Lately, my group has been running the Gatewalkers Adventure Path for Pathfinder Second Edition. I’ve really been enjoying the story as it’s unfolded and unravelend around them.
I’ve also been trying to get in the habit of practicing drawing because sometimes I just like to make stuff. The urge to make stuff is what led me to learn to knit as well as what led me to start writing on this site I’ve kept up for close to ten years now (though the pre-WordPress stuff is gone now).
And so, I found myself with an urge to put faces to the names I call out on game nights. But, I found myself having left any real sketch paper or pencil at home and just took some blue pens to some post-its and made myself some small portraits I can put into my prep notes.
Leopold
Leopold is the Investigator of the group. According to his player, he was modeled a bit after Timothee Chalomet. So I used a reference of Chalomet to get the hair and basic face shape in mind.
Leopold saw Forbidden Knowledge through the gates during the “Missing Moment” and has come back with a homebrewed ability to see the secrets in what he is viewing.
Stalman
Stalman is a skeleton changeling witch, born to its mother through magic and who now carries the spirit of its mother in a doll as a familiar. Welcome to spooky season!
Stalman saw a place where it belongs through the gates and now flickers in and out of phase with reality when in danger.
Madame Azhulla
Madame Azhulla is the second witch of the group, an elven fortune teller with a fondness for nice things to keep her company on the road. She has a monkey familiar named Nila who is her traveling companion.
Madame Azhulla does not recall what she saw behind her gate, nor has she manifested any special abilities from her encounter.
Bill the Cat
Bill is a catfolk ranger who takes pride in those precious moments when the dice are with him and he remembers how his bow is supposed to work. Bill has had a paranormal experience more recently than the gates, when he died in a combat with gorgas and then magically returned from the dead when the game master remembered that he could have traded his hero point in to not die.
Bill has been changed by his brush with death in ways the group does not yet fully understand.
Renard Fabienne
Renard will be the newest addition to the party when we have our next session. He’s a cleric of Calistria who ran away from home as soon as he came into his kitsune ability to transform. He still seeks a place where he fits in and that’s what drew him into the gates. Renard comes from Galt, the portion of Golerion which is based on the French Revolution, which is the exact reason why I sketched Renard as the missing Mario brother.
Sketches and Prep
In a way, these sketches are just me daydreaming about my game and its world. In another, they’re standing in for Sly Flourish’s First Step of Lazy Prep. In sketching out the characters, I thought about who they are and what they’re doing in our game together. From there, I can think about how they’ll each interact with the pieces of the adventure we’re playing in. The book make provide the backbone of an adventure, but the real story is what happens at the table when these characters collide with what Paizo’s writers planned for them.
And now I have little visual reminders of my players to stick into my prep notebook to remind me who they are.
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