Chipping Away at the Samhain Oracle Deck

Well, here I am on a flip day. That is, instead of going in for work in the morning, I am going to work in the afternoon. So, drawing was on the menu today.

Between last night and this morning I was able to get two more cards done for the Samhain Oracle Deck. Even though this is still in its infancy, I have done 5 cards now out of 54. I get excited whenever a little more gets chipped away. At this point, I think it is coming together nicely.

Though these are sort of woodcut-style cards, it still takes some time for someone of my skill level. Most would probably be able to whip these out in a matter of minutes. I take a few hours for these cartoon sort of drawings. But I am getting closer to my end goal, and that pleases me.

My goal.

I was always intrigued with the Tarokka deck for Ravenloft, and I have two decks. One is my AD&D 2e Ravenloft Tarokka deck that came with the Ravenloft boxed set—the red one and the D&D 5e version. I have those tucked away in a folder inside protective sleeves.

As well, actual Tarot has been fascinating to me for quite some time. I think I've used Tarot cards more to generate D&D adventure ideas than anything. I need to make a video on that in the future, only I don't really have a prescribed way of doing it. Well... barely.

At any rate, the inspiration is there, as well as Mildred Payne's Oracle of Black Enchantment for the styling. If I am even getting it close enough, I guess.

That could be a cop-out. Why not come up with my own style?

Well, my own style of drawing is not too far away from that deck anyway, so it seems to be coming naturally. I won't ever be "Metallica" as an originator, but I can sure as heck be "Slayer."

Maybe.

Hopefully.

Whatever.

The idea for the deck, as my previous article mentioned, is to have a physical prop at the table to help inform games. Much like the ICRPG Think Deck, but with the cards interpreted purely through your own imagination rather than having prescribed interpretations.

I really like that.

Two Harvest Masters could draw the exact same card and see two completely different things. A spider might mean a trap to one, a creature lurking nearby to another, or perhaps a tangled relationship between two NPCs. The card doesn't tell you what it means. It gives your imagination something to grab onto.

Which will help make your Samhain: Hearth & Horror RPG table completely unique from the next one, as if it wasn't going to be already.

I don't have much more to say today. I just wanted to share the progress.

Five down.

Forty-nine to go.