Mad Wizard

Creator Spotlight – Lemurian_Settler (Dustdown)

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It’s been a while, but I wanted to spotlight a creator that’s been around creating for about the past three years, Lemurian_Setter.

Lemurian has is another forever DM. He’s been DM’ing for tabletop roleplaying games and rarely had the chance to be a player. Rarely getting to play DnD and instead he started with more obscure systems like MERP, Mutant Chronicles and Pathfinder (though not as obscure anymore). His first venture into DM’ing was Hero Quest (leaving out comment how I backed the kickstarter of the Hero Quest redo). He loves running related storylines across different groups, but lately doesn’t have any time to run real games anymore. So building in TaleSpire has been a real treat; He might not get to see the game where the maps are used, but just knowing they could pop up in a campaign is enough for him.

You can catch his streams on Twitch and YouTube

He also loves creating environments for virtual reality in Horizon Worlds and you can see both in his channels. He’s also got a few videos on building through “carving” and a modular tutorial. Check them out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgT0ez7ajk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx7CC6SNEno . And lets not talk about the board below and the year it took to build.

If you love what he does, or use it, he’d love it if you’d tag his maps in your streams or videos. He loves seeing how they come out and are used, and it’s just a way to let him know how much we appreciate the time and work he puts in. Great job Lemurian!

Featured Lemurian Slabs & Boards

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Large Desert Capital – Arabian Harbor City [v004C]
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Carved Dungeon Tutorial – Youtube Example [90 Minute build]
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Arctic Outpost – Large Base Camp
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Regional Airport and Hovercraft Hub

April 2023 Creator of the Month – Ooiittee

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This month we’re celebrating a creator that’s been around a while and worked with a number of others in the community and a great supporter of Talespire, Ooiittee.

Ooiittee, is truly an artist when it comes to building. He is more about making the art than actually building to play. As someone into RPGs and building for 30 years, Covid forced him to turn towards VTTs. Ever since he’s left his physical terrain building behind. The friends he’s made in this community have been amazing and truly uplifting to him. He loves this community and working with new and existing builders alike and has collaborated with many. Most recently collaborating with the great Blackwolf Majik and Demongund.

He is working with Demongund on Castle Ravenloft and it’s expected to be releasing soon. But you can check out their video clip to wet your appetites now at https://youtu.be/qf_WYebM-XA (video capture by Grimbeard).

He streams building in Talespire on his Twitch Channel and loves welcoming new builders to the community.

Congratulations Ooiittee, you are getting better and better all the time and this has been a while in the making.

Featured Ooiittee Slabs & Boards

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The Bagger’s Heights
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Noonvale – Treetop Village/Wood Elf Tree Village
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Smugglers Cove and Blackmarket

March 2023 Creator of the Month – Baldrax

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Another month, another creator standout to be recognized, Baldrax!

Baldrax has been playing D&D for about 40 years and has always been a big fan of 3d terrain. He loved the idea of TaleSpire and was an early backer and convinced his gaming group as well. After one of his first creations, the bandit hideout Seinaru Heikiko was finished, that there must be a better way to build out the terrain. 30 hours just on terrain for one map was too much.

He’s been in the Visual Effects industry for 30 years, and so combined his hobby and profession to create his Terrain Generation Toolset in Houdini, a procedural 3D VFX software package. The 1st map he made, Dolgan’s Peak, was too big for TaleSpire, he crashed the game before he could paste all the slabs. So he took a step back and had to be less ambitious. Now he can create complex terrains in a small fraction of the time of hand-building them, able to build out custom maps in under half an hour if the bioms are already created. The toolset is available on github, but it takes a lot of his time to develop so he recently launched a Patreon to help give him incentive and guide the project.

Most of his maps are experimental as he’s developed the tool but he’s planning on publishing more refined maps in the future. He does do more than terrain and has several maps in the final chapter of the Jade Regent adventure path that he’s GM’ing (to be released once they’re refined). He’s also been working on his own version of Caves of Chaos.

He created the Yester Hill map for Demongund and VTT Journey, one of his most polished maps, and is starting to work with BlueBoxRPG on some upcoming projects.

