Lost in Thought

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.