Monday 1 September 2014

Picnic Adventures: CORNFLAGRATION of DOOOOOOOOOOOM

http://onemonk.com/FH-2013.html

A last-minute entry, as I've finally managed to track down the photos from the Halloween Adventure I created and crafted last year. The photos are not the best, but at least now you can see what was intended by my Halloween Hoard entry ([a href="http://onemonk.com/FH-2013.html"]Halloween Hoard 2[/a]).








Monday 25 August 2014

Just got back from my son's first ever D&D game! :D

     I've run him through the Pathfinder Beginner Box solo adventure, we've played Dungeon! the board game, Dungeon Roll the dice game, drawn a few maps, made up (but not statted) a few creatures, started up a few stories, but tonight was the real deal.
     I brought him along to my FLGS tonight, expecting him to last an hour or so, while we played through Cragmaw Castle in the 5th Edition Starter Box. We'd talked about what character he'd like to start with, and decided on the pre-generated fighter-archer from the box set. He had a special d20 that he picked out after I ran him through the PFBB solo, and a full set of polyhedrals in fiery orange (Chessex Vortex Orange, to be specific). While he needed some reminders, and guidance, he had good ideas, and was engaged throughout the evening. He lasted all the way to the end, three-and-a-half hours later, and as you can see below, he had a blast!


     This is a big deal for him. He was just recently diagnosed with ADHD-Predominantly Inattentive (daydreamer, not troublemaker), as well as with learning disabilities in written expression. He's very imaginative and very bright - though only 8, his reading comprehension level is at grade 10 level (i.e. twice his age). But the rest of it has been getting in the way of socializing, expressing himself verbally and most definitely in writing, and even in things like math. D&D is, in many ways, the perfect game to play to his strengths, and work on his weaknesses, having fun all the while.
Tonight was a great night for it, too. We were playing the penultimate chapter in the 5th Edition Starter Set, Lost Mines of Phandelver, and there were two other players (both with DMing experience) aside from us. And we had the best DM possible - Scott is a wizard at bringing the action, the story, and the monsters to life. He's especially talented at goblin voices and expressions, and had G. in stitches.

Scott embodies a surviving gobbo with delusions of grandeur...

G.'s now gotten his first treasure, his first XP, and a brand new organized play card to track it all. He'll be back next time as we finish Lost Mines of Phandelver, and we'll play it by ear after that. (He definitely won't be joining us for Wednesday night Encounters, as we already have ten (10) players and only one (1) DM...


Tuesday 1 July 2014

Happy Dominion Day! Another year, another beginning...

Happy Canada Day! or Happy Dominion Day! for the oldschoolers ;)

A first anniversary past, and nearly half-a-year missed. Boot to the head!*

Topics I want to tackle in the coming weeks and months:

Baba Yaga & her Dancing Hut (ongoing project)

Picnic Adventures (my top gaming priority, on the back burner for too long)
- Fluff: setting, story, accessories (minis, maps, tiles, terrain), iconics, adventure, illustrations
- Crunch: character building (& pregens), resolution mechanic (dice), etc.

Song of Blades and Heroes, Song of Fur and Buttons - my first venture into wargaming, about to begin

RPGs for Kids, overviews, reviews, play-thrus

Mapmaking

Inked Adventures & Billiam Babble omniverse

Fantasy Inns & Taverns

The Beauty of Black & White

Fantasy Art inspirations

Best Books in Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Best Films in Fantasy & Sci-Fi


Kids' own RPGs and fantasy games...









"Boot to the head" is a reference to Canadian comic group Four-on-the-Floor... in this case refers to a hard-reboot of the blog. Once more ;)

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part I)

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part I)

Unfortunately, this blog post (in draft form) was wiped out when my laptop's hard-drive failed. I didn't have the heart, time, nor energy to rebuild from scratch, and then health issues took over.

I will rebuild it within the coming weeks...

Tuesday 21 January 2014

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part II)



      More famous than any other fairy-tale dwelling --save perhaps that lowly witch's gingerbread house-- the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga has a depth and a life of its own beyond its iconic owner/creator. One of my papercraft dreams has been to build it to run my adventurers up against, and now that dream is within reach! For the fantabulous Fat Dragon will be designing it for me (and others too), having listed it as the first stretch goal of his current Kickstarter project, the medieval village Ravenfell. And what do you know, not only did the project fund within a couple of hours yesterday, my chicken-legged wonder was reached by suppertime (and he launched at lunch)!
      Well, now Fat Dragon Tom is wondering what The Hut (Not Pizza, Not Jabba - better, tastier, more ancient, more powerful than both) should look like, having only worked out the tricky chicken leg geometry so far. So I will share a few ideas and illustrations over the next few posts... be sure to share yours in the comments here, and/or at the Kickstarter page, and/or the Fat Dragon forums.

Part I: Fairy-Tale & Folklore
Part II: Dungeons & Dragons
Part III: Pathfinder
Part IV: Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory

Part II: Dungeons & Dragons


Sunday 19 January 2014

Ongoing Baba Yaga-ing

I'll be posting Post Numbers 2 and 1 (in that order) later today and tomorrow. Weekend is family time ;)

Friday 17 January 2014

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part III)


      More famous than any other fairy-tale dwelling --save perhaps that lowly witch's gingerbread house-- the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga has a depth and a life of its own beyond its iconic owner/creator. One of my papercraft dreams has been to build it to run my adventurers up against, and now that dream is within reach! For the fantabulous Fat Dragon will be designing it for me (and others too), having listed it as the first stretch goal of his current Kickstarter project, the medieval village Ravenfell. And what do you know, not only did the project fund within a couple of hours yesterday, my chicken-legged wonder was reached by suppertime (and he launched at lunch)!
      Well, now Fat Dragon Tom is wondering what The Hut (Not Pizza, Not Jabba - better, tastier, more ancient, more powerful than both) should look like, having only worked out the tricky chicken leg geometry so far. So I will share a few ideas and illustrations over the next few posts... be sure to share yours in the comments here, and/or at the Kickstarter page, and/or the Fat Dragon forums.

Part I: Fairy-Tale & Folklore
Part II: Dungeons & Dragons
Part III: Pathfinder
Part IV: Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory

Part III: Pathfinder

Thursday 16 January 2014

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part IV)

     More famous than any other fairy-tale dwelling --save perhaps that lowly witch's gingerbread house-- the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga has a depth and a life of its own beyond its iconic owner/creator. One of my papercraft dreams has been to build it to run my adventurers up against, and now that dream is within reach! For the fantabulous Fat Dragon will be designing it for me (and others too), having listed it as the first stretch goal of his current Kickstarter project, the medieval village Ravenfell. And what do you know, not only did the project fund within a couple of hours yesterday, my chicken-legged wonder was reached by suppertime (and he launched at lunch)!
     Well, now Fat Dragon Tom is wondering what The Hut (Not Pizza, Not Jabba - better, tastier, more ancient, more powerful than both) should look like, having only worked out the tricky chicken leg geometry so far. So I will share a few ideas and illustrations over the next few posts... be sure to share yours in the comments here, and/or at the Kickstarter page, and/or the Fat Dragon forums.

Part I: Fairy-Tale & Folklore
Part II: Dungeons & Dragons
Part III: Pathfinder
Part IV: Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory


Part IV: Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory