character saturday: halfling scout

So, this week's DnD Character Colouring Book is slightly related to last week's... after finishing up the TableTopNotch mini campaign I went back and started their Low Magic Western Themed long running campaign.

And the fact that the five people are the table are playing either elves or humans was just... I don't wanna say boring. Imma say boring. But I also have no idea what any of them played in their very first campaign and also I'm not actually playing the game, so they can do what the hell they like.

But of course I started thinking about what I would play in that game. And, honestly, the immediate response to a low magic campaign is... "I wanna be a spellcaster", because I'm a messy bitch.

Outside of that though, that group feels like they need somebody who knows more about nature. And given the early stages that I'm up to, somebody who knows more about goblins.

And we all know how I feel about halflings.

Essentially I tried to make a rifleman in a world without rifles. And a scout who has a connection with perhaps not the local goblin tribes, but goblin tribes in other places. And whose leather armor is a mismash of animal hides that he himself has killed.

I also really need Hero Forge to make some new sideburns. I love the ones we have, but I can't just exclusively use those ones on every halfling model that I want some facial hair for.

But otherwise I'm quite happy with our friend Rosco here.

Anyway...

This week's soup was... decent but questionable. My problem mostly was buying kransky because it was cheaper than chorizo, but also falls apart more easily, so while trying to fry it up at the start it kind of all went to mush and I threw in everything else instead of taking it out to reintroduce it again at the end...

Oh, pea and "ham" by the way. Serviceable, but kind of boring honestly.

I also decided to cook the soup on Monday night instead of Sunday. I don't know if that's going to be a regular thing, I might play with it a bit for a few weeks, see how I go.

There really wasn't any Mini Media Reviews this week, I mostly ended up watching video game content on YouTube while crocheting.

Speaking of... after I finished the hexagon cardigan I had a bunch of questionable quality yarn left over, so I started making little granny squares with the intention of making a mosaic blanket with all the little squares.

The thing that I realised after making 28 little squares, making little squares is absolutely a pain in the ass. And after making the Thing That Didn't Work for Ma my hands were still needing to do something. So I broke out the little squares and began the process of turning them into slightly larger squares with the next colour in the chain. That took me all week, and I am now going to make them into slightly larger squares again with the original yarn.

What will I do with those squares once I'm finished? Literally fucked if I know. The intent was originally to make a blanket, I just need to work out how the hell to join them together. And that's a problem for Future Me.

Sorry my guy.

Friday Night DnD... remember that? The thing we haven't done since... the end of March? Yeah, that happened. We absolutely struggled to remember what was going on. I absolutely forgot my character voice for a hot fucking second. But we mostly took care of a bunch of loose ends from the last game. Which was not, perhaps, what the DM was expecting us to do... but we did it anyway.

Did I finally remember that there was a creepy little fiend following my character around and then murderise him? Yes, yes I did. If I'd been planning on taking a few levels in Warlock, he might have been useful, but mostly he just needed to die.

It was also very weird that the actual amount of time that has passed in game between the middle of March and now is... less than 24 hours.

It was a good game though.

Anyway...

Today was... something of an exercise in frustration.

The supermarket was just fine. I did end up just being the person that Gets Involved because not only was there a liquid spill I went to report, but right after that I found a prescription paper that somebody had dropped on the floor.

After that and the ritual unpacking of things, we went to Haighs to see how they were situated for broken Easter Eggs. Turns out, not well. And after a quick chat with a lovely lady that works there, we decided to give it up for the day and try again next week when there should be more.

Then we went to do early voting. Because fuck voting on voting day.

But because the powers that be decided to throw out the rules about canvassing and advertising, we might as fucking well have gone on the actual election day.

Did I lose my shit slightly at the Clearly Racist Dog Whistle Party woman who was the first person waiting to hand out pamphlets when we got outside? Oh you fucking bet I did. Did I tell her she should die in a fire? You bet. You want to spruik for the Modern Nazi Party, I will absolutely tell you you're a racist to your face. And not feel even remotely conflicted about it.

And then loudly announcing to the LITERALLY 40 people standing along the pathway trying to give out advertising for whatever other party they were here for that I did not want it, they did not need to bother and I was not interested. Also, there were absolutely NOT 40 parties. So I don't know what the fuck all those people were there for.

I don't want your printed bullshit, I don't like your printed bullshit, even from the party I'm actually going to vote for, you're literally harassing me in public and wasting both paper, ink, my time and yours. Go do something constructive. Go volunteer at a fucking homeless shelter or something. Be fucking absent from outside the polling booth you assholes. Do not make me say "no thank you" politely 90 times. You're the problem here.

