Tombworld

NYAPOCALYPSE

2012-02-07T02:53:00.002-05:00

HELP I'VE BEEN TRAPPED IN AN ENDLESS YOUTUBE LOOP FOR 3 HOURS AND EVERYTHING IS NYAN

Love!

2012-02-06T22:42:00.000-05:00

I have the coolest readers ever! Seriously, you guys are not only considerate and sincere but you actually managed to make me feel guilty about how hard I was being on myself. So from the depths of my <3, thanks to everyone who kept checking my blog even after a year and a half of silence, everyone who comments, reads, subscribes, and everyone who stuck with me, even though I am a huge sentimental procrastinating doofus.

I love you, internet!

Maybe now I will be brave enough to face my email inbox...

Nope.

On a Serious Note: My Formal Apology

2012-02-03T00:06:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, this probably comes as a massive shock since it's been over a year and a half since my last post, but it's really me, Zephri, and I'm seriously still alive and nerdy as ever. I'm sorry I completely dropped off the face of the planet and just disappeared from the blogging circuit so suddenly, it's very complicated, but long story short, some shit happened, my dad had a stroke, and I kind of just mentally checked out for a long time. He's okay now, and so am I, but even if I had had a working computer (the ol' MacBook Pro finally gave out on me a while back) to post, it wasn't really at the top of my priorities, and by the time he got better, schoolwork eased up on me, and I got a new computer, it had been such a long time since I posted that I opted to hide and pretend my blogging responsibilities didn't exist rather than explain my absence. Not to mention that between stress and not having a computer, I wasn't really able to find time for many things worth posting about, I haven't played a game of 40K in months, despite the fact that Paul keeps reminding me how ridiculous the new Necron codex is.

Anyway, I'm trying hard not to make too many excuses just to curb my guilt at leaving you all hanging with not even a word of where I'd gone, to an extent, some of my absence was voluntary. A while back I noticed the reference to me in another Bell of Lost Souls article that implied I was basically a gimmick for site hits and didn't even play anymore. After my initial furious retort, I calmed myself down enough to realize that it was at least partially true, no one really cared who I was or what I had to say about the game, the only reason I had got that interview was for being a girl. Not for being clever or witty or a brilliant strategist (though none of those things I actually claim to be), just for being born one gender rather than another and bothering to learn the rules of a tabletop game. It was extra insult to injury when the author of the article mentioned above backpedaled so fast after I called him out on not getting his facts straight that he actually had the nerve to ask for a follow up interview for BoLS on the whole ordeal. I never responded.

That first article garnered me enough attention, not always the friendly kind, and sometimes too friendly, that I became a bit overly skeptical with the whole thing and decided in my frustration that I was probably better off just disappearing than spending every day trying to read between the lines of comments and emails to discern who actually liked me and who was only interested in the waves I'd caused by simply being female. Now, this isn't to say that I'm accusing any of you of such things because it was mostly my own paranoia and insecurity, I honestly did enjoy writing and receiving all your feedback and advice. It's just that I thought I was helping the gamer girl community progress forward by stepping up to be their voice on BoLS, but it turns out that not only did I have delusions of grandeur, I probably ended up hurting the situation a lot more than anything with my naivety on the nature of that article.

So I handled this whole situation pretty terribly by just dropping everything and running away from it as soon as it became too much and I just wanted to apologize for it all, even if no one even reads this blog anymore, I at least got it all off my chest. I don't know if I'm going to return to blogging, I have plenty of new things in my life to talk about but not much of it is Warhammer-related anymore and the entire premise that this thing started from doesn't make me feel like the most honest or deserving person. Mostly I'm just too scared that you all will resent me for everything thus far and I'll never be taken seriously as anything but a gimmick in the online 40K community ever again. But I felt like I owed you all at least this much.

Science!

2010-06-28T02:51:00.000-04:00

I had my birthday party this past Friday, it was a joint 21st party with my friend Katie and the theme was Made in the 80s since we were both born in 1989. Of course my friends are all nerds and about an hour into the party one of my friends in the physics department shows up with a tub of dry ice and a container of liquid nitrogen, how cool is that? So the party went from 80s to a geeky science party pretty fast, but it was awesome regardless. We put dry ice in our drinks and froze oreos with liquid nitrogen, it kept everything chilly and we looked totally boss.

My friend Sean and my roomie Jeslyn, rockin' out 80s style.

We were talking about awesome themes for parties and decided that we now have to do a mad science party in the future, lab coats and goggles all around! Of course we'll get more dry ice, and a friend told me ThinkGeek sells this awesome cocktail chemistry set. Themed parties are always the best, it's like Halloween any time you want. What's the coolest idea for a themed party you can think of?

Trailers Galore

2010-06-17T12:01:00.000-04:00

With the arrival of E3 suddenly all these trailers and teasers are floating about on the internet for a million games I'm dying to play, not the least of which is Space Marine, which promises to be amazing. I've been following this one since last year's E3, and I'm glad to hear it was picked up again, because the gameplay looked absolutely phenomenal then, it's sure to be even better now. I understand why they went with Ultramarines, they're practically the poster child for 40K, but I'd hoped for a little more variety. It wouldn't be totally unusual for Relic, considering they went with the lesser known Blood Ravens for Dawn of War II. Either way, it's totally irrelevant because there seems to be a 40K MMO in the works, let's just hope Dark Millennium Online doesn't go the way of Warhammer Online. However, with a trailer like this, my hopes are high.

What the heck is that Warhound doing running around crushing people? I mean, I know that's what Warhounds are supposed to do, but still, holy crap. I'm excited because I have a hole left in my life from quitting World of Warcraft, a space that can only be filled by an MMO, but until Old Republic comes out next spring, there doesn't seem to be anything on the horizon. Though props to that guy in the trailer going at a Sith with a combat knife, that takes some balls. I've still got my fingers crossed to play as Togruta, I already know Twi'Lek are available, but Shaak Ti has always been one of my favorite characters.

Speaking of Star Wars, a bunch of trailers, gameplay and screenshots for The Force Unleashed II were... unleashed... and it looks to promise even crazier force powers and saber-chucking stunts than the last, if that's even possible. The trailer looks great, lots of suspense, combat, and a really big surprise. But as far as trailers go, this one really takes the cake (and that's no lie).

Give you the chills, doesn't it? I already read the review of it in Game Informer a couple months back, and it looks like Portal 2 is going to give us much of what was loved about the first game in a new but eerily familiar environment. What I look forward to most, however, is not the amazing gameplay or enthralling plot, it's listening to GLaDOS' witty, psychotic banter again. For science, you monster.

There's a lot more games from E3 I'm excited for, like Fable 3, Final Fantasy XIV, Infamous 2, Metroid Other M, Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword (Link has pants, wtf is up with that?), Lord of the Rings War in the North, Project Dust, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, and Fallout: New Vegas. There's also some little rumors going around about Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 in 2011, but with all these awesome new games and sequels coming out, will I even have time?

