Neuro-Suction

Transparency

2011-04-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not talking about wet t-shirts or those fancy sheets of plastic you show off on an old-fashioned overhead projector. No, I'm talking about the transparency demonstrated by a GM to his players.

I got to thinking about this last night as we were playing the last Warhammer Fantasy game I'll be able to run until we're safely nestled in our new house in Rhode Island. I've taken to making my to-hit and damage rolls in full view of the players. I'm fairly brazen about it, and I hadn't given any thought to how it might make them feel.

Let me preface this by saying: The chances of hitting, for anyone playing a first-career character in WFRP, are highly dependent on how crappy your Weapon Skill attribute is. Generally, it's pretty crappy, so unless players make liberal use of specific combat actions (which are relatively simple to incorporate), they're not going to be hitting very often. In fact, it often feels like you're rolling to miss, with the happy chance of a hit being a reason for celebration.

(Let me say that I really enjoy WFRP. Yes, starting characters are oftentimes inept to the point of comedy, but they *do* improve in the long run, and I think that's something that any player with a long-lived WFRP character can be proud of... especially when you consider the inherent lethality of the combat system.)

Keeping this in mind, I tend to make my NPC's to-hit rolls for all to see. Last night's posse of stinking, maggot-riddled zombies probably hit the players a grand total of four times throughout the entire combat. The players did manage to re-deadify the zombies in the long run, but they had to work at it... and there was much rejoicing.

On reflection, I started to wonder: Do my players actually want me to be this transparent? By making my rolls in the open, I have no recourse for fudging said die rolls. If I hit a player in his head and then roll a decapitation crit on him, there's no way for me to take it back. The player can, of course, spend a Fate point to avoid his messy and untimely demise, so there is a safety net of sorts worked into the process.

When I first started GMing games, back in... erm... well, in antiquity, I was quite attached to the GM screens I used. I hid my dice rolls, for the most part, because I knew that I'd annihilate my players if I didn't. I could fudge rolls as I saw fit, scaling back damage on lethal blows to make the fights that much more suspenseful. "Oh, wow, dude... he hit you for ten points of damage. You've got one hit point left? Sucks to be you!" And all that when my actual damage roll was closer to twenty than it was to ten.

(Another note, this one to the players I've played with in the past: Yes, I fudged dice rolls on occasion. I didn't do it all the time, only when it seemed appropriate to do so. Hopefully this doesn't ruin the enjoyment of the games we used to play (assuming you enjoyed them in the first place).)

As time's gone by, I've become less concerned with the GM screen as a method of secretly hiding my rolls. In retrospect, I think I liked using screens to hide my game notes from prying player eyes more than to hide dice rolls. Given that I tend to run my games from a laptop these days, which only I can read with any degree of clarity, the only real reason to use a GM screen is to reference the information they contain. Since I don't like rolling my dice on my laptop's keyboard, I make my rolls on the table.

But how do players feel about this sort of thing? Is it refreshing that a GM can be so open with the rolls he makes? Does it make the game more suspenseful knowing that my next roll might result in your character tripping on his own intestines? Does it aggravate you because you'd rather not know what I rolled? Or do you not care one way or the other?

Call me curious, but tell me what you think. That's what the comments are for on this here blog.

Oh, and I will get back to my dissertations on the games I want to play. As it is, I'm not really in the mood to write reams of nonsensical gaming jibber jabber after a long day at work followed by an hour's commute home. Once I'm settled in my new place, I'll definitely pick up the slack. I promise.

How Many Books are Too Many?

2011-04-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

I used to be proud of my gaming library. I had a lot of interesting books, some of them unusual, uncommon, or even rare. I still do, in fact. I find it difficult to liquidate my collection, even those games I don't play or rarely look at. I can find something cool, interesting, or amusing in every single one of them, from the art in SLA Industries to the fact that the author of Road Rebels uses the word "riffles" to describe longarms throughout the entire text of his game.

It really only hits me when I have to move. The family and I are relocating to Rhode Island at the end of the month, and this involves taking all of our stuff with us. In speaking with my moving company rep, she mentioned, "Last time, you had 110 book boxes. Do you think you'll need the same amount this time?"

"We haven't gotten that many more books," I answered. "I expect it'll be about the same amount, maybe a couple more."

As I answered her question, I felt a brief pang of guilt. A group of movers will be here in the next couple of weeks to pack, carry, and load my family's extensive library. Books are not lightweight. Yet, being as I'm closer to 40 years old than 30, I don't regret not having to move the boxes myself. I think I'll survive, just as I did when we moved from CA to VA, and from VA to MA.

Really, my primary hobby has been gaming since I was 13 years old (give or take). I bought (or conned my mom into buying me) a copy of the original Monster Manual when I was in 5th or 6th game. Little did I know at the time that I'd eventually have 4 or 5 bookshelves worth of splatbooks, core books, and hardcovers. Not to mention numerous boxed sets from the golden era of tabletop, various board games, card games, Dungeon tiles, miniatures, and a seemingly endless series of three ring binders containing game notes, characters, maps, etc.

But when does my pride in my collection give way to embarrassment at how large it's become?

People collect all sorts of things: music, movies, computer games, stamps, coins, bottles, sports memorabilia, figurines, paintings, sculptures, teddy bears, etc. Heck, I've got a coin collection (which I'm in the process of organizing) that I inherited from my grandfather, most of which consists of foreign coins that he picked up when he was in the Navy during and after World War II. But it's relatively lightweight as compared to my RPG collection.

I suppose my RPG collection would be all the larger if it weren't for my kids. When you're single, or even newlywed, and you have fewer expenses, it seems like a trivial thing to keep up with a number of game lines. As it is, I've really only kept up with D&D 3.5 and Star Wars (in its various editions) since my kids came along. Even now, both those lines are extinct, so there's not much to keep up with. I'm interested in keeping up with Dark Heresy, maybe even Rogue Trader and Deathwatch, when I've got money to spare. Which isn't often.

I guess I'm not terribly embarrassed by my book collection... but I am self-conscious about it. The size won't be growing significantly any time soon, though I suppose I'll continue to add to it when I can.

As a side note, it wasn't solely my books that filled 110 book boxes the last time we moved. My wife owns a substantial library of her own, mostly paperbacks and research books (science, history, sociology, you name it and she probably has a book on it). Who can blame us for being a literate family... besides the movers, that is?

Games I Wanna Play, Part 3b: Horror

2011-04-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

Continuing from my last "Games I Wanna Play" post...

Call of Cthulhu (Standard)
I want to run a Cthulhu game. I've been chomping at the bit to run one for a few months now, but it's a tough sell for some of my players. One thing about Cthulhu is the overwhelming mortality of the characters. Run in the traditional manner, PCs end up dead, insane, or both in a short amount of time. For players who devote a lot of time and energy to developing their PCs, this can be somewhat dispiriting.

To my mind, Cthulhu doesn't have to destroy characters. Not right away, in any case. In fact, a long-term CoC game could be so much more entertaining, because as players do become invested in their PCs, the fear and trepidation they experience becomes much more tangible when dealing with Lovecraftian horrors.

The nightmares that haunt Lovecraft's stories aren't the typical fodder for horror games. A lot of folks don't understand this immediately upon being exposed to the RPG. If they haven't read Lovecraft or his contemporaries, they may have a completely different idea of what the game is about. It helps if you can get them to read a story or two. I have my own favorites, such as Pickman's Model, The Colour Out of Space, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time.

Of course, if they know the fiction, they usually have a much better idea of what they're getting themselves into. Conversely, they also have certain expectations that might not jibe with my own plans or insights. So much has been written, insofar as the the RPG and the Mythos are concerned, that I don't like to be beholden to canon. This isn't to say I change things out of hand, but I do like to think I can surprise players without them having an immediate idea of what I've got in mind.

Lovecraft has never been about "cheap" scares for me. I'm not saying that CoC can't be used to tell stories that involve typical horror villains popping out of the woodwork to surprise their victims before chopping them to ribbons. At its heart, CoC is about things that are so terrible, so huge, and so hard to comprehend that they rend at your sanity before they eat you. Many times, the characters in such stories are so far beneath the notice of the creatures they encounter as to make their madness/death purely circumstantial.

All that said, I've never quite run a standard CoC game, though I've played in plenty. I wouldn't mind running a standard, "Vanilla" CoC game at some point. God knows I have access to plenty of books chock full of adventures and plot hooks, if I needed inspiration. Like as not, I'd prefer to do something wholly original to my game, though it's easy enough to adapt an existing scenario.

Though CoC is its own setting, it also has a number of eras available. These are commonly Victorian (1890's), 1920's, and Modern. I'm aware of sourcebooks that have been released that give insight into other eras, but I haven't looked at many of them. Cthulhupunk (CoC meets Cyberpunk) sounds interesting, but I'm not sure it'd be something I'd want to tackle as a GM. When it comes to CoC, I think I'm more interested in 1920's and Modern.

There's a certain awesomeness about 1920's games. You're far enough into the modern era that players have access to some technology, but not so far along that they can run roughshod over you with their cell phones, iPads, and other high-tech tools. The Great Depression adds another level of gloom to things, as does Prohibition and the organized crime associated with it. If I ran a 20's game, I'd want it to be like a cross between Road to Perdition and Of Mice and Men.

As for the Modern era, I wouldn't be able to run such a game without using some aspects of Delta Green...

Delta Green
I tell you, Delta Green did for me what no other CoC product had ever done. It took the Mythos, couched it in modern day conspiracy theory, and breathed fresh life into it. The threads were woven so skillfully, and they ran so deep. I was thoroughly inspired, so I borrowed my wife's CoC books and did some planning of my own. I called in elements of one of my favorite Lovecraft tales, namely Pickman's Model, threw in some crazy Karotechia Nazis, and shook until it was all quite frothy.

The game itself didn't last very long... heck, I was barely getting started. The best part was running the preludes, which is a technique I'd borrowed from the Storyteller system in order to give PCs more depth. The characters played law enforcement folks who'd been approached by Delta Green due to their prior experience with the supernatural. The characters included:

A DEA diver who saw something swimming in the Florida Keys while attempting to recover a load of narcotics that had been thrown overboard by fleeing smugglers;

A Border Patrol agent who was abducted by aliens, waking up three days later, hundreds of miles from his patrol route, with no memory of the lost time;

A Customs Agent whose drug-sniffing dog was inhabited by a strange, jelly-like organism which turned it into a slavering beast (which she had to kill in order to survive);

and

A DEA pilot who, while scouting the US/Mexico border in a plane with his partner, encountered strange UFO phenomenon that knocked out his plane's systems, resulting in a crash (and his co-pilot's death).

The plot that brought them together involved a number of stolen art pieces by Cézanne that were cropping up... pieces of art that had been stolen by the Nazis during WWII and never seen since. This led to some investigations of an avant-garde art gallery in Miami that, at the time, was showing a series of paintings by Richard Upton Pickman. The Pickman art didn't have anything to do with the overall plot, it was just set dressing, and 3/4 of the players didn't even know the significance of the paintings... but they still had to make San checks.

It was unfortunate that the game came to an end before we could really get into the meat of the plot. I guess I had a serious case of gamer ADD back in those days. I still do, but the medication seems to be working (just kidding).

If I could start a new Delta Green game, I'd probably use some of the ideas presented in the latest supplement, Targets of Opportunity. It's a particularly meaty book, with a lot of disturbing content. I'd also delve a little deeper into the way the actual Delta Green runs things, just for flavor. This means that the number of actual agents in a cell is limited, but other players would take on the roles of civilian experts and the like.

That's about all I've got to say at the moment. I might touch on this a bit more later, but for now... thanks for reading.

Memories of November '09

2011-04-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

November 2009 is important because it was the month that Electronic Arts laid me off. The proper corporate term is, I guess, "Reduction in Force," or "RiF" (pronounced "riff). It was a pretty tough time for me, as I'd never been through such a thing before. I was living in Virginia, 3000+ miles away from home, with no idea where I'd be when the money ran out. It's not as if EA hung me out to dry. The severance was fairly generous, but it wouldn't last forever.

The reason I'm reminded of my own layoff is because, just yesterday, SoE (Sony Online Entertainment) cut a substantial portion of their workforce. That's 205 people out of work and three studios shut down. I don't know any of them personally (at least, I don't think I do), but I still feel for them. On the off chance that you, dear reader, are one of the affected, please check the job listings at 38 Studios. Words cannot express how awesome this place is.

In my case, the layoff was a blessing in disguise. When it happened, I was in shock. I didn't know what to do. One of the first things was to sign up for the GamaSutra newsletter and start combing their job listings for things that might suit me. The second was to talk to a recruiter. Neither did me much good, job-wise, but it kept me busy, and gave me the feeling that I might find something eventually.

What really helped, though, was word of mouth from people I already knew. One FaceBook friend who had also worked at Mythic suggested I send my resume to 38 Studios. I'd never heard of 38, so I checked their website out. What little I read sounded interesting enough, but there weren't any positions on the job listing that reflected my skill set. I sent my resume in, anyway. It couldn't hurt... and it didn't.

Within a week, I got a call from 38's recruiter and the ball got rolling. I had a phone interview, followed by an on-site interview, followed by an offer, all before Christmas. Things were suddenly looking up for me. By February, my family and I were living in Massachusetts and I was getting acquainted with the job, the processes of a new studio, and all the people I'd be working with. Looking back on it, I'm glad EA let me go when they did.

I still miss the folks I worked with, some of whom had been let go at the same time I was, and others who were retained. I keep in touch with some of them, and they keep in touch with me. The industry is pretty small, all things considered, and I expect I'll be seeing some familiar faces as my career continues to evolve. Life will never be boring, but I hope to all that is holy I'll never have to go through that process again.

My thoughts go out to the folks who lost their jobs yesterday, and to their families, as well. I know it's hard, but I also know there will always be a sunrise tomorrow. Keep at it... get your name and your resume out there. Stay positive and don't give up. I can't promise your experience will be the same as mine, but I wish you the best.

Games I Wanna Play, Part 3a: Horror

2011-03-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

So I covered the World of Darkness in my last post, but I haven't really touched on the horror genre of gaming yet. That's where this post comes in. Now, for one reason or another, my horror library is fairly limited. I'm not sure if it's because I've never really explored it, or if it's because there's not much in the way of horror games out there (outside of the obvious titles). But even with my limited access to different horror-themed games, I tend to have a pretty extensive library of pertinent supplements and sourcebooks.

The first horror game I ever ran was Mayfair's Chill, and the only reason I bought it was because I thought the cover and graphic design were cool. Even though the system was somewhat... unique, I still loved that game (and I still do!). I had a tradition where I'd call together my gaming friends and run a Chill game on Halloween night (though it was typically the weekend before Halloween, and given the seasonal time change, we usually got an extra hour of gaming in). We'd run from just after dark until the game ended or the sun came up.

I certainly don't have the stamina for that kind of endeavor these days. I'm too old and I value my sleep too much. But damn, those were good times. But more about the specifics of those games when I cover Chill in full, below.

I was introduced to the horror genre of tabletop by a friend of mine who liked Call of Cthulhu. I wasn't all that literate in those days, and I'd never read HP Lovecraft or his contemporaries. Blasphemy, I know, but I was all of 14 or 15. I was more interested in the less cerebral aspects of gaming. You know: blowing stuff up, shooting bad guys, and looting their rapidly-cooling cadavers.

Those initial sessions (which were most often done on local bulletin board systems... that was what we had before Al Gore invented the interwebs, don't you know) piqued my curiosity, but I didn't really get a true taste of Mythos horror until well after I'd met my wife-to-be. In fact, my current CoC gaming library is comprised, in large part, of books that she brought into our marriage.

My wife ran a number of awesome CoC games in those days. I still recall with fondness the exploits (or, rather, the depredations) of Sheridan MacDonagh and his brother, Grady, as they blazed a trail of violent crime across the American Midwest; or Caleb Tucker, my intrepid G-Man, who had to "do the hopscotch" in the course of his investigations of an odd little girl that had disappeared some twenty years before. Amy doesn't run games anymore. She's far too shy to sit behind the GM screen. Maybe she'll get over her self-consciousness someday, and I'll be lucky enough to play in her games again. We'll just have to wait and see.

But enough of that. Let's talk about the games and why I'd love to run and/or play them again.

Chill
As far as horror games go, Mayfair's edition of Chill was my first true love. At the time, it was a game none of my friends had ever heard of. This meant that all the juicy bits of fluff and story belonged to me and me alone. There was no expectation from the players as to how the setting operated. For example, players with any experience with the WoD will have certain expectations about the world when playing in a Vampire game. I didn't have that baggage with Chill.

I never used the stock player organization, known as "SAVE," in my games... at least not as a player resource. When SAVE appeared at all, it was as an NPC organization, and they weren't always acting in the best interests of the player characters (more on that later). When I ran it, Chill was less about the players fighting evil than it was about the players (as everyday folks) being exposed to the Unknown.

The game was really creepy, especially given the fact that I tended to run it after dark, by candlelight, with soundtracks to scary movies playing softly in the background. The soundtracks to the Hellraiser movies were particularly effective. Plus, I seemed to have a knack for describing just enough to make the players worry, but not so much that they'd know what exactly I had in mind. Of course, I could be ascribing powers to myself that I never had, but at the time it seemed to work fine.

So every fall, I start to get that itch to drag out ye olde Chill books and run a Halloween game. I've been stymied in recent years by lack of time, lack of energy, lack of players, and (this last Halloween) by pestilence. So I'll get there someday, I just don't know when. I hope it's before I'm in the rest home, because I'd hate for my geriatric players to suffer from cardiac arrest if I still have a knack for creeping people out.

Those original Halloween games were pretty fun. Generally speaking, they involved a group of pre-gen PCs. One of the most memorable scenarios involved a group of college-age kids in Colorado, driving up to a mountain cabin for a good bit of Spring Break fun. They get up there, start to get settled in, when some scared stranger, bleeding, knocks on the door and forces his way in. He's got a gun, so they humor him. He's yelling, "Lock the doors! Board the windows! They're coming!!"

"Who's coming?" they ask.

Just then, the zombies attack. They break down the door, bust in the windows, and swarm in. The guy opens up with his pistol, but it doesn't do much good. Before long, the entire group has been wiped out.

They wake up the next day, bruised and battered and not feeling particularly well. The guy is gone, as are the zombies. It takes the next hour or two of game time before they realize that they, too, are dead. The humorous thing was, one of the kids had sustained a broken neck during the zombie attack, but he just assumed that he'd been mildly injured. So they went to an urgent care center for x-rays, which is when the doctor reveals that, wow, he ain't got no vital signs.

From there things got progressively weirder. One of the kids, who's taking psychology and parapsychology courses at their college, goes to his professor for help. The professor calls his contacts at SAVE and schedules a meeting. Little do the kids know that SAVE has already written them off, and sends a kill team in to put them out of their misery... with a LAW rocket. End of game.

But it was a fun ride, anyway.

There were other games, too. Like the one based on the novel The Night Boat by Robert R. McCammon. It's about a U-Boat that is buried by an aquatic avalanche caused by depth-charges in WWII. Just as the sub is going down, a voodoo priest curses it, and turns the German crew into zombies. Flash forward to the modern day, and the sub gets freed by an old underwater mine, floats to the surface, and the Nazi zombies come out to play. I realize it's all very silly when you think about it, but it was a good game anyway.

So... yeah. Someday, I'll break out those Chill books again and do another proper Halloween game, from dusk 'til dawn. Candlelight, creepy music, the whole shebang.

(To be continued...)

Games I Wanna Play, Part 2: Supernatural Games

2011-03-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

Note: If you aren't interested in my self-absorbed opinions about the World of Darkness, you can skip to the end. Otherwise, prepare for an essay (or even rant) about Vampire the Masquerade and as many of its spin-offs as I can recall.

First off, let me clarify: I'm not talking about the Supernatural RPG by Margaret Weis Productions. To my mind, "Supernatural" is a genre of gaming akin to Horror, but is instead where the players portray the monsters instead of the victims. Not that the monsters can't also be victims (in many cases, they are). More often, they're antiheroes. The games have elements of Horror, true, but the focus is usually on the loss of humanity, guilt, and/or angst derived from being a Creature of Darkness (tm).

Chief amongst such games is Vampire: The Masquerade, the original tragically hip game of Lestat-esque vampiric shenanigans. Truth be told, though, I'd explore this genre from a more traditional angle before the original V:tM was released. I was a big fan of Mayfair's edition of the Chill RPG (more on that when I talk about Horror games), and I got the idea into my head to turn my friend's character into a vampire. Without his prior knowledge, of course. It's always more fun when they're surprised, right?

Thinking back, I don't remember the specifics of the scenario, other than he lived in the middle of nowhere and a new neighbor moved in next door. It was very Jerry Dandridge/Fright Night, I'll admit, but I was younger then and not quite as aware of stereotypes. For whatever reason, Chris (my friend) ran afoul of his new neighbor, was overpowered, and then drained of every last drop of his blood.

Flash forward to Chris' character waking up in a coffin, six feet under. It'd taken some time for the whole vampire curse to take effect, and he'd been found dead, shipped home, and buried in a local cemetery. Lucky for him, the local groundskeeper heard his hammering and dug him out. Chris leaped from the coffin and made good his escape. Being hungry, he stopped by a nearby Circle K and discovered that food wasn't what he was hungry for...

We never got very far. In fact, I think we only ever played that one game, though Chris might have different recollections.

