The following interview was held between me and Simon Powell alias Digger. I already introduced some of his works over HERE, but now you will get a better insight in what he does.

"Tell us a little bit about you and your RPG background, especially about your relation to Earthdawn."

"I’m 44 and live in Newport, Wales, U.K.

I had to retire from work about 3 years ago due to ill health. I’ve been role playing for 22 years; I started with Warhammer Fantasy. I first started playing GM’ing Earthdawn about 9 years ago with a group in Newport. When we play we never stick strictly with the rules as we consider ourselves Roleplayers not Ruleplayers.

We had a short break of about 2 years when material dried up where we played Everquest Roleplay. We started back up again when Redbrick took over. I’ve always tried to contribute in some form or another as I feel strongly that GM and Player input helps keep games alive. I haven’t run a game since autumn of last year as my health hasn’t been good. I was working with a project to convert some of the German fan books to English but that seems to have come to a halt.

One of the things I love about Earthdawn is that it is based in the world we live in and has a rich storyline. I love trying to relate things that happen to the real world."

"You did those topographical maps, what gave you that idea making those maps?"

"I started out making floor plans with a piece of software called Dundjinni, (I contribute items to their forum for people to use in creating their own maps), trying to map out locations from different sourcebooks.

After reading on a forum that the Earthdawn maps did not fit the maps of current Earth, I took that as a challenge and tried to prove that they do. I looked for a good topographical map to use for about 6 months and then by accident, discovered that the Microsoft Encarta I bought my kids had the perfect map base to work with. I emailed Microsoft and they gave me permission to use their maps as my base on a non commercial basis. I compared the areas on my real Earth maps and then added in the locations and some details such as woods.

I think I managed to prove that Earthdawn does fit.

I would like to eventually turn them into a free downloadable pdf."

"When and how did you start to make digital art? Which programs do you use and which can you recommend?"

"I got interested in the digital art side of things at Xmas of last year (2007). I love trying to represent the world we play in as realistically as possible. Unfortunately as Redbrick like the more traditional drawing format for Earthdawn that lets me out of images for the books.

Some of my images are being used for the Fading Suns line, there are two of my images in Ruinous Folly, and there are more in the pipeline. It’s possible you may see some of my work in Blue Planet too.

I use Hexagon for creating some of the objects, Poser figures for people and animals and Vue for rendering."

"Some of your latest works are airships, what inspired you to make them? Will there be more?"

"I have been creating models of some Earthdawn items for a while now but had not displayed them as EDPT was offline. As a few people were talking about airships I decided to display mine. I do hope to produce a few more scenes of different locations and object when I can. I am still learning how to use the software, so am limited in some ways as to the images I can produce."

"What future projects do you have in mind, what can we expect?"

"I am currently working on items for Fading Suns and Blue Planet, and hope to do some more mapping of the Earthdawn World. I am also working on ways to bring some of the cities to life, the Parlainth image I did is one example. On my drawing board at the moment is Haven."

"Thanks for the interview."

"All I really am is a fan trying to make sure that the system I really like stays alive and doesn’t disappear like so many others. I would encourage everyone who loves Earthdawn to get involved, it’s the Fans that keep a system alive."


Several digital works from Digger that are not Earthdawn related but worth a closer look, can be found over HERE. He was also so kind to let us have a look at his current works, CLICK & CLICK.