This week, I wrapped up work on The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Drawing Manga, Illustrated: Shojo, the second I’ve written in the how-to series for IDW and Alpha Books. (Third if you count The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating Dungeons & Dragons Characters, which is a CIG but not about manga.) This is due sometime in 2008. No, I’m not …
Chicago Toy and Game Fair
I’ll be at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, November 17 & 18. On November 17, as part of the Inventors Forum, I’ll be one of the experts in the “Ask an Expert” event. Sign up to have a private chat with me for 15 minutes between 1 and 3 PM, and I’ll do the best I can to answer …
10 No-No’s in Game Design
At this year’s Gen Con, I had the privilege of sitting on a couple panels with three giants in game design: Mike Gray (VP of new games acquisition for Hasbro), Reiner Knizia (most prolific board game designer in the world), and Richard Garfield (designer of Magic: The Gathering, among other great games). My friend Rob Stone helpfully took notes during …
Doomzine in Inglese
Earlier this month, I mentioned that the Italian Mutant Chronicles fanzine Doomzine had interviewed me for issue #23. I had some requests for an English version of the interview, and Fabio Dall’Ara kindly provided me his original notes. I’ve finally had a chance to format them and present the results to you here.
Blood Bowl for a Cure
If you’re a Blood Bowl fan anywhere near Bryn Mawr, PA, on September 29, 2007, be sure to sign up for a special Blood Bowl tournament called Blood Bowl for a Cure. All money raised through the tournament goes to the American Diabetes Association via organizer Joe Forsstrom’s donations page. It’s a fun time and a great cause. I have …
DJA Goes to The Great Pendragon Campaign
In the post-Gen Con madness, I never got around to posting this, so you may already know, but for those yet to hear: The 2007 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming has been given to The Great Pendragon Campaign, a role-playing game campaign book by Greg Stafford, published by White Wolf. The winner was announced at a ceremony packed …
Adios, InQuest
InQuest, the tabletop gaming magazine published by Wizard Press, is shutting down. I wrote many articles for InQuest in its early years, enough so that I’m still on the magazine’s comp list to this day. Now, 150 issues later, it’ll be gone. Ironically, the last issue of InQuest will ship in September, the same month that Dragon and Dungeon magazines …
RIP Chuck Crain
My friend Dale Donovan wrote over the weekend to report that Chuck Crain, one of the founders of Ral Partha, had died. Apparently he suffered a heart attack the Tuesday after Gen Con and died a couple days later. The Miniatures Page has an excellent obituary for him. I’d known Chuck for many years, since before I became involved in …
Conan’s New Millennium
Just before Gen Con, the fine folks at Paradox announced a new deal with Millennium Films for new Conan films. Congratulations to my compadres at Paradox. I can’t wait to see the fruits of this deal.
Hobby Games 100 A-Go-Go
James Lowder‘s Hobby Games: The 100 Best made it to Gen Con, and I picked up my contributor’s copy there. It’s a great book and belongs in the bathroom of every fan of tabletop games. As I’ve mentioned before, it contains 100 essays from 100 of the world’s top tabletop game designers. Each of these is about 1,000 words, just …