The World of Darkness
Speaking in broad strokes, the World of Darkness is the penultimate setting in this self-designated supernatural genre. I had a sort of love/hate relationship with the WoD for a while, but I've come to appreciate its finer details and do my best to ignore the more banal ones.

Vampire was really popular with a bunch of my friends, and it quickly replaced just about every game that we'd ever played. I didn't have the depth of knowledge of the setting, or of any of the fiction they were reading (Anne Rice, specifically), so it didn't have the same sort of appeal to me. I played in a few games of the original first edition, but beyond that... I was more attracted to other games and other settings.

When Werewolf: The Apocalypse (first edition) came out, my friend Chris snatched it up. It was his new pair of shoes, and he ran a few games, too. I remember them well. I remember sitting in a Burger King on San Marcos Boulevard with Chris, flipping through the book and talking over character ideas. I was his guinea pig.

Mage: The Ascension was another milestone for WW, but outside of an overarching appreciation for the content and ideas behind the game, I never really enjoyed playing it. That might be due to the games I did play, which I never found all that enthralling (and I can certainly blame the storyteller for that, I guess). As for the rules... I've always found them somewhat intimidating, given how open-ended they are. So in that regard, I'll never run Mage, but I'd certainly give playing it another shot, so long as I can find a storyteller worth his salt who's willing to run it.

I've picked up a lot of WoD books over the years, everything from Kindred of the East to Orpheus. After White Wolf canned the old World of Darkness (oWoD) and introduced the new World of Darkness (nWoD), I stopped buying their books. I didn't like what I'd seen of the new rules, and given there was no backwards (or forwards) compatibility at the time, I chose to stick with what I knew and avoided spending money I didn't have on a game line I didn't care about.

Vampire: The Masquerade
The original had some holes in the rules, but the second edition cleared most of them up, and the third edition went even further. It's funny, because it came to pass that any of White Wolf's first editions were akin to playtest copies that you had to pay for. The second editions, ultimately released in hardback, were much more polished than the firsts. I generally couldn't help myself, though... I bought the first editions. About the only first edition WW product I didn't buy was of Vampire: The Masquerade, and that was mostly because (at the time) I was sick of it.

After the release of the second edition, I came to appreciate VtM a lot more than I did initially. I also managed to pick up a slew of supplements at bargain basement prices, which helped to flesh out my collection. Working in a game store, I also had an employee discount (and it's true, more than half of my income went right back into the cash register... sad, sad days, those).

I've run a few VtM games in the past, only one of them being truly successful. The others were one-hit wonders, including a brief game set in Miami that ended just as soon as it began due to issues with players and their personal lives. It could've been good, but I have yet to revisit it. If I ever intended to run another VtM game, I'd attempt to resurrect my 1920's VtM game. Set in San Francisco during the heyday of Prohibition, it involved the forces of the Camarilla, Anarchs, and Sabbat struggling over control of 'Frisco. The players were all caitiff. Despite their clanless nature, the size of their coterie gave them a strength that no side could ignore. Plus, the '20's are a kick ass era.

I've been playing in a VtM game at work, run by my friend David. Without going into details, it's a lot of fun, and in playing I realized how much I'd missed the relatively intuitive mechanics of the Storyteller system. So the more of I've played, the more I've tossed around the idea of running my own game. I haven't gotten around to it yet, but I've been revisiting my books. As it happens, though, I haven't been looking real closely at my VtM books... instead, I've been pouring over my Vampire: The Dark Ages books.

Vampire: The Dark Ages
VtDA was the game that really gave me an appreciation for Vampire. I don't know what it was that attracted me to it. Was it the fact that it wasn't set in the modern era? That the traditional factions of Camarilla, Sabbat, and Anarch hadn't been established? Or was it the art and styling of the Dark Ages book? I think it was probably a little bit of everything, honestly.

I ended up running a long-term and, IMO, successful VtDA campaign. The first half involved a two-person play group, but it eventually grew to four players by the time the game was finished. The second half was a continuation of the first, but it involved a couple of the original players and two new ones. Both games were a lot of fun, and I'd love to run it again someday.

When Dark Ages: Vampire was released, it seemed somewhat superfluous to me. It lacked a lot of what made VtDA appealing to me. While VtDA was pretty open-ended, DA:V established a meta-plot that I didn't care for. Plus, the rules on paths and roads were revised in a manner than didn't resonate with me. I bought the core rules for DA:V, as well as the first couple of supplements, but I decided to stick with the original VtDA after that. I've become aware that there is a vocal group of folks out there who feel that DA:V is superior to VtDA, and that's fine with me. I'm happy with the vast amount of support that the first DA line had, and I'm not interested in upgrading to a new edition if I don't feel the old one is broken.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse
I've also been mulling over running a new Werewolf game eventually. While the first edition of the rules was rough, the overall tone of the game was much darker and less campy than the second. Despite this, the second edition's rules were a heck of a lot better, and it's easy enough to focus on the parts I like and ignore the ones I don't.

I've only ever attempted to run one Werewolf game. Being someone who is never quite willing to leave well enough alone, I had to run something that wasn't quite traditional. The premise was the the Apocalypse had happened, the world had "moved on" (in a vein similar to the world in King's Gunslinger books), and the players portrayed orphaned cubs who didn't even know the tribes they belonged to.

The PCs were raised by a crotchety old werewolf, and part of the fun was the self-discovery of it all. The players made the foundations of their characters, while I secretly chose their Tribes and gifts. Of course, one of the players was a Black Spiral Dancer. I don't remember if that ever came out or not, but the nightmares were definitely a clue as to his origins. The overarching story, outside of learning who and what they were, involved establishing a new cairn while standing against enemies, old and new.

The game ended prematurely, as many games do. I'm not sure why. I still have my notes, though, and it'd be fun to bring it back, even in the context of a short-term campaign. We'll have to see about that.

Back to the present. A few weeks ago, I was seriously considering putting together a Werewolf: The Wild West game. I pulled out my W:tWW books and started reading, and I remembered (with dawning disappointment) why I'd hated that product so much. It's so damn shallow! It'd be easy enough to run a wild west game using just the W:tA rules and a firm grasp of history. Nothing in the WW book was particularly necessary. The setting information concentrates quite a bit on the struggle between the Euros and the Native Americans, as well as the more stereotypical aspects of a "Cowboys and Indians"-style setting. No mention is made of the Civil War or its effects in any of the history (though it is giving a passing entry in the brief time line supplied with the game).

Some of the rules were utter crap, too. The rules on silver bullets, especially, made them much less useful, and were presented in a style that said, "We're not going to explain the physics of this, so you'll just have to trust us." Basically, if you could find someone to make you silver bullets, you'd pay out the nose for them, they'd be more difficult to hit with, and do less damage than regular bullets. In my own research of the topic, the bullets would be more difficult to make, but they might actually be a little more accurate at short range (due to the density of the material). They'd also deform less than lead bullets, which would probably make them less damaging than traditional ammo. But it was the way that the authors handled the topic which really got my dander up.

So, long story short, I decided that I'd avoid the wild west setting and look into other alternatives... and this brought me to my copy of Werewolf: The Dark Ages, a VtDA supplement that I'd had since its release, but never quite read in depth. Outside of the lack of an impending Apocalypse and a lack of a central threat to the Garou, the DA setting is much more appealing to me. At the moment, it's at the top of my "I Want To Run This" list. I don't have any story ideas (that I want to discuss right now), but I'll get around to it soon, I'm sure.

Wraith: The Oblivion
Wraith was another first edition WoD product that I bought, read, and immediately disliked. I can't remember why, but I think it had a lot to do with the mechanics. Much later, I ended up buying the second edition used for $10, and I found it possessed none of the problems I'd had with the original. By this time, the Wraith product line was being phased out, and I was woefully behind in supplements. Luckily, this time period also coincided with a bunch of local clearance sales, as well as a good run of the books and the aforementioned used book shelf. In a short time, and for much less than cover price, I had a nearly complete collection of Wraith supplements.

As much as I've wanted to run a Wraith game over the years, I've never been able to. I even worked out rules for converting mortals to wraiths (which I still have) which I intended to use to hoodwink my players into a game. They'd start as mortals, get involved in something terrible, die, and then wake up in the afterlife (headed for the serious strife). I'd still like to do this eventually, as I think it'd be an interesting way to explore Wraith. Maybe I'll have the chance to in the near future. The real question is, do I want to surprise my players with such a significant change? I mean, if you expected a game about mortals in the WoD, but ended up dead and ghostified, would you be upset?

Other oWoD Titles
I've done a little bit of talking about oWoD titles in general. I've got the majority of them on my shelves, but I'm not all that interested in exploring them with more than a peripheral interest.

I was initially excited about the prospect of Hunter: The Reckoning, but after I bought the book and read it, I lost interest. I was looking forward to a more detailed version of The Hunters Hunted, not a game about humans imbued with special powers who hunted down the supernatural.

Changeling: The Dreaming was another one I didn't buy on release, though I did eventually pick it up used. It didn't really appeal to me.

I do have a copy of the Mummy RPG, as well as the two previous WoD supplements for mummies. It might be interesting for building interesting NPCs and villains, but I don't think I'd ever run it all by itself.

Orpheus interested me, at least initially. It seemed like a reboot of Wraith, but with a finite limit to the depth of the game. I never picked up the rest of the Orpheus books. I might do that eventually to see where it went.

While I'd never dare to run Mage: The Ascension, I might consider exploring Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade. It's the non-modern aspects of the setting, mostly. It's got a lot of neat setting material, too, and was just as good as VtDA in exploring the whys and wherefores of the Renaissance and how it applies to Awakened individuals. I mostly bought it because I felt I could leverage some of it into my Dark Ages games. That, and it was cheap.

Of course, there's Kindred of the East, which I really, really liked after I bought it and read it. It seemed to take all the interesting things about VtM, WtA, and WtO, and mashed them together into an Asian-infused supernatural game. I always felt, though, that it'd be difficult for most players to assimilate all that Eastern mysticism and mumbo jumbo. Still... it could happen. We'll have to see what I think after I review the particulars.

Last off, I only picked up Demon: The Fallen because a local game store was going out of business, and all the stock was 60% off. I got the Storyteller's kit, too, as well as the Los Angeles supplement. It might be interesting if I cared to dig into it some more, but without a Player's Guide (which goes for a lot of cash, depending on where you look) I'd be hard-pressed to seriously consider running it. Chalk it up to my feelings on the Mummy game: it'd be an interesting way to develop new and unusual NPCs and bad guys.

So, in summation (and after all that reflection and blathering), I would most like to run a Werewolf game set in the Dark Ages, or a Vampire game set in the 1920's.

Next up, I'll talk about the horror genre in general, because (dammit) I'd really like to dust of my Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green books and get down with some madness!

Games I Wanna Play, Part 1: D&D

2011-03-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

I have a pretty big gaming library. Come to think of it, "pretty big" might be an understatement. Used to be (before I had kids and financial responsibilities) I'd buy any game that caught my fancy. If it looked even mildly interesting, I'd pick it up, read it in the bathroom, and then stick it on my bookshelf. Nowadays I'm not so free with my cash. Impulse buys are a thing of the past. My money goes towards things like rent, utilities, gasoline, and food.

So despite the fact that I've really only kept up with two or three titles since I "grew up," I still possess an embarrassing collection of RPGs, many of which I've never actually played. But this rumination isn't solely about my regrets as to these long-ignored titles, but rather to the games I'd love to run or play, whether I've done so in the past or not. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the day, and even if the time available to me was unlimited, I doubt I'd get a stable of players with just as much free time.

Dungeons & Dragons (3.5)
I get this hankering every so often to play or run a good, old-fashioned D&D game. I can't quite bring myself to run AD&D 2nd Edition... or any prior edition, for that matter. I've come to like the options available in 3.5 too much. It may still be class-based nonsense, but it's a lot more flexible than previous editions.

I have a stack of Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures, many of them geared for low- to mid-level characters, that I'd love to dust off for a short-term campaign or two. Sometimes the "kick in the door, kill the orcs, take their stuff" adventure is fun... and they can always lead to meatier, less formulaic adventures later on.

I've also been tempted to pull out some of the old settings I've always loved. Midnight is one of them. It's sort of like "Red Dawn," but instead of having the Russians and Cubans occupying your lands, it's Morgoth and the orcs. And they've been on your soil for a hundred years. A very grim setting, but there are a lot of really awesome options.

My all-time favorite setting for D&D is Dark Sun. Outside of Athas.org, there was never and official 3.5 update for Dark Sun. Well... I take it back. There were some Dungeon and Dragon articles back in the day, and they weren't bad (outside of their take on half-giants, IIRC). And the Athas.org stuff is usable, too. If I ever did it, I'd need to take a long look at the available source material and decided which version(s) to use.

For more traditional fantasy D&D, it'd have to be either Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms. A long while back, before I moved to VA and started working for EA, I was running the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft adventure, but I'd set it in Forgotten Realms. I've often thought about reviving that game with a new cast of characters. It could be fun.

Even though I contributed to Green Ronin's Thieves' World campaign setting, I've never run a game of TW (outside of a couple of sessions at conventions). Between the core setting book and the other supplements, it is such an awesome product line. It's really too bad it didn't sell better, but I guess TW fans who also play 3.5 are nothing if not a niche audience. If you like TW and you don't have the books, I suggest you check out Green Ronin's online store. Last I looked, the gift set was discounted quite a bit.

That about covers it for D&D. There are some other settings that would be nice to mess around with; the short-lived Dawnforge, for one. When I was just getting into the industry, I'd been contracted to write part of the Dawnforge monster supplement, prior to the product being scrapped due to poor sales of the core books. It's too bad; Dawnforge would've been an interesting product line. Who knows how it would've turned out if WotC had chosen it instead of Eberron?

There are others I could touch on: Green Ronin's Testament (Biblical!), Eternal Rome (Romans!), and Skull & Bones (Pirates!); Mongoose's version of Lone Wolf (which is a bit too rules light as written); and Nyambe (deepest darkest Africa).

So... that's about it for D&D. Next time I'm going to cover some other RPGs I'm hankering to try out, be they pulp, science fiction, horror, or even non-D&D fantasy. See you then!

Games, Etc.

2011-03-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

It's obvious that I need a better handle on the WFRP rules, but I'm getting there. I learn by doing, and I've only run the game three times so far. I have a comfortable familiarity, but when it comes to some specific questions, I find myself combing through the rules looking for an answer. I'm somewhat self-conscious about it, but I also had help from one of the players last night (thanks, Jason!).

All in all, I like the system. Amy made an observation that in combat, it's like you're whittling away at someone and then, suddenly, they die. It's pretty much the way it is, and the wound system makes it incredibly deadly. At the least, the potential for being seriously maimed is definitely there.

There's also the question of relatively low skill percentages, but this is mitigated by liberal use of difficulty modifiers, combat maneuvers, and the like. Let's just say that both the players and the NPCs missed a lot... except for Amy, who proved that her Protagonist is the meanest chick this side of the Rhine. And to think she was using her "crap dice" last night.

We finished the adventure. I admit, I sped through some of it, but I had assumed we'd be unable to meet again until after the move. After consulting the calendar, it looks like we've got one more Saturday available to us before the proverbial hammer falls.

Tri-Tac Podcast Interview

2011-03-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

As you know from my previous post, I was a guest of honor at TotalCon a few weeks back. While I was there, I sat down with Peter Blix Bryant, and he interviewed me. We talked about my experience in the games industry, what I've written, and what I'm doing these days. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and Peter was a very congenial host.

So, for those of you who'd like to listen to the podcast, you can check it out by following this link. Yes, it's shameless self-promotion on my part, but so what? If only one person walks away entertained or enlightened in some way, I'd be perfectly happy.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was recently revealed at PAX East. Lots of fanfare there. It's definitely brought additional excitement to the workplace. Feel free to do a search for more info if you're interested. Otherwise, just check out the Reckoning website (at its new address), or read the fanfare over at 38 Watch.

In other news, I'll be running my Warhammer FRP game tomorrow. It'll likely be the last session for a while, as we're all going to be moving to Rhode Island within the next month or two. I'll miss my friend Justin, who was one of my players when I was running games back at Mythic in Virginia. I don't know if he'll be willing to commute to the Providence area to play with us or not... I guess I'll need to ask.

I've been playing another game at work every couple of weeks, a Vampire: The Masquerade game run by my friend and co-worker, David. It's oWoD, which is just fine with me. I've never felt the need to "upgrade" to the new World of Darkness. The size of my library is expansive enough to keep me running Vampire (or Werewolf, or Mage, or Wraith) until the day they stick me in a rest home.

It's certainly brought back memories of the games we played when we were younger, unmarried, and childless, and I really have missed the game system more than I knew. I've been re-reading a lot of my old WoD books, and I'm slowly getting a hankering to run a game of my own. Dave is fine with me stepping up to the plate once he's put the last nail in our coffin.

That's about it for now. Thanks for checking in! I'll try to put more words down in the near future.

TotalCon 2011

2011-02-28T14:23:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I attended Total Confusion (TotalCon) in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The convention was advertised as being the largest game convention in New England, and has been running for 25 years. That said, I knew that TotalCon wasn't going to be the size of GenCon or Origins, but that's just fine with me.

In my experience, every local convention has its own charms, and I was looking forward to seeing how TotalCon compared to the smaller conventions I'd attended back in California. I have fond memories of DunDraCon in San Ramone, and OrcCon, Gamex, and Gateway in Los Angeles.

I drove to Mansfield late Friday morning. It was cold and rainy, but the drive was uneventful. The Holiday Inn parking lot was packed, but I managed to score a "rock star" parking spot mere yards from the hotel's front door. I wasn't able to check in to my hotel room right away, as it wasn't ready, but I did get to meet up with a new friend, Lorien, and grab a quick bit of lunch.

The first thing I noticed was the architecture of the hotel, which is perhaps not unique to the east coast. The hotel room balconies opened onto the interior courtyard and pool of the hotel, rather than outside. The hotel's indoor courtyard smelled of chlorine as a result, which wasn't necessarily bad... just unusual to an uninitiated guest such as myself.

After eating, Lorien and I went to registration, and I picked up my guest badge (and other goodies). I've never been a guest of honor at a convention before, so I didn't expect half the bennies that were bestowed upon me. The TotalCon staff really treated me well, and I was more than happy to be there in support of their event.

With my badge in hand, Lorien and I walked over to the room where the panels would be taking place. Frank Mentzer and Tim Kask, two industry veterans from the earliest days of TSR and D&D, were talking about our hobby's history and waxing nostalgic. We sat and listened for nearly two hours, because it really was an interesting discussion. I also decided then and there that I wanted to play in one of Frank or Tim's games before I went home the following evening.

Eventually we slipped out of the discussion, as Lorien had a long drive through inclement weather ahead of her. As for me, I needed to check in at the hotel and get my room organized. I considered a nap, but it wasn't in the cards. Instead, I had dinner at the hotel's barbeque restaurant, Pike's Peak, and then spent a lot of time reading. The food was decent, though not extraordinary... I was hoping for a more Claim Jumper sort of feel, but neither the quality nor the portions were up to the standards I desired.

My first panel of the weekend, on game design, was scheduled for eight o'clock. It lasted an hour, was hosted by Peter Blix Bryant of the Tri Tac Podcast, and included the likes of James Carpio, Ben Gerber, Jeffrey Talanian, and Jay Libby. The discussion was informative and entertaining, and I left feeling pretty good about the experience. I've been on a few panels previously, all of them at GenCon, so the size of the audience was somewhat smaller than I was used to. Being a shy guy, though, I never complain about such things.

I decided to try and attend Tim Kask's next OD&D game... at eight o'clock the next morning. "Who the hell games at eight o'clock in the morning?" my wife would ask me later. Such is life. My thoughts, at the time, were that it'd be easier to crash an eight o'clock morning game than any of the other scheduled sessions, as most sane D&D players would be snuggled away in their beds.

As it turns out, five players (not including myself) showed for Tim's eight o'clock session, High in the Hellgate Mountains. The potpourri of players who attend conventions always makes such groups interesting, if not dynamic. I spent much of the initial prep time observing, but found myself piping up as time went on. As the other players would often descend into off-topic banter about things as banal as the name of the evil princess from Buck Rogers, Tim (as DM) would interrupt their "philosophical discussions" with roving groups of random monsters.

For the most part, these encounters always surprised us, regardless of who was involved in the offending conversation. It got to the point where, once we'd exhausted whatever a dungeon location had to offer us, I would immediately goad the rest of the group into moving on before they could start another inane conversation about something completely unrelated to the adventure at hand, and thereby earning another random encounter.

In the end there were no character deaths--something that surprised the shit out of me. The game lasted a little over four hours from start to finish, and according to Tim we managed to accomplish everything we'd set out to do. Maybe Tim was tired (heck, I know for a fact he was tired), or maybe we were lucky. It was a nice way to spend a few hours, especially for someone who, like me, rarely gets to play games at conventions.

It did help me to narrow down my feelings on old school RPGs, though I admit that I need a little more input before making a final determination. While there were several moments where I experienced a very strong sense of nostalgia for the old days, I really do prefer modern systems that allow for specific skills and detailed rules for various circumstances. At one point, I asked Tim if fighting with two of my daggers would have any kind of effect. He scoffed and jokingly replied, "What do you think this is? A Drizzt novel?"

