Critical Hits

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Chatty's Newly Renovated Abode!

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war-of-the-dragon-queen.jpgWelcome one and all to the newest incarnation of this here blog!

With the tireless help of Graham, (well, more than that really, he hacked the whole theme!) I present you the newest theme, complete with the awesome banner done by artist Veronica Pare.

Late last year when I was still writing over my Blogger-based site, I contacted Veronica to create a Banner that captured the essence of what the blog was about: a loudmouthed DM with wayyy to many cool things to say! I must say she captured the feeling perfectly!

Then PM, Graham and I started discussing how to redesign the blog to be both pleasing to the eyes and easy to read. I really like the results!

The new theme features Shamus Young’s Wavatars, giving each commenter a unique avatar. Alternately you can have one from Gravatars if you signed up with the free service over there.

The blog also features a comment preview where you can see what the comment will look like on the page as you type it.

Also, as usual users can edit their comments up to 15 minutes after posting.

So awesome!

Now I really need to scrounge some cash to buy Graham an XBox 360… 😀

Please drop by and say hi to generate your own Wavatar…. come on! Even the lurkers!

Heck, I’m going to make a contest, I’ll raffle something nice among all the commenters, one chance per commenter!

How about this box of War of the Dragon Queen booster box of D&D minis I bought to make my next Webcomic post?

It’s going to be opened for the comic (the box only) but I won’t open the bags nor touch the cards in it. Maybe there’s an Aspect of Tiamat in it…

Edit: Contest is up until Tuesday February 19th at noon EST.

Anyway, I hope you’ll like the result. If not, well complaints are handled by my pet Ogre that can be reached at chattydm@chattydm.net.

Comments

  1. Yay me!

    There will still be some changes going on behind the scenes, everyone, but this is almost the final look that everyone here will see.

    Now, to update my own site’s look… 😛

  2. Overall i like the redesign.

    Bonus: I can see the larger version of the avatar pic in your banner and I’m loving the scene on the DM screen. The christmas tree behind the woman in the blue dress is pretty slick, not sure why that tree is in the dungeon, probably carried around as a holy relic.

    I kid because i love. 😛

    note-bummer, my gravatar isn’t showing here. Doesn’t show on geeknews when i turn on gravatars either but it shows on many other sites. C’est la vie.

  5. Interesting, Andy. You obviously do have a Gravatar, or at least your email is registered with Gravatar, otherwise your Wavatar would be showing.

    Your Wavatar, by the way, is this:

    Do you use a different email on those other sites?

  7. Awesome job! I really like the choice of color… pleasingly clear and the banner is beautiful 🙂

  10. Hi Graham, yes it’s the same e-mail across sites. If I check the image location for the default gravatar image that is rendering for me here in the thread above it has this url:
    http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=36ab431af3fe5006c925c58d705eeefe
    but the chattydm site is appending to it the wavatar url it autogenerated for me which is an unresolvable url. My site has sort of the same behavior, i gave up on it after troubleshooting a little as i wasn’t that important to me.

    On the gravatar support faq page the section called “My gravatar doesn’t show up on a particular site!” didn’t help me as it seemed to hint there’s a bug in the theme i’m using and there’s nothing they can do. I used the gravatar check tool and the gravatar rendered properly.

    No worries, thanks. Again, I like the redesign, good work!

  13. Woot, Mission Impossible reference! That was such a great stupid impossible awesome game (when I was 12).

    Thanks for the nice words people! I foresee many many thousands of words finding their new home here!

  16. Andy – that is weird. I’m going to look into the code, and bring the issue to Shamus. My first thought is that yours is the only one on this page that ends in a letter, instead of a number, but we’ll see.

    Edit: This is not the problem, as Greywulf’s is the same way. Well, time to talk to Shamus.

    Aside from that, it’s not a christmas tree. The star above the girl is attached to the wand held by the wizard behind her.

  18. No! I refuse! 😀

    As for the gravatar issue, I think it’s actually on Gravatar’s end. I was perusing Critical Hits, which uses a different gravatar plugin, and saw that greywulf’s doesn’t work there either. That plugin, however, uses a similar syntax to request the gravatar.

  19. I strike with the power of cheese, and cleave! eat that casters. 🙂
    I might need great cleave just to keep all of ye off me! D:
    darn swarms. :p
    also nice new set up here.

  20. Very nice. I always thought your old theme was a bit off, but the new theme looks wonderful!

    Two comments:

    1: Not crazy about the comment preview. Every line ends up pushing the entire page, including the comment form, down a line. Maybe you could move the preview down below the form?

    2: There’s something weird with the tab order. if I press tab from the anti-spam textbox, it takes me up to the website box instead of down to the comment area. Tabbing from the website box takes you down to the comment area instead of the anti-spam box.

    *apparently I didn’t enter the anti-spam word correctly in my last comment. It’s still showing up for me, though, so sorry if this is a double post.

  21. Hi Asmor

    1) I’m not entirely sure whether I can change this, and not entirely sure whether changing would be best. The instinct when typing somethng, to me, is to look up to check it.

    As long as you keep typing, as well, the box will never go off the page, so I’ll look into it, but may or may not change it.

    2) I’ve noticed the tab order. Once again, I’m not sure if I can change this, as this seems to be part of how the spam plugin places itself on the page. I will do what I can over the next few days to alter this.

