I asked this before a few years ago but I thought I'd try again seeing it's been 10 years since there was any word from them: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5543456

But yeah, this guy: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/ve.....mentcreations/

Ten years since the last word from them before they disappeared, taking my money along with the cash of a few others with them. Anybody know what ever became of them? Are they still alive? Did they really take our money and vanish, running off with a modest bounty?

Can't lie, looking forward to going to Anthrocon again after 3 years. Who am I going to see there?

I'm going! Be arriving in Chicago tomorrow around 3 CST if my flight is on time!

Let's make it an awesome time!

For my big beloved bullbro's birthday earlier this year I wrote my own interpretation of how he came by his symbiote partner. If you're interested in reading it, he posted it to his gallery.


You can read it here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/28960051/

I'm going!

First time going back there in 5 years and I am hyped for it! Who else is going?

Yep, just hit 32 today. Going to go see Avengers later.

I've been working on a few non-furry but also non-human OC's based on DnD monsters. I'm looking to get these ideas drawn up so I wanted to ask for recommendations of artists skilled at creatures like orcs and bugbears. Okay, creatures exactly like orcs and bugbears because I have a few of each I want to work on designing.

Today marks a full decade since I registered for this site and I suppose I committed to the fandom. I mean. I lurked around TransFur and VCL in addition to browsing artists' individual sites. But this feels like the day I made it official.

Never thought the name "Zigzagziggy" which I had chosen at random would ever become linked to a minotaur character (even if it is that bull's nickname).

I think it's time to step up my role. Started as a watcher, then added in commissioner and writer. In 2018 I want to add suiter to that list. That's right, I want to make a fur suit happen in the coming year.

Next weekend is MFF and I am getting pumped for it. It'll be the biggest con I've gone to since AC and the farthest one out I've thus far gone to. Really looking forward to seeing old acquaintances I haven't seen in too long a time as well as meeting some new people in person. Hoping to get some new art too!

And speaking of art, been keeping things really quiet on that front the last month, saving for MFF. But once that's done I have so many new ideas to enact.

So, many of my first OC's were inspired by D&D, almost to a fault as I let a too strict interpretation of the rules hold back creative decisions. But things have come full circle and I've been brainstorming a new slew of OC's inspired by the game but not beholden to it. A few are even inspired by the Urban Arcana book from d20 Modern, the D&D variant that goes the Grimm/MIB route by hiding magic and monsters in Earth as we know it.

So far the new OC's I'm planning are:

Gnoll warmage: severe serious gnoll, military type, adopted, conscripted, and trained in arcane artillery from a young age.

Ogre Mage: based off the 3E version where ogre mages are mystic giants rather than Oni/evil spirits clad in the guise of flesh. Reformed villain angle, once the shadowy leader of a crime syndicate, he was overthrown and, owing to ogre mages' innate shapeshifting, had to hide as a human. Learns humility and sees the direct consequences of his criminal empire.

Bugbear warlock: this one's from the modern setting, going with the Cyber patron. That is, this warlock derives eldritch might a ghost in the machine. Adding to the modern magic idea, he can teleport using Wi-Fi.

Still a lot to flesh out, including names, but I think these are a strong foundation. All ideas to get a jump on in December, or January in case everyone's going to be on a festive bent next month.

2017 is turning out to be a pretty eventful year on the convention side. Made a return to Fur the more last May. It's really his its stride at the new location. I loved it the last year at the Hunt Valley Inn outside Baltimore. It felt a little lacking the first year at the Sheraton. But this year it was fantastic.

And next month I'll be at two different cons. Going to give Furrydelphia a shot. it's now the con located closest to me now that FAU has gone to VA. And then FAU itself the following weekend.

But the big news is I'll be doing MFF for the first time. Big step, doing a con in a different time zone. 2017 is looking good.

Now I can get on with the rest if this year.

Here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ddbweuja.....20pdf.pdf?dl=0
is the roughest of rough drafts of my proposed custom rules to Pathfinder's magic item creation rules. I would like input from other players to see how these changes are received. I want to make sure the rules work before I go off and start refining this document. No use wasting time polishing up a custom system that doesn't work, right?

Been home for a few hours, got my post-con laundry started and the like but I wanted to lay out my thoughts on the convention before other life-things intrude. So here I go.

I felt that last year's Fur Fright, aka the last Fur Fright, was the perfect convention experience. I was more than a little bummed out to find that it was not going to be held again. And then I come to find out that a new convention was filling the void by taking place in the same hotel at the same time.

