Dragon Age II - Before I Ever Met You (eBook)

To celebrate winning NaNoWriMo 2018 (and the holidays!) I'm releasing this nifty eBook for the Dragon Age fandom. These vignettes were written by BioWare's writers to tease Dragon Age II, but they were released as simple PDFs and I thought they (and we) deserve a little something extra.

(To read more about this release, see the previous post.)

The book seems to be around 30 pages in most formats.

For eReaders: 

Enjoy this ePub file on your favorite reader app.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rvDTjfgnM_5Rptq25xgsQBb6Kj5GFXsO

Other eBook formats available: Adobe PDF, MS-Word DOC, Kindle MOBI.
PDF: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BnjOr7JwRqho-QCmUBCcBffWrIhIdVPM
DOC: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CGW3WxTSe2tJqp9wyKGV4Z1F2IO85kez
MOBI: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14Oc2OBTB7hu0XgdyJMnSLRKg0yjJ2J-n

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For Print Collectors:

(i.e. IF YOU INTEND ON PRINTING THIS OUT)

NaNoWriMo 2018 (I won!)

THING ONE:

So... I heard about NaNoWriMo in, like, 2001 (probably on LiveJournal).

In case you don't know, that means 'National Novel Writing Month' (a name it has largely outgrown). NaNoWriMo was one of the first fad months I knew about...way before variations involving drawing, not shaving, or abstinence.

I have been thinking about doing it for years, but there was always a reason not to do it...you know, life. This year, I told life to suck it.

To "win" NaNoWriMo, you have to write 50,000 words in 30 days (1667/day). I won. The manuscript is not currently complete, and is not publishable for various reasons, but I did it.

During the process, I also became a lot more familiar with Scrivener, the word processor program. To further my education, I also learned how to compile an eBook file (e.g., EPUB).


THING TWO:
I've been reading a lot more feverishly lately. I'm unsure what's causing this, but I'm riding the wave. As a result, I joined Goodreads.

On Goodreads, I found these Dragon Age "books" -- but they're not books, they're little vignettes. They were released as teasers for Dragon Age II, on the website, and are simple PDFs.


CAT IN THE HAT:
I converted the PDFs into one eBook file. I made a cover. I measured my copy of 'Hard in Hightown' to make sure it matched.

SO, TO CELEBRATE MY ACHIEVEMENTS IN NOVEMBER... 

I DECIDED TO SHARE THIS AS A HOLIDAY GIFT TO THE GEEK COMMUNITY!

(files shared in the next post)

Dragon+ Magazine 'Herding Tahra's Cats' Companion - Isle of Catlantis

I love April Fool's Day.  

It's basically my favorite holiday, and my for-sure favorite "not-store" holiday.*

*Extremely basic way of saying "non-commercialized."  I make the distinction because I also vehemently love Halloween, and I also count my birthday as a personal holiday.  That's the top-three, folks.  Shout-out to May the Fourth, and Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Dragons Magazine has a long tradition of April Fools articles (a favorite of mine being Flaws for Commoners, Dragon #330).  The most recent issue of Dragon+ had good inspiration for me as well.  While not specifically intended for April Fool's -- the recent article on the artist Tahra's cat-people images, Herding Tahra's Cats, served quite well.

How It Played with My Group: Having solved the mystery of Secomber, and captured the fleeing criminal for a bounty, the group travelled north to Longsaddle.  After a day of shopping and gambling, they stumbled into an area where a Harpell wizard's spell component bag was attacked by her pet cat.  The result being an out-of-body plane shift, into the demiplane of the Cat Lord, and into the bodies of existing cat people.

APRIL FOOL'S, SCHMUCKS!

Most of the cat-characters were simply duplicates of the player's current characters, reskinned as appropriate with the kitty pregens, and the remaining characters from the article served as NPCs.  I created an image for King Furdinand (and added to the royalty with Queen Caterina, Baron Buttons, Earl Whiskers, and Duke Midnight).  The PCs had access to the organic and muscle memories of the characters they assumed, but also had their own knowledge as well.

What they didn't know immediately: the cat people were now in their bodies.  They'd remain in a playful and confused static state, safely at the Wayfarer Academy chasing rabbits and mice, unless a PC did something... like get them killed.  The more aberrant behavior was from a PC, the more aberrant their cat friend would be as well.  The spell would automatically wear off in less than 24 hours, and they'd be back home in their own respective skins.

So, my players filled the night with cat puns... doing their best to play their borrowed roles.  They fought a pirate rat king, and his evil wizard cat associate.  They bought catnip off some sketchy hamster brothers.  They battled temptation when mimics arrived looking like cardboard boxes.  They defended the king, and were heartily rewarded -- and that's when the spell wore off and the cat souls returned home to find themselves being honored in the royal court (much to their surprise).

