Two More SWAG Pickups

Two more Star Wars Artists' Guild player character art pickups. I love picking up these requests once in a while for a warm-up sketch before work begins in the morning.

Badji Hida is a Devaronian scoundrel requested for oexto's Edge of the Empire game. He wields a DL-18 blaster pistol, presumably with aplomb.

Mano Vector is a human Special Agent of the Senate Bureau of Intelligence (before it eventually evolves into Imperial Intelligence, shudder). He was requested by one Agent M.

Happenings at the Beginnings of the Year of the Snake

Meanwhile, the three-night balik kampung back to Sitiawan for Chinese New Year was somewhat enjoyable. The traffic was not too bad, and no one lost their sanity. We left the city early, during the time where no one is sure they're awake or they're dreaming, and often, you'd wish for the other. Fortunately there was no sign of Mi-Go shadowing us from above. Nor of any Shantak. Also, I prepared awesome tunes for the return trip. Well, awesome to me, that is.

On the first night we ate out with Atok and Opah. We tried out a new restaurant which had some tasty Thai food. It was not made of Thai people. 

On Sunday morning, the Sitiawan contigent, made up of Atok, Opah, Ain, Irfan and I had a Skype chat with the Ohio contigent which consisted of Ayah Cik, Cik Dik, Yaya and Little Adik Rafe. Rafe, now foot mobile, waved to everyone on screen, as well as prematurely shut off Skype all by himself. Yaya was excited seeing her cousin Irfan onscreen and they had a short chat before Cik Dik adjusted the laptop webcam for us to see Rafe chase Yaya throughout the house.

Schoolmates From A Thousand Generations Ago

Nowadays when I return to Sitiawan for Chinese New Year, I rarely get to meet old ACS classmates. It's because either they're away at the in-laws, or their family has moved elsewhere, or I don't communicate to anyone my balik kampung. This year I had two meet ups!

The first was with Teck Chee and Cheong Lee at the new mall, Aeon Sri Manjung. They were a year younger than me at school. We had a great time talking about old friends and where they are now.

Later that night I met my former classmate Sathya. I met him right at this white wall where I had some sort of coffee and Star Wars talk ensued, as they are wont to be when Sathya is around. Gnana was also present but also via Sathya's iPhone. And initial plans were made for a class reunion in the near future. Who wants in?

Then we said goodbye to the white wall.

Night's Black Agents: The Little Prince Job Ends

The second part of Night's Black Agents game run by Kai continued two weeks later with everyone present, namely Shiina "Misha" Mikado the Japanese grifter and heavy hitter, Jacob Novazembla the Dutch hacker, Sami Härkönen the Finnish grunt and Zlatan Kljujic the Bosnian driver! The spy stuff adventure in London continues from the last episode.

I did not have the time to produce a play report in my own words, so here's Kai's diligently written report (with bonus GM's Commentary in italics.)

The Lawless

The Star Wars The Clone Wars episode "The Lawless". Best Star Wars since The Empire Strikes Back? Hyperbole?

However, it has shown us violence that provided emotional release at some parts, like when Commander Jet's troops burned dozens of Geonosians alive... onscreen... and we see the Geonosian aflame and shrieking in agony; we've seen innocents shot with blaster burning right through their torsos; we've seen Ahsoka leap, spin and decapitate four Mandalorians.

We've never seen the emotional rollercoaster brought on by "The Lawless". If what happened in the episode not at the same emotional level as "No. I am your father..." then it should be pretty close, based on what has come before beginning with the introduction of Mandalore and Death Watch in season two, and the return of Darth Maul in season four.

As a bonus cherry on top, we get the best choreographed lightsabre fight ever on the series, Darth Sidious versus Maul and Savage Opress.

Let me say that if there is no executive network meddling and the such, I am confident that Supervising Director Dave Filoni will not disappoint us when he ends this series and segue into Revenge of the Sith. I really don't expect the story of Ahsoka Tano to end well.

Check out the first official Star Wars The Clone Wars Google Hangout that took place right after the first airing of the episode, featuring Filoni and some of the voice cast of the series.

Cousin Zara Naps On Irfan

Zara Arissa is back home in the Klang Valley for the first time in her life. We went to visit her to see how she was adapting to new environment. She seems to be doing pretty well.

She had a fun time with her brother Aiman and her cousin Irfan. But she was unable to go out to the playground with the boys, what with her still not foot mobile yet. Irfan returned with a very soild baju melayu (he had one on since Friday prayers at noon), so he had to borrow Ayah Long's shirt and kain pelekat for the evening.

Zara thought she'd hang out on Irfan's lap.

Rafe's 13 Month Birthday

Another month, another very late blog entry! Again, we give thanks to the gods of backdated entries (whee!).

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

EOTE: Irfan Escapes Mos Shuuta

Edged by the Empire

Episode 01 Escape From Mos Shuuta

During the events of the previous blog entry, the GOKL gang also presented me with an early birthday: A Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner Game boxed set.

At first the Star Wars RPG used the D6 system when it was licensed to West End Games. Then it used the d20 system when it was with Wizards of the Coast. The latest role-playing game to be adapted from Star Wars by Fantasy Flight Games now uses the special dice with symbols instead of numbers, much like the Warhammer Fantasy Role Play 3rd edition.

You'd think it'd be complicated, but when I ran it the Beginner Game's scenario entitled "Escape From Mos Shuuta" for Irfan it felt easy enough after we both got the hang of the rules. At some points Irfan was interpreting the dice rolls faster than I was.

Night's Black Agents: The Little Prince Job

Maulidurrasul, a national holiday, fell on a Thursday, and the GOKL guys invited me to play the new GUMSHOE system RPG Night's Black Agents. The venue was at Doug's new place which was not 3 klicks way from me along a straight road. I was happy to join them.

