Nodwick

Credit to Do Gooder Press

One of the things which originally got me into writing was Dungeons & Dragons and similar role-playing games, from creating characters to writing campaigns. And because I'm always in search of new ways to procrastinate, I ended up looking at the Nodwick comics of Aaron Williams.

Nodwick follows the title character who is employed as a "henchman" by a typical Dungeons & Dragons adventuring party: Yeagar, an overconfident fighter with more brawn than brains; Artax, an intelligent but power-hungry wizard; and Piffany, an honest and kind-hearted but gullible cleric.

Nodwick's job is to accompany the party on their adventures and carry all their loot, but is frequently used by Yeagar to trigger traps and bait monsters, or by Artax to test new spells or potions. This frequently results in him getting killed, requiring Piffany to resurrect him by literally putting him back together with duct tape. As such, the henchman has a rather cynical sense of humour and no fear of death (but it's nice if he doesn't get killed), and holds the group together as a voice of reason.

Most of the humour in the strips derives from the tropes and conventions frequently used in fantasy role-playing games. The comic makes fun of the classes, the monsters, the settings, and anything else associated with the games. However, there's also an element of office humour, with Nodwick being depicted as a clock-punching every-man.

One of my favourite stories in the series is one called Hail to the Thief, which features Bezzler, the party's thief. Hired to disarm traps and pick locks, Bezzler had a clause in his contract in which any loot he stole he could keep, as long as he wasn't caught. Unfortunately, he was so good at what he did that he would end up cleaning out whole temples before the rest of the team could. After a magical helm incapacitated him, he was sent to a sanitarium, and upon his unexpected release, Artax and Nodwick devise a scheme to ensnare him.

The comics themselves can be found here. There is also an archived page featuring character sheets for Nodwick, Yeagar, Piffany, and Artax. They're a bit of an acquired taste, requiring some knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons, but I find Nodwick very relate-able, and some of the comics are absolutely hilarious.

Snow Days - A Retrospective

Hats off to whoever designed these socks.

So, this week the UK has been assaulted by two cold-fronts: Storm Emma pushing from the Atlantic and the so-called "Beast from the East" that's swept across Europe. And for the first time in my life, I decided to call it a "snow day".

Let's be honest; British people are not used to snow. Even if there's a bit of it, everything shuts down. Being somewhat work-shy, I used to hate listening to school closures on a snowy morning and finding mine wasn't on there. I think I once poured tea over the radio because of it. My secondary school was notorious for that. they never closed once in the seven years I went there (OK, there was one time they closed early, but never a full closure in that time). Now they're closing all the time, after I left, and after I started making bets with work colleagues about whether or not our old schools would be closed due to snow.

So, if there was was snow on a day I wasn't at school, then oh goody: a chance to go sledging, build a snowman, and have a snowball fight. I miss those days. There used to be some really good sledging in the Lancashire village where I used to live. Then I had to relocate on account of somebody's midlife crisis, and move to a flatter village. OK, there are hills, but they've all got roads on them, so no sledging there.

As for snowball fights? Maybe that's a school playtime activity. Except it wasn't. My first primary school wouldn't let us outside if it snowed. After moving, the other primary school was OK with it, then a bunch of Puritans took over and said we weren't allowed to have snowball fights. The secondary school, Waffle House Index aside, actually allowed snowball fights on the field but not the playground.

I've got that bloody song stuck in my head now.

OK, so now that my school days are finished and I've become a gear in a corporate machine, what do snow days mean to me? Unfortunately, this snow day simply involved working from home and keeping in touch with the office. The plus-side of that is that I don't have to deal with as many people, I don't get anxious about driving in the snow, and I have access to better coffee. However, I don't get to use it as an excuse for writing. I find it difficult to write when I'm expecting a call.

I don't know. I may not have made the most of it. I just want some warmer weather now, so I can complain about being too hot.