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I just sent off the script for Blood Bowl: Killer Contract #4 to my editor Ian Brill at Boom Studios. I’m having a ball writing these comics, and I can’t wait to see them in print, which I’m told should happen soon. I’m eager to wrap it all up with issue #5, just so I can see what happens.
I mean, I know what happens in the larger sense. I outlined the entire miniseries before I started in on it. But there’s so much distance between an outline and a script, and I invariably come up with all sorts of ideas while actually writing that the two don’t often match up. As with reading, writing is an act of discovery.

Right now, though, I need to write an outline for my next novel for Wizards of the Coast. After that, I can get back to my next computer game project or three.

To celebrate finishing issue #4, though, here’s an image of the cover I found while wandering around the web. I hope you enjoy it.

GAMA announced the finalists for this year’s Origins Awards yesterday. I can’t find a mention yet on GAMA’s site, but thankfully ICv2.com has a full list. I’m happy to note that three products in which I had a small part made the cut this year. They are:

Best Publication, Non-Fiction: 40 Years of Gen Con by Robin Laws. Robin interviewed me, along with many others, for this book, and I’m proud to see my words appear alongside those of so many people I admire.

Best Roleplaying Game Supplement: Codex Arcanis by Paradigm Concepts. I wrote a chapter or so in the original, paperback edition, which hit shelves in 2001. A handsome, hardcover edition came out last year. Sadly, I don’t have a copy of the new book yet, and I have no idea if I’m credited in it or if any of my work made it into the latest version. Either way, I’m happy for Henry, Eric, and the rest of the crew at Paradigm.

Best Publication, Non-Fiction: Hobby Games: The 100 Best edited by James Lowder. I wrote the essay on Space Hulk, which means I only chipped in 1% (or probably less) of this excellent, star-studded book. I was honored to be asked to contribute anything at all.

Congratulations to all the finalists, and good luck to everyone in the final round!

My friend Wes Harris (from waaay back in the early White Wolf days) just showed me something cool. His company, EdgeDriven.com, has just launched a new political website: CauseIt.com. It’s a fun, easy tool that lets you create your own politically oriented video mix-clips in your favorite browser. I tossed one together in under five minutes, just for fun.

The keen thing about this, of course, is that you can upload any sort of music or video you like and use it with CauseIt.com. This opens up a world of possibilities for fun of all kinds. Someone with the skills, of course, would have far more control over the results in any desktop editing program, but CauseIt.com’s simple interface makes it so easy it’s hard to resist fiddling with it.

The fine people at Del Rey have posted a cover for my upcoming hardcover, coffee-table book Orcs. It looks pretty sharp, and I’m told the shield on the cover will have an embossed texture and that a couple holes will appear where arrows have gone through it. Orcs should be on shelves by November 4, just in time for the year-end holidays.

Tyler Tinsley writes to ask:

I just listened to a recording of a freelancing seminar you had at GAMA. I just wanted to say thanks. While I have been sending games to companies for a few years, I just got my first gig as a freelance game designer and hearing your words have helped.

I want to start going to the big game conventions to pitch games to publishers in person. My funds are limited, so I wanted to know what con is the best to pitch to a wide range of publishers, and what is the best way to set up meetings? I make a wide range of games so any publishers will do.

I’m glad you liked the podcast. Congratulations on landing your first freelance game design gig.

There are three that are worthwhile for hobby games: GAMA Trade Show (GTS), Origins, and Gen Con.

GTS just ended this week, but you could make plans for next year. It’s a trade show, so there’s less competition with players to get a publisher’s attention. However, some of the publishers have so many business meetings that they don’t have time for freelancers who drop by the booth. Of course, that’s true of just about any show, so the thing to do is schedule as many meetings as you can ahead of time.

Origins is a good show, and it’s less busy than Gen Con. However, not as many publishers attend. Those that do, though, should have time for you. It also has the best networking hang-out: the Big Bar on 2 at the Hyatt.

Gen Con is my favorite show, bar none. It’s the biggest and busiest in the country, though, and many publishers are there to sell games rather than talk to freelancers. Again, scheduling meetings ahead of time can really help here.

Of course, if you’re trying to work on mass-market games, there are other shows to attend, like the New York Toy Fair or the Chicago Toy and Game Fair. And if you prefer European-style board games, nothing beats Spiel, the largest gaming convention in the world, held in Essen, Germany, every fall.