My Sketchbook

2010-06-14T09:10:00.000-04:00

For my birthday I got this really pimpin' Canon scanner/printer, and I gotta say, it's really nice to finally have a way to save my sketchbooks digitally, my bookshelf is really getting full. Now I just need to find a new pen for my Wacom Intuos 3 tablet, unfortunately they don't make 3's anymore, and with the price of the pens on Amazon and eBay, I might as well get a new tablet. Being in graphic design is expensive. :(

But here's some little doodles from my sketchbook I wanted to share, I picked out all the ones with nerdy references since this blog is for nerdy things, so they're mostly cartoons.


A little excerpt from our adventures in my online 3.5 D&D campaign I do with 2 of my friends. I play a Halfling scout/ranger that rides a dog, Rob is a Draconic dragon shaman and Brian is a Elf wizard.

Just some doodles of my characters through the years. Rasputin is from Shadowrun, Macintosh is a tech priest from Rogue Trader, Willa Lillywick is a Halfling scout/ranger from 3.5 D&D, Arka is a Half-Orc Barbarian from 4.0 D&D and Arkaidy and Zephri are my Belf shadow priest and Draenei holy paladin from WoW. Then there's me, I like salmon, and I also put phox-chan in there because I came up with her when I was 11 and she still counts.

Blogger is spy!

Koska Von Thaler, alias Rasputin, from Shadowrun. She's like if you crossed the Heavy from TF2 with a black market organs smuggler that has the disposition of that creepy guy in a trench coat trying to sell you fake watches. Miniguns are win.

Mortal Kombat

2010-06-10T23:41:00.000-04:00

So I just realized I start off pretty much everyone of my blog posts with "So..." Well, anyway...

I just caught this earlier today on a blog I read, it's supposedly just a proof of concept trailer and hasn't been picked up by a studio yet, but it's already caused a lot of commotion on the interwebs. Personally, I think it looks interesting, if not a bit over the top. It does seem they're trying to make way too much character development in a movie that should really be just about people getting their asses kicked by Scorpion. But honestly, if it made it to theaters I'd go see it, and I'd probably like it.

What are your thoughts, should this trailer go anywhere or is it better that they just let it die now?

Birthday Girl

2010-06-07T14:19:00.001-04:00

Today is my birthday (hooray!) and in addition to making up for the lack of 40K-related things in a supposed 40K-related blog, I'm now officially 21, so here's something awesome that fits both those themes.

I'm having a joint birthday party with a friend of mine who also turns 21 in a week, and we went with an 80's theme, so that's a day of sequins and hairspray to look forward to. Speaking of themed parties, I went to a friend's classy dress party in some totally kickin' attire.

(Left to Right) My roommate Jeslyn, her boyfriend Andrew (his party), Me, Vicky, and Andrew's roommate Ryan.

For one brief, yet glorious moment, I knew what it was like to have a truly epic 'stache. Then I tried to drink with it on and it was wet and tasted like ginger ale for the rest of the night. Oh well, some things are just not meant to be.

Abaddon Books

2010-06-07T02:58:00.000-04:00

So following my sudden internet fame when my post on the first page was me mourning the time lost to trying to read a zombie romance novel (in my defense, I thought it would be more comedic than anything), David Moore, an editor for Abaddon Books, contacted me and asked if I was interested in reviewing a comp copy of Hungry Hearts, another zombie romance novel. With it, he was generous enough to send me three other books to read, all about my great obsession, zombies.

I read Hungry Hearts by Gary McMahon first (points for intriguing cover art), and I can't decide what surprised me more, the disturbing lack of cliche romance or the disturbing amount of violence and gore. Either way, it was pretty disturbing, if ever disturbing could be taken as a compliment. There were a few parts that were almost too much for me, and that says a lot, coming from such a connoisseur of the undead, but overall I'd say this book gives you everything you'd expect from a zombie romance novel and then some. A few truly grotesquely descriptive scenes I just had to pass around the dinner table with friends, needless to say, many appetites were lost. I must caution, however, that this book has some very mature content, and I strongly recommend you not put it on your reading list if anything about said topics makes you squeamish. When I say anything, I mean anything, it's really what you would expect in a steamy... er... clammy zombie romance.

I also read I, Zombie by Al Ewing to bring the zombie novel marathon full circle, and I was delightfully surprised. Like most people, I have the unfortunate mannerism of judging a book by it's cover, and I admit I picked out this book of the four first based solely on its very bizarre art. I wondered how all these things on the cover could possibly come together in one story rationally, but Ewing actually pulled it off in a very unique and captivating tale. I can't really tell you anything to prove how awesome a story this turned out to be without spoiling the whole thing, but I will say that zombie samurais, werewolves, and insectoid alien chestbursters are all involved, how can it not be amazing? The ending is a tad of a cliffhanger, and I will reveal there is a teeny bit of world-ending apocalypse involved, but it works out, don't worry, besides, what kind of zombie novel is complete without some risk of human extinction. The best part of this book is all the twists, it gives you a seemingly simple concept, a sentient zombie that works as a mercenary/detective, but that concept is but the candle on top of a giant cake that secretly holds a really hot stripper, and she jumps out with the keys to a Ferrari then you all go out for ice cream and puppies. Then your head explodes. M. Night Shyamalan's got nothing on this book, it's just a series of incredibly weird and outrageous events that continue to break every stereotype you had about the science fiction genre until you can never look at zombies the same way again. If you liked War of the Worlds, this is a must read for you, it draws a lot of similarities, while still remaining very original and interesting. Overall, I can't really describe this book without "WTF?!"

Prince of Persia

2010-06-07T01:17:00.002-04:00

So I went to see Prince of Persia tonight, if only to prove myself right in assuming it would be horrible and a disgrace to the video game series. Well, I've never been more satisfied to be wrong about a movie, it was actually pretty decent overall. I know a lot of you gamers were disappointed in the casting of this movie, and my inner culture nerd cried a little bit at the lack of anything resembling an actual Persian in this movie, but inaccuracies aside, still okay. Not amazing, but a pretty good, all-around average action movie. It's saving grace was the amazing stunts and parkour-style choreography, some of the roof-hopping chase sequences were absolutely incredible. They could probably have just made 2 hours of some scruffy looking guy clambering all over buildings and jumping into hay wagons and called it Assassin's Creed the Movie, I'd watch it. Other than the movie being meh, it was also pretty predictable, but as it was pointed out to me, when you go into it knowing the movie's about time travel and important people start dying, there's really only so many ways it can end. I just can't believe how many scenes there were with Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arteron almost kissing there were, I mean really. I wish I knew more about the game series to comment on it's accuracy, but from what I know, there's really no way something from Disney could have done a revolutionary video game franchise proper justice. Lately, they've been bastardizing my childhood with the rumors about the new Spiderman so they're officially on my bad side.

