Behind the Screen: Inspiration from an unlikely source...

A thousand apologies for the lack of a meaningful post yesterday. With the ISP troubles, Stupid Ranger being on the road, and Vanir still taking care of junior we were somewhat out of options. Ah well, water under the bridge as they say...

Throw up the horns?

Well, probably not. Tonight I want to talk again about unlikely sources for roleplaying ideas, this time my topic will be classic rock. More directly, classic rock involving The Eagles. You see, the origin for this post comes largely from the alcohol that fueled our Cinco de Mayo celebrations around Stupid Ranger Central and my cousin, who exhibited wisdom beyond his years by recommending that we put some Eagles on to pass the time.

Several hours go by, and the mixture of beer and Don Henley vocals started to formulate into notions about Witchy Women, what lies along Seven Bridges Road, and whether or not love can truly keep us alive. I think the colorful vocals are what lent me toward campaign ideas, most notably during Witchy Woman and Hotel California... the portrait that is painted by these lyrics beg to find their way into a one-shot campaign for me.

Who knows, sometime soon these ideas may come into fruition... the only other artist that immediately springs to mind as one that constantly emits campaign ideas is Meat Loaf, but I'm sure Vanir will be along any time to explain how Meat Loaf is more of a characters icon than he is a DM's icon.

For those of you that enjoy morals to the story, we'll go with "don't hesitate to look for campaign ideas in unlikely places" and leave it at that.

Throw Up The Horns

Every now and then, I find out something that just transcends the boundaries of awesome.

I grew up in a time where the best musicians had big guitars and bigger hair. They saw a million faces, and they rocked them all. I love rock. I have been known to throw up the horns during meetings at work.

I never really gave much thought to the gesture's origins. I'd heard it was "devil horns" once or twice, but I never really worried about it (any more than I worried about, say, Black Sabbath's music corrupting me). Admittedly, when I was a teenager, I was accidentally throwing up American Sign Language for "I love you", which is about as metal as oatmeal. I have since rectified this.

And now, I come to find out that the Rock Horns are actually a Protection Against Evil spell.

Frankly, the part of the article that suggests that a rock concert is "forming an enormous shield against the evil eye" is the coolest thing I have ever heard. Although I must question why some more powerful demons would fear a minotaur. Perhaps shadow-puppetry is their secret weakness?

Regardless, I seriously think if I go outside there is going to be a motorcycle equipped with bat wings waiting for me right now.


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Speaking of rocking out, we here at SR have become hopelessly addicted to the Guitar Hero series (and Rock Band) as of late. Me, I'm stuck on (ironically, The Metal on Expert).

If you'd like to compare scores or test your *ahem* mettle against the might of Bat Loaf, go ahead and shoot me a message or a friend request. BUT BE WARNED!!!! I choke in multiplayer!!!!!!!

Vanir's Xbox 360 Gamertag:


Vanir's guitarhero.com profile:
batloaf

Dante and Stupid Ranger's guitarhero.com profile (the family that rocks together, stays together):
Dante8

If there's enough interest, maybe we could even start up a tour group?

Either way, rock on, and keep on casting Protection From Evil!

<Vanir has left the building>