festers and frappuccinos

really helpful technique ^ once you know how to divide by halves and thirds it makes drawing evenly spaced things in perspective waaay easier:

import a model

create seams in browser

tells you how accurately the seams will recreate the model when sewn

let's you designate fur direction

let's you import markings so the pattern shows exactly where they go on the piece

let's you add little measurements on the model that are also visible on the pattern

let's you paint the model to play with fabric colors

let's you name each piece so it's easy to sort the pieces later

let's you scale it beside a human

then calculates how much of each type of fabric you need, BASED ON YOUR DESIRED SEAM ALLOWANCE..

and finally gives you the finished pattern with the detailed names and instructions it's transcribed from your notes

  The usual view of dragon riders is that the riders get a lot out of it and dragons, eh, dragons get something. Something intangible and ill defined and usually not a good enough reason to really justify it.

  But what about dragons that bond with humans because humans offer a massive tactical advantage.

   Okay, say you’re some scrawny fucking dragon. And like, you’re not doing bad for yourself- 40 feet of well armored fire breathing death does pretty decently by definition- but in the pecking order of dragons, you’re pretty low. You get your ass kicked if you try to challenge any big players.

  And then one day you come upon this human- this weird fucker out in the middle of the woods yelling nonsense and you’re fine to move along but all of a sudden there’s a huge pull on the natural energy around you and you get whacked with this surge of light-

  And you’ve mind melded with the fucker.

 You’re both trying to figure out what’s going on, and all of a sudden, of course, rolls in a bigger dragon who’s going to beat the shit out of you for being in their territory.

  So you’re trying to fly away, this human is clinging to you like their life depends on it, this bigger dragon is trying to kill you. It’s a bad day. But the human scrambles up on top of you and you realize, hey, for some reason you can see out of their eyes. You’ve got near 360 degree monocular vision (which you’re used to) but now like 100 degrees of super sharp depth perception on top of that. Which is actually letting you dodge a lot better. And you’re thinking faster- you can hear- feel?- the humans thoughts, and they’re pretty fast and smart thinkers too.

   So you’re actually, now, suddenly turning the tables on this fight. The other dragon is bigger but now that’s working against them because your increased vision and reaction time lend themselves to speed. And then there’s this huge fucking pull on your energy, like massive- and a fucking lightning bolt shoots out and whacks the other dragon out of the sky. Like, oh, dragon-jesus, that’s what humans can do with magic?

   So all of a sudden, you have this tiny squishy meatbag that’s transformed you from bottom of the pecking order to Top Dragon In Town because you have better vision and reflexes and you can use them as a locus for precise magical spells by mind melding with this tiny punk.

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Drafting the Adventure: My Process

I was jokingly going to leave this blank because writers block be like that sometimes, but then I realized the question of consistency in writing is actually something a lot of DMs and other creators who follow this blog can benefit from. Appeals to utility have always been the way to get me to do anything, so lets crack in and see what people can learn from the messy inner workings of my process. 

Step 1: Inspiration

While I often describe my work as “writing down stories inspired by cool fantasy art”, my process actually begins long before I sit down at my desk to actually write anything. Though trial and error I’ve determined that I’m at my creative best when my brain is swimming in stories, even if they have 0 relevance to what I’m going to write about. I’ve almost always got an audiobook or podcast on while I’m doing mundane life upkeep, and I keep a phone note app or actual notebook within easy access at all times.   These last two are essential, as sometimes an idea or story snippet will come to me and then linger around for years, just waiting for some other concept to magnetize to and create something amazing. Every time I get a quarter of a way through a notebook, I transpose the content to a google dock, that way I can have easy access to anything I’ve written down over the ages. 

Step 2: Subject Matter

Choosing the right image is an artform in and of itself, as you need something with enough thematic richness to communicate an idea, while at the same time being vague enough to be flexible, in case I have a particular idea in need of an image. Early on I also made the mistake of just collecting images in my drafts folder, leading to a several thousand image backlog that I had to sift through whenever I knew there was ONE PARTICULAR image I wanted to use for a thing.   I’ve since rectified my mistake and keep a separate blog specifically for art, which I can specifically tag to search through easier.  I also use the “post to tumblr” browser extension to make image acquisition just that much speedier. 

Step 3: Story Seeds

After I’ve got my subject in front of me, I study the image to generate a few base ideas: what’s the mood? the vibe? the unstated tension? where would this image fit in a larger story? these things provide the raw material for my writing and help me fill out details that I never would have dreamed of. I also figure out if any of my several years worth of idea backlog would fit into this in any way, and if changing a detail or two could massage a previously good idea into a great one with accompanying art. 