Movie averageness aside, I've had the bizarre, unfortunate luck of being in a theater not once, but twice, this week alone, with a crying kid. First time was a theater up in D.C. when I saw Iron Man 2 (great sequel, but I didn't feel it necessary to blog about it and tell everyone since you all probably already know and I saw it pretty late for it to be news) and the theater actually cheered when a dozen people got up and had to get the manager to remove the lady and her kid. Tonight it was a family with like 6 kids, one of them was a crying baby and the other was this toddler that kept running up and down the aisles and stopping at our seats to stare at us for some reason. Seriously people, you're responsible (or not) enough to have children, you may be able to tune them out just from being around them 24/7, but the rest of us don't have that luxury. Ok, end rant.

This looks like a pretty good year for summer blockbusters! I'm so excited for Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not to mention A-Team, and I'm probably gonna go see Despicable Me, too, being the huge Steve Carell fan I am. I have mixed feelings about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as it has Michael Cera in it (ugh), but also looks like a genuinely unique story and the possibility for some really great action scenes.

DC Comicon

2010-05-02T16:45:00.000-04:00

So since I slept through most of Free Comic Book Day I swung by the D.C. branch of Comicon this afternoon up at George Mason University. Other than getting lost on their crazy circular campus roads for a good half an hour, it was pretty cool. I picked up some old 1990 Batman issues (good thing I had a friend there to borrow money from) for a Batfan friend of mine's birthday coming up and Jo Chen was there, the lady who does the Runaways covers that make me drool. Chen was really nice, and I got a good look through of her prints, I really wish I hadn't forgotten my wallet in the car and could have bought a couple. Check out her DeviantART gallery, too, she's totally amazing. Unfortunately there was a total lack of booth babes, very disappointing. :(

Clash of the Titans

2010-04-11T01:56:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately, Clash of the Titans wasn't playing in 3D IMAX anywhere local (I'm not sure if it was available in 3D IMAX anywhere to begin with), so I saw it in 3D in a really big theater, which I guess is kinda close. Anyway, overall, I was pretty disappointed with the movie, my biggest reason being the entire plot was extremely serendipitous, it was just one fortuitous coincidence after another. Of course, it is Greek mythology, which by near definition is always serendipitous without explanation, I know that pretty well, being named after a Greek epic, I've read a lot on it. So going into it knowing my mythology more than the average Joe, I will give them credit that they got the facts (or fiction, in this case) down more or less throughout the whole thing, and they did give good nod to the old 1981 movie.

I don't know if it was seeing this movie after being so pleased with How to Train Your Dragon, or being warned by my friend Rush in advance that it wasn't that great, but I'm pretty sure I went into this movie with the wrong attitude. I can see where this had all the intentions of being an awesome movie, but the whole time I found myself nitpicking little things, like continuity errors, plot holes, the way you could never tell what was going on because the camera was all over the place, or that there was a ludicrous amount of glow effects used every time gods were even vaguely involved. Plus, as cool as I think 3D is, and I mean as an added dimension of depth, not as a crutch for an already crappy movie, I don't know if it was well executed in this movie. 3D glasses have a bit of a dark tint to them, and this movie had plenty of dark scenes, so those moments when I had no idea what was going on, were made worse by the fact I felt like I was watching the movie in the dark on an old Game Boy screen. All complaints aside, it was still full of plenty of incredible special effects, fast-paced action, and Liam Neeson in all his sparkly glory, so not a total loss.

There's not much plot to this movie, and it's an old story, but for all my griping, I'd still recommend this to anyone who enjoys some good ol' giant monsters, epic battle, apocalyptic heavy action and doesn't give a crap about the plot. For the rest of you, wait and rent it. I really doubt anyone's going to be at the water cooler come Monday saying, "Oh my GAWD, did you see that movie Clash of the Titans? It's the better than Lord of the Rings AND Star Wars!" Besides, if you do ever hear someone saying anything like that, you should promptly punch them in the eye just on policy.

On a side note, this movie is way better than what the rest of the kids at my school were doing this weekend.

Oldschool Dr. Horrible

2010-04-08T19:49:00.000-04:00

So this has been floating around the internet for less than a week and it's already a huge hit so I thought I'd share. If you haven't seen the viral awesomeness that is Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, I highly suggest you go to Hulu right now and check it out, it's incredible, and besides, this video will make pretty much no sense if you don't know it. So this guy, Doctor Octoroc, made a version of Dr. Horrible in the style of an old 8-Bit Nintendo game, right down to the soundtrack. Check out the news on this amazing homage on the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game website, and if you haven't seen it already, enjoy!

How to Train Your Dragon

2010-04-06T00:09:00.000-04:00

AMAZING. This movie was one of the best I've seen this year by far, and to top off the incredible plot, voice acting, and scenery, it looks spectacular in 3D. I know this is probably a hard sell for you hardcore action movie fans, but I very highly recommend dishing out the extra buck and seeing it in theaters. The animation is beautiful, the story is an old one, but delivered in such a charming way with such compelling characters you barely notice, plus the ending is very satisfying. Sure, it's predictable, and a lot of it's sell comes from the goofy main character's awkward charisma and his absolutely adorable but mischievous dragon companion, but it's just one of those movies you can't help but walk away from smiling.

I know a lot of great-looking movies came out this week, but if you can, try and spare just one and a half hours and a few bucks for this movie, I think you'll be surprised. I'm traveling up to D.C. to see Clash of the Titans in IMAX this weekend, because for some reason the theater here isn't even playing it in 3D, and then hopefully, Kick Ass some time soon after that. I haven't heard anything particularly shocking about either movie, they both seem to be like everyone expected. Clash of the Titans will still be a great action movie, and I look forward to it, but Kick Ass has been getting some mixed, if not leaning towards negative, reviews, on account of being a tad overdone and on the uninteresting side for a "superhero" movie. We'll see, but I hope I'm as surprised by both as I was by this movie.

Pokemans and Pokeladies

2010-03-21T17:46:00.004-04:00

If you haven't guessed from the title, this is why I haven't been posting lately, or doing much of anything really. Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver came out a week ago on Sunday, right on the last day of Madicon. So I went from being really busy with real things to being even busier with digital things. I got SoulSilver, in case anyone was wondering, mostly because, well, it's way more awesome. Lugia is a certified B.A.M.F.

Also, this PokéWalker is pretty pimpin, it means I can keep my awesome level 28 Mudkip with me at all times. No, I won't make him evolve, then he wont be Mudkip anymore, and in case you haven't heard, I liek Mudkips. I actually found myself choosing to walk to places more often, just to get steps on my PokéWalker, which I'm not sure yet if that's really good or just really sad. I can't tell if the PokéWalker is a sign of Nintendo's never ending crusade to make gamers more active or an attempt at completely taking over the small places in our lives when you couldn't even pull out a DS.

There's really no point in reviewing this game, considering if you're interested in it, chances are you already have it or are going to get it. It's pretty much exactly like the original Gold and Silver, but with prettier graphics, and you can trade with 3rd and 4th gen games, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, because if you played the original Gold and Silver, like me, you know they were awesome, and playing them again now that I'm not 11, is even more awesome. This game plus added bonus of the PokéWalker is totally worth the 40 bucks, assuming Pokémon is your kind of idea of an exciting week spent with your thumbs glued to a DS and avoiding all that work you have to do...

