Chapter 1: Page 6
And so this week it seems Quinlan’s responsibilities are starting to catch up with him! As Captain of the Royal Guard, Quinlan’s responsibilities range from handling the minor squabbles of the Tamian leadership to waiting about in the king’s court and offering advice on political matters. In addition to these duties, Quinlan’s high status also makes him a bit of a target for other Tamian warriors looking to increase their standing in society. Crim, a trainer of the Tamian martial art known as “Tesque”, is one of those warriors. We’ll see more of him soon, rest assured!
Click for full-size
This page was originally distilled into a single panel, seen above. It skipped most of the pleasantries between Quin and Janik, instead jumping right into the news that the Lutren envoy has arrived. The additional dialog was added to give Quinlan’s ignored responsibilities a bit more weight, and to make it clearer that no matter where this poor Tamian goes, there’s always a mountain of work waiting for him whenever he’s caught and dragged back to his post.
Click for full-size
A lot of the differences between the thumbnail above and the final page layout mostly has to do with the positioning of the camera. This scene is relatively relaxed in pace, with Quinlan and Janik moving very little for the first couple pages. Because of that, it was important to emphasize minor actions/poses and expressions across the panels, as well as keeping the camera moving with different types of shots per panel to keep things visually interesting. In the end, the rather relaxed events of these pages work to help set the idyllic mood of the Tamian capital of Terria.
This week’s guest art comes from Sawyer Ruzzin once more! This Lutren soldier seems rather well-equipped for a simple night patrol – the hood and dagger belt definitely have me thinking “Assassin’s Creed”, and that’s never a bad thing! He looks pretty awesome, Sawyer – thanks so much for the artwork!
Click for full-size
And remember, if you have any guest art that you would like to submit, just sent it on over to thewesterndeep (at) gmail (dot) com!
LOL Janik’s quite spiffy, isn’t she? Love Quinlan’s reaction! Good work!
Love Quinlan’s distraught face through all this. You two are very crafty, long-suffering characters are the easiest for people to relate to and Quin hits that bulls-eye. His face in panel 3 is me at least twice a day.
umm….
Dakkan, yay!
Yet another great page. You guys have amazing usage of color…. We finally get to see Dakkan? Hooray!
Man, I love the lighting and foliage here.
I was reading a bit about RPGs and randomly decided to try writing one to see what effort and logistics go into it. My discovery? Mindbending, however when I was drawing a blank on a world to base it in I immediately thought of Beyond the Western Deep and even came up with professions and gear categories. I am such a nerd :-P
You’ll have to share this with us, Tim! And as a game designer myself, I can certainly attest to the difficulties of crafting an RPG! We’re in the middle of a big Book of Heroes patch, actually – redesigning equipment, adding a bunch of new social/guild features… Yeah, lots of work! :)
Certainly! I’ll look over what I have and email it to you. I took a lot of inspiration from Aion and Guild Wars and discovered it’s hard making a variety of professions in a world without mages (that I know of?) but what professions I did come up with seem to fit and have a good feel to them.
I’ve never played a paper and pencil MMO but back when my family was still using a Commodore64 there was a text based rpg on it so I just worked with what I vaguely remembered from that. Writing novels is easy in comparison lol!
*Just so that posterity doesn’t see this note in years to come and think I’m a moron I meant paper and pencil RPG, not MMO I do know the difference :-D.
Janik looks totally fine on this page, and her expressions and gestures does indeed make a rather sedate scene more involving. Instead, it’s Quinlan this time that looks rather… odd. It’s the way those eyes are staring at us – again, it looks really creepy. I’m never satisfied, I guess.
That’s a really cool otter guard! Good job, Sawyer!
And we get our first mention of Crim! I look forward to commenting on him when we get to it…
Am I going crazy or was that line about Crim changed?