Wayne Barlowe is a prolific painter and illustrator who has
worked as a concept artist and creature designer for the Hellboy series
of films, as well as Pacific Rim and several others. However, here I will discuss his dark fantasy
work illustrating the landscape and denizens of Hell that was first published
in his book Barlowe’s Inferno. Barlowe’s Inferno paints
the diabolic underworld in a fantastic and grotesque fashion that strangely has
a quiet sense of a still life, and is sympathetic to the damned creatures
depicted therein. I have talked about Barlowe’s vision of Hell before, in my
mini review of The Shrike, which is an OSR supplement point crawl
in a unique vista of Hell.
As of 2007, Wayne Barlowe has become a dark fantasy writer,
penning a tale of Hell called God’s Demon
Inspired, I decided to adapt Barlowe’s words, or invent my
own descriptions of Hell based on Barlowe’s work and turn them into two 1d10
random tables, suitable for hex/pointcrawling. The tables are for exterior and
interior scenes of the infernal realm. Keep in mind these tables are only based
on Barlowe’s first two pages of God’s Demon, so rich in vivid
description that work is.
I hope you are motivated to read it yourself.
