tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70114782297870592182024-03-12T19:24:14.452-04:00Gothic Panda ArtSee the how, what and why behind the activities and goings on at Gothic Panda Studios.Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.comBlogger276125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-89109871127194224462019-02-01T06:00:00.000-05:002019-02-01T06:00:06.153-05:00The Story So Far -1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">We play D&D one Saturday almost every month. Once upon a time we met and played every week, but we don't anymore mostly because of life. We play with almost the same group as when we started playing together in 2000. We've had some people come and go. Most of our friends now live in different parts of our state, so meeting more often now just isn't practical. </span><div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">We go by the name of Team Sidequest. I don't remember when we started applying that name to our group. It is a fairly accurate description. Our very first campaign, our goal was to travel to the dwarven lands to do something--I don't remember what. We played for 2.5 years every week, and we never made it to the dwarven lands, and, in fact, spent half the time going in the exact opposite direction. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Right now, we are running through a series of adventures that Shaun and I are writing together. I personally think it's going to be epic, should they ever manage to get through it. This has been an interesting challenge, learning to work together to run the game together. Our party, should everyone show up, consists of a teifling warlock, half-elf bard, elf paladin, human cleric, fire genasi eldrich knight (I think), rogue/bard (I don't remember the race), gnome cleric, and barbarian (also don't remember the race--I know, I'm a bad DM). That sounds like a lot, but usually a couple people aren't able to come each time we meet (because adulting sucks). We are playing in the same homebrew world the original campaign from 2000 was run in. It takes place 200 years after the end of that campaign. It's a high fantasy world with some steampunk level technology. The technology is fairly new to the world. We had the early framework of it in the original game, but it was only a few neat gadgets here and there. Things have grown and developed over the years. This seemed logical to us. A lot of the new technology is highly steeped in magic because it makes sense to us and because it seems like that could be a lot of fun. This world was originally created in second edition, which means that both teiflings and fire genasi were not playable races. We generally didn't allow gnomes for no reason other than we did not like gnomes, and we felt they did not add much to the world. Occasional gnome oddities have shown up (including our current gnome). The current gnome is both a student and a specimen in the university in the main city of the area our group is in. The fire genesi's story and existence is going to be worked into the campaign, so I will not say much about that at this time, other than he was raised as an orphan, and does not know if there are any others of his race--whether he is the result of genetic manipulation and magical experimentation or if he is part of a race of people that is very seclusive, or whatever. The teifling has decided to be an indirect descendant of the human knight from the original story. The knight's neice/great-neice (I can't remember) married Rhom Corsith, a demon villain from the original campaign, and the teifling is their offspring. He is on a quest to destroy the knight from the original story (who is alive still because he is Sulis' whipping boy--Sulis is the goddess of life in our world--as established in the original campaign). Interestingly enough, we'd already written a role for the old knight into our current campaign, so that should make for some fun roleplaying.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">That was a lot... And now for a recap of the story so far, which will also take a bit because we've played several sessions. Our group started on an airship travelling to Whitestone (the urban center of the country they are in)--we told our players they would start there, and they would need to come up with a reason to travel to Whitestone. The goal of this session was to introduce the world as it would be for this campaign. There were airships, with electric lighting. They had a radio box on the ship for music that ran off a mix of magic and technology. And so on. It was a murder mystery. Someone on the ship was trying to steal some of the cargo by redirecting the ship to another location. In the end, the party caught the pawn, but not the true culprit. She escaped, but they did prevent the ship from diverting and saved the cargo. They arrive in Whitestone. Whitestone is a city run by the most lawful of lawful paladins. They have rules for everything. They have systems and organizations for everything. You have to be there for a reason. Tourists and travelers are allowed to register and stay for short periods of time, and have very limited access to the city. You can register as a researcher at the library (this is what the fire genasi did). You can join an adventuring guild. You could register with any number of crafting guilds or merchant groups. The point is: they track everything in this city. Our party joined a guild called the Wild Cards. For fans of <i>The Slayers</i>, this guild is run by retired adventurers Rina Universe and Gary. There was also another guild called The Devoted, led by Marigold, the daughter of Martina and Xangulus. Not major plot points, but fun. They spent the next session running side quests. Obvious side quests. As in on the bulletin board in their guild obvious side quest, which even included the cliche "rats in the basement" quest. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">The last 2 sessions have picked up the main plot. They got a preview of the cargo from the airship during a public demonstration in the Whitestone amphitheater. The cargo was what the wizards' guild is calling a Dragon Heartstone and it connects to a functionally crude mechanical dragon, which is about the size of a backyard storage shed, is clunky, but can still fly. They also find that a small team of adventurers sent by the wizards' guild to bring back historical artifacts (non-magical) from an ancient ruins related to a legend that inspired the creation of the mechanical dragon and the heartstone power source has not returned after several weeks. Conveniently the team is from The Wild Cards. So, our party gears up and travels to the Everclear Swamp. In the swamp is an ancient city overgrown by the swamp/jungle (think Cambodian style ruins). This dungeon was a maze (literally) of traps and impassible terrain because of flooding and the age of the buildings. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">I created the map for this dungeon by designing the ancient town and placing it over a maze. The maze indicated the passable terrain. They could cross the other areas where flooded, but risked random encounters with native creatures. These ruins had been taken over by Histherians, lizardmen (the dragonborn of our world as dragonborn were not things when we created this world in 2000, inspired by the draconians of the Dragonlance world). The Histherians were running a cult worshiping the green dragon, Acida. Acida was young and vain, and also lazy, since the Histherians were pretty much providing her with food through their collection of captives. The ruins came up to cliffs on one side and beach and ocean on another. On the ocean side, the Histherians had a boat that they used to engage in piracy to collect money to fund their community and their dragon, as well as collect captives to feed their dragon. Our players wandered haphazardly through the dungeon. We finished the first session with our players overwhelmed and captured. We started last weekend's session with our party in prison (minus the rogue that had been captured at an earlier time, but had managed to free himself and two members of the group they had come to rescue). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Our human cleric joined our rogue to come to the group's rescue. The cleric had been absent for several sessions reference holidays. We wrote him back in by telling him he has to go to this temple in the ruins in the Everclear Swamp and obtain a green amulet. They meet up with the rest of the group, right after they finish breaking out of the caves. The party now has a better idea of what they're up against. They also know there is someone or something the Histherians are working for, and that whatever it is likes sacrifices--one of our players was only pretending to be unconscious when they were captured at the end of last session and also conveniently spoke draconic. They clear the temple, where the prison was. They discover that there is a tunnel in the cliffs behind the city that leads to the "Master." They've also deduced that the Master is probably a dragon. They go to the dragon's layer and defeat the dragon, which was not played to the most ruthless it could have been because we'd determined that she had grown lazy and complacent. She was used to being provided with food. She hadn't had to hunt or take care of herself in years. We played her as if her combat skills were rusty. This is because the base dragon stats in the <i>Monster Manual</i> were meant for a slightly high leveled party. Now scattered around the ruins, along with mosaics of dragons in several different colors standing with people (although maybe a few with just green dragons), the party found several pendants with a particular symbol on it. They found an indentation that matched the pendant in the ground next to the dragon's hoard. Inside they find a tunnel and a glowing green portal. Inside the portal is a circular room with no visible floor except a narrow walkway. Green mist comes up from the pits on either side of the walkway. The walkway extends to the center of the room where suspended over a pedestal is a gold amulet with a green gemstone set in it. The gemstone has the same symbol that's on the pendants inscribed inside the gem. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Clearly this amulet is going to be a powerful magical object (and it is), but they have only been able to determine that it provides protection against and resistance to poison. It has other abilities, that should come out as we go through this campaign.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">That's the game so far in as much of a nutshell as my rambling self could put it in. Future episodes will only cover events from one session and not need the introductory stuff. </span></div>
Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-48214248063317221442019-01-30T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-30T06:00:07.523-05:00WIP Wednesday 2019 Vol 4So I lied, and it looks like I might be finishing these. I'm still not happy with them, except for the Hogwarts student. I like that one. Also there was no post Monday because I forgot to write it... Oops. But to be honest, losing track of my days is very easy to do with the "day" job I'm working now. It follows an alternating schedule (2 days on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off) every two weeks, and instead of days, I actually work nights. So, on the off days, I'm adjusting to a day schedule because everything else in life exists on a day schedule, while on my on days, I'm on a night schedule. This is also why you will see posts from me on Twitter and other places at all hours of the day or night.<br />
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<br />Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-37642374862104862952019-01-25T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-25T06:00:13.529-05:00Misadventures in Streaming<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">So, I wrote Monday that we were going to be trying to stream some things, and it's definitely been an adventure. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">We spent a week preparing. We tested all the things. We had a secondary monitor set up to connect with my laptop. Everything worked. When we got to Thursday afternoon, we decided to connect my older laptop because it has a larger monitor, and it should have been fine for what we needed. We tested it, and everything seemed to be working. Well, we got to 7 o'clock, and the audio wasn't working right, and the video started freezing. So, we switched to my newer laptop.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I don't generally use this laptop for gaming, so I didn't even have Steam installed. So, installed that and <i>Doki Doki Literature Club</i>, which honestly didn't take too long. Still, it was a nuisance. Things should have gone well from there. I had the streaming software installed and configured because I intend to stream art from here. But then we connected this laptop to the second monitor. It was a little wonky to start with, and somehow the second monitor got set as the primary. Fixed that, but then the game screen was only the size of a thumb nail. I couldn't read anything on the screen, which makes this game, in particular, functionally difficult to play. I didn't want to bother trying to figure out how to fix that since we were already supposed to be streaming the game at that point.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Take 3. We got my husband's laptop, which is a Mac. T_T It has streaming software, but it isn't the software I was using, so the configuration was different; it also wasn't connected to the Twitch account because we hadn't planned on using it at all, so I had to fix that. Whatever, it at least worked, but it was frustrating not being able to see the chat log. I solved that problem by using my laptop logged into Twitch and just tried to periodically check the chat. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I think we'll be using the Mac to finish the <i>Doki Doki Literature Club </i>play through, but I'm hoping we can figure out what's wrong with my gaming laptop for future games because the specs should be more than enough to handle streaming-- I mean it has better hardware for that than this laptop, which I use primarily because it is more portable and I can draw on the screen. Hoping for no problems when I try to stream art next week. I mean there weren't any problems streaming that from this laptop when we were testing, but that doesn't seem to be any indication of whether things will actually work or not.</span></div>
Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-7104585913716564942019-01-23T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-23T06:00:01.180-05:00WIP Wednesday 2019 Vol 3Not as much for this week. Some scribbly sketchy things. I'm not sure I'm happy with any of them, except maybe the last one. I'm probably going to throw the other two out. Or not. XD These are all badge designs. The first is the male version of Capricorn. The second is an elf sorcerer, which might become a sample for the DnD character cards/badges we are putting together. The third is a Hogwarts student, no specific character, for our Hogwarts student ID cards.<br />
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Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-51984845379721304982019-01-21T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-21T06:00:04.360-05:00Something New<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">During Animazement last year, one of the lovely people who came by our table gave us the idea to start putting together some videos. That was several months ago. Some of our plans were delayed by my health problems. We have been throwing around some ideas on what we might do. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Per request, we have considered doing some recorded play-throughs of video games. We have also considered recording my drawing process, tabletop game instructional videos, or recording Team Sidequest playing D&D. We've thought about making a vlog. Most of this would be peppered with our sense of humor, which can be seen in many of the things we create.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">We have debated whether we should stream on Twitch or just record videos for YouTube. What we are leaning toward right now is a bit of both: stream and record on Twitch, but we will put an edited version of what we do on YouTube. YouTube will have our more polished product, but for those interested in the process or seeing raw footage, there will be Twitch. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">So, when will we be streaming and/or posting these videos. Well, we are still working on a schedule. The most awkward part is finding something we can do consistently. My work schedule is a bit weird and follows a two week rotating schedule. It basically works so that if I'm off one Monday, I will work the next, and it's like that for every day of the week. This means that I will not be available to stream every week on the same day. Whatever schedule we decide to stream on will probably follow a similar 2-week rotating pattern. So, for example, if I decide to stream on Wednesday one week, I will not be streaming on Wednesday the next week, but maybe I'll stream on Thursday that next week. The week after that, I will stream on Wednesday again. This may sound a little confusing, but to make things simple, I will keep a schedule of upcoming streams posted on our <a href="http://www.gothicpanda.com/" target="_blank">website</a> and on the Twitch channel. Videos will go up on YouTube ever couple of weeks, as we get them put together. Ideally this will be more often, but I'm keeping my expectations conservative at this time, since I'm not sure what kind of time commitment this will take. Looking forward to having some fun with this.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">You can find us at GothicPandaArt at both locations: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;"><a href="https://www.twitch.tv/gothicpandaart" target="_blank">https://www.twitch.tv/gothicpandaart</a> and </span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeJdfJRAw6l18x7wjO3AEzw">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeJdfJRAw6l18x7wjO3AEzw</a></span>Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-22099982989727730982019-01-18T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-18T06:00:09.225-05:00She-Ra<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">As a child, <i>She-Ra</i> was one of my favorite TV shows. I did not watch it religiously, in fact I probably never watched more than a dozen episodes. I did not watch a lot of TV as a child. I do have fond memories of this series. I collected a lot of the toys for it, and I spent many hours playing with those toys. I can probably trace my fascination with magical girls back to this series. </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdsdWA0awApavvdV1csZmeNl4xp19LzRSQf2Xb56nbH0wMkAnEejKHXM-11LXEJFF6nZS3fLVQoqritdZVI4JevW7vByksnkO9UKC-atVXPvwgortVoYCP8IFUwp-LTSTZZ2Tk2Y5c9Q/s1600/shera1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdsdWA0awApavvdV1csZmeNl4xp19LzRSQf2Xb56nbH0wMkAnEejKHXM-11LXEJFF6nZS3fLVQoqritdZVI4JevW7vByksnkO9UKC-atVXPvwgortVoYCP8IFUwp-LTSTZZ2Tk2Y5c9Q/s320/shera1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art by Daekazu. <br />Original can be found on<br /><a href="https://www.deviantart.com/daekazu/art/She-Ra-Princes-of-Power-Comparison-762327546" target="_blank">his DeviantArt</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">In this light, I was fairly excited when Netflix announced it's new original <i>She-Ra </i>series. They'd redone <i>Voltron</i> and most people seemed to like what they did with it, even some of the most devoted fans of the original <i>Voltron</i> in my acquaintance. So, naturally, I expected they'd do just to a <i>She-Ra</i> remake. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I just finished watching all 13 episodes, and I have to say that I am pretty disappointed. I really did not like the new series at all. There were a few things I liked--mostly Catra. Beyond those things, I did not enjoy watching the series. I did not like the new animation style. I did not like the character designs (beyond Catra). I did not like the characters... any of them really... except Catra. I did not like the new lore behind the new series.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Maybe I expected too much from the series, but the whole thing really just fell flat for me. It had some redeeming moments, a few good lines here and there. Maybe there just wasn't enough for them to work with to make a good series, because if I'm honest, the original series wasn't anything amazing either. I just feel like the new series didn't have any of the elements that I truly loved about the original. The new series felt like something else skinned to look like my favorite childhood series. It kind of reminds me of how I felt after watching <i>Final Fantasy: Spirits Within</i>, which should not have had the <i>Final Fantasy</i> title. </span></div>
Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-86053223505985068042019-01-16T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-16T06:00:01.302-05:00WIP Wednesday 2019 Vol 2These projects are going to badges and/or buttons. They may also be turned into stickers (because stickers are my new obsession). You can see older WIP pictures of Capricorn on my <a href="https://gothicpandaart.blogspot.com/2019/01/wip-wednesday-2019-vol-1.html" target="_blank">WIP post</a> from last week.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9dsizHcbgT9I_NgbA53572mokHReXBREN7wxpkdRJRB1T36OjkXEgkyclTHRvUfpbk0cTs_oDQHliNN75xzYlaViYDPcfAI6GYg4W57UKFZIGpZfDGqhduusSyWrRrP4GdEbezjf8Vw/s1600/CapricornF5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1132" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9dsizHcbgT9I_NgbA53572mokHReXBREN7wxpkdRJRB1T36OjkXEgkyclTHRvUfpbk0cTs_oDQHliNN75xzYlaViYDPcfAI6GYg4W57UKFZIGpZfDGqhduusSyWrRrP4GdEbezjf8Vw/s320/CapricornF5.jpg" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Capricorn mostly finished</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizMA4gitSrmspmSO5lZLqeq6VIUVHx5jx2h1GD6ZS9jdfYrSuBHMu8UBUr8TMkU1Zw5QnXRy2Uc1LLMxwnnqyUwggCMJkHc_cD5jvFFuJalkf0FMyW3LUyTT55REq-C0BgonAPPgJJRKo/s1600/BelleBlue1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1082" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizMA4gitSrmspmSO5lZLqeq6VIUVHx5jx2h1GD6ZS9jdfYrSuBHMu8UBUr8TMkU1Zw5QnXRy2Uc1LLMxwnnqyUwggCMJkHc_cD5jvFFuJalkf0FMyW3LUyTT55REq-C0BgonAPPgJJRKo/s320/BelleBlue1.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Belle Sketch</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9IsVwtYDioS2lnMhyld5D-UWsMzGzoTAoeCu-j1yYkJFPRpyCObtdPxitrv0Ov6AMEVt9s14XO6cvDaQkn3yvYaHjiwC6RATLVNoL7whfCYjEeT_zcNnwha_wx2XM7HUXa6_C2KyqqI/s1600/Maleficent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1082" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9IsVwtYDioS2lnMhyld5D-UWsMzGzoTAoeCu-j1yYkJFPRpyCObtdPxitrv0Ov6AMEVt9s14XO6cvDaQkn3yvYaHjiwC6RATLVNoL7whfCYjEeT_zcNnwha_wx2XM7HUXa6_C2KyqqI/s320/Maleficent.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maleficent started inking</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88b8lx7lqe1DYHHYWVLpGD_yjJ4udIOd4gyojm5kil8ufEzO5VqSgKggj6wI6oTMId3Rlk57tD46yBmeDRVxqAQaCuFNHI40fdFVXWHk0kQE69h7iab4J6KUTEj1-IuoM7I6QczeLJLg/s1600/SheRa2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1082" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88b8lx7lqe1DYHHYWVLpGD_yjJ4udIOd4gyojm5kil8ufEzO5VqSgKggj6wI6oTMId3Rlk57tD46yBmeDRVxqAQaCuFNHI40fdFVXWHk0kQE69h7iab4J6KUTEj1-IuoM7I6QczeLJLg/s320/SheRa2.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She Ra started inking</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAG4W-G1V-eZI0Kw76bEAykDOwa0g20QGuU8mETMtZazP7AXiEaN-OoZ7VXJtaGHpc3T43Mpep55H-aQiKQ1gQrzNGD-VvlQpELJ9MH1HcbYbgoQf15_Ioy_dcdMkGuAJTbBAs1lwaJxI/s1600/SheRa1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1082" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAG4W-G1V-eZI0Kw76bEAykDOwa0g20QGuU8mETMtZazP7AXiEaN-OoZ7VXJtaGHpc3T43Mpep55H-aQiKQ1gQrzNGD-VvlQpELJ9MH1HcbYbgoQf15_Ioy_dcdMkGuAJTbBAs1lwaJxI/s320/SheRa1.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She Ra Sketch</td></tr>
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Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-8121415746128947482019-01-14T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-14T06:00:01.997-05:00The Real MAGFest 2019 Reflections Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">Magfest was a lot of fun this year. That's pretty standard. I was a lot more tired going into the convention this year because of an intense vacation near the end of December--you know, one of those vacations where you come home more exhausted than before you left and you want a real vacation from the vacation.</span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">Anyways, I think I spent most of this convention in panels. I'm going to go off on a bit of a "Magfest is the best" thing here. I really feel that Magfest goes out of its way to have outstanding programming. Their events are good. Their panels are great, and cover a wide variety of topics. There is always something interesting going on. This year I attended a mix of cosplay makerspace panels, tabletop panels, and MAGES panels. I gave a panel in MAGES on tabletop roleplaying and relationships with Shaun as a follow-up to last year's panel on gaming in general as a couple. We got a bunch of questions related to roleplaying games after that panel, so we put together one on that topic. He gave two other panels that went over well. I think the only thing I've ever been super meh about was the Marketplace. There were many years where the vendor space was too small. This year, there just wasn't much that I wanted to see. I think my favorite vendor was the leather vendor in the very back of the room, who sadly does not have a website to share with everyone. They had some really cool binders and DM screens in tooled leather, and I really need to get one of the leather tunics they have... one of these years, when I have more money.</span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">Anyways, most of the panels and events I attended this year were fantastic. They were either interesting or informative, and bonus if they were both. I came home super motivated to get back into cosplaying, which I've wanted to do for awhile now. I have ideas for several original cosplay designs, plus I have a long list of characters I want to cosplay. I'm also really excited about pushing forward on several of our larger (and smaller) projects. I'm not going to say a lot about them right now, since they've technically been on the board for a couple of years now, and although close to completion now (relatively), I don't have a clear idea of when exactly they will be done. Assuming I can stay out of the hospital this year and have no more major issues, then I'm pretty sure we'll start seeing some of these things wrap up early this year, but I've been saying that for a couple years now, and so far it hasn't worked. =P Anyways, I'll post when things actually happen. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">All in all, Magfest was the best way to start 2019.</span>Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-74230286036276706502019-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-11T06:00:04.779-05:00Octopath Traveler<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #674ea7;">My family got a Switch for Christmas two years ago. It's been monopolized primarily by my kids and my husband, but I recently picked up <i>Octopath Traveler</i> to play on it. I loved <i>Bravely Default</i>, and <i>Octopath Traveler</i> seems to be cut from the same mold--I'm a big fan of old-style RPG games. I never transitioned well to the 3-D environments, so I appreciate games like these that are throwbacks to older graphical styles. I had high expectations for <i>Octopath Traveler</i>, and this post is going to be my opinion on the game, at least as far as I've played.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQNJXeD4qhcsBIneqUmJtjZ8yNjZXrsGqoYPZfPMDjr8_gUzuKAwIIFvTKXPlGO_9mHOdu75c95e1fIfFqZl7TPNovY25j82IZyHUk_5d3Vmz59ipfhHMS20t0GZnItkV4dzUIdtfNRw/s1600/octopathtraveler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQNJXeD4qhcsBIneqUmJtjZ8yNjZXrsGqoYPZfPMDjr8_gUzuKAwIIFvTKXPlGO_9mHOdu75c95e1fIfFqZl7TPNovY25j82IZyHUk_5d3Vmz59ipfhHMS20t0GZnItkV4dzUIdtfNRw/s1600/octopathtraveler.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I have played through each character's first chapter. I have been struggling through the second chapters and side quests. I'm not sure if the combat system just didn't click--I mean, I understand the break system with the weapon/elemental weaknesses, but there also seems to be bias toward certain characters in certain parts of the game. For example, I played through Tressa's second chapter. Clearly Tressa is required, but my impression was that the other three character slots could be filled with whoever I wanted (true) and it would be decently effective (false). In this example, you cannot complete this chapter without Ophilia. I am getting the idea I will be wanting Ophilia in most of my parties in this game. That frustrates me because I don't particularly like playing with that character. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNkDiatzfXEDKmYNRPk3fJyV1863q4wcGlTaasMjjWKWgRWha67q9nafRGPE8Y8zoS_WJ5RPOAXsGAjSwL5ikuGK1EsZ45k0U7pB87kU-vUJ-bi8TrPWBQeNNFbC08wWG6cMBceI8OgMM/s1600/octopathtraveler2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNkDiatzfXEDKmYNRPk3fJyV1863q4wcGlTaasMjjWKWgRWha67q9nafRGPE8Y8zoS_WJ5RPOAXsGAjSwL5ikuGK1EsZ45k0U7pB87kU-vUJ-bi8TrPWBQeNNFbC08wWG6cMBceI8OgMM/s320/octopathtraveler2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #674ea7;">I've also found some of the side quests frustrating because the recommended level does not seem to match the actual difficulty of the quest. Or maybe this goes back to not understanding how the characters work together, and I need to be playing with a different group. I think I've gotten decent equipment for my party, but maybe not. I feel like I'm missing something with it, and it shouldn't be this frustrating. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I'm going to put it down for a little bit, but I do plan on eventually trying to finish it. Another potential problem is that I do tend to play the game around 3 a.m., which is probably not the best time to do anything that requires any amount of coherence. =P Maybe I'll have better luck when I have a little more time to play the game.</span><br />
<br />Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-30731065219856775332019-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-09T06:00:13.406-05:00WIP Wednesday 2019 Vol 1<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #674ea7;">I'm attempting to move away from using Photoshop and using Clip Studio entirely. I recently invested in a Microsoft Surface Pro, and Clip Studio runs better on it. Normally I use Photoshop to do all my coloring, but I am attempting to learn to use Clip Studio for that now. This means that I am moving a little slower than I'd like. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Like I said last week, I will be working primarily on smaller things. This is going to be released as a badge and a button (and maybe a sticker too, but doing stickers might be chasing squirrels at this time). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span>Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-18621676316643225952019-01-07T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-08T12:13:03.980-05:00The Post That Was Going to be MAGFest Musings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">I meant to publish a post reflecting on Magfest, which was this past weekend. So, this post is just going to be a quick summary of my last couple of days. