Character Challenge 2026 - Catching Up - Willy Pete and his Merry Band

If I mean to catch up and create 31 characters for January, I need to start doing 3 or more characters at a time. Here we go. 

Let's start with the overt commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials, but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.

When I create characters for myself, I love to create backstories for them. The odder the better. 

Meet Sergeant William Peterson, U.S. Army. He was drafted back in '71 and served in Vietnam, quickly becoming a sergeant. With a name like William Peterson, the jokes flew like crazy. At mailcall, soldiers would "mail" him anything labeled "White Phosphorus": grenades, canisters, box lids, etc. 

Good times. 

After the war, he married his high school sweetheart and started a family. Jenna and William had a daughter named Jane. William became a chemist at a local factory. He kept close ties with his Army buddies. 

In the late 70's, there were strange happenings at the local Army base. All kinds of weird shit was happening there. Lights in the sky, strangely dressed people, creatures no one had ever seen before. Before anything was resolved, the base closed up, and William's former unit was moved clear across the country. 

The former base was supposed to be converted into a public park, but the funding stalled. It was too far from the town. Besides a few picnic tables, a playground, and a lonely OV-01 display, the park was never completed. Jane, Jenna, and William pressed the local government to continue the project, but it was an uphill battle. For the most part, only the Petersons visited the place for weekend picnics as the base slowly decayed.

One rain-soaked morning on their weekend outing, the Petersons disappeared. Again, strange lights in the sky were reported, but like the park, nothing ever came of the investigation. The family simply vanished. 

William and his family awoke on the Isle of Dread, near location 10. The Phanton Settlement. Using his knowledge of jungle environments, William carved out an encampment for his family and hid the family car. They quickly discovered the Phantons and made friends with them. They have a mutual support pact with the little creatures. They have loose contact with the other natives of the island. 

They tried to find a way home, but as time passed, they adopted the ways of the people of the island. William is a Magic User/Fighter. Jemma is a Cleric/Fighter, and Jane has chosen the middle ground, becoming a Druid. 

William Peterson Fouth Level Fighter and Fourth Level Magic User 

Strength: 12
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 13
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 7
Charisma: 12

Hit Points: 39
Armor Class: 9 He doesn't like to wear armor

GP: 117  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: Various fire-related spells
Languages: Common

Equipment: 

Axe
Dagger
Crossbow

Alice Pack: 
2 canteens,
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes
Shoulder Bag
Map

The Peterson Compound
Sans Trees

Jane Peterson Fourth Level Fighter, Fifth Level Cleric

Strength: 14
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 10
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 14
Charisma: 16

Hit Points: 49
Armor Class:  6 Leather Armor and Shield

GP: 117  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: Healing spells mostly. 
Languages: Common

Equipment: 

Hammer
Dagger
Crossbow

Alice Pack: 
2 canteens,
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes
Shoulder Bag
Map

Jane Peterson Third Level Druid

Strength: 14
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 10
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 16
Charisma: 10

Hit Points: 20
Armor Class:  6 Leather Armor and Shield

GP: 117  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: Druidic spells
Languages: Common, Phanton

Equipment: 

Dagger
Spear

Backpack:
6 Torches
Tinderbox 
2 Waterskins
2 Sacks
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes

The Petersons don't have magic items, but William has surrounded their treehouse with working mortars and tripwire flares to defend against dinosaurs. He can make excellent fire-starting tools like firebows and tinderboxes. Jane and Jenna know modern first aid and CPR. The villagers tend to avoid the "weird ones" but will bring the injured and sick to the family for assistance. The Phantons are on very good terms with the Petersons. 

Being a chemist, William has a cave to the west (2 hexes or 12 miles away) stocked with dangerous chemicals and a makeshift lab. Of course, some of this is Willy Pete. He does keep small amounts of materials closer to home, but since the house is wooden, he doesn't like to keep a lot around. 

Character Challenge 2026 - 10 Days Late - Nodonn, Human, Fighter, 4th level

 I've always meant to do the #CharacterChalllenge. And I always miss it. For 2026, I am going to try to catch up with two posts a day. 

