{"id":5019,"date":"2022-01-05T12:15:34","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T16:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/?p=5019"},"modified":"2022-01-11T13:50:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T17:50:49","slug":"character-of-the-month-2021-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/?p=5019","title":{"rendered":"Character of the Month 2021 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Well, I did it. I wasn’t always on time, but I managed to get all 12 Dungeons & Dragons character classes painted, along with backstories (mostly), over the course of 2021. I figured I’d do a quick recap with handy-dandy links to review all my characters before my next post, in which I will discuss my 2022 Resolitions and my plans for Dead Dick’s Tavern in the coming year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all the core classes are here, I opted only for “classic” D&D fantasy races. Upon looking at these, I see that Humans, Elves, Half-Elves, Halflings, and Half-Orcs are all here. (I can’t believe I somehow forgot to include Gnomes and my favorite fantasy race of all, Dwarves. How’d that happen?) Newer gamers may notice I ignored most of the current races utterly. Thus there are no Aarakocra, Aasimar, Dragonborn, Genasi, Goliaths, Kenku, Kitsune, Tieflings, Tortles, Tabaxi, or fucking Warforged represented here, among others. That’s tough shit. I chose what I chose. The reason for this is simple: I don’t like them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you like the abovementioned races and any I didn’t mention, and feel that my exclusion is an injustice and affront, feel free to make or submit your own Character of the Month (see below). I get it. I’m old. I dislike the new stuff. I don’t understand the youth of today. You may even think I’m a racist because I don’t like Harefolk. But, since none of the races above, including Harefolk, actually fucking exist,<\/em> I’m not too concerned about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, here’s the recap, month by month:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. January: Kurn Velden, Cleric<\/a> (War Priest; Avatars of War<\/em>) Shortest backstory. I was finding my voice.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    2. February: Aramise Del’A<\/a>rco, Fighte<\/a>r<\/a> (Rhaine, Duelist; Reaper Miniatures<\/em>) First late entry. Not off to a good start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    3. March: Raphinfel “the Adored”, Wizard<\/a> (Lamann, Sorcerer; Reaper Miniatures<\/em>) Not my character; he’s from Tale of the Manticore<\/a>, a podcast you should absolutely be listening to if you’re not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    4. April: Doval Lakatos, Bard<\/a> (Rupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord, Privateer Press<\/em>) Probably my favorite miniature of the year, for obvious, bagpipe-related reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    5. May: Darl Mandos, Sorcerer<\/a> (Del Briarberry, Halfling Wizard: Reaper Miniatures<\/em>) One of my favorite stories, featuring the dastardly Tom the Winker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    6. June: Berjotr Skaldisson, Barbarian <\/a>(Barbarian Axeman of Icingstead; Reaper Miniatures<\/em>) Based loosely on a friend’s character, also a fun story to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    7. July: Sarapen Moonsilver, Druid <\/a>(Juliana, Herbalist; Reaper Miniatures<\/em>) I get the most compliments on this one, probably because of her base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    8. August: Reverend Mother Mara, Paladin<\/a> (Mother Superior; Reaper Miniatures<\/em>) I took the inspiration from her backstory from an article I read (in Dragon,<\/em> I think) about a character who evicted undead from a family manor by posting the eviction notice on her shield and clearing house. Always thought that was fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    9. Chloe the Rat, Ranger <\/a> (Vermina, Rat Queen; Reaper Miniatures<\/em>) My least favorite miniature and backstory. Just didn’t seem to come together for me. YMMV. She was also late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    10. Bak Mai, Monk<\/a> (Ogre,<\/em> Wizards of the Coast D&D Silver Anniversary Collection<\/em>) The backstory wrote itself. I like the miniature, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    11. Karsa the Unbound, Warlock<\/a> (Dark Elf Sorceress, Games Workshop)<\/em> Another late one. Painted on time, but the backstory was a tough slog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    12. Braska Triskelion, Rogue<\/a> (Deadly Gamesman, Black Scorpion Miniatures<\/em>) One of the miniatures I’ve owned the longest; I was glad to get him done. Painting black and white is kind of boring and tedious, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The biggest challenge I ran into with this…uh…challenge was writing the backstories in time. Sometimes they came pretty easily (Aramise Del’Arco, Bak Mai); others weren’t so easy (Sarapen Moonsilver, Karsa the Unbound). Lucky for me, this isn’t going to be a problem going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Turns out my buddy Tom (who used to have a blog but doesn’t anymore) is going to host this same challenge on Instagram this year. I told him I will take part, of course; but that I am going to use it as an excuse to paint some old-school lead. I will post my submissions here as well, so expect a lot of Grenadier and Ral Partha miniatures to show up at Dead Dick’s Tavern in 2022. The character backstories are a pain in the ass, though, so I’m not going to bother with them. I know this may make some of you sad (which is actually quite flattering), but the time spent on them is a factor; and I just don’t have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Anyway, hope this recap allows you to quickly revisit your favorites or check out any you may have missed. New post soon on plans for 2022!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Well, I did it. I wasn’t always on time, but I managed to get all 12 Dungeons & Dragons character classes painted, along with backstories (mostly), over the course of 2021. I figured I’d do a quick recap with handy-dandy links to review all my characters before my next post, in which I will discuss […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,12,3,52],"tags":[108,126,109,35,117,16,125],"class_list":["post-5019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conversions","category-fantasy","category-miniatures","category-painting-challenges","tag-avatars-of-war","tag-black-scorpion-miniatures","tag-character-of-the-month","tag-games-workshop","tag-privateer-press","tag-reaper","tag-wizards-of-the-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5019"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5268,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5019\/revisions\/5268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}