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">To provide some context, we broke our van while we were in vacation in Florida, Orlando area, in December, and we had to leave it in Florida for repairs. And that's all the backstory we need for this post. =P</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Fast forward to last Sunday. We packed up to leave Magfest mid-morning and drove to North Carolina -- we live in the south central part of the state. This was about 6 hours give or take. Once we reached NC, I changed cars and people I was riding with and left again. From NC, we drove to the north part of Orlando, FL. I did this because I had received word while at Magfest that our van would be fixed and ready to pick up Monday. Monday morning, we drove to the car place where we dropped the van off, because I had been repeatedly told to pick up the van where we dropped it off. We got there and the receptionist gave me an odd look and said, "Ooh, I'm sorry, but your vehicle is in another castle [location]." I knew that they had sent the van to another location to complete repairs because they had an earlier opening to start the repairs. They were supposed to have sent it back to the original location. Communication clearly broke down because the van was not returned, and I was not informed of the change in pick-up location. This was mostly a nuisance and a lot of extra driving. Moving on, I finally got the van yesterday around lunch time, and I spent the rest of my Monday driving back to North Carolina.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Needless to say, I am very tired of being in the car. I did not get time to put together a post for Magfest, because I'm pretty sure driving and typing are incompatible activities. XD Anyways, I'll put up a reflection on Magfest in a week or so.</span>Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-16697141220905196932019-01-04T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-04T06:00:03.198-05:00MAGFest Panels<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz29dVzCmopGAvE8KDNqOIXMtQsTcrPVIL762B7RnHD4g3qbsnhyuVBNzjxcpV9J0I1KgAcf9rpZbt7oaLWI0v2l5vva1PKB0pFc4xyiNGoeHvyICmLAYb0v3eXDApFBdIxZpAjtjoUg/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">Shaun and I will be at MAGFest this year as attendees and panelists. We have two panels this year!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Shaun will be on a panel this morning at 10:30 on Heroes. This is a group discussion on how video game heroes have changed over the years. Many of the tropes that characterized the heroes of our childhood no longer apply to the game heroes of today. Why? What makes a hero now? He and his fellow panelists will be addressing these and other questions.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Tomorrow (Saturday) at 11:30, Shaun and I will be giving a panel together on relationships and tabletop RPG gaming. We've been married for almost 19 years, and playing RPG games like Dungeons and Dragons has been a big part of our relationship. We're going to address topics like playing together as a couple and how that might affect game dynamics. We're going to look at how other players might perceive the impact of the relationship, especially if one involved is the GM. We're also going to look at how to handle couples when they are inattentive and distracted or when things are going south in the relationship and the toxicity is spreading into the game. This is a more focused version of the panel we gave last year. I'm looking forward to it. Yay! My second panel. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">If you're going to be at MAGFest, please stop by our panels! Of course, if these topics don't interest you, don't come. =P We won't be offended. Both panels will be in the MAGES section.</span>Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-33003050158450813042019-01-02T06:00:00.000-05:002019-01-02T06:00:05.775-05:00Welcome Back<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">It's been a while. I've been ill, and it turns out I'm allergic to most of the meds they like to put you on for the stuff I've been dealing with. Shaun has been ill. Shaun had to work an overload at work--as a teacher, this means he's teaching more than a full load of classes. 2018 was not a great year for us. All of this has also made it difficult to keep working on art or anything fun while keeping up with our day jobs. That also made 2018 a not so fun year because doing nothing but being sick or working sucks. I have high hopes that 2019 will be a better year. I'm trying to keep my goals and plans reasonable because at this time we both still have full time jobs, and we are still dealing with some of the medical issues from 2018 (better than last year, but it's the kind of thing that takes time to manage/recover from). So, here are some things we're going to be doing (or trying to do this year). I'm excited to see what actually happens.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">1. Blogging: We are going to try and get the blog back up (again). I want to go back to regular posting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">2. YouTube: We are going to try and put together some YouTube videos. Especially for the first part of the year, this will be experimental and something we will be playing around with, seeing what works and what doesn't, but since Shaun's field and area of interest is in film, he's been itching to get back into production. We may do some Vlogging. I may do some live drawing or crafting or whatever. We may do some game play throughs--we have gotten a request to do <i>Doki Doki Literature Club</i>. All in all, not sure what exactly will show up here or will come from it, but I'm definitely curious. I will post here if/when we get this up.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">3. Art: Since this is an art studio, I, of course, plan on creating some art. Because I am limited on my ability to travel this year and taking everything is also difficult, I am going to be limiting most of my new creations this year to smaller items: badges, buttons, and bookmarks. I think this will keep my table space from being so cluttered because I am going to keep it to just 1 table. It's also easier to travel with the smaller items. Most larger items (mostly prints) will be available online only. Ideally, I'll be able to get 1 new piece done each week, since I will be mostly working on smaller pieces. That may be a bit ambitious, but we'll see. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">4. Other things: There are, of course, a lot of other things I'd love to work on. I have a lot of print ideas, and I may work on a few of those even if they're not my focus for this year. We also have a couple of games we are working on (a card game, a 5e version of <i>Anime D20</i>, and an app). I would also love to make some costumes because I miss cosplay. I'm also going to try to post more regularly on Social Media. I'm not really a Social Media kind of person, but since I won't be attending very many conventions, this will be my only way to interact with people, so I'm going to have to figure this stuff out. Ideally I'll post consistently around Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr, which are the sites I have accounts on for now, but right now, posting at all could be considered an accomplishment. =P I'd also love to see my website regularly updated, so that the content on it is more accurate. This would be good since I've been moving away from Etsy, and I plan on selling directly from my website. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">5. Manic Mysteries: This will be a 6-12 episode (at least 6, but we might write more) audio series. This is one of those just for fun projects that we've been working on off and on for the last year. Hopefully we will have the first 6 episodes ready for release starting this summer. </span>Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-45009244497374758172018-02-26T06:00:00.000-05:002018-02-26T06:00:47.123-05:00Developer's Notes - 4<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPo6A2xKkG4d_QHVWAqBxs0b0sFT7U3HDiRt3iGhmBTn5Y6T8893apfMo9ddWak3aAR2ixJMO4xTSb78Uh49UjTQmIanfFXaZavOyh_gkkki1N3dYQE2Q8wr9yulc4JCKRz3hiHNH7eZY/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPo6A2xKkG4d_QHVWAqBxs0b0sFT7U3HDiRt3iGhmBTn5Y6T8893apfMo9ddWak3aAR2ixJMO4xTSb78Uh49UjTQmIanfFXaZavOyh_gkkki1N3dYQE2Q8wr9yulc4JCKRz3hiHNH7eZY/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #674ea7;">So, Ekoja was going to post this week, but he's been down and out for the last several days with the flu, so you've got me again. =P I'm writing this now on severe sleep deprivation, so prepare for a lot of rambling and possible incoherence. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Ekoja is still working on his mystery podcast, although progress has been slowed by illness. I'm drawing... all the things. Follow my <a href="https://www.instagram.com/gothicpandaart/" target="_blank">instagram </a>for WIP pictures. I'm still working on getting into a good groove for posting on there, but that is where I'm posting most of my progress pictures and finished pictures. And also cats. And occasionally some other more personal things, mostly fun shenanigans, like the 2 headed snowman my kids built when it actually snowed here or Sophie's hair when I put it up in a Rapunzel-inspired braid. But it will mostly be WIP and cats. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I'm almost finished with the next chibigurumi plushie, and I look forward to sharing that with early in March. I might link that from here. I will definitely share it from my </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/gothicpandaart/" target="_blank">Facebook </a><span style="color: #674ea7;">page. You can see the </span><a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/577076414/electric-mouse-chibigarumi?ref=shop_home_active_1" target="_blank">Pikachu </a><span style="color: #674ea7;">I finished for this month on my </span><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/GothicPanda?ref=seller-platform-mcnav" target="_blank">Etsy</a><span style="color: #674ea7;">. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Since we design games, we also play a lot of games. We meet with friends once a month to play some kind of tabletop role-playing game. Usually it's D&D or Pathfinder. This month we started a Starfinder campaign. I'm not super-hyped on the setting, but then I'm not really into sci-fi in general so it's nothing personal. I do, however, love my character. I'm playing an Android Envoy. I'm playing her like a bard, so think Vocaloid. Her name is Muse. I really appreciate that our current GM is flexible with how we play our characters and what we can do with them. Even if we're following a set adventure, it doesn't feel like we're being led along or shoe-horned into a particular course of action. Needless to say, I had fun. Most of our group seems pretty pleased with the Starfinder system. My participation was limited to primarily skill checks (by choice because that's how I'm playing this character) so I can't speak personally, but by the overall positive response from the others, it seems like it's a pretty solid system. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I've also been watching things. I'm slowly working my way though a bunch of things, like only watching one episode or so at a time over a longer period of time. So, if I watch 3 episodes in one evening, they're from 3 different shows. Right now I'm watching <i>Shannara</i>, <i>The Irregular at Magic High School</i>, and <i>Your Lie in April</i>. The <i>Shannara</i> series appeals to me because I read and loved the books when I was younger, and although the series follows one of my least favorite books from the series (<i>The Elfstones of Shannara</i>) it's not horrible (actually I'm kind of enjoying it, although I wish the main characters behaved a little less like teenagers). I'm still undecided on <i>The Irregular at Magic High School. </i>I'm going to give it a fair chance, but I do find the way the sister flirts with her brother a little creepy personally. I'm waiting for the plot, as I've only watched the first episode or two where they're introducing characters and setting. However, I am loving <i>Your Lie in April</i>. I think it probably appeals to me because of the music theme. I used to play music when I was in middle school and high school, and even a little in college. I have not played in a very long time. Sometimes I miss it too. I'm going to watch an episode of this when I take my break at work tonight to eat my dinner/breakfast meal thing. On this note, I'm feeling inspired to add <i>Lord of the Rings</i> and Shannara (based on books not so much the series on Netflix). I'm also considering doing some bookmarks for some of the Pern books as well. Because the world always needs more bookmarks for people like me who just cannot transition to digital books.</span><br />