To set up any meeting, start well ahead of time, as a busy publisher’s schedule fills up fast at most conventions. First, hit the website of the company you’d like to pitch your game to, and read their submissions guidelines. Then contact the publisher or editor and request a meeting at the convention you plan on attending.

Good luck!

I was up late last night, but I polished off the script to Blood Bowl: Killer Contract #3. To celebrate, here are some shots of some of the artwork slated for that very comic. The one to the left is the main cover, and the one to the right is for a variant cover.

The BOOM! Studios crew gave the series a mention during their panel at the New York Comic-Con last weekend. According to Comic Book Resources:

Boom! has also acquired the rights to produce a comic adaptation of what they call “The REAL Fantasy Football”, “Blood Bowl.” Slated to become a 5-issue miniseries, the game is produced by British company Games Workshop and is a parody of American football, only with far more lethal rules. Author Matt Forbeck, who has also written several “Blood Bowl” novels, will be penning the series.

James Mishler reports that Bob Bledsaw, founder of the Judges Guild, died in the morning of Saturday, April 19. He passed away in his home in Decatur, Illinois, after a battle with cancer. The Judges Guild site has an excellent obituary.

I never met Bob, but I loved his work. He published the first-ever third-party adventures for Dungeons & Dragons, and his City State of the Invincible Overlord is one of the all-time classic D&D campaigns. He will be sorely missed.

My latest post at Storytellers Unplugged is up, and it’s the opening day of the GAMA Trade Show, which I’m still not at. How do the two intersect in my head? Read the post to find out.

Sadly, I am not going to make it to the GAMA Trade Show next week. I love the convention and encourage anyone interested in making or selling tabletop games to attend. It’s a wonderful experience, and I’ll miss being there—as well as the too-rare chance to see so many good friends.
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A couple years back, I produced a comic for Playmates Toys‘ new line of automotive action figures: R.E.V.s. I wrote it and hired Max Bertolini to supply the wonderful art, and IDW to tackle the lettering. The comic appeared on a CD-ROM included in the box with every R.E.V.s toy. It also featured an animated version of the comic, for which I produced and directed the animation and voiceovers with the hyper-talented James Farr and the guys at JAMIT Studios.

With the line officially cancelled, Playmates has given me permission to post a PDF of the comic here for free. Enjoy!

A little while back, my über-editor Nina Hess—who’s in charge of the young-adult fiction at Wizards of the Coast—sent me a copy of my first hardcover novel. Secret of the Spiritkeeper, which was my first mass-market novel when it hit shelves in 2004, just came out in a brand-new Japanese translation from ASCII, and although I can’t read a word of it, I love it.

The new cover art looks great. The wacky colors in the title are what you get when you scan something printed with metallic silver ink, it seems, so ignore that effect. In person, it looks fantastic.

The book is about the size of the English version, only thicker. The hardcover gives it some good heft, and it even comes with an attached silver ribbon to help keep your place as you read. It’s snazzy, and it really makes me wish I could read Japanese.

Penguin recently posted a cover and details about my next book with manga-ka Tomoko Taniguchi: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Manga: Shoujo, Illustrated. This should be in stores on June 3. Before I started work on the book, I hadn’t dealt with a whole lot of shoujo manga (Japanese girls’ comics), mostly because as an American male narrowing in on middle age, I don’t really fit the target demographic.

Still, I had a great time digging into the genre and working with Tomoko on this book. She taught me a lot about shoujo in particular and Japanese culture in general, and she’s a talented and versatile artist who knows the subject cold. If you enjoy shoujo manga and drawing—or know someone who does—be sure to check it out.

Jeremy Jones, who sometimes posts comments around these parts, recently had an article on Gary Gygax’s influence published in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. It’s a nice bit of writing, and it features quotes from several industry folks, including Lisa Smedman, Doug Niles, Jared Sorenson, Harley Stroh, and myself.

The folks at Cyanide have a site up for the upcoming Blood Bowl computer game. There’s a slew of screen shots there, plus if you dig a little you can find a document that explains how the game works in more depth. I’m especially geeked by the fact you can play the game in two very different ways:

1. A real-time video game.
2. An exacting, turn-based simulation of the board game.

Combine this with the comic-book series I’m working on for BOOM! Studios, and you have a bloody great year for Blood Bowl. Speaking of which, here’s the cover for issue #2.