Tag Archives: The Unusual Suspects

Back in business…

Posted on by

The sun won’t set, ’til the pain and the final breath…

Alright ladies and gentlemen, I’m back. Let’s start with a quick update about what’s been going on, and what’s going to be happening for the future of this blog.

What’s been happening?

First up, apologies for the longer than expected delay. Turns out that my ISP are less than efficient when it comes to actually doing their goddamn jobs, and it took far longer than it should have to get my net hooked up. By the time they told me it was hooked up, I was due to go house sit for six weeks on the other side of town, and when I got home I discovered that my connection actually hadn’t been hooked up. Add another week to get a tech out to have a look, who turned out to be one of the most bigoted, racist bastards I’ve ever met… I had to deal with a twenty minute rant about “sand monkeys”, and yes, he really did use that term. But, I now have internet access again. I’m also still unpacking here (it’s a much slower process than I expected), which has sapped much of my time for doing anything hobby related.

Continue reading →

A brief status update

Posted on by

Hey guys,

Just wanted to give a very quick update on what I’m up to at the moment, since I still haven’t got the first part of the campaign journal for Reign of Winter: The Snows of Summer up. Rest assured, it’s being worked on, it’s just taking far longer than I’d hoped. I’m also having people review it as I write it, to help make sure that the writing style isn’t too painful to read.

In the mean time, I’ll be doing another Kickstarter roundup in the next few days, as I’ve seen some more projects I feel deserve some love. I’m also beginning to prepare a short run campaign using the Hollowpoint system, which is a very quick and simple indie RPG that focuses on cinematic storytelling and high violence capers. Think movies like Reservoir Dogs, and comics like 100 Bullets. As I start getting that ready, I’ll be preparing updates on the setting and basic story of the campaign as well as looking at how the system works. Other than that, I’m working on Project Helleborus again, on and off as I get time, so there may be some more Cooking the Cosmos at some point in the next few weeks. No guarantee on that though. When I have the time to put some descriptions for a few characters together, and the money to get the art commissioned, I’ll also be doing two or three more updates for The Unusual Suspects.

That’s it for my plans for the next few weeks or so. I’m not sure if Jimbles has anything in store for the blog at the moment, given that he’s been rather ill lately, so it could be a little while until we hear from him again.

————————————————————————————

Written while listening to Dead Letter Circus’ new album, The Catalyst Fire. They’re an Australian alternative rock/metal band with a really unique sound, and I highly recommend checking them out. My favourite song off the new album so far is Alone Awake, which you can listen to here. The chorus has been running through my head a lot the last few days…

Please don’t fade,
Now that I’ve seen who you are
There’s not enough of you here today
And this world needs you
Please don’t change
Now that I’ve seen who you are
There’s not enough of you here today

The Unusual Suspects – The Samurai

Posted on by

Good evening all. Once again, my apologies for the rather long delay between updates. I’m still incredibly busy with work, but I’ve also been suffering from a bit of writer’s block… every time I’ve sat down to write something recently, I’ve ended up staring at the screen for an hour or so, then giving up and playing some Final Fantasy.

I’m also likely to be offline entirely for at least a few weeks through the coming month or so, due to some travel I have coming up for work. While I’ll be able to check email and so on, getting on the blog is going to be highly unlikely.

So, I’ve decided to do a quick update for The Unusual Suspects as a way of easing myself back into it and making sure I’ve at least got something done before I’m away for another month or so. I’ll try to get another update or two up before Saturday, which is when I fly out for the first bit of work.

This character is one that I didn’t actually create myself, but I did have quite a bit of input into his design. He was built by the GM for a Supers game that I was joining part way through. I’m afraid the writing for this one might be a little rough, but right now it’s about all I can manage.

So, without any further delay, let’s meet tonight’s guest…

Continue reading →

Still here…

Posted on by

Good evening all.

I just wanted to put up a quick update assuring people that I haven’t mysteriously disappeared or anything. I’m still around, I’ve just been utterly swamped with work at the moment, and am finding it hard to do any writing when I am getting spare time, since my head is still racing with work stuff.

Rest assured, I’ll have plenty more updates soon. I need to get the first proper entry for the Shattered Star journal written, and I’ve got some more characters for the Unusual Suspects. Work on my home brew campaign settings is also proceeding, albeit slowly, so I hope to be able to get some more updates for Cooking the Cosmos done at some point soon.

Right now though, I need some sleep. I need to get to work at 7:00 AM tomorrow, then get home and do prep for a Pathfinder game, so rest is necessary.

I’ll promise I’ll be back soon. Until then, keep safe, and keep your dice rolling.

The Unusual Suspects – Varian Blackthorne

Posted on by

Update: I’ve received the picture I ordered of Varian. I think it’s turned out really well, and I’ve added it to the post. For details on the artist, see the miscellaneous information section below.

Well ladies and gentlemen, I’m back. I’ve actually been back from down the coast for a while now, but have been run ragged by training my replacement at work, settling into my new role, and getting back into the gym. Throw in a bit of illness over the last few days, and I’m wrecked.

To top it all off, the work I’d done on finishing off the back story and so on for Norva Wintarius was lost when my computer crashed while I was writing it up. Combined with the fact that the friend I built that character for has now dropped out of my Skulls & Shackles game (meaning Norva got only one appearance as a PC), I’ve kind of lost interest in finishing her off for now. I still plan on going back and fixing it up at some point, because I really like the character concept, but it won’t be for a while.

Instead, I’m moving onto the second installment of The Unusual Suspects. This time around we’re going to take a look at my character from a weekly World of Darkness game I play in.

So, let’s meet tonight’s guest…

Continue reading →

The Unusual Suspects – Norva Wintarius

Posted on by

Note: This update is as yet unfinished. I did intend to have it up last week, but it’s been unbelievably hectic for me lately, with a trip to Sydney to see Alestorm, someone managing to damage my scooter to the point that I had to take it in for repairs, and trying to finish off work stuff before I take a week off. As I am away for the next week, and I don’t know if I’m going to have any internet access where I am, I’m going to post what I’ve got for this update so far. I’ll be coming back to finish this off at some point in the next fortnight, hopefully by the end of next weekend.

Well, it took a bit longer than I’d hoped, but I’m finally ready to get started on a new series for the blog. Welcome to the first installment of The Unusual Suspects. Each update will focus on a different character that I have created, whether it’s one of my own player characters, a non-player character or a PC I’ve created for one of my friends to use. After a description of the character and a summary of their personality and backstory, I’ll go into detail on the build, including:

  • What sort of game they’re being used in
  • What I did to try and make them an interesting and memorable character
  • How I balanced the build so that the character is useful without having to be the best at everything.

I’m also in the midst of arranging for a friend of mine to do some character artwork for these updates, but at the moment there’s no timeframe for when that will happen. When it does, then I’ll try to get artwork done for the earlier pieces and come back to update them.

So, now that we’ve got the introduction out of the way, let’s get started. The first character I wanted to introduce is a recent creation, and has only seen a little bit of play. So let’s take a look at…

Continue reading →