<br />Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-18703925456553930122018-02-12T06:05:00.000-05:002018-02-12T06:05:40.963-05:00Developer's Notes - 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">It's been a busy 2 weeks. Ekoja and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary last week. I finally got to see <i>Thor: Ragnarok</i>. I absolutely loved it, but I will avoid gushing about that here. I also got to see the MLP movie, which was also pretty decent. I found the animation to be a little oversaturated color-wise and a little overstimulating, especially at the beginning. I still enjoyed it though. I've been busy drawing. Since I'm coming back from a 2-3 year hiatus, I have a lot of work to do to freshen up my table. I have retired most of my old prints and badges--you can purchase any old designs from my <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/GothicPanda" target="_blank">Etsy</a> at significant discount if you are interested. I am keeping some designs, mostly for those sets I plan on adding to, like the Movie Poster prints and What Would prints. Given that I have retired almost everything, though, that means I have to create a lot of new stuff now. This year's focus is going to be on creation. I will be applying to some tables, but it won't be as strong a focus as straight up creating new things for my table. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Speaking of tables, I will be attending the Asheville Anime Regional Convention at the Asheville Civic Center--which is called something else now, because people like to change names of things just to confuse old people like me. I'm excited about getting into this con. It's small, but it's in one of my favorite cities in the United States. Anyways, if you will be at the AARC, stop by my table and say hi.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">So, what am I working on? I have about 9 different print series that I am actively attempting to make progress on. A good number of these will be original designs, but there will be some fanart. Most of it will be in the form of parodies, like the What Would prints and Movie Poster prints. I am starting a new version of the Anime Tarot deck, although I think I will need to call it something else because it's going to feature characters beyond anime and video games. Would it be too awkward just to call it The Tarot Deck of Things Panda Likes? I am putting a lot of effort into the design for the new deck. The original deck was intended to be funny, but some of the cards communicated this intention better than others. I'd like the design for the new set to more clearly communicate that focus. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I have several series of original prints that I am working on. Some will be funny, and others will be more designed to be pretty. There will be several print series based around the Character Archetype badge series. I also want to do an original character series (loosely) inspired by traditional Japanese landscape painting and the fruits of the spirit from the book of Galatians in the Bible. I've found the challenge of creating characters to match different virtues both fun and frustrating. This is an idea I've had for years, but I've only recently come up with a design that I am pleased with. We won't talk about how many designs for this project I've thrown out over the years. I also have lots of designs that I like but don't think fit this project. I'm not sure what I'll do with those... I'm also doing a set of mermaids in a similar style as the fruits prints ... because, no reason other than I want to. =P I will also be revisiting the Western Zodiac designs. </span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">Beyond prints, we are redoing all of our badges. I am changing the format in which I make these. Ideally they will be easier for me to create, but the real motivation to make the change is that (assuming everything goes as planned) will open up all kinds of creative options for them that were not practical before.</span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">We are also continuing to add to our button and bookmark series. For buttons, I will be expanding my Final Fantasy series, because who doesn't need more Final Fantasy? I will also be adding a few other series, including Guardians of the Galaxy (unusual, but I was inspired...) and maybe Bravely Second. I'll be adding a 4th set of Sailor Moon bookmarks, as well as a few other bookmark sets, including Dragonlance, Firefly, and Love Live sets. </span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">And last, but not least, I am also working on art for the newest game from Team Sidequest, <i>Texas Zombie Massacre</i>. This has been a huge challenge, not just for the sheer number of cards to draw, but drawing cartoonish zombies is not something I'm super comfortable with drawing. So far, though, I'm pretty pleased with the progress. </span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">I am doing a few other things that aren't related to drawing, but I think I'll leave those for another post. I'll go into more detail on some of these projects later as well. This post is meant to be a quick overview of what drawing stuff I am planning this year. There's a lot here, and that's pretty typical of how I work. I do not focus well. I never have. If I don't have a million projects going at the same time, I start having panic attacks. Of course, so many projects does run the risk of becoming overwhelming, so it'll be an interesting balancing act. </span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #674ea7;">If you're interested in seeing WIP pictures, I post those at random on my <a href="https://www.instagram.com/gothicpandaart/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> account now rather than sharing them here. I find it easier to update there on a less static schedule than here weekly. For instance, I find it simpler to just snap a picture and share a finished sketch there rather than waiting to try and collect all the things I've worked on each week. My work schedule is very variable, so posting here consistently has proven challenging. So, anyways, follow Instagram for WIP updates, and also cats and other random things from my life. There's not much of that though. It's mostly WIP pics and cats.</span><br />
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<br />Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-87257753677726030532018-01-29T06:00:00.000-05:002018-01-29T06:00:30.585-05:00Developer's Notes - 2<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZLk71_OgWtwyTXR1wf3_O7U_Dg13QfYVy-YZfsVFJczj8sD756FBF1Xn580HzEb3DcM5WdoPH75md-P5SlD7NbC63Thk3rShfjkO6_xcZhC0-k50t7ohyphenhyphenrHU3MNgv5AZhlbX_qW6vww/s1600/Ekojaicon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZLk71_OgWtwyTXR1wf3_O7U_Dg13QfYVy-YZfsVFJczj8sD756FBF1Xn580HzEb3DcM5WdoPH75md-P5SlD7NbC63Thk3rShfjkO6_xcZhC0-k50t7ohyphenhyphenrHU3MNgv5AZhlbX_qW6vww/s1600/Ekojaicon.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">I want to tell you a little bit about
the projects I’m working on this week. There are two that are
really exciting to me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">First, I want you to imagine a city.
It’s a sprawling metropolis. Skyscrapers peer down onto a concrete
jungle where thousands of people conduct business, fall in love, and
commit crimes. Welcome to Freedom City. It’s the setting of a new
podcast series I am creating called “Manic Mysteries.” We follow
the adventures of two private detectives, Robert Stone and his
partner Styx. Robert is styled after the hard-boiled detective novels
of Dashiell Hammett. Think Sam Spade. Styx is a geek and treats most
of life like a role-playing game. I swear he’s only slightly
autobiographical. Freedom City has elements of steam punk. There’s
1950s machinery, cabs, and railcars with a dash of magic. There are
werewolves, elementals, and demon-summoning accountants. Each episode
features a new mystery.
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">My goal is write, record and publish
six episodes this year. So far I have written two and I one more in
the works. I’ve done some preliminary voice acting tests. Yes, I’m
wrangling some friends into doing this for me. I’m also looking at
good delivery tools. If nothing else, I hope to put it on the Team
Sidequest website. I plan on releasing them for free. I enjoy
writing, I make killer murder mysteries, and this is a creative
outlet for me.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">The second project is our first game:
“Texas Zombie Massacre.” There are a lot of great and bad zombie
games out there but most of them focus on survival. We decided to mix
things up. Instead of survival, the goal is to rack up points, which
are earned by the shooting zombies. It’s a card game with a touch
of tower defense mechanics. You kill zombies with guns, tanks, and
lawn mowers while knocking back moonshine in place of green herbs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">The game has been in the works for a
while. We’re happy with the general mechanics so the goal now is to
refine them and create the artwork. I am assisting Gothic Panda on
this task. As with most of our creative projects, the game is filled
with our strange sense of humor. There’s the gluten free zombie,
Rob the zombie, and a Texas speedbump (AKA: a zombie armadillo) just
to name a few of the cards.