If you want to also run a one-off night on the Isle of Catlantis, please enjoy the following things I've made (for use with traditional tabletops, or Virtual TableTop like Roll20).  Some are lifted from the article, some are original content, and some are reworked stuff I found on Google Images.

Best CANONish FemShep (ME1)

If you want to do a "Canon FemShep" Mass Effect run: it's important to remember that Default FemShep is inconsistent through all three games.  That's partially because the engines are all different.  (Also, Default FemShep is kinda blah/gross no matter what.)

This FemShep not only looks "canon" but will also scale-up nicely as you play the trilogy.  

If you want to look like the FemShep featured in all the official (and fan-made) art... and still be a decent lookin' gal (without modding anything) I have the sliders for you!

This is the best Canonish FemShep for Mass Effect (1).

Commander Jane NMN Shepard

Here's a side-by-side comparison of "Default" ME1 FemShep and the one I use.

I made this collage of almost 20 screenshots to show different angles, lighting, etc.

This FemShep is a slightly altered version of Sarah (redhead version) found here.

Below are the "sliders" for this canon-consistent FemShep!

Press Release: Formation of Erisian Empire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Obscure Micronation Claims Ownership of Dwarf Planet Eris

Group makes interplanetary land-grab without restraint.

Oklahoma City, OK -- (May 4, 2016) The newly formed Erisian Empire has announced that they are now the sovereign owner and ruler of recently discovered dwarf planet system of Eris.

 

These bold claims came from then self-styled Queen Lodane of the Kingdom of Vivid.  She decreed, to her citizens, that the old Vividian Kingdom has transformed into the new Erisian Empire.  An informal announcement was made, on April 30 at 11:11 AM CDT, among some community leaders.

 

"I would now address the United Nations of Earth. Regarding the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, I argue against your claims of jurisdiction. U.N. treaties only apply to nation-states that are members, and your international organization will not stoop to acknowledge micronations. This means none of your treaties have power over us, you cannot keep us from claiming extraterrestrial real estate, and you have no enforcement mechanism in place to prevent us from satifying our claim."

 

The planet, and moon, were discovered in 2005.  Since discovery, and rejection as "the 10th planet," the planet system has seen it's share of controversy.  Discovery and analysis of Eris forced the scientific community to categorize several Trans-Neptunian Objects, including beloved Pluto, as "dwarf planets."

 

The planet is named for the Greco-Roman goddess of chaos and strife.  Planet Eris’ only known satellite, a moon, is named for Eris' daughter, Dysnomia -- a personification of lawlessness.  Eris is known for starting the Trojan Wars, as the mother to the so-called “evil” contents of Pandora's Box, and being an inspiration for the Disney villain Maleficent.

 

There are no plans for Erisian or Dysnomian land sales at this time. The transitional government warns the public to avoid any person or organization attempting to sell parcels of land on either celestial body, as all involved will be prosecuted. Passports for Erisian citizens have been announced and will be available before commercial space travel comes to Earth.

 

For more information about The Erisian Empire, The Kingdom of Vivid, or Lodane herself, please visit WWW.ERISIAN.SPACE or call +1(714)694-ERIS

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About Erisian Empire: A continuation of the now defunct Vividian Kingdom, the Erisian Empire is a social experiment and educational mind-game. Established to learn about concepts such as caste systems, economics, historical and modern politics, monarchies, theocracies, heraldry, vexillology, civil engineering, and more.  It is executed through personal interaction using artificial social constructs, establishment of state holidays, assignment of esteemed positions, social networking among citizens, and a loose foundation of legal philosophy.  Website: www.erisian.space

About Lodane Erisian: Began by publishing a small-press print magazine as a teen, Lodane is a producer that's haunted the internet with stuff since 1995. Educated as a filmmaker and has worked on several independent film and video projects. Website: www.lodane.com

Press Contact:

Lodane Erisian

PO Box 50311

Oklahoma City, OK

73140 USA

Phone +1 714 694 3747

lodane @ lodane.com

Build You Alliance Contest UPDATE!

I WON!

Well, I won one of the runner-up positions.

I'll be getting an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, and I've already gotten my Free Month of SWTOR (along with 450 Cartel Coins)!

Very Excited!!

Here's a YouTube playlist with all the winners.
(playlist by SWTOR official)

STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™ Build Your Alliance NVIDIA Contest Winners

<3 Lodane

NVIDIA's SWTOR Build Your Alliance Contest

So, I entered this contest.

You can still vote for me.

I don't know if I won.