And to think I work with Bob Salvatore on a regular basis... ::sigh::

After the game, I talked to Tim for a while before going on to my interview with Peter Bryant for the Tri Tac Podcast. The interview was pretty straightforward, and I have no idea when it will be available for folks to listen to. Peter estimated it could be a month or longer. I'll be sure to give a shout when it's available.

Following the interview, I limped my way over to the room where the next panel would be held. Limped, yes, for I had slipped on a sheet of ice that morning while taking my bags to my car. It wasn't the slip that hurt, so much as the impact, and I spent the rest of the day limping around like Captain Ahab. Getting old really sucks.

I propped up my injured ankle and read until people started to arrive for the panel, which was entitled "Gaming and the Media." Sharing the panel with me were Tom Vasel, Eric Summerer, and Rone Barton (at least, I think it was Rone Barton... I could be wrong). Overall, I felt like a fifth wheel. I'm not a marketing guy, and my experience with digital media--especially a lot of the newer media--is seriously lacking. The other guys, with their experience with podcasts and self-publishing/small press, were much more informed (and informative) than I was.

When it had ended, I thanked Peter, said my goodbyes to the other panelists, and went off to buy my kids some dice. I was approached by a fan of 38 Studios, a guy named Adam, who asked me how I liked working there. I told him the truth: It's the best job I've ever had. He seemed satisfied by the answer.

I'm going back to TotalCon next year, and I think I'll even run a game or two of my own. I'm not sure what I'll run yet... I've got time to think about it, after all. But despite my painful tumble in the parking lot on Saturday morning, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Special thanks to Angelia and the rest of the TotalCon staff for making it a memorable weekend.

World of Warcraft has a Potty Mouth

2010-12-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

Cataclysm is coming, so a lot of folks I know and work with are going back to World of Warcraft to see what's new and different. The pre-expansion quests are slick in a lot of cases. I've only tried out one of the revamped starter areas so far (the Undead one; it's been a while since I've played anything Horde-flavored), but I plan to try the rest. Call it market research if you want to.

One thing I've noticed as I've brought my Undead priest from 1st to 16th level is that the amount of potty humor in WoW has increased. I mean, sure... we had a good number of what I like to call "poop quests" in the old WoW (specifically in Burning Crusade, though there was some poop happening in Lich King as well), where the player has to (usually) sift through poop to complete the quest.

Though I haven't seen any poop quests yet (I'm sure I will), I've noticed that the language in these newer quests is a bit courser than I'm used to with WoW. In one instance, an Orc calls Silvanas Windrunner a bitch; in another case, an orc (who you've awakened from a drunken stupor) comments that he may or may not have pissed himself. In a third example, an undead apothecary explains to you that he's placed a stick of laced dynamite up a chicken's butt.

Those are just a few examples, but WoW always seemed to aim for a more accessible, family-friendly tone. Profanity was the exception to the rule. Heck, they rarely even mentioned the word "poop" in relation to the aforementioned poop quests. That's not to say that I'm offended by profanity, far from it. I curse like a sailor on a near-daily basis, and I work with people who could make George Carlin blush (okay, maybe not).

I guess my point is that this new-found vulgarity seems outright juvenile to me now. WoW was never very serious (or, at least, I could never take it seriously), but it rarely stooped to the level of juvenile, scatological humor. Just going from 1 to 16 on my priest has revealed a number of instances where this kind of content is pretty much front and center now. I can hardly wait to read what the quest text says next.

Incidentally, the Undead starter area isn't much more impressive than it used to be. The storyline has moved along a little bit, and they do try to get you into the role of your race a bit more, but overall... it's just lipstick on a hellboar. I have yet to try the gnome and troll areas out, and I hear that these are where the lion's share of big changes and innovation can be seen. Time will tell.

The Day Executor Died

2010-11-17T10:02:00.001-08:00

Executor was my laptop, named after the SSD that Vader used as his flagship. How's that for geekitude? Only it took a header into the second Death Star on Monday morning and won't be coming back for the sequel (if there is, in fact, a sequel to be had). Luckily, the hard drive was fine and I was able to salvage my data. The data is more important to me than the laptop itself.

I was initially quite depressed, prior to learning that none of my work had been lost. With the knowledge that I don't have to rewrite anything (or re-rip my CD collection, for that matter), a weight was lifted from my heart. Except now, being without my laptop, I find myself at odds. No more can I constantly monitor Facebook, check my email every five minutes, or play WoW from the kitchen table. It is to this sorry state that I have been reduced.

The solution, potentially, lies in our old desktop computer. It's a Dell that we picked up shortly before our move to Virginia in 2007, so it's not exactly new. It'll likely do everything I was doing on my laptop, though, so long as it still works. We haven't plugged it in or booted it up since before we moved to Massachusetts in January. If it does work (and, really, I have no reason to believe it won't), I'll likely adopt it and start shopping for video cards.

I'll miss the portability of my laptop, no doubt. Being able to take it anywhere was a real treat. As I'm not freelancing any longer, that benefit isn't as important to me as it used to be. This brings with it a certain amount of sadness, too... I do miss the freelance work. After all, freelance checks often paid for my laptop upgrades.

Listen to me whine! Gods, I'm such a baby. I know everything is going to be fine, and I know that it's not the end of the world. I just expected my Super Star Destroyer to last more than a year and a half.

So, aside from the death of my laptop, what has been happening?

Stephen is in Kindergarten now. He's loving school. Loves his teacher, loves making crafts. He has a new best friend, which is awesome.

Maddy is getting bigger, and will eventually rival her brother in size. She has trouble finding things to do when he's at school, which leads to her getting into all sorts of trouble.

The new cat, Felix, has been fixed and is turning into a pretty good pet. I like kittens in theory, but I think that (in my middle age) I prefer mature cats more. They're less obnoxious and rowdy.

We've all been sick, incidentally. I firmly believe that we've been infected by a plague that Stephen acquired at school. Amy's had the worst of it, though I've been similarly stricken (though not to the extent that she has).

Thanksgiving is coming, and my mom will be here to celebrate with us. It's tough being so far from home around the holidays. The kids are pleased that they will be seeing Grandma very soon.

On the gaming front, I've retired Star Wars for a little while. The group was digging it, but I needed to take a break from blasters and lightsabers for a while. We rolled up some Warhammer Fantasy characters this past weekend. The current group includes an elf vagabond, a human performer (juggler/knife thrower), a human apprentice wizard, a human fisherman, and a human protagonist.

Up until Executor took an A-Wing to the bridge, I was playing a lot of Warcraft. The pre-Cataclysm event isn't all that impressive to me, but mostly I was working on leveling up a new character to play with folks I know at work. Now that the laptop is little better than a pile of refuse with a keyboard, I find that I miss WoW less than I expected to.

Work is awesome. Busy, but awesome. I am truly blessed with my job and my co-workers.

My GenCon Indy Schedule

2010-08-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

I hadn't expected to go to GenCon this year. In fact, I'd more or less decided against it. I'm still digging myself out of the hole that last year's lay-off at Mythic dug for me (which isn't to say I had no support, but breaking a lease--especially in the Commonwealth of Virginia--is an expensive thing to do). Between the cost of airfare, hotel accommodations, food, and anything else I might want to purchase, the trip was looking to be an irresponsible option for an otherwise responsible me.

However, it turned out that my employer, 38 Studios, was going to be attending GenCon in some capacity. I wasn't aware of this until I actually asked about it, and when I expressed an interest in lending a hand with convention support, I was given the opportunity to do so.

I've worked the majority of the GenCons I've attended. I don't think I've been to the convention as a "civilian" more than once or twice. I actually enjoy working the show, even though it usually means long days of standing in an exhibitor's hall that is either too hot or too cold and very rarely "just right." It's neat to watch the world pass by, to talk to gamers and fans, and meet the folks who make it all possible.

So I'll be in Indianapolis this week, from Thursday to Saturday. I've got a number of things on my schedule, but I should have some free time here and there to spend with the folks I only ever see at GenCon. There are a lot of you, and the number only seems to get larger as the years pass me by. I wouldn't trade any of you guys for all the tea in China.

My schedule looks a little like this:

Thursday, August 5th, 2010
I'm going to be participating in a Saga Edition Star Wars RPG Retrospective seminar, brought to you by GMSarli Games. Though it's an unofficial seminar, many of the good folks who brought you Saga Edition Star Wars RPG material (including me) will be on-hand to discuss the game and their contributions to the line.

Game ID: SEM1013330
Gaming Group/Company: GMSarli Games
Title: Star Wars Saga Edition Retrospective
Description: Game professionals who worked on the Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition take a look back at the product line, sharing their experiences and what they learned from their work.
Start Date & Time: 08/05/2010 02:00:00 PM
Duration: 2 hours
Location: Marriott : Indiana Blrm B

Friday, August 6th, 2010
This is my busiest work day. Starting at 1:30pm, I'll be at Booth 838 in the Exhibitor Hall, where we're going to be giving out free, limited-edition Reckoning t-shirts to fans. In addition, R.A. Salvatore and Curt Schilling will be present until 3:30pm to meet fans and sign autographs. So come on by, pick up an awesome t-shirt, and meet two of Reckoning's visionaries.

Saturday, August 7th, 2010
I'll be sitting in on R.A. Salvatore's seminar, "A Discussion with R.A. Salvatore," from 2:00pm to 4:00pm in the Marriott's Indiana Ballroom G. The seminar is described as, "Join celebrated fantasy author R.A. Salvatore to discuss his past work, his upcoming projects, and what else is new in the world of the Forgotten Realms campaign and the life of Drizzt Do’Urden." It should be fun. R.A. is a wonderful guy with a lot of knowledge, so don't miss this one.

After R.A.'s seminar, I'll likely be packing everything up and heading home. I'll try to be as flexible as possible, but I'm still not 100% sure of what I'll be doing in my off-hours. For those of you with my cell number, give me a call or send me a text message and let me know where you'll be and when you're going to be there.

That said, I'm going to sit back and relax for the moment. I ran my Cyberpunk game tonight at work, and I'm way behind on updating the New Untouchables blog. Soon, I promise!

Game Announcements

2010-07-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

This is a big week... an exciting week. And seeing as there are a couple of official news items out there, I figured I'd post the links to them.

Obviously, I can't talk about anything. What you see in these stories is what you get for now.

"Curt Schilling Tries New Ballgame"

"Curt Schilling and 38 Studios' throws its first pitch at Comic-Con"

Enjoy!

Moving on to June

2010-05-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

This year is just zipping by.

Yesterday, 38 Studios and Big Huge Games celebrated their one year anniversary. BHG flew up to Maynard, and it was a day of feasting, gaming, and revelry. Remind me to never again drink beer before noon. I'm too old and fat to partake of such extravagances so early in the morning.

On the gaming front, I've been wondering if I've completely lost my GMing muscles or not. I suppose I'm a little rusty. I need to jump back on the bike and pedal a little bit harder. It's been over three years since I've run a campaign of any length or depth. Right now, I'm committed to running two of them.

The first is that Star Wars (Saga Edition) game I'm sure I've mentioned here at one time or another. I've got a lot of work to do so that next session will be a fun-filled destructo-fest for the players.

The second is my New Untouchables Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, which I'm resurrecting for a group at work. I started the game in Virginia at Mythic, but it was cut short by the loss of a number of my players. I always regretted that; it had a lot of potential, I thought. I figure this is my chance to see if I was right or not.

I've also been delving into other games, at least insofar as reconnecting with them goes. One of those is Alternity. Man, what a great system that was! I can feel the tugging of GM ADHD coming on, and I ... must ... RESIST! Though I may run a one-shot for some folks at work, anyway, for old time's sake.

I also picked up a bunch of the new Talisman 4th Edition stuff, but haven't played it yet. I wish my son could read, because we'd be playing right this second if he was literate. As it is, he's getting the idea of written language. I wish there was a reading/writing boot camp I could send him to.

I've more or less given up on freelancing again. I keep coming back to the topic, mostly because I miss it so damn much. But just because I've resigned myself to not freelancing again doesn't mean I won't if the right people ask me to (hint hint).

I think that this (long holiday) weekend is going to be a nice one if my kids can keep their internecine strife to a minimum. There's a coffee shop here in Hudson that looks promising, and I'd like to head over there with my laptop and see if I can do some mental exercises (not to mention work on my campaigns). Plus, if I do end up getting some freelance work heading my way at some point, it'll be nice to know if the place is a good place to work on stuff.

That's about all, in a nutshell. Overall, I'm very positive about the future right now (as I usually am on presentation day). I've still got a couple of things I need to get done (enroll Stephen in kindergarten, which involves him having a physical exam and probably getting some shots), as well as register my car (which has been a comedy of errors, let me tell you). June is the month to do it, since my VA registration expires in July. Joy!

All for now...

Neuromancer, the Film

2010-05-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

I was briefly excited when, a couple of years ago, I heard that William Gibson's Neuromancer was going to get a film treatment. Like the Lord of the Rings, Neuromancer is a seminal work of its genre. The people who are fans of the book and, by extension, William Gibson (its author), are very particular. The movie, if it ever gets made, will need to be done properly. Even if it's made, and made well, not everyone will be pleased. A director's (or writer's) vision is subjective.

Then I learned who was set to direct: Joseph Kahn. Not being familiar with his name or his work, I set to finding out just what this guy had directed, and what made him special enough to direct a film based on one of my favorite books. What I found out dismayed me. At that time (and currently, it seems), he's done very little outside of music videos and automobile commercials. His single feature film credit is Torque, a (in my opinion) truly awful movie that tries to be The Fast and the Furious on motorcycles.

I'd caught Torque on cable TV one night, a long time ago. At the time, I felt like I was watching a train wreck. The movie was so horribly bad that I couldn't peel my eyes away. I couldn't believe that something that terrible, that preposterous, that ludicrous, had actually gotten any kind of funding at all. Period. End of story.

Flash forward to me learning that the freshman director who had thrown Torque together was the same man who had been entrusted with making Neuromancer into a feature film. If I'd been reading a book on such a topic, I'd've thrown it across the room in disgust.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure Mr. Kahn is a wonderful guy. Really. But the single movie he's made, which I had accidentally watched one lazy evening, gave me very little confidence in his ability to lift Gibson's vision from the pages of Neuromancer and apply it to the big screen. This wasn't a Britney Spears video, after all, or a derivative motorcycle action flick.

There wasn't much news about the movie after that. Rumors circulated that Hayden Christensen had been slated to take on the role of Case, the novel's "hero." I wasn't real thrilled with that choice, either, given Hayden's performance in the Star Wars prequels. Then again, I've heard from other sources that he can actually act, so long as George Lucas isn't directing him. So any misgivings I had about the choice of actors was mitigated somewhat.

From the looks of things, the Neuromancer film has been in development limbo for a long time. I learned just yesterday that Kahn is no longer directing. Instead, Vincenzo Natali has been chosen to replace him. This comes as a relief to me. Although I'm not familiar with all of Natali's works, I am definitely familiar with Cube, which he wrote and directed. Cube wasn't a high-budget film, but it was quirky and enjoyable, so I'm hopeful that Neuromancer, if it gets off the ground, will be somewhat better than it might have been under Kahn.

There is a god, it seems.

Of Grills and Gaming

2010-04-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

Back when we lived in California, before I took a plunge head-first into the computer gaming industry, we had a very nice grill. It was a gift I bought for myself on my very first Father's Day (in 2005), when Stephen was still only a few months old. I loved that grill. It wasn't top of the line -- I think it only cost me about $250 -- but it was a big step up from the grill we had before. More cooking space, more heat, higher quality components.

When we moved to Virginia from California, we left the grill behind. We were going to an apartment complex in Fairfax that didn't allow grills of any kind. This eventuality meant that my options for preparing food were reduced by about half; maybe more than half.

Let it be known that I'm the cook in this family. Amy can bake cookies, roll sushi, and she makes a mean pot of miso soup, but that's about it. This leaves me to figure out what goes on the family's menu most nights. I've been feeling pretty uninspired since we moved to Massachusetts. It seems like my typical menu since the last migration includes roasts (cooked in the crockpot), chicken fajitas, stir fry (pork or chicken), hamburgers (cooked on the George Foreman grill), and pasta. Honestly, it's gotten boring.

The condo we're renting in Hudson has a deck out back. It's not a sprawling, huge deck, but it's a good bit larger than any balcony or patio that we've ever had access to. Plus, just about everyone in the neighborhood has a grill, which made me a tad bit envious. I agonized over the decision to buy a new grill, trying to justify spending the money just as we're start to work the kinks out of our new budget. The thought of being able to grill burgers, hot dogs, sausages, steaks, chicken, pork chops, London broil, kebabs, carne asada, and vegetables (corn, asparagus)...

Let's just say my appetite won out over my money sense.

So, yeah. I've got this grill. Like the last one, from three years ago, it's not top of the line. It's the same brand (Char-Broil), and it runs about $200. Four burners with 48,000 BTU, 480 square inches of cooking space, and a side burner (which, I admit, I had but never used on the last one).

What's this have to do with gaming, you ask? Well, it's simple. Grilling is an easy way to prep food for guests. Even if they're bringing their own meats to the game, I certainly don't mind throwing it on the BBQ and cooking up a dish of awesome for them. We may need to start an hour early, but damn... it's going to be fun.

Today is Sunday, the last day of my weekend. Yesterday was something of a wash, given that the grill didn't arrive until well after 5pm (over an hour later than the latest delivery time I was expecting from the shipper). As a result, I wasn't able to get a propane cylinder and light it up last night. I'll need to do that today, in addition to finding a cover for the thing. The forecast predicts rain today (a 20% chance, down forty from yesterday's 60% chance), but I like those odds. Tonight we dine in Hell!

Er. Well, not exactly, but I couldn't resist the 300 reference (regardless of that movie's relative mediocrity).

I'll let you know how things turn out.

Gaming in Lovecraft Country

2010-03-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly enough, we're not playing Cthulhu. Well ... not yet, at any rate. That comes later when Leo breaks out the campaign she was running for us back in Fairfax all those many moons ago.

No, I'm running Star Wars (Saga Edition), and we've already gotten through two games. The first was a prelude session, where the four players (Amy, Justin, Leo, and Matt) came to grips with their individual pasts and how they came to be hooked up with the Rebel Alliance (as it stands in @2 BBY). The second was a brief adventure wherein the players rescued a burned out drunk of a Jedi from a small Imperial garrison on a back-water Outer Rim planet.

Overall, it's going very well so far. Amy, after not gaming for a very long time, is enjoying herself quite a bit. It makes a difference given our new digs because the kids are sequestered upstairs, in their own bedrooms, after lights out. In Fairfax, they shared a bedroom which was literally ten feet from the dining room. That made getting them to sleep nearly impossible, especially in the rare event we had company over.

I need to formulate the next wing of the adventure. I've got ideas but I need to flesh them out. At least I know where I (think I) want the campaign to go. We probably won't play again until mid-April, as two players will be out of town, so I've got some time to work it out.

In other news, I'm trying to work up Saga conversions for an article I wrote a while back which is currently formatted for D6 R&E and SWd20 Revised Core Rules. I'd gotten a lot of them done previously, but I need to pick it up and finish it. I'm thinking I'll send it to my friends at d20 Radio and let them post it on their site. Obviously I can't sell it, and since Saga is going away there are plenty of people out there who might like to have some new material (even if it's not official).

Oh, I attended PAX East for a brief time yesterday. It was a fun trip, but it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Given the limited amount of time we had to look around, there wasn't much of anything to see. I suppose if you're there for panels, competitive gaming, and the like, it's probably a lot more interesting. The convention center seemed really small for the amount of attendees. The show was sold out, so you can imagine that it was packed to the gills. Oh, and the queuing area was insanity. I felt like a cow being led to slaughter.

On the plus side, I got to see Brian Audette, a friend and co-worker from Mythic. I've really missed him.

Work is going well. My first milestone as a productive member of the crew is quickly approaching. Hopefully I've made a good impression on everyone. I also flew up to Big Huge Games in Baltimore (well, in Timonium, actually) last week to meet the BHG crew and get a look at Mercury. All in all, a good trip, but I couldn't help but think about all the work I had waiting for me in Maynard.

It's a lazy Saturday. I took a very long nap after Amy got up, and I'm still somewhat groggy. The day is more or less behind me now, and I haven't a clue what to do about dinner.

All for now!

News from GDC

2010-03-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

The following news items relate to Project Mercury, 38 Studios, and Big Huge Games.

Obviously, I'm not at liberty to discuss anything about it, but I figured I'd pass on the links to the various news articles to anyone who might be interested.

Official Press Release from 38 Studios

Official Press Release from Electronic Arts

Gamespot

Gamasutra

IGN

Ten Ton Hammer

Kotaku

Shacknews

Update: 3/11/2010
RA Salvatore interviewed by Massively.com at GDC; read the interview here.

Update: 3/12/2010
Two more articles about RA Salvatore's role in Copernicus, plus a meaty detail about the game world.

Gamasutra: R.A. Salvatore On Building Worlds, Copernicus

Joystiq: R.A. Salvatore Wants You to Die

One Month Down

2010-02-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

I've been in my new position at 38 Studios for about a month now. Mostly, I've been learning the things I need to learn in order to do the job I've been hired to do. Next week will begin my first real foray into providing the written content they need ... and boy, is there a lot of work on my plate.

I'm excited, but also a little worried. I'm confident in my own abilities as a writer, though I will admit a little bit of performance anxiety. My overwhelming concern is: Will I be able to keep up? Working on WAR, I knew what I could do and how long it would take to get it done given the processes we used.