Let's start with the overt commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials, but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.

As before, I stole Nodonn from a book. Nodonn Battlemaster is a lord from the book The Nonborn King, a part of the Many-Coloured Land Series. He is an alien, but I cast him as a human. His people, the Tanu, are the prototype for Elves. The link above goes to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Nodonn Human Fourth Level Fighter 

Strength: 15
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 13
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 10

Hit Points: 33
Armor Class: 3 Ghosty Platemail (+1)

GP: 12  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 20 Gems: None  

Spells: None 
Languages: Common

Equipment: 

The Ghosty Armor (Plate)
Two-Handed Sword
Dagger
Bow and 24 Arrows

Backpack:
6 Torches
Tinderbox 
2 Waterskins
2 Sacks
7 Days of Rations
Bedroll
Change of Clothes
Shoulder Bag

Aside from the Ghosty Armor, the other special thing about Nodonn is that he is a human with elf-like features. 

Ah, Ghosty equipment is diabolical. 

I'll do a full write-up later, but the basics are: it is hard to perceive. It bothers people. It imparts bonuses because people can't see it. 

This is not magical armor, but high-tech armor. When I run X2, Castle Amber, I will see how well it works out. I have a couple of plans to make it work, plus a few fallbacks because I don't want a passive item to cause too many saving throws. 

We will see. 

Character Challenge 2026 - 10 Days Late - Ana Khouri, Post Human, Fighter, 4th level

I've always meant to do the #CharacterChalllenge. And I always miss it. For 2026, I am going to try to catch up with two posts a day. 

Let's start with the overt commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. 

Next topic: My campaign world is post-apocalyptic, so Ana Khouri is stolen from a series of science fiction novels, Revelation Space. This is a link to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Ana Khouri has travelled to the stars before returning home to Earth. She is thousands of years old, thanks to high-tech rejuvenation nanites and time dilation. She has been many things: spacer, soldier, mother, and assassin. 

Ana Khouri Fourth Level Fighter  

Strength: 15
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 11
Dexterity: 17
Constitution: 8
Charisma: 12

Hit Points: 32
Armor Class: 4 Elven Chain  

GP: 34  SP: 0  CP: 0 EP: 0   PP: 0 Gems: None  

Spells: None 
Languages: Common, Elvish, Halfling  

Equipment: 

Elven Chain Armor
The Ghosty Sword (+1)
Dagger
Bow and 24 Arrows

Backpack:
Lantern
4 flasks of oil
Tinderbox 
2 Waterskins
2 Sacks
7 Days of Rations 
1 Flask of Brandy
Bedroll

Special Abilities: Infravision, Starlight Vision, Max Hit Points per level, effectively immortal.

The "character sheet" above is adapted from the ones that appear in BSOLO - Ghost of Lion Castle. 

Since she is a post-human, I wanted to give her some special abilities without making them overpowered. She receives max hit points per level due to her nanites, despite having a low Constitution. Ana receives no bonus hit points for her stats and has lost the hit points she had in her various past lives. 

The nanites also make her immune to the spells Slow and Haste, for better or worse. Her vision is incredible. She can see in the dark like a starlight scope or use infravision. It takes a round to switch. She might be momentarily blinded by a sudden change in light levels, but she is quick to adapt. 

As mentioned in a prior post, Ana probably started with 18 in every stat, but these are slowly falling, leaving her pretty average. She is not subject to aging in the normal sense. Ana is effectively immortal unless killed by something. Ana was once an Assassin, but that was so long ago that she has forgotten all of those skills. Besides, that was another world or two ago. She doesn't have access to those types of high-tech weapons anymore.

Ana Khouri does have one high-tech weapon: The Ghosty Sword. It is a +1 Vorpal long sword. It has one other trait: it is hard to look at or focus on, improving the wielder's AC by 1. I will post more about Ghosty equipment because several of these new characters have them. 