Can you tell I had Feelings About This?

And then I had a chat with the nice lady who let me slip in line in front of her because of Ma about how much the people outside suck and how I was all shaky from the adrenaline LOL.

I also love that the nice people at the polling place say "are you eligible to early vote?" and you say "yes" and there are no follow up questions. They don't care. Am I eligible? Sure, because I can't be bothered doing it on the day with everybody else, it takes too long, and it's easier if I take Ma early, even if she has to go through the Absentee/Out of Zone voting. So, yes, I'm fucking eligible.

This was also the first time in a minute where I literally struggled to find the numbers 1 thru 6 on the top of the big sheet. Normally I number all the numbers, but I could absolutely not be bothered this time. But once I'd removed all the Clearly Racist And Homophobic Dogwhistle Parties, I had to pick a couple of what I generally think of as the Single Issue Looney Fringe parties just to make up the numbers.

The whole thing was a fucking shitshow. And the most annoying thing is, the main two parties, they're essentially identical, as they've always been, so literally nothing will change for most people regardless of who gets in. They'll just waste money on something different that the other group.

And that, ladies, gentlemen, those inbetween and those who have yet to make up their minds, is why I never talk about fucking politics here. Because is mostly all bullshit and almost everyone who wants to be a politician is absolutely not someone who should ever be allowed to be one.

At least it's done now, I just have to suffer through another week of the dumbest fucking adverts ever.

[deep cleansing breath... deep cleansing breath... deep cleansing breath...]

character saturday: time unravellers

A different DnD Character Colouring Book this week... Fluffy suggested this DnD Actual Play campaign by TableTopNotch on YouTube and, given that I was kind of out of other long form things to watch, I ended up just running through this over the last few weeks.

It's a mini campaign, only going for about 25 episodes, and is very... not "Dungeon of the Week" exactly, but it's clearly modelled around five different dungeon crawls.

I was hugely disappointed by the final episode though. Because for reasons that just don't make any sense to me, they decided to not really include the four main characters above in the final episode, instead concentrating on the guest stars they'd had at various points (well, apart from one who couldn't attend, so one of the cast filled in)... all of whom I found irritating and tiresome. So, well done on removing any actual emotional catharsis or joy from your finale folks.

But they use a VTT (Virtual Tabletop) for their maps, which is interesting, so they use Hero Forge minis for their character (and various NPC) models. And... we already know how I feel about Other People's Hero Forge Models most of the time. So... we'll be nice and call these Fan Art.

Yeah, fan art, that totally works.

Also because I have Particular Opinions About Tabaxi. Most notably that they should be based on big cats with some kind of spots. I mean, do what you want, I just have Opinions about it. I also wouldn't normally give a tabaxi eyebrows... but, honestly, Gus needs eyebrows.

Anyway...

This week has been... annoying.

Firstly, the weather. I should not be having to run the aircon in April because the weather is over 30. I just shouldn't. It's dumb and I hate it.

Secondly, I continued on with the amorphous crochet project. And as much as I enjoyed doing it, the end product, while well made, was not Fit For Purpose. Had I been thinking about it at all I could probably have managed to make a hexagon cardigan from the yarn that I had. Or at least most of one. Probably a whole one, let's be fair.

Instead I made it way too fucking wide to start with, which means that the whole thing is not going to do what I intended it to do. When Ma was here we made an attempt to turn it into the same kind of shrug cardigan I made myself. And it just did not work. For various reasons. So in the end Ma took that one home and we're just calling it a blanket. I might add to it at some point if she wants me to.

It did keep my hands occupied throughout the week though.

And I ended up just giving her the one I made myself. Because I tried it on the other week and just... wasn't feeling it. A shame because I really love the multicoloured yarn, but also, makes more sense to actually have somebody make use of it than it just sit in a box in a cupboard the whole time.

As far as Mini Media Reviews... mostly nothing showed up at the library last week... so not really anything much this week.

The one thing I will shout out is Tale of Tales. I don't specifically remember where I heard about it. I feel like it was in some YouTube video about a different movie entirely. But it's very much a movie in the Grimms Fairy Tale oeuvre. It's very weird and often more than a little dark, but it is entertaining, the performances are strong throughout and it's visually stunning.

Otherwise not a lot to report.

Anyway...

There are two days of the year that shopping is literally Hell on Earth. Both of those days also coincide with a major secular/religious holiday. Go figure.