I hereby declare Furpocalypse to be a worthy successor to Fur Fright. The same vibe was there, the same small-con, everyone can meet everyone, relaxed tone. There was even a fire alarm so LotCon could make a reappearance.

All in all it was a fantastic time and I very much look forward to going back next year. Even though the theme is a dark carnival and I have a deep-seated aversion to all things clown.

Following is a shout-out to the people who helped make this con an outright blast (Disclaimer: people mentioned are those my currently sleep-deprived brain can recall at this hour. If I miss anyone I apologize in advance for my oversight)

My roommates  blickfen and  x_25 Also thanks to X for bringing me along to play Artemis. It was quite fun playing a game where I get to be a starship crewman. Sci-fi itch: scratched.

 ladymage and  karannia for those tabletop hijinks.

 soba for being adorable.

 kyroraz for being incredibly sweet and indulging me as I fanboyed hard over his art and ideas.

 wfa and  solidasp for being great people.

 gideon because he's him.

The great surprise of seeing  sciggles as well as  dragoneer there unexpectedly.

And yeah, that's what my brain can dredge up right now so I apologize if I left you out.

And now begins the long slog until what will probably be my next con, Fur the More. On the other side of winter... Oh well, at least I have MAGFest to look forward to, which is slowly becoming more and more furry. Soon my fuzzy compatriots, soon we will rule music and gaming and festing.

The convention's at the end of the week so I guess I'd better get on this.

Where are you staying?
-In the Crowne Plaza. because I like being able to walk around in sandals in late autumn in New England and not feel like I'm strolling across the tundra.

What day are you getting there?
-Late Thursday.

Departure?
-Monday at some point.

Transportation?
-I'll be fulfilling the role of taxi bull with my motor coach.

Who will you be rooming with?
-The very chill  x_25 and very dynamic  blickfen ...
I'm scared.

How is the best way to find you?
-Look in the game room. hat's where I spend 90% of my con time.

If I see you how will I get your attention?
-Shout 'Zig', 'Ziggy', or 'Moo!' I get tunnel vision really easily and stop noticing things.

Can I talk to you?
-Yes, but please don't be creepy. That's my job.

Can I come to you for food/fun/etc.?
-If I know you.

Who will you hang with during the convention?
-More than likely the wolverine, but also anyone else in the game room.

Are there any panels you might be attending?
-Possibly, I'll decide once I've seen the schedule.

Will you be suiting?
-No.

Do you do free art?
-Do passive aggressive haikus count?

Can I touch you?
-Depends on if you really want to rid yourself of whatever limb you used to breach my personal space.

What is your goal this year?
-Scope out this new con and see if it's as viable as Fur Fright that Was.

Great weekend, fantastic con, amazing time. I could let those six words sum up the convention but I owe it to the people involved to be more talkative.

Where to begin? FAU was my first furcon, went there back in 2010 when it was down in Mt. Laurel for the first time. That's practically my backyard so I figured I'd check it out. I fell in love with the whole convention atmosphere and kept going back, even following it when it moved up to Whippany. Totally worth it. A convention's size doesn't matter if the people who go there are amazing, and the crowd was absolutely astounding. So, in no particular order are some of the people who made this FAU glorious.

 x_25 Thanks for all the gaming. I'll be picking up a copy of Room Party in the near future. Also thanks for bringing all the Red Dragon Inns to the party.

 Karannia thanks for introducing me to SuperFight aka the game where Master Chief ejaculates bees.

 IX2 for joining in the gaming and letting me know how Boss Monster works. Had the game for months so it was about time I learned.

 corvuspointer for being the best bull in attendance there. I know when I’ve been outclassed.

 beralin amazing artist and incredibly sweet guy. It was an honor talking about narratives with him.

 blickfen the wolverine who has become my convention partner in crime. Nearly literally, except it was less partners and more victim and perp when he whipped me right in a very sensitive area. I may be kinky, but I’m not THAT kinky.

 sciggles,  spartadog,  gideon,  wfa,  solidasp,  iggi,  ishaway, and  syrusbliz for being amazing artists. Art will be incoming once I get a new portfolio in which to store them once they’re out of the sketchbook.

And lotcon happened again. Though I will say that it going off at 10 pm in August is much better than 4am in October. If there must be a fire alarm, it could have happened at a worse time.

Definitely going back next year.

And next up on the convention docket, giving Furpocalypse a go.

Just got home and headed off to bed. I'll do a more detailed retrospective later but suffice to say it was fantastic!

