On my own Initiative
Posted: March 13, 2011 Filed under: Dungeons and Dragons, rules 3 CommentsI don’t currently run a game and with each passing month it seems become less and less likely that I ever will… but I find myself very interested in and drawn to some of the games I see documented around the web… like adventures taking place under the Rotted Moon… or the Adventures in the Pnakotic Ruins… or Fomalhaut… or Terry’s Dunrawl Campaign… or others. And theres lots more. So to distract myself I like to spin out a little sometimes and wonder what it might be like if I did run another game and had all my druthers.
New Web Sites
Posted: March 13, 2011 Filed under: portfolio Leave a commentI have a new site for my mosaic art (link) and I have added a few illustrations to my portfolio of illustrations (link). Both sites will need some overhauling soon, but, in the meantime, these revisions will do.
My Favorite Adventures
Posted: March 13, 2011 Filed under: adventures, creativity, Dungeons and Dragons, project 1 CommentPlanet Algol is asking for reader’s favorite adventure recommendations, but, speaking as someone who has enjoyed making up my own adventures almost as much as running them, I thought I would describe a few of the favorite adventures that I made up in broad strokes.
(at right, my illustration of one of the encounters in my megadungeon, “Mines of Khunmar”)
1) Mines of Khunmar: One of the advantages of making up your own is that you can be a lot more cavalier about the details since you will usually know what you mean and the briefest of notes will usually be sufficient. Years and years ago I created a ‘megadungeon’ in the old mode (like the dungeons of Castles Greyhawk and Blackmoor). Even after I stopped playing D&D, every once in a while I would look this thing over, sometimes adding a little more. It’s been decades since I have hosted an adventure in Khunmar (an outline version is floating round the internet). Khunmar has seven or eight main levels, many sub and side levels, etc., and consists of 30 to 40 maps, each with an average of 25 or so numbered locations. My rational was that Khunmar, like Tolkien’s Moria, was originally a dwarven mine/fortress which was subsequently abandoned and overrun by humanoids after the dwarves ‘delved too deep.’ The upper levels have areas controlled by goblins, kobolds, orcs, undead, etc., and nastier creatures lurk below.
Geoffrey (occassional reader of this blog) took scans of all of my handwritten notes and typed them up and I keep telling myself that I will use that to create a finished product; the only question is when.
2) Gastan’s Gold Mine: I created Gastan’s Gold Mine for my players back in the early 80s. The gold mine was accessible from 2 points: either down a well on an abandoned farm or through a cave occupied by a cave troll and over an underground chasm. The mine was infested by the animate bodies of dead miners, dead adventurers and dead goblins who were all infested by a black mold that animated them like zombies. If you were struck by a zombie, it was likely that you would be infested too (and eventually become a black mold zombie). Since the zombies were animated by mold, they could not be turned by a cleric (although I suppose a ‘control plants’ spell might work; the players never tried that). The zombies couldn’t cross the chasm or climb out of the well, so the mold zombies could not infest the surrounding countryside, but the body count from the mine (and the troll) was very high indeed. Large numbers of valuable gold nuggets could be looted from the mine but I think only 1/2 or less of the players made it out alive. The victims joined the other ‘mold zombies’ in the mine.
3) Marshville: I always liked the Lovecraft story, “Shadow Over Innsmouth,” and created my own ‘deep one hybrid’ community for D&D I called Marshville. The players arrived in town and found the locals ugly, stand-offish and unfriendly. The towns resident drunk drops some ominous warnings before the locals slip him a mickey to shut him up and they make contact with a local old wise woman (one of the few pure humans left in town) who warns them to ‘get out while they can.’ They eventually got into a fracas with the locals and discovered that some of the towns older residents were more and more ‘fishlike’ and the residents of some of the older residents are equipped with bath tubs that the locals use as ‘beds.’ Eventually, the deep one hybrids turn pure fishman and retreat beneath the waves (I placed a temple underwater but never got around to designing that part of it but the players never went there anyway) There are tunnels and chapels to a perverted sea god under the town that the players explored and they employed hit-and-run tactics against the locals until finally having to leave town via a teleport spell since all of the residents (full fishman and still able to pass as human) were after them.
