Endless Quest Live!

On Saturday, the folks at Candlewick Press – the US publishers of my Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest books – hosted a playthrough of one of my upcoming books, The Mad Mage’s Academy. We recorded the entire thing live for YouTube, and we’ll have a trimmed-down highlights reel available later this summer.

I read through the book, and every time we got to a decision moment, my panel of players debates which path to take. The panel included Whitney “Strix” Beltrán (an amazing writer, and the co-designer of Bluebeard’s Bride, among other stellar things), Stephanie Pando (marketing maven at Candlewick), and my eldest son, Marty Forbeck (writer for The Daily Cardinal, and a stunningly great kid). We all had a ball, and now you can watch along and enjoy too.

Rage 2 Released!

I’m a bit slow on the draw on this, but the video game Rage 2 released last week, which means I can finally talk about my involvement with it.

Rage 2

I worked on this game for a bit back in the fall of 2017, with my friends at Avalanche Studios, along with Id Software and Bethesda Softworks. I helped out with the basic storyline, the nature of the characters, and many of the cutscenes, which the rest of the team used to formulate the game’s full narrative after my work was done. I’m sure a great deal of what I contributed was improved upon in the months following that, but you can still see bits of it in the final product, for which I’m credited as “Script Writer.”

I worked with Avalanche several years ago on a game that was never even announced, much less released. This is one of the sadder aspects of the video game industry. A large number of games are shelved before the public ever hears about them, and no one ever gets to see the work that went into them. In most cases, everyone still gets paid, but few people get into game development solely for the paycheck. That’s why it’s a true thrill to finally have something I worked on with the Avalanche team be enjoyed by players worldwide.

I had a wonderful time working with so many different people on the game, but I should give a special shout-out to Christofer Sundberg, John Fuller, and Rebecca Deans for bringing me onto the project. Also to Jason Bergman at Bethesda and Tim Willits at Id for their deft guidance. Best of all, I got to work with the Avalanche design team headed up by my pals Odd Ahlgren, Magnus Nedfors, and Loke Wallmo.

If you like first-person shooters slammed full of eye-bursting colors and action – and wow, I certainly do – check out Rage 2. It’s fantastic fun.

Heading North for Arctic Game Week!

I love getting out of the house and meeting fans and friends. I spend a lot of time at my desk in my house, and seeing the rest of the world makes for a good break from that.

This May 29—June 2, I’m heading to northern Sweden for Arctic Game Week, which includes a number of different festivals in SkellefteÃ¥, a city that sits just shy of the Arctic Circle. Now, I live in Wisconsin, so I know how to handle cold, but I’m grateful that I’m going up that far in the late spring rather than the dead of winter.

On May 29 I’ll be at guest at the Arctic Game Conference, along with luminaries like Fred Malmberg, Magnus Nedfors, and Mike Elliott. I’m speaking at 10:40 AM as part of the Analog Games & Storytelling track. The topic includes two things on which I’ve built a lot of my career:

Mechanics and Metaphor

There’s a long standing debate among game designers about whether you should start with a game’s mechanics or its setting, the crunch or the fluff. This is a false dichotomy. The best game designers work hard to dovetail the two efforts together into a seamless whole in which the mechanics and the setting work together in a seamless metaphor. This helps to make the game intuitive not only for the designer but the players, who can then figure out how the rules are supposed to work by the way in which the setting is presented.

After that, I’ll also be at Nordsken from May 30—June 2, along with lots of other guests, including Marvel’s editor-in-chief, C. B. Cebulski. I’m not sure what my schedule will be there, other than playing lots of games. If you can make it up there, though, be sure to say hi!

For the rest of 2019, I’m planning on being at:

More details on those bits as I have them. Hope to see you on the road!

Exalted: Circle of Protection Out Today!

Today marks the debut of Exalted: Circle of Protection, a brand-new original novel set in the world of the third edition of the Exalted tabletop roleplaying game. It’s the tale of a young woman named Palym, who leaves her village to travel to the big city – and promptly wanders into a magical disaster that nearly gets her killed. She finds herself in Heaven as a newly minted Exalted (hero) of Mercury, charged with investigating the death of the hero who saved her life.

