The Miscast Minute 002

Currently in Arcane Ugly world we're exploring the possibilities of Adventurers being able to combine actions during combat. Chaining stunts together, combining spell effects, making cool maneuvers.

My rough notes for these rules for looks like this:

Adventures declare what they want to do in combat and then the gamesmaster directs the order in which they happen and make tests.

Adventures can attempt stunt actions together, attempt to combine spell effects or make maneuvers that rely on the outcome of another. If an adventurer's actions rely on the success of another, then they roll simultaneously. Gamesmasters then determine the outcome of their combined actions based on the result.

My notes app on my phone is filled with loose writings like this. Then I spend a very long time trying to reword them into something that could fit in a rulebook. Sometimes I just write keywords so I don't forget a good idea I have at an inconvenient time and then work out how to string them together later, like "Combine actions, Roll simultaneously, GM decide".

Currently in the Arcane Ugly Discord Server we're making mutations! Expect a big, very weird table soon!

I'm currently finishing a new video where I make a true scale kitbash of a fantastical weird creature. It's my first dabbling in creating a singular art piece with a meaningful narrative to me and I'm looking forward to what people think of it. There were multiple points in this project when I thought it was nearly done, but it just didn't FEEL done when I got there. When this happens, I take a photo to send to a friend on Facebook. After I take the photo, I look at it, see how bad it looks in harsh phone camera lighting, bad Facebook compression and everytime I know what I have to add to make it better and never actually send the photo. Sometimes when it's very close to finished I send a photo, convinced it's finished and then quickly unsend it, because suddenly a new flaw is announced to me. It's like magic, you send it to someone and suddenly you realise everything that’s wrong with it.

This video I really want to push myself in video form too, so I'm trying to film a cinematic intro as well for a bit of fun. I see myself sometimes falling back on old habits video wise and I know with YouTube it’s important to push myself otherwise I might fall behind. We'll see! I've got the smoke machine ready.

The next iteration of the cards experiments with textures to make them look worn and well loved. Every card must be uniquely textured front and back or the textures will make weird patterns fanned out. That means I need like 120+ textures! So I created procedurally generating textures in Substance Painter so I can automatically generate infinite realistic textures at the click of a button.

Also for something fun I hand drew a replacement queen card, not sure it'll make the cut but I'll print it in the next prototype anyway.

This week Trent and I celebrated our anniversary, so I want to get wholesome and share with you one of the gifts he got me early in our relationship. It was a notebook, a mostly standard notebook, but the value was the note written on the inside which read:

While I haven’t filled this notebook nearly as much as I should have, the sentiment is what stuck. Thanks to Trent I've learnt that despite the ebbs and flows of creativity, the important thing is to never stop creating. Your way of expressing creativity might differ; I know I've painted, drawn, photographed, made videos, sewn, written or even found ways to be creative in my job. You have to ride the wave of whatever brings you inspiration at that moment but never stop creating.

My last video “kitbash & chill” got some very lovely comments, thank you! You’ve really made me feel like an artist and feel justified in what I make and more than encouraged to experiment to try to find my voice. It means a lot.

I saw a lot of comments justifying kitbashing as an artform, comparing it to collage or remixing or sampling music.

I think that's a great comparison. Though I’m still not sure on the ethics of it. I can’t mold and cast a kitbash for example and sell it legally (at least I don’t think). I can’t get rights to the model parts like I can with samples, images or 3d models. Maybe there is something there to explore? Maybe I should sell models with a kitbashable license? Maybe I should make some bootlegs of kitbashes and sell them and see if I get sued? I don’t know but I think I need to keep digging here.

This is an idea I've had floating around for a while, since someone mentioned on instagram about wanting to see me make glowing plants from skyrim! I went out and bought some cool UV model paints but I can't get my hands on any UV bulbs locally. I'm going to order some online right now! Haha. What other mythical plants are there I could make to include in my box? Are there any magical tools that my botany kit should include?

This was a fantastic recommendation for another artist rabbit hole to go down. I had no idea of Chris Ware and now I'm digging through so much stuff and very, very inspired. Go check him out!

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The Miscast Minute - brought to you by Trent and Rachel. Have a suggestions for what you’d like to see? Let us know!