Coats of Arms

[Fizz]

I'm glad my question sparked such an interesting discussion. Cool stuff.

-Fizz

[AKjeldsen]

I think coat of arm is not mere a logo such as IBM which can be be changed due to marketing needs.
Coat of arm is a history of house, but most of all history of house's bloodline and as such it should be signicant and linked with magical (blood) abilities of the family.
For example:
Two gryphons of Boeruine.
Why two griffons?
What is a prime griffon feature, does Boeruines have this feature?
Are they fierce warriors, can they fly, can summon gryphons? etc.

Fundamentally, a coat of arms is a particular pattern or symbol tied to a specific family. While having a charge that reflects an aspect of the family is certainly possible, it's not necessary - it could just as well have been adopted for its symbolism or even aesthetic reasons.

In other words: In heraldry, sometimes a griffon is just a griffon.

[ausrick]

It would be cool if there was a build-your-own-heraldry program out there (Not photoshop + clipart + heraldry book, thats the hard way, thats how I do it now) that would let you with some quick dragging, dropping, and selecting make heraldry that basically follows the rules and allows you to print it. In my table top games, for the war moves and battles I try to make printout unit cards and such that have the owning PC/NPC's banner on them. Its neat but time consuming, especially when trying to get some of my less-creative players to come up with their own coat-of-arms. I get junk submitted to me all the time like "I want a brown gryphon on a black background" or "I don't know, I'm a bard so I guess put a lute on it"

[Rhiannon Faramiriel]

Puncher has one, but it is very basic. No animal charges, limited Ordinaries. Bordures are basic color or halves, nothing "fancy" like compony.

http://www.puncher.co.uk/gen_herald.php.

Also, you have to know something about the heraldry to make sure that you get the basic rules of color right. Or you end up with brown gryphons (With or without wings ?) on a sable field.

Ah well, looks like were still going to have to do it the old fashioned way, clipart and Adobe Illustrator.

Jenn

[Thomas_Percy]

In other words: In heraldry, sometimes a griffon is just a griffon.

Griffons don't exist.
We are playing fantasy game.

[Chris123]

Glad to see my online heraldry program getting a mention. I'm planning to overhaul my site soon, including expanding the heraldry section. Hopefully I'll include various forms of the partitions, but not creatures or non-geometric objects at the moment. Counter-charging has also got me a bit stumped at the moment...

Anyway visit my site and try to create some shields.

Cheers,

Chris

[Rhiannon Faramiriel]

Chris,

do you have access to Stephen Friar's: A Dictiony of Heraldry? If you can lay hands on this book, it is one of the best I've found for giving descriptions without going on an archaeological dig or buried hip deep in extraneous words.

Including attributes and attitudes of the various charges.

Even if it doesn't solve the app development issues, it's a nice book to have on the shelf. It's a much newer work when compared to Fox-Davies or Elvin, or some of the foundation works on heraldry.

I did test drive the program before I posted the link and I found the UI in Chris' program to be easy to use and the fact that it does the blazon for you, now that was a nice touch. Looking forward to the next rev.

Cheers,

Jenn

[Chris123]

No I don't have them. My main point of reference is James Parker (which is available online - see my site).

Cheers,

Chris

[Rhiannon Faramiriel]

Ah yes, I have the printed copy of this book. Very victorian artwork.

J

[ausrick]

Rhiannon and Chris123, Everybody, here is a link to an awesome website that has helped me a lot in making coats of arms.

http://www.theweebsite.com/heraldry/index.html

Its got good colors, graphics, and well organized about the presentation of the genera rules/guidelines, answered a lot of my questions about what things meant what, etc.