E is for En Arcadia Est #AtoZchallenge

When I play in a campaign, I often use it as an excuse to get creative with character props and session logs. One instance in particular where I spent a lot of time on this was when Scott (husband of Janica, mentioned in D is for Dice) ran a campaign called En Arcadia Est, also known as Saving Arcadia. It was a d20 Modern game we played in May through August 2006.

The game was set in the 1920s. I played [Francis] Drake Corrigan, an artist and practitioner of magic who casts spells by drawing icons on his palm. He is summoned from Paris to the city of Arcadia, ostensibly to report on what’s he’s done with scholarship money received from the Zenith Foundation. At the Zenith Building, he meets Fang Huo Long, a gorgeous Asian woman, and are tasked with investigating the murders in the wealthy Moth family. If you want to read more, I created an entire adventure log (Link to first adventure), illustrated with drawings and internet images appropriate to the tale.

Here are my original character drawings of Drake Corrigan and Fang Huo Long, as well as two characters from later adventures, the mysterious Helen and the equally-mysterious Rachel Strange.

Drake Corrigan

Drake Corrigan, by Donna K. Fitch

 

Fang Huo Long, by Donna K. Fitch

Fang Huo Long, by Donna K. Fitch

 

Helen, by Donna K. Fitch

Helen, by Donna K. Fitch

Rachel Strange, by Donna K. Fitch

Rachel Strange, by Donna K. Fitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you ever create props as a player? Comment below!

Project Rooftop, Game-Chef, etc.

Well, sadly, I didn’t get a mention so far in the Project Rooftop Iron Man contest. Honorable Mentions are coming up next week. The artwork of the ones posted is amazing. I’m not all that fond of the winning entry.

The Game-Chef 2008 competition was very interesting. The results of the art contest will be posted tomorrow morning. My artwork was used to create a game called Dulse, by Jason Morningstar. Fascinating idea. Two other people used my artwork as well.

This past Saturday’s game was so much fun. We’re going to find someone thought long-dead, but who may be imprisoned in Oubliette in the Underdark. Our guide to the Sunless Sea is none other than Meepo!! As voiced by Scott, he’s somewhat of a LOL-Meepo (who insists his name is pronounced “Meppo”). What’s so great about this is that Meepo figured in the very first D&D game we played, pre-Janica. I ran The Sunless Citadel module. Another interesting turn of events was that, while searching for a guide in the undercity section of Alliance, we went into The Common Ground, a coffee bar. Mordecai ordered coffee, and the bartender kept questioning whether or not he really wanted it. Seems he had met, somewhere along the way, another glimmerfolk who “only ordered water and expected it to be free.” I figure Mordecai’s mentor had introduced him to coffee early on. Scott said Mordecai remembered that glimmerfolk religious dietary restrictions forbid coffee and tea, holding it “tainted.” We also discussed how Mordecai’s soul orbs (3 2-inch diameter violet globes that orbit his head at a distance of about a foot) will certainly stand out in the Underdark. 

And Saturday is Free Comic Book Day! 

Oh, a scary episode of Big Bang Theory last night. I loved the time machine. The scene where they were speeded up while the time machine was going back in time was priceless. But the getting rid of stuff part was scary.

ArtRage and Dresden

Thanks to a post from 

, I found out about ArtRage, a wonderful painting program. I’ve been using it on the Iron Man costume design I’m working on for the Project Rooftop contest. The chalk tool is finally allowing me to get a texture/look I want for his virtual armor. I’ll post here when I get it done to my satisfaction.

I’m very excited to be getting character writeups from the Birmingham alpha playtest of the Dresden Files RPG from

. S and I did some sample characters for the Magic City when we first found out about the game. This is as far as I got with mine:

Diana Nicolaides

Name: Diana Alcina Nicolaides

High Concept: urban archaeologist

Personal Struggle:

Where Did You Come From? Diana grew up in a Greek Orthodox home, the middle of five children. Her parents owned a Greek restaurant in downtown Birmingham. After school she would wander the block or so around the restaurant, developing a love of old buildings. She made up elaborate stories about the former inhabitants with which she regaled her younger brother and sister.

What Shapes You? When Diana was 6 and her oldest brother Daniel was 10, they were exploring an old abandoned building not far from their parents’ restaurant. Daniel, a mischievous boy, teased and tormented her on a regular basis, and decided to hide from her. She was getting frantic to find him and entered the remains of a one-room apartment. Diana called to him and, just as she stepped near what seemed to be a closet door, a feeling of terror washed over her. The closet door opened and a pale man covered in blood, holding a long knife stepped out toward her. She screamed, shoved the man back into the closet with all her strength, pushed a chair in front of it, and ran. Only after she huddled in her own bedroom did she calm down enough to realize that the man had been translucent—she could see her brother’s laughing face through him. When her brother didn’t come home for supper, Diana told her parents, leaving out the image she saw. Her father left to find him, without success. He found the chair near the closet door, but Daniel was nowhere to be found. The police were called in, but there was no trace of the boy.

When Diana went to Chicago University to study urban archaeology and architecture, she became more skeptical about the mystical and spiritual teachings of the church.