Chronicle in the New Year!

Greetings Chroniclers!

It's the new year and time for some updates!

This week we finish up our interlude, A Tough Crowd in Toryavik! I hope you've enjoyed this little story introducing two of our new characters. Kereth and Pav will be making an encore appearance later this year!

January 30th is the First Anniversary of Chronicle! To celebrate, we'll be kicking off Chapter Two of Autumn's story, which now has the official title, A Chronicle of Thieves! To get ready for this, I will be taking a few weeks off to get a few strips ahead. In the downtime, I will be posting up some concept art and sneak previews of things to come. Make sure to follow me on social media to catch some of this!

I also want to thank everyone who stopped by in 2014! Our final page view count was 39,837! Not too bad for a little fantasy comic/art site! We had 17,993 unique visits and 14,095 unique visitors! I know that if I had not faltered in my updates in the back half of the year and did just a bit more promotion we would have hit 50,000. My goal for the next year is to hit 100,000 page views. I know we can do it guys!

Some of you may be wondering what happened with the other material like the Character Codex and Fun Art Friday. Basically, after I got a new day job my evening schedule changed and I had to cut back on things to keep the comic going. I hope to get back to those features this year because I really do love drawing things besides my characters. It will just take some time.

Keep an eye out for some site changes. I will be revamping the archive soon and making some other cosmetic changes.

That's about it! I look forward to Chronicle in the new year and I hope you do as well!

Take care, 

Than

Character Codex Round 13 - Gnome Ranger and Rogue

Welcome to Round 13 of the Chronicle Character Codex!

I'm  drawing our way through all 77 race/class combinations in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.  We're showing off the Gnome Fighter, Gnome Monk,  and Gnome Paladin today.  If you've missed any previous entries you can catch up HERE!

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We've rounded the bend on the gnomes and this week we're taking a look at the Gnome Ranger and Gnome Rogue.

Gnome Ranger

First up is the Gnome Ranger.  For this one, I wanted to mirror the naturalist version of the druid but a bit more combat oriented.  So I went with the Trophy Hunter archetype from The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game - Ultimate Combat.  This blended well with the notion that the gnomes of Chronicle are the main race to have have black powder and their innate drive to study a science.  I can see this gnome being the kind of naturalist who fills a museum with taxidermy specimens for posterity's sake.  Somewhere there's a gallery with a stuffed owlbear in it!

I gave her some magical gear, though the exact powers of that gear could be changed up, depending on what the player had in mind.

Gnome Rogue

Next up is the Gnome Rogue.  This one's a bit on the nose, but I went with the Trapsmith archetype from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player's Guide.  I know that a tinker gnome being good at disabling traps isn't very original, but sometimes you have to draw the classics and this is my own version of it.

I gave him goggles because a proper gnome has to have a proper pair of goggles.  They're most likely some for of Perception buff.  I like to think the screwdriver is magical (maybe even sonic, eh?) and gives a disable device bonus.

Well, that's it for this week!  Next week we finish up the gnomes with the Sorcerer and the Wizard.  So, come back to see what I can come up with for a pair of mages!

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Fun Art Friday! - Autumn

Autumn

This week's Fun Art Friday is a drawing of our main character, Autumn.  She's a little bit "sword" and a little bit "sorcery" but she's definitely no damsel in distress.

When I was developing this new Chronicle story, I kept doodling this girl with the ponytail and strands of hair  on each side of her face.  Eventually, I realized that this was going to be my lead.  A female lead is still fairly rare in fantasy, especially the traditional "sword and sorcery" style.  So, I take care when writing her so that she's believable and not just defined by her gender.  

Autumn's main conflict is that she doesn't know who she's supposed to be.  Is she a fighter? A thief? A sorcerer? Does she have to be any of those things?  Does she follow in the footsteps of the people who raised her or does she strike out on her own?  She's also a teenager, so she's going to have all of the insecurities that come with that piled on as well.

Her visual design is fairly utilitarian like the other three characters.  A simple tunic/vest combo with leggings and cuffed boots.  Her tunic is long enough to be worn as a skirt for a bit more modesty with the leggings.  I wanted it all to look like similar to what a squire might wear, to show her tomboyish nature, while still keeping a bit of feminine flair with the collar and cuffs.  I also wanted a pretty low key color scheme with the greys and browns and reds.  But, the cloak had to stand out a bit and frame her so I went with a complimentary green.

Autumn's only two accessories are a gold badge and a longsword.  Both of these bear the crest of the royal house of Belanthia, a nearby human kingdom.Where they came from is still a bit of a mystery that we'll be exploring eventually.

Overall, I'm having a great time telling her story and I hope you all are enjoying reading it.