Yesterday, another package came in the mail all the way from China. It was the order for my first ever dice tray. Before the days of Lazada, the cheapest dice tray (only found on Etsy) would set me back for hundreds of Malaysian Ringgits (MYR). This one cost me just under MYR20. No fancy designs, but affordable. Here are photos the item in question: Now perhaps dice would not bounce off tables and disappear under the surrounding furniture.
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TeeKay-421 Comp Copy
Today I received a pair of complementary copies of a magazine. Issue 89 of Teekay-421, the official Belgian Star Wars fan club magazine, sports my cover art of Sabine Wren rolling some dice in front of a faux-Edge of the Empire gamemaster screen! The magazine itself is fully printed in Belgian Dutch, so I am unable to read it. Even so, it does look like it has a lot of great features that I would enjoy reading. The theme of the issue is Mandalorians, so the magazine features write-ups of Mandalorians in canon and Legends; even their vehicles and in-universe art! Of course The Mandalorian TV series starring Pedro Pascal and run by Jon Favreau is featured prominently. Someday I might even write about the show on this blog. There are reviews of the latest Star Wars novels, books, comics and games throughout the magazine, making it an important resource […]
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Early Irfan Birthday Dinner
Atok and Opah came a week before Irfan’s 17th birthday to celebrate it early. For that purpose, we visited their favourite Thai restaurant in Padang Besar. As usual, Godzilla and the Rubik’s cube came along for the ride. Here are Irfan with his grandparents reviewing the menu beforehand. Here are Ain and I posing for a photo. This former infant will be 17 next week. Thanks to Irfan’s grandparents for the dinner.
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Exploring Lata Seri Perigi
After watching Angel Has Fallen at our usual cinema, we headed down south from Alor Setar. I looked up interesting picnic spots on the internet and discovered Lata Seri Perigi, which translates to Beautiful Well Waterfalls. We were not geared for any picnic, so this was just a scouting mission. Someday we will return with picnic gear. Here are some of the photos of the location:
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Meals for a Party Divided
And so it came to pass when Ain had to travel to KL to tend to Cikma’s surgery and recovery. (Spoilers: The surgery went well and she is recovering nicely.) Irfan and I were unable to come with her as we had work to do that we were unable to put off. Irfan had tuition classes to attend while he underwent the SPM trial examinations. I tried taking photos of Irfan and I having our meals and sent them to Ain while she was away. Ain began her journey at the train station. It would take her about five hours for her to reach KL Sentral. On to the first meal that evening: We ordered chicken chop and burger that first evening. Next day, we had breakfast at Cik Nah’s. I picked Irfan up for a late lunch in Jejawi. The next day we had breakfast further down the road […]
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First Diploma Class
Even before the new semester began, I had been assigned to take over one ongoing Diploma class. Thus began my first foray into teaching English language for the Diploma students. This was also the first time I would teach a language class in one of the mid-sized halls at the Lecture Hall Complex. I think the students sit too far away from me for me to fully engage with them. I also prepared a Kahoot! quiz for the students. Not a lot of weeks left in their academic schedule, I will have to concentrate on coaching them for their assessment tasks for the semester.
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ART: Cyndril Critters
Here’s another round of artwork commissioned for The Secret DM, who is developing the setting known as Cyndril. Here follows two creatures from the milieux: a skywhale, with a bunch of whalers hanging on to it for dear life, as the the whale flies through a crimson storm; and a sapient caterpillar species that might have a connection to the Illadons of Issyka.
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Aidiladha 2019 in Sitiawan
This year, it was Sitiawan’s turn for balik kampung raya haji. We saw Gnana and Iskandar there. Here is a photojournal of the vacation. I have included captions. Any questions, please write below in the comments. Thank you. You’re welcome.
