Alterra Flavor Cravings: Druid of the spectrum Hey Team- Parrish here. This time we’ll be doing something I hope you’ll see a lot more often in the flavor cravings: I’ll post a picture from AoE or one of our partners, and tell you about how I’d include it in an expedition, David will give his own story, and we’d also love to hear your take on it. So, I was coloring this standee by Matt Holmberg (@orwin-dm), when I noticed that this venerable faun druid had a very suspicious looking tail in the back of his robe.  I imagine them standing in the middle of a forest path. As explorers approach, he greets them, but warns, “The forest is not welcoming visitors today” and urges them to turn back. …because he’s actually a Tanooki gourmand utilizing a minor illusion cantrip, who has found a bountiful patch of mushrooms, and has no desire to share them. He made his small curved mushroom knife look like a formidable sickle, and added the impressive antlers of a great faun, but forgot to hide his own bushy tail. Will the adventures turn back? What would he do if they call his bluff? Tell us your own story for this picture. What popped into your head when you saw them? What sort of powers do they have? Do they use them for good, or for awesome?  Okay- until next time…

I’m not even surprised....

Good Evening, and welcome back.  Parrish here; I took a month off to do take care of some other projects, but the last few weeks I’ve been busy behind the scenes for AoE. We have a new concept artist to help create the player character races of Alterra.  Capi is from Saint-Denis, Réunion, off the coast of Madagascar. Capi specializes in concept art, and their style is a great match for Alterra.  We’re not finished by a long shot, but I’ll be dropping our races here and talking about them one at a time.  Tanooki- Diminutive Raccoon-like race that can turn into stone at will. Wiley, mischievous, and sneaky, tanooki are perfect for players who like getting into trouble and always having tricks up their sleeves to get back out of it.  Their homeland in Alterra is a densely forested island, where they build treetop villages. Tanuki are a real animal, native to east Asia, actually more closely related to dogs than to raccoons. Japanese myths say they have magical powers, and bring good luck, especially to shops and restaurants.  In Alterra, lazy/hungry tanooki will often wait outside restaurants in statue form until the restaurant closes and throws leftovers out. Observant diners realized that tanooki wait outside the restaurants that serve the tastiest food, so they patronized restaurants with tanooki waiting outside. Noticing this trend, shrewd restaurant owners began setting out hungry looking tanooki statues to fool diners. This only benefited the tanooki, because now if they’re ever in trouble, they can transform into stone, and passersby will just figure the nearest restaurant got a new statue. Btw- the two tanooki pictured are a brother-sister pair named Ruff and Tumble, created and played by @snickups  If you want to check out MORE of Capi’s work: capi974.artstation.com https://www.deviantart.com/capi974/gallery/ https://www.facebook.com/capi974/

When my nephews and their friends first asked me if we were ever going to have fantasy races in Age of Exploration, I was hesitant, because there’s a lot of things I dislike about High fantasy model based on Tolkien, and I really prefer Sword and sorcery, more like Howard’s Conan. When people explore the world of Alterra, instead of instantly thinking: Elves are Chaotic Good,  Dwarves are Lawful Neutral, Orcs are Chaotic Evil; I want everyone to have the potential for good and evil. So we’ve dropped ‘monster races’ like orcs, gnolls, and hobgoblins completely. Kobolds are still everyone’s favorite minions, but it doesn’t mean that they’re implicitly evil. And while we’re on the subject of elves…I don’t really understand the point of having elves if they’re just going to look like pointed eared humans. 

So when I designed my elves I wanted them to have skin and hair combinations that aren’t naturally occurring on Earth. The less drastic of those is what became Sun elves: Copper skin and bright blonde hair. Sun elves live in Tropical Rain-forests all over the world. They live in jungles, they live on Tropical Islands, and they live on sunny beaches everywhere they can find a forest close by. They are renowned for fishing, sailing and blacksmithing. 

And there is no city in the world more famous for smithing than the Vulcanforge. It’s built into an active volcano whose lava tubes provide heat required for incredible works of bronze, silver and steel. Since I already commissioned a female Sun elf as a seafaring explorer, I plan to have my next sun elf be a metalsmith, but they’ll still keep the islander motif.    We have two upcoming expeditions (adventure modules) that feature sun elves. One is set in the new continent and sends players on a quest to find a lost city of gold in a deep jungle, rumored to be inhabited by the (supposedly extinct) Rakshasa Cat men. And the other takes place on a chain of islands, and features a significant amount of lore borrowed from traditional Pacific Islander Mythology. Its lead writer is @snickups, a long time member of the creative team and a native of Guam. Which one do you want to play first? 