Good night all you wacky people/

I'm here!

Let's go do some stuff!

FA United's next weekend, really looking forward to it. FAU was the first con I ever attended, back when it was still in Mt, Laurel, NJ. That's a mere half-hour away from where I sit as I type this. Of course, being 90 minutes away now is actually better since it means my drive is easy but I can stay on-site.

And the other big plan is to give Furpocalypse's inaugural year a go. I have three days worth of PTO that won't roll over into next year so I had to find a way to use them before they expired. Going back to Connecticut seemed like a good use of the time.

If all it does is just continue the FurFright tradition I'd be happy. Reservations at the Crowne Plaza were all sold out so I got a room at the Quality Inn across the street. Better than the Super 8 in any case. Still, if anyone's in the Crowne Plaza and needs a roommate I'm open to changing plans. What? I just enjoy walking around in sandals in November! It's nice not having to bundle up to go from room to conspace.

Alright so I'm coming down off a pretty ridiculously busy week of work and family stuff so I have a lot of catching up to do on things.

Item the first, I recently went through a gauntlet of gaming upgrading. Tomaja86 is my screenname for both Steam and the Wii U.

Yes, once again I have begun a new generation upon a Nintendo system. Why the Wii U? Because it actually has games I want to play right now or in the very near future. Basically nothing short of Alan Wake 2 will get me on board with the Xbox One at the moment. And the PS4 just has Infamous: Second Son. Was interested in Outlast but Steam filled that urge nicely.

And one more thing, anyone have any idea what happened to  VehementCreations ? They've essentially vanished and no attempt at communication in the last few months has yielded any results.

The other DM in my group and I have been engaging in a debate and I want to check if my position is in the right. Other DM wants PC's to be able to, as he calls it, 'downgrade' their move and standard actions and take additional swift actions in their place. It effectively allows players to take up to three swift actions per turn, or two swift actions and a standard or a move.

The normal rules state that players can only take one swift action per turn, regardless of else what they do that turn. I believe the rules are written that way is because swift actions, since they can be performed at any time, are more powerful than standard and move actions. Also, no one gets swift actions built in, they’re granted by feats, spells, or class abilities and therefore I believe shouldn’t be exchangeable.

Also, I feel that allowing more swift actions causes abilities to be combined or repeated in ways that the game’s designers and testers never intended. Case in point, a 12th level Monk of the Four Winds could, under this system, spend 18 Ki points from his ki pool (possible if said monk took the Extra Ki Feat six times) and feasibly take 9 actions in one turn. And any movement he takes doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. Or a 1st level Greensting Magus could spend 2 swift actions to deal 2d6 points of sneak attack damage.

I mean, this is a bad thing, right? Am I wrong in thinking this is overpowered, bordering on broken? But he’s convinced swift actions are less powerful actions, so getting more of them isn’t disruptive.

Although, the thing that rankles me is that he eliminated the 1/turn limit on swift actions, but kept the 1/turn limit on quickened or swift action casting time spells, which I feel unfairly hampers spellcasters.

Anyway, swift actions are better and more powerful than the standard and move actions, that’s why they’re restricted to once a turn, right? And am I not wrong in thinking that it’ll be disruptive and imbalanced to allow more than one swift action a turn?

 BlickFen (Great guy by the way. You should be totally watching him if you have any respect for yourself. I don't but I still watch him) alerted me to the existence of Furpocalypse, the con that will take place in the same timeframe and locale as the recently concluded but ever amazing FurFright.

But here I already just locked in a trip to Disney World the very next week. Well crap, looks like I'll have to give this con's inaugural year a pass. Someone let me know how it turns out, alright? I'll aim for 2015.

Yeah, hit 28 today. Only two more years before I'm expected to behave like a respectable adult, and expectation I fully intend to subvert. Because what's the point of being an adult if you can't act childish?

Yes! Sony can increase the population of Vita players by one! And then decrease it by one because I bought mine from a friend....

But no matter. Got it with Tearaway and Assassin's Creed: Liberation. And I'm going to get Final Fantasy X/X-2 today. Any other good games for the device I should be aware of? In the platformer and RPG genres?

Four weeks early to be exact.

But anyway, this: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/13.....bulls-4-7-2014

WoW is getting character model updates and the new look for tauren is... it has made me quite happy and excited. Just look at those animation updates. Tauren have never looked so deserving of hugging.