He’s also started streaming on his Twitch Channel on thursday nights if you’d like to check out TaleSpire and his terrain generation development.

Congratulations Baldrax, you’re an asset to the community and the things you’ve done so far are amazing

Featured Baldrax Slabs & Boards

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Curse of Strahd – Yester Hill
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Dolgan’s Peak
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Dragons Folly Forest Fire
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Dark Sun style badlands desert from BlueBox RPG Stream
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High Desert
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Forest Coast
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Nazca Condor – Geoglyph
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Forest Gully – Encounter Map

Share or not to share, that is the question

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Okay, I’m not William Shakespeare. But I wanted to post a quick update for everyone on a few fronts. The first, and primary, is a new setting in your user profile page.

New Sharing Permissions

Are you creating amazing slabs and boards? Would you like to have those shown to others on streams, social media and the like? If so, or if not, we have a new setting you can change in your profile settings. The new setting asks if you are okay with having your creations shared by others (with appropriate credit of course), or not. There are three settings for Yes, No and “Ask” if you aren’t sure or want control as to what is shared. Basically this allows others like Bouncy Rock, Tales Tavern, or any others to know your preference and share appropriately anything you create. They still will give credit, they’re still yours, but sometimes others like to show off what can be done and this simplifies the process of getting your approval.

See below for the question as it shows when editing your profile.

The new Sharing Options

And what it looks like to others on your profile page.

The Sharing Permission displays on your profile page

Over 7,000 Creations now online

Another fun fact, we hit over 7,000 creations back at the beginning of the month. I’m always impressed by this community and with continual new updates and assets released by Bouncy Rock, it’s fun to see what you all do with them.

Check us out on Twitch with BlueBoxRPG and Demongund!

I will be on the BlueBoxRPG’s Twitch Channel for Loremaster’s Arcanum talking about TaleSpire on March 29th starting at 3:30 PM CST. Come join in and hang out and chat. We’ll be talking about all things TaleSpire and future plans for Tales Tavern as well.

February 2023 Creator of the Month – DAP0L0

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This month we’re excited to recognize another great creator in the community, DAP0L0!

DAP0L0, got into Talespire purely out of the love of building. DAP0L0, is fascinated with castles and uses Talespire as a creative outlet. Of course he’s got an edge on many of us growing up in German surrounded by many castles, and working towards a masters in mechanical engineering. This means we all benefit from the realism in the creations. Lately he’s found using Baldrax’s terrain generator has helped make surroundings quicker for their wonderful creations.

Now for some quick fun facts about DAP0L0 and his creations:

  • Has been building for about two years
  • Over one year of that (520 hours) was spent on building one monster map with over 320,000 assets [board link]
  • Has only played one game in Talespire and not even on his own maps
  • Creates a lot more maps that aren’t released
  • Loves to create big maps with lots of detail, but mostly builds based on suggestions and what he want’s to do and build

His most recent creation was in conjunction with our January 2023 Creator of the month, Blackwolf Majik and can be seen in the featured boards below.

Congratulations DAP0L0 on all you’ve accomplished and we can’t wait to see what more is to come.

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[HD] Fortress on Shore [320k+ Assets / 500+ hours / Largest custom Talespire Board ever]
by DAP0L0
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Mining Cave during Autumn
by DAP0L0
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[GE] Mountainlakes
by DAP0L0
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Desert Castle ft. Blackwolf Majik
by DAP0L0

January 2023 Creator of the Month – Blackwolf Majik

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It’s January 2023 (and been a while, hey life happens) and the creator of the month is back!

Blackwolf Majik got into Talespire, not because of some grand plan, but because of a funny D&D Video. The video had a blurb to check out Talespire, and the rest is history. She missed the kickstarter, but has been on fire ever since getting the program.

Blackwolf Majik has over 700 hours in Talespire, and loves making decorating kits so people can use them in their own creations. In particular loves the feeling of taking unrelated props and creating something entirely new. Now dubbed by some as the “Ikean Empress” because of her lighting and fireplace kits, she has worked her way into our hearts.

Some of her favorite works are shown below but her favorite is working with Ooiittee on the Castle Ravenloft interiors along with her work in progress Court of Stars. She loves to collaborate with others and believes that the community coming together, sharing, and building on ideas makes it truly special.

