Christmas D&D Gaming

Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season! Just for fun, I want to share the audio recording (broken into three parts) of the holiday-themed Dungeons & Dragons we played recently. It's one of our new Christmas traditions where we come up with crazy 4th level characters in a single-session adventure set up by our DM (or "Dungeon Master", a.k.a. "Game Master"). This is only the second time we've played 5th edition and so far, I think it's a lot of fun and allows for a lot more improv freedom than previous D&D editions. In our "one-off" games, we play our way through a seasonal story filled with goofy puns and familiar pop culture characters in a single-session. We don't get too bogged down in the rules so it's accessible to those who haven't played the game before, and 4th level characters are interesting, but not too complicated for less-experienced players. In fact, "Ugg" is played by our friend who has never before played a tabletop role-playing game like D&D-- so happy that he had such a good time! We've hosted similar games this past Halloween and Easter, and I can't wait to help plan the next one! In the recordings, you'll get to meet each of our player-characters the three of us created (in addition to the many other personalities brought to life by our DM):

Ugg (It's short for "Ugg") - Human Barbarian
Throzen Stoneheart (a.k.a. "Stockwood") - Dwarf, er, um, Fairy-something? 
Catnip "Kitty" Silverbells - Gnome Bard

Dungeons & Dragons is the game that introduced me into the world of miniature painting and I have a special place in my heart for it. It's something I want to play with my friends, my family, and one day when I have offspring of my own, I want to share it with them. It's imaginative, it's spontaneous, and if I ever meet someone who says, "Oh I played D&D, it wasn't any fun", I'll smile & tell them "Well, then you're doing it wrong" invite them to one of our seasonal one-off games. Hope you enjoy sharing in our fun! 

Holiday Traditions

Last year, we decided 2015 would be our very first stress-free Christmas. At first, we wanted to escape to Belize, but since that didn't work out for financial and work-schedule reasons, we're choosing to stay home this holiday. I have the day after Christmas off and the guy & I are being hermits and playing video games and painting the following weekend-- glorious! I'll choose my space-themed Reaper Con 2015 miniature entry and see if I can find those Christmas Mouselings I bought last year. Knowing it will be my first year to not spend Christmas with the immediate family, I felt acutely homesick over the past few weeks. Recently, I was lucky enough to swing by & see my folks for a short while and indulge in the foodie goodness that would bring. 

Ahi Tuna Tower

"Breakfast Shot" after dinner - it tastes JUST like syrupy waffles! 

If Christmas trees took selfies

It was nice being able to visit & catch-up. We hung out by the fire, talking and listening to music. I stayed up late to read my Kindle next to their epic 14 foot tree (my mom's motto is "go big or go home"). The fun didn't last long enough though--  early the next morning, I had to hit the road!  

Hitting the open road. 

Later that night, I started thinking: I love the holiday traditions from the "easy" Christmases I enjoyed growing up. All I had to do was sit in a car, play video games, listen to music CDs until we arrived at loving homes where we'd be fed and fawned over for days until it was time to go home. I bet we all have cherished memories of simpler times (thanks to our childhood innocence) and it got me thinking: it's time to make our own holiday traditions, like the 2nd annual Christmas-themed DnD adventure we hosted last Sunday:

I haven't been able to upload & combine those DnD audio files yet, but I'll have time to do it this weekend. Hmm, what other traditions can I contribute to? Maybe I'll make Star Wars gingerbread cookies and seasonal cocktails with d20 ice molds. The hunt is on for the next best holiday tradition! 

Tentacles

I've been attempting to paint shiny tentacles without resorting to glossy varnish. While a layer of gloss varnish is a great all-around solution for rendering a shiny surface, I wanted to challenge myself in my painting skills. In any case, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning of my personal lack-of-decision-making:

Thank goodness for social media. I needed a second opinion. After that, I took Denniz's suggestion and started on the base of my most recent Speed Paint Challenge #4. I've wanted to finish this miniature I mounted on this base from Micro Art Studio. I really like this base. I'm attempting to paint glowing rune-like shapes & glossy tentacles emanating from her feet, as if she's summoning magical energy to defeat potential foes. 

I'll need to consult my Color & Light book for a few tips. The biggest obstacle I have is the two-dimension vs three-dimensional issue. While it would already be a personal challenge to paint the dark, shiny tentacles in a two-dimensional format, I need to paint it where it looks interesting and accurate from most angles. My approach was to wet my brush and give a light wash over the tentacles. This way, I could mimic the natural highlights that the light source would identify. It's not unlike a "Paint By Number", reminiscent of those old children's puzzles I enjoyed as a child. In any case, I decided to once again use social media to reach out for some additional advice. 

In the meantime, I'm opening a box of prize loot won from a Reaper forum contest where I won second place in the Single Figure category. Jasper was nice enough to sort & ship miniatures he'd been storing, after his friend closed a miniature shop. The best part? He gave us the opportunity to pick from the mostly out-of-production miniature hoard & he then arranged to have them sent all the way from Canada. So generous!

I'm truly looking forward to giving these miniatures a new home where they'll be lovingly painted in addition to having a "Cool, where'd you get this one?" story. These minis are classics and easily date back to the early 90's. While it's exciting to paint recently-released miniatures that are newly popular in the industry, there's something rewarding about the knowledge that you're probably the only person on the planet painting this specific miniature at this one point in time. 

In the meantime, if you haven't watched the new Star Wars trailer, you should. After chuckling at the light saber that sprouted hilt-like additions (What?! That's not a thing!) and the fudgesicle land speeder, I admit this has more potential than I initially thought. Some of my best childhood memories revolve around the original trilogy, so I'm keeping an open mind, despite being an enthusiastic, reasonably discerning critic when it comes to Star Wars. Many of us have been traveling over this Thanksgiving weekend, so if you haven't yet seen the Star Wars trailer, enjoy!