</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Okay. I don’t want to give away too
much at this point but I will leave you with a teaser from the first
episode of Manic Mysteries.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>STYX: </b>So why are we here again?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>ROBERT: </b>Well, it might have
something to do with the corpse.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>STYX: </b>That’s a dead guy?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>ROBERT: </b>He has a dagger
protruding from his back.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>STYX: </b>I thought it might be a
throw rug. You know. A new fad. Kind of like those sleeping kittens.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>ROBERT: </b>Who would use a fake,
dead body as a living room decoration?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>STYX: </b>We’re in rich-side.
Nobody really understands these people. You’ve heard the
expression, “Those with too much money and time are likely to waste
both.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>ROBERT: </b>Too true, Styx, but I
think presence of blood and police officers suggest that we have foul
play on our hands.</span></div>
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Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-23165824060796550752018-01-15T06:00:00.000-05:002018-01-28T03:09:08.788-05:00Developers Notes - 1It's 2018. It's a new year. It's a time for new things, right?<br />
<br />
Well there are new things coming to my blog here. The biggest change is what I'm posting here and how often I'm posting. This is going to turn more into a journal of what we're doing that will be posted in weekly digests on Mondays (ideally). For more WIP pictures and slice of life randomness then find me on either Instagram or Facebook under the name GothicPandaArt. I will be sharing the writing for this with Ekoja (my husband). Most posts will be either one of us or the other, but some may be both.<br />
<br />
On that note, onward to our first post in 2018...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1kVsRKDuZUZGav-EalvDum_KpyQmBlCYHgxuiYGZX3rPU_2QRKSBI5KvRpRZpq4fxoGsrp-aIosYyZWWi31_j-x1gkmTC0nXXVdIVPADYg1fuP5tn1hP4zmcb9tQUGRIRfVJOWthQXVw/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1kVsRKDuZUZGav-EalvDum_KpyQmBlCYHgxuiYGZX3rPU_2QRKSBI5KvRpRZpq4fxoGsrp-aIosYyZWWi31_j-x1gkmTC0nXXVdIVPADYg1fuP5tn1hP4zmcb9tQUGRIRfVJOWthQXVw/s1600/avatar75px.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">If you don't already know me, I am Gothic Panda and the artist behind most everything you see in Gothic Panda Studios. I currently work full time at a 911 emergency call center at night and attempt to homeschool my 4 kids by day, and sometimes everything works, but usually it's chaos. Right now, true to my normal style, I'm working on all the projects. This includes some games, lots of prints, some buttons, some bookmarks, lots of badges, some plushies... you get the idea. I tend to be slow finishing things because I have trouble keeping my attention on any one project for any length of time. I have so many ideas and things I want to work on and I'm not good at simply picking one project and finishing it...or even picking 10 projects and finishing them. It's not too bad, though, as long as I work on things consistently. That's going to be my personal goal/resolution/thing for this year. </span><br />
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">Anyways...(I wasn't going to post an intro like that, but since Ekoja did, I feel like I have to too. XD And, yeah, we totally did not coordinate writing this joint post very well.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">2018 has started out with a bang. We attended MAGFest in National Harbor, MD over the first weekend in January. I gave my first ever panel with Ekoja. It was good experience. Giving a panel was definitely way outside my comfort zone. It didn't help that Ekoja teaches public speaking is pretty good at it, so next to him I feel like I must have looked extra... inexperienced. However, everyone we spoke to said they liked it and said I did fine (although I still have my doubts). Anyways. If anyone reading this happened to have attended MAGFest, then it was the panel on Thursday afternoon on Relationships and Gaming on playing together with your significant other. Otherwise, Ekoja participated in a couple of other MAGES panels there on Saturday. I attended a lot of panels throughout the weekend. I played lots of games. I bought stuff, including 2 more sets of dice. Did I really need more? Yes, yes I did. This should never be a question. I got some adorable chibi stickers that are now adorning my computer. Overall, I had an amazing time, and I cannot wait for next year. Secretly, I hope to be waitlisted again for this convention. =P</span><br />
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">MAGFest has definitely taken up a big part of our attention over the last 2 weeks, but there's nothing like a convention for a motivational boost to really start digging into things for the new year. More on some of our in progress projects will be coming next week. ^_^</span><br />
<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">_________________________________________________________________________________</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW77_ja4Fk3x0Mmajmz8e11aaAnDYoQM_fd1V0LHwNw69s44nR6YNb9OLsbu2N44-6T6yuadz_VLFUZVmhSB1_aHfKLN7LzKtf3i7lxhwU2MJtvRuhYBiKFoQhrZChtFjcBGKuSEzcyJE/s1600/Ekojaicon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="75" data-original-width="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW77_ja4Fk3x0Mmajmz8e11aaAnDYoQM_fd1V0LHwNw69s44nR6YNb9OLsbu2N44-6T6yuadz_VLFUZVmhSB1_aHfKLN7LzKtf3i7lxhwU2MJtvRuhYBiKFoQhrZChtFjcBGKuSEzcyJE/s1600/Ekojaicon.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Hi. I go by the nickname “Ekoja” or “Eko” for short because it is such a long name. I’m married to Gothic Panda. This is my side of the blog. I teach for a living, love to write and I’m a fan of most things geeky. Lately, I’ve been working on scripts for a podcast mystery series. I’ll talk more about that some other time. The topic for today is our recent trip to the gaming convention, Magfest. </span></span></div>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-23cd933c-f907-cf61-1302-e33cf8494355" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">I was invited to speak at the convention about seven years ago by a former student and I’m a regular panelist in their MAGES group, which is a bunch of academic and professional speakers who talk about games from game design and study perspectives. This year I was part of three panels.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The first panel was with Gothic Panda called “Gaming Together: Do Couples that Play Together Stay Together?” It was an interesting discussion that boiled down to it can and there are ways to help it. The panel went well for a Thursday event, which are usually quite small. In fact, I would say there were more people at that panel than any of the others I gave and I received more comments and questions from it too. Overall, a successful presentation. I laughed. I cried. I didn’t stick my foot too far in my mouth, and Gothic Panda was still speaking to me afterwards. I consider that an incredible success. If you get to know me, I tend to speak before thinking a lot and it gets me in trouble.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The second panel was about the mechanics of love and the third involved encouraging kinder interactions from players. This was the feel-good year of panels. They were both fun and I enjoyed the conversations with the other panelists. We attended a few fun events too including one-man performance of “Empire Strikes Back” and some Tabletop gameplay.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Gothic Panda and I also listened to a number of panels on game design and running a successful Kickstarter. They were very motivating for us to really push forward on more of our creative projects. I really want to make stuff this year. This blog is just the first step. We’ve got some great projects in the works. Hope you enjoyed our first post. Talk to you later.</span></span></div>
Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-7013500787661111942017-11-22T10:31:00.000-05:002017-11-22T10:31:08.862-05:00Missing AgainWanted to share an update. I'm not disappearing again. I've just been sick. Seasonal weather changes plus allergies has turned into a nasty sinus thing, which has completely knocked me out for the last week or so. Anyways, I'm taking a short break from blog writing while I recover my health. I am still working on some stuff to share later. It's all about priorities. I'm focusing on getting better, but not stressing about keeping up with everything until then. Looking forward to being over this and having some good stuff coming after this short break. See you on the other side!Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-71664619710071414472017-11-06T06:28:00.000-05:002017-11-06T06:28:07.276-05:00Episode 7 -- Hidden Truths<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Burn down the library to keep the Elrics away from the truth rather than a fight with Scar accidentally burning it down makes more sense to me. Gluttony aside, I feel like the homunculi are presented as clever adversaries, not opposed to destruction, but definitely aware of their resources and interested in using those resources only when needed.<br />
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Scar vs. Lust and Gluttony. He's clearly overpowered. Gluttony by himself might have been a fair fight at this point, but the two ganging up on him is not going to end well for Scar. But seeing the outcome now would be too kind.<br />
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Mustang's ambition. Clearly stated, and fairly early in the story. He's still just pushing paper at a desk, which is not super interesting, but his subplot is moving forward. The main story is clearly focused on the homunculi and the trouble they are causing, but I like that we have several subplots aside from just the Elrics trying to restore their bodies. I guess that's a bit of a small spoiler because at this stage there is no indication that Mustang's story is going to progress beyond paper-pushing.<br />
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No body and a bloody jacket. He's lost a lot of blood, but it would be too easy for Scar to be dead already. Clearly Mustang feels the same way. Scar is another fairly major character, so we wouldn't expect him to kick the bucket so soon in the story. Although several other players have been removed at this point, so anything is possible.<br />
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And Lust clears up that little question. I guess they're not going to drag that one out.<br />
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New babysitters, and another pair of side characters. I liked these two.<br />
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<3 <3 Sheska.<br />