Repo Men

2010-03-21T17:14:00.001-04:00

So I know I'm a bit overdue on a couple posts, which I'll explain why later, but I went to see Repo Men yesterday and I still can't decide if I liked it as a whole or not. It's one of those movies that was totally boss until the last 30 seconds, then it threw all this stuff in my face that I didn't want to see and ruined the entire movie. Never have I ever gone from being so ecstatically happy with the ending of a movie, to near breaking down crying in the theater, which, for the record, I haven't done since V for Vendetta (totally acceptable). I can see where some people would think the ending was awesome, and a huge dramatic twist, but if I wanted to have one of those OMGWTF moments I would have gone and seen The Happening again and proceeded to smash my face into my television repeatedly for making myself watch The Happening again. Anyway, it's one of those things you have to see for yourself, but I'm sorely tempted to suggest to everyone that you walk out 5 minutes before the credits.

Horrible ending aside, the movie was spectacular. Never did I think I would get so excited to see Jude Law beat in someone's skull with a ball-peen hammer. So after this movie and having seen his amazing role in Sherlock Holmes (which could have been a really boring, unimpressive movie if not for the phenomenal acting on the parts of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, but that's another story) I think I'm going to have to admit that Jude Law is my favorite actor of all time, or at the very least in my top 2, my best friend is a bit of a Downey Jr. fiend and it rubs off on you after a while. Forest Whitaker is also in this movie, which is an added bonus, because for some reason I actually really liked The Last King of Scotland, and normally I can't stand dramas unless they have a ton of huge explosions or blood and guts. So because I really loved everything about this movie except that stupid thing at the end, I have to highly recommend it with all my extensive knowledge of movies that comes from having lived and worked in a video store for the good part of my adult life: this movie is really freaking sweet.

The next movies I'm really excited for are Clash of the Titans on April 2nd (yeah, the poster is wrong) and How to Train Your Dragon on March 26th, both in 3D. Clash of the Titans, is self explanatory, that trailer with The Used practically made me wet myself, but How to Train Your Dragon might come as a bit of a surprise. Truth be told, I pretty much have the mentality of an 8 year old boy, I like playing with Hot Wheels and Legos almost as much as I like smashing them with something really heavy, and I think dinosaurs are like the coolest thing ever since Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. So I still get really excited over things that are just flat out awesome, like dragons, vikings, and cartoons. And this movie is all of those things AND Gerard Butler. End of story.

I'm not super stoked about the 3D thing like most people seem to be, I mean yeah, Avatar looked amazing, but that was because Avatar actually was amazing, the 3D glasses just made it feel more like an acid trip than a movie. I have yet to see the new Alice in Wonderland, mostly because I think Tim Burton has become somewhat of a pushover and is just reusing both his material and Johnny Depp just to get more merch sales at Hot Topic. You can put on a pair of 3D glasses and look at a pile of the same old of crap, but in the end, you're still looking at a pile of crap with a pair of really dorky glasses on.

Other movies to look forward to are Kick-Ass on April 16th (even though I hate Nicholas Cage), Iron Man 2 on May 7th, Robin Hood on May 14th, George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead on May 28th, The A-Team on June 11th, The Last Airbender on July 2nd, Predators on July 7th, and Tron: Legacy on December 17th.

Madicon Day 1

2010-03-13T01:46:00.000-05:00

First day of Madicon 19 is over and so far it's been awesome. The con opened at 11 PM and went til midnight and I was there the whole time, mostly in the wargaming room, painting some minis. My workshop went pretty well, I taught some people some stuff but mostly I just hung out with some more experienced players just looking for something to do. Here's some pictures from later in the day.

The Science Fiction Fantasy Guild's charity of choice is the Wildlife Center of Virginia, and they come visit Madicon every year to give a little presentation. They bring rescue animals, usually predatory birds, this one is Buzz, the great horned owl.

A lot of people dressed up for the Nerd Auction, where a dance with a nerd was auctioned off per person for our charity, the Wildlife Center. This is Brian (left) in the kilt I got him for Christmas, my roommate-to-be Jeslyn (middle) as sexy female Spock, and Andrew (right) as Zapp Brannigan from Futurama.

John (my aforementioned Rogue Trader GM and one of my D&D players) was MCing the Nerd Auction, which, of course, calls for some classy attire. He happened to have a top hat in his car, and I always have my trusty monocle on hand for such occasions. I went for around $26 in the auction, to a visiting member of the 501st, who was really nice.

After the Nerd Auction, Atomfest played a few songs for us to redeem our purchased dances to, I was glad to hear them play, they're all good friends of mine and they're doing really well as a band.

I have another workshop tomorrow around 7 PM, after the tournament, which I am still going back and forth about entering since my army isn't 100% assembled yet. There's also a costume contest, Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament, and a couple one-shot campaigns I'm interested in, so lots more to look forward to.

Madicon!

2010-03-12T10:13:00.002-05:00

It's the first day of Madicon 19 today, huzzah! The first half of my basic miniatures painting workshop is today from 3-5 PM, but I might be tempted to cut it a little short since the Guitar Hero tournament starts around 4... The scheduling has been kind of hectic, but oh well. The costume contest is tomorrow, I'm thinking I might go home and get my old Zoey costume since my friend that dressed as Silk Spectre with me is going as female Spock. Anyway, I'll post more about the con later tonight after day one ends at midnight, hopefully with pics!

WIP Commissar

2010-03-08T03:49:00.003-05:00

I mentioned before that the director of Madicon 19 hired me to paint the prize miniatures for the Warhammer 40K tournament. Here's the almost finished 2nd place prize Commissar in all his badassitude. He still needs base terrain, which I haven't really decided on yet, probably some sort of desert or rocky stuff.

Chaos VS Darkspawn

2010-03-06T01:07:00.006-05:00

Dragon Age: Origins and Dawn of War II are two of my favorite games of all time, but unfortunately, it turns out the release dates for the expansions Chaos Rising and Awakening are a mere five days apart. Personally, I haven't decided if I'm getting one or the other (or both) yet, but here's the rundown.

Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising comes out in less than 6 days, on March 11th, with a $29.99 price tag, bringing Chaos Space Marines into the mix. Unfortunately, the single player campaign is still Blood Ravens only and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of content outside of new missions. Fortunately, the expansion does upgrade the existing armies with the introduction of the Space Marine Librarian, Ork Weirdboy, Eldar Wraithguard, and Tyranid Genestealer Brood and Tyrant Guard. Normally when I play DoWII, I go Eldar, so this news is kind of meh, and on top of that, I'm not really as big on Chaos Space Marines as I am Chaos Daemons or Dark Eldar, and no one's even heard a word about poor Necrons.For pre-ordering Chaos Rising on Steam or through Gamestop, you get Saints Row 2 free, which is some totally unrelated GTA knockoff from last year, so also meh. However, this game has absolutely phenomenal multiplayer, and I know pretty much everyone and their grandmas will be getting it, so I really hate being left out. Good news is, you don't have to get the expansion to play with people who have it, you just wont be able to play as CSM or go through the new campaign levels, so if you just play multiplayer and Chaos isn't your thing (like me) then it's easier to save that 30 bucks and wait for something better.