Make sure to check out all the wonderful creations, they’re even fun to just browse (don’t ask, I got lost smiling as I went through some of them).

Again, congratulations Blackwolf Majik on your amazing builds, and please don’t leave us for Ikea, we’d miss you.

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UPDATED = Blackwolf Majik’s Court of Stars (WIP)
3018 Assets36w x 38d x 1.5h
Slab
Fireplace Collection set 2
262 Assets22.25w x 21.5d x 5.75h
Slab
Cyberpunk Arcade Games (updated)
146 Assets12w x 3.25d x 3.5h
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UPDATED! Modern B@d@ss Bakery
594 Assets11.25w x 10d x 7.5h

November 2022 News & Updates – New Milestones and Subscriptions!

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I’ve been pretty quiet here in the last few months as life has kept me busy, but I’m excited to get things moving again here.

First, we hit a new milestone early this month as we climbed to over 6,000 new slabs and boards. The influx of new Cyberpunk builds, and the regular releases again of new assets by Bouncy Rock has made it an exciting time to watch new creations continue to roll in daily.

Second, much of it you won’t have seen yet, but we’ve made a number of updates in our backend that will allow us to start adjusting and creating some new tools, and updating existing ones. Our Asset Replace tool will be going through some updates which will add new options along with the ability to handle the ever growing asset list. It’s exciting to see.

Lastly, and I hope, not least, we’ve finally launched our Subscription options for the tavern. We’ll be eventually closing out our patreon as we move everyone to Tales Tavern subscriptions. This will allow us to hopefully get the income to both support the ongoing costs of the site, but devote time and resources to building new features, tools, and even looking towards commissioning custom builds. We added a regular subscription which will help you support, avoid ads (if we need to roll them out in the future), and get access to new and updated tools and builds. We’ve also added a premium subscription which helps further support the site and allows creators to promote their own channels as well with private builds and we hope to add additional tools.

We want to thank all of you who are able to financially support Tales Tavern. And if you can’t, don’t worry, you can still post and access things as usual and glad you are part of the community.

Click Here to subscribe and support Tales Tavern

August News – 5000 Slabs/Boards and CyberPunk Released

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Well, it’s been a crazy month here. Not only did Covid hit my family hard, but for TaleSpire it’s been a big deal. This month is a quick article, not because the news isn’t big, it’s HUGE! But mostly because my family has been sick the past week and a half in various portions, so I’m just trying to catch up.

The 5,000 Slab and Board count broken!

Yes, we did it. We broke 5,000 Slabs and boards on the Tavern in July and in fact we’re now over 5,200 as I write this. It’s been a crazy ride. In fact, looking back at our history, we gained over 2,800 slabs and boards in the last year. And with the next bit of news, that has only accelerated.

CyberPunk Assets Released for TaleSpire!

Yes! They’re finally out, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about it. Everyone is so excited and it’s great seeing all the new creations. In fact, on our new SciFi Archive we’ve already got over 40 new slabs and boards. Keep them coming folks.

Thanks for your support!

I just wanted to say than you for our Patreon supporters. We’re looking into also adding Ko-Fi, Tales Tavern Gear, or other subscription options to keep the site going. So thank you for those that help support the site to cover some of the growing costs involved.

July 2022 Creator of the Month – Wheaty Pete

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Welcome to July and our next creator of the month. And yes, before you ask, June didn’t happen. Life gets crazy. But on to our new creator.

Wheaty Pete has been creating with Talespire for two years now. He has got some amazing creations and you can tell the amount of time and work he’s put into it.

His backgrounds in game development and cgi have paid off in spades and we’re glad to have him here creating away all these wonderful things for everyone.

When we told Wheaty Pete about his being selected, here’s what he had to say:

“I’d just like to say being the creator of the month is fantastic and I cant be more thankful for the support everyone has given me, I have a background in game development and CGI so being able to get something out of Talespire that satisfies my creativity and gives all my fans something awesome to use in their next campaign brings me a lot of joy”

If you’d like to support him, check out his Patreon page where you can support and help pick out future builds and get access earlier to them.