I wrote this novel for the backers of the Kickstarter for the Exalted RPG. It’s the sequel to the short story “The Circle Will Be Broken,” which appeared in the anthology Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows. 

You might notice that I have a co-author on this book, something that’s relatively rare for me. The last time was when I wrote Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon with my pal Jeff Grubb, and the reasons for this are almost identical.

The latest edition of the Exalted roleplaying game was being developed as I wrote the book, which made for a bit of a challenge, as things in the setting evolved separately while I was writing my story. Because of that, one of the developers of the game – James Huggins – offered to come in and make sure that the novel matched up well with what he was helping create for the game. In the end, he contributed so much that I asked the publisher to credit James as my co-author on the book.

The plot and characters in the story are mostly mine, but James did phenomenal work to make sure that it wasn’t just a great story but a great Exalted story. For that, he deserves cover credit for sure.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the story. It’s full of twists and turns and deals with things like family and friendship and love – and magically gifted heroes battling gigantic, brain-bending monsters capable of leveling entire cities. Just the way we like it.

Blood Bowl Anthology Out Today!

Death on the Pitch, an anthology that collects a series of recently published Blood Bowl stories, debuts today in both paperback and ebook formats. This collection features my short story “The Hack Attack,” which centers on a sort of “Where Are They Now” show about the characters in my Blood Bowl novels, many years later. It also features stories by Josh Reynolds, Robbie MacNiven, Andy Hall, Graeme Lyon, Alec Worley, David Annandale, Gav Thorpe, David Guymer, and Guy Haley. 

Each of the stories normally costs something like $4.99 each as an ebook, so getting them packed together like this offers a comparatively amazing deal. On top of that, this is the first time they’ve been in print, to my knowledge, so if you prefer your reading in dead-tree-based formats, now’s your chance. 

Going to Gamehole Con!

I spent the day yesterday at the polls, serving as a poll observer here in Wisconsin. Results aside (which I was pretty pleased with overall), I always find it inspiring to watch so many people come in and vote, no matter how much other stuff they have going on in their day. In my county, we had something like 82% of registered voters turn out for the election – and 84% in my hometown – which feels like a triumph of democracy in action.

Today, I wrapped the first draft for my next Endless Quest book. I’ll tell you more about that later, when I can. I’m hoping to talk about it a bit at Gamehole Con this weekend, actually.

Speaking of which, I’m heading to Gamehole Con this weekend! In fact, I’m leaving in a hour or two. This is one of my favorite conventions of the year. The people who run it are incredible, and it’s a great venue, including a full slate of True Dungeon games. They line up a fantastic group of guests (of which I’m pleased to be one again), and they treat them and all the rest of the players like best friends joining them for an annual reunion.

I’m only taking part in a few official events at the show.

  • Friday, 1 PM: Assembling Imagination – Worldbuilding with Matt Finch, Peter Brett, and Pat Rothfuss. Sold out!
  • Friday, 2 PM: Endless Quest Live. In which I read from an upcoming Endless Quest book and have the players vote which way to take the story. This one’s currently sold out too.
  • Saturday, 2 PM: Endless Quest Live. In which I do it all over again. This one has several seats left, so jump on it if you can.

The rest of the time, I’ll be hanging out with friends, wandering around with my kids, and playing games of all kinds. I believe my friends at I’m Board Games will have copies of my Endless Quest books on sale there, so if you’re looking for autographed copies, be sure to hunt me down and shove them at me.

I hope to see you there!

Talking Tie-Ins

Over at the newly refurbished IAMTW (International Association of Media Tie-In Writers) blog, my friend – bestselling author and the recently appointed president of the IAMTW – Jonathan Maberry interviewed me about being a tie-in writer. The conversation rolls all over the place, dipping back and forth throughout my career, but it’s a fun read. If you want to learn more about what it’s like to write books based in someone else’s setting, go check it out. Then check out the rest of the series of interviews, with luminaries like Max Allan Collins, Lee Goldberg, Tim Waggoner, Cavan Scott, Delilah S. Dawson, Christa Faust, and Gary Philips.

