Today Nothing Happened - Shazzbaa's Journal Comic
Runewriters: Magic Can Always Go Wrong
Tags: Art by Anybody! ~ Art by Just Me! ~ D&D Stuff!
(Feel free to continue to weigh in, but I wanted to say, THANKS FOR YOUR HELP YOU GUYS!! <3 I have weird ulterior motives and this is all a big help. c: )
NostalgiaQuest: The Dark Dragon (DragonBoy)
Drawing all my characters, from middle school on, in their latest incarnation, from memory.
The Dark Dragon (NICE NAME DUDE, WHERE DID YOU COME UP WITH THAT) was a villain who isn’t complicated but is still hard to draw. I think he had some kinda bargain-thing going on with King Khat because I apparently can NEVER have straightforward villains in my stories, ever. He can’t exist outside of shadow, so after escaping the dragon dimension he just kind of hangs out in King Khat’s shadow and plots, as best I recall.
I don’t remember what his deal was, either.
He also got this exchange at one point, which I was awfully proud of in highschool —
King Khat: Are you threatening me? Ha! I’m not afraid of you. You can’t even leave my shadow. You are bound to it.
Dark Dragon: Funny….. so are you.
—and… no actually, I still think that’s awesome.
NostalgiaQuest: Red Thunder (DragonBoy)
Drawing all my characters, from middle school on, in their latest incarnation, from memory.
The name seemed cool at the time. So did all those scales! Hnnnnnnng.
Red Thunder was Kamaro’s best friend, who lived in the dragon world. For some reason he was keeping Kamaro’s ability to transform into a dragon a secret, though I’m not sure how he expected him not to notice? He was also involved somehow in the circumstances that made Kamaro what he is, though I REALLY DON’T REMEMBER THAT BIT WELL AT ALL and I’m not 100% sure I ever knew what was going on there.
I’m not sure if you guys have noticed, but every non-villain character in this story was based on a colour of the rainbow. There’s no in-story reason for it, but that’s how I initially made them — I was home sick with a fever, and bored, and thought to myself “I’m going to make a bunch of characters, let’s start with the colours of the rainbow!” So, for future reference, if you ever want to make a bunch of REALLY DISPARATE WEIRD CHARACTERS, just let a bunch extremely saturated colours inspire you. c:
NostalgiaQuest: Zevulka and Cloverpawz (DragonBoy)
Drawing all my characters, from middle school on, in their latest incarnation, from memory.
NOPE THERE’S MORE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY WHY DID YOU THINK WE WERE DONE
Zevulka was a genetic experiment to create a real, live Pokemon-like critter, because apparently people in this town have nothing better to do! He was mostly a success, except that instead of saying his name to communicate, he mostly complains and swears a lot in perfectly comprehensible English.
He is rich off of endorsement deals and a pretty successful stint in marketing, and is now mostly retired, where he spends his wealth indulging in various weird niche hobbies, like y’do. His private collection of Egyptian artefacts occasionally tours museums but mostly stays in his mansion, and if you’ve been paying attention to the other NostalgiaQuest entries for this story you can probably guess that he joins the party (rather, yells at the party until they join him) after he’s robbed by an absurd supervillain.
He’s sort of snarky and doesn’t really want to save the world; he just wants his stuff back. I’m sure he warms up to everyone eventually. Kind of.
Cloverpawz, meanwhile, is a flying green guinea pig for no adequately explained reason. It is Zevulka’s “exotic pet” (seriously, that’s all the explanation that exists anywhere) and just follows the party around, being adorable but silly and useless like guinea pigs usually are.
It would be so great if you would do a livestream sometime. I remember going to a few of yours and they were so cool. :)
Ahhhhhh gosh thank you!! — I miss doing them too! ;u; My dumb and slow internet doesn’t allow me to livestream right now (I actually struggle to even load gifsets on tumblr sometimes hnnng) but I’m hoping to switch services soon so that I can stream again!
Yo, would you consider doing some kinda tutorial (or suggesting an existing one, I suppose!) for the way you draw buildings and environments? It's really cool seeing your process (I love RW's detailed backgrounds!) but I always wonder how all the crazy perspective works; I'm having so much trouble figuring out this stuff on my own x) Though I realize tutorials take ages and all, so even some quick tips would be cool.
OH MAN I actually really want to do a perspective tutorial at some point — I used to hate it and have somehow gotten to the point of kind of loving it? So I really do want to make a thing to see if I can help other people get it to click the way it finally clicked for me!
I just gotta get the time to sit down and do it, but I’ll try really hard to actually get one made as soon as I can! *u*
Your D&D characters are all really unique and interesting! Where do you get the ideas for them from?
Oh gosh, thank you! I don’t really know that my, like, PROCESS for D&D characters is any different from the way I come up with ideas normally, except my D&D characters are slightly more allowed to be huge sparkling special-snowflake Mary Sues. xD I’ll just read about something and think “that would be fun to play” and then start building a character idea out of that — what circumstances would make that happen, what kind of class would be good for this character, etc. etc.
Usually I end up starting with a problem to give the character, because that’s my favourite part. A lot of times I’m inspired by existing characters — as an example, 24-52, my golem, was actually inspired by the AutoResponder from Homestuck. There’s a part early on where Jake repeatedly asks him “Tell me about the AutoResponder” to force him to give his pre-programmed response to that question and reveal that he’s not a real person. I thought “wow, that would be a fun character — a robot who’s trying to pass as a human but has this programming he has to try to play off or work around” AND THUS TWEN WAS CREATED. Everything else about him just arose as I tried to figure out how to make that idea work and where that character would belong in the world. I’m fortunate to play under a DM with a really developed world, so there’s often a lot to draw from in that area, too!
Sometimes I start with a class, or a weapon, or a particular mechanic (Snaketongue’s Wild Magic or Nephregol’s connection to the Tsochari, and I really like the idea of intelligent items that argue with the carrier but have yet to try this out) but most times I just have this vague personality idea, problem, or circumstance that I think could be fun to play out, but isn’t a whole story in and of itself.
THIS MIGHT SEEM LIKE A STRANGE QUESTION? I just found your tumblr though, and I was scrolling through, and I can't tell, but based on a few comments, are you anosmic? As an anosmic, I can't not ask.
Ahhhh gosh I CAN SEE WHERE YOU MIGHT GET THAT IDEA but alas, I am not technically anosmic! I make comments about my inability to smell, which I’m kinda well-known for among my friends, but it’s more born of a perpetually stuffed up nose than anything. Even when I can breathe through my nose just fine I don’t smell well, but I occasionally can identify scents or, more frequently, can tell that there is a smell but can’t tell if it’s good or bad.
I do suffer some of the downsides - my friends think it makes me a picky eater, and I’ve definitely set things on fire without noticing the smell of burning until the smoke alarm went off - but not as intensely as a true anosmic. STILL. LET US SHARE A NOSE-TROUBLES HIGH FIVE! :”D
