Rolling Abraxas
I am playing a few online games at the moment. It is not uncommon for me to look up talent or ship builds. Y’all know what I am talking about, right? Yah you do, you delightful nerds. I don’t do that as often when building pen and paper characters. When it was time to roll up a toon for the Reign of Winter campaign, I didn’t scour the internet for THE best first level toon. I had a basic idea revolving around a winter druid. Lucky for me the arctic druid archetype existed. I will be honest with you, I immediately thought about rolling an Aasimar. They pack some sweet racial traits. What druid wouldn’t like a nice Wisdom and Charisma boost? He looked pretty good by the time I finished up. Then I got to thinking about a Mowgli character. Raised by wolves prior to finding the path of the druid. A few days passed, and I still liked the idea. The week progressed, and I kept on musing about a feral background. Story first, math second. Says it right on our website. So, I scrapped the Aasimar druid build and wrote a decent character background. I chose feats and skills based on wilderness survival instead of boosting my AC or damage. When the time comes to increase an ability score at level 4, I am leaving my Wisdom as is. I have never done that with any prior character; ability increase equals primary stat boost. I am excited to see how far Abraxas can go and see his story unfold. I am really excited to see how his interactions with his companions affects his growth. Maybe he will pick up a bit of gunsmithing or learn to how to pick a few pockets. Only time and the story will tell.
I got into this series while I was in high school (around 15ish) after it was recommended to me by the boy I was dating at the time. He was 16, dyed his hair black, smoked, wore skinny jeans, had a lip ring and told me he had to get electroshock therapy every Monday to manage his schizophrenia or something like that – all of which I thought officially made him the coolest person who could possibly exist. Alas, my relationship with this edgy punk lasted only three weeks – but it started me down the path of a much longer but no less turbulent relationship with Anita Blake.
With her Browning, penguin stuffed animals, sassy coffee mugs and the ability to reanimate the dead Anita spends 9 books facing down a terrifying and wildly entertaining cast of zombies, vampires, shapeshifters, voodoo priests, evil circus performers and every other horror staple you can think of. She has a classic torrid love triangle with a hot werewolf and an equally hot vampire – both of whom are well fleshed out characters in their own right, with their own struggles and needs that often conflict with Anita’s. Her relationship with Edward, a fellow monster hunter, is still one of my favorite slow burn literary friendships to this day and the book that really expands on the development of that friendship, Obsidian Butterfly, is my favorite novel in the series.
I grew up in a household wherein gaming was a near daily occurrence. My mom had my sister and I playing Settlers of Catan as early as 2000 when I was just 8 years old. I’ve been obsessed with board games ever since, and the same goes for video games. 
Naturally, I was always fascinated by the idea of tabletop roleplaying games, but I didn’t have the chance to play until 2009. That’s when I started my first Pathfinder campaign, and I was immediately hooked. The thrill of our group’s struggles, our failures, and our victories was addictive. I obsessed over my character’s stats and backstory, I roleplayed my little heart out, and from then on, there was no going back. I went on to play the same character type for every campaign after that – basically a heightened version of myself with badass magic powers – and as a teenager, it was the most thrilling form of self-expression I had at my disposal. 