Wow, it has been a while since I shared some of my Pathfinder/DnD tales. Then again, understandable since my game group only got back together last Fall when our other DM returned from Afghanistan. Anyway, we've been working our way through "The Carrion Crown" adventure path, set in the land that's essentially Castlevania crossed with Mordor. Vampires, undead, zombies, Dark Towers, the whole package. Even have a legendary lich lord imprisoned beneath said Dark Tower, awaiting the day he is freed to revive his long vanished evil empire.

Thankfully, our DM allowed me to use my custom minotaur race for my character. Sure, pathfinder already has minotaurs, but they’re the savage, brutish, Large-size kind suitable only to give out experience points upon defeat. My character’s shorter, smarter, and closer to human than monster. Still have the horns, hooves, and some heightened senses. And the might and sturdiness of a bull. Originally I chose wizard for my character’s class, transmuter specialization. But after a near-lethal encounter with one zombie in the first session (turns out clubs are pretty ineffective against the shambling dead) prompted me to use my One Free Retcon to do a class change. Best choice I ever made was to switch over the magus class.

Oh magi, 2/3rds of a fighter mixed with 2/3rds of a wizard to make a mage-warrior hybrid that’s capable of so much than what could be accomplished with a multiclass fighter/wizard. I’ve always liked playing hybrid characters in The Elder Scrolls and the like, and the magus does them one better by merging sword and sorcery. From first level magi can use a full-round action to cast a spell and strike with a weapon, and even cast those spells while wearing armor (something that really isn’t all that easy for non-magi).

The last two weeks saw some really memorable moments. The rest of the party is made up by a half-orc cleric, a human gunslinger (able to dish out a frightening amount of damage in a short amount of time, though he takes hits like a paper crane in a hurricane), an elf bard (archaeologist archetype where he’s swapped out musical abilities for trapfinding and trap-disabling), and a halfling monk (who hits like a sodden paper crane but in turn can’t be touched by anything less than a critical success).

The location for the end of the current chapter was a manor perched on the cliffs over several rushing mountain rivers. The front door was locked so the monk and bard snuck in to unlock the door from the inside. Too bad the bard missed spotting the trap on the door, the trap that conjured a Huge air elemental. Normally fighting an air elemental would be one thing, but fighting an air elemental on a narrow bridge 100 feet over a rushing stream is entirely another. The elemental switched to its whirlwind form and picked up the gunslinger. It then glided outside and hurled the gunslinger off the bridge. Not to toot my own horn too much but I happened to have just the right spell prepared. A quick casting of Feather Fall spared the guy from taking 7d6 points of fall damage.

Now it’s a very good thing that magi gain the ability to expend points from their arcane pool to recover spent spells, because the elemental then swept my minotaur up and hurled him into the gorge too. I regained Feather Fall to save me from hitting the river. Not that I was really all that concerned since I have hp to spare. Still, didn’t want to risk getting too beat up. Especially since the gunslinger and I were going into the river 30 feet upstream from a 50-foot tall waterfall. Next spell up was Animal Aspect, going for aspect of the otter for aquatic agility. How a minotaur gets webbed hooves isn’t something I want to contemplate.

And while I was trying to keep the gunslinger from going over the falls the cleric got swept up in the whirlwind too. He too was thrown off the bridge. Luckily he had a Fly spell prepared, thanks to his goddess’ domain. That left the bard and monk to flail at the elemental while my bull and a flying half-orc tried to pull the gunslinger out of the river.

Things then took a turn for the dramatic when we began exploring the manor house proper. The cult that was suggested to be behind our earlier adventures decided to strike. Fairly certain it was the DM’s customization that we ended up fighting doppelgangers of ourselves. The foes were using illusions to look like us, but that didn’t change the fact they were several levels higher. My own twin paralyzed most of the party with Black Tentacles, a spell I was 4 levels away from being able to cast. And then the other gunslinger proceeded to dish out a massive amount of damage, taking out our gunslinger his first turn and then taking me down the next. And it didn’t help that my twin kept laying down the spells, Fireball and Phantasmal Killer. It would have been a TPK had it not been one of those “Battles You’re Supposed to Lose to Advance the Story.” It really was three inches from impossible. One foe at level 10 (the minimum I surmise they were) would have been an epic challenge, 5 were nigh unstoppable.

