cravings it didn't stop their mortality and though they live for many centuries they still would grow old and die. the newly founded Splinterwood Elves drew on the life force of the Splinterwood at a cost however, the life force began to twist them not only in form but in spirit. it made them more wild and feral. The life force grew their features making them taller stockier and more pointed with much longer ears than their cousins. In time the old ones (the original Dawn Elves ) passed on leaving only generations of SplinterWood elves knowing nothing of the before time. Each generation growing more and more ignorant of their dependency on the life magic of the Splinterwood. The life Magic from the Dawn time when forming into a consciousness splintered into 12 Elder spirits. For took Elves and infused in them becoming the Elder spirits of the seasons and the Elder of all the Splinterwood Elves. the remaning eight Elder spirits infused into other aspects of the forest. Qell'ar-Vinash the first of all the Elder spirits fused with a great Oak tree becoming the elder spirit of all plants and plant life. from him springs all the life of the forest. Though he is the oldest thing in the forest he only speaks the ancient tongue of mootish the language of the trees and sometimes he can speak the language of the Dawn elves but that is limited and there are few living who even know it. Qell'ar had 9 daughters who were like himself plants but sentient. immovable against the great forests they grew in size and power. of the nine there was one Dryas kessel who was Qell'ars favorite. unlike the other 8 who had spread to the winds and were growing far away from their father Dryas stayed in his shadow and kept her father's company. though she did this at a cost. she was unable to drink the sun as her sisters did and she remained small as though only a sprout. Qell'ar watched his daughter everyday grow more and more restless as she watched the animals and Elves playing, and moving about in the woods. In a moment of pure agonising selflessness Qell'ar gave to his daughter a gift and a curse. He used his life magic to give her perfect Elven form for a time and He told her you can move among the Elves of the woods but it will come at a cost of mortality. you must find a male Elf to give to you of his life force. It must be given in love and recieved in love. only then will you be able to move among the elves as one of them. though you are like them you will forever be a Tree-Kin and must retain your true form excpet in your season of love. Dryas was elated and over time she was able to find a mate. His name was thanell. they fell in love and consummated their relationship. as time went on Dryas became pregnant and had many children all were girls never did she have a son. Each child was born as a near ELf but as time went on they became more and more like a tree until they were lost to the old way immovable and unchanging. It was Dryas who told them about the Love but warned them as she herself had learned, Love is a bitter cup when your lover is mortal and you are not. Thanell had grown old and gone the way of all Elves but Dryas who had partaken of his life force remained young as spring. Dryas can still be found among the forests most often in the hart of the Splinterwood talking to her father in a language no one knows. All of her Daughters are known as Dryads and now many generations have come into the forest each must take a lover or become as the old treekin. the more lovers they take the more Elvan they look and eventually if they have had enough lovers it would be nearly impossible to distinguish them from any other Elves. Most Dryas however once they have taken a lover pine for that lover once they are gone and their hearts can't take another loss. Though Dryas is still among the Elves and can be called upon in times of Great need, it is Qellduvinen that is the matron of Dryads or daughters of Drayas. she is the eldest among them that still communs with the elves and her desires still lay with the moving things of the world. she has seen many of her sisters and daughters taste from the bittersweet cup of love and seen many still that were lost to it disappearing back into the forest when their lovers had gone the way of all living. though she has only had one lover, her hart remains opean and the idea of taking a new one isn't completely out of the question.
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 15, 2014 12:22:05 GMT -9
:)Wow! You are an excellent storyteller. My son, the bard!
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Post by aaron on May 15, 2014 14:14:05 GMT -9
thanks mom just trying to make you proud! LOL here's a w.i.p. of a Splinterwood Knight with a banner ... I'm still debating on what color to make the Jara Birds any suggestions?
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Post by wildagreenbough on May 15, 2014 15:54:43 GMT -9
Oh my, what a superb storyteller you are Aaron. I am very much enjoying reading the tale of the Splinterwood as it unfolds.
Qellduvinen is magnificent, I've seen plenty of interpretations of what a Dryad looks like, but yours is the best I've ever seen.
The knight with his banner looks great, but I'm not sure about what colour the Jara Birds should be either. Red certainly looks striking, practical common sense says that brown should be the colour for a forest dwelling bird, only that's a bit boring.
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Post by Vermin King on May 15, 2014 15:56:25 GMT -9
Don't macaws live in forests?
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Post by wildagreenbough on May 15, 2014 16:08:34 GMT -9
Don't macaws live in forests? Yes they do, which makes me wonder if that would be the direction to go for the Jara birds.
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Post by dungeonmistress on May 15, 2014 17:20:02 GMT -9
Well, you already have a lot purples and greens, so I'd not use those. While the red is striking, I also think it's a bit to distracting. You said that the Jara is a predatory bird, right? So camouflage would be the name of the game here. Think of other predictors, the big cats use patterns that confuse the eye, birds of prey use dull-ish colors and sound (or lack thereof) to gain advantage. So, maybe a patterned brown or dark yellow?
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