[IKRPG, Games] Adventurers of the Dragon's Tongue River
Write something? Story-wise? Didn't happen. I mean, I wrote LOTS. I even tried to plot out some outlines, but I ended up discarding all my story ideas. I had moments when I thought, "Hey, I could do something with this!" And then I kept thinking things like, "Aw, good grief, someone's going to think I'm just ripping off Westworld now, only without all the orgies and gushing blood." Or, "This is really just anti-fan fiction with the serial numbers filed off." Or, "Uhm ... I think this might have an 'unintended Aesop,' now that I think about it." About all I managed was to plot things out for game sessions, and I wasn't even GMing for a good portion of the year.
Sculpting? I've played around with decorating bases, I've improved my tool selection a little, experimented with different materials and methods, and FAILED A LOT, but I didn't actually set aside what I need to in order to seriously do some minis sculpting. For that, I need a permanent workspace, because it's NOT the sort of thing I can just pack up and toss in a back room when guests come over for a game. But what this house no longer has is SPACE. My tendency is to be a pack-rat ("Don't throw that away! I could TURN THAT INTO something!"), but what I really need to do is to get rid of stuff. Stuff in GENERAL, I'm okay with getting rid of. It's those pesky SPECIFICS that elude me.
Draw something? Oh, there's been the real frustration for me. I get exhausted when I try to draw, even to sketch. It's like there's some part of my brain that sees it as WORK. I'll be wide awake, but if I sit down to focus on drawing something, I'll start nodding off, or I'll feel exhausted and want to do something, ANYTHING else. Once upon a time, this was my favorite sort of busy-work. Give me paper and a pencil, and I'd be happy to do doodles all day long. But to see through a picture to something resembling completion? Meh.
I managed to eke out a few sketches of "figure flat" quality (i.e., might not look half bad if it were shrunk down to 300 dpi and printed at about 1-2" tall) of player-characters from my Iron Kingdoms campaign ... but I didn't even manage to make it through all four of them. We'll see if by some miracle I can get myself to do the fourth one tomorrow. (I wouldn't bet money on it. In fact, I'm not even sure the motivation of money would break me out of this. Maybe bitz, though. My brain is weird that way. Dangle the same amount of money that COULD BE USED to buy a bag o' miniatures bitz online, though, and I'd feel guilty about wasting the money, and therefore it wouldn't hold the appeal.)
Ahem. Angsting aside, here goes:
Ximena, Cryxian (Satyxis) Pirate-Librarian
Digital_Rampage's "guest PC" from our Unleashed campaign (which Digital_Rampage GM'ed, but I would sometimes jump in as "guest GM" for a side-quest/dungeon when DR was burnt out): a Satyxis who has a voracious appetite for books ... but questionable tastes therein. Her favorite books are a collection of Orgoth "romance novels" -- which to any other reader (provided one could manage to decipher Orgoth glyphs) would be largely indistinguishable from "horror."
Thale Lyorys, Iosan (Elf) Rifleman/Arcane-Mechanik
An elf from the slowly dying lands of Ios to the east. He's an arcane mechanik (that's deliberately spelled with a "k" for some reason) and also a skilled rifleman. He's also the closest thing to a "hero" in the group, but he's not above doing stuff like shaking down a pickpocket rather than turning him in to the authorities.
Stinky Pete, Cygnaran (Human) Alchemist
So-called "Stinky" -- he being "Pete of no Surname, and No Backstory for the GM to Work From" -- because during a recent adventure, when the PCs defeated a vile swamp-dwelling horror known as "The Boatman," Pete kept the boatman's perpetually damp and dank drape, once an arcanist identified it as having protective properties. When others complained about the smell, Pete's retort was, "I'm wearing my gas mask ... so it doesn't bother me!" He often perplexes the other adventurers with his weapon of choice: alchemical and fragmentary hand grenades tossed into the middle of monster mobs. They're sometimes (sometimes!) very effective, but the other adventurers are keenly aware of the price tags on the materials for making these grenades, and liken it to Pete lobbing bags of gold at the enemy in every battle. Somehow, Pete hasn't yet run out, but ammunition replenishment is his primary "money sink."
EDIT: Another doodle!
Old Bar, Blackclad (Human) Saboteur
"Old Bar" is even older than he seems, as he's secretly an operative of the Circle of Orboros -- one of the Blackclad Druids who possess such power over nature that their own lifespans are greatly increased over that of a normal human. At the same time, he has mastered the basics of the "mechanikal" creations of the Iron Kingdoms, even to the point where he can command steamjacks. His justification for mastery of such arts so despised by the Circle is that it's all the better to provide his cover identity as a "harmless old war veteran" (either Cygnaran, Khadoran, or faking another nationality if the need arises) while he quietly plots ruination of civilization and sabotages machinery as the opportunity presents itself.
The PLAYERS are aware of his divided loyalties, but their characters aren't in on the details.