He’s also got a youtube channel featuring many of his builds if you want to check it out.

Below are just a few of his amazing builds.

Again, congratulations Wheaty Pete on you r amazing work and from here at TalesTavern we can’t wait to see what you’re building next.

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High-Harth by wheatypete
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Castle Vault of the Voidstone periapt
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Guilders Reach – High elf city

May 2022 Creator of the Month – PrincessP0Pcorn

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Welcome to May! Yes, this got done WAY too late due to life and illness. But then again, that’s the theme this month. We’re celebrating PrincessP0Pcorn. An accolade long past due.

PrincessP0Pcorn has been with Talespire since the Kickstarter Beta launched and quickly found exactly the obsession they needed to transition from a freelance editor to a professional DM full time. They currently run 10 DnD campaigns in the same active homebrew setting. Everything you see built in Talespire is a map their players play on at one point or another. Want to join in on their next adventure? Send a message to their discord at PrincessP0Pcorn#8888

Outside of Talespire, PrincessP0Pcorn loves to spend countless hours trying out different strategy/turn-based games like Civilization 6. P0Pcorn admits that most of their time is consumed by the ever-expanding void that is Destiny 2, and can’t wait for Bungie to reprise the Taken King raid this summer.

Happy Building!

♥ If you love their work, please consider tossing a few coins to your builder. Your support helps P0P make TaleSpire a Valley of Plenty! ♥

Below are just a few of her builds, but what she’s most proud of are her many collections to help the community. Check them out on her profile page.

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Merchant Prince’s Villa
Slab
Trees: Massive
5010 Assets40.75w x 55d x 16h
Slab
Desert Caves
3940 Assets46.5w x 81.5d x 22.25h

April 2022 Creator of the Month – LastRickey1987

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Welcome to April! This is it, our first full year of creator of the month profiles.

As it’s such a big milestone here, we wanted to really do something different this time. Something we never have done before and that’s feature a new creator who you probably have never heard of but we believe has such promise it was worth pointing out.

So with no further ado, our creator of the month is LastRickey1987.

He’s only posted literally one slab, but that one shows such promise that we had to feature it. The complexity and depth of the build, rivals so many of our past creators. Plus, this slab includes never before found hidden RWBY assets. He did a great job with the video showcasing them so don’t miss it.

Outside Talespire, he’s an artist and family man. He has a wife and a daughter. His daughter has a masters degree in fine art and is now also a film producer.

Well congratulations LastRickey1987 for being our April 2022 Creator of the Month. Great work, and can’t wait to see what you create next.

Make sure to check out his board right here. And I wanted to also say thank you to HolloFox for bringing this amazing creator to my attention or I would have missed it.

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RWBY Theme Board

Castle Ravenloft – TaleSpire Edition – Kickstarter is Live!

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John (Demongund) and Tony (Heimdahlr) over at Virtual Tabletop Journey are launching the long awaited Castle Ravenloft – Talespire Edition Kickstarter! They have already created iconic maps such as the Bonegrinder Windmill, Werewolf Den, Death House and Amber Temple, now they need your support to bring Castle Ravenloft to life in 3D!

Pledge Now!

With these Talespire maps, your gaming group is just a few clicks away from beginning your Curse of Strahd epic. All maps are designed for ease of use and quick map transitions, spend less time doing setup and more on glorious combat… I mean roleplay!

Death House, showcased on the BlueBoxRPG stream.

In addition to the Castle Ravenloft map, the Kickstarter will feature 5e Adventures PDFs! These 20 page modules contain gorgeous 2D resources and also have fully complete Talespire maps!

FREE 5e Adventure – To celebrate the Kickstarter, the Mystery in Bludmist Swamp 5e Adventure is free to download during the campaign!

The Castle Ravenloft Talespire map will be published at Talestavern for everyone and there are also great rewards, stretch goals and add-ons, including:

  • 5e Adventure PDFs, complete with Talespire support
  • Additional Curse of Strahd Talespire maps such as…
    • Argynvostholt, City of Villaki, Van Richten’s Tower
  • A custom two-shot adventure through Death House with up to five of your friends
Pledge to bring Castle Ravenloft to life in 3D!
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