Season 17, 1979, 4 parts, Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
Stilted minotaur aliens with laser horns dupe an impotent militaristic planet (Skonnos) into letting them invade via a black hole. The Nimon emissary’s workshop is a maze that constantly reconfigures itself for a hand-wavy reason. The leader of Skonnos looks like Jonathan Price and wins the award for most outrageously hammy acting in the series… so far. Not recommended.
Next: Shada
Woohoo! I’m a special GUEST OF HONOUR at year’s KamCon! Check out the art I provided of our Dread Lord Cthulhu
It will also be available on this amazing dice tray thanks to Crits n Bones
WHAT I’M DOING AT THE CONVENTION:
Firstly I’ll have a table in the Vendor Hall, where I’ll be selling some of my original D&D art, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets CDS and paraphernalia including some Spaceship Zero comics, and prints of this handsome entity:
SCHEDULED EVENTS:
SATURDAY 11am RPG Writers panel With Seth Skorkowski, Jon Hook, Toren Atkinson, Douglas Lloyd, William McAusland, Connor Heighton and Moderated by James Droucker.
SATURDAY 6:30pm TASKMASTER!
SATURDAY 8pm I’m running SPACESHIP ZERO THE RPG in the Mountain Room, Table K
SUNDAY 11am: YouTube and Content creator panel With Seth Skorkowsky and Toren Atkinson, moderated by James Droucker
SUNDAY 5:30pm GM Styles and World Building panel With Seth Skorkowsky, Toren Atkinson, Jon Hook, Lee Ann Spiller, Nigel Beardwood, Marcus Pelletier and moderated by James Droucker
The Doctor jumps into a pit where he meets a creature! It’s a scary alien but it’s really an ambassador from another planet, we learn, once it’s translator shield is retrieved by metal brigands (brigands who steal metal not brigands made of metal). Somehow the planet’s ruler Adastra put the alien down into her defunct mine after it landed and tried to broker a trade agreement (it wants chlorophyll for its people, Adastra’s planet is a jungle). After the Doctor, K9 and Romana II rescue the alien they have to deal with a neutron star heading for the planet.
Not a great episode/series but watchable. Has a few Douglas Adams flourishes in the dialogue. Adastra obviously comes from ‘ad astra’ meaning ‘to the stars.’ K9s voice is different. The aliens tentacle is very phallic and its ship, though described as an egg also reminds one of a bellend, to use the British vernacular. The astrologer trapped in the mines was my favourite character, I might steal him for an NPC in D&D.
Next: Nightmare of Eden
March 14 2022
Jiufen is a seaside mountain area in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It’s about an hour drive or 1.5 hour bus ride from Taipei city itself.
Jiufen Old Street is a narrow, winding alleyway with shops, teahouses, and restaurants that offers tourists a view of traditional Taiwanese life. It’s filled with food, knick-knacks, mementos – many of which are Spirited Away – themed, as there’s a legend that it was the inspiration for parts of the movie (though Hayao Miyazaki has denied this).
The absolute must-do is to go into A Gan Yi Taro Ball, order your dessert, and then squeeze through to the back of the restaurant to enjoy the view. Check it out!
While you’re there check out historic Shengping Theater
Not too far away is a restored Japanese-style four joint residence
Jiufen is a former mining town and they have a glorious Gold Museum!
Recently I’ve restocked a bunch of the comic anthologies in which my work appears, and I’m making them available at very reasonable prices indeed!
EXPLODED VIEW – contains my 5 page ‘prequel’ comic that ties in with the Spaceship Zero: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.
Cover price is $11 and I’m letting them go for $5 for a limited time
ACTS OF VIOLENCE – Back in stock! Back in the day Kevin Leeson asked me to do the art for his story “Reggie-Town” which Ed Brisson published in the anthology ACTS OF VIOLENCE along with many other impressive creatives! The book contains 4 stories and ours was 37 pages – definitely the longest comic project I’ve worked on. I’m charging $10
HISTORYONICS (Cloudscape Comics) – Contains a 4 page, black and white, dialogue free “Secret Files From the World Wildlife Federation of Justice: The Ominous Origin of Rhinosferatu.” Cover price $10 my price $5 for a limited time.
