photo saturday: character sketches

Wizards of the Coast, the folks who publish Dungeons and Dragons, announced a new book this week, entitled Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which like Xanathar's Guide to Everything, will contain a massive number of new subclasses. Twenty-two of them if the general scuttlebutt is to be believed, plus reprints of other ones that have appeared in other books. Which is very exciting. I mean, like Xanathar's before it, we're aware of essentially all of them as far as I know, because Wizards like to get the community to playtest potential subclasses, or just give their opinion on the potential build.

And that brings us around to this week's DnD Character Colouring Book... where after a random comment from one of my friends, I designed a character for a subclass that isn't even published yet... so we have Sister Lomea, the wood elf Twilight Cleric, who I made using a lot of the design choices that came out of last week's artworks. She's also my second lesbian character, since I just knew as I was putting her art together that she had a wife. Sometimes you just know, you know.

Just don't ask me how goddamn long it took to put that Elvish script around the top of her weapon.

Then, I realised that somewhere in the back catalogue was a character I first created probably 15 years or so ago, who was originally a sorcerer, but who would make a very different and interesting kind of druid. Which led to me making Blaze (not his original name... but the name he gave himself... I think he was probably called something basic by the orphanage like James Rose), the former orphan and human Circle of Wildfire Druid... along with his wildfire spirit, Ember (which is just some very cool phoenix art I stole from the internet).

So think of these are a character sketch more than anything.

Will I ever play either of these two? Who can tell. It will partly depend on how much they change the subclasses, whether I'm more excited by some of the other ones. I've probably played less than half of the ones in Xanathar's at this point... so only time will tell.

And if not, it was a fun exercise in character creation/adaption. Plus the artwork looks fucking cool.

Anyway...

This week's soup was a pretty simple potato, bacon and leek... blended smooth, which I haven't really done this year, because I've been enjoying the chunkier kind.

Thanks to SBS On Demand, I've ended up watching a slew of Jackie Chan movies... which is not something I'd done before. Not for any particular reason, they just never seemed super exciting to me. But they're fun. In most of the movies I've watched the female characters are often portrayed as complete idiots, and the commitment to stunt safety based on the post credits footage is insane to the point of lethal. But Chan is super charismatic, has amazing acrobatic and martial arts skills and they movies are a fun romp for the most part.

Wednesday's DnD game was decent. I mean we did have a character death, but the player concerned wasn't overly cut up about it. Otherwise, decent.

Friday's game was great... I mean it was mostly a shopping episode, but I love those. And we got a bunch of fun character stuff, which I also love. I will say that once we've shopped and done all the other bits and pieces, and schemed and plotted and whatnot, I wouldn't mind a big, fat, protracted combat session. Because it's been a while... granted the last few of those felt more deadly than I would have liked, but we've levelled up a bit since then.

I also had a really interesting and intricate conversation with Fluffy before we headed out, which was great.

And after the game, we worked out that there was a very high likelihood that at some point during my tenure in North Adelaide that we were all in the same place at the same time without knowing it... or at the very least all crossed paths at certain points. Which wouldn't surprise me, honestly. But is still kind of awesome.

Today we had good weather. Especially compared with the last few weekends. But actual sunshine and the ability to not wear a jacket and whatnot.

We started off with the supermarket... I'm doing something with chicken and soup again this week. Very likely including some noodles of some description. We'll see.

Otherwise it was definitely one of those "many things" supermarket days, especially given that the last couple haven't been, so I'd run out of a bunch of stuff. But overall, not that much different from usual.

Afterwards we did the unpacking and a truncated YubTubs, then headed into the city for a few errands. Not gunna lie, it's still weird. I mean it's probably going to be weird for... the foreseeable forever... but yeah, just going into town is weird. I would imagine going to one of the large shopping centres is even weirder, but we haven't done that in quite a while.

Anyway... we ran a few errands, nothing particularly exciting, and then called it a day. But it was nice to be out in the sunshine.