In my experience, though, once I've got my feet wet and I grow accustomed to what needs to be done (and how), I'll be able to work much faster. At the very least, it will provide a benchmark for what I can do in a specific amount of time, which is a good thing. Plus, I have an excellent team standing behind me, so it's not like I'm alone. The crew at 38 is incredibly supportive in every single respect. It's an awesome team to be a part of.

So, on the whole, I can't wait to get started!

In other news ...

I haven't done much gaming yet, but I'm planning to start a Star Wars game in the next 2-3 weeks. It's been hard to wrangle anyone for a game at work, largely because the people who gaming are already playing in one or more games. Not only that, but 4th Edition seems to be the default rules set in use. I've said it before, I'll say it again: I'm sure 4E is a great game, but it hasn't yet been proven to be [i]my[/i] game. Maybe if I pick up the new edition of the Dark Sun setting, I'll be converted. But that's a big maybe.

What I have done at work is get involved in a studio Magic: The Gathering league. I haven't played M:tG for a long, long time. The odds are pretty even, as everyone gets the same number of cards to start with (six booster packs each), and the financial investment is limited to those cards alone. I see it as a way to get to know my co-workers, and have some fun on the side.

In non-gaming news, yesterday was Maddy's birthday. She's three now, and one year closer to being old enough to draft into playing my own RPGs, card games, and board games. She's got a number of years left before she can really participate, but the first three went by so damn fast.

That's about it for now.

So Long Star Wars

2010-01-28T13:49:00.000-08:00

There was some talk among freelancers as far back as GenCon of last year that the Star Wars RPG (published by Wizards of the Coast) was in trouble. At the very least, it wouldn't be seeing further support. Looks like it was more than just talk, as this post on the Wizards forums shows.

The salient details are as follows:

"After a lengthy evaluation, Wizards of the Coast has decided not to renew the Star Wars license with Lucasfilm. We’ve had a long and fantastic run, but with the economic downturn, we have made the tough decision to discontinue our Star Wars lines."

As a freelancer who had the privilege of contributing to a number of Saga Edition products, it's heartbreaking to see another good game take a dive. I'm hoping that another studio can take up the reins.

Update (1/30/2010)
There's a news item on StarWars.com about WotC's decision to ditch the Star Wars license. You can read it here.

My Best (Cat) Friend

2010-01-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are in Massachusetts, though we lost one member of our family in the process. Not that I feel the move was responsible for our loss, but it certainly set the tone for our long drive north from Fairfax to Maynard.

Merlin, my cat, died yesterday as the movers were loading our belongings into their truck. I had taken the kids out to the Fairfax mall to keep them out of the way. Just as we parked, I got a text message from Amy: "Please come back. Merlin just died."

Stephen's high chair was like Merlin's throne.
An unobtrusive (though not unfriendly) black cat, Merlin had been a part of my life for damn near 12 years. When Amy and I worked in the fan factory, the company owner had a couple of cats. After one of them (a fluffy white and quite nearsighted cat named "Mozart") met a grisly end beneath the tire of a passing car, he bought a new kitten who would come to be known as Merlin.

Merlin wasn't the first "Merlin" to rule the company roost. The original Merlin had succumbed to some kind of heart failure, and had been replaced by Mozart. The boss had a thing for black cats named "Merlin," so before long the newest Merlin became a part of the warehouse staff (which, admittedly, consisted of Amy and myself).

Coincidentally, Merlin's arrival at the fan factory corresponded to the death of my own cat, Polly. Polly was an inbred calico with extra toes, and I'd been very close to her. She died suddenly of kidney failure (an autopsy showed that she'd only been born with one kidney to begin with). I didn't want to get attached to the new kitten at work; I was still mourning Polly's death. But I couldn't help it.

As a warehouse cat, Merlin had a special love for cardboard boxes.
While Merlin was also an office cat, he was most definitely a warehouse cat from the beginning. He spent much of his kittenhood atop our workbench, sleeping, eating, playing, and cuddling. It made an otherwise unpalatable employment opportunity acceptable, and in time Merlin came to view me as his person (with Amy running a very close second).

As much as I loved Merlin, he wasn't my cat. He belonged to the boss. However, the boss being who he was, Merlin didn't see the kind of veterinary care that he really deserved. His teeth were in dire need of cleaning, but the boss wouldn't spend the money required to get the job done. Amy and I ended up taking Merlin to the vet, and we paid something in the neighborhood of $300 out of our own pockets for a variety of tests and to have his teeth cleaned.

When the boss heard about the vet bill, he did something that we didn't expect: He gave Merlin to us. We were all too glad to have the little guy, given that the boss permitted the factory cats to wander outdoors in a very busy industrial park (which is what led to Mozart's death). The cats were very much property items to him, and though I figure he liked them in his own way, I doubt he really respected (or viewed) them as living, breathing individuals.

From that point, Merlin came to live with us in our apartment. He adjusted rapidly, for an apartment has creature comforts not typically had by warehouse cats. Sofas, beds, pillows; all were his for the having.

Never has a cat looked so hip in a Halloween sweater.
He was my shadow, always looking for a quick cuddle (though he would likely cuddle for hours on end, if I'd let him). He was vocal, too, and we had a lot of conversations ... mostly about food, I reckon. At night, he would invariably curl up next to my head on the pillow, and if I was taking more than my share he would touch his cold nose on my cheek until I made room for him.

The night before he died was our last one in Virginia. He didn't seem particularly nervous or worried as the movers packed our stuff on Saturday. Mostly, he sat on the bar in the kitchen and watched as things happened around him. Later that night, I shared some left-over roast beef with him as Amy and I, devoid of internet access, watched Anthony Bourdain on television. That night, like many others before it, he slept next to my head.

Madeline and Merlin, cuddling.
On Sunday, when the movers came to load the truck, we put the cats in the bathroom to keep them from escaping out the front door. My last interaction with Merlin was scooping him up and depositing him in the bathroom with Amy's cat, Hastur. Of course, I didn't realize it'd be the last time I'd see him alive.

Amy found him later on, laying dead on the bathroom floor. From the looks of things, Merlin passed swiftly and without any real muss or fuss. He was about twelve years old, I reckon; maybe a little older or younger. Since our move to Virginia, he'd developed a cough which I suspected to be asthma or allergies. Despite a number of trips to a cat specialist and hundreds of dollars in tests, we never figured out what was wrong with him.

My hope was that the move to Massachusetts, as well as a new house, would alleviate Merlin's symptoms. Now I suspect the problem might not have been with his lungs, but with his heart. Still, it doesn't look like I'll ever know for sure. Though he seemed as calm as ever, perhaps the stress of the move was too much for him.

Bedtime will never be the same without him.
I'll miss you, Merlin. You were a good friend, always there when I needed you. I'll miss you sleeping near my head at night, sitting nearby as I wrote for this freelance project or that one, and staring at me, annoyed, while I devoted my attention to Warcraft or some other video game. I'm sad that you won't be here to share this new chapter in my games career with me, but I will never forget you.

Happy trails, little buddy.

House Hunting, Day One

2010-01-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

I viewed about six or seven properties today with the aid of my faithful real estate agents. Along for the ride was my friend Leonor, who I know from our mutual days at Mythic. The places got better as we went along, and on the way to the best of the lot (in my humble opinion), we were rear-ended at a stoplight by (of all things) a garbage truck. A FRICKIN' GARBAGE TRUCK.

I've been in one other rear-end collision, back when I was around 17 or 18 years old. That was a pretty major accident; I was sitting at a stop light, minding my own business, when a flat bed truck came from out of nowhere and turned my car into an accordion.

The differences between that accidnent is that I heard that truck's tires squealing as the driver attempted to avoid hitting me as I sat (quite stationary) in his path. Today's accident included no such sounds: no squealing tires, no screaming brakes, just the bone-jarring impact of a very heavy vehicle plowing into the car I was riding in.

I'm feeling somewhat stiff and sore. Whiplash is not a myth invented by litigious ambulance chasers, as many of you probably know. I expect tomorrow will be a kaleidoscope of full body discomfort. And before you ask, I've got a follow-up appointment with a chiropractor in the morning.

In any case, the police and fire department showed up to clean up the mess. The real estate agent went away in an ambulance, and Leonor and I continued onward with her business partner to view three more places (after securing another car to drive). The next house was, frankly, awesome. It's only got two bedrooms, but it's in a very nice location and it's very, very big. Hopefully I'll be able to secure it.

Of the last two places we saw, one was promising (though not ready for occupancy, as much of the interior is being finished). The last place, at least from the outside, was (as Leonor put it) "sketchy," so we opted to drive by and head back to the agent's office to get the paperwork moving.

In a nutshell, the day was interesting. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Back in the Saddle

2010-01-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

I've got a job waiting for me now with 38 Studios in Maynard, Massachusetts. I won't say all the stress I felt was for nothing. It certainly was a learning experience. I got to spend a lot of time with my kids, for one.

My story of being laid off has been told, but I've been pretty quiet about the weeks and months that followed.

I started out sending resumes to every game company and studio with an opening that even remotely fit my skill set. I even sent my resume to some companies that didn't, in the hope that these blind overtures might pan out. I never expected to hear back from any of those studios, but one of them (38 Studios) contacted me after a mercifully short amount of time. For that, I am very grateful.

The initial email contact evolved into a phone conversation with the studio recruiter, followed by a phone interview, which was quickly followed by an on-site interview in Maynard. What I saw there impressed me, and it wasn't just what little I was shown of the project that got under my proverbial skin. It was the people, above all, that made me want to land the job. Everyone I spoke to brimmed with enthusiasm, talent, and (above all) excitement. They all loved the jobs they were doing, whether it was implementation, design, or art. It was like a breath of fresh air.

The on-site interview was a long process that lasted an entire day. I spoke to a number of people, all from different disciplines. I did a lot of talking, naturally, answering questions and asking a few of my own. At the end of the day I was exhausted, but hopeful, and I wanted it to work out even more. It went well beyond the fear of being unemployed and wanting a job. By that point, it had come down to a very genuine desire to lend my skills to a project that I could really, truly believe in and contribute to in a meaningful fashion.

The offer came before Christmas. It was the best Christmas present I could've hoped for, and I enjoyed my holiday even more knowing that there was something waiting for me ... even if it was nestled in the icy chill of Massachusetts. Lovecraft country, truly! And once we're settled, I plan to explore the places that inspired some of Lovecraft's greatest tales: Salem, Marblehead, Ipswitch, and Bolton.

Today, I fly up to Boston in search of a place for Amy, the kids, and I to live. I don't want to be away from my family, but I see the necessity of the trip even as I feel the pain and worry of leaving my wife and kids behind for a relatively brief time. Once we lock that in, we'll be able to get our stuff moved and start over in a golden (if cold) land of opportunity and adventure.

Yeah, I'm a geek. But I'm an employed geek, using his geeky skills to contribute to the future of MMORPGs.

Things are going to be just fine.

It's Like Being Bipolar

2009-11-14T15:34:00.000-08:00

Ever since I was laid off (which, admittedly, was less than a week ago), I go back and forth between extremes of emotion. On one hand, I get elated that I might be able to work on something new and different. The prospect of change is exciting. Then I find myself worrying and stressing because nothing has come through yet.

Like I said, it's only been a week. People tell me not to worry, to try and take it easy. It's all very simple to say, "I'm going to take it easy," but actually relaxing -- and not dwelling on the fact that I'm two months from complete poverty -- is nigh impossible.

Being Laid Off

2009-11-10T05:03:00.000-08:00

In June of 2007, I was working as a materials buyer for an orthodontic manufacturer in Southern California. I was also writing freelance for tabletop RPGs, and I'd had some success in that arena. I'd always talked about moving over to computer games, MMOs, but I didn't really think it would ever happen.

Then, one day, I saw a job posting for the upcoming Warhammer MMO. Given that I'd contributed to a couple of Warhammer Fantasy RPG books, I thought that maybe there was a chance they'd be interested in me. I knew a couple of people who worked at Mythic (or who soon would be), so I sent my resume along to them and asked them to put in a kind word for me.

To my surprise, I had a phone interview, followed up by an on-site interview. After the interview, they made me an offer.

I saw this as my ticket out of my relatively low-paying white collar job and into the exciting world of computer game design. I snapped it up, put in my two weeks' notice, and then went about the process of moving my wife, my 2 year-old son, and 4 month-old daughter across the country.

In my time with Mythic, I saw Warhammer Online evolve into a game I was proud to be a part of. I witnessed the game's launch, and then sat in suspense as the numbers were tallied. I did my work, wrote some good material, and kept on keeping on. I worked alongside gifted and creative people, made friends with many of them, and I looked at the future with a mixture of hope and anticipation.

On November 9th, I, along with a number of my co-workers, was let go. I saw the signs of my impending unemployment long before it was actually confirmed to me. I was worried, frightened. Here I am, with my family, thousands of miles from home, and about to become one of the nation's many unemployed workers.

When the hammer finally struck, I'd gotten my sorrow out of the way. I knew what I had to do; failing that, I'd try to get back to California. I joke, "I'll get back if I have to sell a kidney to do it." I'm not sure that the market for kidneys is particularly good here in the States, but even if it is, I'd prefer to keep my internal organs all to myself.

It's day two since my official termination. I've sent out resumes, had friends send my resume to folks at other companies, and browsed job sites looking for positions that I might fit. Is it too early to expect anything back? Probably. The silence is deafening, though. I've just got to be patient, positive, and proactive. The three P's. I've got a little bit of time to find something new -- 2 months, on the outside -- and while that seems like a long time now, I know it's going to fly by.

As far as my experience at Mythic, I'm not bitter. Sad, maybe. I don't necessarily regret the opportunity I had to get a leg up in an industry that I love, but I do regret that things didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped they would. I don't imagine that the game was perfect, but it's a tough market. It's either sink or swim.

Two years, four months, almost to the day. I was proud to be where I was, to work for Mythic and Electronic Arts, along with so many bright and shining folks. I never gave up on Mythic, either; I always looked towards a better day, when things would turn around. If it ever comes to pass now, I won't be there to see it from the inside. No, I'll be somewhere else, focusing my skill, dedication, and optimism on something else.

Gaming Lately

2009-09-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

So, two of my work friends moved to Austin, Texas, last month to take up jobs with BioWare (working on The Old Republic; how I hate them). They also happened to be two of my players here at work. Getting new players isn't so much of a problem, but I feel I have a right to complain, anyway.

No, the trouble stems from the fact that it's hard to get the momentum going again after such an upset. Don't get me wrong, I'm not weeping bloody tears over Brian and Bull, but I did enjoy playing with them. They're good guys, and they're missed.

There are also other things that go into the gaming funk, one being the fact that I don't want to plan anything out too far ahead right now. Change, that mysterious pet to Fate, may be a-coming. I'd just as soon avoid any other disappointments until I'm more certain of the future.

Many of the same issues plague non-work gaming, but they are always eclipsed by familial responsibilities and exaustion (in that order). However, I did run Stephen through a quick (15 minute) scenario where he rescued a baby from a group of hungry goblins. There wasn't much in the way of role-playing, but he rolled the old d20 and taught the goblins a lesson or two about the price of kidnapping.

I've cut back hard on the freelancing (though I'm not sure I had much of a choice in the matter). If interesting opportunities arise in the future, we'll see if I feel I have time to squeeze them in. Not having a looming deadline as of late has been interesting, though I am the masochistic sort of person who trades in one stress for another. Gods help me. This last GenCon marked the first time I'd attended the show where I wasn't trying to drum up freelance work. It was somewhat liberating.

Back to gaming, I did manage to get a game in at GenCon. GM Chris from d20 Radio did a test run of the SW Saga edition adventure Murder on the Executor, and I got to play (along with Sterling Hershey and a bunch of other swell guys).

All for now. Back to the grind.

ENnie Results for 2009

2009-08-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

I didn't attend the ENnies last night. Most of the times I've gone to GenCon, I've attended them. I guess the pomp and circumstance has worn thin for me, but I still recognize the awards for what they are and appreciate what they do for the gaming industry.

Order 66 won Silver for Best Podcast. It's a well-deserved award for them. I'm biased, being as I've appeared on the show twice and they've always treated me well. I've also been fortunate to hang out (and play SW) with Chris and his d20 Radio friends, smoke some good tobacco, and chat about ... lots of things, not all of which are appropriate to discuss in polite company.

On a personal note, two of the books I worked on won Silver ENnies last night. The Clone Wars Campaign Guide took the silver for Best Supplement, and Scum & Villainy took Silver for Best Cartography. Dark Heresy took the Silver for Best Game, and even though I've got a writing credit on that title, I don't deserve much credit for that. Still, I guess it looks good on a resume.

I'm tickled about Scum & Villainy's ENnie, despite the fact that the cartographers, Jonathan Hill and Chris West, deserve all the credit. Many of the maps in S&V were based on the fevered pencil-and-graph paper maps I scanned and sent in with my final turnover. So even if they weren't particularly attractive, they were transformed into ENnie Award-winning maps by two very talented mapsmiths. Kudos and props to both Jonathan and Chris. You guys are awesome.

The surprise for me is the Clone Wars Campaign Guide. I didn't really expect it to win, especially given the competition that it was up against. I've got a lot of material in that book, so I'm pleasantly surprised that it won.

So that's the long and short of my ENnie commentary for the year. I'm going to get ready for the day. If you're in Indianapolis for GenCon, drop by and say hello to me at Mythic Entertainment's booth today or tomorrow.

What Dreams May Come (True)

2009-07-27T04:54:00.000-07:00

As a pessimist, I sometimes find it difficult to think positively. This is especially true when it's me thinking positively about the things I really, really want. All things considered, I've been very fortunate in the way my life has turned out. I've got an awesome family, a great job, and I'm not living in a cardboard box on the side of Route 50.

"Always in motion, the future," as my little green friend once said to a far more powerful Jedi than I. The future is not set ... except when it is, of course.

So I wait, and I watch, and I try to keep a positive mind on the proceedings, while suppressing the nervous feeling my guts. Oh, gods, why was I born a neurotic?

Missionary Work

2009-07-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

I've always been keen on introducing new people to tabletop gaming. I'm not entirely sure how many people are interested in gaming, but aren't able (or willing, maybe) to find someone else to play with.

One of my first experiences with being a tabletop missionary was back when I was working at Game Towne in Carlsbad, CA. A couple of younger kids, probably in their early teens, came into the store. They were curious about role-playing, AD&D, etc, and they asked me to help them out. The first thing I did was introduce them to gaming using my own favorite system (at the time): Cyberpunk 2020. I prepared a short adventure and ran them through it after hours.

The next day, they came back and said they were hooked. They were more interested in a fantasy setting, though, so I pointed them towards Elric! by Chaosium. They bought it, thanked me, and I didn't see them again for another couple weeks. When they came back, they wanted more supplements. Seems they'd been playing almost daily since buying the Elric! rules.

It's been about 15 years since then, and sometimes I wonder if they're still gaming.

Another instance of this so-called missionary work was to introduce a few folks at my last purchasing job to D&D. I managed to get a group of three players together, and we played a number of games. Two of the three enjoyed it enough to continue with me; the third decided after her second game that gaming was pretty boring. We eventually pulled in a couple more people (one of my other co-workers, and the spouse of one of the others who'd already been playing).

As with all groups, there were personal issues that eventually arose that made things a little more complex. They weren't related to the game, but involved marital issues between one of the original players and her husband. It was also around that time that I got my offer to work for Mythic, so it was inevitable that the game was going to break up, anyway. Overall, I consider that experience to be a success, even though, to my knowledge, none of the folks involved (aside from me) continues to play D&D. If I'd remained at that job in California, I think we would've continued playing.

Now I have another opportunity to introduce someone to tabletop gaming. I'm looking forward to the chance. I don't know if the attempt will stick or not, but it's always interesting to see how things turn out while having a little bit of fun in the process. Let's just hope I'm not too out of practice to pull it off!

Not Quite Numb

2009-06-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure what I'm feeling now. As the dog days of June pass me by, and the hot stickiness of July in Virginia approaches (accompanied by the alien buzz of the cicadas) I find myself feeling not quite numb. I don't know what the future holds, either for myself or for my family. It's like I'm waiting for something, but I'm not entirely sure what it is yet.

I'd been working on WAR's Land of the Dead Live Expansion non-stop from late last year until just about a month ago. As the only writer on the project, I had a lot of work to do (which was also iterated on in a near-continuous process of revision). These days, I'm the writer on another project which I am as of yet unable to talk about in any kind of detail. I enjoy the work immensely, and there's a lot of it that needs to be done.

I've considered throwing the towel in on freelancing, which is more or less the case at the moment (pending another project offer, of course, which I may consider; it really depends on the circumstances). This is mostly due to time constraints, but I also realize it's due to my limited supplies of energy (creative or otherwise). I throw my heart into my work in the office, and by the time I get home there's very little left for me to tap in to. It's hard enough deciding what to cook for dinner some nights.

Vacation approaches, though. We're shutting down for a week (next week, in fact), and though I have few specific plans I'm sure I'll be busy.

Maybe this is what it's like when everything is more or less okay. Maybe my problem is that I'm waiting for a proverbial hammer to fall. It's the pessimist in me, I suppose. Semi-sleep deprivation is probably to blame, as well. Nothing a nap won't cure, I'll wager.

