My friends at Kobold Quarterly (a D&D/d20 magazine ably edited by my Alliterate pal Wolfgang Baur) are giving away free PDFs of issue #10 for the next week. Until January 31, 2010, you can grab one for yourself by entering the coupon code KQ10Free at checkout. As Wolf’s lovely wife Shelly (a.k.a. Kobold Minion #1) tells me:

Issue #10 features an interview with Paizo‘s Jason Bulmahn, Ed Greenwood‘s Dwarven Goddess, Ecology of the Hill Giant, John Wick‘s unique (and slightly disturbing) take on Halflings, Secrets of the Halberd, Monte Cook‘s Game Theories,  Rampant Elf Lust, and more. We think it’s one of the best issues we’ve ever done.

I’ve long been a fan of Wolf and his work. Now, if you hustle on over, you can see why, for free.

In the excellent Kobold Quarterly (run by Alliterate pal Wolfgang Baur), Jeremy Jones (who sometimes pops by here to comment) interviews Bruce Cordell (another Alliterate!). Bruce consistently does some of the best design work for D&D, so if you’re into the game, run (don’t walk) over to check out what he has to say.  

My fellow Alliterate and good pal Lester Smith is on a game-designing roll. To add to the free MonsterCon! card game he released last week, he’s now posted rules for the Powerhouses of Wrestling! dice game, the Demon Bound! card game, and the Invasion of the Saucer People! card game.

As with the first, the best bits about these games (other than Les’s trademark wit and excellent game design) are that you can play them with components you already own—and they’re free! Be sure to check them out, play them, and let Les know what you think.

At the Alliterates meeting on Monday night, I had the honor of playtesting MonsterCon!, a new card game designed by Lester Smith. As with much of Les’s work, it’s wickedly funny and simple to pick up and shows surprising depth.

Best of all, it’s free! Les has posted the rules online, and all you need to play are a deck of cards, plus a pencil and paper for keeping score. It’s a fast and fun game, and it won’t cost you a dime, so be sure to check it out and give it a whirl.

The Lord of the Rings Online website features more LOTRO-y goodness. Look for “Hero’s Guide to the Silvertine Lodes.” As usual, Will Hindmarch wrote it, and I edited it.

By the way, if you haven’t checked out the game, I recommend it. The Mines of Moria expansion really rocks.

I’m also getting into Guild Wars these days. The fact that my friends Jeff Grubb (also an Alliterate), Will McDermott, and Ree Soesbee handle a lot of the writing for it helps.

My fellow Alliterate and good pal Lester Smith just launched WhenShadowsRise.com, a new website dedicated to the development of a new horror roleplaying game. Among many other gaming gems, Les designed the excellent Dark Conspiracy RPG way back in 1991.

Les has been working on this game in his limited spare time for a long time. I’ve heard about it in bits and pieces from him over the years, and I can’t wait to read the actual thing.

My fellow Alliterate and good friend Steve Sullivan has a wacky idea he calls The Tournament of Death. He’s challenging himself to write a fantasy novella inspired by this year’s Olympic games while the games are going on—and then post each chapter as he goes.

Be sure to check up on him as he goes!

Last night, GAMA gave out the 34th annual Origins Awards. Although I’ve not worked on many tabletop games over the past couple years, I had two books with my name in them that were nominated this year: 40 Years of Gen Con by Robin Laws and Hobby Games: The 100 Best edited by James Lowder.

My contribution to each was small. Robin interviewed me, along with dozens of others, for his book, and I wrote one of the 100 essays for Jim’s book. (My entry was about Space Hulk.) Sadly, both were up for the Non-Fiction Publication of the Year, and only one could win.

The voters at Origins chose Hobby Games: The 100 Best. My condolences to Robin, and many congratulations to Jim and the 99 other authors who chipped in on the winning book, among which I count several good friends. That includes many of my fellow Alliterates: Thomas Reid, Monte Cook, Steven Schend, Stan!, Tim Brown, Lester Smith, Wolf Baur, Steve Winter, Jeff Grubb, and Doug Niles.

Now, I can only wonder if GAMA will try to fit all 100+ names on to the trophy? If the rulebooks for collectible card games have taught us nothing else, it’s that people can read really small print.

Congratulations to all of the rest of the winners too! Notably, Jim Lowder’s Astounding Hero Tales anthology of pulp stories took home the Fiction Publication of the Year award too. (Robin was one of the book’s authors too, along with fellow Alliterate writer Thomas Reid, so there’s some small consolation for him.)

As Jim pointed out to me, this is likely the first time both awards have been won by creator-owned projects. Jim always stands strong for creators’ rights, and the contracts for both books show that.

Congratulations also to my friends at Paradigm Concepts for Codex Arcanis winning Roleplaying Game Supplement of the Year. I wrote a chunk of the original edition, although I’m told my work is only there in sprit in the latest, award-winning version.

Steve Sullivan, one of the illustrious Alliterates, launches a brand-new radio show tonight, along with author Linda Godfrey: “Uncanny Radio.” It concentrates on things strange and macabre, and it features an original theme song by another Alliterate, Tim Brown.

If you live near Burlington, WI, you can pick Manwolf (Steve) and Linda (Linda) up directly at 89.1 FM. For the rest of us, we can tune in live via the web.

Fellow Alliterate and longtime friend Steve Sullivan recently launched his own publishing company, Walkabout Publishing. He already has four books out with more in the works.

This joins two other self-publishing efforts from the Alliterates. Steve was involved in the first too—Popcorn Press—along with Lester Smith and Rob King. For the second, Wolfgang Baur is ramping up his fifth Open Design project as well as building his new baby, Kobold Quarterly.

Lester also runs PoemTee.com (which offers his poetry on T-shirts) and Hobby Hearse (which sells rare and used games). Meanwhile, Don Perrin continues spinning lead with his latest miniatures company, True North Miniatures, and publishing articles about it in HMG Magazine. Plus, he keeps many of the rest of us in print with his Quality Print-on-Demand.

Meanwhile, many of us still write novels and design games. We’re a busy lot!