A while back, Rehab Resources, the people who provide physical and speech therapy for some of our kids, came to us with a problem. The next state budget proposed to cut their funding by 30%, which meant they’d have to close, despite the fact that they are the only ones in our county who provide these federally mandated services. My …
Core Stories in RPGs
Over on his LiveJournal, Mike Mearls posted some provocative ideas about something any successful roleplaying game needs: a core story. This sums up the game’s central theme from a player’s point of view in a sentence or two. It sparked off a few thoughts in my own befogged brain, which I added to his comments there. So you don’t have …
Blood Bowl Back Cover
I just got a pack of extra covers for my upcoming Blood Bowl novel from Games Workshop yesterday. When they print a book, they print the pages and covers separately and then bind them together. In the book industry, they regularly overprint the covers so they can send them out as advance advertisements for the book. I’ve shown you the …
Origins Awards Gamers Choice Voting Now Open
Just like the title says. Vote now, as the deadline is May 25! The instructions are a bit obtuse, but you’re supposed to vote on your top five favorite games for 2005, no matter what category they’re in. Then rank those five from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. I worked on one of the games on the …
Good Days, Bad Days
Sometimes there are days you can’t ever seem to get going. Other times, you can do no wrong. Today, for example, I got to sleep about 1 AM. Then two of the quads woke me up screaming (them, not me–although I was tempted) at 5:30 AM. I’m used to that kind of thing by now though. I’ll spare you the …
Sith’s Revenge
Ann and I took in Revenge of the Sith on Friday night. It seems like everyone’s posting their deepest thoughts about the film and what it means to them, so I’ll spare you running over such well-trodden ground as much as I can. I liked the movie. The effects were stunning. Give me starship battles and lightsaber duels, and I’ll …
Vote for Spiritkeeper with Authority
As I’ve mentioned here before, Secret of the Spiritkeeper and The Authority RPG both earned nominations for Origins Awards this year: for Best Fiction Publication and Best Roleplaying Game, respectively. The Academy of Gaming Arts and Design is now voting on the nominees, and the product with the most votes in each category wins the award. If you’re a member …
Reviews
I sometimes do a little ego-cruising on the web, wondering what people out there have to say about what I do. Not that I don’t love all of you who come by here, but those who are wiling to stop by and sit a while are most likely to say kinder things. After all, posting a comment here means I’ll …
Rules Rule
Yesterday I wrote the rules for an upcoming game from Mattel. By that, I mean that the game was already developed and tested. They just wanted someone to sit down and write up the rules in a polished, publishable format. It’s been a long time since I worked on a rules set for a game with which I had little …
Modern Browsers
I just got a note from a good friend who told me that he could barely read this website in his browser. He sent me a screenshot, and I could see why. It turns out he’s using Internet Explorer 5.x for the Mac. As I wrote back to him, this site, like many others, doesn’t resolve well in older browsers. …