Land of the Dead has been released, and WAR players can travel to Zandri now. It's an awesome expansion, doubly so because it's free to our subscribers. I'm very proud of the work I did for LotD; there's not a part that wasn't touched by me in some way, from the initial concepts of the zone to the quests to the related entries in the Tome of Knowledge. It's humbling to think that I was allowed to have such an influence on even the smallest of things.

I didn't work in a vacuum, though. Everyone on the Encounters team, from artists to developers and designers, worked their butts off to make LotD the best it can be. Hopefully the players who actually read the quests and dialogues will appreciate them, but when it comes down to it they'll be wowed by the art, the landscape, and the mechanics more than anything else.

I really need a nap, but I will survive. Somehow.

Lost in Thought

2009-05-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

It's hard to say that success is not always the key to happiness. It certainly helps, I'll grant you that.

For years, back in the 1990's, even before I'd realized my hopes and dreams, I knew that I wanted to write. I wasn't much of a student in school. Hell, I was a terrible one, in fact. Chronic underachiever is probably a good description. Some folks said I was "too smart," that the work bored me. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but I seem to remember most of my trouble had to do with homework. I hated homework. I'd generally ace my tests, but if homework was half my grade then it didn't matter what I knew and what I didn't.

I got jobs, supported myself. Moved out of the homestead and moved in with my sweetheart. Got married. Through that period, I tried to get my foot in that publishing door. Sent in articles to Dragon, mostly, when Alternity was still supported. Moved on to Star Wars Gamer when it seemed to be a good shot. I never did make it, then SW Gamer got canned, too.

It's not like I got reams of rejection letters. It's not like I submitted reams of material, either. I think I probably sent in one article for review, and dickered with editors about ideas and proposals for half a dozen more.

Lightning struck with Dungeon Magazine, which is really the last place I expected to see my name pop up in print. Erik Mona was to blame, and when I asked him why he picked my proposal for Ord Vaxal, he replied, "I liked your Star Wars mojo." Is that mojo still here, somewhere, buried under all the adult responsibilities that I've taken on, or inherited, or been given?

How long ago was that? It was the December issue in 2003, though I'm pretty sure the article was done and submitted at least five months prior. That said, we're looking at five years plus change, going on six. Since then, every writing credit but one ("Hazards of Dark Sun") I've had has been for a book. They're game books, of course. I've constantly steered my ship towards the gaming star. I'm a gamer, after all, and I was a gamer even before I first dipped my proverbial quill in its companion inkwell.

Now I sit at a desk and I write content and material for a computer game. I get paid, and I keep my kids fed (as much as they'll eat, anyway). I'm not wealthy, but I get by. The freelance work, well, I've always enjoyed it. Some projects were more fun than others, sure, but they were all well worth the time I spent on them. It's tough to make the time anymore. I write so much at work, spending so much creative energy there, that it makes it hard to keep up any momentum at home. Pair that with my kids, as demanding as they are at their ages, and it sometimes seems like a fool's errand.

I was thinking about all the books I've worked on, and I was thinking about all those titles and where they'll be in five, ten, or twenty years. Given the way that new editions are released in the tabletop industry, will my name still pop up on Amazon.com searches after all that time has passed? I don't know. I tend to doubt it, unless I can keep the ball rolling. I've already got credit on books that represent outdated or dead systems.

Writing for roleplaying games isn't like penning fiction or, dare I say, literature. For one, the audience is much smaller. For two, even crappy novels still end up on used books store shelves. So I wonder, what's the life expectancy of the work I do? How long does it stay fresh and new? And does anyone really know my name?

I'm not sure what's next, to be honest. I'll continue with the day job, enjoying the work (because I really do enjoy it, more than I've enjoyed any other job I've ever had) and thanking whatever gods orchestrate this massive cosmic freak show for the chance to do so. I think I'm going to have to take it easy on the contract work for a while. This doesn't preclude more contract work, mind you (you hear that, people? You know who you are!), but I need a pause to take a breath.

It seems so cliched, but I guess I might like to try my hand at fiction. Short stories, essays, a book, maybe. Not sure where to start. I've been writing "to order" for so long, it's hard to imagine relying on myself for the whole enchilada. I don't know how to get started; I don't know where to turn. And one question that aches to be answered is, does the work I've done up until now count for anything in that vast pool of writing talent? Or will the attempt be akin to "breaking in" all over again?

It's not a question for the now. It's a question for the future. Right now I'm too busy and too tired to even consider writing an original short story, much less a book. I think the pause will do me good, so long as it refreshes. I'll wrestle with the details another time, and I'll keep you all informed (if you'd like to remain so).

Bedtime.

Three Men and a Little Legacy

2009-03-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

I was invited to participate in tonight's Order 66 podcast. If you really want to hear what Rodney Thompson, Sterling Hershey, and I have to say about The Legacy Era Campaign Guide and the small part I had in putting it together, take a listen.

Access the podcast here.

The hosts, GM Chris and GM Dave, were very gracious. They made me feel special, which is totally contrary to my "I'm a normal guy, dammit!" attitude. Enough of this treatment and I'm going to develop an ego.

WAR Tradeskills Feature: Part 1

2009-03-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

There's a new feature on the WAR Herald about trade skills, written by myself and Phil Chan, one of the guys on the Character Systems team at Mythic.

You can read all about it by following this link.

Enjoy!

Saga Edition Polis Massans

2009-02-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

I saw this about a week ago on the Wizards web site. It's statistics for the Polis Massan species for Saga edition. You may be wondering why I'd bother post about it here. The reason is, it's something I'd originally written for the Clone Wars sourcebook. I'm assuming it was cut for space reasons, but I'm happy to see that it's up and available for use.

I sure do love those cute Polis Massan guys!

Onward, February

2009-02-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

Well, my CP2020 game at work lost two players after the first game, by no fault of my own. Not sure where we'll go now, but there's been some discussion of going a new route entirely. We'll know more next week, I gather.

As for other events, my wife's birthday was yesterday. I made her a Cthulhu cake, based on one I saw here (figure I should give credit where credit is due). I don't know if mine looked just as good (I'm no artist), but it certainly took long enough to get it all put together.

Amy and the kids liked it, which is really all that matters.

Happy Birthday, hon! Cthulhu ftagn!

A New Year

2009-01-02T17:43:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, folks.

With the new year, I'd like to try and play more tabletop games. The pickings have been fairly slim over the past year and a half, which is due more to being busy with work and children than to anything else. It's also a question of mood; I'm in no mood for fantasy-themed games, and haven't been for some time. Maybe it's due to my lukewarm feelings on 4E; I don't know.

Any gaming I do will have to take place away from home and without the involvement of my wife. She's more or less resigned to that fact, but she reckons that we will have a whole new era of gaming fun once our offspring are a little more self-sufficient. In other words, in 2-4 years. Ugh.

So this leads me to consider the types of games I plan to run (or maybe even play) in the coming weeks and months. The idea of actually working on a game is somewhat alien to me; it's been so long, after all. The last game I actually ran at work (over a year ago) consisted of a number of free adventures. Not totally original, no, but it was quick and easy until it petered out.

Speaking of petering out, I've got that GM ADD that I've mentioned before. I need to hit some manner of groove with a games I'm running before they really stick. This is all in my head, I realize that, and there are a number of silly psychological elements that either make or break me. Group composition is one; outside influences, such as worries about work and/or home, are another. Still, is it worth just tossing my GMing desires out the window?

I figure not. I want to run a game.

A game of what? I've already tossed fantasy out the window, which leads me to non-fantasy games and settings. What's really been driving me ape lately is Cyberpunk 2020, the game that got me passionate about gaming and game design. Sure, it's retro and the timeline is outdated and there are a number of flaws to the system, but I have this deep desire to revisit it. I'd have to apply my own rules mods, of course -- I can't consider playing CP2020 right out of the box. Though they do allow for a certain amount of min/maxing by players, I can (hopefully) keep it to a minimum.

Other titles I've been wanting to run include Star Wars Saga Edition and Top Secret/SI. SW would be fun, yeah, but I'm not sure I could get off on the right foot with it at the moment. I'm not inspired with a specific campaign idea at the moment, so I'd probably need to wait on running SW. Besides, certain folks (my wife in specific) will probably kill me if I run an SW game without them.

As to Top Secret/SI, it was one of the first games I ever picked up back in the days of my wayward youth. A good system, though somewhat clunky in areas. The clunkiness is forgivable on the whole, though. I have the same issue with the type of game I'd like to run, so I need to think on this one a bit more, too.

So I come back to Cyberpunk again. I do have an idea for a CP game, keyed to a law enforcement game. My favorite CP games were always "cops" games. They gave the players a bit more structure, rather than allowing them to be free-wheeling mercenary sociopathic rampaging cyberpsychotic killers (which gets old after a while). Though such games can (and have) devolved, they are ultimately more stable in the long run.

My preferences of campaign style haven't really changed much over the years. I'm still more keen to serious games with grim atmospheres and not a lot of wise-cracking banter. A little joking is one thing, but if every other word uttered by myself or the players is a sassy attempt at humor or an oft-cited movie quote, it gets in the way of the mood I'm trying to establish. Establishing mood is hard enough when folks are cooperating.

Which comes down to players. I don't have anyone in mind, really, since the game may not appeal to all comers. There are the usual suspects, obviously: those folks I've gamed with at work before, who I know well enough to decide if they'd be interested or not. Then there are the unknown quantities: folks who have expressed a desire to play, but who I've never played with.

So my thought is to send a general query out on the gaming community list at work, saying something along the lines of, "Hi! I want to run a grim and gritty retro-80's law enforcement-themed Cyberpunk 2020 game heavy on house rules. Please reply off-list if you're interested!" and see who bites. With luck, the response won't be so overwhelming that I have to actively dissuade folks from participating; of course, it might be that all I get for a response is the lonely chirping of crickets.

That will be Monday, which gives me a couple days to continue my brainstorming. Until then, sayonara.

Warhammer Online Grab Bag #6

2008-12-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

Over at Mythic, I've been working in conjunction with the Community team to create some blurbs that inform players about the dungeons in Warhammer Online. The first four of these blurbs appear in the latest Grab Bag, which you can read here.

There will be more to come in the next few weeks, of course. Enjoy!

Robocop

2008-12-12T19:05:00.000-08:00

One of the guys at work sold a bunch of his old DVDs last week, and one of them was a Robocop boxed set including the original movie and the two sequels. I popped the original in and kept it on in the background while I wrote Warhammer stuff.

Man, that movie took me back. It's goofy, but it's almost as quintessentially cyberpunk as Blade Runner is. It gave me a serious jones for running an old fashioned CP2020 game. In relation to my last post, though, it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens.

Unless I run something at work, of course. That has its own series of problems, though. We'll have to see.

Anyway, just some random gibberish. I best get back to the task at hand...

We've Landed

2008-12-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

The holding pattern is finished, and we've come in for a landing. It's good to know we're on the ground, one way or another. No major changes are planned for the time being, so it's all normal for now. Christmas is looking to be quiet and spent at home.

In other news, I think I've come to grips that I probably won't be running much in the way of games until the kids are a bit older. Don't get me wrong; kids aren't a death knell to all gaming, but they certainly put a crimp on it. I may be able to start something up at work in January, but gaming at home (or in conjunction with Amy in any way) is probably not going to be an option. The kids are too dependent on us, even at night, they're too disruptive when they aren't sleeping, and I'm too old and tired to stay up until the wee hours rolling dice.

That's that for now. Nothing important to mention. I'm trying to wrap up my latest project.

Holding Pattern

2008-11-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

For the past week or two, I've felt like I'm in some kind of holding pattern.

Those blinking lights, up in the sky? The ones that are circling over and over again? Yeah, that's sort of how I feel right now.

The Captain is in the cockpit waiting for the tower to radio in and tell him to start his descent. Then he'll tell us to put our seat backs and tray tables in their upright positions because, dammit, we'll be landing soon. I don't know exactly when that's going to happen. I'm not sure if the Captain knows, either.

I trust in the Captain to get us to the tarmac safely, just as soon as he's got clearance, Clarence. It doesn't make me any less anxious about the landing. What really worries me sometimes is that we might even run out of fuel before we're told to come down. Then again, that never really happens ... does it?

What do you do when you're on a plane, waiting to touch down or waiting to arrive at whatever destination you're headed to?

You read the silly Sky Mall catalog, or doodle on the crossword puzzle that some other bored passenger on a previous flight half-finished (in ink, no less).

You listen to music, if you have any, or you watch the in-flight movie: some second-rate film you've never heard of, starring actors who are vaguely familiar yet ultimately forgettable.

You wait for the flight attendants to bring by your little bag of pretzels and your half-can of ginger ale.

Maybe you even make small talk with the people sitting next to you, or you try to sleep in some vain attempt at making the time pass just that much faster.

Me? I try to close my eyes, though I rarely sleep. I'm afraid that if I do, my jaw will sag open and I'll drool down the front of my shirt like an infant. I cross my arms so that I don't elbow the folks to my left and right (because the airline, in its infinite wisdom, will ultimately put me in a middle seat unless I pay some ridiculous fee to be elsewhere).

The trouble with that, though, is that I don't get much done. I sit and I wait. There is a vague sense of time passing, but looking at my MP3 player or watch only tells me that it's been a quarter of an hour since the last time I checked.

And there, below us, are the lights of the airport runway, pulsing. If I had the window seat, I could look down and see them. As it is, I have to imagine them, picturing them in my mind's eye. Red, orange, green, blue.

I just want to land. That's not so much to ask, is it? I'm tired of being on this plane. I'm tired of the Captain's occasional broadcasts, which always end the same way. There's a brief flare of hope when you hear the crackle of the intercom. Is he going to tell us we're going to land?

"Looks like we're going to be up here for a bit longer," he drawls apologetically. "Sorry for the inconvenience."

It's not his fault. I'm sure the Captain has places he'd rather be. He's got other passengers waiting down in the terminal, and they're probably irate and anxious because their flight has been delayed.

So I'll keep on waiting, checking my watch, and staring at the backs of my eyelids. This crate's gonna land sometime -- it has to.

I Better Hope Dante's Not Right

2008-11-13T05:11:00.000-08:00

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!

Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

A Reckoning of Wraiths

2008-11-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

The latest chapter in Wizards of the Coast's Dawn of Defiance campaign, A Reckoning of Wraiths, has been posted on WotC's Star Wars web site.

The cool part? I wrote it!

So go ahead and check it out!

Launch Day

2008-09-19T06:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we officially launched WAR. There was a gathering outside, complete with bubbly and beer. We toasted our success, picked up our Collector's Editions of our game, and went back to work.

Warhammer Online Collector's Edition
Work. Yeah, right.

The fact that WAR is an MMO means that our work has only just begun. Not counting any additional products that we might release in support of the game, there's always going to be a continued polish of systems, quests, code. Patches will come and go.

I'm on a new team. We've spent much of our time brainstorming and coming up with new ideas for top secret stuff. It's fun. The rest of the time, we've been playing our game.

I always sort of figured that WAR would be the last thing I'd want to play when I got home from work. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've been playing the game way too much. Amy loves it. My friends that have tried it have professed that they, too, enjoy it.

So there it is: my first launched computer game title. This is why I uprooted my wife and kids, left all our friends and family behind, and moved across the country. I've made plenty of other sacrifices (some of them by mistake) in the intervening 14 months.

The majority of my team is likely out today. I hear they were out late, drinking in celebration of our game's launch. They're probably laying comatose in bed, or gurgling in pools of grain alcohol-flavored vomit. Good for them. They deserve it.

Me? I'd probably be playing WAR right now, except that the servers are down for maintenance. Instead, I'll brew coffee and turn on a movie.

Nope, I ain't diggin' ditches.

Tunnel. Light at the End of It.

2008-09-07T05:33:00.000-07:00

Launch approaches. Life goes on. Less than two weeks until WAR is being played by hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions) of folks worldwide. It's exciting; people really seem to like the game. Being so close to the content, it's sometimes hard to look at the game through anything other than a microscope.

So, yeah. Exciting.

I'm a bit preoccupied with a number of little things, including my kids (ATM). My wife is in California for the weekend, and she's left me in charge of our offspring. They're being pretty good, overall.

I had the chance to play 4E about a week ago. It seems like a good game, but like many people before me have said: it doesn't feel like Dungeons and Dragons. Add another game and edition to my grognard list.

I suppose I'll try and get a little bit of the WAR beta in today, between dirty diapers and mealtimes.

WAR Launch Date Announced

2008-08-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

Mythic has announced the official launch date for Warhammer: Age of Reckoning as September 18th. You can read the official press release here.

Also, they've posted my Developer Bio on the Warhammer web site. Take a read, if you're curious!

My Bad Mood

2008-07-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

I am in a cranky, bitchy, and altogether bad mood this morning. I'm doing my absolute best not to take it out on the ones I love, which pretty much means I'm being very quiet and keeping to myself as much as possible.

Reasons?

Family tensions originating back home. Given we live in VA now, these occasional incidents are even more annoying than they used to be.

I had a series of horrible dreams last night.

The kids got me up at 6:30am.

I'm horribly behind on a freelance project that will likely see some sort of love this weekend, if I've got enough bandwidth to get to it.

I turned 35 on Tuesday.

I'm being loaned to another team at work for three weeks, starting next Tuesday.

I've played in one game session this year. ONE.

I have a doctor's appointment today that I need to reschedule. I tried to call them yesterday, just after 1pm, but they were closed for the day. What sort of doctor's office closes that early?

The cats are being especially bad lately. They jump onto the dinner table and the kitchen counter whenever they please. They attempt to snake food from our plates. They drink out of our cups and glasses. They are rude, rotten beasts.

I've got to write up a document for something special, and I think I've figured out how to handle the formatting. Only thing is, I don't know what in the hell I'm going to write about.

All in all, I'm feeling like I want to crawl into a hole and hide today. There is plenty to do at work today, though. PLENTY.

If the way I feel this morning is indicative of the way my day is going to pan out, maybe I should find a nice burrow to sleep in.

Hazards of Dark Sun

2008-07-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

My Dragon article is up and available for you here.

I attended Origins over this past weekend with some co-workers from EA Mythic. We were there to demonstrate how far Warhammer: Age of Reckoning has come. It was a great show in that regard, and I enjoyed meeting the folks who will eventually be playing WAR.

Origins was a bit smaller than I expected it to be. There was some thought that the convention is on the decline; I'm not sure, honestly, having never been. I don't have any past experience with Origins, so I can't make a solid judgement in that regard. Compared to Gen Con Indy, any convention -- even Origins -- is small.

While there, I got to see Henry Lopez from Paradigm Concepts, as well as my pals Hal Mangold, Christopher McGlothlin, and Steve Kenson from Green Ronin.

Super Genius Games

2008-06-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

By the way, here's a bit of news from my friends Stan! and Hyrum. I'm not usually one for putting ads on my blogs, but I want to see these fellows succeed. Keep your eyes on Super Genius Games!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Escondido, CA (June 14, 2008) – Super Genius Games (SGG) proudly announces the upcoming release of its first One Night Stand, a new line of adventures, standees, and full-scale map tiles suitable for use with any edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game or other fantasy RPGs. Each product in the One Night Stand line will offer a complete package of everything a game group needs for an evening of adventure.

"This publication model fits squarely in the Super Genius philosophy of providing an entire evening's worth of gaming fun in a single, complete, reasonably-priced package," said Stan!, Creative Director for Super Genius Games and co-designer of the first two One Night Stand products.

Each One Night Stand will feature an original, fully rendered map in both a single-page GM version and full-scale map tiles that can be used as a battle mat at the gaming table.

"We’re working with some of the best cartographers in the business to create fun, exciting maps for use in any fantasy roleplaying game, especially those that focus on tactical play using miniatures and maps," said Hyrum Savage, President of Super Genius Games. "There will be traps, monsters, and lots of cool surprises for GMs to spring on their players."

One Night Stand adventures will also contain printable standee figures for all of the creatures and monsters encountered in the scenario. These standees are provided through a partnership with Interactive Design Adventures (IDA), who are the creators of the wildly popular Stand-Ins line of printable standees.

The first two One Night Stand products will be released in mid-June 2008 with one being available as a free download in honor of the upcoming Free RPG Day. The entire One Night Stand line will be published in PDF format at RPGNow.com and DriveThruRPG.com for the low price of $6.99 each. Additional products will be released on a regular basis so GM's will always have something available for their games.

About Super Genius Games
Super Genius Games is an imprint of OtherWorld Creations. Founded in fall 2007, SGG is dedicated to publishing quality print and PDF products for a wide range of games and game systems.

Co-founders Hyrum Savage and Stan! between them have more than 22 years experience working professionally in the hobby games industry. They have done projects with and created products for Wizards of the Coast, Upper Deck Entertainment, TSR Inc., Paizo Publishing, Malhavoc Press, West End Games, Steve Jackson Games, The Game Mechanics, Guardians of Order, and many other industry-leading companies. Their work has been nominated for 10 major game industry awards.

Still Alive

2008-06-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

I'm still breathing, though some days I feel like I'm on life support. It's hard to keep up with work (which is demanding in a lot of ways), my freelance projects (which are just as demanding as I've come to expect), and my family obligations (which make the day job and the freelance writing look like child's play by comparison).

So, yeah. I'm here, I'm just busy busy busy. There are never enough hours in the day.

In the news:

D&D 4E is in the house. I haven't had a chance to play it, and I don't know when I will. I've got the core books and I've breezed through them. Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm sure the game plays well, but I'm not sure that it's got the sorts of character options I've come to expect.

