A Wall of Text

Vivian Swift is a Tiefling that's serving as my little "back up" character for  the same campaign that my Paladin, Rosheen, is in.

Her backstory is a bit of "A Clockwork Orange" with some of that D&D flair. As a convicted pickpocket, she was given the choice between  serving hard time or submitting herself to an experimental (and quite controversial) criminal rehabilitation... "treatment." This procedure, conducted by an extremist sect of the Church of Pelor, placed a powerful geas on her. Now, she gets a little bit of a radiant "jolt" whenever she behaves badly. Vivian's a pretty rotten gal, but she can never seem to fully express that these days. 

Her familiar, Grigori, is a nosy little Cherubim (a reskinned Pseudodragon) sent to keep tabs on her, making sure she doesn't misbehave.

Mechanically, Vivian's a multiclass character - specifically a Celestial Warlock, with a four level dip into Divine Sorcerer.  This gives her a little bit of damage, a little support, and a few fun and tricksy utility abilities. Combining her class abilities with the Tiefling racial feat "Flames of Phlegethos," she gets bonuses for casting all sorts of fire and radiant spells - thematically perfect for a... "follower" of Pelor. 

Once again, recording some quick notes about the games I played in the past year, along with some applicable ratings.  Just, you know, as a reference for myself in the future.

This year had some solid hits, but I don't think  that 2018 really holds a candle to 2017 - at least not for my tastes. At any rate, I suppose my "Game of the Year" was Hollow Knight, although that feels a little cheap, seeing as how it wasn't originally released in 2018 - it just had its Switch port this year.

Honestly, this year, I pretty much just played a bunch of Warframe...

• Monster Hunter World -       [8]
  A few minor complexity and tutorial issues can't detract from this being the overwhelmingly best game in the series. It makes smart decisions to broaden its audience and fix longstanding issues with the series – the improvement of the lock-on camera is a fucking godsend.
• Vermintide II – [6]
  Some weird balance with some of the classes, and charmingly buggy, but is/was at least constantly improving. A solid melee-focused innovation on the Left 4 Dead formula.
• A Way Out – [4]
  Doesn't have a very good story, and has fairly bland puzzles and gameplay – but I don't think any game has attempted to do a story-focused co-op game like this before, and that's at least commendable.
• God of War – [7]
  The story of Kratos is extraordinarily satisfying from a meta perspective – we see this former symbol of overt, edgy machismo “grow up” and mature with an industry and audience that may have otherwise left the old God of War games behind. This character grows as a parent over the course of the narrative, while still (more or less) managing to honor the source material of the original God of War games. A highly endearing tale with some fun (if shallow) hack-n-slash, somewhat held back by a couple poorly paced story beats concerning Atreus, and noticeably   limited enemy variety - particularly in the boss department.
• P.R.I.C.E. - n/a 
  A pretty standard point and click adventure with all of the frustrations that come with it. It's only an hour long, is free, and has a pretty cute little art style, so overall it doesn't even feel right to grade it... but I would recommend it, if one was in the mood for a digestible, visual novel + point and click adventure sorta game.
• Hollow Knight (Switch) – [9] 
  Extremely challenging and fun metroidvania with an inspiring art style. Not many complaints here:  some of the sound mixing is a little off, and there's no late game money sink until the DLC  (meaning you're sitting on a ton of useless cash for the last half of the game). 
• Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion – [9] 
  A well crafted gauntlet of platforming and shooting challenges. Honestly, the DLC is better than the campaign in the main game.
• Magic the Gathering: Arena – [7] 
  A serviceable translation of MTG into the digital realm. I'm curious to see how this game pans out in the future, and how much resources Wizards of the Coast is going to pour into it. Is this the first honest attempt to phase out the paper card game in favor of digital? (Almost certainly not, but it will be interesting to see what comes next.)
• Super Smash Bros Ultimate – n/a 
  I'm not really good at Smash (or any fighting game really), but this proved to be a fun distraction. If I were a fan of the series, I'm sure I would be simply overjoyed at this game's gargantuan roster.

