character saturday: my winter walker

I swear... this is... probably... the last time a Bo Bafflestone variant shows up as a DnD Character Colouring Book entry. Yeah, who the hell am I kidding. But this eleventh version had to exist because the Winter Walker Ranger from the recent book is just too damn perfect for him.

This is more Bo in his... 200's, I guess. Hence the muttonchops. And the outfit is absolutely the same one that his mentor, and my previous character, Leif wore. My headcanon is that it was a gift from Leif. It also fills in the Winter Camouflage mundane item slot that this set of characters have had.

I do tend to flick between whether or not his prosthetic leg is visible or not visible. Or whether he has one of those "blade" prosthetics or not.

And, of course, I signed him up to be an Emerald Enclave member.

Anyway...

This week's soup was Potato and Bacon... and I tried a thing I saw on Instagram... but without, you know, double-checking it and going mostly off vibes. Which is taking a portion of the soup out once it's done, blitzing that and putting it back in in order to thicken it up. And while it was... good... it didn't work like I thought it was going to. But again, vibes, not actually following the instructions.

Soup was good anyway though.

This week's Mini Media Reviews kind of stretch out a little. 

I started with an unsuccessful attempt. I got about halfway through the movie and the disc just kept stuttering and jumping and became unwatchable. And it was a 3 hour movie, so it drove me insane enough that I couldn't finish. But, trust me, the 2024 French version of  The Count of Monte-Cristo will return, because what I did see was amazing.

I followed that up with the first season of Murdoch Mysteries. I am genuinely surprised that that show has 19 seasons. Because it's... well, it's solidly average. The premise of Mystery of the Week set in the 1890's, I am absolutely here for. A number of the characters, I'm absolutely here for. The plots and the scripts... yeah, that's where this show kind of falls on it's face. Oh, so both Nikola Tesla and Arthur Conan Doyle show up? And ghosts are... real? But it's not a supernatural show in any way. Except psychic predictions and ghosts, they exist. It's also very much doing "call forwards" to things that will be developed after the timeline of the show, and it's very much "yeah, you can stop now".

But it's mostly simple and straightforward mystery stories. That I assume will probably improve over the course of the show. Hopefully.

We're also at the week of the year where the vroom vroom cars come and make vroom vroom entirely too close to where I live and eventually the vroom vroom planes will make all the windows rattle and I hate everything involved with vroom vroom. 

Oh good... we've just reached the vroom vroom planes. Urgh. 

There wasn't any Friday Night DnD this week, due to reasons. But Fluffy and I did Movie Night instead.

And I have to issue a rare correction. We watched a couple of older movies, the first of which was Predestination. Now, I have nothing but positive memories of this movie, but before we watched it I had a look at my old review from 11 years ago. And for reasons that I can absolutely not explain, I rated it 2/5. Which would have been either 4 or 5 outta 10 in the old system.

I was incorrect.

Or else it was a typo when I was updating the score system. Because in no way was this a 2/5 movie. So I have officially updated it to a 4/5. It absolutely deserves it.

I think I pinged it hard at the time because the twists and turns of the script were obvious to me, but looking back at it and rewatching it last night, the script is tight and well written, the performances are incredible and the production design and costumes are top notch. I also noticed so many additional details last night based on being in the room with somebody else experiencing it for the first time.

I still stand by everything I said about Sarah Snook... also while I know that she's worked pretty consistently, I really don't understand why she never hit it big or found that one thing that really put her on the map. I mean, maybe that was the TV show Succession, but I haven't seen it. She is outstanding though.

We followed it up with one of my comfort movies and an old standby, Jumpin' Jack Flash. I can quote large portion of that movie verbatim. It did kind of make me realise the fact that that movie has a lot of people who went on to be very famous in it or making it.

But an enjoyable night all up.

Anyway.

Today was fairly uneventful. We did the supermarket. I got the matching Dutch Oven casserole dish to the fry pan I got last week. Hopefully I end up with enough points for the baking tray before either they run out of them or we get to March.

