I apologize for the delay.

PS I also notice that my last post to this section of the site was approximately 6 months ago, also saying that I was sick. I either need to either get sick less often or post more regular blog posts…

Both new and old fans might not be aware of the various ways you can keep up with the comic.  Coming to the site every update is great (and certainly helps with page view numbers), but I’d rather have it be as convenient as possible for you to view the content.

So here’s a reminder of the various ways you can access Familiar Ground:

1. Bookmark this site into your favorites folder and check periodically.
2. Subscribe by email at http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=FamiliarGround
3. Subscribe to the RSS feed* http://feeds2.feedburner.com/FamiliarGround
4. Keep up with me on Twitter http://twitter.com/cedricatizado
5. Add the FG fan page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Familiar-Ground/105725139465217

If you don’t know what they are, RSS feeds are a convenient way to keep up with sites that have content that updates frequently.  There are many RSS Readers available for free (do a web search for “RSS Reader”).  It’s basically like an online newspaper that you customize according to your tastes.  Check your current homepage, you might already have it.

* Other feeds available to this site include:

• Blog and Comic – http://feeds2.feedburner.com/FamiliarGround
• Blog only – http://www.familiar-ground.com/category/blog/feed/
• Comic only – http://www.familiar-ground.com/category/comic/feed/
• RPG news only – http://www.familiar-ground.com/category/rpg-news-and-discussion/feed/
• Comments only – http://www.familiar-ground.com/comments/feed/

Also, various social media sites (reddit, stumbleupon, digg, etc.) are available to link to by clicking the share button that’s attached to the bottom of each comic post.

Thanks for reading Familiar Ground!  Remember to share with your friends who might appreciate it.

*  I’ll be attending at least two conventions:  Pacificon in Santa Clara, the first week of September, and APE in San Francisco, the first week of October.  I won’t have stuff to sell yet, so I’ll be attending mostly to mingle and hand out fliers.  If you’re attending any of these shows, feel free to say hi!

*  Updating the website.  I’m still tinkering with the website.  I’m doing everything by myself, and since I know next to nothing about html and CSS, it’s taking me some time.  If there’s a feature that you want to see added or changed, now is the time to let me know.

*  New project.  I have a new comic project that I’m working on, but I’m not quite ready to announce it yet.  However, I could use some input.  If you know of an interesting story, person, place or thing in or around San Francisco and don’t mind sharing it with others, please drop me a line.  Examples of interesting things I already have on the list include:  Wild Parrots, Bushman of Fisherman’s Wharf, and Letterboxing.

*  TopWebComics.  It’s the start of a new month and TopWebComics resets its counters.  Vote now at TopWebComics to discover some trivia about the comic, author or process of the strip.

Kublacon at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame.    http://kublacon.com/

I’ll be running the WotC 4e MM2 delve all day Saturday.  Come on over and play.  Pregen 5th level characters are provided or you can bring your own.  I’m not sure exactly where it is, but more info should be available in the RPGA area.  I’ll also be at the con Monday just hanging out and playing (slight chance of attendance for Sunday afternoon/evening).

Come on by and say hi!  I’m not attending as an exhibitor, so I’m not bringing anything to sell, but come and catch me if you want to chat about the comic or want a free sketch or something.

One of the things that will be described in detail are the rules surrounding Familiars.

How does this impact the story?  Well, it won’t…much.  I’m pretty much guaranteed to use some aspects, but the “physics” of the story won’t correspond exactly to the rules.  It’ll come close, but not quite.

One of the major differences is that Familiars in the new edition are more magical extensions of their creator’s will.  They are magical constructs that just happen to have a physical form.  Killing the body won’t really affect it other than forcing the familiar to have to reform a new body after some effort.

Toad is different.  He was an actual cave frog that was granted sentience and a connection with his wizard, similar to how the older edition familiars worked.  There are familiars in this story that fit the 4e mold however, and they’ll be popping up later on in the story, but just be aware that Toad, Lady Sasha and especially Coco won’t correspond exactly to the rules on Familiars or Paladin Companions.

More info on the upcoming supplement can be found here:  http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndacc/9780786949571

I’ve only been drawing for perhaps 5 months or so.  Prior to that, I wasn’t even sketching or doodling for fun.  The last art class I took was probably in 7th grade.

So drawing this strip involved learning a whole new skill set for me and I’m still developing my style.  Expect the characters to change over time.  Even now I can see signficant differences between what I’m drawing now and my initial sketches a few months ago.

 Here’s a few initial sketches on scratch paper:

The above was from around late October 2008.  As you can see, I decided to make Toad slightly leaner and younger looking.

This was from around the same time period.

