Wereravens and Owl Bears, Oh My!

I wandered into one of those gaming shops that specialized in acrylic hobby paint, paintbrushes, and miniature figurine kits while locally window shopping for the holiday. The interaction went like this:

Me: “Hello, do you know of any fantasy table-top role playing games happening in the area?”

Clerk: I am hired by this other company, which is a main competitor to other stores, so that question is like walking into a sandwich shop and ordering a hamburger.”

Me: “Okay, then. I am looking for a figurine.” (Stares at the wall of figurines)

Clerk: “Are you more interested in future or medieval worlds?”

Me: “Definitely medieval. Do you have any she-orcs.”

Clerk: “The orcs in this game are actually genderless. They are closely related to a fungus. There is a figurine that you could technically paint the skin green, I suppose. But this character is more of a cheerleader.”

(The clerk pulls up an image on the computer of what appears to be a female figurine.)

Clerk (continued): “Yeah, see, you could easily paint the skin green and it would look like that.”

By this time, I was no longer interested in the figurine. The thirty-five dollar price point plus the five dollars per pot of paint shot the desire to create a single character out of my system. (Besides, what is the point if the figurine’s only job was a cheerleader?)

The return home was justified with the feel-good notion that walking away from the impulse purchase was the best decision.

Later that night, I opened the D&D Forgotten Realms book and learned all about the Wereraven: “careful and secretive, always abided by local laws and tried to do good whenever possible. Lived in family groups called ‘kindnesses’.”

I liked the description of the Wereraven, it seemed more preferential than the cheerleader she-orc figurine that was technically a fungus. It reminded me of my favorite animal composite: The Owl Bear, which just as the name suggests, is a creature with an owl’s head and the body of a bear.

At the end of the day, table top games that do not require a massive monetary investment before starting the game are more preferable than the ones that do. It is also neat how a pen and piece of paper are all that is required to dream up dozens of composite creatures straight out of my imagination.


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