A Wall of Text

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.

Just a quick update for the record. A while back, I wrote a primer detailing my casual political "Gahiji, Honored One" deck for the Commander/EDH format in Magic the Gathering. I'm pretty proud of it, and still update it here and there, so I figured it was worth linking here.

Here are the original layouts I did for the digital alter, posted about a year ago.

The deck is focused on a fun mix of providing token resources to all players, while forcing them to attack with said resources. Add a healthy amount of defensive effects to protect yourself, and you get an often hilariously silly deck. It's a blast to play.

The Primer - Gahiji:  Forever War on Tappedout.

A stupid Gremlin D.Va Facebook cover photo just because. Point of fact, I hated D.Va - her theme, her aesthetic, pretty much everything about her - leading up to Overwatch's launch. But man, with the advent of the Gremlin D.Va meme, just imagining her in-game persona as a front, and the actual character as an awful gamer-trash shitlord... it's just so entertaining.

Extra-meme-y version because I'm terrible...