Stuff Fancied by Eric

Useful DnD links

Eric Maziade — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:15:00 +429496729200

I've been looking for some DnD material on the Web. There's not much out for 4.0 yet, but there's a lot of nice little communities and open source tools.

Here's a few that I find are really worth it:

GameTable

A nice tabletop software that allows you to share maps with remote players. I have hope that this - in combination with online chat software - will allow our group to playtest 4.0 a bit before we actually switch.

Geeked On Dungeons and Dragons

A forum that I would like to adopt that likes to speak about miniatures and DnD. They're talking more about the miniature game than DnD and - as most veterans of an older version - don't seem to welcoming of 4.0. They've been welcoming to me at least

Massawyrm Has Played Dungeons And Dragons 4th Edition!!

A nice article about the joys of 4.0 (along with Part 2 and Part3) This article pretty much says what I feel that playing 4.0 will be like. A nice read for DMs and players alike.

Players Pre-4th Edition Handbook

Nice informative information on 4th editing if you're planning on moving up. It was pre-release info so I'm not sure that everything is exactly as in the rule books but nice nonetheless.

Of course, you can grab whatever DnD related link I think are worth checking out from my del.icio.us account here: http://del.icio.us/themaze75/dnd

Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 - The Day that Music Died

Eric Maziade — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:02:00 +429496729200

A few weeks ago, I got my Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 Player's Handbook (PHB for short).

To tell you the truth, I wasn't really looking forward to 4.0.

We've been playing with 3.5 for a while now and I managed to get over the frustrations of moving to 3.0 from ADnD and the griping agony of switching to 3.5 what felt mere moments after having purchased 3.0 books.

While the bulk of my frustrations with 3.0 was simply due to my comfort with ADnD (and the nice few books I had), I appreciated it from a game designer's point of view. Not that I'm a professional game designer, but I love game design and am a professional software designer (which basically means that my job consists in creating boring by very useful "games").

My group got their hands on a few PHBs and I just couldn't resist - my curiosity was too strong.

We haven't played any 4.0 yet - we have a 3.5 campaign on the way and we're still exploring the idea of switching to 4.0.

I've had to cast aside the pain from leaving my comfort zone - it seems that nothing in life that you really want sits within your comfort zone (otherwise you would already have it).

Once I managed to do this to some extent, I was quickly seduced by the elegant, streamlined rules and the new flavors the 4.0 brought.

The downside to converting our campaign:

One of our member's race - the gnome - is gone.
One of our member's class - the bard - is gone. And I'm that particular member.

Since I've long passed the age of throwing fits, I've jumped into the rather intriguing quest of finding a class that fits my character's stats, skills and attitude while working in tandem with the rest of the group. Not to mention trying to find story elements that would justify why Quendy would drop his mandolin and strike up a pact with the fey.

I am also looking forward to introducing the new rules to my better half. I have a feeling that the simpler rules will alleviate the confusion of battle and stimulate creativity.

I'll try and document my journey to 4.0 (and Quendy's journey from bard to warlock) as it progresses.

Warning - Sinistar

Eric Maziade — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:01:00 +429496729200

Complete redo of an old Sinistar warning sign I made for the "Something Awful" forums.

New one is much better, imho.

(click to zoom).

Bill and Ted, Guitar Heroes

Eric Maziade — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:17:00 +429496729200

(click to zoom).

Thread URL: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...

Hairless Cat Fembot

Eric Maziade — Tue, 08 May 2007 14:46:00 +429496729200

Hairless cats can also be robotized!

(click to zoom).

Thread URL: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...

Jeniffer Connelly - Fembot

Eric Maziade — Sun, 06 May 2007 00:51:00 +429496729200

The assignment was simply to robotize pictures.

I wanted to do something meaningful and work on the parallels between robotic (sythentic) and plastic surgery.

Then, I decided to do Jeniffer Connelly. 'Cause I like her (click to zoom).

Click here for original picture

The robotic hand was found on the Wyktor's portfolio - guy's talented!!!

Thread URL: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...

Career-Summing Movie Posters - Keanu Reeves

Eric Maziade — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 03:05:00 +429496729100

The assignment was to come up with movie posters that sum up the career (or the essence) of various actors and directors.

I was late into the thread and noticed that Keanu Reeves was left mostly untouched.

Thread URL: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...

Catch me if you can!

Eric Maziade — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:15:00 +429496729100

I had missed this assigment by a longshot... so long, in fact, that it was in the archives and could not be participated on.

Of course, I figured this after I performed the photoshop modifications.

The assignment was to use video game characters and place them as starts of "real-life" movie.

Ultra Viola

Eric Maziade — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:12:00 +429496729100

This assignment asked us to modify existing movie posters based on titles that would have typographic errors.

I have thus tried my best to improve an otherwise abysmal movie:

Sonnov Habitsch

Eric Maziade — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:09:00 +429496729100

This assignment was to come up with band names and album covers that fit the band name.

In a sad and weird moment of inspiration, I made this awful mess.

The band name is: Sonnov Habbitch

iPole Dancer

Eric Maziade — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 23:51:00 +429496729100

I don't exactly remember the theme.... oh yeah... wait a minute...

Yeah, some guy on the Something Awful forums shared a technique he found to create a light saber effect using photoshop.

The assignment was to go crazy with the effect.

I ended up doing this iPole Dancer.

Girls can be mean

Eric Maziade — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 23:48:00 +429496729100

The assignment was to work from pictures found in a catalog full of cute little statuettes and other such sissy stuff.

I ended up picking up two little statuettes to build this mean little photoshop.

Friends as zombies - The Hamster

Eric Maziade — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 23:32:00 +429496729100

As a gift to one of my dear zombie-fan friend, I once had pictures of our mutual friends and photoshopped them into Zombies.

This one pictures the gift-recipient, turning into a brain craving maniac.

Friends as zombies - Toche and Tx

Eric Maziade — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 23:27:00 +429496729100

As a gift to one of my dear zombie-fan friend, I once had pictures of our mutual friends and photoshopped them into Zombies.

This instance has our friends Toche and Tx turn into brainsuckers.

Old lady Connery

Eric Maziade — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 22:58:00 +429496729100

The theme is to take pictures of male celebrities and Photoshop them into females.

I chose to try my hand at Sir Sean Connery...