Ana Khouri's daughter and several husbands are presumably alive, someplace out there, just not on Earth. She hopes to see them again someday, but doesn't have the means to search the galaxy for them. As you can imagine, this fact has created several weird conversations with the normal people of Earth. She only brings it up when speaking to true friends, and rarely at that. This topic of conversation gives her a headache. 

Laser Cutting - What I Use

I purchased a Falcon2 22W Laser Engraver last year and it's been a blast. I have done a dozen or so project types over the past year, trying to figure out what I can and can't do. 

This is the exact model of laser I have from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

It's 22W, which seems good for any home project I care to do. It comes with goggles/glasses, a card reader, an SD card with data files, small tools for assembly and maintenance, and a gauge for setting the laser height. It came with some starter materials for doing your first project. It says it comes with an air assist module, but this is integrated into the laser itself. I would not count this as a separate device. 

I also ordered a tent, a metal backplate, and a grill. 

You can read about my setup here. 

I did not provide an Amazon link for the enclosure tent. It seems like they upscaled this part, and I don't see my for sale. What I do see is much better than what I have.  

I hate my tent enclosure - I have three cats that think it's a bed. They have broken it 10 times already. Don't let your cats sleep on the laser enclosure. This is the dumbest safety advice I have ever given. 

However, I would strongly suggest you purchase one. Mine has a fan and duct system to blow smoke outside. 

While the box is reasonably accurate that this laser is ready to go out of the box, realistically, you'll need a couple of things: 

1. A way to vent the smoke and gases
2. A table
3. More materials

I'm not going to talk about the first two. These things are particular to your situation, which is different than mine. I will talk about the material later. 

The next couple of things you need are for measuring. Get yourself the following measuring devices: 

• Calipers
• Rulers
• Mechanical Pencils
• Speed Square

Again, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Those are Amazon links. 

The calipers are to measure the thickness of the stock. You can use a ruler, but it's a low-quality situation can be prevented by a $20 tool. I suggest metal rulers because they could dent or bend, but not as easily as wood or plastic. You might be tempted to get carpenter pencils, but you can use mechanical pencils for both marking and drawing designs. Get used to drawing and sketching now. 

I have a zillion carpenter pencils from every local shop and you probably do, too. The speed square is a very handy tool, doing angles and alignment tasks. Every workshop should have one. However, while I love mine, it could be the last item you should buy. I often use it for project assembly but never for project prep. 

You can buy MTG stuff online, 
but mother-fucker, you need to shop local.

As far as materials go, I use 1/8 inch plywood. I can buy 8-foot by 4-foot sheets from the big box store, but to be honest, I order smaller sheets from Amazon. This is about consistency, waste, ease of use, not transporting the stuff, etc. 

I use 2 different kinds of materials from Amazon to avoid cutting 8-foot by 4-foot sheets down to the 400x415 mm size of the laser bed. Plywood is usually marketed in inch increments, but when they arrive, you'll find they are metric. For sanity's sake, I order sheets that are sold as 12" x 12" x 1/8" and larger sheets that are sold as 16" x 16" x 1/8". They are a touch off, but as long as they fit on the laser bed, I don't care.

A layered effect

I like my 1/8" inch thick boards for laser cutting. It's strong and it can be layered for strength or design elements. I am not making structural items. 

The laser will happily knife through 1/4" sheets, but the smoke and time are incredible. I personally cut 1/4" wood on the tablesaw. It's faster and cleaner. 

For smaller items, I move down to 1/16" plywood, but the use case is particular to me. I don't suggest either 1/16 or 1/4 inch unless you actually have a use case for them. I made bowls out of 1/16", but the process is mind-numbing. They are cute, but not really fun. 

You will need one more thing that I am not suggesting. Laser goggles or glasses. Make sure you are wearing those. The reason I don't suggest a brand or type is that I would be guessing as to what you need. Get yourself a second pair, just to cover drops or loss from the company that sold you the laser. They will be exactly what you need, but always more expensive for that certainty. You can't fix your eyes, so make sure you have laser-safe goggles. 

The next few posts are going to hop from lasers to D&D and back again. Stay tuned.