Sort of short-term goal.

There's something that I've been working on recently (surprise, surprise) regarding D&D.

It's a project that started as a side thing to do while giving me a break on commissioned stuff, and it's kind of come into its own over the last week or so - to the point where I think I might be able to keep it going and maybe make something Etsy-worthy.

Goodness knows I need some success on Etsy; I've sold a grand total of one keyring in the last few months.  I don't really mind - it's a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing at this point.  A $4-$10 every 6 months set-it-and-forget-it, mind you, but something that I can just have in the background from day-to-day.

I've also got a few doll commissions in the pipeline that I'm really excited about.

So I have this D&D thing nearly to the point of being done.  So what do I do?  Stop doing it so I can write about it, of course.

I've sent myself the pictures of it all, but they're taking a while to come through; in the meantime, here's a little breakdown of January and February this year:

I went ahead and dismantled the trampoline, brought it inside and ... re-mantled it for the boys to have something to burn off energy while it was cold.  It's a hit.  They spend about an hour and a half every day bouncing all over it.

It was pretty cold there for a solid week.  8 inches of snow over the course of about three hours one morning gives you a good idea of how quick the weather around here changes.  We loved it.  I got a few nice shots of the field and the trees before we all came outside and then the boys and I built a snowman, and poured some honey onto the fresh snow and made honey snow treats...  That's the best name I could come up with.  Wifey sat inside after getting the boys bundled and had a nice time watching.  She doesn't much like the cold.

More time spent indoors was used to focus on art and creativity, which is always a hoot.  The boys have very different styles; #1 is very much tidy and straight-forward, whereas #2 paints himself most of the time.  Here's a Bulbasaur from #1.  They're getting pretty into Pokemon right now.  Which Dad here absolutely loves!

Wifey continues to be pregnant.

I got some more (dirty) halves from one of the banks I frequent.  They hold onto a lot  of their halves for me, since they don't come through near as much as I ask about them!  Small town branches are the best.  These fellas are from between '65 and '69, so they have a 40% silver content.  Probably around the $3.50 mark for silver content - 50 cents apiece from the bank, of course...

I made the inaugural sale on my Etsy account.  The Scarab keyring.  One of my personal favourites.

I cleared some space between a couple of the buildings on the property.  Not a lot of space, but it felt so good to get something done!

We found a dog.  Or he found us.  We only held onto him for a week since we're just not equipped for a dog right now.  It was a fair cost to take him for that long.  He was a good boy.  I called him Daxos, but I doubt that's his name.  No-one claimed him, so we took him to the local shelter.  They're confident they can find him a home since he's so chill.  Obviously been around people a lot; we just couldn't keep him.

Related to the project I'm working on, since this was the first sheet I did.  I looked at the sizes for D&D, Pathfinder, etc.  Tabletop RPGs.  A medium creature takes about 5' (in game) square space, with a 5' reach.  That translates to about a square inch/inch, respectively at the tabletop scale, so I wanted to use those sizes and that scale and make some paper/card cutout characters for a cheaper tabletop experience...

The first batch was pretty good.  I was very happy with the result and had a great time doing it all.  Through this first process, I went from my usual biro and paper approach to penciling out a rough shape and then taking to it with a Micron.  The smallest point I could find; the 005.  I do believe there's a 003 out there, but I haven't been able to track that down yet.

Then I moved onto watercolour to get it all finished off.  It was refreshing to work in such small scale!  I did another two pages after this - a total of 120 characters.  It was a blast, and it led to the next part of the project, which it looks like I'll have to go into in another post, since this is pretty long already.  I'll do that soon.

Last but not least, I got my first herp of the year in February!  Of course, it was a Rough Earthsnake - what else would I find?!  Chill fella in the flowerbeds at church.  Boy #1 is getting bolder and bolder with handling things like this, too.  That makes me happy.

Signing off now.  Got a few more things to talk about coming up, and I'm super excited to be working on some illustration work that I can't share right now.

