Tokens are easy and fun.

As we are continuing our Flashing Blades campaign, I found myself in need of tokens to use with Maptool.

Devin's tokens covers a lot of types, but they are mostly fantasy and except a few pirates or some bandits from his last pack, they are not exactly what I needed. And, anyway, I wanted to make some of my own.



My first movement was to draw some detailed ones, with matching portraits to show the character they represent. The result was quite good, but it was going to take me some times to make all the needed tokens.

... and of course, I never have enough time. So, I just began to doodle smaller drawings whilst preparing the scenario.



The result is not very artistic, but that's the kind of doodling you can do with half a mind on it and in a few minutes.
And after a short manipulation in Photoshop (levels, cleaning, selection, color and shadow...), they make usable tokens. Not on the level of Devin's ones, but acceptables.

(you can see the result here; the doodle in my moleskine has become a spadassin token in Maptool, with mounted and foot versions, attacking some PCs on the Tavern in the Woods map from SkeletonKey games)
Here is the spadassin full size; he is scaled to fit 128px squares in Maptool, because it is the scale I use (I generally display the map at 50% resolution, but it gives me the possibility to zoom in when needed without losing image quality).

And what is more, it's that, being a natural scribbler, I love to make those doodles whilst reading for the game, relaxing at a coffee-house, taking a break at work,... wherever .

Maybe I'll also doodles portraits for some of them, but for now, I am quite happy using illustrations gathered on the net for the NPCs (the PCs having their own illustrations).