Gaming Stuff Aplenty
Today I met with a fellow from a video game college who is looking for people to volunteer to run some roleplaying and strategy games for his students. I volunteered, not only because it will be fun, but I’ll get to introduce Spaceship Zero to some new people and also it will promote the VGG.
This evening we played Freeport D&D (as opposed to Terak D&D with Michelle & Anghold et al). Geoffrey couldn’t make it because he’s working on Smallville, but Marlo stepped in with Fyarl, her half-ogre fighter. They’re storming a temple to Tharizdun and both Fyarl and Nigel (James’ cleric) could have easily been disintegrated if they had failed their dice rolls. It was an exciting scenario filled with combat, and there was some hilarious parleying between the two members of the party who could speak giant (Marlo and Norm each play half-ogres) and an ogre cook who’s working for the cult. Jonathan kept butting in not knowing what was being said and undermining Norm’s bluff attempts, and the ogre himself tried to bluff the group. In the end they decided to leave peaceably (peacibly?), which left the ogre to sound the alarm.
One of the cool things about being an illustrator for D&D is that occasionally you get illo descriptions that simply call for some generic adventurer reacting to the subject of the drawing. In these cases, I try to slip in characters from various games I’m involved in. So, I kind of get paid to draw the characters in the campaign. Paul plays in our Wednesday girly game (he’s the only guy in the group besides myself) and his wizard is named Zo. He’s the first one to get a drawing, fighting some pesky poultergeist. The finished drawing is here http://members.shaw.ca/tatkinso0/zo.jpg
I also created a new character for the Legacy of the Green Regent campaign that I am in with James, Norm, Chris Woods, Chris Slater and Kathryn (Jon Dawes DMs). Since half the party died during the last adventure, I made up a halfling monk/sorcerer named Exeter to replace good old Metathorax. His strength is negligible, so most of his damage will come from special effects like stunning fist or karate chops enhanced with spells like “chill touch.” Should be lots of fun, even though I’ll probably only have one or two decent hits in me before I’m powered out. I am using a funky little miniature of a small guy completely covered in an executioner-type hood and robes, that Anghold painted at the last miniature painting party. I’ll try him out on Sunday and see how it goes.
Lastly, bolstered by Marlo’s suggestion, I applied to be a reviewer for an animation website. If I’m very lucky, I’ll be accepted and I’ll be getting pre-release DVDs etc of cartoons like Justice League & X-Men: Evolution etc etc. I actually do have some experience writing reviews – I did movie reviews for two separate magazines/papers in Vancouver over the past 5-6 years. So, wish me skill.