Now that I've shouted into the void a little here, I can move on and get some more drawing done.

Peace.

2018/2019. A review and some goals and stuff.

2018 was a pretty good year.

I mean...  I didn't actually achieve a whole lot of things from my list of goals for the year, but it was, overall, a very productive year.

Some of the things that I was hoping to do were smaller, outdoor-related things, like catch two fish species that were new to me, to find a frog species that was new to me, and other such outdoorsy things that don't necessarily rank as high priority in the ol' hindsight scale of things, you know?

So I have a few highlights here that I am pretty happy about.  Some of them are to do with collections, milestones, family time highlights, etc.  So in no particular order; here's a very brief overview of 2018:



We started the year in England, which in itself is a blessing to be able to say.  We'd just spent a lovely Christmas and New Years with my folks back in the UK, and met up with old friends and their new kiddos.  It was a blast.  We were able to see the new building for our old church, and visit old haunts with our boys.  It was a lot of fun.

This year was a great year for my coin collection.  Some huge moments added a solid number of pennies to the mass; notably, a 23-coin haul of 1964 half dollars, a two-week span that saw 30 Eisenhower dollars brought in, and several nice little finds in coins rolls - a NIFC 2000 nickel, and a couple of teen 1900's pennies.  I also started down the slippery slope of buying specific coins...
I purchased a couple of Indian Head Pennies, a V-nickel, and a Mercury Dime, along with a bag of 1950's pennies and a pound of Canadian pennies.  I also won a Morgan dollar and a Standing Liberty quarter, among other coins.  It really was a good year for this particular hobby!

I set up an account on Shutterstock this year, too!  I've only got a handful of pictures on there, and from all of the ones I have, this one has done the best.  As in it's the only one that's been downloaded!  My aim is to get some more up there this year and have a bigger selection on my account, but there's something nice about having something going on in the background that can (very slowly) accrue some income.



I caught one new fish to me this year; the Creek Chub.  I was very happy with that, since I had to battle my way through spikes and thorns, through the summer heat in Tennessee, unwillingly donating half of my blood to the local mosquito population in order to get to the little pool in the woodland creek and land the thing.
I also went hunting a lot more; crossbow and rifle, when the seasons allowed.  Didn't see anything, but it was nice to get out more than ever before.  A wave that I want to ride for as much as possible for the next short while, as I only have two months left until the end of the season.  My goal, as has been since we moved over here, is to harvest as much meat as possible for the family from the fields and streams of this countryside.  Good, clean, happy meat.

I was happy with my personal growth and life lesson/life skill additions this year.  From the top; a friend and I went up into our attic space to disconnect the furnace and a/c ducts through the end of summer, since the units had died (of old age) early in 2018.  This was pretty interesting - nothing I hadn't really done before, but this time, the house was mine and I knew the end goal pretty solidly.

Next, I changed out parts on my car's engine!  I would never have thought that I would have done something like this, so to have taken some parts off, replaced and reassembled them - and then to have the car start up first time - was amazing!  I replaced the thermostat and the water pump on my Blazer.  Not at all a thoroughly complicated job, but as someone who went from not having a car until they were 27 to having to learn how to keep one on the road, this is a huge step in skill level and confidence for me.
Of course, as I type this, it's at the mechanics, because I haven't got the time to replace the head gasket, which I'm pretty sure is done for.  So there's that.

Bottom left, we have my legs sticking out of the bottom of our deck.  This was fun.  I just ripped up an old, rotting panel, put some more support beams underneath, and replaced the panel with a new one.  Again, not a huge task for most, but one of the first homeowner repairs that I've made.  And I'm very happy with it.

And then bottom right is (half of) the closet space I made for the new furnace and a/c unit.  We had a bloke install them for us, but the housing and such I did as much of as I could to help out keep costs down, and also to make their job easier.  Now we have a warm house!  It's lovely.