Every year since... forever, I have complained about Easter Saturday shopping. The shops have been closed one day. They will be closed for two more days. Are all of you people usually shopping on a Friday, Sunday or Monday? Or do you just lose your minds because the shops are going to close briefly?

Urgh.

And do not talk to me about the confectionery aisle.

We came back here, tried to make the Thneed do something and gave up and then just kind of fluffed around for a bit because there was no way I was going to anywhere that was a shop. And I sent Ma off on her merry way.

character saturday: bronze elements

One of the species I've been slightly ignoring in the new 2024 book is the dragonborn, and I think that's honestly because it's harder to make an interesting dragonborn in Hero Forge than anything else. Mostly because the dragon face is still working under the old system and not the new Face Customizer. And the dragon body is... slightly clunky. Plus I like to make my dragonborn look like their respective dragon equivalents.

And there just aren't a ton of options for that. Visually the copper dragons are my favourites, but the bronzes are pretty close runners up. This did very much end up based on the 2014 dragon rather than the 2024 dragon though.

I was also playing around with the idea of a Monk, specifically the updated Elements Monk, which never seemed to be worth the price of admission in the 2014 rules. So it's not exactly breaking the mould here, but at least now I have a base bronze dragonborn in the bucket. 

Which also means that there really isn't much of a story for the character this week.

Anyway...

Yes, I made soup. Yes, the weather also veered back into the ridiculously hot for April and continues thusly this week, but fortunately because I put a little too much rice in said soup, it actually worked pretty okay cold.

Mini Media Reviews...

Doom Patrol... sucks. I borrowed the first three seasons from the library, watched the first one and returned the other two unwatched. None of the characters are interesting or likable... I mean, I've never liked Cyborg in any iteration I've seen him in. I didn't like him back when I used to read Teen Titans comics, and this version absolutely did not make me like him. I really only saw the season out to see if it could recover and win me over. It did not.

So instead I finished watching Miss S. I enjoyed that more overall. I think it does suffer from the fact that the subtitles on SBS On Demand are absolutely fucking awful, but mostly it suffers from the lead actress being out performed by literally every single other person on screen. It also suffers because they took what were hour long episodes and stretched them out to an hour and a half. And it very often shows the gap between the source material and the additions.

But overall it was watchable.

Otherwise I spent a chunk of time working on the crochet "thneed" for Ma. And it's very much that, because I have no idea how it's going to come together. Which is what comes of making something up with literally no pattern or plan and just winging it.

What I did realise is that the piece I started last Saturday was just not right for a number of reasons, so I tied that one off and called it a scarf. And then started over and have had a much more enjoyable time.

Friday was Chiro Day... rescheduled Chiro Day from last week. And my usual Wandering Around Stores. I finally got some kind of clarity from Dymocks about the new PHB... turns out the company they get those books from requires a minimum order and they're not actually at the minimum order yet. To which I say... just order more stuff. But at least I know that wheels are in motion. Mostly thanks to the woman from last month who never called me like she said she was going to, but still.

There was no Friday Night DnD this week, as previously discussed.

Anyway...

Today was... one of those two days a year that are very annoying because they close roads that shouldn't be fucking closed.

Granted it still wasn't hugely disruptive to the trip to the supermarket, it was more irritating and Ma had to detour on her way home which isn't ideal.

But we also managed to both spend more than usual and save a lot. Partially because I think we bought things we might not otherwise have bought had they not already been on special. So there's that.

Afterwards, neither of us really wanted to deal with the road closures, so I pulled up something on YouTube again, and we just hung out for a bit. I did also end up working on the crochet project just a little.

And that was that really.

character saturday: wicked fairy warlock

This is a DnD Character Colouring Book story that starts back with this purple fellow... and ends with me spending too much time making our friend Malevolence here. Because when I started thinking about the first character I wanted to play with the 2024 rules, Warlock was definitely up there. As was tiefling. But then I went, as I've also done a few times recently... hey, aasimar also exists.

So I did a different warlock that was an aasimar. And was essentially the Level 10 version of Mal, but with blonde hair and regular coloured skin. Once I added the pseudodragon (because, yes, I will have a pseudodragon familiar at some point eventually), I realised the colouring was absolutely giving me Maleficent coding. And as much as I loved the idea of an aasimar, what really made more sense was to go fully into my second favourite Disney villain coding (behind Ursula... because, of course).

Because what had just been plain old Mal the aasimar became Malevolence the tiefling. And yes, the psuedodragon is called Carabosse aka Cara, which is the name of the "wicked fairy" in some versions of Sleeping Beauty. Because that's exactly the kind of nerd I am.

