The Gift: The Keep on the Borderland Revisited

I'm very excited about this post!

I've been "collaborating" on a little project with a very, very talented artist friend of mine, Scott from DarkFantasyPainting. By collaborating I mean "I point excitedly at one of my favourite Old School D&D Pictures and say can you do something like that?" and then Scott works his magic.

The Keep on the Borderlands

Long term D&D players will probably recognise Erol Otus's iconic visualisation of the The Keep on the Borderlands from the D&D module of the same name. Like many players this was my first encounter with D&D as the module came with the Red Box Basic (aka the Moldvay) set. And that module has stuck in my long term gaming memory.

To me part of the "Old School Renaissance" (OSR) in fantasy gaming is about using the old and classic material on today's table top with new gamers. I'm building up my campaign setting "The Gift" on a mash up of The Keep on the Borderlands and The Temple of Elemental Evil as something for my players to enjoy. And this philosophy kind of inspired the idea for this picture. 

The Keep on the Borderland Revisited

I won't try and describe it; I will leave it to you to find your own enjoyment in it.  I do fancy I can see faces in the stones under the Keep though. They'll be getting worked into the campaign.

If you like the picture and want to see some more of Scott's work, then check out his Etsy gallery: DarkFantasyPaintings.

And I need to figure out how to use this image as a background to the blog!