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Blog Lifestyle

NaNoWriMo 2012

This month I am participating in National Novel Writers Month, aka NaNoWriMo. This is an international challenge to all writers to write 50,000 words during the month of November. It is like a marathon for writers. It’s also a big kick up the butt for people like me who say ‘I’d like to write a Novel someday’ to stop putting that day of and actually do it!

This is my first attempt; I am a NaNoWriMo virgin. So I’m looking for writing buddies to encourage me and help me through this. My NaNoWriMo username is amuletts (as it is pretty much everywhere), so if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo too add me. I will be working on a piece of fantasy fiction called ‘Desert Story.’ It’s about eeevil characters!

Synopsis

Wilf and Gladys are assassins, exiled to the desert after a political upheaval. Survival is treacherous, precarious. When they find a genie bottle they believe their luck has changed, but what they release is an evil Ifriti, angry from its long imprisonment and intent on destroying all life. They also release a human, Tam Y’lset, who originally helped capture the Ifriti but in doing so became trapped with it. Having spent a thousand years sharing it’s prison he is insane and obsessed with revenge. Now these three anti-heroes must work together to undo what they have done, put the genie back in the bottle, and save the world.

Excerpt

“You know I always admired your professional detachment,” Gladys chided cruelly. She could only be patient and kind for so long. It wasn’t really in her nature.
Wilf rounded on her. “Gods woman! You think I can just kill you like anybody else, as if you were just another contract?”
“I think you’re capable of anything,” she said.
Wilf angrily turned away from her. She had rendered him speechless.
“It’s a complement!” she insisted, “You’re a cold-blooded killer. Fortunately that’s just what I need right now.”

___

Anyway, wish me luck! Hopefully I will succeed in writing 50,000 words and therefore be a NaNoWriMo Winner instead of an epic failure!

Categories
Blog

Sunday Sketch #21: Tasslehoff’s Maps

Maps I drew whilst role-playing Tasslehoff Burrfoot in Dragonlance. As you will see these are from Xaksaroth and Pax Tharkas.

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Blog

10 Amazing Origami Dragons

10 amazing origami dragons for you to enjoy! This is just a list, not a ‘top ten,’ because I just don’t think it would be fair to rank them – they are all amazing! Which are your favourites?

The names I have used are those given them by the artists.

1. Grand Dragon


This amazing origami dragon is by Joseph Wu whose work I have featured before. It is called the Grand Dragon and is made out of six pieces of folded paper which is apparently dark orange – not red!

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Blog Maguffins

How to Make Origami Dragons (Video Tutorials)

How to Make an Origami Dragon
Origami Dragon photo by awrose on Flickr

I did a blog post a long time ago about D&D Fantasy Miniatures – In Origami! It was pretty popular and I was asked for instructions on how to make an Origami Dragon. Well ask and yee shall receive – eventually!

I’ve put together a playlist of video tutorials for Origami Dragons all by jonakashima and tadashimori. I’ve put them in order of length, so the first one is the shortest and simplest to make (6 minutes) and the last one is the longest and most complicated (about 2 hours). So the tutorials go from Beginner to Advanced, and you can pick which you want to do based on your level of skill – or work through them all!

The Origami Dragon Tutorials are embedded below or you can click here to view the playlist.

Also, here are a couple of simple origami dragon diagrams both based on a bird base, one standing, one in flight.

How to make Origami Dragons:

Click to see all items in ‘Origami Dragon Tutorials’ Playlist

I hope this is useful and you’ll soon be making an army of fire-breathing monsters out of paper. Only don’t actually make them breath fire as it’s incredibly bad for their health!

Oh and if you do make any of these I would so LOVE to see your pics!

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Blog

Interparty Conflict

Interparty Conflict is the final piece of card art for the WAGON Webcomic Battle Cardgame which is on pre-order right now! I’m not exactly sure what the cards effect will be yet, but something along the lines of characters belonging to the same group fighting with each other! I thought this was a suitable Plot Device to reflect Epic Fail because, as you all know, it happens in the comic all the time! You can’t see the plot through characters squabbling with one another!

I decide to use Dirk, Tinuvelle and Yoru on this card because they don’t have their own Character cards like Amuletts, Clodin and Martin and I didn’t want them to be left out. I thought covering Yoru’s ears so he doesn’t hear any bad language would be the sort of sweet, protective thing Tinuvielle would do. Don’t ask me what they are arguing about – I haven’t a clue. I just had fun doing the facial expressions.