To me, RPGs are about character options. In a class-based system, especially, character options are king. They are what differentiate Fighter A from Fighter B. This is why I enjoyed kits in AD&D 2nd Edition, and what made feats (and to some extent, Prestige Classes) so valuable in D&D 3.X.

On the surface, D&D 4th Edition looks to me like characters are even more codified. Multiclassing is out, for the most part. Abilities are chosen from a very limited pool (though I'm sure that, with enough time and enough expansions, this will change). This means that one character will be very much like the next of his class. And, of course, there's the 4E/MMO parallel that everyone seems to be drawing. I can see why, and I'm sure it's entirely intentional. As it is, I'm on the fence.

Will I run D&D 4E? Maybe. I need to try it out at least once to make a final determination. As it is, I still like 3.X quite a bit.

My first D&D 4E article will be up on D&D Insider pretty soon. Look for Hazards of Dark Sun to appear very soon in Dragon Magazine.

In other news, I'm probably going to miss GenCon this year. However, I will be at Origins (for the first time) this coming weekend. I'm going with EA Mythic, and we'll be showing our game off. Drop on by and say hello!

2008-04-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

The next supplement for the Saga Edition of the Star Wars RPG, Threats of the Galaxy, is coming out next month. See the listing here, and check out a preview here.

Not much else to say at the moment (and not much time to say it, anyway). I'll post a little something later on.

Wanted Dead: Ewoks

2008-04-03T07:28:00.001-07:00

I had a dream last night. It was Star Wars-themed, and somewhat kooky.

Somehow, Ewoks had emigrated from Endor to Tatooine. The Ecological branch of the ISB (Imperial Security) had deemed them an invasive species, and granted hunters certain quotas for killing them. Thus, it was permissible for a certain number of Ewoks to be killed by each hunter each week, and bounties were offered for each one.

Hunters could only kill Ewoks of specific colors or fur patterns each week. Ewoks killed that didn't match these guidelines didn't count towards bounties. I guess this is my fevered brain's attempt at including some silly bureaucracy to the Imperial Ecological Agency's methods.

In the dream, I got to tag along with an Imperial Ecological warden as he inspected kills. We were walking around in some back-water desert town. There were large bins filled with dead (and, admittedly, half-dead) Ewoks.

One bin contained non-conforming kills, ie, Ewoks of the wrong color/fur pattern for the week. None of them counted for bounties, they were just there to be tallied.

There was another bin filled to bursting with dark brown Ewoks; I can only assume it was the week for dark brown Ewoks.

The last bin contained a motley assortment of Ewoks of all colors and in all states of decomposition. When I asked the warden about these, he told me they were road casualties: in other words, road kill; unlucky Ewoks who had wandered onto roads and fallen victim to landspeeders.

To make things more interesting, some Ewoks had gone to extreme lengths to maintain comfort in the extreme heat of Tatooine's twin suns. These Ewoks would shave their bodies bare, and had adopted robes similar to those used by Jawas. In effect, they even looked like pudgy Jawas, and had taken to infiltrating Jawa society (with varying degrees of success) in order to avoid the hunts.

That about covers the dream. Thanks for reading.

A World of Warcraft Moment

2008-03-31T04:46:00.001-07:00

I call this particular screen cap "Beef Stew" for obvious reasons.
For some reason, a bunch of Tauren folks performed a sort of "Thunder Bluff Jonestown," and drowned themselves in the pond near the bank. They've been floating there for several days now.

I can only imagine what it must smell like.

Geek Chic (or "Revel In Your Geekiness")

2008-03-25T05:07:00.000-07:00

A while back, I got some replica patches from Intergalactic Trading Company that emulate the insignia worn by the characters in the movie Aliens. I'd sat on them for a while, but one day I decided to put them to use.

Basically, I bought a flight jacket (an MA-1, to be exact) and put the patches on it. Seeing as it's a flight jacket, I decided to theme it after the drop ship crew in the movie; namely, the characters Ferro and Spunkmeyer. In the movie, the two of them only wear flight suits, not jackets, so it was all an extrapolation. I patterned the insignia lay-out based on how they had their flight suits laid out.

So, this is basically what I have. The only thing that's different is the red "Bug Stomper" patch on the right breast. It's a patch never portrayed in the movie, but it matches the name of the drop ship that the crew pilots down to the surface of LV-426. Everything else (the Colonial Marines rocker w/Regimental Patch, the US Flag, and the blue "Victory by Wings" patch) is positioned just like in the film.

I mentioned I got the patches from Intergalactic. Well, all except for the Victory by Wings patch. For some reason, that one isn't available there, and I ended up getting it on Ebay. According to the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual, it's the "unofficial unit badge of the 3rd Marine Aerospace Wing."

The jacket isn't an official MA-1. It's a knock-off produced by Tru-Spec, a company in Korea. I bought it from US Cavalry. While the first jacket they sent was the wrong size, they replaced it with a jacket in the correct size that fits well. It's sturdy, warm, and very comfortable.

Problem is, it's going to be too warm come summer. I'd like to find a light all-weather field jacket to put the other patches on, and model it after something the ground troops were wearing. That's a project for another time.

I guess it's pretty geeky, eh? The average person won't know what they're looking at, I reckon; they'll figure it's just a flight jacket with patches on it. So much the better.

The Day Job

2008-03-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

So I was playing WoW last night ...

Back up. Rewind. Let's start this over, give it a little bit of perspective.

My wife is a member of the Straight Dope Message Boards. The SDMB formed a guild in World of Warcraft on a new server named Cairne. Now, I'd been playing on a PvP server where my co-workers go, and I'd gotten a rogue to 40th there and was actually enjoying the PvP experience.

Thing is, Amy wasn't. Not really. Not with Tarren Mill being the gankfest it is; not with an inordinate amount of 70's running around killing anything ten levels or more below them. She'd been griefed and ganked and was fed up. I guess I can't blame her, since it's not what she's into. I'm not really into it, either, but sometimes it's nice to have a fair, one-on-one with one of those Alliance pansies.

I digress.

So she goes and creates a character on Cairne, and I figure I'll do it, too. Maybe we can quest together. Being on a new server is interesting in a number of ways. The economy is all wonky, so making gold in the usual fashion (farming for copper, leather, whatever) doesn't really pull in the same amount of coin I'm used to. It's a struggle just to have enough to train, much less keep your equipment current.

I'm chatty with the guildies, too. They're all pretty good folks. It's a good guild experience, folks helping folks and hanging out and chatting. They're all mature, too, so there's no l33t to speak of.

One of the guild folks I've spoken to logged on, and I greeted him in guild chat. He asked how I was, and I told him that work was "sucking my brains out of my nostrils." Which is just my way of saying, "I'm writing all damn day, and when I get home I feel empty and somewhat used."

He asked, "What do you do?"

Being a game developer, especially one that works for a competing company, I'm somewhat leery of admitting what I do. My wife chimes in from down the hall, "Just be honest!"

So I said, "I'm a content developer for a computer game company." End of story. But just to be on the safe side, I added, "And it isn't Blizzard, either."

I expected some more questions, but these folks are pretty savvy, and they don't pry, which is nice. Hell, I'm not all that private. I tend to let most of everything hang out here (though I don't like talking politics or religion on my blogs; there's a time and a place for that sort of thing, and this isn't it).

So, what's my point? Heck, I don't know anymore. I'm sure I had something lined up when I began this post, but it's been lost in the shuffle.

I suppose it had to do with writing in general, and in making a buck or two off of my desire to use my talents. How many people get that chance? Here I am, mid-30's, and I'm writing in my day job, writing on freelance projects (for the Star Wars RPG, no less), and getting paid for it.

It's not easy. I guess it's easier for me than for most people, but what I'm saying is that it's work, what I do. I don't mind doing it, but it tires me out just as much as any other job I've had. Maybe more, because I'm really pouring myself out, tapping the creative well. I hope it doesn't dry up, because now (more than ever) is when it really matters the most.

Back to work now. I'll be in this weekend for a few hours, too, so I can get a head start on Monday's chores.

WAR is Coming

2008-03-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

So I work at EA Mythic, and I create content for the up-coming MMO Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (or simply "WAR" as we call it around here). Back in January, I was asked to write a zone overview for the High Elf land of Saphery, which would appear in the February Warhammer Online Newsletter.

The guy who normally writes the overviews was swamped with other tasks, and he felt that I might be interested in taking a stab at it. I figured, yeah, what the heck? I've got a little bit of spare time, and I don't mind hammering out a few hundred words. Plus, something like 500,000 people read the newsletter. How's that for exposure?

Well, exposure wasn't really in the cards, as the zone overviews are printed without a by-line. As it is, those of you who frequent this blog will probably be the only folks who know that I was the one who penned the following prose. Now that the February Newsletter is in the Warhammer Online archives, I feel safe in posting the link so that interested parties may take a gander at it.

Go here and check it out. You can peruse the rest of the February newsletter here, and if you're really interested, you can check the entire archive by following this link.

Influential Game Designers

2008-03-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

JD Wiker has gone and made a list of the top ten folks in the industry who influenced him. I'm not sure I can reel off a list of ten names, but I can always try. It's tough to put them in any kind of order, but here goes.

#10 - Kevin Dockery: One of the first games I ever played, back in 8th grade, was The Morrow Project. Now, as I understood it, The Morrow Project was written by Kevin Dockery (a real-life "civilian contractor," or mercenary) as a college thesis. It was a game of the post-apocalypse, firmly rooted in movies like Damnation Alley. The combat system was deadly (to put it mildly), which only added an edge to the game that hadn't existed anywhere else for me up until that point.

#’s 8 & 9 - Troy Denning & Timothy B. Brown: I gotta give these guys equal time because they're the minds behind the campaign setting that taught me that fantasy gaming wasn't all about elves singing in the trees. Give me cannibalistic halflings any day of the week, I say. I'm talking about Dark Sun, of course. I can only describe my initial attraction to Dark Sun as a disease, because once I picked up the boxed set, I couldn't stop. This was a first, for I was a constant critic of AD&D, of level- and class-based game play, and of anything even remotely related to fantasy and magic. Dark Sun was gritty, it was mean, it was nasty, and it ultimately changed my perception of gaming in a number of ways. Lucky for you, I don't have time to go into them all right now.

#7 - Jeff Barber: For Blue Planet and Midnight. I tend to doubt that Jeff remembers me, but back in '97, I stopped by the Biohazard Games booth on the last day of Gen Con and picked up the only copy they had left of Blue Planet 1st Edition. I joked, "Can I get it signed?" and Jeff was nice enough to do so for me. Reading that game on the flight home gave me the desire to write for it, and I made a couple of attempts to get my foot in that door (esp. in regards to Undercurrents, which was an ezine that Biohazard was posting on their site). I never made any progress, but Jeff was always very encouraging. Plus, he's one of the minds behind the Midnight campaign setting, which is probably one of the top three products that made me want to write for RPGs.

#6 - Mark Rein-Hagen: I'll admit, when Vampire: The Masquerade came out, I had some reservations. I played it initially, but I quickly grew tired of it. Besides the real-life politics within the gaming group I was a part of, there were plot issues; the campaign we played was very much tied into Anne Rice's books, and it seemed like everyone had read them, lived them, loved them, and applied them to their characters. I quickly grew tired of the drama, and left for a time, but I did end up coming back to Vampire (and its many off-shoots) eventually. Despite the apparent pretentiousness of the line, it was one of the best products out there, with an elegant rules set, innovative layout and graphic design, and a lot of very interesting background material. It also taught me that game books didn't have to be stuffy and chock full of rules, nor did said rules have to be written like a physics thesis.

#5 - Rose Estes: Though I guess she's not technically a game designer, she did write the Dungeon of Doom Endless Quest book. Dungeon of Doom was the first taste I had of what gaming was. I bought it at an elementary school book fair, probably in the 4th or 5th grade. I wasn't terribly intellectual at the time, though I was incredibly imaginative. Reading about the monsters and encounters in Dungeon of Doom (as well as the other Endless Quest books I ended up buying) got me interested enough to buy the first edition of the Monster Manual just so I could learn more about the critters that kept leading me to such famous endings as, "...your life, and your quest, end here."

#4 Greg Costikyan: After I got the gaming bug, back in those sweaty, adolescent days, I came across a title in the Waldenbooks at the local mall that combined gaming with one of my all-time favorite films: Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. There was little question that I had to have it, and shortly thereafter it was mine. I think I begged my mother for the money, and ended up with both the first edition rules as well as the Star Wars Sourcebook. Even at that age, my knowledge of Star Wars was pretty vast (at least compared to my player base), and I ran countless Star Wars games (many of them via email). Now, I don't know Greg, but I do know that, because of the Star Wars RPG, his contribution to my life as a GM, a player, and a writer has been astronomical.

#3 - Lynn Abbey: I consider Lynn Abbey a good friend, and I made her acquaintance in a relatively innocuous manner: by sending in a fan letter. I don't remember the details, but I don't think the email gushed praise. It was more along the lines of, "I love what you did with The Brazen Gambit! Can you give me some clues on what the city-state of Urik is like?" From there, we ended up emailing back and forth for a number of years, until we finally got to meet in person when I was asked to write for Green Ronin's adaptation of the Thieves' World setting. If Lynn taught me anything, it was about world and character design, and that you need to consider the minute details that make up the larger whole.

#2 - Mike Pondsmith: For Cyberpunk. I've known Mike for many years, but I can't say I know him very well. If I didn't give him props for Cyberpunk, I'd be a liar of the worst sort. Cyberpunk was one of the first games I played (and eventually bought) that got me running and playing on a regular basis. After a time, it was the first game I really made an effort to tinker with, rules-wise, and it was also the first game I tried very hard to write for professionally (I wasn't successful, but I did learn a lot).

#1 JD Wiker: Yeah, yeah. Blame JD. When Alternity was at its height (which is a somewhat relative indication of altitude, given that I was the only person in Southern California who was buying its products on a regular basis), I made a couple of submissions to Dragon Magazine in support of Alternity. Somehow, I managed to open up a dialog with JD, which eventually led to a long-lasting friendship. JD taught me what Wizards of the Coast expected of freelancers, sure, but he also gave me an insight into the fact that what you write has to be more than just cool; it has to be balanced and it has to make sense. I'm not sure I would've gotten anywhere in publishing if it hadn't been for JD's insight and encouragement.

There are a number of runners-up, and it's a tough stretch to say I can list them all. There's Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax (for forging the way), Ray Winninger (for his work on the Chill Companion), Steve Jackson (for GURPS, gods bless him), Charles Ryan (for Millennium's End), Erick Wujcik (for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG), Ken St. Andre (for the original Stormbringer RPG), Kevin Siembieda (for the Robotech RPG), and Rob Schwalb (for being evil incarnate, and for teaching what dedication really means).

There are more, far too many to include for every contribution that they've made to me in regards to the hobby, but I'll try to be graceful and leave it like this. It's four am, after all, and I've got to be at work in five hours.

Livejournal Activated

2008-03-08T05:57:00.000-08:00

I've gone and created a Livejournal page for myself. Don't ask me why; I guess I just want to try it out and see what all the fuss is. Besides, I've got some friends who use Livejournal, but who don't use Blogger.

Yet another networking tool. ::sigh::

E. Gary Gygax, RIP

2008-03-04T10:11:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted in a while. It's somewhat of a downer that my first post in I don't know how long is to mention the passing of Gary Gygax.

Most gamers know who Gary Gygax is. He's one of the hobby's pioneers, and he was loved and respected by many people. I never met him, though I walked past him on the convention floor a couple of times. I'm a relatively shy guy, and I hate being a pest, so I never bothered him. In retrospect, I wish I had. I had the opportunity to correspond with him in email late last year (after GenCon), and given that overture I might have introduced myself to him the next time our paths crossed. It looks like that won't happen again; at least, not any time soon.

The news is still coming in, and all the relevant forums are very slow at the moment. Take a moment to reflect on Gary, and the contributions he made to our hobby.

News Story!

2008-01-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

It looks as if the remains of a Rat Ogre have been found in South America. How awesome is that?

Check out the CNN story here!

I guess it's possible to immerse yourself too deeply in your work, hm?

I Now Have Grimm in Hand!

2008-01-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

After an exciting trip to the UPS distribution center in Chantilly this morning, I have my copies of FFG's Grimm in hand. I had a chance to look the book over about a week ago at my FLGS, but that was more of a cursory examination than anything else.

Overall, it looks solid. I'm not sure when/if I'll have a chance to play it. Maybe I can get in on a game at Gen Con this year. Given my gaming track record in Indy for the past four years, though, I tend to doubt it.

It's been busy at work, and busy at home. I'm supposed to run the first of the Mythic Dark Heresy sessions tomorrow, but I haven't had a chance to work on the game, much less read any more of the rules. Plus, I've been sick (and that is largely under control now). I'm thinking I may have to postpone the game this time around, and hope I've got my kit together in two weeks.

That would be all, for now.

Oh, yeah: Happy New Year!!

Starships of the Galaxy Preview #2

2007-12-13T17:15:00.000-08:00

Another preview has popped up for Starships of the Galaxy, and it's another of the ones that I penned. This time it's the Rebel Assault Frigate (two versions, no less). You can check it out here.

And no, despite what the page says, there are no deckplans for the Assault Frigate. Sorry!

I'm also reading that some folks have already found copies at their local game shops, despite the book's release date of 12/18. I haven't seen my contributor's copies yet, but I'm eager to. It's going to be one heck of a good book.

Now, back to the project at hand...

MMO Marketing on a Budget

2007-12-05T10:53:00.002-08:00

What not to do:

I think we'll be lucky if some concerned citizen doesn't call the police...

The Son of Gaming at Mythic

2007-11-28T04:07:00.001-08:00

The Mythic D&D game abruptly stopped a while ago. The reason was pretty simple, but I won't get into it. After several weeks of inactivity, I started the game back up again. That was the week before last, on 11/15.

In the time since, I've received Dark Heresy from Black Industries. Despite the fact that the game doesn't release until February of next year, it looks like contributor copies have already been sent out. Being as I'm surrounded by several dozen WH40k fans at work, many of whom are eagerly awaiting Dark Heresy, I was obliged to take it to work and lord it over them.

That was my first mistake, because now they want to play it. Nevermind the D&D game! Dark Heresy is the new hotness. They want to root out heretics and fight evil in the name of the Emperor. Given that the book is so damn fine, I can't say as I blame them one bit.

Truth be told, there's a small part of me who'd prefer running Dark Heresy to D&D. Just don't tell them I said that.

Starships of the Galaxy Preview

2007-11-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

Wizards has posted a preview of the Ghtroc 720 freighter, one of the ships included in the forthcoming Starships of the Galaxy.

The write-up includes the entire Ghtroc 720 entry, including a map of the ship (drawn by Chris West!). The map is the real treat for me. After all, I drew the one it was based on using pencils and graph paper!

You can find the preview here!

Coffee Shop: Found

2007-11-24T17:03:00.000-08:00

And so, almost five months after coming to Virginia, I've found a suitable coffee shop. I'm not sure how long it's been there, this coffee shop, but it's got a decent atmosphere, it's spacious, and -- best of all -- the wifi is blessedly free.

It's called Java Dave's, and it's part of a franchise (details here). The prices are pretty standard coffee shop prices, which is fine with me. The quality of the drink I ordered (a standard, ordinary, run of the mill latte) was about what I'd expect it to be anywhere else (including Starbuck's).

Best of all is its location: it's about two or three doors down from the local game shop, Game Parlor, in Chantilly. This makes it about a five minute drive away from my apartment, which is great.

Back home, I used to go to It's A Grind, which was a great shop. The people were awesome, and they never cared when I came in and sat for several hours at a stretch. Not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but they went out of business a couple weeks before I moved to VA.

In other news ... Thanks to Neil (Spicer), I'm dickering around with the idea of going to a couple of conventions in South Carolina next year. More on that when I've made up my mind.

I also hear that the Grimm RPG has been released. I didn't know that. I guess I'll be getting my copies eventually, which is always exciting!

Rock Band

2007-11-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

Working for a video game studio is interesting, to say the least.

You see, we have a lounge here on my floor. In this lounge, nestled amongst Ikea furniture, is a large-screen plasma TV, an Xbox 360, and a Wii. Today, the game Rock Band came out. Currently, there is a mob of developers, artists, and implementation staff yelling and clapping as my fellow employees make crooning fools of themselves. Somewhere, dogs are weeping.

I guess it's all plenty fun, but I'm not drunk enough to sing in front of anyone outside of my inner circle (that would be: Amy, Maddie, and Stephen). Perhaps that's the fun of it, letting yourself go.

I've done some singing in my time. I was the lead in the high school musical, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. I can still remember some of the words to the kite song, but not much else. That was almost 20 years ago.

Twenty years. Twenty. Sweet Jesus, I feel old, now.

I don't think anyone plays TF2 around here anymore. I guess it's best that I didn't buy it, as I've got enough on my plate with the current project I'm working on for Wizards of the Coast. If I had new Half Life to play, I'd be worse than useless. I play too much WoW as it is.

Speaking of WoW, here's a link to some amusing adverts that Blizzard worked up, with Mr. T and William Shatner plugging World of Warcraft. It seems that things have finally come around, and more "normal" people are playing video games than ever before. It's not just for geeks, baby.