We got a cat!  This beautiful little stray was found in the abandoned house towards the back of our property.  Covered in ticks and fleas, we cleaned her up, got her fed, and she's been happily clawing my arms ever since.  My vote for a name was Roosevelt if it was a boy.  My wifey insisted on Queen Victoria if it was a girl.  So Queen Victoria it is...  She's pretty chill.

Family time was a premium this year.  We saw some fantastic development in the boys, as well as some lovely time spent as just me and the wifey.  As much time as can be found alone with two young boys, mind, but we relish every minute we can have to chill out together.
The year was full of fishing, flipping rocks, building LEGO, and lots of drawing, building forts, playing tag and hide and seek.  And we got a trampoline at some point through the year, too, which is an amazing energy burn for the lads.

I also did a few things that I was pretty happy about; I made a small animation to go with a Kickstarter campaign that I'm planning on releasing a little later this year; I made a chicken wing rub that is probably my favourite dish of 2018; I released a 4-part series that I completed on this blog; and I made a few commission dolls that will hopefully get a little word-of-mouth going.  They were shared through social media a little, and people I didn't know that knew about them were asking about them.  As much as I think I can do all of this social media, I find it a challenge to capitalise on things like this.  But maybe this year will be a breakthrough year for that.  I have an Etsy account going, and the Shutterstock that I mentioned earlier.  I'm trying to push myself and get my work out there as much as an Englishman can...

Little Man started Pre-K this year, too.  And he's loving it!  He's flourished in this new setting, and is learning a whole lot of new skills and abilities.  Some better than others, but hey.  He's 4, and they'll iron out.  He's having a blast, and making smiley faces on his report card most days!

Oh...  And we're adding to the clan!  Boy number 3 on the way in 2019!  Absolutely cannot wait to meet the fella, and Gideon will most likely enjoy being a big brother (he doesn't quite grasp the concept yet).  Micaiah was super hopeful for a sister, but I know he's going to adore another sibling to roughhouse with.  It's going to get noisy, muddy, scrappy and all around mental up in the Fairweather household this year.  My goodness.

So that's been about the year we've had.  A lot of things that came around unexpected (my car repairing adventures were on one of all three that broke down), but we're doing well and can't wait to see what 2019 holds in store.

More repairs to something, I'd imagine...

Happy New Year!

Peace.

Giant Friday - 4/4!

I did it!  I promised a post every Friday for the next four weeks and here it is - post four of four!

It's been a lot of fun to expand on the ideas that I had, regarding the creation of my own little world for D&D.  I wanted to build it from the roots, so it's been great to begin from the birth of the world, and throw down some ideas of how it would progress and develop.

So here we go!  Part four of four!  Here are the two bad guys of the Giant Realm.  They worked alongside the other nine in the beginning, all with the same goal of creating a world of balance.  Towards the end of the Age of Creation, these two giants became bent on not just maintaining the world, but taking more of it for themselves than they should.  They created monsters and brought up creatures from the depths that we not made to see the light of day.  They tried to carve out a bigger territory than any other Giant, but were quickly quashed by the other nine.  They have fought ever since - mostly the nine keeping an eye (and frequently a strong hand) on the activities of them; making sure they are kept in control.  Kept balanced.

Let's go!

The Fire Giant, Drathkus.

Habitat:
Volcano ranges and deep cracks in the world's crust.

Weapon:
Fire Gauntlets (double the regular damage from gauntlets, plus fire damage); fire breath (AoE cone); Summon (fire) elemental (once per encounter).

Familiar:
The Giant Ember Lizard, Akthor.  Unable to breathe fire like dragons, this lizard radiates heat constantly, and can fan that into a full flame when necessary.  It usually settles down into a single blade of fire spanning most of the length of its body, down the spine.

Appearance:
Black skin, darkened by the ages of his proximity to fire and flame; he has glowing dark eyes and dull red tattoos across his back and down his arms - glowing red as he summons spells.  Short hair and beard.  Dressed in dark red dragon hide.