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I find this image super funny for some reason. I have no idea why.<br />
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Mixed blessing? As much as I like Hughes, I do not think I'd like to work for him. I love Hughes' laugh as he's leaving.<br />
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Big reveal of the secret behind the philosopher's stone. Also early in the story. I definitely like the faster pace for Brotherhood.<br />
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Lololol. Armstrong passed his Intimidation check.<br />
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God's special way of torturing those who have committed tabboos. Why is this such a common theme in the way people think? That when bad things happen it must be because you've done something wrong. It's illogical, but very accurate.<br />
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It's not our fault he rolled super well on his Intimidate check.<br />
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Why do I have a feeling that I'm getting involved in something really dangerous? ... Foreshadowing. To use Hughes' words. This is a "special kind of freak show." It's really not good for normal people.<br />
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Intimidate check. Didn't do as well. The steam from the nostrils is a nice touch, but he left his shirt on. I'm pretty sure that significantly reduced his bonus to Intimidation.<br />
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Poor Al. All by himself outside. A good group would have tried to stay together because bad things always happen when people get separated. This has become a fairly solid rule in our games because more player deaths have happened because the group split and one part of it found an encounter designed for the entire group.<br />
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Hey look, it's bad things that are about to happen. XD </div>
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Next episode will start the Lab 5 episodes, my least favorite after the Liore episodes. Spoiler Lab 5 doesn't take as long in Brotherhood, which was a huge huge huge plus for me. </div>
Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-51458090998248648102017-11-03T06:00:00.000-04:002017-11-03T06:00:08.636-04:00Lana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This cat was an early birthday gift for Luke, my 14-yo son. It's a little bit like a therapy pet for him. He's been volunteering at a local no-kill all cat shelter that specializes in older cats. The shelter is filled to the brim with cats. Each room contains at least a dozen cats. Most cats are not kept in cages, and those that are in cages are usually for reasons like sickness (quarantine) or new arrivals. Lana is a 4.5 yo white and grayish brown tabby. She's super sweet, but very skittish. We don't know a lot about her background, but we think she may have been abused as a kitten based on her behavior. We have also wondered if perhaps she was left in a bag somewhere and found as a kitten because she exhibits some of the same claustrophobic behaviors our older cat <a href="http://gothicpandaart.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-tribute-to-ferret.html" target="_blank">Ferret </a>did, and he had been found in a bag on the side of the road.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDV6mT4sAWkyv0uU_vc_5QRiW_X5lhsBK-N73VdP5qWm-wwwXZXY2eSlrLJHi4YIb_72GY0rlMeXB4ws1oifIzV-m6eXCpLztQqz4pUAecO40WC3FEF1xiqOLVAVC2d30afjrqJCTctOQ/s1600/IMG_1594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDV6mT4sAWkyv0uU_vc_5QRiW_X5lhsBK-N73VdP5qWm-wwwXZXY2eSlrLJHi4YIb_72GY0rlMeXB4ws1oifIzV-m6eXCpLztQqz4pUAecO40WC3FEF1xiqOLVAVC2d30afjrqJCTctOQ/s320/IMG_1594.JPG" width="240" /></a>She's been with us for about 3 weeks, and she's been growing on me. If it had been me picking out a new cat, it would not have been this one. I've got my eye on a particularly scruffy black and white cat with gorgeous eyes. But, since this cat was for Luke, and not for me, we got Lana. She was named Ida at the shelter, and Luke would always be in her room when we'd go to pick him up. He would enjoy and spend time with all the cats in the room, but she was the one he'd always go back to. He talked about her at home (which is a huge thing because he hardly ever says anything at all unless it's to talk about a new LEGO set he wants). Shaun and I spent a lot of time talking about whether we'd do this since we'd be breaking our own long-standing rule of no pets for the kids--we would have family pets, but nothing that would be specifically for one particular kid. We eventually came to the decision we did want to get the cat for Luke for his birthday, which is coming up in December. Once we made the decision, we immediately went and signed the adoption papers for the cat even though it's only October, because, you know, it would have really sucked to have waited till December to get her on his birthday, but then have her be adopted by another family in, say, November.<br />
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Lana is already becoming part of the family. Badger and Kisa, our two family cats, are getting used to having Lana around. Lana isn't bothered by our cats; I think that can be credited to her time at the shelter where she shared a room with about a dozen other cats. I like that even though she is skittish around people, she doesn't take crap from other cats, especially Badger who can be a bit of a bully to other cats.Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-58639021145092473162017-11-01T06:00:00.000-04:002017-11-01T06:00:04.982-04:00WIP Wednesday - 2017 - Volume 16More amigurumi this week. It will probably be beyond the first of the year before I have this set and their tags ready, but I'm taking a short break from that series to make some special holiday plushies. They will be available in white, red, dark green, and green/red/white variegated with tinsel, as well as a combination of related colors. The cats and bunnies will have either red, green, white, or black eyes. My problem is that there is so many combinations and choices that I'm not sure how to put together the listings for these. I think I'll be grouping them by color type -- like single color (not variegated), two colors (not variegated), single color variegated, and two color variegated. The variegated is separate from the plain colors because that yarn costs more. But yeah. So I'm working on a set of samples to photograph for each combination. Unfortunately at this stage, I don't have much to photograph, and what I do have I left at home and I'm at work right now. Oops. So, no pictures this week, but this is what I'm working on. =)Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-84399761776050104282017-10-30T06:00:00.000-04:002017-10-30T06:00:05.113-04:00Episode 6 -- Road of HopeAt this point, the number of overlapping episodes and scenes are diminishing, so I will hopefully stop comparing to the '03 anime. I've found it really difficult to not compare, especially with these early episodes. I really think the two versions are very different beasts. I do prefer Brotherhood because I found the plot to be more robust, and the characters were over all better developed, especially the characters outside of Ed and Al. But, that doesn't mean I don't like the '03 anime. There was a lot I liked about that one as well, but where they do overlap, I do tend to prefer how Brotherhood handled the situations. Anyways... moving onward to Episode 6.<br />
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Poor Al. At least they didn't forget him this time...<br />
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Drop by next time... The feels because ... you know... there won't be a next time. T_T Since I am generally unfamiliar with the manga, the first time I watched through Brotherhood, I did hold out on a slim hope that he might not die.<br />
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Poor Ed with his left armed salute, not realizing that this is his final good bye to his friend. T_T Okay... enough of that. Moving on.<br />
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There will always be screenshots of Armstrong and his shenanigans because I love him so much, especially all the things that have been passed down the Armstrong line for generations.<br />
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Perfect example of the use of the Improvised Weapon feat (reference most versions of D&D and Pathfinder).<br />
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Hey look: it's the thing you're questing for. If the Elrics didn't have ethics, they could have walked off with this and we could have ended the show here. But, I guess that would have been a bit anti-climactic.<br />
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The one thing I did find strange about this scene, and I didn't notice it until one of my later viewings of Brotherhood, is that Al doesn't speak. At all. Especially since he's the topic of conversation for part of it.<br />
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And Al's no longer luggage. I wonder if anyone else riding on the train thought it was weird that a dis-assembled suit of armor was talking.<br />
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This is one of those places where my memory is a bit fuzzy for the '03 anime. I want to say Marco died here in the first anime. I certainly expected him to be dead in this version. At this point in the story, he'd served his relative purpose, which is to direct the Elrics toward discovering how to make a philosopher's stone.<br />
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Pinako Rockbell vs. Edward Elric. Pinako wins every time (my opinion).<br />
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Given how smug and casual Ed looks here I'd be pissed too if I was Winry. "It's basically the same, just in smaller pieces."<br />
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Yeah. He deserved that...<br />
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More backstory. I find it interesting that they go to significant effort to make sure we don't see the father's face. This is also another place I'm fuzzy on the '03 anime: were Pinako and Hohenheim drinking buddies in the '03 anime? I can't remember. It wasn't a major point if they were. Pinako is one of many characters that got more TLC in Brotherhood. She's allowed more of a role, more personality, and more depth to her character (although we don't really see that yet).<br />
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Always...<br />
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Just get used to it...<br />
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Such poise. Such emotion.<br />
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Hey... Poke. Does this bother you?<br />
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Hey. Poke. How about now?<br />
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Hey. Look at this face I can make. (What the heck kind of face is that anyways?)<br />
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How about now? Does this bother you now?<br />