By the way I found a fun Video on YouTube about interparty conflict in D&D. Just thought I’d share.

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Blog Epic Fail Related News & Announcements

Epic Fail wins 3rd in TGT Tournament

Last year I went on the TGT Webcomics Podcast to talk about Epic Fail and as a result was put into their yearly Tournament: Episodic Battles, where all the episodes are put head-to-head and voted on to decide which is best. There’s a video of Kurt Sasso announcing the winners below and he does a good job of describing the contestants and the action so I recommend watching it.

I’m going to describe what the TGT Tournament was like for me and Epic Fail. As you’re probably be aware, due to me hassling you for votes over the month of August, there are four rounds. The first three are head-to-heads, one-on-one, mano-a-mano… you get the idea. One webcomic episode must knock out the other, halving the contestants each round. At the beginning there were 40.

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Blog D&D

Banners & Battlemaps – BannersontheCheap.com Review

Vinyl BannersI’ve hit the Big Time! Companies are sending me Free Stuff in return for my phenomenal influence in the blogosphere! Well… one company anyway. BannersontheCheap.com

You see BannersontheCheap.com are trying to get into a rather niche market: printing custom battle maps for gamers. I’ve been using a basic grid-printed vinyl battlemap for years in my role-play games. In addition to this I’ve also got quite a collection of paper maps which can be quite flimsy – they wear and rip particularly along the folds. Vinyl is much studier so could be handy for maps which you refer to again and again, not to mention you can make non-permanent notes on them with wet-wipe pens. Basically this seemed like a really good idea.

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Blog Epic Fail Related News & Announcements

Epic Fail will be at MKomix Comics Fair

I will be exhibiting with Epic Fail at MKomix this Thursday! If you are close to Milton Keynes you should come and check it out. Details at the MKomix website: www.MKomix.blogspot.com

Thursday 19July / 6-9pm / Free

Experience the creatively thriving small-press comic scene at MKomix Comic Fair, in the striking surroundings of MK Gallery’s Pushwagner exhibition.

This is an opportunity to see a wide range of comics representing diverse genres, for all ages, both as displays and some available for sale. Be surprised by the quality of comics, from the handmade to limited editions of just a few hundred.

www.MKomix.blogspot.com
Twitter @MKComicFair

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Blog Movie Reviews Movies/Film

Movie Review: Gamerz

Gamerz Movie PosterGamerz (spelt with a ‘Z’ to distinguish it from the -much better- The Gamers) is a Scottish indie movie about fantasy role-play gaming (RPGs). I was particularly enthusiastic to see this movie because it’s a British production and I am a British gamer. However it wasn’t what I expected because it isn’t really about gaming, it is a character piece about disparate people from different backgrounds being brought together and the relationships/conflicts which occur between them. The game is a vehicle to bring the characters together.

Gamerz follows Ralph, an extremely isolated young nerd whose parents died in a car crash. He is bullied and downtrodden so escapes into his imagination, creating his own fantasy world in which he is in complete control. When he starts University he takes over the role-play society and becomes Game Master, running an adventure campaign using his own setting and his own rules. The players hang on his every word. Ralph falls for the society’s only female gamer, Marlyn, a sexy Goth who, unfortunately, is as mad as a box of frogs. Also one of the bullys from Ralph’s neighbourhood – the drug-dealing, car-jacking Lennie – wants in on the role-playing action. He, too, is attracted to Marlyn, and soon things start to spin out of Ralph’s control. Will his house of cards come tumbling down?

Categories
Blog Lifestyle

Hedingham Castle

Hedingham Castle is a classic Norman Box Fort located in Essex, England. I was lucky to visit it on a bright, sunny day with little rain (surprising as it has barely stopped raining all summer with the highest amount of of rainfall in June since records began). As readers of the comic will already know I am using Hedingham Castle as the basis for Kasper’s Castle in the comic. I think having convincing backgrounds gives the story a grounding in realism perhaps making it a bit more believable. I think this is quite important in a story with magic and other outlandish (and sometimes ridiculous) elements. And since Hedingham Castle really isn’t that far away I couldn’t not go!