Where the Whales Go To Die! Part 2!!!

So I originally wrote about a project a while back that I started titled Where the Whales Go To Die, based off one of my favorite movies, The Island at the Top of the World. (http://creativedungeoneering.blogspot.com/2016/03/where-whales-go-to-die.html)

This was a fantastic movie done by Disney back in 1974 with a lot of advanced special effects for it's time, but it really captured a love for all things "arctic" and especially, for classic adventure, travel, mountaineering, and even Vikings and 'Killer' whales.
I never did a follow-up to this project though to show the finished product, which I think turned out not half-bad!

I started with a toy Orca, and wanting to give the illusion of it coming out of the water, cut it in half. I created the base with a thick card-stock base and a platform of sculpted hot glue. This is done by allowing the applied hot glue to cool just slightly while sculpting the glue into the shaping desired.

After I started to get the base shaped right, I sunk the Orca's top half into the base, and continued to apply. This next crucial step is what really creates the sense of 'frothing foam.'
Wanting to replicate the scene from Island at the Top of the world where the Orca's that guard "The Place where the Whales go to die" is covered with an icy foam and misty cold arctic water, I added a dab of Gorilla glue to the still warm hot glue.
The chemical reaction between these two creates a beautiful (if not slightly over-abundant and out-of-control if not watched!) foam. This created a textured foaming circle of splash around the base of the whale as it crests out of the water, just as in the attacking scene from the film.




Loving these beautiful creatures I feel it imperative to emphasize here that these are designed for fictional table-top roleplaying of course, and that there are no recorded attacks of Orca's guarding "the Place where Whales go to Die" (that I am aware of).


(See a brief sample of it from the original film here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh lOekZYMk-

Following the same technique for the fluke, allowed me to both create either a ridiculously large single whale (unlikely) or two whales that could technically be used for an ocean-based encounter simultaneously.

A similar base structure, and frothing technique was used allowing two natural encounters to be created from one single miniature.






Creating the underside of the whale was a bit more tricky as I wanted them to look natural (no "made in China" lettering" and yet scarred up and aged, like ancient creatures of legend. Matching the coloring of the white was tough, but adding a "gloss" look of being 'wet' was even tougher without the plastic looking too shiny.





       

All in all one of my favorite custom-made pieces. This has yet to eb entered into a contest as many of my other Creative Dungeoneering pieces have, but will likely be competing in a custom-made category this year at the SaltCon gaming convention:

http://saltcon.com

Salt con T-Shirt Design contest 2016

In an effort to push myself to being involved with all things creative, for better or worse, I opted to submit a quickly-sketched logo design for the SaltCon 2016 T-shirt contest.

Now to be fair, it didn't win, and thats ok. I don't think it was my best work, but I tend to go more towards the clean and simple look anyways. Although I have to say, the winning design was fantastic! Retro and yet almost "50's space-age" cool.

SaltCon Miniature creations...

So I love the Saltcon Miniatures contest! But unfortunately this year, I will not be submitting any entires. You can find out more here if your a local and attending this weekend:

http://saltcon.com


I thought since I am not able to enter any new creations this year, it might be best to visit a couple "virtual" entries I wish I had the time to submit.

Large Black Pudding:

This was created from wire, foam core board, and hot glue. then painted to several varying depths, and varnished with a  thick gloss to give it a wet look. the complete original posting can be seen here: http://creativedungeoneering.blogspot.com/2015/04/from-tentacles-to-crystals-to-puddings.html

This was a planned entry for the medium miniature category, and while simple, I think gathers a sense of "depth" and movement. With this iconic creature, the simplicity is often its horror.

For my planned Large entry, I thought I would re-visit the Smaug's Horde treasure pile:
http://creativedungeoneering.blogspot.com/2015/01/smaug-horde-found.html



The Treasure pile is quite large, and unfortunately in these images I do not feature a standard D&D mini for comparison, but I wanted something for players to really see as a massive horde, not just a small treasure pile from a wandering monster that for some unknown reason, seems to always be hoarding gold pieces. No, this needed to be true Dragons Horde. Modular of course, so that in creating future piles I could arrange them into being multiple piles of a grand scale, eventually, resulting in a Smaug size horde.




I am somewhat disappointed in myself for not committing to showcasing some of the DUNGEONEERING! work this year, but perhaps its ok for the focus to be on being the one to actually enjoy another creative Dungeon Masters efforts...not just always making them....maybe...

Gulp.....

So this blog is my own personal avenue of creative journalling one might call it. It is often as I can, updated with the REAL purpose of Dungeoneering, which is to highlight creative tips, tricks, and projects for Dungeons & Dragons and table top roleplaying.

But since re-locating to the Western mountains of the Salt Lake Valley, I have found there are not too many D&D only players nearby. It's proved increasingly difficult to find a group that is not only made  up of consistent adult players, but ones that have a more "old-school" mindset as well. 

I am not a fan of just playing board games for board games sake. Nor am I a huge fan of Roll20 or Virtual Tabletop applications.  I like the idea of old-school, role-playing heavy and miniature tabletop heavy D&D. I'd even be a LARPer too if I thought I could get away with it, but I have a long history of not meshing well with that hobby. I don't see too many adults heavily involved in that past time either, which is somewhat of a deterrent. 

                          

Dungeons & Dragons is truly where my heart is at. 

But I am old. 

I am not a "gamer." I am a "started with B1, The Keep on the Borderlands, Red Box basic set, watched the cartoon when it was still in syndication" player. 1980s....Not a video gamer who dabbles in RPG's. Not a LARPer who dabbles in table top nor a Wargamer that has stepped sideways into D&D. I am a purist. I'm so uncreative in this regard that I do not even play Pathfinder, much to the shock of many. 

Now, there is NOTHING wrong with these other types of gaming nor the people who play them. I just happen to find a sense of simplistic story telling and pleasure from just playing D&D. Now to eb fair, in the past, I have played Star Frontiers, Palladium, Robotech, MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing), 007 James Bond, and Star Wars. And I loved them all. But D&D will always be my first love. 

But because I am old, I have slid into being a bit of a Hermit gamer. I am dabbling in solo Basic D&D gaming, but love a good tabletop session. Tough to do with solo games. As a result, I have taken the leap, and singed up for my first official dabble into D&D 5th edition at my local gaming Con that starts this weekend. Of course my hope is that there is somewhere, a "hidden room" that holds old-school style "play by candlelight" and "cloaks required"type D&D games..aka Mazes & Monsters.....the quintessential image in my mind of a good-old-fashioned "cult-like" D&D game. 

While it may not result in the "cloak wearing play-by-candlelight-type cult gathering" I would love, it will hopefully, at the very least, be a riotous good night of gaming. And who knows, maybe somewhere, hidden in the mist shrouded forested hills of Western Salt Lake cOunty, perhaps there still exists others with this same old-school mindset. 

On a side-note, this is one of the first years I will not be entering any of the Dungeoneering 

Time will tell...

The Continuing Quest

                                         


Most people like the spring.

The thaw of the winter snow, the increase in daylight, the amount of sun. Open water, summer breezes billowing the sails, and the feeling of the warmth upon the skin...

I do too, but it also saddens me a bit. It's like seeing the light at the end of the dark tunnel of winter and knowing that the mystery of that dark will soon be coming to an end. 

The mystery of which I speak is this elusive, quite difficult to describe sense of  esotericism and creative magic that seems more present in the winter than in the spring and summer. Disappearing are the days of mist and fog and stormy skies, the days where there was little else to do than be inside alone with ones imagination. 

And yet each year, like a death toll being sounded to this winter magic, comes the last gathering of the genre I will experience for many months. 

The SaltCon gaming convention. http://saltcon.com

Each year I've gone hoping to find THE game of D&D I've always dreamed of (although to be fair, my expectations are probably far too high ) or a great class or panel to rocket my creative writing to the 'published' level, and each year I find myself not finding either...
I tend to be a hermit D&D player. There are no 5e groups near me, nor 1, 2, or even 3-4e groups for that matter. I somewhat detest Pathfinder, of which there seem to be plenty, and I am not in any way, shape, or form, a LARPer, SCAdian, or even board-game geek. In this respect I am wholly unoriginal and I guess one would say, unimaginative. So I find that  at SaltCon I am often alone, ignored, and disappear in the crowds with little attention paid.