One of the peculiarities of the adventure is that the players left town with an unusually large number of magic tridents.
4) The Haunted Monastery: In my own homebrew world, I have a religion I call “The Allfather.” The Allfather’s followers are somewhat like the medieval Catholic Church; basically lawful but inclined to an excess of zeal and dogma. When local authorities make it possible, the Allfatherians persecute or forcibly convert non believers and some races (like elves) are declared an ‘abomination’ while others (like dwarves) are tolerated as second-class citizens who can never attain ‘grace’ through the church. The Allfatherians seek to form a theocracy with their clergy as rulers. The players happened upon an apparently abandoned Allfather Monastery high in the frozen mountains while attempting to lead a group of human slaves liberated from an underground village of goblins to safety. The monastery appeared empty and the slaves were freezing because they lacked food and clothing, so they took shelter there. A single monk, apparently mad, committed suicide by jumping out a window. The players discovered that there was an ancient crypt deep beneath the deepest cellar of the monastery that the monks had discovered and the monks were all gone because they had released a plague of undead as they sought to expand their beer cellar. The most powerful ghost was one that could freeze anyone who stood in proximity to it and drive people mad with his babbling. While there, one of the players picked up a cursed mace and then secretly began murdering the rescued prisoners (the other players had no idea that this was going on and assumed that the ghosts/zombies/ghouls were doing the killing).
Receipt Checking Denial
Posted: March 13, 2011 Filed under: philosophy, politics 7 CommentsIt seems that there is a new leisure activity called ‘receipt checker denial.’ What these people do is pay for a purchase inside a store and then deny the minimum wage flunky who has to work at the door the ‘right’ to check their receipt. Proponents of this activity state that they are standing up for their rights, citing state laws in the places where they do this as stating that it is illegal for a person to be compelled to provide ‘proof of ownership’ once a purchase has been made. If you read the story above, it also sounds like it consists of giving the employee who works at the door of th rather e local Wal-Mart a hard time than just reaching into their pocket, pulling out a slip of paper and showing it to the worker.
I buy groceries at Costco. Every time I walk out of the store, someone standing at the door looks at my receipt, then looks in my cart and compares what is on the receipt to what is in the cart, then swipes the receipt with a pen and says, “Have a nice day,” or something similar. “Receipt deniers” would seemingly prefer to spend more time denying the employee a look at their receipt rather than a few seconds to just show and go. The receipt deniers cite state law and individual rights. I’ll admit I don’t enjoy having my receipt checked, but I don’t hate it either… but trying to school the Wal-Mart employee on a certain interpretation of a state law regarding whether or not you will just show them a bit of paper that says, “paid” on it seems unproductive. I suspect (correct me if I am wrong here) that some “receipt check deniers” are taking their frustrations out on the low wage employees.
If there is a law on the books in most states that states that you cannot be ‘compelled’ to prove ownership after purchase, the creators of that law probably had a very different scenario in mind when they created it. If I were to be asked to ‘prove ownership’ of my pants before I left a store, or ‘prove ownership’ of my car as I tried to drive it or ‘prove ownership’ of my home while I am in it, such demands would (naturally) become quite onerous and could even result in unprincipled individuals and organizations enriching themselves by challenging other people’s ownership of common items at every turn. If a non-employee is pushing a cart or carrying an item out of a store, I guess I can understand why the store owner would make sure they paid before leaving. I don’t steal things from stores, but I don’t think having someone ask me for a receipt as I leave means that I am being ‘treated like a criminal,’ especially if no one leaving the store is being singled out. If the ‘checker’ were to be profiling whom to ask for receipts on the basis of race or dress, for example, I would feel differently (I would also think such a method would be ineffective since shoplifters would then attempt to simply fit the profile of someone who doesn’t get asked).
(edited for snark)
Revisiting Iconic Monsters: Kobolds
Posted: March 12, 2011 Filed under: monsters 1 CommentIn his recent post, “Creating Another Bandwagon,” James of Grognardia has challenged us to compare our earlier impressions of classic D&D monsters before we saw the complete illustrations or descriptions with the ‘official’ images or descriptions we may have seen later. James talked about how his conception of what an ‘orc’ looked like was very different from what he eventually saw in the AD&D Monster Manual. I wanted to jump on that bandwagon by advancing the claim that I had a similar experience with kobolds.
