Ostensible Cat

Wow, two hundred posts. I did not mark the occasion when I reached 100 posts, but I feel that I should do so now. Why? Not because anything I've done, but because of the folks out there that continue to inspire me with their creativity and insight. There are several posts out there in blogland (and on message boards) about the history of the OSR, if the OSR is a movement, is the OSR dead, is the OSR viable, is the OSR crap, etc. Well, I don't know about all of that. I'm just happy that hobbyist gamers are continuing to put out some great stuff. I will say that while I'm deeply appreciative of the pioneers that came before; however, I also do not subscribe to the notion that I should be eternally beholden to what these folks did and worship the ground they walk on. They laid a fine groundwork and folks continue to build upon that groundwork to make new and interesting stuff. In the end, this is all about fun and thanks to the folks out there that are interested

As you may have noticed, my family highly thrives on creative energy. We don't watch TV or play video games so we spend much of our time reading books (to eachother), playing games and working on creative projects (and getting out and about when the weather is nice - many colds and flu as well as inclement weather have slowed us down a bit this year). At any rate, this has been a very productive winter as far as the creative scene goes. My wife Daisey has really begun to hit her strde on her blog, showing off some of her creatvie endeavors as well as family collaborations. This blog post by her really does a good job at showing off her creative side and comparing and contrasting both of our creative endeavors. We have more collaborative work coming up in the near future. I've mentioned the Kid Monster project in which I do the pencil and ink work and she does the color. I'll get my son Bear (6) and daughter Rosa (3) involved in actually coming up with the monster i

This week, I've got another collaboration with my six year old son Bear.  I'm particularly impressed ith the imagination on this one.  Bear has been reading my comics and apparently felt inspired by my Infinity Gauntlet collection.  He drew this one up this morning and told me how the zombies was essentially bossed around by the ghost in the treasure chest.  As per usual, I take his idea and put game statistics to it to come up with a collaborative effort.  At any rate, the Deadman's Chest is an interesting two part composite undead that combines the features of both a wrath and a zombie.  As per all of the Weekly Creature Features, the entirity of the entry excluding the art is Open Game Content.  The artwork is done by my son Bear and is property of Johnathan abd Bear Bingham and may not be used without permission.  Without further ado, I bring you the Deadman's Chest. Name: Deadman’s Chest No. Enc: 1 Alignment: Chaotic Movement: 120’ (40’) Armor Class:

This week is a collaborative effort between myself and my Six year old son Bear. The Six Mouthed Goo Monster is the first in what I hope to be many such collaborations. I mean, who else other than a six year old can come up with such bizzare and I must say pretty horrific monsters? The way our collaborations work is that Bear will draw up a monster, name it and tell me what it does. I'll then ellaborate as needed to make it a bit more workable in game terms and then translate it into stats. For the Six Mouthed Goo Monster, the guidance was that it is a horrible goo creature with six mouths and makes a scary scream at people and can change colors and bite people. Ready made myhtos type creature right there. As with all my Weekly Creature Features, the Text is Open Gaming Content. The accompanying artwork is not open gaming conent and is the sole property of myself and my son and may not be used without my expressed written permission. Name: Six Mouthed Goo Monster No. Enc: 1-8

My six year old son Bear is SO excited about this blog. He wanted me to scan some of his art work in and share it with the world. I was working on a commission piece for Expeditious Retreat Press at the dining room table after I got off from work. My son grabbed several sheets of paper and a pencil and sat across from me. He knocked out several drawings while I was busy working on my preliminary sketches. He is quite the imaginative little guy. Here's some of his latest. Like father like son ;). This is a battle with a fire breathing purple worm. Note the flaming arrows in the worms neck. I think is very much inspired by the dragon battle scene in Willow as we watched that for the first time last Sunday. This is a map. Note the skull and crossbones. That denotes "skeleton land". The four corners are the four elements represented by a "monster of wetness", a "monster of goo", a "monster of wind", and a "monster of fire&quo