Another Phantasma  drawing. Admittedly, haven't yet got a chance to play her... but since I first came up with the concept, the Circle of Spores has been officially released, in addition to the Simic Hybrid race - both in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica.  I like Hybrid a lot more than Water Genasi for this character, fits perfect.

Aesop and his alter ego, Subject 22 - Kenku Blood Hunter (Order of the Lycan). Kenkus are still my favorite race, and Order of the Lycan lets me do a fun little  Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde type deal, all thanks to the  subclass's trademark transformation.

Playing this funny little hematologist in a Spelljammer homebrew campaign, which allows for some delightful sci-fi camp.

Still playing Rosheen! My raucous Dwarven party girl turned Paladin. Still really enjoying Paladin in general, Oath of the Ancients in particular. She's just reached level 9, meaning thanks to Revivify, I'm finally playing a character with a raise dead spell - for the first time in 5e!

Although she's still trying to  maintain her old playgirl lifestyle, she has recently become a sort of... begrudging cultural figurehead of the local community, thanks to the party's mostly heroic  exploits.

Two characters  avatars - one I've been playing for years (Dimitri), and a backup character I'm planning in case one of my mains dies.

Dimitri is a blue Dragonborn Eldritch Knight
that is probably my longest running PC ever. Taken from level 3, currently level 15.

His deal is he was once an old, greedy blue dragon, but was cursed by Tiamat for his hubris. Now he's learning the ways of the "mortal" races, but he's still maintained his affinity for magic items - pictured here with +1 Armor, Helm of Intellect, and Maul of the Titans

Dusk-over-the-Lake (aka "Dusk") is a Tabaxi... nerd. She's self-taught in archery, but prefers to spend most of her time reading; Dusk's a bit of a history buff. Admittedly, she fancies herself  a strategist, pointing out any potential weak points for her allies to exploit, rather  than getting her hands dirty herself.

​Mechanically, this character is achieved by simply multi-classing a  Mastermind Rogue (from Xanathar's) and a Battlemaster Fighter, approximating  the "martial support" feel of D&D 4E's Warlord class. While in combat, she keeps to the back-lines, analyzing her enemies and directing her friends using the "Help" action and  called arrow shots.

My "Game of the Year" was  NieR:  Automata.

Recorded here for posterity (but really just my own future reference), these are the games I played this year and what I thought of them. Grading on a 10-point skill where applicable:

• Last Guardian:       [7] 
  A nice game with good emotional notes, but its long development time really shows. Also, slightly outstays its welcome - probably could have been 30 minutes to an hour shorter and been better for it.
  
  
• Fire Emblem:  Heroes      [9] 
  Fantastic gatcha "collect-n-battle" game with perfect strategy mechanics for mobile. Held my attention all year.
  
  
• Resident Evil 7:       [  7, as a game] [But for me personally, a 10]
  This game is a little rough around the edges at times. However, it meant a lot to me as an honest-to-god attempt to breath life not only into the franchise, but  the Survival Horror genre in general. I loved it.
  
  
• Nioh:       [6]
  A serviceable Souls clone. The weapon stance combat system is a fresh take on the formula.
  
  
• For Honor:       [6]
  A shame this game was mismanaged. It was a truly unique fighter that looked and felt visceral and satisfying. But, balance woes and connectivity issues were most likely its death knell.
  ​
• Horizon Zero Dawn:       [8]
  My wife watched me play this game from start to finish, as if binging a Netflix series. The story was simple but did what it needed to, presenting a serviceable post-apocalyptic mystery with a strong female lead. Combat was a frantic, strategic burst of stealth and action.
  ​
• Horizon Zero Dawn:  The Frozen Wilds [5]
  Not quite disappointing, but didn't live up to the original. Story was a little "back-loaded," but there were decent enough character developments throughout. Combat was the biggest letdown, though; to ramp up difficulty, most machines now have huge amounts of HP and elemental resistance, meaning a lot of the best aspects of combat - strategic placement of traps and skillful use of elemental effects - went by the wayside in favor of just pulling out your biggest, most explosive weapon and going toe-to-toe in every encounter

Not a character I'm currently playing, but hopefully a future character. I've wanted to play a Druid focusing on movement control ever since the addition of new spells from the Starter Spells Unearthed Arcana, like the "Infestation" cantrip, ​ were revealed. 