A Writer’s Nightmare

I had a bit of a writer’s nightmare happen this week. I received a call from one of my editors.

That alone is enough to give a veteran writer pause. I work almost exclusively via email with my editors and other clients. The only time we need to talk on the phone is when something has gone horribly wrong.

There are exceptions. Some editors like to chat, but they’re the exceptions these days. Busy people often don’t have the time to schedule a time to talk much less actually block off the time to jaw for a bit.

In this case, I’ve been working for this editor for at least two years, and we’d never spoken before. When I got her call, I knew something terrible had happened.

Turns out that she’d been trying to email me for about a month, about some books I was working on under a tight deadline.

Whoops.

I went straight to my spam folder, and sure enough, the emails from her had wound up stacked up there.

So, now my deadline has now gone from tight to ridiculous, but at least now I know why I haven’t heard from her for a while. I’d foolishly assumed she was busy or that something else in the project was snagged. I was busy with other things (like I usually am) and didn’t follow up with her. Fortunately, she followed up with me.

The moral of the story? Don’t be too busy to check in with your editors when they go quiet. And when it happens, check your spam filter!

 

Cool Endless Quest Stuff

I’m hard at work writing more Endless Quest books at the moment, but the ones that came out in September are still getting all sorts of attention. This morning, for instance, my pal John Kovalic (of Apples to Apples, Munchkin, and Dork Tower fame) posted a new Dork Tower comic about his experiences with the Endless Quest books. It’s both hilarious and painfully true. Read it.

If you like the comic, you should also check out the Kickstarter that John’s running for his first Dork Tower collection in 10 years. I’ve been reading Dork Tower since before I even met John (a.k.a. the Nicest Guy in Gaming), and much like him, it’s only improved with age.

Meanwhile, I also chatted with the folks at the Great Big Beautiful Podcast about the Endless Quest books. We jawed for about an hour about all sorts of things, including my work on the Rogue One junior novel, and hopefully you’ll find it a fun listen.

While I have your attention, be sure to check out another amazing D&D book that came out this week: Dungeons & Dragons: Art and Arcana. It’s a gorgeous book, looking at the history of D&D using its artwork as the lens, and it’s worth every damn penny.

I’ve known two of the authors for years: Jon Peterson (author of the incredible gaming history, Playing at the World) and Mike Witwer (author of the fantastic biography of Gary Gygax, Empire of Imagination), and you couldn’t ask for better writers with a bigger passion for their subject. I also met their co-authors this summer: Sam Witwer (Mike’s brother, the actor responsible for the voice of Darth Maul, among many other things) and Kyle Newman (director of Fanboys and several other fun and fine films). As a team, they’re absolutely stellar folks whose love for the subject shines through on every page.

If you love D&D, grab the book and leave it out on your gaming/coffee table for your friends to ooh and ah over it.

 

 

DJA at Gen Con

This past summer, I hosted the Diana Jones Award ceremony and party at Gen Con, just as I’ve done for the past 17 years. We had a wonderful time, even though we were in a new, louder venue, and the winners gave fantastic, heartfelt speeches. This year, though, we did something new at Gen Con for the first time.

The next morning, we had the Diana Jones Award Morning After Report. This launched Gen Con’s brand-new Twitch stream, bringing us live to anyone who cared to watch at the time. This week, Gen Con also posted the video on YouTube for posterity. That means you can now watch it too.

Let me warn you, this was literally the morning after the party, which ran late into the night. Everyone there at the table is running on less than optimal sleep – and the adrenaline that comes with joining more than 60,000 other gamers at our annual geek-fest. Despite that, we managed to pack a lot of conversation and insights into our two hours.

I want to thank the massive number of guests who joined me, including Satine Phoenix, Ruty Rutenberg, Jim McClure, Dom Zook, Shelly Jones, Aaron Trammell, Evan Torner, Nicole Hunsicker, Peter Adkison, and Adrian Swartout. And anyone out there who manages to sit through the whole thing!