Starships of the Galaxy News

2007-11-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

I have been a bad boy. Not a single post during the month of October. Let's just say it wasn't a particularly exciting month (which isn't to say that it was a bad month, I just wasn't compelled to post about anything).

Anyway...

Wizards of the Coast has posted a page for the forthcoming Starships of the Galaxy, and you can check it out here. I'm quite excited about it, because working with Owen and Rodney was (and continues to be) a thrill. I really think that Starships will please the SW gamers out there.

Back to your regularly scheduled surfing. I'm going back to work!

Like Working At a LAN Party

2007-09-20T09:50:00.001-07:00

Since the Orange Box went on pre-order, just about everyone at work with a mouse and an itchy trigger finger has downloaded the Team Fortress 2 beta. These people spend their lunches in a blissful haze of bullets, fire, and pained screaming, punctuated by maniacal laughter as the smackdowns are handed out like door prizes at a dog fight.

I have not yet succumbed to the siren call of the virtual warfare that surrounds me. It's not that I fear what might happen to my co-workers when I finally pwn them all; it's that I'm suffering from a certain degree of culture shock. I'm surrounded by geeks, day in and day out. It's like being at a convention, only there aren't any booth babes, and the bodily hygiene of the attendees is somewhat above par.

I'm interested to see how long it takes for the novelty of TF2 to wear off.

In gaming news, the second session of Mythic D&D went off without a hitch. They managed to slog their way through the tomb they'd taken shelter in, and now they head off to bigger and better things. More on that later.

I'm tired. I miss my son (he's in California ATM). I have work to do, but I'm obviously not doing it right now.

Mythic D&D Afterthought

2007-09-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

I can hear you wondering aloud, "What happened at the first Mythic D&D game?"

To begin with, five PCs were introduced to one another, and thrown together by a remarkably unlikely circumstance. Well, at least they didn't meet in a tavern!

Overall, the initial session was a success. Without a rogue, they ended up using a combination of acid and a fallen tree to break open some locked doors; otherwise, it would have been an evening of infinite tedium. They got to kill some stuff, too, and the half-orc barbarian triggered a trap which ended up being ineffectual, anyway.

Since then, it seems that two more players have signed on, one of them professing an interest in being a rogue. This makes two rogues in the group, but as the other was absent from the last session (and will likely be absent from the next two), it just goes to show: you can never have too many rogues.

As with the game I ran at my last workplace (which was, admittedly, a wretched hive of non-gamers), this one will employ only published (or pre-written) scenarios, suitably modified by myself to make them more interesting. I'm not normally a lazy DM, but running such adventures is advantageous due to the lack of time I have outside of work to hammer away at the campaign. Plus, it requires that I carry a smaller pile of books to the game.

So that's that. More musings later. For now, work beckons.

Mythic D&D

2007-08-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the first session of the D&D campaign I'm running at work. This represents the first actual gaming I've done since I left California, almost two months ago. I'm interested to see how the player dynamics fall into place, because there all very diverse in their gaming experience and background. I'll be happy to post profiles later on (no time this morning), as well as the results of the first game.

I don't anticipate any PC casualties, but you never know. The dice can be fickle...

Meetings and Milestones

2007-08-21T02:30:00.001-07:00

For the past three years, I've been one of a privileged number of folks that gets to see what the future holds for RPGs, well ahead of time. Last Friday afternoon, I was sitting in a room filled with other freelance writers, many of their names well-known to you, listening to secrets that I am not at liberty to discuss.

At some point during this seminar (if you can call it that), it occurred to me quite succinctly where I was, who I was with, and what we were talking about. I reflected on how I'd gotten there, as compared to where I'd been four years previous. I'd gone from approaching these people on convention floors with stars in my eyes, to mingling with them like I bloody well belonged.

On Saturday, there was a smaller meeting. It was no less important. Many other things were talked about. Looking at the assembled crew, it was obvious that I was standing on the shoulders of industry giants.

I think that it's important that I occasionally dwell on these things. I need to keep my own role in this funny little business in some kind of perspective. It's not unlike the Great Oz's schtick: there is a man behind the curtain. The vast majority of the Emerald City's residents don't know that he is there. A smaller percentage do as they are told, and they ignore him. The few that remain are either in league with him, or they resist his machinations.

Who am I, exactly? How do I fit in? I'm still not sure, sometimes. I went to Gen Con this year, unsure if I really wanted to keep plugging away or not. I was without current business cards, and I promised myself that I wouldn't try to pimp myself out to publishers. Damn the ENnies, and damn the multitude of good opportunities that came my way, because there's no getting out alive between now and August of 2008.

This is what getting up to feed the baby at 5am gets me. I'm going back to bed for an hour or so, then I'll get up and go to work. Will I sleep? Probably. Probably not.

Back From Gen Con

2007-08-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

Gen Con was fun. Most of my time was spent doing the things I needed to do: discussing work, attending the ENnie Awards, and seeing people that I typically only see once a year.

Speaking of the ENnie Awards: Children of the Horned Rat won two Silver ENnies! One for Best Writing, and another for Product of the Year! How do you like them apples?

The Silver ENnie Awards for Best Writing & Product of the Year
I'm humble enough to admit that I wasn't the only one who worked on Horned Rat. Steve Darlington and Robert J. Schwalb were both instrumental in making that product so damn good.

Prior to last weekend, the closest I'd been to having my name on an ENnie Award-winning product was last year, when Template Troves III garnered an honorable mention for Best Adversary/Monster Product. I was proud then, especially considering that TT3 was the first product I'd written and designed by myself (and which was thereafter developed and published by the good folks at Silverthorne Games).

Saturday, I went to lunch with several good folks: Stan!, Sue Cook (Monte's better half), Owen KC Stephens, Miranda & Sean Horner, Keri Reynolds, and JD Wiker (not pictured).

(L to R) Stan!, Sue Cook, & Owen KC Stephens
I had to rib Sue a little bit, since Monte Cook's Ptolus took the Gold ENnie for Product of the Year from Children of the Horned Rat. I'm even more humbled by the fact that CotHR was placed second to a product as awesome (and awe-inspiring) as Ptolus.

(L to R) Miranda & Sean Horner, & Keri Reynolds
This Gen Con was also a time for another first: I finally got to meet TS Luikart, one of the folks who worked painstakingly on Dark Heresy for nigh on two years. He and I have been in contact with one another since before I made my little contributions to Dark Heresy, as he was the driving force behind the Terror in Talabheim adventure for WFRP.

TS Luikart, Inquisitor Extraordinaire. Confess!!
I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with my friends. There never seem to be enough hours where our schedules coincide with one another's. I also had my eyes peeled for other good friends, like Dave Herber (cyberpunk god), Tom Lommel (of NASCRAG fame), or Aida (from Gnymphs.net, the kilt girl from a couple years ago), but I didn't run into any of them. Perhaps next year.

There were a lot of good costumes this year. I tend to pay more attention to costumes under two distinct circumstances: either they're related to Star Wars in some way, in which case they stand out on my radar, or they're skimpy. I don't often snap shots of the skimpy ones, since it's a good way to get beaten up by Amy, so I try to focus on the Star Wars costumes.

Queen Amidala
This Amidala costume was very well done. I don't generally ask for permission to take pictures of costumed folks, but I made an exception in her case. I also saw no fewer than two Imperial Stormtroopers who were undoubtedly female ("Aren't you a little cute for a stormtrooper?"). I could only tell because they had their helmets off; with the helmets on, they looked like any other TK designation.

I'd like to shout out to my other friends: the crew at Green Ronin, including Nicole Lindroos, Chris "Famous" Pramas, Steve Kenson, Chris McGlothlin, Hal Mangold, and Rob Schwalb; the folks at Wizards of the Coast, including Rodney Thompson and Chris Perkins, amongst so many others; Hyrum "Tallfolk" Savage at Upper Deck; as well as anyone else I've forgotten.

A few faces were conspicuously absent this year: Marc Schmalz of Green Ronin and The Game Mechanics; Sean K. Reynolds; and Rob Vaughn. You guys were missed. Try and make it out next year, dammit.

I brought back a lot of books this year. I actually paid for them, thanks! As much as getting free stuff is nice and easy on the pocket book, I find that it is important to support my friends in the industry.

Well, there is a litterbox that needs scooping somewhere in this apartment. I suppose I better get to it before some disgustingly bad cat has another "accident."

August Means GenCon

2007-08-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

I'm headed to Indianapolis later this week to indulge in Gen Con once more. How many consecutive years have I been going? Since we discovered that Amy was pregnant with Stephen, at least, which was August 2004. So four years in a row. What makes this year different is that I've got a 90 minute direct flight to Indy, as opposed to a seven hour flight (including connections) from San Diego.

Another difference is that I'm not going under the Green Ronin banner this year. I'll be there as myself, without an exhibitor's badge, and with no booth work to do and no games to run. That, in and of itself, should be mildly interesting.

I considered not going at all, but I had to discard that idea. Children of the Horned Rat is up for three ENnies, so I'd like to be there to see if it wins. The pessimist in me seems to think that there's a snowball's chance in hell that the book will get a silver ENnie, much less a gold.

What does it mean to me? Just getting nominated is kind of neat, but I'm not sure where that puts me. The ENnies are a strange animal; they're fan awards, yeah, and I've heard a lot of folks complain about them for one reason or another. My opinion hardly matters, though I've never had a bad ENnies experience. I suppose I'm largely neutral on the topic, as a whole, though I do feel that the Awards go a good ways towards bringing some of the smaller publishers into the limelight. Everyone deserves the limelight, after all.

If CotHR wins, I'll be more than happy to stand on stage next to Rob Schwalb and Chris Pramas (and whoever else is there to accept the award). I am one of the authors, after all. Not that I like being on stage, particularly (my wasted high school drama days are long gone), and I still feel like an unknown in the industry. Then again, we're all unknowns most of the time, except to each other.

No gaming yet, though the Mythic D&D game has characters more or less finished. We look to play the first game on the 30th. Should be a hoot!

The Saga Edition Star Wars game I'm planning will probably go into action after I return from Indy. There's still a lot of work I need to do on that game that I haven't had the time for.

Work at Mythic continues. I can't talk about specifics, so don't ask. Let's just say that it's rewarding, and I don't lay in bed every morning trying to think of a good excuse so that I don't have to go in. The kids make it tough to walk out the door; no matter how good the job, I'd still rather stay home with my babies than go out and earn money. I suppose that's the toughest part.

Coming Soon: Gaming, the Return!

2007-08-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

It's official: I'm getting back into gaming. After over a month with nary a die to be rolled, I'm going to be starting two games: one at home (Star Wars) and one at work (Dungeons & Dragons). This won't be much different than what I was doing back in California, at least schedule-wise. I'll be using a module or two to structure the D&D game, but the SW game will be largely original.

I was initially worried that I'd have trouble finding players for the game at work. Yes, it's a computer game company, but that doesn't mean that people don't have lives outside of the office (though, in the case of some people, I guess it depends on how strictly you interpret the word "life"). Despite my initial concerns, I had six willing players after a day of asking around. Recruiting for D&D was never this easy at Ortho.

By the way, I know some of you Mythic folks are reading this. You're all wonderful people. You're not wacky or insane or anything I might've said in another blog entry. You're all completely psychologically stable, and I know that you're just trying to make me feel comfortable when you come down to my level (humor-wise). Thanks for making the FNG feel like he belongs!

I really should get moving, so I'll cut this post short.

Hard Labor

2007-07-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

We've been in our new place for going on two weeks, and we're still unpacking. It gets to a point where the piles of boxes become intimidating, and between work and two kids, the last thing you want to do is move heavy objects. Last night, I threw all that out the window and moved them, anyway.

The first stage involved getting the boxes organized. Boxes marked "books" or "games" (and believe you me, there are a LOT of those) went against one wall, anything else went against the other. My goal was to make enough space in our dining area to assemble the dinner table. You never know how important a stable horizontal plane is to your life until you don't have access to one.

In the end, it was Mission Accomplished. The table is together, the boxes are (somewhat) more organized. We moved some furniture around and breathed a little more life into our new place. All I want is to feel at home, and it's hard to feel that way when everything that comforts me is sealed away behind strapping tape and cardboard.

As to work, it's going well. I'm starting to feel like a productive member of my team. What a wacky group of lunatics has been given unto me. I am truly blessed.

I miss gaming. I put an update on my Sideshow In Barovia blog to let anyone who cares know that the game is officially done due to my move. I was having a lot of fun with it, too. I may have to bring it back to life here at the new office.

About That "Free" Wi-Fi

2007-07-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Sneaky..!

Well, I actually think it's pretty clever.

So, upon logging in the first time, you get an hour of access at Caribou Coffee. Now, after that hour expires, you need to get a new access code, which requires a minimum purchase of $1.50. So, in other words, you have to get off your butt and buy something so as not to loiter.

So, technically, it's not free wi-fi. I'm going to need to do the math here. How much does internet access at another coffee place cost? Say, $30 a month. Now, if I'm coming in here and paying $1.50/hour for internet twice a week for 5 hours a shot, that's $15/week.

Of course, coffee costs more than $1.50 per cup. It's not like you get an access code for every $1.50 you spend, either. Something tells me that this could get expensive. Technically, I don't need internet access when I write, but it's nice to have the option to research what I need to research (or bitch on my blog about this, that, or the other thing).

So...my next stop is Panera Bread, probably tomorrow. They offer free wi-fi (or so I'm told) in a progressive restaurant atmosphere. Grab a sandwich and some iced tea and tap at the keys. Caribou is nice, but I'm a poor white boy who has been spoiled by the generosity of my last coffee house.

Plus, this place is way too cold. Turn down the A/C!

Back In the Saddle...Again?

2007-07-14T10:00:00.001-07:00

Oh, have I got work to do.

At lunch yesterday, out with the Content Development posse at Mythic, we dropped into a local coffee joint, Caribou Coffee. "Free Wi-Fi" the sign said. "See you tomorrow," I answered quietly.

And here I am, ready to put digital pen to digital paper.

Back home, in California, my off-site office was It's A Grind in Vista. It was the only place I'd managed to find with free wi-fi, and it rocked. Not only was the place comfy, but the people who ran it were awesome.

Unfortunately, It's A Grind went out of business about a week or two before we hit the road for Virginia. I still miss the place and the people that made it special.

I'm not sure what sort of strings are attached to the free internet access at Caribou, though the server mentioned I had an hour of time remaining after I logged in. I wonder, does this mean I have to re-log in every hour? Or is there a more nefarious motive? As in, the first hour is free...anything else will cost me my soul (or, at least, a functioning credit card). Should that be the case, I guess I'm back to square one. We'll have to see just how devious these people are.

So, now I work.

Children of the Horned Rat Up for 3 ENnies

2007-07-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

I was going to post this a few days back, but I've been busy.

Children of the Horned Rat, the WFRP guide to Skaven and their ilk, has been nominated for three ENnie Awards this year: Best Interior Art, Best Writing, and Product of the Year. How cool is that? To have a product that I contributed to be nominated for an ENnie, especially in the last two categories, is a real morale booster. I've got my fingers crossed!

Voting for the ENnies opens up soon, so go and cast your ballots.

My First Day at Mythic

2007-07-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

There's not much to say. It went well, I reckon. It's mostly about getting used to what I'll be doing, and meeting everyone I'll be working with. There are a lot of folks in that last category, by the way. I will have to practice my name/face recognition skills, methinks.

Fairfax is a nice enough town, but it's hot here. Not Needles hot, but hot (and humid) enough to make the sweat pop out on my brow within a few seconds of being exposed to it. We're in a nice location, centrally-located to a lot of convenient shopping. Traffic can be a pain, but being a Californian, it's not as much of a nuisance as I might otherwise think.

The movers are coming today to bring our stuff. Up until now, we've been residing in a nigh-empty apartment with little more than our laptops to keep us company. Stephen has been playing with the same handful of Hot Wheels since we got here, but his grandma sent him more in the mail and he was very pleased to get them. It's tough entertaining children without the modern conveniences you normally take for granted.

I'd have posted pictures by now, but we brough the wrong USB cable for our camera. Typical of Murphy's Law. I'll have some up once we find the proper cable in any one of the 300+ boxes that should be arriving today.

Life Moves Fast

2007-06-11T14:21:00.001-07:00

The days are passing by. My perception of time is blurred by the speed of its passage. I'm not entirely sure how all the cards are going to fall into place in the proper order, but I have to maintain faith that they will.

The move is only two weeks away.

Meantime, my days are filled with my old job (only 4 more days to go here), my family, my freelance project(s). And World of Warcraft. Can't leave that out. When I've extra time, WoW is a welcome diversion from my worldly concerns.

So, I've a copy of the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG. Haven't played it yet; I likely won't until after we've made it to Virginia and I'm settled in. It's on the top of my list of games to run once I'm entrenched in the geeky heights of my new position.

I'm also hankering to dust off my old World of Darkness titles. I blame Mr. Wiker and an all-too-short Ars Magica game he ran for Keri, Sean, and I on Saturday night.

There's also the question of the current game group, those whom Jeff B would call "the Master Class" group. We were well into the second portion of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft when all this insanity started. Odds are that I will not be able to bring the game to a suitable conclusion in the limited time I have remaining. It will have to drift, at least until such time I come back and dust it off.

Hey, it could happen.

The Big News

2007-06-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I reckon I'll post this now, since it's more or less official.

EA Mythic (formerly Mythic Entertainment) has offered me a Content Developer position on their up-coming Warhammer MMO, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. This means that my family and I will be relocating 2,690 miles, from San Diego, California to Fairfax, Virginia, within the next month.

To say I am happy about this is something of an understatement. I love being an RPG freelancer, but it doesn't pay all the bills. Working for EA Mythic, I'll be contributing to a product/IP that I believe in. Things will never be the same for me, or my family.

In order to follow this dream of mine, Amy and I will be leaving a lot of friends and loved ones in California. It's probably going to be the most painful part of the transition. We may end up coming back to California someday; heck, we plan on it. There's no telling when that will be, though.

So that's that. Wish us luck. We intend to be in our new place by the end of the month.

World of Warcrack

2007-05-28T01:26:00.001-07:00

Meet Corelle.

Corelle is my alter-ego in World of Warcraft. That would be "WoW" for short. I've been playing the game for a couple of weeks now. I even managed to suck Amy into it. I'd originally wanted to name the character "Coral," but that name had been taken. I went through a couple of alternate spellings before I settled on Corelle. It came to mind as she reached 5th level that Corelle is a brand of dinner plates. Egad.

I'm an RPer first, and an engine of monster death second. Still, running around killing stuff has an appeal that can hardly be explained. It's odd, but playing a female character gets you all sorts of attention. Though Amy expresses that she isn't getting hit on in the game, despite the fact that she's playing a female. Personally, I think it's because she's playing a gnome.

Edit: I've put in a new picture of the girl, mostly because the other one was too dark. I end up playing in the evenings, and since the game clock is dynamic, it's almost always dark.

Waiting Patiently

2007-05-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

It’s only natural that waiting for the things that really matter to us is so painfully done. There are plenty of things I don’t care about that I have no trouble waiting for. Dental visits, for one. Increases in the price of gasoline, for two. A most definite three would be waiting for Hastur to use the litterbox (or the carpet, as the case may be; disgusting animal).

I’m generally very patient. I worry, but that’s not the same as being impatient. There are similarities, true, and the two can certainly be joined together. I’d be a complete emotional wreck if I were both worried and impatient all at the same time. My wife would probably take my life in some agonizing, mediaeval manner. Garroting me while I fitfully slept, for instance.

So there’s all this vague talk about me waiting patiently. For what, you ask?

As is often the case, mum is the word on certain things. This is one of them. Were I you, reading this post, I’d likely find myself totally annoyed with it. I don’t feel bad about baring my soul, expressing my pain to the world, but even I have secrets. I am contractually obliged to keep most of them under my hat. The other 10% are more personal than I’d rather reveal. At least they don’t involve major surgery of any kind.

Unrelated: I’ve been reading George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. What a doorstop of a book, but it’s well-written. I’m finally getting the characters straight, more often than not.

Also, I heard from a fellow gamer on one of the local RPG boards that my name is, indeed, gracing the cover of Complete Champion. That’s great, says I. I have yet to see the book, much less hold it in my sweaty hands. Yet another of the many things I’m waiting for. It’s important, yes, but I’m not losing sleep over Complete Champion. As if I have that much sleep to lose these days.

Twilight 2013

2007-05-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm helping with some design on the latest edition of Twilight 2000, and I thought I'd post a few links for anyone who is interested. The work I'm doing is fairly minimal at the moment, but it might expand (depending, in large part, on what happens in the next week or two; more on that particular can of worms when I'm able to say more about it).

On the off chance you've never heard of Twilight, let me tell you a little bit about the premise. The first edition was released by Games Designers Workshop (GDW) back in 1984. The plotline revolved around the collapse of society following a detailed account of World War III involving the US and the Soviet Union. Player characters were (ostensibly) allied soldiers who remained in Europe at the time of the collapse.

Things go so poorly that the war machine on both sides of the lines breaks down completely, and society is so damaged by the ravages of the conflict that you end up with a situation similar to what was seen in the oft-maligned Costner flick The Postman. While there remain some coherent elements of NATO and the Warsaw Pact remaining, they are islands in a sea of chaos that spans the entire European continent.

