Giant Friday - 2/4.

Yes, yes!  Here it is - the second of four Giant Fridays!  Today sees a much rougher iteration of the giants I've written up; I had a great time playing around with shape and basic look by slinging a Sharpie around and just kind of going with it.
I've also written in another attribute - the familiar!  This was as close as I could get to "pet" without actually calling them pets.  Long-lived companions that share a bond with the Giants through the centuries.  The Giants can bestow their longevity on their companions and share near-immortality with them in order to have an accompanying creature with which to perform the tasks in the world that they were assigned long, long ago.

I'll post more about the history and lore of the giants of my world at a later date; it's been fun to explore what I'd probably call writing doodling.  Instead of just drawing and going with it, I've been pulling up some Google Docs and going crazy creating rules and mechanics and stats and such for all sorts of monsters and items.  It's a lot of fun.

Anyway.  Here we go!
I'm just typing out all of this from Google Docs instead of copy+pasting it like last week, since that super messed up the formatting.

The Wind Giant, Arekaros.

Habitat:
Cloud-covered mountaintops.

Weapon:
The Heavy Bow, Aktheros (deals twice the normal damage than a longbow).  Cloud shroud - using the wind to whisk up sleet and dust to obscure himself; anyone attacking into or within this cloud has disadvantage, while Arekaros does not.

Familiar:
The Giant Eagle, Aeswar.  Flying as high as any other beast of the world, Aeswar graces the skies for sometimes days on end without needing to come down to land.  Eating and sleeping on the wing, he is still only ever a shout away from Arekaros.  And when called, is it is for war, Aeswar descends in a flurry of feathers and talons; eviscerating the enemy ranks - usually taking an unfortunate victim/snack or two as he retreats.

Appearance:
Blue hint to his skin, with darker blue tattoos across his chest; long white hair and a full white beard, with dark blue eyes.  Dressed in furs, with heavy leather quiver and straps.

Temperament:
Understanding; intelligent creatures that find him usually do so deliberately, so he affords them an audience for their efforts.  If they are lost, he will help them find their way back to safety.

Alliances:
Gets along well with The Ice Giant, U'thuzza, The Sea Giant, Vosor, The Earth Giant, Zaxlor. and The Hill Giant, Mak'hep.

Enemies:
While not complete foes, Arekaros is simply indifferent to the rest of the Giants.

The Stone Giant, Takver.

Habitat:
Rocky mountainous regions; sparse undergrowth - mostly open areas.

Weapon:
The War hammer, Gutnaar (deals twice the normal damage for a war hammer) and a giant shield (+3 to AC; only wielded by large or bigger creatures).  Traps and "small" projectiles (rocks); Summon (rock) elemental (once per encounter).

Appearance:
Hide clothing; long hair, with right-side shaved, and a full beard.  Black tribal tattoo down right arm.

Familiar: 
The Griffin, Takii.  Agile and adept at traversing rocky terrain, Takii usually walks to whatever destination they are heading to.  Not at all clumsy on the wing, however, Takii often flies to great heights when flying to either drop a hapless enemy to their death, or to rain death upon them by releasing heavy rocks from above.

Temperament:
Calm; does not often concern himself with the everyday lives of small creatures.  Will entertain basic conversation - enjoys talking about the topography of the local areas.  A patient hunter; although formidable with Gutnaar, he is an accomplished trap setter and can work to scales that the other Giants would not have the dexterity to achieve.

Alliances:
Shares ideologies and interests with The Earth Giant, Zaxlor, The Hill Giant, Mak'hep, and The Cave Giant, Huth'kah; gets along well with The Forest Giant, Glemziar, and The Lake Giant, Laznir.

Enemies:
Takver doesn't necessarily refrain from contact with the other Giants, but he does shy away from open waters, icy mountains, and the lava pits and volcanoes of the lands.  He can hold his breath long enough to traverse most lakes without having to come up for air, but that's not usually the case at all with the oceans.  His tolerance for temperature is as even as his temper, so any extremes are usually avoided.



So there are the entries for today!  A couple more for the roster.

The giants of the land were created to morph and shape the world into a form that met a balance that they held to be acceptable.  While some still fight for territories and some are just bent on destruction, for the most part they live in harmony with the world and each other; meeting every few decades - as they have since the world was first created - to discuss any changes that may need to be made.  In recent centuries, they have started to entertain the needs of the smaller, intelligent creatures of the world, but that voice is small and not always considered.

I'm having a lot of fun.

Peace.

Magic Mondays.

Following the idea of Giant Fridays, I'm going to start posting a Magic Monday every month.

