axegrrl

I watched the FAQ video, and read the comments under it. It wasn't clear whether or not you could add more $$ to the pledge -- just switch around what you wanted and trade a Sophie for $25 of other stuff. The comment in the video was more about "you should pledge now to unlock more stuff" rather than "you *have* to give us your final tally now". To clarify, I'm already well into the $$$ range, so adding maybe $$ wouldn't affect the overall total much at this stage.

There's a chance I may not see whatever add-ons get added on Saturday. If that happens, is it possible to adjust the $$$ amount after the official close, perhaps by PayPal, to account for "dang, I wanted that"?

Having played 4E for a bit, we dropped out of a campaign. It was sooo shallow. All the character classes ended up feeling pretty much the same at the table. Each combat round, you looked at your list of powers, tapped one, it maybe did damage, then the next person tapped one of their powers, and it similarly did damage...often in the same general way: not realistically, but like a super-power. And then the monsters with a single hit point were incapacitating party members...yech. If you like some of the powers/options in 4E, but find it feels more like Supers and Dragons or Dungeon Heroes, check out Monte Cook's Books of Experimental Might. I suspect the 4E crew borrowed a fair bit from Monte's ideas. The BOXM rachets up the power level of the original character classes to be more on a par with classes from later books. Also nice is getting a feat every level. This enables some of those cool character concepts that you just couldn't do with the base 3.5 system 'cause you'd never be able to get the feats to make it work before epic levels. Fighters get more oomph from feats when they're taken as fighter bonus feats, and they have fighting styles, too. Playing a fighter is fun again.

* Draconic-looking humanoids, 2.5' tall in scale (like d20 kobolds). * Draconic-looking humanoids with wings, 2.5' tall in scale (like d20 dragonwrought kobolds). The kobolds should be about 2.5' tall with legs bent the way they usually stand. If their legs are all stretched out, they can get to 3.5' to 4', but normal stance has them 2'-2.75'. Most draconic kobold minis I see are too freaking big.

I've been liking Julie Guthrie sculpts since forever. Been away from doing minis for a while... glad to see she's doing more for Reaper. I'll be adding the ranger to my collection. And the half-dragon absolutely rocks.

FYI, aspiring 3D software modelers: DAZ Studios is doing a sale on their 3D stuff. They've been putting different stuff on sale each day. Today they've got Carrara 3D Express for $2. Evidently it usually retails for ~$100. They've got several massive collections of 3D models on sale, too. The uber-expensive dragon package -- the one we never thought would make it off the wish list -- is also $2. You may need to be a member of their monthly graphics club to get these specials. My husband's been a member for a while, and we've found it quite worth it if you want to do anything with 3D models.

Stories like some of those above are why I use PayPal *only* with a credit card. When you have problems, you can talk to the credit card people if PayPal is non-responsive. When said credit card is with the bank where you've had an account for years (in my husband's case, for a lot of years), the bank won't want to lose you as a customer.

Chalk me up as another one who really wanted to do the con this year but just can't... @Jen -- got featherdusters? copepods? stomatellas? :D

There are also calibration devices that can be used to make sure that what you see on screen matches the output from your printer. They're generally pretty expensive, last time I looked (years ago). Also, what you get on the printout is influenced by what kind of paper you're using, which inks you're using, and what kind of varnish you put on the finished cover, if you're doing varnishes... different papers and esp. varishes have different levels of light reflectance/transmittance, which affect what you see vs. what you thought you were going to see! When I temped for a print company, one customer rejected a proof because what they saw in print didn't match what they wanted. Turned out they hadn't calibrated their monitor recently... and they had their program set to RGB rather than CMYK... the company sent someone over with the Pantone book, found out exactly which colors they wanted, and came back and edited the file... when they got the file back, they complained that it "didn't look right" on screen!

Yup. I tried the Photoshop thing, and was coming up with most colors having one or more of the CMYK values in the single digits. The margin of error with this technique is really an unknown.... There's also the issue of displaying CMYK on an RGB monitor. When you switch from RGB to CMYK in Photoshop, there's a definitely noticable color change.

Yeah, I noticed the "everything has meat" menu on the Sonic web site... how far from Reaper is the nearest veg-friendly food joint?

Ah, that explains the platform shoes and high heels... He should sculpt & sell levitation platforms for some of these models.