Otherwise, not much to report. 

character saturday: astronomy boy

This week's DnD Character Colouring Book was one of those scenarios where I wasn't sure where the character was going, but throwing random items into the mix kind of came together in a way that made me completely fall in love with him. 

So, Olan aka Skymapper was born. I will admit that he's technically a genderswapped version of Zovi from last year. Or at least started out that way. I might have tweaked a few bits and pieces, but at this point I've made so many minis that have gone unused that it's easier to grab an old one and tweak a couple of details rather than starting over. The slightly blushy cheeks that, let's be honest, pops up a fair amount in cute nerd boys with glasses, was definitely an addition though.

I also very rarely use those pants without boots to partially cover them. But I went for the very low matching shoes this time. The little cropped puffer jacket really helped tie everything together. And the glasses are definitely inspired by Zahir from a few weeks back. Plus, he's also a big old book nerd who reads too much.

I rarely use the tower shields, or anything other than the round ones, honestly. But a tower shield made sense for this boy. And while, on the mini, the front is actually blank, the character has a shield with a "human sized" bas relief of his goddess on it, plus a prayer to her inscribed on the back.

I think there were some vague backstory ideas floating around when I made him, but I also did a little bit of backstory on a different character since then that might have actually used some of the same basic ideas.

The idea that's kind of left swimming around in the fishbowl right now is of him travelling with his father, a wandering druid/cleric/ranger type who was aligned to no one clan, but travelled between clans and the wider world, bringing news and stories and who caught Olan the names of the stars and their stories. And at some point young Olan was left an orphan in [insert name of town/city I haven't used 300 times already] at a temple to Selune, where he realised that the stars had an entirely different set of names here.

Something like that, anyway.

And, because all of these characters get some new piece of gear from the new book, Olan gets the "locking spellbook". Admittedly, I'd already given him the book, just because it made sense for a Knowledge Cleric, before I doubled down on gear. And, honestly, a locking spellbook that you don't put spells in is just a book. The item description does say that "this 100-page leather-bound tome can be used as a Spellbook"... so, just a book then. Sadly, Hero Forge doesn't have any book items that appear to be locked, so I'm going to handwave that a little.

Anyway...

The soup for this week... spicy chicken noodle soup... but with bowtie pasta for the noodle component. Really, really good.

This week's Mini Media Review... Sinners. Wow. Just... wow. It's a very slow burn. And I feel like it's a movie that you kind of need to know is a vampire movie going in, because it makes the slow burn more effective in my opinion. Basically knowing that things are going to get fantastical instead of waiting for, you know, racism, to happen, relieves the bad kind of tension. It's also a fascinating take on the vampire mythos, is a movie that is ultimately about community and gives you a lot to unpack the more you let the movie sit with you. 

And amazing performances throughout. Michael B Jordan, obviously, for playing identical twins. But my personal shoutout goes to Wunmi Mosaku as Annie. But, really, nobody in this is bad. And kudos to Ryan Coogler for once again making a movie that has a point of view (see also Black Panther and it's sequel) that is more nuanced than you might expect. If I had any minor, minor, minor quibble, it does slightly suffer from Lord of the Rings syndrome in that it has like 6 endings one after the other, and every time you think it's done, we roll over into another ending. But I'm also not mad at it for that.

Cannot recommend enough. And if it had come up in a normal review, it would have gotten 5 twin brothers out of 5.

Friday Night DnD was... complicated. You know what, I wrote a whole bunch about where we're at right now and my frustrations with same, and I just ended up circling the drain. Some of which is entirely my fault, some of which is entirely DM choices. But I also have two weeks to... circle the drain in the opposite direction maybe... who knows.

Anyway.

Today was yesterday. That's right, today was cancelled and we todayed yesterday. Because we reached that weekend where the Norwood Christmas Pageant blocks off the easy route between my place and the supermarket and is generally a pain in the ass.

Although I was pleased to see that, as I said to Fluffy in 2022, "my pact with the Eldritch Things Between the Cracks" is still in effect. Because it rained again this year. Not enough that it drowned the bagpipes, but clearly enough for the Eldritch Things.