Current mood:

photo saturday: fantasy fashion designer

This week's DnD Character Colouring Book is one I wouldn't perhaps normally do... in that it's OPCs... or Other People's Characters. But in the case of both of these, I had quite a lot of involvement in the design of the HeroForge models, and I'm completely responsible for the colour design for both... so fuck it. Plus I'm probably going to redo the artwork for Lucas because the player came up with a different, more interesting pose... damn him, I mean I also want to colour the new version, but damn him anyway.

But honestly, I love the final results of both of these, especially Lucas, because total Edgelord (which was absolutely the design aesthetic for this whole character), but the hair and beard texture on Torren is probably one of the best I've done, to totally toot my own horn.

And I worked out some new techniques on both of these, especially the subtle chainmail texture on some of Torren's armour. Not to mention the Glomesh style texture on Lucas's tunic because I had to resolve the confusion between his chosen clothing piece and the fact he's wearing scale mail. Plus, it's pretty fucking extra.

EDIT: Okay, so I updated the Lucas art... because I love it even more than the original, which is weird, because it's the exact same colouring, with the exception of the rune glow and the pose... but somehow it's even better...

They're also travelling around with my gigantic Dragonborn boy Marux... and what's amusing is that while he's 7'2", all the party, independently of each other, are quite tall, even the dwarf (relatively speaking), so when I put all of the characters in an image together and scale them accordingly, they all look average height. Because a sense of scale is important. In all things, but definitely in character art.

So this week has been... something.

We started with soup what I made up out of my own head... in that I put some vegetables, some tomato, some chicken, some hope... and it all came out pretty well actually. I mean it was just me mashing together three of four different soup ideas, but it worked out well.

Wednesday's DnD game was pretty decent... playing a high charisma, low wisdom, low intelligence character has it's moments. And there were a couple of moments where I said the right thing at the right time for something that became a plot point later... and I had no idea at the time.

Thursday I had my first haircut in 169 days (nice), or as the "time between" website pointed out, 46.17% of 2020. Yep, from neat and trim to dishevelled hobo in just under half a year. Wow... totally did not realise it was that long. I knew it was a hot minute... but that's longer than expected.

And as I had intended for a while, it wasn't back to the same old same old... we went different. Not dazzling or spectacular, but different. We skipped the colour, but I got her to run a toner through it, so that any of the yellow in the grey or the remaining bleached hair got taken out. I was also very grateful that she offered to trim my beard for me also, since I hadn't bothered to trim it in a little bit... I didn't actually take notice of how long, but let's say more than a month.

Since it didn't require me to do anything other than sit there, I was totally on board, and I left there looking and feeling more like an actual person than I'd done for a while.

So there's that.

Of course that's also the time when Winter properly hit, and the temperature turned definitely bitter cold. Because timing is important.

Friday morning I got a call at about 10:20... and when I picked it up it was my chiro's office, because I hadn't put the appointment in my fucking phone and hence had absolutely forgotten. Goddamn it.

Thankfully she had an appointment in the early afternoon, so I headed into town for that.

Then Friday night was DnD... except it wasn't because one of the party needed a nap, but we didn't know that until we were almost there. So there were board games instead. Well, a board game, Villainous to be precise. And it's pretty damn good.

I feel like it's one of those games that is easy to pick up but difficult to master, and very much depends on which villain you're playing, and the luck of the draw in a lot of ways. But a lot of fun.

And what with standing around like numpties chatting to start, and then more of the same once we were done, it was after midnight before we left and around 1am by the time I got home.

Today was the new average... also it was too fucking cold to go anywhere after the supermarket.

So we did the supermarket thing, I'm making some version of potato, bacon and leek soup (but not chowdah this time), otherwise I didn't buy a hell of a lot of anything. Which might bite me in the butt later in the week. Or not.

So, yeah, then we came back and did the YubTubs thing, then called it a day.

Current mood:

photo saturday: bad girls have more fun

This week has been a very Nightingale focused week, so we're revisiting her for the DnD Character Colouring Book.

