Howdy! I’ve been hard at work the last few days building a collection of seventy-one cowboy-caravan-themed assets, including horses, wagons, tents, and everything in-between.
My game of the month has been Red Dead Redemption 2, and these assets came from some drawing study I did in trying to understand the components of a roaming campsite. If you look closely, you can even find Arthur’s own bed in the asset list!
Karlson slumped down against the overturned log. The warmth of the fire held back the chill of the night air and illuminated the faces and tents of his crew. The day’s score had been plentiful and well-deserved. Smiles and cheers surrounded the flames in a tight circle, tearing hearty mouthfuls of meat and following with swigs of ale. Everyone was joyous, and Karlson was brimming with pride.
“Your turn, rook.” A tankard flew in the air, extended on the arm of Katarina, Karlson’s second. She motioned over the fire and to young Jason, the newest recruit. His grin shrunk in the spotlight. For just a second, it looked like he planned to run.
“Uh, well…” His face searched frantically, before landing on a solid thought.
“I guess my first fight was against some of the other boys in the village, Tuck and Harry. Wasn’t much of a fight, really. They were twice my size so I went down quick…”
“Not much ‘as changed then, ay?” Pete eyed the younger man, beaming from within his crumb-speckled beard. The smile opened into an open laugh that then spread to the other members. Jason struggled against a chuckle and paid Pete a friendly nod.
“Come on, kid. What about ya first REAL fight?”
“That would have been the gnolls. They always hunted near town, but everyone knew that they’d keep their distance if we did.” Everyone sat with bated breath, waiting for the story to build.
“But then, one day, they just came right at us. We could tell they were angrier than usual, and this really big one was leading them. He was huge, and white as snow, and held this staff. I remember everyone calling and shouting as they got closer. I was older then, so I knew how to hold a sword, but it wasn’t just me. Almost everyone got one, even my mother and younger brother. They stayed in the house, of course. The rest of us…” Jason’s words trailed off, this time without interruption. His gaze was no longer stuck to the ground but rose instead to the fire. Amber light cast across his sinking expression and twinkled in the water that gathered in his eyes.
“Never seen anything quite like it. The big one raised that staff and just… Everything burned. It was like fire was raining down from the sky and suddenly the whole town was just…” He mimicked the sound of a flame and motioned ineffectually with his hand.
“I couldn’t even tell which one was my house. I tried to but the gnolls kept coming and I kept cutting and everything was covered in smoke and the smell…” Jason’s eyes were blinking anxiously as his breathing quickened. Everyone around the fire glanced at him with quiet concern. Pete spoke to break the silence.
“Shoulda seen the kid when we found ‘im. Knee-deep in ash and gnolls, and just cuttin’ that big bastard apart. When we saw the fires, we didn’t think anyone’d survive that. But there he was, just cutting away. Knew right then that he’d fit in. Someone that small takin’ down a monster that big.” Pete raised his mug in a toast. The others followed in turn, all hoping that Jason would join. The young man exhaled sharply, squeezing his eyes closed to clear them. With a thankful grin and wavering voice, his tankard joined the others’.
“He never saw me coming!” With that, the camp erupted in cheers.
– by Troy McConnell
More content by Troy
These assets are also shortly coming to the token editor, but I am still working on a few features I consider integral for these assets (more details below). It won’t be long until you can custom-color your own horses, rugs, and tents!
I want to make a habit of importing assets like these into the editor in order to open things up for people not-so-Photoshop-proficient. Starting with these, I also hope to implement default colors; when you load the token it will be pre-colored as above, and if you only want to change the color of the canvas it will only take one color change.
Along with that, I’m working on color swatches so that you can choose from a selection of colors collected by yours truly. This will be especially useful for getting those tricky skin tones right, and also for keeping the art style consistent with the color values.
Another not so obvious change in the works is adding metadata to all these so that I can tell you the intended grid size, have a tag-based search, and give you some nice file names. I’d like you to save these not as “download (6).png” but as “Bandit camp, medium tent (4×3).png” or something similar.
Well, I hope you’re all as excited as me! Thanks for your patience, and I’ll see you again very soon…
Bandit Camp Map & Assets Download
Download the Bandit Camp below, and consider some of our similar items:
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Bandit Camp AssetsPWYW: $1 or FREE $1.00
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Highland PassPWYW: $1 or FREE $1.00
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Camp TokensPWYW: $1 or FREE $1.00
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Forest Glade$1.00
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Carts, Carriages & Wagons$1.00
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Halfway Camp$1.00
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These will be amazing for my Cowboy Dwarves campaign.
That sounds amazing.