Awakening comes out on March 16th, and also looks to be equally awesome and disappointing. The story takes place after the end of Dragon Age: Origins, and gives players the option of either importing an existing character or starting anew as a Grey Warden from Orlais. It centers around a mysterious figure known as the Architect (read the 2nd Dragon Age book, The Calling, I highly recommend it.) and incorporates five new recruitable party members as well as cameos of some old faces. The biggest letdown of this expansion is that it seems to have a total lack of content anywhere near different from the last game, and is actually missing quite a few components that made the original so amazing. Yeah, you get new spells, a few new specializations,but there's no new origin stories, no romances (preexisting or not) at all, and you can't even use your DLC or promotional collectors items. On top of that, the expansion is a whopping $39.99 and you get absolutely nothing for pre-purchasing it except a facepalm when you see it on sale for $10 cheaper a week later. Overall, unless this expansion has some mind-blowing new adventures and plot twists, it's going to feel like a hastily finished cheap ploy at riding the publicity wave the original created.

As silly of a question it is to ask an audience that is predominantly 40K players, what video games are making their way onto your shelf this March, if any at all?

Facepalm

2010-03-04T19:10:00.001-05:00

So I was walking to Five Guys for lunch the other day and I parked the Zephrimobile next to this car with a baseball cap sitting in the back windshield. I took one look at it and was like "Man, this guy must really like Ultramarines" then immediately facepalmed. It was the Indianapolis Colts.

I don't pretend to know much of anything about any kind of sport, but I can hold enough of a conversation about football to know who the Colts are, especially considering this past Superbowl. Seriously though, the thing I feel most stupid about is not realizing the similarity sooner.

Now I feel silly, but I know what will make this better.

Not Even Close

2010-02-27T18:04:00.000-05:00

So attempt two at defeating my epic level 3.5 party didn't go over as well as expected. The first thing they faced was the Great Wyrm Gold Dragon like I planned, and it held them off pretty well for a while. I had him standing in a ring of protection spells, like protect from evil and such, and that kept the Fiend of Possession living in the Berserker's sword away for a good while. Holy Word seemed to work extremely well against them, if only because it has the chance of banishing the fiend for 24 hours (which it didn't), but after I buffed up the dragon and debuffed down the party, he didn't have much to hit them hard with and the Berserker killed him the next turn anyway.

Then the Mindflayer Sorcerer riding a Great Wyrm Black Dragon Dracolich (as per the poll results) flies in before they have time to heal and starts messing with them. I made the mistake of not keeping them far enough away because I wanted them to be close enough to cast Earthbind and Grease (25 ft range) on the Berserker, but unfortunately he frenzied and the fiend cast enlarge on him (making him around 50 ft tall) and cut the gap between them too fast.

My major problem throughout the fight was keeping the Master of the Unseen Hand (who is an incorporeal ghost) from picking the Mindflayer up off the Dracolich and flinging him into the air. He failed twice, then the Berserker killed the Dracolich, but the Mindflayer had his phylactery so he just instantaneously took over the Gold Dragon's body and kept going. As they were about to make a run for it, the ghost cast flesh to stone on the Mindflayer and he failed his save, so he turned into a statue and then was thrown from the dragon's back by the same telekinesis spell that was giving me problems earlier. He fell to the ground as the Dracolich was fleeing, but didn't die, and the Dracolich just left him there with his phylactery in a panic.

So they broke off the Mindflayer's stone limbs and threw him in a bag of holding to turn back to normal and interrogate later, and possibly use the phylactery to try and control the Dracolich, but I probably wont let him show up again for a while anyway. So my main problems with fighting this party has been mostly just being able to cause damage to them in the short amount of time before the Berserker destroys whatever it is I send. He has pretty much no AC, so it's not a problem of hitting him, but more like getting around all the abilities and items he has to avoid damage, like a ring of blinking, where half the time any attack just misses him completely. He's also immune to anything except magic weapons or spells, and has a ridiculously high fortitude save, as well as being unable to die from instantaneous death effects (which I think would be a cheap shot anyway).

I think I need to find a way to force the fiend and the ghost out of the Berserker's body and just deal with them head on, because without them, the Berserker is manageable. Only the fiend is evil aligned, the ghost is true neutral, so protection from evil works on only one of them, and as long as the ghost is ghost riding inside the Berserker's body I can't really target him directly. I also need to find a way to make a monster immune to telekinesis and flesh to stone, because that was super annoying. Anyway, thanks everyone for your help and for voting in the poll, I'll have a new one up really soon in preparation for next week's session.

Moar Bronzecrons

2010-02-25T00:39:00.000-05:00

The new USB cable for my camera finally came in the mail today so now I can upload some of the pictures I took of my WIP bronze Necrons. Unfortunately the cable seems to already be broken and is having trouble staying connected long enough for me to look through my photos. That's what I get for ordering it from some sketchy camera cable company online, I suppose. Anyway, I've made a few changes to my initial idea of oxidized bronze and so far I'm pretty happy with it. The painting on this first one's a little sloppy but you get the idea.

I took Nick's advice and replaced the plastic rods with bent paperclips to simulate a lightning, or plasma-like effect instead, like this guy but less crazy with the OSL. So then I had a lot of green rods left over, and since I already make crystals for terrain out of all the leftover rod sprues, I figured I'd make some nice little crystals for the warriors themselves. I got the idea to have them growing out of the actual Necron from Andy, who suggested that the oxidation be beneficial for them, like microscopic bacteria, instead of actual verdigris since hypothetically living metal can't rust. So far it looks great, and I no longer feel like my army is missing something visually. The only obstacle before me now is the Monolith and how to make it fit in with the rest of the army. I'm hesitant to paint over the clear green door and crystal since i don't like the look of the repainted rods and I have a feeling it would be similar. But I'm also at a loss as to what to replace them with and still have that Necron feel.

I also tested the bronze look out on a Destroyer to see if it looked just as good. He has yet to have his cannon added because I haven't decided if I want to try and convert the ones from my batteforce box into Heavy Destroyers to save money. My army list has been fluctuating a lot in preparation for the tournament at Madicon and because of all the helpful feedback I've been receiving in emails and comments from you guys.

Speaking of Madicon, I've got a quick little tidbit of news that I'll post more on later, but I've been hired to paint two miniatures as 1st and 2nd prize for the 40K tournament. I was given a Chaos Terminator Lord for 1st and a Commissar for 2nd, so expect progress pics and more info soon. I'm still running that workshop on basic miniature painting the day of the tournament (March 13th) with the possibility of additional panels on the other two days as well, probably also about 40K. I'd love to see lots of new faces and have lots of competition in the tournament, so if you're going to be in the Virginia area March 12th-14th please stop by!