But rolling back to yesterday that was pretending to be today... I mean it was mostly the same old same old. I did trade in a lot of the stamps that I didn't actually realise that I was still collecting on the supermarket app for an incredibly, incredibly heavy cast iron and red enamel frypan. And I have enough stamps still to get a red Dutch Oven pot next week. And if stocks do indeed last, maybe even a red rectangular casserole dish. 

Which is good, because I have definitely been in need of a new frypan.

As always, it made this morning slightly odd, where I didn't have anywhere to go or anywhere to be. 

character saturday: nasty girl

So, of course, the one time that I have a set of characters locked and ready to go between two points on the calendar, something else pops up that could have taken precedence. But I stayed strong... 

And thus, for today's DnD Character Colouring Book, we have Pain, another character inspired by the new book. And a rogue. Because I love a rogue. Although I don't know that I fully have a handle on how I'd actually play this subclass. Making her a Zhent kinda works though. I think as far as I got with backstory for her that was she was born into a cult and the cult got destroyed, but she ended up as an orphan with the Zhents. That all tracks.

Also, I've absolutely gotten to the point where I've made so many Hero Forge minis that I've started reusing some of the ones who never went anywhere as starting points for other characters. Pain started out as a character from Dax's backstory, who I thought that I'd posted, but I can't find. And I changed her a little... but it was really the horns that brought her together.

This is absolutely a character base I will come back to at some point. Not least of all because she isn't at all signalling to somebody over your right shoulder, there's absolutely no reason to worry and you haven't at all pissed her off. It's all fine. Normally I wouldn't go to green, but this just worked. So the armor/clothes went to dark purple over blue or black. And no, I have no idea how she gets that hood on or off. I suspect it involves buttons perhaps.

I am always slightly amused any time I find a good use for that breastplate too... because I wasn't hugely enthusiastic about it when it came out.

And, again, Pain gets one of the new mundane items... the Devil Mask which lets you hide your identity. Should it be a full face mask? Yeah, probably. But I liked that design more than any of the full face ones.

Anyway...

This week's soup was... technically stewp. Stoop? Half soup, half stew. Mostly due to the large amount of rice I put in there. Also, it's November and still I'm making soup.

The Mini Media Reviews this week... Peninsula, the "follow up" movie to the very, very, very excellent Train to Busan. And where that movie was emotional and impactful and scary and absolutely one of my favourite zombie movies... Peninsula is... a lackluster heist movie where people make a lot of questionable decisions when they definitely should be running. And an 11 year old girl somehow knows how to pull off driving moves that would impress the extended cast of The Fast and the Furious. It was...okay.

Then I watched the Fallout TV series. Now, I've watched a lot of Fallout 3/New Vegas and Fallout 4 content. I've played a small amount of Fallout 4 before realising that it really wasn't my type of game, so I'm familiar with the universe. And everybody in production design, costuming, effects, make up, all that good stuff... doing excellent work. The place where it fell down for me? Script and characters. By the end of the 8 episodes, there was only one character I actually liked (Norm, played by Moises Arias), most everybody else quickly became either insufferable (Maximus) or pointless (Lucy), both of whom are supposed to be our "main characters". And it feels like it's both trying to aim for people with no knowledge of the game and also people who know it very well, and kind of failing both of them.

Also, eight whole episodes and not one single Deathclaw. I'm just saying.

Friday DnD was... not what I was expecting. Thankfully, we got to sidestep the previously discussed nonsense story. As that all happened off screen. But we can vaguely guess the results of that, given that Fluffy is now up to Character #3. Still not his record. That was the Avernus campaign where he technically made it to four... but the third one was mostly just a fill in character and not actually intended to stick around for any length of time. Regardless.

That was the character who nearly took Pain's place as today's image. But I get the feeling that the version I've made thus far might need a couple more pokes with a blunt stick. It's like... five tweaks and maybe a different set of boots away from being done. Possibly pants not boots. I am unsure. He's not camera ready, let's put it that way.

Anyway...

Today was... almost pointless, but worked itself out in the end.