    It was a double post. I have deleted your previous post for you.

  25. Asmor: The old themes was a stand-in for this one. I made the move from Blogger way before I had the theme I wanted. (Graham is more patient than I am on these things). It wasn’t a RPG theme but one that happened to deliver the features and general appearance I wanted.

    Sandrinnad: Did I break your idea of a dark souled Overlord typing away in his unlit underground lair? 🙂 Nope, my friends will concur that this theme is much more me. All cheerfulness and crafty deviousness.

    Cpanthersfans: Thanks!

  27. Very nice layout Chatty and Graham! The designer in me likes the color choices, and the way all the links are layed out. It isn’t distracting from the content, but puts things in usable places. Does the latin in the middle bubble of the banner bear any importance, or is it just part of Cicero’s Extremes of Good and Evil?

  28. Thanks John. Initially I just wanted a bunch of bubbles with the Lorem Ipsum in it (as you artfully spotted, sharp fellow!) to show how geeky and chatty I was, but then someone suggested that I put excerpt of my older posts. I kept the Lorem as a tribute to the blog’s Geek theme…

    🙂

  29. I like the new design a lot. Easy on the eyes, clean and simple. The true mark of a good design. Great work!

  30. I found your blog through TV Tropes Wiki and I’ve been a lurker here for a while. I just stopped by to…well, see what my wavatar looks like. But also to say that your blog is really interesting (and funny), and I think that this theme fits wonderfully with the tone of your entries (English class nerd moment there). Anyways keep up the good work 🙂

  31. Hey Ruthie and Kelsey! I appreciate the kind words and am grateful that you take some time to drop by and read this here blog thing!

    Cool funky Wavatar you got! Ruthie…. sorry about Gravatar bug Kelsey, we’re not sure what causes it…

  32. Hi CDM,

    I am a new arrival from the Roleplaying Tips guest appearance you did and have to say you have fast become a regular stop in my surfing day. I do like the newest theme but have to admit that I didn’t look at it much since I subscribed to your RSS feed and look at your posts on my IGoogle page. I does look clean and inviting though so I just might make the extra effort to stop by the actual site and make comments!

    Nice to see another Canuck with a cool blog on gaming! Also, I am enjoying your Ptolus posts. If you stop by my site you’ll see I have had a gaming going for about a year but took some time off the campaign and site updates since the summer. Your prolific posts have inspired me to get things rolling again. Thanks!

    Deadshot

  34. @ChattyDM Did I break your idea of a dark souled Overlord typing away in his unlit underground lair? 🙂 Nope, my friends will concur that this theme is much more me. All cheerfulness and crafty deviousness.

    isn’t that just what a dark-souled Overlord _would_ say? 😉

    na, you’re _way_ too much fun to read for dark-souledness 😀
    it was mostly that I had my eyes all set into squint mode for the dark theme & then *flash* bright! It does look good though – hardly looks like I’m goofing off at work at all!

  37. Deadshot: Thanks for taking the time, I really appreciate you dropping by! I’m posting my next Ptolus log Monday evening! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

    Buzzregog: Thanks my man! I love it more and more!

    Sandirinnad: Yup that’s why we did it… so that it looks real work-like! 🙂

    Yax: Thanks man! Your loss pal!

  38. Excellent *hand motions* 😀

    (forgot to mention – please leave me out of the draw, cool though it is 🙂 I’m downsizing :S )

  39. Responding to the call for Lurkers!

    Great site, love the new layout, but…

    It’s the content that keeps me coming back.

    Keep it up!

    edit: Just playing with features. I like my Wavatar, which seems to be looking at me and saying “really…you posted that…really”

    The timer countdown is pretty nifty too.

  40. Sandrinnad: Okay… 🙁 Hey great sunshiny Wavatar by the way!

    Shadow145: Hey, thanks for making the jump as a commenter, if only this once! I’m happy you like the Wavatar… you never know what you’ll pull up. Feel free to drop by anytime, I’m a friendly enough guy, for an Evil Overlord…

  41. @ChattyDM: it’s all good – when you look around & realize you need to get a job reading what’s currently on your bookshelves to have any chance of reading them all before you hit 100 it’s time to downsize 😀

    definitely loving the Wavatar! (they’re a cool addition to the site 🙂 ) it’s cheery and neatly highlights my complete addiction to smileys 😀

  43. Up for the raffle that I’ll do tonight:

    1)Graham
    2)Andy
    3)Shamus
    4)Phased Weasel
    5)Yan
    6)Dave T.Game
    7)Andalore
    8)Asmor
    9)cpanthersfan
    10)John Arcadian
    11)Kelsey Roth
    12)RuthieA
    13)Deadshot
    14)Buzzregog
    15)Shadow145

    Now where’s my d15?

    I’ll roll my brushed steel d20 with my wife as witness tonight and discard all results over 15. I’ll post the winner here and contact him/her by email to work shipping (Pity you don’t play Sandrinnad, Ottawa is close!).

  45. My trusty d20 rolled a ‘8’ and so Asmor is now the proud owner of an opened (but not unpacked) War of the Dragon Queen D&D mini booster pack.

    I’ll contact you after writing tonight’s post man!

    Thanks one and all for posting.

    There will be other contests!

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