100 Thank Yous

2010-02-23T21:22:00.000-05:00

Tombworld hit 100 followers earlier today so I thought I'd write up a quick post just to say thanks to all of you who follow, read, and comment on my blog, it really means a lot to me.

An Epic Mistake

2010-02-21T20:52:00.000-05:00

The first session of the epic level 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons campaign I am DMing met earlier today, and I have thus far failed to even knock one of my PCs unconscious. I tested the waters with what I thought would be a fairly challenging battle, a Kraken. I pumped up the monster with a couple thousand extra hit points and stronger attacks, putting him around challenge rating 22 or so, nothing big, but still tough enough to be a decent test of their abilities. I see now that I horribly underestimated the Berserker. It took two rounds before I had the Kraken's head appear over the prow of the ship since its tentacles were doing a pretty good job of smacking the party around. As soon as his little squid head peaked up over the railing, the Berserker charged and leaped into the air, landing on top of the Kraken and literally cleaving it's face in half. He did 1,900 damage, which was about 300 more than the poor thing had left.

W.T.F.

I mean, I didn't expect the thing to really give them a hard time, but really? The worst part is I wrote into the plot that the ship they were passengers on was smuggling stolen dragon eggs and they just went and took one! Of course I would have done the same thing, but for some reason it never crossed my mind they would and now I have the party running around with a Red Dragon egg that's about to hatch in a few months. Like they really needed to get any more powerful, in a few years they'll have an incredibly malicious pet dragon.

The next thing in the plot for them to deal with is a psychotic, senile Great Wyrm Gold Dragon that's refusing to admit he's reached twilight and needs to go away to die. I figured it's about one step away from deity, since the thing has been around longer than humans and basically has an entire island culture of worshipers, but now I fear it won't be enough. I'm considering bumping up the encounter with the addition of a few extra high level Gold Dragons from his flight, maybe protecting him and his hoard. Either way, I want to make sure they don't get away from this one so completely unscathed and preferably without a second pet dragon.

The poll's up for what I should have them face next, but since I already have most of the session for next week planned, whatever is picked will probably be just a random encounter. However, that doesn't mean I don't want to hear your suggestions anymore, the more ideas the better!

Wolfman

2010-02-20T18:39:00.000-05:00

So I'm going to go see The Wolfman later tonight. Yeah, I know I'm like a week late on this one, but I'm pretty sure by now you all know how crazy busy and stressed out I've been these last few weeks, I'm just glad I found some time for fun.

Now, on a side note, I've never seen or read anything from the Twilight series, and I never ever ever in a million years ever will unless by some terrible series of events I become a horrible, self-loathing masochist. I have nothing against Twilight fans (the normal, non-rabid variety, anyway), I'm sure it's an awesome movie/book to you and there's plenty of reasons to love it, it's just not for me. I'm a little old school with my taste in horror movies, but that being said I am going to try extra hard not to make this a post about zombies. In my humble opinion, movies with "monsters" in them are supposed to have scary, disgusting-looking, antagonists, and I include both vampires and werewolves (and zombies!) in that list. It's true that I kinda liked Underworld, and also Interview with the Vampire, neither of which apply to this code, but still, they're monsters, not in boy bands, there's a line.

So with that in mind, I think you should read this and tell me what you think.

Epic Dungeons and Dragons

2010-02-17T17:58:00.000-05:00

Ever since the 4th edition rules for Dungeons and Dragons came out (on my 19th birthday so long ago, no less) I've had my poor old 3.5 manuals sitting on the shelf at home gathering dust. A part of me missed the good old days of ridiculous character builds and broken spell chains, so when I heard my friends nostalgically discussing 3.5, I jumped on the chance and offered to DM an epic level campaign for them.

It took them 4 months, but they finally decided on their character builds this afternoon, unfortunately for me, they have Jeff, who happens to be a master of min-maxing. It looks like I'm going up against a party of one psychotic meatshield berserker possessed by two ghosts, one of which is actually possessed by another ghost and several multiple personalities. Oh boy.

Now I'm all for plotting to destroy my players, and I already have a pretty good idea about how I'm going to test their ability to survive (to be used to weigh future PC-killing plots) in the first session this Saturday, but where's the fun in that without a little democracy. Not for them, of course, they'll never see it coming even if I have to drop a meteor on them, but for you guys.

After every session I'll post a new poll on my blog, to see what you think has the best chance of giving me the sweet victory of a total party kill, and then I'll throw it at them in the following game. You don't have to know anything at all about D&D to have an opinion, it basically comes down to what kind of monster(s) you think will own the most face.

So, think you can kill my players?

Happy ♥ Day

2010-02-14T12:49:00.000-05:00

Normally I don't celebrate Valentines day, I think it's kind of silly that people had to invent a holiday so that guys would feel obliged to do nice things for their women for one day out of the year. On the other hand, a friend of mine paid me to make a little Battlestar Galactica themed card for her nerdy boyfriend, so yay Valentines (money) day?

I thought it was a cute idea, even though I kinda rushed it (she asked me at about 10 pm the night before) so I took some quick cell phone pictures to have once I give her the card.

I'm still in the middle of watching the first season of the new BSG so NO SPOILERS! Especially no links to Robot Chicken, (you know what I'm talking about) I've been avoiding that episode like the plague since I started watching BSG.

So far it's a pretty awesome show, but I never watched the original cause I'm such a young whippersnapper, so I can't say for sure in comparison. My favorite character is Starbuck. :) Any other Battlestar fans out there?

Rouge Trader Wednesdays

2010-02-14T05:05:00.001-05:00

I forgot to post this earlier, but I usually play Rouge Trader (the pen & paper RPG) on Wednesday nights with a couple of friends. We used to play Dark Heresy together, but once the new RT book came out, we switched, since we the notion of ship combat was very tempting. I took some pictures of the session with my phone while no one was looking.

Twiggy (left, our Rogue Trader) and Jeff (right, our Astropath).

We used to use Lego Star Wars models for our ship combat, but they're a bit too big for the battlegrid, so we started using makeshift minis and dice. Here we're being attacked by a Chaos frigate class ship, totally kicking its butt.

John, our awesome GM.

So far it's been fun times all around. We've claimed a whole solar system (only having to eliminate a few God Emperor-less heretics and space tigers in the process) and accidentally discovered a list of planets where the Imperial Fists' geneseed is kept (oops), we're not sure what we're going to do with the latter. We also just hit rank 2, and my Explorator finally got her shoulder mounting for an extra Boltgun to go with her amazing OP Storm Bolter, next on the list is medical Mechadendrites.