Temperament:
Angry.  Doesn't talk much, other than to tell any intruders to get out of his territory.

Alliances:
The Giant of the Depths, Fextheus,

Enemies:
All other Giants.

The Giant of the Depths, Fextheus.

Habitat:
Underground, deep in the caverns and creases of the world.

Weapon:
The Morningstar, Drokbrog (twice the normal damage of a Morningstar); Magma spray (AoE cone); Smoke Shroud (akin to the Cloud Shroud of Arekaros); summon (rock and lava) elemental (once per encounter).

Familiar:
The Obsidian Dragon, Kavras the Chosen.  With incredible intelligence and a viciousness to match, Kavras loyally follows Fextheus to the ends of the world.  While angry, Kavras knows he is under the command of Fextheus, having fought at length when they first met, only to be defeated after weeks of one-on-one battle.  At the conclusion of the encounter, Fextheus realised he would never find a creature more worthy of his own longevity and bestowed that gift upon Kavras; that they could learn from each other and grow together as a formidable team.

Appearance:
Fextheus' skin has grown dark with the exposure to the dirt under the world, and hardened after countless ages of forcing his way through the cracks in the world's crust, as he moves the inner part of the world around to keep it in motion and to keep the seasons changing.  He doesn't feel any effect of Kavras' rough, cutting scales, since he has dug deep through ancient obsidian and carved his way through the bedrock and foundations of the world since the dawn of time.
His hair is shaved off and his beard is trimmed to a point on the chin; his eyes glow red, and orange glistens up and down the tattoos on his arms as a mirror would reflect lapping flames.
Only the toughest dragon hides make his clothes; nothing else can withstand the heat, let alone the rocky, jagged environments they are introduced to.

Temperament:
Full of rage that is only quenched by hard labour or destructive battle; Fextheus cannot stay still.  A tormented soul, he tirelessly works through endless nights to maintain the movement within the depths of the world.  Although he can stop for a time, months without this labour can pass as hours for the ageless Giant.
Bonded to the core of the world, Fextheus is doomed to stay in motion for the entire duration of his - and the worlds - existence.

Alliances:
A darker spirit then the other ten Giants, Fextheus will entertain the company of The Fire Giant, Drathkus.  Although they go to the meeting of the Giants every century, this is all he can stand of the other Giants, since all they do is try to control what he does.

Enemies:
He does not care to spend any more time than necessary with anyone but Kavras, unless it's surrounded by countless others in the heat of battle... And he doesn't much care for who's side he's on.


HUZZAH!  It is done.  Four of four!

I've had a really great time doing all of this.  Granted, the drawings got quicker and looser as the project went on, but the writing developed a little more (Fextheus was the last one I wrote up, compared to either of the two giants I wrote about four weeks ago!) in its place.  Which I don't mind all that much, since I enjoy that, too.

Anyway.  I'm off.  I've got some more writing to do...

Peace.

Giant Friday - 3/4.

Four down, seven to go, four spaces left.  Let's fight.

I've been padding out the lore of the giants in the world; giving them the purpose of world builders and describing what they did at the beginning of time.  It's been really fun.  I'm going to write some more about it and develop it all further; and make up at least one story arch for each one regarding campaigns in my world.

Some of the campaigns will center around tracking down the giants for information, some will be created and requested by the giants themselves; once the characters reach a decent level.  These are immortal monsters, after all.  Not just anyone can do what they ask.

Without further ado, two more giants!

The Forest Giant, Glemziar.

Habitat:
Deep woodlands.  Lives in lean-to's made from large trees strung together with thick vines across a small stretch of forest canopy.

Weapon:
Gauntlets, "The Twins of the Forest" and two "daggers" (deal the same damage as short swords (1D6 piercing)); Leaf Shroud (creates a flurry of leaves that obscure him - much like the Shroud Cloud that Arekaros can create); summon (plant) elemental (once per encounter).