MEGA FAUNA (Cloudscape) – The culmination of my anthropomorphic animal superhero characters (so far) in print. Contains the 9-page full colour “Eye Eye Eye!” written by Ian Boothby and colored by Tanya Lehoux. Cover price $25 my price $12 for a limited time!
GIANTS OF MAIN STREET (Cloudscape) – Featuring a four page story called Tales of the Underbelly written by Kolja Liquette. Cover price is $10 and my price is $5 for a limited time!
Giants of Main Street is Cloudscape’s massive tome exploring the theme of fantasy and magic within an urban environment. This graphic novel carries the reader through a multitude of impossible cities inhabited by all manner of strange creatures. From communities ravaged by sorcerous wars to thriving metropoli preserved in bottles, this anthology has it all. After all, anything imagined can be found between the cracks if you are brave enough to look.
FUNDAY SUNNIES – Cloudscape
Contains a 1 page parody of those old Hostess Fruit Pies ads. In”Mid-Afternoon of the Living Dead” Go-Rilla finds the only way to stop Elk Diablo’s evil plan is with General Woodcock’s Wholesome Flax Pies! Free with any purchase but it’s wider and longer than the other books so that may affect shipping prices if we’re doing this through the mail
Yes it’s time once again for my birthday art sale. These original pencil drawings (and a couple of inks) were produced for various D&D and other RPG books and are marked down from now until my birthday June 28.
Everything listed here is on offer for $54 USD (unless you’re in Vancouver and we can arrange in person, then $54 CAD)
CONTACT ME at :
You can see more D&D art going all the way back to AD&D/2nd edition at https://torenatkinson.com/dungeons-and-dragons-original-art/ and I’ll be giving discounts on offsale stuff too if you buy two or more pieces!
Shipping to the US is typically $20 and that includes tracking and stiffening boards for maximum protection.
From Terror in Freeport – Reikert
From If Thoughts Could Kill (Monte Cook/Malhavoc Press) – crystal consciousness amulet
From Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra (3.5 edition, Green Ronin)
Skull & Bones (Green Ronin)
From BONDS OF MAGIC (Malhavoc Press)
From THIEVES WORLD GAZETEER (Green Ronin)
Demonologist (slight blemish from ink bleed through on left edge)
BOOK OF ELDRITCH MIGHT
From MINDSCAPES: BEASTS OF THE ID (Malhavoc Press)
From CAVALIER HANDBOOK (Green Ronin)
Cults of Freeport (Green Ronin)
From Temple Quarter (Game Mechanics/Green Ronin)
From Advanced Players Manual (Green Ronin)
From Advanced Bestiary (Green Ronin 2004)
From Minions (Chaosium, Call of Cthulhu)
From Monte Cook Presents: Year’s Best d20 (Malhavoc Press)
From Shaman’s Handbook (Green Ronin)
From Wrath and Rage: A Guidebook to Orcs, published by Green Ronin
From Spaceship Zero: The Roleplaying Game (2001 Green Ronin)
From Liber Bestarius (Eden Studios 2003)
From Black Sails Over Freeport (Green Ronin)
From MONSTERS OF THE MIND (Green Ronin)
From Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin)
From Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed D&D 3rd edition pencil on paper
From Bastards & Bloodlines D&D 3rd edition (Green Ronin Publishing) pencil on paper:
From Black Company (Green Ronin Publishing):
Book of Fiends (Green Ronin Publishing)
Aasimar and Tiefling: A Guidebook to the Planetouched (Green Ronin)
Mindshadows (Green Ronin)
Noble’s Handbook (Green Ronin)
From ORK! The Roleplaying Game (Green Ronin)
From Chaositech (Malhavoc Press)
From Creature Collection (White Wolf)
From Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts (Green Ronin)
From Creatures of Freeport (Green Ronin)
From Denizens of Freeport (Green Ronin)
from Touched by the Gods (Atlas Games)
From Thieves World (Green Ronin)
From THIEVES QUARTER (Game Mechanics)
from Unholy Warrior’s Handbook (Green Ronin)
From HARP (High Adventure Roleplaying Game – Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE)
Sunday, March 13 2022.
