[Art & Warcraft Stuff] Recruitment Banner & Pirate Baker Bard

[jordangreywolf]

Recruitment Banner for "Vigilants of Tyr" One of Gwendel's friends on Warcraft, "Rufaic," has been diligent at trying to GM some "tabletop"-style adventures within the limited parameters of what's possible with a couple of roleplay add-on mods -- "Dicemaster" (which adds a way to track varying bonuses to different skills, in the style of d20), and "Total Roleplay 3" (which adds a whole suite of overlay features, allowing you to give your character a title, first and last name, mini-description/summary for other players with the mod who look at you, additional notes for GMs, etc.). Anyway, "Wyrmrest Accord" is very lopsided toward Horde, so a Dwarf-focused RP group might feel a bit out of place ... and some of the "Mead Hall" players have been migrating over to the "Moon Guard" server instead, which seems to be heavily RP focused and has a lot more activity on Alliance side. It also has long had something of a reputation for being a magnet for "ERP-focused" types. In any case, Gwendel has actually paid the fees (or, rather, I should say, I have paid the fees :/ ) to migrate some of her level-60 characters over to Moon Guard server. And Rufaic has headed over as well, and has been trying to recruit a new RP-focused guild called the "Vigilants of Tyr." Efforts have been ... underwhelming. I tried to make a decorative vertical banner to go along with a flier. (Basically use a Google Doc for the "flier," with a TinyURL link so you can share it and make it easier for someone to type the URL into the search bar. You can't share hyperlinks in-game -- no click-and-go -- but with a short enough TinyURL, sometimes people can be bothered to type in the address and go there. At a lot of the "craft fair" and "bazaar" and "marketplace" events, various "vendors" will go all-out on fully illustrated and heavily detailed "menus" for the various imaginary items they hawk at their booths, and they use Google Docs or image-hosting sites, with TinyURL-shortened addresses to make them easier to communicate.)

Raynelle's Dessert Island
I modified the "baker bard" image for Raynelle to fit a theme for the Ironforge Market. Gwendel notified me that there was going to be a costume contest at the Ironforge Market -- theme: PIRATES! And so I came up with some very punny ideas for Raynelle to have a "pie vendor cart" and go around selling virtual desserts (the "Total Roleplay" add-on has a sophisticated overlay to allow for creation, description and trading of "virtual items," with usage messages, icons, charges, randomization, and even sound effects -- but they only "exist" for other players with the mod, and have no impact on actual WoW play).

To go with the "pirate" theme, the cart was dubbed "Raynelle's DESSERT Island" and she billed herself as a PIErate Baker. (Yarrr!) "Feathers" is a mechanical parrot battle-pet acquirable through a "semi-secret" quest chain, and one nice feature is that you can /whistle to Feathers once summoned, and he'll perch on your shoulder. (Or, technically, the pet vanishes, and you get a persistent Buff that is represented by an image of Feathers perched on your character's shoulder.) Since when Feathers is "on your shoulder," he's "not really there" as a battle pet, that meant I could ALSO summon another battle pet -- Pierre (AKA P13-RR3), the portable robotic grill (and my cooking buddy, as he serves as an in-game mobile cooking spot).

Dessert specials included PIEces of Eight (eight "golden" mini-cheesecake pastries), Chocolate Pirate Chip Cookies (LOADED with chocolatey treasure -- though, alas, Raynelle, being a worgen, couldn't eat them herself), and Treasure Map Treats (squares of pie crust with rolled edges, sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar, and with food-coloring "maps" drawn on them).

Alas, attendance at the Ironforge Market was a bit on the sparse side. Participation in the "pirate costume" contest was even worse. "Raynelle" ended up winning the contest by default. So ... yay?

Oh, and that was the day when Gwendel had scheduled to get her wisdom teeth extracted in the morning, and I ran into a series of troubles involving getting the prescription at the Walgreens, verifying insurance, etc. (had to visit the Walgreens five times in one day and spend a LOT of time on the phone to get it all straightened out) and Gwendel was in no condition to show up to the Ironforge Market, but wanted me to show off Raynelle's "costume" anyway. :/ Oh well!

(Gwendel's doing a lot better now, by the way.)

Comments

[tuftears]

Aww, Raynelle's picture is adorable. ^.^

Hope Gwendel is recovering well from wisdom teeth extraction!

[jordangreywolf]

Definitely doing better! Especially after being sequestered in the house, Gwendel has really been looking forward to getting out of the house as much as possible, typically for: a) hunting for old books and CDs to add to her collection, and b) to eat out (rather than putting up with my cooking again ;) ). However, "b" has had to take a back seat for a while, because there's a lot of stuff she can't tolerate right now.

It's definitely improving, though. But a big factor is, "Does this place have something SOFT, not grainy?" And I'm not the best judge of what Gwendel is going to find as okay. For breakfast: scrambled eggs and pancakes? Yes. Bacon? NO WAY. She loves potato salad, chicken salad, etc., but a lot of the places that have that around here will mix in bits of CELERY or other crunchy bits that are a no-way-no-how for her right now.

I'm doing my best to accommodate. From what the dentist said, though, it will take up to 3 months for her mouth to fully heal. :/ Yeowch.

[tuftears]

Aww, your cooking is fine. ^.^ I vaguely recall being okay in about a week or so after my wisdom teeth were out, but it's been a long time.