BSO- Episode 26: Tom Baxa

Bone, Stone, and Obsidian

The sands of Athas are unforgiving to those without bone, stone, or obsidian to protect their water–and their lives. In this episode, Jesse and Robert talk with Tom Baxa about his involvement with Dark Sun over the years.

Topic

Jesse and Robert talk with Tom Baxa about his involvement with Dark Sun over the years.

Show Notes

News

• Athas.org
• The Crimson Sphere a Dark Sun/Spelljammer crossover was recently released on Athas.org
• We’ve also released a couple of more articles, one is part 2 of a short in character writeup of a Rhul-Thaun life-shaper named Zon-Tossu
• Another Athasian Survey Project, this one about Trade Next and the village of Ral.
• I ran a poll on the Arena about What Time Period most DMs usually set their Dark Sun games in. The options were, FY0 Before Kalak Dies, FY1 After Kalak Dies, FY11 After the events in the Pentad, FY 311 Paizo’s time, or something else. Not surprising 59% of respondents chose FY0, before Kalak Died, 19% chose FY 11, 15% chose FY 1 after Kalak died, and 7% siaid something else.
• Adventures Under the Dark Sun blog released a new monster, the Aloe Lacerta, part reptile, part plant. I guess so your sunbalm can walk beside you.
• Chris Moneymaker a Dark Sun fan has interviewed Jack Meyer and Luke Swadling about their contributions to the Dark Sun fan communities. You can find them on his Youtube Channel.
• Actual Plays
• Dune Gangs & Dust Devils actual play podcast with DM Josh Delvillar aka @AthassianRunner on Twitter.
• Episode 35 Lawful Stupids 2e Dark Sun game – the road to the Valley of Dust and Fire
• https://www.twitch.tv/lawfulstupidrpg

Tom Baxa

https://www.baxaart.com/aboutme_index.htm

1. How did you get started doing art for Dungeons & Dragons?
2. How did you get involved with Dark Sun?
3. What can you tell us about working on the original Dark Sun boxed set?
4. Did you work with Brom at all or were you two separate?
5. 10 boxed sets and supplements including: Ivory Triangle Boxed Set, City By the Silt Sea Boxed Set, Dragon Kings, The Will and The Way, Gladiator’s Handbook, City-State of Tyr, Earth Air Fire & Water, Slave Tribes, Terrors of the Desert, Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium 2 Terrors Beyond Tyr
6. The Veiled Alliance credits you with interior, but it was really Mark Nelson, do you know what happened there? https://twitter.com/guthay/status/592152207988006913
7. People love your Thri-Kreen art, did you know that one of the Dark Sun kreen species is named after you? When we interviewed Tim Beech he said he named each species after the artists who drew them. He named the species you drew as To’Ksa, which sounds like Baxa. The other major species is called Jeral after Gerald Brom.
8. Note from Jesse: What prompted you to diverge from the appearance of the first edition thri-kreen, which were much more upright in posture? Was this an art direction or a personal decision?
9. Were any monsters drawn first then given stats or did you draw them all from art direction?
10. 9 Adventures (all but Black Flames): Forest Maker (which you did the cover), Merchant House of Amketch, Arcane Shadows, Freedom, Road to Urik, Dragon’s Crown, Black Spine, Marauders of NIbenay, Asticlian Gambit.
11. Do you remember the Dark Sun chariot piece? Anything you can tell us about that?
12. You talked about a custom commission you did of a Thri-Kreen wielding a huge sword on your blog. Have you done any other custom work that could be considered Dark Sun?
13. The description of Athas varies depending on the piece of fiction in question; for instance, it’s described in one place as having an olive-colored sky, but some of the art is blue-skied. In your artistic mind’s eye, what does Athas look like? What do you see when you imagine it?

Questions from the Dark Sun group:

Luke SwadlingAre there any details he can recall about the art direction given for his Dark Sun work? It’s such an iconic style now, and there wasn’t really a lot in terms of visual reference beforehand?
Frédéric LeclairThere are often races that don’t look like anything in core books. Were their plan for more races or was just freestyle ideas of possible races…?
Jorge Bobadilla IIIHi Robert, can you ask him in which movie or non Dark Sun book did he inspire for his astonishing art?
Christopher Justin MoneymakerHow much time did TSR give him on his average illustration? I know there for a couple of years he was churning out hundreds of them a year. Also I’d like to let him know his black and white Thri-Kreen were awesome. By far the best Thri-Kreen ever drawn.
Geek GasmThe costuming his characters wore were a combination of bright animal prints, strange masks, and ornate headgear – it gave them an otherworldly feel that drove home how alien Athas was. Where did those ideas come from?

• Besides Dark Sun, you’ve also worked on several other RPGS that I love like TMNT and other Strangeness, Torg, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, & GURPS. Any good stories from working on any of those?
• These days is it fair to say that you’re most well known for your Magic The Gathering work?
• You have a Patreon, which we’ll link in the show notes. What kind of content do you put there? https://www.patreon.com/baxaart
• You sell prints of your work at Baxaart.com, are there any Dark Sun pieces there?
• Do you have any original Dark Sun pieces left or have people bought those up?
• What other work that we haven’t mentioned did/do you do?

Wrapup

Tom, Where can we find you online? @Baxaart on Twitter/Facebook

Contact

• Robert Adducci (@Raddu76, Patreon)
• Jesse Heinig ( @JesseHeinig )
• Bone, Stone, and Obsidian ([e-mail])

Credits

• Treasure Hunter by Ross Bugden
  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
• Edited by Robert Adducci