So the GM says we'll get 200 extra exp if we turn in a backstory to go with our characters, but I'm kind of at a loss of inspiration. Her rough background that I picked in character origin gen says that she came from a forge world, is a stubjack, a renegade, was press-ganged, and is motivated by fortune. I can't really think of anything because I'm not that knowledgeable with Tech Priest fluff to come up with a page worth of history, so any ideas? All I have so far is she's borderline insane, obsessed with big guns and war ships, and her Servo Skull is the only remains she has of a past lover that scorned her. Not much of a start, but I hate to half-ass things, even when it comes to a little extra exp.

Lolbringer VS God Tower

2010-02-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

I mentioned offhandedly that I took the Nightbringer out of my 1500 point Necron army in lieu of a Monoloth in a post last night and some people have asked why so I thought I'd break it down for you guys. For the record, I'm not totally for or against either of the C'tan in any sized army, if you can make it work, more power to you. This is just why I, personally, chose not to.

Most people put the Nightbringer (or Deceiver) in their armies because either they think the model looks really freaking sweet or that just from reading the codex, he sounds really overpowered. Well, they are gods, technically. And although the idea of having a really overpowered god running around the battlefield destroying everything is really appealing, I've found that in practice, it doesn't really work out that well in a small/medium-sized army.

One of my biggest problems with the Nightbringer is that C'tan can not attach themselves to friendly units because of Above All Others. This is a problem for Necrons because one of their blaring weaknesses is being pretty weak units in melee. So I want an army of units that support each other so that I can take the minimal amount of losses, and the Nightbringer offers pretty much no bonuses whatsoever to the rest of the army. On the same note, his attacks, like Gaze of Death, don't discern between friendly and enemy units. My 1500 point army list has two basic parts: sacrificial units that go into melee as tar pits or distractions, and then the large majority, which is strong ranged units that I want to keep from ever seeing close combat as they pick off everything else. So obviously, I want to get those melee tar pits out there to tie down enemy units as fast as possible. This brings up a second point, being that the Nightbringer, although capable of functioning as a tar pit, is SLOW. He's really easy to avoid getting into CC with completely, and although he has decent ranged attacks, you basically end up with a really expensive single unit running around the table trying to chase down things and making itself a huge target to be singled out and picked off. It's possible to send a unit of Scarab Swarms ahead of the Nightbringer to hold enemies in CC while he catches up, but I find a cheaper alternative is to attach the Swarms to a Destroyer Lord with a Lightning Field, which moves a lot faster, and can be just as annoying.

This leads to my primary argument against the Nightbringer in a 1500 army, which is Phase Out. Most people in friendly games will agree to not use the Phase Out rule since it's outdated, but it's still a totally valid tactic, and if you're in a tournament, you can darn well bet your bottom dollar the opponent's going to use every advantage he has against you, ESPECIALLY Phase Out. So when you play Necrons competitively every point is precious because you want to make sure you don't end up with too few Necron type units and that you keep as many of them alive as you can. That being said, the Nightbringer is REALLY EXPENSIVE. He's 360 points, that's the price of 20 Warriors or 7 Destroyers.

My alternative to the Nightbringer is the Monolith. A Monolith costs 235 points, which is still a big chunk, but it is infinitely more versatile. Monoliths can function just as well as a distraction as a Nightbringer, are twice as tough, and provide amazing support for the rest of the army with the abilities to teleport units out of CC and provide cover if necessary. It still moves really slow, and can be just as easily ignored, but it can do a lot more ranged damage than the Nightbringer, so it doesn't really need to get into melee, but if it does, the Monolith is arguably the hardest thing in the game to kill.

Here's an article that elaborates more on the Nightbringer's pro's and con's. As for just plain Necron tactics, I think this guy is a lot better at explaining than I am. Again, I must give props to Paul, he sends me a lot of these links that I post and helped me sort out a lot of bugs in my army. One of the best things to do when building an army is talk about it to someone else who plays the game and knows the rules, it's always good to get a second perspective.

So speaking of second perspectives, I'd like to hear your opinions. 1500 point army, Nightbringer or Monolith?

Yes, I'm Real

2010-02-09T21:02:00.000-05:00

Well I'm a little late to the party, but I'd still like to give a warm hello to all my visitors coming here from Bell of Lost Souls and Chainfist who read about me in the two-part article, Anatomy of a Gamer Girl Part One and Two. I was totally blindsided by all the feedback, and even more surprised at how astoundingly positive it was. I'm ecstatic to be welcomed so openly into the online gaming community, if not completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of comments and e-mails I've been getting. So apologizes if I'm a little slow to reply, but I am earnestly happy to hear from all of you and am trying to read and respond to everything without too much delay. Luckily, it's been another snow day, so I can put aside my graphic design project of zombifying Billy Mays for a poster and spend the rest of the day reading blogs. :)

I'm trying to find things to post about, so I don't seem too much like a bore, but the only thing I've been doing for the past 3 days (other than reading) is repainting 1500 points of Necrons bronze. And also glaring at an unprimered Monolith, because it's cold outside but I need it to keep playing since I took the Nightbringer out of my army. (He's not worth it, variety of reasons) I'll try to post something more interesting later, I'm so obviously horrible at multitasking.

On the bright side, my Rogue Trader group meets tomorrow night, so hopefully I'll have some awesome tales of adventure and massacre to tell after.

I ♥ Zombies

2010-02-08T01:25:00.000-05:00

So because of either the massive snowstorm or a faulty router, my internet has been rather sporadic, on the side of non-existent the past week, leaving me trapped indoors with nothing to do. Instead of painting the rest of my Necrons like I should have (like hell I was going out in 40 inches of snow with a can of spray paint to primer them) I dug out my car and meandered over to the bookstore for some reading material. Unfortunately in my local Barnes and Noble, the Science Fiction section is directly across from the beginning of the Romance isle, where, as I was perusing the shelves of Warhammer novels, something caught my eye. Against my better judgment, I bought a book entitled My Zombie Valentine thinking, "Oh, it's about zombies, and I like zombies. Maybe this will be funny."

I WAS SO WRONG.

What's a girl got to do to get some good ol' fashioned hilarious scifi fanfic? They just don't make 'em like they used to. (NSFW but possibly the most ridiculous thing I have ever read) Now that I've finished the Dragon Age novels (TOTALLY AWESOME) I'm at a lack of decent reading material. My favorite comic, Army of Darkness has lately taken a turn towards... uh... well let's just say the latest story arc involves President Obama accidentally giving his daughters a copy of the Necronomicon. Yeeah.

Is it just me or is the majority of the scifi/fantasy literary genre going downhill? Either that or I'm still coming down off the high from reading the second Dragon Age book (STILL TOTALLY AWESOME) and everything pales in comparison. I'm about to start buying 40K novels but I can't remember which ones I've read already, and for some reason I'm dying for a good comic book series to get that bad "crossover gone wrong" taste out of my mouth. What I wouldn't do for another series like Marvel Zombies...

OK I think I've totally, officially outed myself as a Zombie fetishist (not in a necrophilia kind of way, ew gross). Way cooler than sparkling vampires.