Step 4:  Gamifying

This is a d&d blog after all, so once the story starts to take shape, I start thinking about how I can turn these narratives into actual adventures. Is there a dungeon involved? a dare to test the party’s skills? maybe a mercantile opportunity to take a gamble on?  The best adventure formulation is about dangling a reward out of the party’s current reach, then figuring out what challenges, twists, and pitfalls they’ll need to navigate to get there, while simultaneously setting them up to go on another adventure with a different reward after they’ve achieved the first.  

Step 5: Actually writing. 

Putting actual words on the page is perhaps my biggest hurdle, both because I suffer from chronic brainfog and because life can so often be too hectic to write. I’ve found that making a habit of writing ( every day for half an hour while I'm having my morning tea) is enough to generally get past my initial hurdle. I triage my projects, focusing on small light ideas when I don’t have the energy saving the big ones that’ll require a lot of work for good writing days or bitesized chunks. Some sessions are about limping along with as much as you can manage, while others are about riding that flow wave and getting as much done as you can. As for making that writing good,  I’ve got a whole tag full of different ways to improve your adventure writing, so give it a read and take what you need. 

i love this idea ok Wait,

We… were not. 

War had ravaged us, and sickness, and war once again, until our population dwindled beyond the point of recovery. We struggled against that, of course… we used genetic manipulation, and cloning, and even more desperate measures. None succeeded. When the humans came, we were sinking into apathy, only a few tens of us left. We had begun to discuss whether we should commit a mass suicide, or simply wait to fade away. 

And then the young species came, in their clumsy ships, and they asked us why we were so few. 

“We are becoming extinct,” we told them. “We have passed the point of recovery.” 

It is custom to avoid the races that are dying – once a species reaches the point of inevitable extinction, even war is suspended, and the fiercest enemy pulls back. The custom was born of plagues and poisons that could be carried forth from a dying world to afflict a healthy one, but it has the implacable weight of tradition now. After we are gone, after they have waited for the prescribed period of quarantine, there will be a fight for our world. Habitable worlds are few, and this is a good one, with plenty of free groundwater and thriving vegetation. It is a bitter thing to be grateful for the custom that allows us to die in peace, but we are grateful.

But the humans don’t know that custom, and they do not leave. They seem distraught, when we tell them we are dying, and try to offer their aid - but their technology is behind ours, and it is too late. When they realize that they can’t save us, though, they do something that bewilders us. 

Vitamancy is, in short, the magic which affects life energy, or vitae. To elaborate further, Vitamancy manipulates the natural energies and processes of living things, the most well-known being healing magic, but it also includes spells which enhance or diminish the abilities of creatures, those which induce states such as sleep or paralysis, and rarely, directly drain the very life of its target.

Healing magic works, in most cases, by accelerating the body’s natural healing processes. For minor wounds this is an easy process: simply apply the salve or  cast the spell, and (usually after some discomfort), the target will be restored. For more serious injuries, traditional methods must also be applied. Broken bones must be set, gaping wounds sutured, and missing pieces put in their proper places. The energy for the more intensive processes must come from another source, lest the patient be drained of months worth of vitae. The faithful are most efficient at this process, as they receive energy directly from the boundless well of divinity. Alchemists and practitioners of the Craft typically put some of their own energy or that of an external source into their curatives, as a relatively small amount is required for these balms. In desperate circumstances, the vitae of the caster or surrounding organisms may be used, but this is a very dangerous practice, and can result in more harm then what it heals.

The ability to actually drain the life of other beings is typically very difficult, as the vessel is resistant to losing its vital energy. Of course, this practice is frowned upon in many cultures, especially when performed on other people. This darker aspect of Vitamancy is often confused with Necromancy, and indeed any effective necromancer should learn at least the fundamentals of Vitamancy, but it is essentially the same practice as healing, only in reverse.

this is messing with my head. invaluable information

Because the moths themselves don’t eat and only live long enough to mate and then starve to death, the entire culture is made up of children and adolescents. The older children raise the younger ones, with families being made up of hatchmates from different years.

Because molts and eventual transformation into a short lived adult happen on a set schedule, families have a cycle— when your oldest set of siblings cocoon to become adults, you wait at the mating grounds and try to adopt their newborns after they pass. If that fails, you take any ‘orphans’ you can find.

Because death and birth are nearly simultaneous, they have a religion based around reincarnation, and infants with markings similar to a parent are often given their name. Claiming the offspring of a beloved family member is vitally important, because you want to be able to protect their soul and keep them close.

Because it’s hard to track the offspring of your male family members, there are sometimes major fights when a family sees an infant with familiar markings in another family’s clutch.