If you do this, you should also be prepared to take out several other Eastern-influenced things as well, if you want to maintain consistency: the monk and all of its associated Eastern-style weapons (kama, nunchaku, sai, shuriken, and siangham) plus other non-Western weapons like the kukri (Nepalese), scimitar (Arabic/Indian/Persian), and repeating crossbow (Chinese)... and I'm not even gonna touch the orc double-axe!

I've got a bunch of Amazon gift certs, and would like to be able to use them on Reaper stuff...but no joy. Any thoughts on the possibility of seeing Reaper stuff on Amazon in the future?

Look for the color temperature on the package. A good daylight bulb should be 5500K-6500K. You can find decent 6500K bulbs at Walmart and other places. The self-ballasted (read: large base) compact fluorescents should be fine for most people. If you really want to go with the more expensive ott-lite bulbs, JoAnn Fabrics has them on sale at times, too... check their web site for their online and in-store specials, though you'll need to sign up for their flyer (email or snail mail) to get the best coupons.

Thanks for taking the time to look stuff up! I know it drove me nuts for a good couple of hours before I threw in the towel. The only other clue I have... there are mentions of things being "stained nicotine orange". So, my best guess is that it was either really cigarettes -- though that seems a strange thing for a five-year-old to remember -- or, just perhaps, oranges -- which would fit better with the fruit, candy, and other food mentioned. Dunno.

Another color chooser here, with selectors for complementary, triad, tetrad, and analagous color schemes.

That's it in a nutshell! We have three shelves full of D&D 3.5 books, as I'm one of the types who likes to look for neat tricks to combine for character types. This grew out of being in a campaign that was entirely combat-driven, with a story that was primarily used to glue the combats together. We tired of that, and quit the campaign... ...but the need to try for "killer combos" stuck. I wouldn't post my combinations to the WotC "character optimization" board, but getting the best bang for the buck becomes part of the fun. One thing I enjoy doing is taking a feat that looks good for powergaming reasons and turning it into backstory for a character. Forgotten Realms background feats, if your DM lets you use them, can be particularly good for helping develop character background stories. So I guess I'd say... munchkin out to your heart's content, but turn those munchkinny details into something you can roleplay with -- it's more fun that way. On the flip side, it's also entirely possible to create a character that is completely useless for combat *and* role-playing, if your DM makes you roll-play when you role-play. As in... at the end of your long, role-played discussion with the NPC, the DM *still* makes you roll a Diplomacy check... and abides by the crappy result and essentially ignores all of the good bits you just role-played. End result? The levels of munchkinning and roleplaying totally depend on the group. And they're not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Couple of references for you... scale guide graphic and article on mini scales.

You could use the spring greens triad for the tactical display... if you do that, you might want to rotate the base a bit wrt the aircraft, so that it's at either a + or an x orientation. If you go with the tactical display and want something solid underneath, you could paint it up as if something on the ground got destroyed by the impact....

On the skaven... how about something along the lines of Scorched Metal / Coppery Orange / Ruby Red for the metal bits? Carry that red over into the rest of the mini somewhat... For the feathers: definitely black. Makes it more vulturish.

I don't know how big a mirror this is, but have you thought about replacing the "glass" of the mirror with a bit of CD?

[threadomancy] While Christmas shopping, we were looking for a Michaels in an area we don't get to very often. Along the way, we passed a Bed, Bath and Beyond. Said I to my husband, "Y'know, I gotta tell this guy on the Reaper board that I still think of Bloodbath and Beyond as ...doh!"

That is hilarious. I heard Little Drummer Boy on the radio in a store the other day. We did that in choir in high school when I was in the tenor section. The entire tenor and bass sections hated it. "Dum. Dum. Dum. Dum. Dum. Dum..." with the occaisional "Rum-pum-pum" for variety. All the tenors viewed the basses with a newfound sympathy after that...!

Merry Christmas to all of you! I have a challenge for anyone who's a history buff.... My mother-in-law read something that her great-aunt wrote about her childhood. The event happened sometime around 1880, and was written about in 1942. It's a story about one of the Christmases she remembers from her childhood: on Christmas eve, the basket of Christmas food and presents is stolen from the back of the buggy as her father drives home during a snowstorm. A few days later, an enormous box arrives from her uncle. It is filled with many gifts and a lot of food, including the following: Broma, from one definition, is a kind of cocoa. But as for "nicotines", we haven't a clue. No matter what I use for search terms, I come up with references to the drug, a band, and less wholesome subjects. Is anyone out there familiar with 1880s slang?!?