Bronzecrons

2010-02-02T01:17:00.000-05:00

As you might already know, I have a love-hate relationship with Necrons. I love Necrons because they're awesome, like robotic space zombies, but I share the blight of many a Necron player in that I can't stand how absolutely dull to paint they are. So I was messing around with some spare/unpainted Necrons I have, trying to come up with a decent color scheme and I think I unwittingly stumbled upon something interesting (at least for a Necron).

Apologizes for the crappy quality, my desk lamp went out today and I can't find a light bulb anywhere in the apartment for the life of me.

I know this goes against Necron fluff in so much as that living metal would be resistant to aging, but I wanted my 'crons to have a look of oxidized bronze. After painting a phalanx of warriors the regular off-the-box color scheme, I have come to absolutely despise boltgun metal. I like the bronze with blue, although it doesn't match the green gauss rifle rods, so I'm going to get some blue acrylic rods and kill myself trying to fit them later. Most likely I will go the easy route and paint over the green rods. It'll make customizing that Monolith I finally got much easier.

As for bases, if I can stomach rebasing my old Necrons with their tiny little skinny legs, I'd like to try something like Drathmere's tutorial, which Paul found and linked to me a month or two ago.

Goodbye Weebly

2010-01-30T00:36:00.000-05:00

I'm getting rid of my Weebly site, it's just too much of a pain to work with layout-wise, not to mention nobody knows what the heck Weebly is anyway. So while I'm looking for a new host to build my miniature painting commission site on, you can just email me here if you want to hire me for painting related activities. I know it's a shot in the dark hiring someone who doesn't have a site with a gallery of nice looking minis, so I'm not expecting any commissions anytime soon until I get a new site and more pictures of my work. Maybe this was the Emperor telling me I'm not ready to try and handle my own business yet. But still, if you were wondering, this is where you reach me for that stuff for the time being.

Madicon News

2010-01-18T19:10:00.000-05:00

MADICON NEWS! I'm still on for doing a basic mini painting workshop at the 19th annual Madicon, which is March 12th to 14th. I'll be there all 3 days (hopefully) but my workshop is in two parts before and after the Warhammer tournament, for 2 hours a piece. I'll cover basic techniques like base-coating, dry-brushing, highlighting and washes, as well as some mass-painting speed tips for those of you that just want to play. Also, fingers crossed, I'll have time to compete in the tournament and enter in the nerd auction, where a dinner or dance with me will be auctioned off for charity. So if you're in the western portion of Virginia that weekend, swing on by and say hello!

In random news, I got commissioned to do 25+ illustrations and both covers for a tabletop game manual (yay money!) so I haven't had a lot of time to work on any of my own minis just for funsies. That destroyer lord/tomb spyder conversion is calling to me though, I want to finish it so bad. :(

Gamesday 2010

2010-01-09T01:27:00.000-05:00

Got my tickets for 2010 Gamesday in Baltimore! I'm really excited, and since I have family in Baltimore, it's going to be a much less stressful event than when I tried to get a hotel in San Diego for Comic Con the month before I left. Which, of course, will leave me a lot more stress-free time over the summer to work on a costume, instead of piecing one together the day before...

It was still undeniably awesome, though.

So I'm torn between the Eldar Farseer from Dawn of War II or a Sister of Battle. They're both pretty sweet costumes, I'm just trying to decide which one will take less time, money, and effort to make. Or possibly there's something else out there I haven't thought about yet... Any suggestions?

Almost Famous?

2010-01-08T16:24:00.000-05:00

My friend Paul, who taught me much of what I know about Warhammer and painting miniatures, posted about me on a BOLS article today, 40K ASKEW: Girls, Girls, Girls. He wrote about me under my gaming handle Zephri, which I started using in World of Warcraft where I met him and most of my friends, and contradicted the thesis of the article, being that no girls played 40K, by saying,

"Hard core gaming girls ,while rare, do exist. When i first met zephri, one of my old wow guild mates, in real life she pulled out her necron army, and more video games than i owned from her little pink back pack.( And by video games i mean 50 + hour rpgs that were all beaten. )She then proceded to give one of our players a sound thrashing with her crons. Not only was she a gaming girl but she was also smokin hot."

This is probably the most flattering thing anyone has ever said about me, especially that he considers me a bigger (video) gamer than even him! (The smokin hot part was really nice too)

He made a post in his blog with pictures of a game I played at his house this summer to back up his claim, and linked his blog in his comment, which has apparently generated around 500 extra hits in the hour following! I wish he had remembered to mention I have my own website! So go check out his blog and the documentation of my epic win at Paul's Basement League.

Necron Lord

2009-12-13T02:06:00.000-05:00

Alex got me a Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb (off the internet I think) because I was complaining about how none of the stores around here had the model with the rez orb, and I wanted to be at least mostly accurate to my army. I think it was supposed to be a 2nd late birthday present or a sorry you have to start school soon consolation gift. Either way, I let it sit around forever until I got around to painting it one day, then let it sit around even longer until I took pictures.

After I took these pictures I stripped most of the paint off because I decided I didn't like silver Necrons. So now he's back in the "Will Be Painted Eventually" pile.

Then I did this random Reaper model (Casiatta the Anti-Paladin) for funsies to have something to practice snowy terrain on. I'm helping to paint a 1500 point Space Wolves army and I wanted them to be all frosty and weathered. Good thing I tested it on this mini first, I decided I don't like the snow flock, so I'm switching to baking powder.

Madicon

2009-12-08T00:04:00.000-05:00

I offered to do a workshop on basic miniature painting for my local gaming convention Madicon, which I am very excited about. Madicon is being held at James Madison University March 12th to 14th and will have all sorts of video games and tabletop games and whatnot, I'll post more details when it gets closer.

October Contests

2009-12-07T18:09:00.000-05:00

I won 1st place in the Master Class Reaper Miniature Painting Contest at Lost Shade again last month with my Khong-To Reptus Warlord. Definitely my best Reaper mini so far!

I also won 2nd place in the Warhammer 40K Conversion Contest, the theme was Halloween and Space Wolves, so I made a Headless Horse Marine the day before it was due. Didn't want to show the picture on account of just how horrible a job I did.

Past Contest Entries

2009-10-27T20:54:00.000-04:00

Because I love to find new reasons to rationalize buying miniatures I'll never use for anything, I enter the miniature painting and conversion contests at my local gaming store Lost Shade, so here are some pictures of my past entries.

1st place in the October 2009 Reaper miniature painting contest, Pearl the Mermaid.

2nd place in the October 2009 Warhammer 40k conversion contest, we were given parts for a Necron warrior and told to theme it "Back to School." I chose to paint him in my school colors.

1st place in the September 2009 Reaper miniature painting contest, Kyla Bounty Hunter. Unfortunately her hand fell off right before I entered it and I had to do some hasty super gluing.

First Post

2009-10-07T23:44:00.000-04:00

And there goes my blogspot virginity.

It seemed appropriate at the time.