Check out this Pokemon Train in Taipei!
Arriving in Ximending Walking District
Wanhua District and Shilin District and other fun stuff
For the first Monster Manual series, click here
Berbalang breaks a bard
Diana debates a dark stalker in a dank dungeon. The Darkling was seen in the cartoon episode “Winds of Darkness”
Evil ettercap entices an eager elf with an emerald
bonus E entry
Four flail snails frolic in a fuschia foyer
A grey-green grell grapples a gravid grimlock with a greataxe in a granite grotto
Hook Horror appeared in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon “City on the Edge of Midnight”
Jermlaine jousting for jars of jujubes
Khaki kenku with katana kicks a khargra in the keel
Lilac lachrymose lava children lamenting the loss of their luggage
Many merciless maroon meenlocks menace a manly mountain mage
Nude nilbog nerfs a noble knight and a needy gnome in a navy nave
Ochre ogrillon observes obvious osquip in the old outhouse
As seen in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon episode “The Garden of Zinn”
A reliable retriever wrecks a rector in the reredorter
Three theatrical thorks threaten a thief (Sheila from the D&D cartoons)
Underneath an undulating ultramarine umpleby unveiling it’s umbilical ulexite
Various vexing volts victimize a vizier in a vermillion void
Wild warty witherstenches worry a wayward wizard in a winter waste
Xill, as seen in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon episodes “Servant of Evil” and “P-R-E-S-T-O Spells Disaster”
Y is for Yellow Musk Creeper and Z is for Zombie, Yellow Musk. Featuring Ruddiger the elf!
Stay Tuned for the Monster Manual II, coming later in 2024. Like what I do? Send me a dollar on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/torenatkinson
Season 17, 1979, 4 parts, Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
On Earth, 400 million years ago, an alien (Jagaroth) ship explodes. In modern day (1979) Paris, the Doctor and Romana experience time echoes because a nearby a scientist is working on a time machine for Count Scarlioni. After meeting with a punch-happy Inspector Duggan who is investigating art thieves, the Time Lords meet and confront Scarlioni, who reveals he is Scaroth, the only survivor of the exploding ship, and he intends to go back in time and prevent the accident that destroyed his race.
The Doctor discovers six Mona Lisa paintings in Scarlioni’s possession, so he travels back in time to visit his old friend Leonardo Da Vinci, but instead encounters Scaroth from that time period. Scaroth has commissioned Da Vinci to create multiple paintings to finance his time travel machine. In the climax, the Time Lords face off against Scaroth 400 MYA and Duggan punches him in the face, allowing the ship to explode and start the development of life on Earth.
Not a bad episode, though this episode spends a lot of time watching the Time Lords running back and forth on the streets of Paris, impeding the drama. The scientist really overdoes whatever accent he’s trying to pull off. I recognized Scarlioni as Donovan from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, known to some as Julian Glover, and a nice surprise cameo by John Cleese, which I just spoiled
Next up: The Creature from the Pit
Prefer to watch as a 3 minute video? See below
TIP 1 – use a colored marker on your dungeon map to indicate what the player characters might smell, hear and see
TIP 2 – on the bottom of each page of your notebook, write some character names so that when your players ask what an NPC’s name is, you don’t have to come up with something on the spot. Also on the back page of your book keep a list of voices you can do. Be prepared!
TIP 3 – get some small cards and on each one write some miscellaneous personal effects that a downed enemy might have, or might be found when searching a room. Let the players pick a card randomly for added flavor and fun!
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