Ahh anonymity... It can often be like a warm blanket, but sometimes leaves me wondering what I am missing just beyond the folds... 

And that is exactly how SaltCon seems to me. I always leave feeling like there is something I am missing. Like there was something else going on that I did not know of, or was not "in the loop on" because of my anonymity. Was that dream D&D game really going on somewhere until the late hours that I simply did not know of? Was there in fact something else to be done than sit in the hallways and watch the myriad of half-hearted cosplayers socialize and flirt to the echoing sounds of poorly executed Filk music?

If it is possible to be a "D&D Snob" then I suppose I qualify. I have nothing against Filkers, or Cosplayers for the matter. Or even Pathfinder players. But perhaps this self-introspection is just the sad fact that while the winter melts away, so does my hopeful expectations of finding like-minded individuals who take their D&D way too seriously and have the constant flow of imagination to see its likeness in nearly everything...
Of course I'll attend, and continue the quest to find that elusive imaginative treasure...one that lasts through he spring and summer heat and sun and into the misty fog of another imaginative dark winter.

A far Green Country...

A while ago I moved west. It's a modest home, nestled overlooking a creek running down from the western mountains outside of Salt Lake City Utah, but it has some great trees, and most importantly, it looks west, into the winding canyons of seldom traveled mountains. 

This small little corner of the Salt Lake Valley to me, always seemed a distant far green country. Often shrouded in mist, higher than the valley below, and less traveled and traversed than that of the more well known Wasatch range to the east. 

Now, Tolkien references aside, the reason for posting this small little diatribe is to examine, if only momentarily and internally, the correlation between those of us who hear the "call" of the fantasy-genre and the geographical location in relation to others who at least seem to as well. 

I long for days of old-school roleplaying, without the need for a Roll20 interface or a "virtual tabletop." And I have no doubt that as suburban sprawl continues to invade west like a festering malignancy, this will be less of an issue than it is now, but  for the time being, the solitude and quiet of the west means solitary Hermit-like fantasy involvement. Especially in relation to gaming. 

And this is the part that always seemed odd to me. Life of course, always gets in the way, but at least here in Utah, there seems to be a correlation between the number of RPG players, and those fans of the Fantasy genre, and the more crowded, urban areas. Why does there seem to be so very many Gaming groups from the East Coast of the US? Why here in Utah, do they all seem to be located in such major urban areas? If the desire to be "in the wild" plays such a crucial role in the genre, and in Fantasy gaming in general, why are so many of my fellow fantasy gaming and genre gamers so bent on being located in such urban areas? 

Would it not be a gaming paradise to be located away from the Urban sprawl? Away from the congestion and modernization of concrete and steel? To be more centralized in an environment that resembles the trees and mountains and misty vistas of the fantasy genre? 

I have no doubt that I could find, on any given Friday night, a  good session of D&D more centrally located in the urban trough of the Salt Lake Valley. But thats not what, Larry Elmore for example, paints in his genre-defining paintings! Sprawl and pavement and constant traffic is not the common vista that we see in any number of the works by Jeff Easley. So why is it so hard to find that distant, secluded, almost sacred and secret gaming club that one would imagine would be the perfect D&D group? 

THIS is what I aim to develop and create outside of Salt Lake City. The small town I live in, only about 20 miles from downtown Salt Lake is a world away, with mountains and vistas and trees, and the feeling of seclusion and privacy. This is what a true D&D and fantasy genre group should be. 

From Gaming to LARP, finding real life environments and a sense of seclusion and mystic imagination is what I hope to convey. Naming this new club has been an arduous task to say the least, but hopefully soon, some sessions can materialize. 

For any readers of this quiet, solitary blog, I would, for the time being, HIGHLY recommend attending SaltCon this next month, the premium small-scale gaming convention for the Wasatch front: http://saltcon.com