I mentioned her originally in the template post, but she's been through a lot since then, including a costume change and a haircut... oh, and a fuckton of interpersonal drama, which I ate up with both hands and a spoon. But going to hell will do that to you. I liked her original outfit and design, quite a lot actually... I liked that she used her hair as a tool for her role as a performer, and the fact she would often wrap it up into a coil on top of her head was great roleplay fun. But then I played around with the "Avernus" costume, and the haircut and suddenly I was obsessed with it. Sadly we weren't even in hell at that point, and it took what felt like forever before I got to make the change-over... but the moment was the right one.

My only regret is that I did the colour for the new costume before the high heels appeared on HeroForge (which was this week).

She is by far my most complicated character. I mean, she makes sense inside my head, but other people seem unsure about her, which I kind of love. Even if this, my first experience with the bard class has confirmed that bards are demonstrably pretty shit and I'd rather play just about any other class. I love her anyway.

But like I said, this week has been a lot for her. She discovered a whole lot of information about her family (which honestly threw me for more of a loop than her), she killed her backstory nemesis while transformed into a giant ape, finally shared her history with her travelling companions, met a unicorn, a dao (earth genie), a titan, and traded a powerful item for the blood of a dragon goddess. But it's also not every day a bard is able to string their violin and bow with the gift of unicorn hair.

That's what happens when you have two DnD sessions in a single week. Since we missed our Friday session last week, we moved it to Monday, so yeah, a Monday and a Friday session. Plus a Wednesday session for my other group. With a different DM, which will be interesting.

I also got an update about my oven, which still hasn't been fixed by the way. Since May. But it turns out we're still waiting for parts from overseas. Via Melbourne. Or Melbourne via overseas... one of those. But the tradie has already paid for those parts, so he's at least got a vested interest in getting it done.

So, now we wait. Hopefully not for that much longer, honestly. But we wait.

And, yes, the the Hearty Herdbeast Stew worked out really well this week. I mean, it was the version of it where I read the recipe, remember the major points and just do what I want instead.

Today was about average. We did the supermarket thing. I had no fucking clue as to what kind of soup I intended to make, and honestly, I still kinda don't. I just know it will be something with both tomato and chicken... and also the vegetables. So there's that.

Then there was unpacking and the YubTubs and the usual shemozzle.

And then we went to Big W, for random reasons. Which was followed by a side trip to Target, again for reasons. And that was about it.

Current mood:

photo saturday: crew quarters

We're going back to the land of NPCs for this week's DnD Character Colouring Book. And honestly, of the large number of NPCs I've made, these are two that I would absolutely play.

My bard character, Nightingale, needed a crew of fellow performers for our Descent into Avernus (I mean, she absolutely didn't... but I wanted her to have one), and so I came up with a half dozen characters, some of whom basically had two lines and a walk on part in the actual adventure. All bards, obviously, but I dipped into every possible subclass for them.

And these two are my favourites. The fact that their colour pallets are essentially mirrors of each other was pure happenstance. Firstly we have Rhapsody, tiefling courtesan, singer and College of Glamour bard. She's also Nightingale's best friend, and when she walks into a room all eyes go to her. Then there's Taavi, human acrobat/tumbler and College of Valour Bard (I would probably give him a level in monk if I actually ever played him). I described him to the DM as being "clueless but sweet"... like, he has no idea how damn sexy he is or the effect he may have on other people outside of performing. You know, one of those imaginary hot people. I'm sure he probably owns a shirt or two, but he'd definitely of the "sleeves are bullshit" school of dressing.

Soup this week was a very thick chowder... with the chicken and the chorizo and three kinds of onion (because leek is technically an onion, right). Pretty good actually.

This week there was only one DnD session... Friday got called off at the last minute, but we're rescheduling that for Monday, so there's that at least.

Otherwise, nothing much to report.

Today was yet another case of "second verse, same as the first"... Did I use that joke last week? I feel like I've used it about 1500 times since March. But we did the supermarket. I'm revisiting an old favourite this week. Or at the very least, I'm going to make my own version of same, which will generally just mean upping all the quantities.

Then we ran into an acquaintance we haven't seen in a while, chatted with him briefly before heading back here.