I've got a few decks together over the years that I've enjoyed playing a shaping, and I have a great deal of fun using them in a game.  Granted, most - if not all - of the cards in them are no longer tournament legal, but out of the two other people I know here that play, neither of them care - one, in fact, still plays with white-edge cards.  Super illegal.  I don't win much against him.  Maybe twelve times in four years, to possibly overestimate.

I really don't mind losing, since all we're going to do is reshuffle and play again a minute after the end of the game.  Losing is something that helps me figure out how to do things better next time.

Anyhoo, I figured I'd throw up a list of cards that I run with the decks that I've put together.

I'll say this right at the start:  I am extremely upset with myself that I dismantled the first deck I ever made in order to reuse the cards.  I had a Red/Green deck and a Blue/White deck that I'd put together at the very beginning of my interest in the game - the cards given to me from my a good friend so he could teach me how to play.  I knew that I would normally have kept all those cards together in the same decks forever, and I wanted to push myself to do something new and so I broke them up to use the cards again in different decks.  I have regretted it since the day I did it, and I'll never, ever remember the first 60 cards I played with as Red/Green.  That makes me sad.

Right now, I'm building themed decks.  I'm less about aggro, control, etc. and more about Minotaurs and Hydras and whatever colours they utilitse.

I'll post about the Minotaur deck first.  It's the first deck I ever put together deliberately.  Instead of seeing what colours I wanted to combine, I thought I'd look at the creatures, and then any instant/sorcery/artifact cards that could work well with them.  It just so happens that most Minotaurs fall into Red/Black, so that's the deck I have.  I really like it and I would say it's the deck that I've put most money into.

Not a whole lot, mind, but certainly more than any other deck I have right now, since I've been creating this one for nearly two years.  Once of the cards was around the $8 mark, so I got that for a special occasion (I can't remember if it was my birthday, or after a huge week of overtime.  Or both).

I have a blast playing it.  I'd play it all day.  It's my go-to deck for warming up.

I'll list those cards and why I've got them this coming Monday.  Magic Monday.  And I'll aim to post about other decks on the first Monday of the month at least until Christmas.

Then I'll use this as an excuse to build more decks...

Peace.

Giant Friday - 1/4.

Welcome, welcome!  Here is the first installment of Giant Friday!  For the next four Fridays, I'll be posting up some character information and ideas about some of the giants in my D&D world; they are serving the purpose of caretakers of the world, with each giant dwelling in a different environment.

They travel from place to place within their territories and environments, and interact with each other occasionally (some more frequently than others).

The way I like to make creatures, characters, weapons, and quest for my world is simple.  Look at a creature type weapon

Finished is the enemy of done.  That is; these are all WIP and I am going to add to them for a long time after posting about them, but I don't want that to keep me from posting them, you know?  I can't wait until something is finished before I share it with the world, because then I won't be able to produce anything.  So here we go.

Here are two that I've been working on this week:

The Ice Giant, U’thuzza.

Habitat:
High mountains and the Ice caps.

Weapon:
Ever-Frozen Ice Axe, Th’all.  Frost breath (15’ cone). Shard blast (25’ cone).
Summon (ice) elemental (once per encounter).

Appearance:
Laden with thick fur garments, a full head of hair, and a full beard.  
A heavy cloak thrown over his shoulders, fur-lined bracers, and hide clothes -
all held together with strong leather straps. He has a harness behind his cloak
that holds Th’all when he’s not using it; he carries it with him wherever he
goes, since he may simply decide to create a new or reuse an old dwelling as
it takes his fancy.

Temperament:
Withdrawn.  A hermit who busies himself with hunting and carving massive
and ornate patterns into the bones of this quarry.  He’ll entertain company for
a short while, but is by no means graceful at ending any conversation or meeting.

Alliances:
Closest relationship is with the Wind Giant, Arekaros; has made acquaintances
with the Hill Giant, Mak’hep, Stone giant, Takver, and Lake Giant, Laznir.

Enemies:
Has fought for centuries with the Lava Giant, Drathkus, for territory.  There are a
few places around the world at which that battle is ongoing, but for the most part,
their territories have been well-established.

The Earth Giant, Zaxlor.

Habitat:
Open plains and large forest clearings.

Weapon:
Giant spear, Xegor. Can earthshift to create a wall of earth from the ground, that
he can use to trap or block opponents.  Summon (earth) elemental (once per encounter).

Appearance:
Short, dark brown hair, shaved to mohawk; beard that’s trimmed to mirror his hair
(short at the sides down to long at the chin).  Dressed in hide and light furs from
the waist down, with large carved totems hanging from his belt, and iron rings on
three of his fingers. Tattoos on his forearms.

Temperament:
Very even-tempered, and uses magic more willingly than some other giants.  He is
usually the first Giant who is called to aid some from time to time because of his
penchant for magic.  He can travel extremely quickly with the use of his magic -
he’ll use his earthshifting abilities to spring him up and forward at great lengths and
speeds, and to cushion his landing on the other end.  Even though this can be
quite a destructive ability, he usually makes sure he leaves areas as close as he
can to how he found them.