Night's Black Agents allow players to roleplay spies in a contemporary setting... where vampires exist in the shadows, and some of them call the shots.

The group consisted of Shiina "Misha" Mikado the Japanese grifter and heavy hitter, Jacob Novazembla the Dutch hacker, Sami Härkönen the Finnish grunt and me, Zlatan Kljujic the Bosnian driver. We had been called to the Stafford London, a hotel at Saint James's Place, which was across the way from Buckingham Palace by Air Marshal Morgan Prince of the British Ministry of Defence.

Another Ain Birthday

Last night, Cik Ma & Cik Su took us out for Ain's belated birthday dinner!

Sometimes I can't believe I've known Ain for so long and it seems like we've only met yesterday. But most of the times, I'm grateful for her and I know why life put her by my side. For her strength and resilience, I can't see anyone else in that position.

Happy birthday, Bini jadi.

And thanks for the chicken, Cik Ma & Cik Su!

54 Months

And so Yaya is officially four and a half! 54 months! Where did all the time go? My little baby isn't so little anymore!

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Shane Goes To Star Wars Identities

As mentioned in the Star Trek exhibition post downriver, my brother from another mother and hemisphere Shane went and visited Star Wars Identities exhibition at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton. Shane gave me permission to feature photos from his expedition into the world of Star Wars miniatures, maquettes, concept art and costumes.

Which gives me a reason to post more Star Wars photos on this blog for the lulz.

FOR THE LULZ!

D6 Magazine 5: The Space Opera Issue

The community driven D6 Magazine issue 5 has been released by Wicked North Games. This is the space opera issue with lots of space-based scenarios and stats for the Open D6 game system.

Six pieces of artwork were commissioned from me for two articles.

The first three are used for the scenario Outpost 1717, a sci-fi horror adventure written by Peter Schweighofer.

Click on the thumbnail above for a larger view of the space scene.

The one with the (second) first birthday party

So two weeks (and a day) after Adik's first birthday we had a small gathering of friends and neighbors at our home, to celebrate Adik's birthday (again!).

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Irfan Treks to an Exhibition

Irfan went to the National Science Centre.

Star Trek the Exhibition was being housed there for the time being. Shane managed to go to Star Wars Identities which looked better, but I takes what I gets.

They didn't beam us aboard, we had to walk up the steps and push the door open. Thankfully, this procedure did not need the use of a Heisenberg compensator.

Weekend Babbies

The past weekend was a weekend of babbies. On both Saturday and Sunday, we went visiting a family event at a relative's place. And at each place there was a cousin for Irfan to play with.

Saturday: Nuraz Aariz

Ain's cousin Akram held a housewarming makan-makan at their place. Although the feast was held at the condominium's rec house by the pool, we went down to their house to meet young Nuraz Aariz.

He was so excited, and had to be reminded that the makan-makan for him is milk, and not Ain's face.

SWD6: Our First RPG Session Ever

It was way back in 1989 when I received my first tabletop RPG, the first edition Star Wars The Roleplaying Game and the Star Wars Sourcebook by West End Games. I read through the rules and thought, let's try this out. I didn't even start with "Rebel Breakout", the introductory adventure that came in the book. I took a school exercise book and created a maze of corridors and rooms and thought, "Okay, this'll make a great Imperial space station interior." Actually the map wouldn't make a lick of sense as a military installation, but it was my first try.

Sila decided to be a bounty hunter and rolled up a player character whom she named Shanna Toarinar, and she went on to play Shanna for another ten years in realtime thereafter. And the campaign would go on for many years until I was able to fill out a sourcebook using story elements from different sessions.

Shanna was a bounty hunter who wears dark combat fatigues, grey flak armour, arm greaves and shin guards. Her parents were killed by Imperial stormtroopers when she was five and now she only hunted Imperial targets.

Episode 01 Trial Run

Shanna arrived at a secret Imperial space station orbiting the planet Sirsee. Deciding that she would have better luck hunting and killing Imperials, she had decided to join the Rebel Alliance. But as a trial of her skills, she was given a mission to retrieve a stolen prototype A-Wing fighter. This fighter's computer had encrypted plans and schematics for a new X-Wing extended range variant. The A-Wing was located on this station.

She arrived at the station hidden on a Lambda-class shuttle. Although she succeeded in sneaking off the shuttle as it was refueling, a remote sensor in the hangar bay registered her motion. Klaxons blared and the station went to full alert status much to her annoyance.

A scout trooper spotted her immediately and tried to stop her, but she put a bolt on the scout's chest armour via her long, slender custom blaster rifle. She slipped out of the bay, crept throughout the cramped corridors and reach a blast door. A bored stormtrooper was guarding it. She snuck past him and crossed the blast door threshold.

Irfan Meets Cousin Zara

Zara Arissa, sister of Aiman, arrived 21 days before 2013 did, so we took a trip to visit the young one at Pasir Mas. Unlike her brother we couldn't be there to greet her at the hospital because of distance. When we arrived, she was sleeping soundly and safely swaddled.

Rafe's 12 Month (First!) Birthday

And now, Yaya can no longer declare that Adik is zero years old! The boy is now one! Yayyyyy!! He's pretty pleased about it, too!

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Another Day Another Sunset

All of a sudden another year ends. I can't believe we've lived here for more than a decade now. I can tell you how the skyline has changed over the years; and where on the landscape we were once able to make out traffic on the MRR2 highway. Through the changes in how the city looks, there are a few things that never seem to change: chief among it is the attitude of many drivers here. I could go on about that but I wont.

I'd like to say here's to a better 2013, but I think I'm just going to say if I do not deserve any better than perhaps I should not get it. But it gets better, I'd be grateful.

Click on the thumbnail for a wider look.