So there were our characters, knocked out and imprisoned, then to be individually interrogated by the cultists. My inquisitor was a real ray of sunshine, torturing my minotaur with a red-hot iron, stabbing and searing him when the answers I gave weren’t to his liking. He ended the questioning by using a mace to break off my horns (but since I managed to make him lose his cool I got an extra 200 xp when it came time for it to be doled out). The gunslinger was free first, and he had been beaten and water boarded. The cleric was hanging upside-down by a rope, off a balcony, over the gorge, with his hands bound behind his back. The monk was bound up to his neck in chains. His fingernails were pulled out by his interrogator in an attempt to keep him from punching them. It didn’t work, hence the chains. And we found the bard hanging upside down over a trio of rust monsters. The rust monsters were a fun fight. Normally they’d rust metal weapons away at a touch, but since my axe is magical, sentient, and indestructible thanks to it being a Black Blade (a feature of my own Bladebound magus archetype), I carved up some rust monster filets.

The next part of the manor we explored was the museum. One room had a pair of sarcophagi. I warm everyone not to touch either coffin, but what does the cleric do? He strides right up to one sarcophagus and opens it. Surprise, surprise, there was a mummy inside. A mummy that then attacked. Another winning spell selection on my part, as I used Scorching Ray to help reduce the mummy to a pile of ashes. The other sarcophagus actually didn’t have a mummy inside. Bad news was it was really a mimic, which then started constricting the gunslinger in its tentacles. Big, scary sarcophagus with tentacles? Yeah, we were up against a Cofagrigus without any Ghost or Dark type attacks among us. Not even an Ultra Ball.

The next part of the manor wasn’t my favorite part. I was in the front as we waded through 3 foot deep water. And because I was in front I had the fun of being attacked by two leech swarms. Swarms are tricky things, normally the only way to deal with them is magic or dogged persistence. Gunslinger thought it’d be better to hurl a vial of Alchemist’s Fire onto the swarms. Bad news was that the swarms were on me. And the monk hurled some oil to keep the fire burning. The fire that was burning on me. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that my minotaur no longer had any fur between his neck and navel. A bare torso showing off the network of scars and burns (including the mark from the possessed prisoner branding iron from the haunted prison). That’s going to be very, very itchy when it grows back in.

Big shocker came when the DM had the gunslinger roll a d100. He got a 16 and became an elf. No, we’re still not quite sure why he made the sudden race change. I am fairly sure he was rolling on the Reincarnation table. Good thing Pathfinder uses the 3.5 reincarnation options, original 3rd edition had less of a chance of getting satyr or centaur and more a chance of getting badger. Badger gunslinger sounds adorable but wouldn’t really be much use in battle. Be better off hurling an enraged badger at the enemy. Although, the thought of an elf gunslinger is pretty intriguing. Just think of Legolas from “Lord of the Rings.” Now give him a pair of pistols. Scared yet?

And the grand final battle of this chapter was against a custom, and pretty vicious, Variant Flesh Golem. Think the unholy love-child of Wilbur Whatley and a spider. Eight spider legs, pincers, tentacles, the most terrifying works. We had to win the fight by using the Castle Frankenstein-style apparatus on the roof to call down a lightning storm to charge the machine which we could then use to summon another flesh golem to fight for us, the same sentient flesh golem who were successfully defended in a trial earlier in the adventure (adventuring paralegals, anyone?). Even got to channel a little Eleventh Doctor into my magus as I figured out the device, “Big Friendly Button? Oh I just love Big Friendly Buttons!”

During the fight the monk and gunslinger engaged Big Ugly and got snagged by tentacles. Monk managed to wriggle free but the gunslinger wasn’t as lucky. Cue my latest epic moment. I stepped off the tower, slowed my fall with Feather Fall, draw my trusty Wand of Acid Arrow, and called a shot on the tentacle constricting the gunslinger.

Critical Hit.

Once again I was the gunslinger’s best friend. It’s generally advisable to be on good terms with the guy who can kill any other member of the party in one move should he so choose. So we were able to put down the Big Bad and completed the chapter, even got to level 7! Oh level 7, where my magus can now wear medium armor and cast spells without chance of failure. And he gains access to his level 3 spells. Now spell selection really gets fun, since I can choose from among Fireball, Fly, and Lightning Bolt, and that’s just the short list.

And so ends my latest Tabletop Tales. It’ll be some time before I play this character again, as it’ll be my turn to DM and I’m running the opening chapter of ‘Rise of the Runelords.’ Can’t wait to get back to that magus though. I didn’t set out to make him a scarred badass, but I am pretty happy with how he’s turned out.


TL/DR Started playing Pathfinder again, made a minotaur magus character, and he's a badass by accident, not design.