Alliances:
Strong friendships with the Forest Giant, Glemziar, and the Hill Giant, Mak’hep,
and good alliances with all other giants; frequently takes the role of mediator in
disputes.  He is the most trusted of the Giants by the other Giants and will even
represent smaller creatures in an audience with the other Giants.

Enemies:
None.  The only giant that is not on the bad side of any others.

So there are the two that I've been focusing on over these past few days. It's been
a lot of fun; especially going back to basics and drawing out some thumbnails for the
giants. I'll post those on the fourth Giant Friday - I've still go a lot going on to try and
find some shapes to use for their poses, but it's been super fun getting back into just
doodling with a proper purpose.

I've also been tidying up my rules for Zombie House; I'm not adding much to it at all
this time around (which is great news, since that shows that the last time we played
the game, we had a pretty clean run through), but splitting the rulebook into two
smaller books - one for the zombies and one for the humans. I think that this will help
a great deal, since then both sides aren't waiting for the other to finish looking up a
rule if they also need to confirm a rule.

We're also making a start on the back deck - the porch has got some panels down
that aren't doing too well. Just wear and tear, but to the point that I'm not confident
that a certain one will take my weight much more...

So that's where we're up to!

Peace.

Projects.

Following the post I made last month regarding outlets, I've been pushing to do concurrent projects throughout the day.

It works.  Sort of.

I'm still working on a few things at once, and it's going pretty well.  See now, if a project needs something and I don't have it, I'm not waiting until I do have it to keep going at all - I simply move onto the next project and work on it a little, then once I've acquired the thing I need for the first one, go back to that and work on that some more.

So I've had some D&D homebrew on the go, with both writing and illustrating; I've had a few DIY bits at home; the toy design project I have going; I'm trying to plan out a rabbit hunting trip and plan for the next phase of creating a garden for next year.  It's a whole lot of fun.

For the next four weeks, I'm going to post up some illustrations and information on my D&D homebrew stuff, along with everything else.  I thought it'd be fun to share some stuff, and I'm going to hold myself to a weekly schedule for the next four weeks (starting small).

I'm working on a few things throughout the world I've made right now; namely giants.  As with most of the things I create, I know that there is something out there already in terms of lore and rules, but I really enjoy simply taking the title or name of that thing and starting from there; building my own creatures, factions, orders, weapons, etc.  Giants are no different.  I know that I could go to the Monster Manuals and look them up; get their stats, traits, and flavour texts - but I'd much rather start with the idea of a group of isolated giants and create their environments and habitats; their relationship with each other, and their relationship with the world.  Just build everything up from the ground.

So for the next four weeks, I'll be posting one or two at a time; their information, and some doodles I've been creating to go with them.

Henceforth, for four more weeks, Fridays will be known as Giant Fridays.

It's also becoming that wonderful time of the year when people all over the world are preparing their gardens to overwinter and so I reckon there'll be something related to that coming up.  Because wifey and I are super excited about all that, and it's started to cool down a little bit.  I could wait for a drop another ten or so, but I don't mind.

Peace.

Goats!

One of my coworkers has cows.  27 pregnant cows, 2 non-pregnant cows, 2 calves, and a bull.
We were talking tonight about the ins and outs of livestock ownership.  Which got me super excited about getting some chickens and goats!

It's something that wifey and I have talked about for a while - one of the things we wanted to be able to do in our own house was own animals like this.  So we're really excited to get going with something.

That's just an update for the farm.  We're thinking about getting a couple of goats and a few laying hens.

Other things that were wanting to accomplish this year include:

Building a compost bin.
Building a shed (or repurposing an old, fallen-in shed) for goats (before or after we get them...).
Removing the grass from a garden area to prepare it for fall planting.
Building some structure for vines to grow up either this fall or in the coming spring.
Re-deck the back porch (at least three panels).
Install the air conditioner (but that's mostly done).

I think that's it.

We (I) have some stellar 5-year goals:

Build a big shed/barn/shop/cave.
Build a hanging/processing hut.
Get chickens and build a coop (probably the other way around with that order).
Renovate the old house.
Dig a pond.
Use the (renovated) old house or a brand new pod for an AirBnB place.
Get a cow.  Or three.
Build a sweet tree house.

I'm very excited to get out and explore the property again as it cools down and as the leaves clear - we have much more access to places when the undergrowth has thinned out, and it makes cutting things back much easier, since we're not fighting the leaves every step of the way.

There are a few areas that I think we need to focus on.  Primarily because there's just so much trash strewn across the wooded parts of the property.  Whoever lived here last did not take very good care of the place.