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And this is why I think Ed is obnoxious, and I cried tears of joy over Brotherhood and the fact that he did not completely run the show. I also think Winry is a saint for tolerating him. This is possibly an unpopular opinion, but at this stage in the story, he's not particularly endearing to me.<br />
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I'm also a huge fan of canon pairings for most series, and this one is no exception. She's an angel, and he's the devil. Just saying.Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-44194488107336885192017-10-27T12:36:00.001-04:002017-10-27T12:36:34.010-04:00Month In Review - October 2017October is drawing to a close. This is a sad thing as October is one of my favorite months. The weather has finally started to get cooler... as in it's finally under 90 degrees. >_< I admit I really can't wait to find an excuse to move away from this area, and that has been a big part of what we've done during this month. We are slowly solidifying plans to move away, preferably back to mountains. This plan will probably take at least a couple years to get us to a place where we can pull off the move. It's a work in progress, but it's a huge thing for me. Although I love the people we've met here and the fact that I live and now work with one of my best friends, it is not where I really want to be. So, Shaun and I are working on moving. We're taking our time and finishing up a few things we want to see done before making a move--like finishing school for midwifery and getting my Etsy shop back up and running. October also has Halloween, which has always been a favorite Holiday of mine. Because I always need excuses to put on a costume.<br />
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So how has October been? It's certainly had it's ups and downs, and right now I'm fighting a sinus infection that is threatening to strike and make a mess of my plans for Halloween weekend. We are looking forward to a fun weekend. Last night my kids and husband went to our church's Reformation Day celebration. I had to miss it because I was working. Tonight, we're going to a corn maze with some good friends, which will be followed by s'mores at a bonfire. Saturday afternoon and evening will be our annual Halloween Party. It's a kid-friendly even, so we don't allow alcohol, but it is always an evening of fun. We run a costume contest, and sometimes the prize we give out is something decent. We usually run a murder mystery or some other role-playing game. This year's theme is Disney, and if we can finish it, the mystery will be "Who Killed Elsa?" and the playable characters will be a selection of the more fun Disney villains. I have to work Halloween night, but we're allowed to dress up at work, so I'm thinking I might wear my Princess Buttercup costume because it's super comfy, which is good for a 12 hour shift. I'm loving how our Halloween-ish activities are spreading out over almost a week this year.<br />
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In other news, we have a new cat in our family. She's named Lana, and I will probably put up a post in November or December all about her, otherwise she might completely take over this post. =P We've been making slow progress on all of our art projects. A lot of this month has been spent re-focusing. We had made plans back in August for what we wanted to see done this fall. I think we over-estimated what we would be able to do, since Shaun is back in school as well now (he teaches) and that stuff always ends up taking more time than we think it will when the semester is just starting. So, we re-evaluated our plans. This may sound like a little thing, but it's a big thing for me because in the past, I would just continue to try and plow through everything, getting increasingly more stressed, going without sleep, and otherwise killing my immune system.<br />
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So, anyways... November is another month I like. I'm going to have to work on Thanksgiving, so I'll have to miss out on the family festivities there, but I'll live. We're working on coming up with some things to make work that night more fun. I'm going to continue working on our projects based on our re-focusing discussions. One of my big goals is to finish cleaning out the garage enough to get a space set up to store all my inventory and set up a space for shipping things. Ideally I'd like this ready by mid-November. That might be a bit optimistic, but I'd like it done enough to have my Etsy up with some new products before the end of the year. So we'll see how this goes.Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-27523712782978580802017-10-25T06:00:00.000-04:002017-10-25T06:00:16.718-04:00WIP Wednesday - 2017 - Volume 15We've been doing a lot of work on the ties lately. I've come to the conclusion that I don't like the pattern, but I've found a material for the inside that I sort of like--although even this is less than ideal. I'm being super picky about the ties because I really want them to be awesome. We do have 2 prototypes finished that Shaun and Ty wore to a wedding recently, so although I am not satisfied with them, they are more than passable. I guess I'm just a perfectionist. =P So, I'm going to play with some different patterns and see what I come up with. We're also looking at ways to cut down on the time it takes to get everything cut out and ready to sew together. Right now, what we're doing is taking way too much time. This is a problem for 2 reasons: First, I don't have much time, so that means getting these finished is taking forever, and, second, if I want to charge for my time, then the ties are going to be way too expensive--or at least significantly more than what I want to charge for them. Anyways, here's a sneak of the two prototypes we finished, along with a test tie we made with the Zelda fabric that we screwed up printing -- the pattern is supposed to be smaller, but I uploaded the file with the wrong DPI. Oops. But we had the fabric, so why not use it? We used the Zelda fabric to test several different insides for the tie.<br />
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Gothic Pandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192603829000585239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7011478229787059218.post-59386350620720519702017-10-23T06:00:00.000-04:002017-10-23T06:00:23.966-04:00Episode 5 - Rain of SorrowsThis was the episode that made me fall in love with Brotherhood.<br />
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I'd like to say that this is unrealistic and that people wouldn't fall to violence so easily, but the more I see of the world, the easier it is to find this believable. </div>
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And we see that the happy healthy Cornello was a fraud (of a different kind), and the homunculi are the ones really calling the shots and inciting the violence. As much as I dislike what they're doing, I can't fault them for their derision of humanity. I promise I have always been this cynical, although working at the 9-1-1 call center has probably not helped.</div>
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Discussing Scar... Scar is without a doubt equal to any of these characters when it comes to combat. He is probably better than any one of them on their own. That's my opinion. Mustang is advised to lay low, as he's the only State Alchemist of note in the area. Oops. Forgot about Ed. I like how there are clean narrative transitions. The conversation naturally built to move to Ed, then cut to the next scene with Ed and Al.</div>
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So usually people have something else in mind when they say depression kills. Here it's more not being aware of or caring about your surroundings, especially not noticing the mass murderer in front of you. That kind of malaise is clearly bad for Ed's health. </div>
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I like that Ed does recognize that he doesn't try to avoid making enemies with the implication that his personality and behavior could be abrasive enough to create serious enemies. Ironically, this is probably one of the few times where Ed is legitimately not responsible for Scar's enmity. Is my bias showing? Ed isn't really one of my favorite characters. </div>
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Al's down. Ed's next. So, generally it's a good thing that Mustang remembered Ed and decided to go check on him... I sometimes wonder how Mustang would have reacted had he either forgotten Ed, or had Ed not been there, and therefore not been a concern.</div>
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Lol. Love this scene. <3 Riza so much. </div>
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And Armstrong sparkly muscle. Because I can. XD</div>
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This was one of the first places I noticed that whoever choreographed the combat put some effort into differentiating fighting styles. Armstrong fights using boxing stances and strategy, which really suits his build and combat style. For me, details like this are big. </div>
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Du-duh. Foreshadowing. So, just to note, although I will try to avoid spoilers, I'm going to assume that most people reading this will have seen the '03 anime, and knows where Hughes's story goes. If not, ready any part referencing him at your own risk, because there are indirect spoilers. Hughes should take his own advice. Getting messed up with this pack of superhuman freaks will be bad for his health. Interestingly, he's referring to alchemists, but that statement could just as easily apply to the homunculi.</div>
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Extra special freak show and it's only going to get worse from here. Take my advice: just go home. But then he'd feel bad because the extra crazy ones are just a pair of kids, and if he went home, it would make him look bad. Sometimes people can be so irrational. There's nothing wrong with turning tail when you're dealing with something beyond your means to handle. </div>
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Backstory/exposition time. I like the muted tones added to the flashbacks to the war. I like that generally. I'm not sure I like the color differentiation with the red tones for the Ishvalans and blue for the Amestrians. On the one hand it does serve to clearly show who's on which side, but I also find that I don't like the red for the Ishvalans. Clearly they are set up as victims, and red is the color of blood--and their blood flowed freely during the conflict. However, red is a color traditionally associated with evil. So, I think they should have all had purple eyes, and used purple colors in the back stories.</div>
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Again, discussion that transitions to the next thing. This time, it is Ed discussing fixing his arm (and Al), which means, it's time to visit Winry. I wonder if she got one of those chills that means someone's talking about you somewhere... or someone's walking on your grave... </div>
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