Familiar:
The Dire Bear, Dathkor.  Mirroring Glemziar's close-combat style and heavy-handed approach to problems, Drathkor is all business.  Heavy-set and scarred from a life full of running through the heavy forest and fighting some of the biggest enemies the world has seen, Glemziar and Dathkor make one of the most formidable close-quarters fighting units in the Giant kingdom.

Appearance:
Olive skin and dark brown hair and beard and dark green eyes; three braids of hair at the side of his head (two on one side and one on the other); adorned with giant beads and bones.  Beard is braided at the chin and similarly decorated.  Green tattoos across his chest and shoulders glow when he's in combat.

Temperament:
Although extremely formidable as an enemy, he is very friendly.  He loves to hunt and is extremely agile.  If a task requires him to be active, he'll favour that over some more important, less laborious tasks.

Alliances:
Very strong bond with Ents and other Treefolk; solid rapport with large beasts of the forests; he can influence several large animal species to the point of outright control and numerous small species to deliver messages, block paths, or attack if necessary.
He aligns himself with the works of The Cave Giant, Huth'kah, The Stone Giant, Takver, The Earth Giant, Zaxlor, The Hill Giant, Mak'hep.  He also shares company with The Ice Giant, U'thuzza, and The Wind Giant, Arekaros.

Enemies:
Very protective of what he has created, he doesn't abide the presence of anything that would harm his home.  Whether that would be flooding or burning.  The Lake Giant, Laznir, the Sea Giant, Vosor, The Fire Giant, Drathkus, and The Giant of the Depths, Fextheus are not welcome to the heart of the forest.

The Lake Giant, Laznir.

Habitat:
Lakeside; usually building structures that extend out a short distance into the lakes, and frequently semi-submerged.

Weapon:
The Trident, Crodius (deals twice the damage of a normal trident, and a large net.

Familiar:
The Dire Toad, Nexmir.  Although Laznir is usually found by the side of a lake, there are times when he goes out in search of new dwelling places.  Because of this, his familiar cannot be completely attached to an aquatic environment, but can still thrive in one.  Adorned with spines, Nexmir has natural armour, and attacking him with a melee attack requires a DEX check so as to avoid the spines.

Appearance:
With dreaded hair and a shorter beard, Laznir avoids metal and fur when he can, since they rust and get soggy, respectfully.  He dresses in dragon hide, since it provides the heat retention and waterproof qualities that Laznir requires for living on and in lakes.

Temperament:
Very dependent on the season; through the wet season, he is content and welcoming, but through the drier seasons, if he is unable to move across the world to an area with heavier rains, he gets very protective of his territory.

Alliances:
The Sea Giant, Vosor, as well as The Hill Giant, Mak'hep, The Earth Giant, Zaxlor, and The Forest Giant, Glemziar.  They share trade with one another and usually hold similar ideals; they are more closely involved with the creatures of the world than the other Giants, since they inhabit areas much richer in wildlife than others.

Enemies:
Does not get along with The Lava Giant, Drathkus, and doesn't usually cross paths with The Cave Giant, Huth'kah, The Wind Giant, Arekaros, The Ice Giant, U'thuzza, The Stone Giant, Takver, or The Giant of the Depths, Fextheus.


That's it for this Giant Friday!  Thanks for stopping by.

Next week is the last planned post for Giant Friday, and I'll be writing up the details of the "bad guy" Giants - Drathkus and Fextheus.  Not originally bad, but I'm still deciding on how they became that way.

I've also got the second part of Magic Monday in process.  It's probably going to hit either the second Monday of the month or the first of next and I'll just make the whole series a 1/2-part-at-a-time kind of thing.  I think it'll be better that way, to be honest - that way I'm not spamming the blog with huge long posts full of cards...  I'll be spamming this blog with shorter posts full of cards...

Peace.

Magic Monday! Episode 1, part 1.

