The Cranberries, Veruca Salt, The Doors, Evanescence, Enya, Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stephani, Alicia Keys, Madonna, Beyonce, Tori Amos and Diana Krall.
I'm an avid JRR Tolkien fan, I personally adore the world he created. The beautiful world of Middle Earth has a certain place in my heart, and Peter Jackson's vision of it certainly made me come closer to in at a more sureal level. A very delicious treat of eye candy and breath given to a world one only reads about.
I'm also a Forgotten Realms fan. Though it draws from Tolkien's work, other litterary sources, it tends to bring them together in a somewhat cohesive world. It is a meshing of worlds perse. Because of the vast scope of these literary works I can only recommend you visit the Wizards of the Coast publishing website. They know own the rights to the setting and it is a backdrop for their fantasy roleplaying game Dungeon's and Dragons. For the game setting click here, for the books click here.
For about 2 years I played a game called Everquest, but it slowly drew me away from friends and real life. It required to much of my real time spent infront of a monitor and it killed my social life. But I will not forget those good friends Katya, Silenia, Morsel I met while playing on Povar, Solusek Ro, and Fenin Ro servers. If you guys are still playing, STOP IT!! If you want to know more about that game go to this link.
I belong to a group of Dungeons and Dragons players that roleplays once every month. We really have gotten into the roleplay and fantasy aspect of the game and have a well established campaign now on to its first year of running. The group consists of 7 of us including long time RPGA DM Chris Tielson. Some people may think strangely of it. We don't take it the satanic route or anything. To us it's just a game as much as any other game out there including more graphically violent video games. Regardless, do to our chatter it normally devolves into about 30 minutes of true playing... www.wizards.com will give you more information about the new 3.5 D&D.
I also like Live Action Roleplay and attend the annual Samara Renaissance Faire. Though John hates it!! Here is a pic of me last year, I am looking forward to this year's faire and hope to see Karey finally make it!
I recently started playing a game on my free time called Neverwinter Nights. It takes the same elements of Dungeons and Dragons, simplies them, and puts them on a graphical interface for the PC. I find that it allows you to spend much less time than other games of its type yet allows you the freedom to immerse yourself like any other roleplaying game. A good game I recommend even if it sucks up even more of your time! You can learn more about it here. If you see me in any of those servers its normally playing my gnome wizard Feppy Wenge, Danica Sheridon, or my Shadow Dancer Serena Eavindale.
The
original inspiration or Serena was definitely Anna Feris. Her look
style and it was ironic that she has mentioned in an interview how
she always wanted to act as a kind and benevolent woman, but at
the same time have a darker side, such as killing a baby or something.
I think Serena Eavindale's character brings all of those elements
together.
The best part of it all is that Serena's facial features I originaly envisioned very much like the very clean and suave Anna Faris in Scary Movie 1 and 2 (later she retains her natural blonde look). Anna just seems to portray that demsel in distress that I feel Serena has, yet inside she really has something deeper or a rather sinister hidden background.
Below
is the original image my friend Kim fixed up for me with it she
made the portraits to be used in Neverwinter Nights. She made the
different sizes as well as added Serena's hallmark Asyrean Tatoos.
Neverwinter Nights is an online game I've been adicted to lately...
When
you think of Serena, think of this image. This is her as her true
personality representation.
Recently
a friend of mine Kim got into a game called World
of Warcraft.
So I decided to go over to her place and give it a spin. Wow was
I amazed! The gnomes are so CUTE and cudely I had to play a gnome
for starters! It is nothing like the strategy games that one associates
with Warcraft. Instead it is a lot like Neverwinter Nights, and
it has a lot of roleplaying potential. I found myself doing quests
right away, and you always had something to do. The best part was
that you could roleplay and still keep in context of the game thanks
to its Steampunk and Modern day parody associations! Yeah! You can
hear dwarven gunners at the practice range congrajulating each other
and going "Yeah, I'm TNT, I'm Dyno-mite". I had one quest
that was a complete parody of Ghostbusters. This really has been
entertaining and requires a lot less time and effort to get into.
Also you don't have all that complex stat development you have in
NWN and it definitely caters more to the casual. And right now I
need a lot more "casual" than
stringent hobbies.