"We guard you while you sleep…"
Posted: March 11, 2011 Filed under: politics 4 CommentsAfter hearing how Governor Walker fucked the workers of Wisconsin with the stroke of a pen (much publicized event) or Governor Snyder fucked the working citizens of Michigan with another stroke of the pen (hardly publicized at all, because, well, Charlie Sheen got fired around the same time)… and this after decades in which those with less have had to settle for even less as Wall Street and the Banks realized unbelievable profits, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue with no end in sight or plan in place, the war on drugs continues to occupy our law enforcement in an endless catch 22 in which we create a class of criminal by giving no opportunities for some people to work other than selling drugs and then imprison said people when they take the only realistic opportunity open to them, etc., etc., etc., and I wonder why the 90% of the people who get fucked and fucked and fucked again are not angry (well, the tea party puppets are angry… but they are angry at their fellow fucked ones rather than the people who have been doing the fucking, so, like a dog chasing his own tail, they are either sad or funny depending on how you look at it… ).
I think some anger from down below and fear up above would put this country back on the right track. From Fightclub: We cook your meals. We haul your trash. We connect your calls. We drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us.
Instead of Elvish Chicks…
Posted: March 10, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 4 CommentsLanguage NSFW warning.
Why not Snoop Pearson?
Finding Time to do Everything?
Posted: March 9, 2011 Filed under: art 2 CommentsThe section pictured above is 2 foot square and the final floor will have 4 bees and a honeycomb pattern as well as different colors for the background. The individual tiles are fairly small (3/8 inch square) but when the floor is finished it is surprisingly durable (there are glass mosaic floors made over 2000 years ago that are still able to be walked on!).
In addition, there are some OSR things ‘in the works’ including a book project with around 25-30 color illustrations and some other things — these are just pencilled in (and money has not yet changed hands) so I can’t definitively say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ about when and how and why, but they are strong ‘maybes’ so they have to occupy space on the calendar (however tentative).
Tommorow I have an appointment with a local gallery whom I hope will agree to carry some of my stuff. My hope is to have as many gallerys/stores as needed carrying items (which will include various sized and different materials wall pieces, maybe some 3-d mask-like sculptures, garden and functional items like bird baths, fountains, etc., and smaller and less expensive items like decorative boxes, picture frames, etc). Hopefully I can eventually use this to generate an income in case I never work again (yes, I am still job hunting). This in addition to my usual OSR illustration work, ongoing discussion with an author about illustrating a young adult book, etc., etc.
Unfortunately, the upshot is that some projects (like Mines of Khunmar or the Shaver Comic) which don’t seem to generate income or have a specific due date, get pushed further and further back. if the cash flow situation improves, perhaps I can shave some time off the schedule to work on these things and my 800 other projects.
Also in the works: I’m considering selling my several thousand lead minis collection, most from the 1970s and 1980s and anout 3/4s hand painted. It pains me to do it, but I haven’t touched them in over a year and don’t know when or if I will ever get around to playing with them again. I’m considering dumping all the lead (hopefully getting someone to pay me for the whole thing) and then just using plastic… but getting rid of the lead also feels like cutting off my own arm, so I am naturally reluctant.
99 Followers! Plus: Does Jan Brewer hate Superman?
Posted: March 7, 2011 Filed under: politics, wierd stuff 2 Comments
I now have 99 followers! Yahoo! 100 here I come!
In other news, this morning I wondered if the mean-queen of Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer, hates Superman. Brewer seems to blame absolutely everything that goes wrong on the Mexicans who sneak across the border to pick vegetables, wash dishes and cut grass, and has compared illegal immigration to a ‘terrorist attack.’ Superman came here illegally from Krypton, and, as far as I know, the Kents never filed a request for asylum — so throw all three of ’em in a Kryptonite jail cell!
On a related note, last year a total of eight Americans were killed in terrorist attacks, whereas 29 were killed by lightning strikes. What is Jan Brewer doing to protect the citizens of Arizona from lightning?