I've been playing Magic: The Gathering for about four and a half years.  I was introduced to the game as a concept (and the players as a stereotype) back in university, where (as you can see through my old post history) I studied for my Masters in Games Design.

Now as a concept seems straightforward - I heard about the game, knew it was a game, etc.  Nothing more, for me, was attached to that idea.  It's a nerdy game for nerds.

As a stereotype player, that image was not one of the unwashed masses, but of those who could more readily suspend their disbelief - a key part of getting passionate about games like this.

Now as time has gone on, I am far more at home with being a nerd.  I'm fine with talking about stats and characters and all of that (still way out of touch with MtG lore).  The reason is fairly easy.  Friends of mine who are not nerds - indeed; friends who are closer to jocks, for a more American comparison - can talk at length about the reason they pick a particular player for their NFL fantasy league draft.  And no-one really says much about it.  But let me tell you why a particular Hydra works well in a Green/Red deck - or why Neheb, the Eternal would make a sound Commander deck choice - then there's an ineffable stigma attached that leaves somewhat of a sour taste in the mouth.  As if I could be doing something better with my time.

Anyway.  I'm a nerd and that's ok.

What I want to do with this series is just introduce and catalogue my decks here, one a month, and talk about why I have the cards I do.  I have passed through the new player phase of wanting to put everything in every deck, and I've whittled my decks down to as close to 60 cards in every deck.

Some decks are exempt from this limitation, but it's not because I want as much a possible in them, but I have crafted them for fun and function; not just strictly performance.

For the sake of space, I'm going to work through the deck grouping the cost of cards together, and for the sake of time, both reading through this and typing it all up, I'm going to have this split into two parts.  At least for this episode.  This post is going to be looking at the Artifacts, Instants, Sorceries, and Enchantments in the deck.  The next post will consist of the Minotaurs themselves and I'll go through them in the same way I've gone through these ones.

So here we go:

This deck is Red/Black; so I run with 14 red and 13 black lands.

For two-cost artifacts, I run one Throne of the God-Pharaoh and two Prowler's Helms.  If I'm attacking as much as I can, I want to see some benefits - taking life from the opponent and/or their creatures with these cards is nice.

Three-cost artifacts next - one of each.  My two-costs give me some pros to attacking, and my three-cost give me some boosts for playing red and black spells period.  Take life from them, give life to me, etc.

Non-creature, non-artifacts.  One-cost.  I run with two Viper's Kiss, Two Muggings, and one of each of Riot Spikes and Furious Resistance.  Easy boosts to plays that I can pop on with no real worry of not having the mana to spend on them.

My only two-cost; Lightning Strike.  And I go with two of these.  Cheap damage to the opposition.

My three-cost; boosting already-enchanted creatures - particularly good if there's a general "Enchant Creatures" card in play, since the means all of the creatures down will benefit from this one card.

Four-cost, and one that I am still wrestling with when it comes to actually keeping in the deck.  I have a few copies of the cards I really don't want to lose, so this card is only focused on one or two cards that I'd want back.  So It would sit in my hand for a long time before I'd really need to use it.  Which isn't all too good in the long run.  One in the deck.

Five-costs:  Shadow Slice (one in the deck).  Very nice if I can cipher it and make use of it more than once, but a relatively late-game card in this deck.  And Flurry of Horns (two in the deck) - not the worst cost for a quick two creature tokens with haste.  More Minotaurs is always good.

And the six-cost.  By the time I play these, either the opponent has a big enough creature that warrants me destroying, or I have lost a big enough guy to merit bringing back and also dealing damage to the other player.

So there are the non-creature spells I have loaded up and ready to go in the deck.  It's highly likely that I'll see something as I record these cards and find that I want to take them out, but for now, I'm super happy with the way this deck plays, casually.  It's a lot of fun to see what I can make work.

Part two will be up soon.  I'll be piecing it together through the next week and I'll probably get it posted on the second Monday of the month.

Ask someone about this game.  It's a lot of fun.

Peace.