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Risus RPG: Perchance To Dream
Risus RPG One Shot Perchance to Dream This was a Risus the Anything one-shot game that I ran for my Master’s Degree supervisor Prof Harshita and my colleague Asha who was along for the fun of it all. I thought Risus would be a great way to introduce them to RPGs as a language learning tool because of the versatility of the Risus’ clichés. It went smoothly, and I can see how the characters could develop new clichés as the story went on. Dramatis Personae General Desi – a retired military general Ms. Bong – a rich entrepreneur The retired General Desi and entrepreneur Ms. Bong were travelling through the tall grass and rolling fields of the land they called New Perlis. Desi needed a walking stick as at her old age she was Easily Tired (1). Above them, two suns blazed in a cloudless noon sky. The land rose […]
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TeeKay-421 Cover Art
Yesterday, TeeKay-421 the official Belgian Star Wars fan club magazine revealed their cover for their upcoming issue 89. The cover was illustrated by me. Check it out below: The theme was Mandalorians. I could draw a number of famous Mandalorians played by Ray Stevenson or Jon Favreau or Katee Sackoff or Pedro Pascal. Then I thought Tiya Sircar missed out on playing Edge of the Empire with her castmates on GEGG Wars. I decided to have Sabine Wren roll some Fantasy Flight Games dice with a custom GM screen for the cover of issue 89. The original tweet is displayed below: Preview: TeeKay-421 Magazine 89 @TeeKay421be ! Art by @hishgraphics 🙂 pic.twitter.com/KpH4iYFtwq — Sompeetalay (@Sompeetalay) August 2, 2019
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A Podcast Guest at RPGA Film Studies
Yesterday, Kalum from The Rolistes Podcast released an episode of RPGA Film Studies. Kalum’s guests this episode were Senda Linaugh of She’s A Super Geek Podcast and I! We discuss The NeverEnding Story, the 1984 film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. After talking (and laughing) about the movie, we also discuss RPG systems that would be perfect to adapt for The NeverEnding Story. Finally we also exchange stories and tips on how to run RPG sessions for little kids. I also talk a bit about running games for Irfan. Click on the image below to go to the episode podcast. The episode length is 1:06:03. Note: The episode was recorded months and months before Stranger Things season 3 made this the talk of the town again.
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Star Trek Adventures RPG
Once upon a time I had a couple of Star Trek RPG books published by FASA. They were both destroyed by termites. They were the Federation Sourcebook I got from The Mind Shop maybe 25 years ago, and the Star Trek The Next Generation First Season Sourcebook. Since then, the Star Trek RPG licence had moved on from FASA to Last Unicorn Games to Decipher and currently it is with Modiphius. Earlier, the core rulebook for Star Trek Adventures arrived by mail, presumably because their transporters were malfunctioning. The book is fully painted. Like the Expanse RPG, there is not one frame from any of the live action media. No complaints from me because the artwork is well-illustrated throughout the book. The inner covers, first and final page of the book is a four-page map of the Alpha and the Beta quadrant. The image above shows only a small part […]
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The Expanse RPG
Something which I have never talked about in the last four years or so is my love for The Expanse novels by James S.A. Corey which I first read even before I left the city. Afterwards, the novels were adapted into a television series. From the articles I read, The Expanse also used to be a play-by-post (PbP) role-playing game (RPG) setting which was played using the d20 Modern rules back in the day by one of the two authors that make up James S.A. Corey. They have come to a full circle, as it were, and the setting has been converted into an official RPG product by Green Ronin, using their AGE System. The rulebook arrived from Book Depository yesterday. It is gorgeous. The book allows gamemasters (GMs) and players to run a game set between the first novel (Leviathan’s Wake) and the second (Caliban’s War) in the 23rd […]
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Robot Cavemen
After the first two covers I made for Patrick F. Murphy, here’s the third cover in his series of young adult adventure books, the Return of the Undead Cavemen! It’s the same character from the first two books. The art order called for three Neanderthals carrying three children into the night. What for? You’ll have to read the book to find out. Watch this space for upcoming product purchase links.
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Once More Unto The Nasyid
Once again, I volunteered to participate in the interdepartmental nasyid competition in order to make a lot of noise without being arrested for disturbing the peace. A team was formed. We rehearsed for weeks. We obtained funds for costumes and such. Then the day came. For some reason, we won first place! The theme of the nasyid programme was “adaptation”. So adapted a song to be sung. What song did you ask? Watch the video of the performance below to find out:
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Photos from Irfan’s MFLS Week
Irfan was chosen to go to Malaysian Future Leaders School, a 10-day programme that was not unlike my own Outward Bound School programme back when I was his age. There were team-building events, kayaking (at Timah Tasoh), hillwalking (which is basically hiking through the jungle for a day up a hill), abseiling at the Kangar fire and rescue station (no pictures of that here), morning drills and a whole lot of other events. Here is a selection of photos that we received from his organisers after the MFLS programme on their Facebook page.
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