It’s been a while since there’s been a ‘Running the Changes.’ I’ve had a serious case of life, and the updates to these rants have suffered. But, I still love you!

As people who hang out and talk in the forum know, Mercy’s character design was originally supposed to be much stockier and more severe. That was Greg’s idea — I had a very different description of Mercy in my notes. I liked his idea better though, so we signed off on it.

However, Greg did the artwork while sitting in Waffle House, far from his reference sheet, and she came out more hot librarian type. And seemed to take off. Both Greg and I realized some days later that she had gone off spec, but in the end we were content to leave it lie. And, from all indications, she’s very, very popular. So we’re just as glad

However, in Greg’s original design, Mercy had a rat’s tail instead of a barbed devil’s tail. And I kind of wish she still did. I like the idea of a rat tailed fairy, whether severe looking or hot dominatrix librarian in a Chinese dress looking. Well, we’ll use it elsewhere.

Oh… and if you haven’t noticed… we have Malachite, who is obsidian and is concerned with honor. We have Mercy, who divines the web of humanity and human relationships. We have mentioned Chiro, who apparently can possess humanity….

Any similarity between these names and roles and any random Judeo-Christian-Abrahamic Role Playing Game are purely coincidental. No, really. Would I lie?