This character is a Water Genasi urchin that grew up  in a sprawling coastal metropolis. Her abode has always been the gutters beneath the city's bustling fish market; as such, her spells, summons, and shapeshifted forms all have an appropriately thematic twist, focusing  on bottom-feeding scavengers, creepy-crawly insects, and waterborne refuse. Also, while  she's got a pretty laid-back, amiable personality, she does have a certain... unpalatable scent about her, making social interactions occasionally difficult.

Also pictured are three of her preferred shapeshifted forms - Giant Octopus, Dire Isopod (reskin of  Brown Bear), and Giant Gull (reskin of Giant Vulture).

Currently playing in a side campaign.

Tome is an assassin in training, in service to the Raven Queen. Kenku monks from her monastery are gifted, telepathically, with the true name of the Raven Queen - which would normally be truly valuable information; however, given  the Kenku speech impediment of only being able to mimic rather than speak, the secret is  tightly guarded. As a point of fact, the monks are given the Raven Queen's true name for one purpose - should they ever hear it spoken by a non-believer, they know to swiftly silence the threat to their matron.

Monks are a lot of fun - I played one way back in the 5th Edition beta playtest. Being a Kensei gives me that classic "wandering samurai" vibe  (super cliche and corny, but a  total blast to play). The Kenku Mimicry is also  constant trial to RP, but I enjoy the challenge.

The  kanji on her banner is something along the lines of "Crow God" -  it's almost certainly incorrect, but it was as close as I could muster!

With the Kobold officially released as a playable character (and a fun one at that!) in "Volo's Guide for Monsters,"  and a pretty solid Unearthed Arcana Artificer - I  just know that someday I'm gonna have to make a Kobold Artificer! The Gunsmith specialization, specifically.

I imagine this guy as a big-talking gruff Drill Sergeant type, but a total coward once the chips are down.

(Obvious credit where it's due - this image is a riff on a famous "Tank Girl" image by Jamie Hewlett.)

I thought the other day - "Hey, I'm almost 30 and still playing Pokemon games, wtf is up with that?"

So I did a  self-portrait with  some of my favorite Pokemon cuz why not. In case you can't tell, Poke-fans, my favorite types are Poison and Ghost. (But you could probably tell).

Here's a guy I'm playing in a fun little 5e Spelljammer conversion - sorta a "Saturday Morning Cartoon" meets "Alejandro Jodorowsky's 'Dune'" kinda aesthetic. Should be a super fun sci-fi jam!

Kaza-Khatl (aka “Kaz”) is a Yuan-ti from the remote, tempestuous jungle planet of Medusalon-7. His (… Her? Its?) people are a simple folk with unambitious, traditional lives, but their bloodline is imbued with a fearsome innate affinity for lightning – supposedly a gift from their revered god “U-K'ux-Kaj” (rough translation: “Heart of the Sky”).

Kaz, however, felt like his peoples' natural talents were being squandered in the literal and metaphorical backwoods of the universe; so, with a heartfelt goodbye to his brood, he hitched a ride on the next merchant vessel. Setting off on a new adventure into the great unknown, Kaz applied his inherent prowess to an honest day's work, humble yet fulfilling: he became an electrician.

Ever pragmatic, the young Yuan-ti has hopped from ship to ship, honing his skills in harnessing electricity. Kaz is currently between jobs, but is eager to begin his next engineering gig.

... also bonus Jojo version, just cuz.