We started, obviously, with the supermarket. Nothing amazingly thrilling there.

But last week Ma said that she wanted to look at some dresses or skirts or some other clothes basically. Which is perfectly fine. The problem comes in when the stores always assume that women are a certain height, and make the dresses either thigh length or floor length. Neither of which works for an old lady with her butt to close to the floor.

So, we tried Big W, we tried Target... and nothing. Also... and I ask this as someone not really keeping up with women's fashion. Are skirts not in right now? Or, you know, skirts that are longer than about a foot. Because we say about three, and those were mostly in the "workwear" section.

We did eventually find one of those little "boutique" stores, that sold a little bit of a hodgepodge of stuff really, and found a few things that fitted nicely and were about the right length. And not the first time that I've seen what mostly looked like a shapeless sack on the hanger and convinced Ma to try it on, only to have it be in regular rotation for a long while. Whether this will be the same or not remains to be seen.

But at least we have a better idea now. 

character saturday: oathkeeper realness

Remember how I said last week that ideas where percolating over the new subclasses that dropped in the new book... yeah, after a brief instance of Hero Forge Character Block, I came out the other side with enough minis to get us to the Advent Calendar.

Yeah, let that percolate for a hot second.

But after several failed ideas, I got to Arzu Oathkeeper. And is Oathkeeper a less than subtle dig at the fact that nobody understands what the hell it means to break your paladin oath in D&D. But it also showed up organically one one of those list generators for orc names.

So, I got to mix one of the new backgrounds, Genie Touched, with the new Noble Genie subclass... double genie. The thing I like most about the subclass is that it's the first paladin that doesn't require armor. And I'm always down for that. And then, one of the other things I love about the new book is the small list of mundane items, which we really haven't gotten before for the most part. So this month's characters all get one of those items.

And what better for the Genie background Genie subclass character than an item that gives him advantage on talking to creatures of a specific element.

I don't really have backstory for Arzu, I have a location and probably a city, and a type of Genie, but I think I'd need to properly read the updated location lore in the new book before actually coming up with something.

And that Hero Forge outfit still doesn't make a fucking lick of sense. Explain to me where the crossed over section in the top half goes. And I've seen the original concept art... and it doesn't work there either. Likewise the yellow cord. Admittedly that actually goes all the way around the waist in the concept art, it doesn't just stop for no reason. But honestly, I'm not mad about the whole look here. We can just pretend that it all makes sense.

Oh, and, yes, the text at the base of his sword blade does say "Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty bitty living space!", thanks for asking.

Anyway...

This week's soup was an invention. I'm calling it Chicken Minestrone. It was basically most of the things I'd do for minestrone, but I added shredded chicken. And white beans. Very good actually.

The Mini Media Reviews this week are an eclectic mix. First we have The Legend of Ochi. The most 1980's movie made in the 2020's. Because it has a little creature in it that is almost exclusively done with puppetry. And some of the sets feel very set-like, but in that 1980's way. The movie in general is kinda weird. It also does not surprise me that the director/writer did music videos for Björk. Story checks out. Good though.

Next up... The Bad Guys. On the surface, a decent enough kids movie. However, it's also about a furry with a praise kink. And I'm not exaggerating. That's literally the plot of the movie. Basically the more I paid attention to it, the more it seemed like somebody took a list of kinks and added them all into the movie. But the animation/art itself, gorgeous. And a lot more complex than it appears on first appearance.

I was constantly surprised that two of the main characters were not actually voiced by Owen Wilson and Danny Devito... but instead Sam Rockwell and Marc Maron. Again, do with that what you will. 

I might watch the sequel eventually... even though I know that there is a scene where a snake makes out with a bird. And that image is as disturbing as that description indicates.

Last up was the first season of the TV show The Alienist. Looking back, I didn't completely love the book. The show is very beautiful to look at, and clearly I'm on a late 1800's detective kick. The show actually improves some of issues I had with the book. My main issue is that either Datoka Fanning is a terrible actress or else she was directed to play the character terribly. Or the writing was questionable. An interesting show though. Again, there's a second season, but I didn't really like the second book... but who knows. Maybe.