Enter the players, whose sole goal is to make it home, wherever that might be. Starting near Kalisz, Poland, the players must face their Warsaw Pact enemies, as well as local warlords, roaming marauders, and the threats posed by starvation, disease, and lingering radiation. Given that the PCs come from surviving units, they can be of almost any specialty, rank, or nationality, allowing for a great deal of character diversity in parties.

I bought the first edition to T2k many, many years ago, based solely on the box graphics. At the time, I was pretty young (fourteen?), and the game mechanics that were used eluded me somewhat. I guess they were more advanced than what I was used to. Re-reading them, I'm reminded of the level of detail involved. I'm still not real keen on the way that ammunition was represented, but it was (overall) a solid mechanical basis for a game of that scope. I was more interested in the human and historical information presented, so much so that I wrote a "history" report about the conflict for extra credit in high school.

Later on, in 1990, GDW re-released T2k with different rules (using the GDW house system) and an updated timeline. The line received a lot of support. I bought heavily into the game, picking up whatever I could, but I never did manage to run a campaign for one reason or another. Military-style games aren't for all players, after all. GDW eventually released a supplement for T2k, titled Merc 2000, which traded global warfare for scattered brushfire conflicts. Anyone who wants to play The Wild Geese should probably check out Merc 2000.

93 Games Studio is producing the latest edition of Twilight: 2000. Like the two previous editions of the game, this one will use a completely different set of system mechanics. The timeline is also different, though I can't say much about it.

Lately, 93 Games has been posting teasers and the like in order to generate some buzz about their upcoming release. So far, they've posted a background fiction piece titled Shall Not Perish in PDF format, and you can read and/or download it here. I've also been informated that a podcast has been posted on the 93 Games Developer's Blog, here. If you enjoyed the original T2k, or have an interest in the post-apocalypse genre, you might want to check it out.

Complete Champion Designer Interview

2007-05-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

There's an interview with designer Chris Thomasson up on the Wizard's site, and it concerns Complete Champion. Chris dispels a few of the rumors about the book, and talks about what it is and what it is not.

When asked about the prestige classes offered in the book, specifically as to his favorite, he responds:

"My favorite group is probably Pelor's Shadow Guard, and the shadowspy and shadowstriker prestige classes tied to it. The idea of the god of the sun having, basically, a secret service really makes me happy. This group just really does things to the interaction between the churches of Pelor and Heironeous that makes them more real for me. This group is going in my next campaign."

Thanks for the compliments, Chris! Those PrCs, as well as the organization they serve, were part of my writing assignment on Complete Champion. Granted, I don't know how much revision they saw during the editing and development processes, but I figure I'll know for sure in a very short while (as soon as my comps arrive). I guess I'll also find out if I made the cover of the book or not (see this post for details on that topic).

More Complete Champion Goodness

2007-05-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

Wizards has posted a lot of other previews for Complete Champion, including an art gallery! One of the things that I've always loved about writing is seeing my words transformed into art. I'm one of those guys who has trouble making sure the sticks are straight when I draw stick men, so I've always been awed by artists.

I'm sure I've talked about this before, but let me refresh those of you who might not know about a little thing called an art order. I never knew about art orders, back when I was writing my own game stuff and using it to make my players miserable. Since I've been fortunate enough to delve into the freelancer's lifestyle, I've probably done scores of art order entries. Maybe more.

So what's an art order? Simply put, it's a description for an artist to use a springboard for a piece of art that will appear in a product. It should be relevant, and it needs to be highly detailed without being overdone -- you've got to give the artist some leeway, after all.

Now, having done a lot of art orders, I can say that it's not often that I see a piece of art in a product I've worked on that I can look at and say, "Hey, I wrote that!" With Complete Champion, though, I can honestly look at these pictures and say, "Wow, that's my art order! And that one! And that one, too!" It's awesome to see these pieces of art and know that I contributed to them in my own limited fashion.

As for the previews of the product itself, you can check them out here. The spell lists and new feats are especially interesting to me, as I helped design some of the entries. So go and check them out!

I've got a good feeling about this book. A lot of folks tend to poo poo the Complete line of sourcebooks. To me, each one provides a toolbox for players and DMs. I don't think they can be all things to everyone, nor should they be. I'll always get more use out of some than I will out of others, but that doesn't bother me. Then again, maybe I'm biased.

Aimless Drifting

2007-05-05T05:28:00.000-07:00

I'm up early today. I have no idea why. Everyone else is asleep, including both children. When you have young kids, "Sleep when they sleep," becomes a mantra of sorts. I've been getting up early for work for so long now that sleeping in past seven or eight o'clock is a rare luxury. When it hits, insomnia tends to strike me after 3am.

No gaming scheduled for this weekend. Adam is moving, so we did Ravenloft last weekend, instead. I've had to weigh my options on the workplace D&D game, given that I've got several projects that are either due or coming up within the next few weeks/months. There are other logistics, too, that came into play, and I've ultimately decided to suspend workplace D&D for an indefinite period. It was fun while it lasted.

With the coming release of Star Wars Saga Edition, I'm interested to try the new game mechanics out. I'd like to see what my friends Rodney and Owen have cooked up. I've been role-playing Star Wars since the first edition of WEG's version came out. I stubbornly resisted the d20 edition of the game when it was released, but somehow I was eventually drawn in and converted to the ways of the New Order.

Saga Edition seems solid to me, based on what I've seen. There are changes, some subtle, that I'm not too sure about just yet. Not having played it, I can't say for certain how game play will be affected. I can only look at what has been done and hypothesize about how it might influence the flow of the game. It's supposed to be faster, and I suppose I can't really complain about that. As much as I might like a good fight in any d20 title, they can get bogged down.

Amy, my wonderful wife, has been making not-so-subtle comments as of late. While she is enjoying the Ravenloft game, she has an undeniable preference for Star Wars. "Why aren't we playing Star Wars?" she asked (though I daresay, it might not have been a question on her part).

"Because Saga hasn't been released yet," I said. "Once Saga is out, I'll be happy to run Star Wars again so we can try the new system out."

But what of Ravenloft?

I've got this horrible reputation as a DM/GM who starts games and campaigns, but rarely finishes them. It's a curse of DM ADD, or so I like to think. Though I've felt a pull to run other games in the time since Ravenloft started, I've had little real desire to. It's a lot easier to run a module than it is to create your own adventures, NPCs, encounters, etc., from whole cloth. I spend my off-hours writing freelance game material, so running Ravenloft is almost like taking a vacation from "real" DMing.

So, yeah, I'd like to run Star Wars when it comes out; conversely, I don't want to stop running Ravenloft as a consequence. Running two campaigns concurrently is a possibility that I've entertained, but that opens up a new can of worms regarding scheduling, time, and eventual player and/or DM burn-out. It's tough enough to get five people together every two weeks for a single campaign; trying to coordinate the same five individuals to show up for two games is like herding cats.

The schedule that might work is a two on, one off sort. For instance, Ravenloft one week, Star Wars the next week, and then a weekend of rest the following week. Repeat. This puts three weeks between sessions (which, admittedly, stretches the limits of keeping a game's momentum flowing), but I can't seen any other option being feasible.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: growing up sucks. There's never enough time to do the things you want to do. When I was a kid, running two games (each week, mind you) would have been more that just feasible; it would have been mandatory.

I'm going to lay down on the sofa for a bit and listen to the birds chirping outside, I think. Despite my waking up in the pre-dawn hours, I'm hardly well-rested. I'm still pretty tired, and I know that Stephen will be awake within the next two hours. I'm planning to get some work done this morning, which means I'm going to It's A Grind. But when..?

Complete Champion Preview

2007-05-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

Wizards has posted previews for up-coming products, including Complete Champion. Amusingly enough, a couple of the items I worked on are included in the preview.

You can check it out here.

I'll Be There

2007-04-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Gen Con, that is.

Thanks to the kindess of others, I've managed to find a place to sleep while I'm in Indianapolis. I'm looking forward to the convention, because it's one of those rituals that has become necessary for me. It's a way to connect with my industry peers, to hear the latest rumors, and to see the latest goodies.

It doesn't keep me from feeling like some game industry hobo, though. I'll have one hell of a time fitting all my gaming materials into a bindle.

It's been a long day. I've been sick, Amy's been sick, the kids have been...kids.

Some exciting news today. Of course, I can't say squat about it. Forgive me my little secrets, as you have always done, and I shall be all the happier.

So that's it for this brief update. There will be more later, I can assure you.

Work D&D

2007-04-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

It's not so much "Workplace D&D" anymore, given that we play at Jeff's apartment and only two of the remaining players are co-workers. Over the past two sessions, we've had some new developments:

We've lost our rogue: Deana, claiming "short attention span," has decided that the game isn't for her. Though she won't be playing any more, her husband is liking it quite a bit and will continue to play.

Meantime, Roya is threatening to reprise her role as Raven the Sorceress in this week's game session.

In the past two games, I've worked on getting the party to the Valley of Obelisks, which is the primary setting for The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde adventure. Along the way, they encountered a group of goblin bandits waylaying a wagon. After defeating the goblins and rescuing a small boy from their clutches, the characters continued their journey to Jewelford, the site of a local wrestling competition.

The boy, named Leto, is the son of a local cloth merchant. He was traveling north with a small shipment of cloth when the goblins attacked his wagon. With his companions dead, he has no one else to turn to except for the PCs. He has promised them a reward if they will take him back to his family.

So we'll see. I'm not sure what they'll do without a rogue in the group, but it's not all that important at the moment (though I gather it will be, eventually).

On the topic of Gen Con Indy, I'm still homeless. The closest hotels with available room are eight miles away from the convention center. I'm not too proud to consider such an option as a last resort, but I really don't want to be concerned with the logistics of getting to and from the convention on a daily basis. Taxis and hotel shuttles are all fine and dandy, but eight miles is a long way to go...

Tomorrow is Monday, and it marks the next session of JD's Liberty campaign. My character, Sahm, got to third level last game. He'll be going up another level of fighter, and taking Dodge as his third level feat. I'm not overly fond of Dodge, but it's an entry level option for some other feats I'd like Sahm to have.

That's it for now. More writing for me tonight, as well as laundry duty. Man, I hate doing laundry. We need self-cleaning clothes, I think.

To Indy, or not To Indy

2007-04-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

That is the question.

I'd like to go to Gen Con Indy this year, but I'm conflicted. For the past couple of years, I've tended to go to the con in service to a publisher (Green Ronin, to be specific). This tends to save me money and planning time on some aspects of the convention. The trade off is that I help man the booth, run games, or both.

This has never been a problem. I enjoy booth work, even though it means I'm in one spot for most of the convention. The folks from Green Ronin are awesome, and you can imagine that the other industry folks who stop by the booth to say hi to Chris, Nicole, Hal, Robert, Evan, and Steve give me an opportunity to interact with and meet new people. I also get to talk to gamers and fans, which I also enjoy.

Gen Con is in August...only three and a half months away. I've made no travel plans, haven't purchased a badge, and conversely, I have no idea if I'll have a place to stay. In order to reserve a room with one of the hotels in Indy, you first need to buy your badge. At this point, though, I don't know what room availability is like. I'd rather not buy a badge, and then find out that the closest available hotel is ten miles away from the convention center.

That's my first problem, which is (admittedly) due to procrastination on my part. With the new baby, it's been busy; with income tax returns due, I've also been a bit more worried about money than usual. It's a recipe for mediocrity, let me tell you.

The second problem is the new baby I've mentioned. Two years ago, I left my wife home alone with a five month-old baby. Last year, she and that same baby (17 months at the time) stayed home while I flew to Indy again. This year, I'd be leaving her here to care for a two year-old boy and a six-month old girl all by herself.

I'm not sure I can do that to Amy. Even with both of us around, it's still a lot of work to care for both of our children at once. Madeline will probably be less of a trial in three months, but I don't harbor any illusions that my wife will have an easy time of it if I decide to take off to Indianapolis for five days.

There's the personal conflict. I've been going to Indy three years in a row thus far. I enjoy seeing old friends, making new ones, and rubbing elbows with industry folks in an attempt to remain on proverbial radar screens. I'm afraid that by not going to the convention, I'll be missing opportunities to wrangle up writing/design work later in the year. I guess that's just insecurity talking.

I spoke to Stan! about it yesterday, and his take was thus: I'm more or less in with the folks I write for now, so they'll still know me and they'll still continue to ask me to work for them. The down side is that, as feared, I might miss opportunities to meet new people and publishers.

It's a tough choice. Even if I decide to go, I still need to figure out where I'm staying. I suppose I'll do some poking around for the time being and see if I can determine the lay of the land...

Paizo to Cease Publication of Dungeon, Dragon

2007-04-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah. More info on that development here.

I can't say I'm not disappointed. My first paid publishing credit was in Dungeon, after all. The two magazines have been a staple for D&D players for hundreds of issues apiece, and it will take some time to get used to not seeing them on FLGS shelves and racks.

I've heard complaints from some folks that say these magazines have become less useful as time as worn on. The complaints tend to gravitate more to Dragon than to Dungeon, but then again, Dungeon has a somewhat limited audience since it is geared more towards DMs than players. I've subscribed to both magazines at one time or another. I've always let the subscriptions lapse, for whatever reason.

The magazines are generally a mixed bag, depending on what the reader is looking for. I've never seen any magazine (regardless of title or publisher) with 100% content that I can use. Shadis (when it first started out) was close. On average, I might see one or two articles that catch my attention. Even if I don't use them, I tend to read the articles that my friends (and, dare I say, colleagues) have written.

So, there it is. I'll be interested to see the online format that Wizards is planning to go to, both from the perspective as a gamer as well as that of a writer/designer.

Complete Champion Update

2007-04-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

During all of life's chaos last week, I must've missed this. However, I do see it today: the back cover text for Complete Champion, my first product for Wizards. Not that I wrote the whole thing, mind you. My contribution was quite small. Still, one small step for me, one giant leap for...me. Ahem.

The text, if you please.

"Divine Power at Your Command

"Mastery of divine power is no longer reserved for the cleric or paladin. With devotion and dedication, any hero can become a divine champion and a force to shake the heavens. Your strength comes from the universe itself, and you can use your divine gifts to create, heal, or destroy. Your choices shape the world.

"This D&D supplement gives players and Dungeon Masters an unprecedented resource for using divine power and religion in their game. In addition to new feats, spells, items, and prestige classes, Complete Champion presents exciting adventure locations, affiliation mechanics for different deities and organizations, and a system for designing your own religions based on the cleric domain system. Alternative class features for every core class and more reserve feats provide extended options for players interested in creating or advancing characters along the road to divine power."

Still not sure if my name will grace the cover or not. Here's hoping!

Brief Update

2007-04-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

I'm punching along on one of two projects at the moment. The size of the project isn't precisely huge, but it's for a product line I'm very keen on. So there. More about that later.

As for the home-front, having two children is definitely a sure-fire way to get behind on just about everything you want and/or need to do. God bless 'em.

I updated Sideshow In Barovia last night with detailed descriptions of the game's NPCs. This is mostly for my players' information, but it was fun doing the little character capsules nonetheless. Thanks goes to Wizards for their PC Portraits, which provided the yummy pictures. Now, if only I could draw...

I'm off to JD and Keri's place tonight to play in the Liberty game. I missed the last session, which ended with a fight. As it is, I'm running late tonight, as 3/4ths of the household is asleep. I should be out of here in a few minutes, but they're all so damn cute that I don't want to wake them..!

Workplace D&D should be running this Thursday. We have yet to nail down the venue, but I'm thinking it will be Jeff's new digs. We shall see...

A Busy Weekend

2007-03-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

These days, all my weekends seem to be busy ones.

Tomorrow, I run the second session of Sideshow in Barovia, which is my Expedition to Castle Ravenloft campaign. I'm not sure what I'll be doing earlier in the day, but it will probably include caring for my children, maybe a nap. I've got some reading to do, on several different topics. I surely wish I had more time to read these days, because it's probably the most time-consuming thing I do.

Sunday we plan to take the kids to the Birch Aquarium so that Stephen can check out all the "Nemos." Yep, that's right: any fish is a Nemo. He's been there a couple of times, but I think that he'll have a much deeper appreciation for the fish this time around. After we get back home, I need to sit down and get to work on my latest writing project.

So, yeah. Busy. All that, and I want to try to get back into painting miniatures. Thing is, I'd love to buy just the right pack of Unhallowed and pick up a Strahd mini, but I doubt that's going to happen. I've taken matters into my own hands and bought a suitable vampire figure from GW, which I'll need to paint. This means going through my paints, seeing if they're serviceable or not, etc.

On the plus side, I don't guess the PCs will encounter the master of Castle Ravenloft for some time, so I'm not in a huge hurry to get the figure finished.

The work D&D game is also this coming Tuesday, as opposed to Thursday, to account for our newest player's scheduled visit to Vegas next week. I picked up a copy of The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergard, and plan to incorporate it into that game. It should keep them busy for a while. The adventure itself is pretty neat, and I like it overall. I don't think they'll get into the meat of it for two or three more sessions, but it gives me something to work towards.

All for now.

Re-Makes

2007-03-21T05:53:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me an email last night to let me know that there will be a re-make of John Carpenter's Escape from New York. It's currently in pre-production, and scheduled for release in 2009.

When is enough enough? It seems to me that we've had a ton of classic movies re-made in the past few years: The Omen, Psycho, Dawn of the Dead, The Hitcher, The Poseidon Adventure, War of the Worlds, and The Fog, to name a few.

And don't get me started on The Ring and its ilk, taking perfectly good foreign movies and re-shooting them with popular American actors and releasing them abroad, almost as if they're completely original. After all, why would anyone want to see a movie with subtitles?

I'm not entirely anti-re-make: I'm more fond of the Dawn of the Dead re-make than I am of the original, for example. Yet it's tough to win me over to a movie's "re-envisioning" until I've seen it and given it my stamp of approval. (I've got much the same problem with cover songs.)

Escape from New York doesn't need to be remade, any more than The Breakfast Club did. Yet someone obviously feels that they can do it better, and win over a new generation of moviegoers in the process. Time will tell, I suppose.

Lost a Sorceress; Gained a Druid

2007-03-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

We've had our first casualty in the workplace D&D game. No, she wasn't torn to pieces by goblins or gobbled up by a gibbering mouther. The game just isn't her thing.

Our sorceress, Raven, has left the group. I'm proud that she gave it a shot, and played through two sessions. After the last game, I could tell that she wasn't as excited as the rest of the group. I talked to her about it on Thursday morning, and told her that if it wasn't her bag, she didn't have to play. Under the circumstances, I think it was the best possible outcome.

I've been involved in games that were painful to play -- and I actually enjoy the hobby. There's nothing worse than sitting through a game session that provides you with no stimulation whatsoever; where you find yourself looking at your watch more than you look at the DM or your character sheet. If you apply such a situation to someone who isn't a gamer at all, I guess the pain is probably worse.

So, yeah. I told her she could skip out if she wanted to, and she seemed relieved about it. "It's the most boring thing I've ever done!" she exclaimed. Under normal circumstances, I might feel bad about such a comment. Truth be told, the other three players are enjoying themselves, which leads me to believe that the game as a whole is merely not to Raven's tastes.

Onward and upward, I started discussing the game with another co-worker of mine, Toni, who had previously expressed interest in playing, but who has been too busy to participate up until recently. She's decided that she'll give the game a shot, and she wants to play a druid. Raven even gave her Player's Kit to us, so I bestowed it upon Toni so that she could read up on characters, druids, etc. I guess we'll generate her character sometime next week.

Speaking of the D&D Player's Kit, I can't say enough good things about it. If you pick it up on Amazon.com, you can get it for a song. It comes with a lot of things that an experienced player doesn't really need (booklets that detail the basic rules and methods for creating characters), but it also includes a set of nifty dice and a softbound edition of the Player's Handbook. The softbound PH is well worth the price, right out of the gate.

The Adventure's End

2007-03-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

So, we played the third installment of the workplace D&D game last night. It's evolved somewhat past the "workplace only" moniker, mostly due to the fact that a player's spouse has joined the group. Despite the fact that "iconic" parties aren't a strict requirement to good fun, the group was sorely lacking a fighter. Now they have one, rounding out the player base to four.

They managed to complete the adventure, which (for those of you who are interested) is available on the Wizards site under the title "A Dark and Stormy Knight." They have a little more ground to cover before they make second level, especially given the staggered introduction of the characters into the game.

We started the night by introducing the new player to the game. He's playing a human ranger named Kaiser. With his help, the rest of the group managed to destroy the zombie that they'd had so much trouble with previously. Knowing now that slashing weapons are the way to dispatch zombies, it was just a matter of getting the right attack rolls and making sure that all the damage counted.

The rest of the exploration including a battle with a giant spider, and a lesser vargouille (introduced in the adventure). The spider fight was somewhat touch and go, but the vargouille was taken down with a critical hit from Tobias' crossbow (right between the eyes).

From here, I reckon the characters can wait out the storm (which should end soon) and then make their way back to civilization in order to spend their hard-earned money. After that, I've got another adventure or three up my sleeve...

Happy GM's Day

2007-03-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

So it's GM's Day again. I'm still waiting for last year's gifts. This makes me think that the holiday hasn't really caught on yet. At least, not with my players it hasn't.

It's been quiet on Neuro-Suction for the past week or two. Reason is, my daughter was born last Monday, 2/26. We've been busy with her since she and Amy came home, adjusting to our new life as sleepless zombies. I figure this will be worth the eventual change to d12 hit dice. The single action every round kind of stinks, though.