The Dragon’s Lair

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This is for Berin Kinsman over at UncleBear Media, who has an aesthetic appreciation for the vanishing neighborhood dive bar.

The Dragon's Lair bar.

Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits!

This is the Dragon’s Lair Bar on old Route 66. They don’t have a liquor license so it’s more of a beer joint, and they book a lot of bands so it’s not a quiet hangout, but look at that wall art. Savor the stairstep cinder block construction and the filled-in windows. It’s a classic dive bar.

I’d like to drag my gaming group to the Dragon’s Lair for a session. If they’d let us play, just for one evening, I almost wouldn’t mind having my teeth kicked inevitably in afterward. The next time your party needs to meet in a tavern, send them there.

Update

As of November 2010, the bar has changed its name to “Reverb” and the building has been painted solid red. It’s the end of an era. On the bright side, the dragon no longer threatens to breathe fire on you if you park a car in the motorcycle area.

Dove

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In my group’s current Cyberpunk 2020 game I play “Dove”. He’s a Solo: a hired gun, assassin, and all-around non-pacifist. Physically, I based him on Brian Cox from Manhunter, then the whole group told me he looks like Scotty from Star Trek. Thanks, guys.

Cyberpunk Character Portrait: Dove

Dove is a product of the European corporate system. That means he’s the best of the best, an alpha predator. If he can get close to his target, guns are clumsy and messy compared to what his hands can do. Give him a gun and it’s one shot, one kill. Playing Dove, I’ve never had to reload during a firefight. He’s a killing machine.

Now where’s the fun in that? Continue reading →

My Role-playing Credentials

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If you’re like me, and I know I am, you grew up sheltered from the evils of role-playing games. You missed out on the real magic spells that D&D teaches you at high levels, and never felt the thrill of going psycho and taking to the subway, hallucinating a snarling orc as you stabbed a homeless man to death.

TSR‘s lurid full-page comic book ads first exposed me to role-playing games. Dungeons & Dragons! Star Frontiers! Those cruddy dungeon crawl comics! I’m surprised they never had a paladin hawking Hostess fruit pies to kobolds.

They made it look so cool (to an impressionable child of a certain age). I remember one ad where a bemulleted badass stared straight off the page and smirked, “I don’t need to hang out. I have D&D.” God, I know! Hanging out… Pfft. Man, I wished I had D&D so I didn’t have to hang out all the time. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday

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Happy birthday to my new website, that is…

I’m Xose and this is my site. I’ll be posting past, present, and, if you wait long enough, future artwork. There will be music too (did I mention I’m a musician?), writing (I write too), animation, video, photography (I’m basically the complete renaissance man).

As time goes on I plan to document the production process for a couple of my large scale projects. There are animation projects in the works and I’m designing and writing a role-playing game just like every other geek (this one is different).

Eventually I’ll have a few products I’ll use as crowbars to pry your wallet out of your pocket. For those of you who know me already there’ll also be plenty of the usual worthless ephemera.

Okay, so I admit I may have oversold things with that “Greatest adventure in human history” line. Whatever. We’ll still have some laughs.