Friday Night DnD was... probably supposed to be more than it ended up being. We mostly did some clean up from last week. Up until a certain point were we kind of fell off the cliff into the nonsense side story the DM concocted. I'm not here for it, clearly. Thankfully, my character can also not be here for it and just walk away from it.

On the downside, I had the first bread fail for quite a while. I think it's because I mixed the last of the old yeast with new yeast... I think the yeasts fought each other and didn't bother to make the bread rise properly. 

Anyway...

Today was mostly standard shopping. Although I did show up at the supermarket with literally no idea what the hell soup I was going to make this week... so we'll see how that goes.

Afterwards I wanted to do a run to Kmart to look at what their options where for Christmas mugs... because the one I have from last year is cute as hell but hard to drink from. Did they have cute Christmas mugs? Yes. Did I actually like any of them enough? No, no I did not. But I'm here for the very "traditional" Christmas vibe that Kmart is doing this year. It's all Santas and red bows and trees and gingerbread folks. So there was much Looking At Things. But nothing caught my eye enough. Until I saw the discounted/leftover Halloween candles. And surely the price on the shelf was for the little candles, not the big ones... but no, turns out, big Halloween candles, and the scent is supposedly "Blueberry and Spices"... 50c. Sorry... what? Yes, I bought two. I considered buying four. It was honestly more about carrying them all.

That's it really...

character saturday: war mama

I was going to go in a different direction for today's DnD Character Colouring Book...because a new book with a collection of new subclasses just dropped, and there are a couple of ideas brewing around in my back brain. But it only dropped yesterday, so the ideas are still percolating.

Instead I went back to one of the very short lived (literally) characters, who I really wish I'd had more time with. So we have the revised version of the revised Littlefoot. Not gunna lie, we still need an updated version of that helmet though.

I do like the updated sword and shield though. And the fact that I can actually make it look like her nose is broken.

Anyway...

Soup this week was a return to Lasagne Soup. Always a good plan.

Mini Media Review is all four seasons (aka 11 movie length episodes) of Vienna Blood. It reminded me very much of Paris Police 1900 (and also Paris Police 1905). Which makes perfect sense, because it's another detective series set in the same time period (1900-1910) and in Vienna this time instead of Europe. Vienna Blood has more of a "screened on TV" vibe vs Paris Police, which always felt like a streaming show.

But I was fully obsessed with Juergen Maurer and Matthew Beard, who played our police detective and psychologist respectively. Slightly more so with Beard and his wonderfully narrow shoulders in the 1900's menswear. Obsessed.

Sadly, the character that they decided would be his love interest throughout the series I absolutely loathed. I don't know if it's the actress, Luise von Finckh, or the way the character is written, but their relationship was completely toxic and I wanted them to run in opposite directions from each other. It's also very frustrating because Beard's other love interest not only undergoes a change in actress (the first version, Jessica De Gouw, is the clear standout), but then just vanishes at the end of the second series. 

But I thoroughly enjoyed it even with that.

Friday was Chiro Day. And I basically did the same loop I always do afterwards.

But, also, guess what... Friday Night was actually Friday Night DnD. For the first time in a whole month.

Did my character both learn that he could understand a language he didn't know he knew? Yes. I mean, I've known this the whole time, but an opportunity came up last night where I actually understood a word we'd heard a few times was actually in another language. So I took the opportunity to lean into the idea and have a little bit of a moment out of that. And did my character have a little bit of an emotional breakdown over the death of an NPC? Oh hell yeah. That one I didn't expect. Although I did fully expect that people we'd spent a lot of time with would be targeted once I understood what was going on... I just didn't expect that particular moment.

That good good roleplay juice. Gotta love it.

Anyway...

Today was a slightly odd supermarket wander. Nothing majorly exciting, just one of those things where I assume it's going to be a light week when we're 80% of the way through the store, and then the last 20% just goes a little nuts.

Afterwards we took 20 minutes to do what should have been a five minute job, but it was something to do.