Mark Preuschl lives here in my hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin, and he takes some fantastic photographs of the place. He does a great job of capturing the beauty of the place, something it’s all too easy to take for granted in the rush of daily life. I especially like his shots of the refurbished Beloit Corp building as seen from …
Origins Awards Voting Open
The voting for the annual Origins Awards is now open, but only until June 6. If you’re a gaming industry professional, you can join the AAGAD and vote for free. So please do! If you’re not an industry professional, you can still take a gander at the nominees for this year’s awards and bask in their reflected glory. I don’t …
Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
I just finished reading Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids by David Kushner. It’s the story of how Jon Finkel, a Magic: The Gathering player, went from high-school nerd to world champion, joined a casino blackjack card-counting team, and then decided to take on the World Series of Poker too. It’s a fascinating study of a generation of gamer …
Game Company Spin-Offs
It’s inevitable that people who work for a game company sometimes leave. Maybe they got laid off, maybe they left on their own. Lots of times they leave the industry for good, but just as often, it seems, they find some way to stick around and keep working at having fun. By way of example, check out Crafty Games and …
Xombies!
If you’re a fan of the undead (and who isn’t) and you haven’t seen James Farr‘s Xombie, you’re cheating yourself. I had the honor of working with James on a project this year, and he’s flat-out amazing. Xombie shows why.
New Site Functions
I’ve been tinkering with the site again. If you look at the bottom of each post, you’ll see a pair of new icons. If you click on the printer icon, the post reformats into an easy-to-print style. If you click on the e-mail icon, a pop-up window allows you to send the content of the post to a friend. At …
DC Battle Dice Previews: Starro
To cap off the week of Battle Dice previews, we have one more from the upcoming DC version of the game: Starro the Conqueror. If you thought MODOK was weird, he has nothing on the giant starfish alien who controls the minds of his victims via miniature, face-hugging versions of itself. Better yet, Starro takes the blame for the discovery …
Dragonstar Deal
Fantasy Flight is having a Memorial Day weekend sale on its website. Among the roleplaying game books available for only $5 each is Dragonstar: Guide to the Galaxy, of which I wrote a good-sized chunk. It’s a great price for that book, and you could pick up a number of other neglected tomes while you’re there, like Grimm, Spellslinger, and …
Cathy’s Book on the Way
According to Publishers Weekly, there’s a new kind of book on the way, and Cathy’s Book is the first of its kind. Jordan Weisman and Sean Stewart showed me a mock-up of this book at the BEA show in Chicago two years back. It’s essentially a hardcopy take on the kind of ARGs that Jordan and Sean invented (or at …
DC Battle Dice Previews: Starfire
This time around, we have our first preview figure from the upcoming DC Battle Dice game. Starfire was one of the founding members of the Teen Titans, and she’s been with the group through many of its incarnations. She became even more popular as one of the lineup for the Teen Titans animated series on Cartoon Network. Nothing like a …