But we're excited to bring it to life again!

Peace.

Toy Design continued.

I've made a little more progress with the sculpt.  I've added some basic shoe shapes and filled in a few holes on the legs.

My plan moving forward is to cover the rest of the torso (I filled up the back after taking these pictures) to make a more solid base to then block in the head and the arms.  I think blocking in the arms will be tricky, since they will be a little flimsy by this point, with the torso and legs being solid Milliput.

Regarding Milliput; I kept my sculpting tools covered with a little bit of Vaseline and oh, man!  It helped so much!  I got some really nice smooth lines across the surfaces that I was able to reach, and I was able to smooth out some extra filler for the holes in the legs really easily.  I love Milliput now.

The pictures:

The feet weren't covered last time, when I blocked in the legs.  This meant the armature was flopping all over the place.  The blocks for the feet remedied that and kept the thing steady from the first shoe I made.  I tried my best to keep the shoes the same size and shape...  I think I'll find out if I've done a good job with that once I remove the guy from the base.

Talking about removing this thing from the base, there will be some small pieces of wire sticking out of the bottom of the soles of the feet from where I anchored the armature, but I figure I'll sculpt some bases to the shoes once they're accessible.

The pants are super rough and messy at this point - the goal for these is to build up the creases in the pants from the ankles up, filling the holes as needed.  I'm going to move to Greenstuff for this part of the process, since I want that contrast with the Milliput to give me a better idea of where I need to add material and where I can get away with not adding so much.

I'm so excited to get anything on this looking near-finished, but I'm making sure I follow through with all of the blocking out before I move onto the refining phase(s).  The creases in the pants and the t-shirt, the laces on the shoes, the rolled-up sleeves.  All of it.  I'm very excited to get going with it.

Which is a great place to be.

In other news, I found this guy in Kid 2's room!  I love Praying Mantises; they're one of my favourite insects.  One day, I'll keep one for a month or two and me and the boys will watch it eat - thus cementing it in the top 5 favourite insects in their minds, too.

I'll have another update tomorrow with some of my board game mechanics; we playtested it again the other day and it went really well.  Kind of expedited the rules because of the circumstances we were in, but even that new idea of simplifying the winning qualifications worked!  And I hadn't created it with that in mind, so that makes me a little happier that it went so well.

For now, I'm going to doodle some and enjoy the end of a night of relative productivity.

Peace.

Toy Design.

I've been wanting to make a toy for a long time.  A vinyl-type figure, but one that can be customised.

A little like those Munny figures, I guess.  But my own design.

I figured that a little bloke would be the figure that would suit my design style best - either that or some huge monster, but I don't have enough wire or Milliput for that.

Side note, I'm not a huge fan of Milliput.  I have yet to use it with Vaseline to keep my sculpting tool from sticking to it, so it may work out better than Greenstuff.  My favourite sculpting medium on a small scale.

Now, I have a hard time working on projects that won't get finished the day I start them, so I'm really pushing myself to work on this, and to work on this in steps without rushing into the next phase and ruining the thing.  So it's a great practise of patience for me.

Here's the process that I've been working through:

First off, I made a super-rough paper model to visualise my initial idea.

Got a few angles because art and such.

Then using the paper figure as a template, I created this wire form.

The things I like about this phase:

- Once I had the basic shape, I could move it around and adjust it pretty easily.

- I could make the various parts (arms, legs, torso and head) separately and keep it from being one continuous wire frame.  This was good because if I had messed one part up (which fortunately I didn't), I could have simply started over with that one piece without compromising the whole thing.

- It's one step closer to the next phase - blocking it in with Milliput.

Now the hands are not at all formed.  Not in any way.  I've left the wrists with a little more wire to stick out so that I can sculpt some hands and add them on.  I may well do this separately from the model entirely before attaching them; sanding both sides down flat before pinning the hands into the wrists.

My plans for the hands are relatively simple - the left one will be open and the right one will be sculpted to hold something.

What thing?  I'm not sure.  I'm going to aim to sculpt it around a 1/8th" dowel rod or brass pole section.

The mods.

My aim for the figure is that it will be a standalone figure that has nothing added to it.  A standard figure; nothing more.

Once I've created the mold for the figure and sorted out the details to get the cast right, I'm going to use it as a base to form my additional items and mods on.  So far, these are my plans:

Cut off an arm and use the cut as a base to create a prosthetic/cyborg arm.
Use the back as a base and sculpt a backpack.
Use the back of the pants as a bas and sculpt a tail.
Use the back as a base and sculpt some small wings.
Use the right hand as a base and sculpt a weapon.
Use the left hand as a base and sculpt a shield.

These are my ideas so far, and I'm sure further idea will include another figure entirely at some point.

But I'm doing my best to do this step by step.

Peace.