There were also a number of Photoshop versions, because the spear doesn't exist as is in Hero Forge, it's actually cobbled together from three different items. And getting Carabosse right took a minute, since you can't pose familiars on the shoulder like that.

I also started playing around with other thoughts, because if we were starting these characters out at Level 3 for an intro story, then doing a jump to Level 10 for the main adventure, that would be a large period of time... and, honestly, my DnD characters don't actually swap out to a new outfit as often as I'd like. So I set about designing the Level 3 version. Also because the original design had the Henley shirt, but editing out the sleeves was a pain, so I just swapped it out. And I'm vaguely obsessed with that shoulder harness. As evidenced here and here. Plus I just liked the idea that Cara used it to perch on if she wasn't on his shoulder.

Plus because of the badge which exists for story reasons, the vibe did kind of come across as police detective, which I'm absolutely not mad at.

And that led me his backstory... where I also developed a bunch of NPC characters to potentially furnish DM Fluffy with when we got there. Which of course lead to Hero Forge models of not just them, but also the early teen version of Mal.

And of course I had to include halfling twins... and have Bingo be deaf so that I had an excuse for Mal to know sign language, which is a new language in the 2024 rules. I've also mentioned before that I'm obsessed with the skirt on Sunny, I've used it so many times before I'm not even going to start putting links in. But then the combination of that with the new sleeveless turtleneck, double obsessed. I will have to reuse it for something at some point.

So, yeah, all that work and then I really just went "but I'm playing a Charisma based caster currently, do I really want to play another Charisma caster in the next one"... to which the answer is, seemingly, barbarian.

Anyway...

This week was slightly a mess.

Let's start with Mini Media Reviews. I started off with Venom The Last Dance. Which, admittedly, made be tear up at the end. But it was also infinitely better than the second one. But as with basically all three movies, I'm seldom really that invested in the overarching villain plot, because they're all a bit... m'eh. I am, however, deeply invested in Venom and Eddie and their relationship. And this one definitely has more of that.

And then, because I'd been considering it for the last couple of weeks, and didn't have anything else I was desperate to watch, stared on Miss S. Which is set in China in the 1930's and is a series of murder mysteries. The thing that it immediately reminded me of was Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, although I never watched any of that show. But after I'd watched a bunch of episodes of Miss S, I looked up Miss Fisher, only to discover that the plots were basically identical. Turns out it was an actual remake, not just a rip off, and the people behind the Miss Fisher series acted as creative consultants with Miss S.

I will say that the acting and either the scripts or the subtitles are occasionally a little questionable. The original shows were an hour long, and they've stretched these out to two hours. So sometimes the additional are incredibly obvious. Most of the cast is excellent but the weakest link, weirdly, is the titular Miss S.

I am slightly obsessed with the costuming and the set design/backlot they're filming on. The costumes because they're absolutely trying for a 1930's look, but most of the time (especially in the menswear) using slightly fashion forward modern items that have a vague 1930's style. And I'm obsessed, as I said.

I went out to replace my hair clippers after discovering that the guard was broken. So I went out to Big W, found the one that I'd looked up online, left and literally on the way back to the car discovered that it was one you had to plug in, despite none of the images on the box appearing that way. I could have taken it back into the store, but I also literally couldn't be bothered, given that the clippers were everything else I wanted. And it worked out fine, it's just a little bit more of a rigamarole that involves and extension cord.

Friday Night DnD was not actually DnD. Fluffy is off Doing Things And Having Experiences, so he'll be out the next two weeks, but I still went down to Mr and Mrs on Friday. We played some DnD themed Clue, which was my first instance of actually playing Clue. It's... a slightly weirder game mechanic than I was expecting, but interesting. I did not solve the mystery, but I had a good time.

After that Mrs and I watched the last two episodes of Season 6A of Teen Wolf. Which was fun. And ended up taking about the same amount of time as DnD and I got home after midnight.

Anyway...

Well, we're here. It's gunna be soup season this week.

I'm mostly making something up that involves chicken and rice and vegetables and tomato. But it will at least be soup. Yay.

Otherwise we just did the usual supermarketry, then came back here an puttered around. I promised Ma I would make her a version of the folded shrug thing I made at the end of last winter using left over yarn that she just had sitting around, so I told her to bring it down this week. And I just ended up throwing an old Miss Marple miniseries on that happened to live on YouTube for colour and movement and ended up starting the shrug thing.

So there's that.