Why Can't I Burn All These Dreads? - Persona 3

Soooo I have an obsession. And this time it has nothing to do with shuriken or maids or midday naps.

For some months now, I've been playing Persona 3. I realize I'm a little late to that party, but ever since the Great RPG Rush of '05(or whenever Dragon Quest VIII came out), I've been working on a tremendous and ever-shifting backlog of vidya games, especially RPGs. I was first introduced to the Persona series by my buddy Scrambles when Persona 3's trailers appeared on the Web nearly a decade ago. With my background in classical studies and mythology, I've been a sucker for games with a rich inner lore, so a series like Persona pretty much snagged me right away. I originally planned on playing through the preceding titles before getting into P3, and for some years I held onto that illusion, mostly thanks to the re-release of the original Persona on PSP(as well as that of Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the half of the Persona 2 story that never saw an original North American release). However, the Backlog of Insanity eventually defeated that plan, particularly since Persona 4 has been out for a long while, 5 will be released next year, and the Arena games are wildly popular among my corner of gaming fandom.

Colleague Shout-Out - Urbis Tenebrae

I've been the lucky recipient of some good promotion here at ACN, so I wanted to keep the good vibes going by returning the favor. A friend of mine named J-Puck(not his actual name, but I'm all about using hyphens in fun and obnoxious ways to give nicknames) runs a blog on gaming and fantasy called Urbis Tenebrae. He's got professional experience in the tabletop gaming industry, and I often pick his brain for information and ideas in my own work. This entry about the pitfalls of mono-cultures in game settings is an excellent example of his work, and was recently very useful in helping me make some changes to cultures in a couple of my own home-brew tabletop worlds(the legendary/soon-to-be-legendary Reyes among them).

So go over and give him a read. And tell 'im Ro sent ya'.

How to Convention - Artist Alleys

Hullo, Ninja Faithful!

Ever since Yours Truly decided to add a conventions aspect to this blog, there've been a few things here and there that I've been wanting to tack on, but didn't feel were at-home in my actual convention reviews. Thankfully though, in one of my meetings with the Shinobi Council, the idea was put forth that I should just have a category of entries for said thoughts, instead of trying to shoehorn them in elsewhere.

Thus, I give you the "How to Convention" series, geared towards little bits of information and tips that you'll find handy for any convention.

And what better place to start than with my usual base-of-operations, the artist alley?