End-of-Week Elmore (9/29/17): Score!

End-of-Week Elmore (9/22/17): Wasteland Warriors

I would like to have posted about my joy that today is the autumnal equinox...but it doesn't feel like fall at all here, in the shadow of Philadelphia! More like a friggin' summer day. At least the leaves are falling. Hopefully the east coast won't become an arid wasteland like the one depicted in today's Elmore illo! Probably not, thanks to climate change-induced hurricanes that are probably heading our way someday! 

Okay, enough gloom and doom from me! I'm still reading through the Elfquest oeuvre, will probably take me through the Fall and into Winter to do so, given everything else I have going on. But I still have that heartbreaker on my mind, have no doubt!

Happy gaming to one and all out there! Hope you get to roll some dice this weekend!

End-of-Week Wendy [Pini] (9/8/17): Rereading Elfquest Part 1

I wish I had something more profound to say at this point in my "great" effort toward creating an Elfquest fantasy heartbreaker. But I don't.

Mostly because I'm in the very nascent stages, which means I'm going back and reading the series. At the very least, the first few volumes.

So, I'm in the "boring" research phase. Well, boring for YOU, dear reader. For me, I'm sure I'll have a grand old time reliving the adventures of Cutter and his pack!

One thing I can say is I never cared what other people thought about a man reading Elfquest. People tend to glance at Wendy Pini's art and immediately call it "girl stuff."

Fie on that, I say, ye narrow-minded folk! I would tell those of such a shallow opinion to read this, the intro to volume 1 of the Complete Elfquest. To summarize, it talks about the depth of Elfquest, and how it means many different things to many different people.

Can EQ be seen as or taken to be just "girly escapist fantasy"? Sure...IF THAT'S HOW A READER WANTS TO TAKE IT! Others, like myself, can take it as a monumental feat of creativity, not just in terms of its amazing and robust visual artistry, but also the rich world that the Pinis created.

Rant over. In the coming days, I'll check in with my "amateur game designer" musings. I'm keeping a particular eye out for the aspects of the different races. On the surface, there are elves (which in D&D terms roughly equate to "wood" and "high" elves at a very cursory level), trolls (superficial analogs to orcs), and humans (more primitive than the medieval types usually found in D&D).

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself! If anyone else out there is reading, or has recently read, the EQ series, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

End-of-Week Wendy [Pini] (9/1/17): Elfquest for Classic D&D?

Welcome, September! Welcome, 'Ber months! My favorite time of year! 

And with your cooler winds comes the autumnal madness I feel every year. Forget the fact that the equinox isn't technically until the 22nd. I don't care for technicalities. 

Yes, the madness settles in...so what better way to give in to that madness than to publicly declare my desire to house rule classic/basic D&D into an Elfquest heartbreaker? 

What's that you say, little elfin voices in my head? That's a great idea I have?! Thank you for your validation! 

Seriously though, I know what the reader may be asking: "Anthony, you never created the Planet of the Ape heartbreaker you raved about over two years ago."

Don't bother me with details! I'll get to that one eventually, I'm sure...

"Ah, Anthony," you chortle, "you go with your bad Quixotic self! Let me get some popcorn, because whether or not you crash and burn on this latest windmill tilt, I want to watch!"

ANYway, THIS time I'm for real! This time, I declare that I will follow through with this latest lunacy. So what that I'm busier than ever? So what that my blog has lain almost fallow for the last year or so, with only Elmore art posts to share with the world??

SO WHAT?!?! I will make this project come to life! I swear it to the Saints Gygax and Arneson!

Welcome to unofficial Fall, folks. It's going to be interesting, at the very least. Keep an eye on this space, people. Stay tuned, there's more madness to come...