Basically I knew what my characters were, their personalities and how they interacted, but how they actually looked like was one of the last steps in the process.

I sorta like with how they look like now, but I’m still working for more consistency between panels.

Make sure you know about the various ways to keep updated with this strip.  You can either bookmark this site or subscribe to content via email or RSS.

Familiar Ground is currently updating twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays.  When we reach a readership milestone of 1000 readers, then I’ll set up a poll to see if the readership wants to increase the update schedule or add other site features.

I’ll be adding D&D related material in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that.

If you like the strip, please tell a friend or write about it in your blog or any forums you might frequent.  I would greatly appreciate it.  If you want to twitter, digg or stumble the site, that would be greatly appreciated as well (you can use the share link at the bottom of this post). 

Lastly, I’m still in the process of spiffying up the site, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks for taking the time to read the strip!

If you have any questions or comments about the strip or site, feel free to email me or use the comments feature on the site itself.

Cedric Atizado

• fix the header (the logo is off by 1 or 2 pixels from the ad)
• figure out how to remove hovertext from the drop-down menu
• create a better logo (colored)
• reconfigure ads (header and buttons for project wonderful, linkshare affiliate, etc)
• upload D&D content (articles, maps, pregens, book reviews)
• banners(4+)/forum avatars(10+)/wallpapers(2-3)
• comic process -add pics
• edit all pages (grammar, readability)
• configure the store (cafepress for shirts/items, drivethruRPG for PDFs, premium content with Assetbar, original art with etsy.com)
• project wonderful advertising campaign

“Step 1: before drawing or inking, make sure that you properly stretch your paper or use heavy paper that can withstand warping due to the absorption of water.”

Oops. 

I haven’t actually started water coloring yet on the piece I drew.  I’m gonna try on some smaller pieces using the same paper first to see how extensive the warping is.  Apparently 300 pound paper is recommended if you don’t want to bother with stretching your paper beforehand.  The pi day strip is on 100 pound paper.

(Oh, and yes I see that I used “it’s” incorrectly in the first speech bubble.  I’ve fixed it.)

The reason for that is that I’m still fiddling with the actual website layout, as well as trying to build an archive of strips so people won’t get turned off by a mostly empty site.  The schedule for the big marketing push is the beginning of April.  In the meantime, please keep this site to our little group.  Once April comes, please PLEASE help spread the word =)

With that in mind, please let me know if you see anything about the site that’s an issue or if you have any recommendations.  For a guy who knows absolutely nothing about computers, programming or CMS/CSS, I think I’ve done a decent job that’s got most of the basics that I want =)

A few site issues I’m thinking about:

1. Too many ads?  I don’t want to overwhelm readers with too many ads, but they’re a necessary evil in webcomics.  I like the D&D focused Amazon ads because I think it adds the proper vibe for a gaming site, but am concerned that the slide show is too much.  So far, I’ve managed to keep all the ads in the blog section, but I’m considering a new header with a banner ad.  Too much?
2. Background too dark?  I like the Taupe color for the background, but I’m concerned that people might think it’s too dark.  Should I lighten it to a cream or biege color instead?
3. Blogging too much?  Not enough?  Wrong subjects? What’s the appropriate rate of blogging for a webcomic?  Opinions seem to vary, but the general consensus seems to be more =better.
4. Are you aware that there’s hovertext on all the comics?  It’s a fact that my art is still in the beginning stages.  I can’t really do much about that except practice more and learn.  However I’ve been using the comic description and hovertext to add extra layers of funny as much as possible in order to compensate.  Do I need to actually tell people about this and make it obvious?  My concern is for first time readers not knowing about them and leaving before discovering them if they don’t think the drawing is good enough.
5. RSS options.  Right now the RSS is set to capture all comic posts and all blog posts.  There’s an option for comics only, blog only, comments, and RPG blog only.  I’m reluctant about making these easy to get to because building a community pretty much requires that I do my best to have everyone come to the site and participate in conversations.  I’m leaning towards putting this info in a subcategory of the Community menu panel, at least until I have a forum.  Opinions?
6. D&D content.  I’ve got tons of gaming material that’s just waiting to be PDF’d and uploaded.  I’m torn between including these to the site or saving them for submission as freelance writing work to various magazines.  Right now I’m leaning towards including a few of these here for free, some as PDFs for sale, and some as PDFs available behind a subscription wall.

Oh, and I realize that the strip yesterday came on late last night.  I have a 4 week buffer of strips already done, but for some reason I decided to add 5 new strips in the middle of it at the last minute.  So yesterday’s strip was written and drawn after I got back home yesterday.  Today’s strip will also likely go up later tonight.  Next week’s strip (and the ones after that) should be up first thing in the morning as normal.