Good Evening, and welcome back.  Parrish here; I took a month off to do take care of some other projects, but the last few weeks I’ve been busy behind the scenes for AoE. We have a new concept artist to help create the player character races of Alterra.  Capi is from Saint-Denis, Réunion, off the coast of Madagascar. Capi specializes in concept art, and their style is a great match for Alterra.  We’re not finished by a long shot, but I’ll be dropping our races here and talking about them one at a time.  Tanooki- Diminutive Raccoon-like race that can turn into stone at will. Wiley, mischievous, and sneaky, tanooki are perfect for players who like getting into trouble and always having tricks up their sleeves to get back out of it.  Their homeland in Alterra is a densely forested island, where they build treetop villages. Tanuki are a real animal, native to east Asia, actually more closely related to dogs than to raccoons. Japanese myths say they have magical powers, and bring good luck, especially to shops and restaurants.  In Alterra, lazy/hungry tanooki will often wait outside restaurants in statue form until the restaurant closes and throws leftovers out. Observant diners realized that tanooki wait outside the restaurants that serve the tastiest food, so they patronized restaurants with tanooki waiting outside. Noticing this trend, shrewd restaurant owners began setting out hungry looking tanooki statues to fool diners. This only benefited the tanooki, because now if they’re ever in trouble, they can transform into stone, and passersby will just figure the nearest restaurant got a new statue. Btw- the two tanooki pictured are a brother-sister pair named Ruff and Tumble, created and played by @snickups  If you want to check out MORE of Capi’s work: capi974.artstation.com https://www.deviantart.com/capi974/gallery/ https://www.facebook.com/capi974/

My troublesome Tanooki twins have art and I'm so happy that our artist was able to capture so much of their character!

Clueless (1996) dir. Amy Heckerling

It does not.

Morgana Wallace  -  http://www.madronagallery.com/artists/morgana-wallace  -  http://morgana-m-wallace.tumblr.com  -  https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/morgana_wallace  -  https://www.instagram.com/morganawallace

Age of Exploration - Introduction to Alterra 

Age of Exploration is a tabletop adventure RPG with fast fun character creation, streamlined mechanics, and new fantasy races based on real world cultures and mythologies. 

Alterra is the base setting for Age of Exploration, a bright and flourishing world, where magic, technology, and culture are entering a global Renaissance. A number of diverse races formerly separated across oceans and wild, uncharted continents are coming together to trade in exotic goods, arcane artifacts, and incredible new inventions.

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I’m so excited for this!

Hi, I’m Parrish, lead designer of Age of Exploration, and creator of the world of Alterra. I’m new to Tumblr, but we have a veteran on the creative team who said it would be a great place to get feedback on our worldbuilding ideas. 

Since this is a game focused on Exploration, I thought I would lead off by sharing a few places from the world of Alterra, and perhaps you could share your thoughts and help us rename some of them. 

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(Source)

Via #doppelxmas on Instagram

Twitter has a 140 character limit, yet I still found a way to tell one of the longest and most obnoxious knock-knock jokes of all time within a single tweet.

I am more proud of this accomplishment than any human has the right to be.

😂😂😂😂

most ardently

If you haven’t read the books

• Peeves was a poltergeist who haunted Hogwarts and frequently harassed students • A house elf named Winky was an integral part of the plot of Goblet of Fire, she was Barty Crouch’s elf • Dobby worked in the Hogwarts kitchens, Dumbledore paid him a wage and he gave Harry the gillyweed • Harry and Ginny’s first kiss wasn’t creepy or in the Room of Requirement, it was in the Common Room after winning a Quidditch game • Snape had his own challenge on the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone that was a test of intellect and included drinking potions • McGonagal protects Hagrid and takes FIVE spells to the chest in order to let him escape when Umbridge tries to get him incarcerated • Sir Cadogan! Fantastic painted Knight • That random piece of glass that Harry looks through and sees Alberforth in, was actually a mirror given to him by Sirius who wanted to keep in contact with him while he was at Hogwarts, it was also what he used to keep in contact with James over the summer and during classes • Harry has a complete break down after the Sirius’ death and trashes Dumbledore’s office - it’s super cathartic and heartbreaking

• RON WAS ACTUALLY A REALLY GOOD FRIEND. • Harry and Dumbledore seeing Voldemort’s mother and the abuse she went through.

ooooo boy okay

It me.

So I haven’t gotten Breath of the Wild yet, but I DO know that the Temple of Time is still standing!! And even though the Master Sword isn’t where it used to be, I wonder if Link still feels something when he’s in that place.

Like the Temple of Time theme in this game is so heartbreaking and hesitant, like someone’s trying to remember something important.

And I wonder if that happens to Link a lot, like he’ll come across a place that was dear to him in a past life and break down into tears and not know why.

@kerbabbles I can't wait for you to start playing. Amidst the beauty of the game there's a quiet bleakness that occasionally catches me off guard and leaves me breathless. This will all make sense and it will break your heart.

https://twitter.com/studiobysol/status/857450778566447106

not gonna lie, I thought that was either a bunch of spilled salt or cocaine whoops.

Vietnam, you are 100% the best at this. Keep it up

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German: vom Regen in die Traufe kommen

Vietnam wins.