Here are some screengrabs of the "New" Serena. Unfortunately "Serena" was taken and I had to rename her to "Serenna"... Grumble grumble grumble... If any of you guys and gals are interested Kim plays on the "Featherfall" server on the Alliance side. Speaking of that, there is no forced Player fighting like we had in Neverwinter Nights. Oh and Nathan can actually be a Paladin...
Update! 4/10/06 Recently I got into a game called Lineage 2. I had been playing on and off when ever I had free time on different servers. The problem is that it is such a beautiful game yet it is just chuck full of people who have no interest in roleplaying in such a magnificently gorgeous world. The majority of players tend to prefer to kill stuff constantly. It doesn't help that gaining a level can take many months, even years if you are like me and don't have that much time to devote.
This time around I decided I would try out a completely different character from what I had been used to playing. I know most of you know me for playing good, devoute, and conservative characters with very heavy values. For Lineage I wanted to try something from scratch. So I decided to create Celeny. She is a Dark Elf Bladedancer who got some inspiration from what I had done with the D&D version of Serena. Instead, Celeny is completely evil. Think Lawful Evil, and is a complete anti-thesis of what Serena or Anesa was. Where Serena practices restraint, Celeny uses everything and anything at her disposal to get what she wants. The Dark Elf background worked perfect for this. Given their nature of being the sons and daughters of the goddess of death, as well as having a full dominatrix type background this was the best choice. Although I toyed around with Yelleni, a good natured Light Elf, for quite a while before settling on Celeny.
Celeny unlike all my other characters will bend the rules a bit. She is my first character to practice sexual freedom and to fully use her seductive nature and talent to charm someone. I wouldn't call her lesbian perse. Rather she is open, as opposed to Serena who was completely prude but made herself out to look like she wasn't. In the Lineage 2 mythology there is no concept of sexual deviancy like we might have in say Iron Kingdoms (Anesa) or Forgotten Realms (Serena). Instead it seems to rely more on how things were in medeival times (post the Roman Catholic inquisition). So yes Celeny will charm and seduce other Dark Elven females like herself. She doesn't have an outlook on the other races really as her own mistress taught her to embrace her own kind to preserve what little is left of their culture. Deep inside she does not want to be seen as a symbol of sexuality, eventhough she puts it out this way. She feels that the difference in race, and the non acceptance of others is what has lead to the many troubles that has overcome Aden.
That aside; she has traveled most of Aden. Encountered very interesting people. Has gone to some very dangerous places. Even became a Bladedancer with the Shillien Order of Assasins. Recently she has made a most endearing encounter with a Shillen Elder. In the end I hope to evolve her into something completely different of a character and not just another cookie cutter goody-goody lady like I'm so used to. And so far I think she's turning out very well.
Will she appear in any of our Live Roleplaying games, or in the current Iron Kingdoms campaign? She will not
unfortunately. Although I do see a copy of her as a Sharde Island native, perhaps working for the Cryss. But the only way that would be possible is if our campaign was Evil sided. Regardless, she would be
the very tame version (similar to Serena) as opposed to the sexualy open Lineage 2 version. Sorry boys but it just doesn't fit in Iron Kingdoms. Maybe if we ever get around to doing Overlords, perhaps
I will have a copy of her as a Draconian, we'll have to wait and see.
The big amount of time I do spend I spend it painting miniatures, fantasy miniatures from a great company called Reapermini. I hope to put up some pictures as soon as I get my digital camera working again, my cell phone just wouldn't do them justice...Some of my favorite painters are Jennifer Hailey, Victoria Lamb, Anne Foerster, Jenova, Liliana Troy, and ArJay.
Here are some images of my works:
Elven Favored Soul: this one I did for my good friend Kim.
Reaper sorceress: one of my first dives into color blending and smoothing.
Foundry Pirate Captain or officer: for a good friend that loves the game Pirates!
Dungeons & Dragon (Chainmail) Monk: another one of my first dives into color blending and such. this was for a good friend of mine in our D&D club.
I also adore dragon art, as well as Faeries and all fantastical creatures. Here are some of my favorite sites and artists:
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/
Jessica Galbreth: http://www.enchanted-art.com/welcome.asp
Todd Lockwood http://www.toddlockwood.com/
Keith Parkinson http://www.keithparkinson.com/
Donato http://www.donatoart.com/