And then we did the usual gubbins... which is to say, unpacking, followed by the YubTubs. But then a really beautiful animated movie (My Life as a Zucchini... beautiful, but melancholy and a little dark at times) was just starting on the TV, so we watched that before Ma shuffled off home.

Current mood:

photo saturday: inspired by the discworld

First things first... and this is said with all due vehemence, FUCK THE NEW BLOGGER INTERFACE! 

Everything is nine times larger than it needs to be, it's taken directly from the "entirely too spaced out and too clean while being shit" school of design, you can't drag and drop images anymore and while they have put in the ability to manipulate the HTML code, they've also hidden it in a place that makes no sense and the editor is now adding in stupid fucking code it doesn't need to. Fuck that noise.

I will remain annoyed for some time but will try not to mention it again. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Moving on, we have this week's DnD character designs, both of which are inspired to greater or lesser extents by Terry Pratchett's Discworld. I mean it makes sense because I've been reading through the series for a while now, and I don't know if I'm ever going to get around to actually being able to play either of them. But if not I do have half of a plan to use them as NPCs for a later campaign.

So, we have Brother Dilmah (yes, named after the tea brand), from the Temple of the Golden Leaf, a Way of Shadow Monk. He's, unsurprisingly, inspired by the History Monks, specifically from Thief of Time, and he's also the first time I attempted to give one of these character designs wrinkles or signs of age. It's super simple, but I think it works pretty well all things considered. And he gets a shadow simply because he's a Shadow Monk, but I was kinda proud of how it came out.

Next to him is "Goody" Adora Posset (Goody being a title short for Goodwife, Posset from the drink of the same name) along with her albino raven familiar, Master Finian. And she's both a College of Lore bard and my take on one of the Discworld witches. Because of all the DnD spellcasting classes, the bard is the one that feels the most like the Headology we see in the books. It's about words and their power and making people thing the way you want them to think. And the bard class has access to all of those spells.

But I gave her access to a couple of other spells, including the Find Familiar spell so she could have her own version of Nanny Ogg's Greebo and Granny Weatherwax's You. Weirdly, although it's one of the simplest designs of a costume/character, it's kinda one of my favourites. And after this design, all the potion bottles I've added are modelled after this one because it came out so well.

Moving forward...

Still waiting for a functional oven. Allegedly the parts are on the way. I don't know I can throw much of a spaz. But I'm considering it in the next week or so.

This week I made basically vegetable soup... but added salami to it. Because if there is any rule that I've followed all my life it's that the thing with many vegetables is good, but it's 1000% better if you add salami to it. It's just facts.

Otherwise I did a good solid bout of tidying up my crap early in the week. Stuff that just needed to be put away in the place that it came from and not just left swinging in the proverbial wind.

There were just the two DnD games this week, the usual Wednesday and Friday. Honestly Wednesday nearly turned into a complete shitshow... people who don't usually show up were rumoured to appear, people who should have been around weren't. It very nearly didn't happen. But there were three of us and we decided to play anyway.

It was a weird game, mostly because it felt like the other two weren't overly engaged. And on top of that the adventure was written a little clumsily... or perhaps a little too openly. We legitimately either didn't pick up on the cues or the cues were vague as fuck. Or maybe a little of both. But we got there eventually.

Friday night's game was... character reintegration. And it was cool, a lot more effective than the last time we attempted it. Choices were made, good choices. Weird as fuck, but good. So we'll see how that goes. Hopefully this means that we can make some progress in the story, since it's been a little bit. I mean, don't get me wrong, I live for the roleplay, and I'm sure the direction the plot is leading isn't anywhere near as straightforward as I think it is.

We are starting to think about what comes next though... so there's that.

Today... today was a world of "Henry VIII I Am"... "Second verse same as the first". Nothing new or exciting really. We did the supermarket thing... I reverted back to chowder again this week. Because it's easy, and I wasn't feeling the other options.

Then we came back here, discussed important things, like teevee shows where people commission art, watched things on the YubTubs... all the hits of yesterday and today. We had a wander over to the Village, and then pretty much called it a day. Not thrilling. But we haven't done thrilling in a while.

And that was it really.

Current mood: