The book is out!

The Dungeons & Drawings book is now AVAILABLE! You should go get it!

For those of you in London, please come see us at Gosh! this Friday the 15th, where we'll be doing a launch party! Wheeee!

Dungeons & Drawings Launch Date

Joe and I will be having a launch party for the Dungeons & Drawings book in at Gosh! Comics on Friday November 15th! Wowee!

Gosh! is a nice comic book store nestled in the heart of Soho, which sells just oodles of graphic novels, illustrated collections and indie fare. Any Londoners, London-adjacent or London-visiting people should feel free to come, have a little chitty-chat with us and get your book signed.

If you can’t come see as that’s totes fine. Just do us a favour and remember to pre-order from the outlet of your choice! Less than who weeks to go now!

Oh dang what’s happening here?

Could it be that Dungeons & Drawings has been picked up by Andrews McMeel and that we’ve made a super nice hardcover edition with gold foil? So much cover, so much foil. 250+ pages of monstery goodness.

Includes some brand new illustrations, not available in our previous books. We even re-did a few of the old monsters to be worthy of the format. Feels pretty good, my dudes.

The book comes out in November (December in the UK). Y’all can pre-order your copy on Amazon, Waterstones, and probably other websites too.

 

Wowsers!

Saurosphinx

Saurosphinxes are one of the less intelligent sphinxes. They're not stupid, but merely have intelligence comparable to that of an average human. Regardless, they're one of the nicer examples of the sphinx-type monster. While they're still carnivorous beasts, they generally refrain from attacking humans, preferring to engage them in conversation instead. Some saurosphinxes have been known to approach universities and lesser schools to listen to any interesting lectures going on at the time.

The Monster Manual has four sphinxes in it (lady-head, dude-head, sheep-head and hawk-head), but  Sandstorm, D&D's desert rules book, adds four more. The saurosphinx isn't the only reptilian one either, as it's immediately preceded by a crocodile-headed sphinx. Seems kinda redundant, but they make the point of making one of them nice and the other one vicious.

There's no illustration of this creature in Sandstorm, and I get the impression that they're supposed to be kinda dragony or otherwise lizard-like, but I couldn't help giving this dude a snake head. Snakes can have such jolly little faces.

Blanca’s Tumblr

Saint

The path to sainthood is a difficult one, requiring years of sacrifice, self-reflection and utter dedication to your holy path. Though sainthood is not the same as godhood, it does grant abilities to the saint that allow them to stay alive for longer to spread the word of their god.

"Saint" isn't a creature, really, but a template that can be added onto any PC after level 6. Feels like that's kinda early to get the holiness required to be a saint but whatever. It's kinda up to the DM's discretion whether you qualify for the template anyway, and it does essentially require you to sacrifice two levels of progression for the sake of power balance. But you do get a lot of abilities that are essentially free that make you really hard to kill, so there's that.

Blanca’s Tumblr

Logokron Devil

Much like certain angelic beings use truename magic, so do some devils. As one might imagine, the logokron devil's use of truemagic is meant to cause pain. Their long tongues are marked all over with magic symbols which are painful to look at, causing one to seize up and shake with insurmountable agony. Other devils are unaffected by this symbol, allowing the logokron to incapacitate enemies whilst bolstering the other soldiers in its army.

The know the true words of agony and wounding, and blending them with a person's name can cause that person to be forever tormented, long after the devil has left their sight.

Blanca’s Tumblr

Elven Hound

Elven hounds are the canine companions of the Good People. Used as guardians, assistants in the Hunts, mounts and friends, these green dogs are loyal servant to their masters. Even when transformed to look like a mortal dog, the elven hound always sports a greenish hue. Like other fairy creatures, the elven hound has a strong resistance to enchantments.

I spent a good while trying to decide how to draw this little fella, especially since I didn't want it to look too much like some of the other hounds I'd done. For a long while I kept messing about with something that looked like a borzoi, because if there's a dog that's going to belong to a fairy, it's gonna be the one that looks like a cloud / hornless unicorn.

But then I read something about how's there's a story saying that the darker fur on a corgi's back is supposed to be from the saddles pixies use to ride them, so here you go. So fierce, so dangerous.

Blanca’s Tumblr

Myconid (Redux)

Sometimes, in the darker regions of the forest, you may catch sight of these creatures as they ponderously shamble among the trees. Famously shy, myconids stay far from the bustle of human civilisation, serving as stoic watchers over their hallowed groves. Whilst their bodies may seem weak and pallid, they are quite hardy; a clan of myconids will not hesitate to gang together to protect their young and their weak from outside attack, aided by the poisonous spores they continuously shed.

I'm gonna cop to some influence here from the mushroom in Hollow Knight, but this also makes me think of the mushroom-people from the Dark Souls series, the way they travel in packs of children and adults. Also the design trope of a monster lumbering about with a bunch of weapons lodged in its hide is a real favourite of mine, the way it sort of tells a story, like - many have tried to kill this thing, but all have failed.

Dungeons & Drawings book 3 and bundle!

 

 

 

DUNGEONS & DRAWINGS VOL. 3
*NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER!*

At long last! The third volume of Dungeons & Drawings can now be purchased online at our Etsy store:

>>> https://etsy.me/2rdBvUa <<<

Featuring a fresh batch of 40 new illustrations from the Dungeons & Drawings archive, this book combines imaginative and colourful monster designs with easy-to-understand stats and well-researched folkloric history. Ever wondered why a ghoul’s called a ghoul? Ever wondered where angels come from? With this book, you need wonder no more!
Whether you’re a tabletop dungeon master looking for monster ideas, or just a fan of cool illustration, Dungeons & Drawings: Volume 3 is a must-have. And for a limited time only you can pick up all 3 volumes (that’s 120 whole illustrations!) for just £24! Dang! What a hot deal!
Ships globally from the UK. Packages to UK addresses are sent 1st class and should be expected next working day. International packages sent by international standard - see https://www.royalmail.com/personal/international-delivery/international-standard/ for details regarding delivery times.

Green Hag

Don't go into the woods after dark.

Make offerings at the temples of the travel gods, hold onto your talismans, wear your shirt inside out and carry a hazel stick.

Don't got into the woods after dark.

Do not acknowledge cute little old ladies, beautiful women or lost children. Do not heed the weeping in the trees, or the laughter, or the cries for help. Do not follow the swaying of lanterns in the darkness. If your friend left the path, they are gone. That is not their voice you hear.

But most of all don't go into the woods after dark.

Blanca’s Tumblr

Goblin

By many, goblins are considered less a race of small humanoid creatures and more a universal constant or a force of nature. Noisy, smelly, and worryingly numerous, they are a constant nuisance to any and all around them (though never catastrophically so). With nests across the multiverse, they have been likened to the common cold - in that what they lack in raw destructive power they easily make up for in hardiness and resilience to extermination (much to the chagrin of the more "cultured" civilisations who they revel in bothering).

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I think my favourite goblins are Magic: the Gathering goblins, mainly due to the extent of their ineptitude (there's a running gag where goblin cards will do... like the opposite thing they ought to do - see Goblin Diplomats) and also their propensity for infighting and (*cough*) self-sacrifice. Plus, they're one of those creature types where you can easily flood the board with them, and my inner timmy lights up at the thought of swinging for lethal with 10,000+ goblins as facilitated by someone like Krenko.

Anyway! These goblins are inspired by Blanca's old 3d designs for goblins, which are slightly puggy, but also by the miniblin enemies from Wind Waker. I guess with the knobbly bits on their heads you might mistake them for some lesser devil or other, but from a folkloric perspective I think goblins/imps/bugbears/devils are all cut from kind of the same cloth, so I don't really mind.

Joe's tumblr

Storm Elemental

Storm elementals are pretty much perky air elementals. They may be slower, but they pack quite a bit of zap, especially when you get to the bigger ones of the bunch. The little fellas can be pretty useful as a summoned ally, since their attacks actually deal sonic and electric damage at the same time. If one bit of hurt can't get through, the other one probably will.

They may well be the reason why airplanes and such never quite took off in fantasy worlds. Magical airships maybe have some kinda magical protection against storm elementals coming along and puncturing their balloons.

I like to think of these guys hanging around blue dragons, thunderbirds and the other big electric beasties of the sky, just hanging around them like remora on a shark.

Blanca’s Tumblr