Went to the zoo today, and took a ton of videos and pictures. Here’s one of my favorites!
White peacocks are so beautiful. Seeing one showing off his feathers like that is a real treat! I remember going as a kid to the zoo, and how the peacocks would just wander all over the zoo grounds. I’m sure it was dangerous for them, so I’m glad that they don’t allow that sort of thing anymore, but I still miss it. It was always amazing to come around the corner and see one doing a beautiful display like this.
Had a great time being the DM last night, even though one of my monsters ended up being a friend of the party. Long story short, they now have a half-human, half-machine “scarecrow” to keep them company. Even though touching him causes a person to go into fits of screaming and terror, they still like him. I guess you could say I have a pretty unique party to work with. 😉 He’s pretty awesome, so I certainly wasn’t going to prevent it from happening. Some of the most fun games come from just allowing stuff to happen like this, and I love that sort of thing.
Today’s writing updates:
Project: Ghosts of Pikes Peak
Summary: The old, abandoned Davis Farm just outside the bustling city of Pikes Peak is riddled with malicious spirits. Werewolf detective Colton Fen has been assigned to a half-vampire partner, Rennick Dalton, to handle the troublesome ghosts, but even their combined strength may not be enough to dissuade the poltergeists from plucking victims from the outskirts of town. Is this a simple case of ghost infestation or is there something far more malicious going on beneath the farmhouse?
Current total words: 56,292
New words written: 3,381
Progress in Story: So I admit, I did a little bit of extra writing last night after I made my blog post. 😉 Epic battle has finally been resolved, though it is rather bittersweet in the end. Now its just finishing up, which really isn’t as easy as it sounds! I found this site to be pretty darn awesome for inspiration too.
Mythical Creatures List – I love how it shows where the myth came from, what kind of landscape they’re typically found in, and what part of the world they originated. This is just perfect for my needs. Sure, browsing through the site is fun, but doing a site search with Google makes this a requirement in my future fantasy research.
Total Words for 2012: 68,815
Marlena Frank 
There is something to be said to going off script in a gaming session. Sometimes it can be hysterical fun.
I love when that happens in a session I’m running. It really adds to the flavor of the game, and makes the game feel more dynamic. I can understand how some DMs might be intimidated about that though: their plans are tossed to the wind and their monster’s fate is now uncertain.
We were actually talking about this over dinner earlier. Someone was trying to explain what D&D was about, and they pretty much said:
It’s kind of like Dragon Age, except instead of just a few possibilities, you can write the developers and ask them for a completely different option. Then they can go back and work it into the game for you, and this is all done in real time.
I thought it was pretty accurate!