The Star Trek movie toy set I designed for Playmates Toys is going on sale in August. The Star Trek Interactive Utility Belt comes with a phaser and communicator that allow you to interact with the belt and communicate with Starfleet Command. I designed the game play and wrote the dialog with some help from a couple of excellent TV …
Hobby Games Essayists Assemble!
The esteemed editor Jim Lowder has given a hundred or so people permission to release the list of essayists they’re joining for Family Games: The 100 Best, the follow-up to the award-winning Hobby Games: The 100 Best. I happen to be one of those lucky souls, and here’s that amazing list. We can’t say what we’re writing about yet. The …
Kars for Kids
My friend Clifford Meth recommends this charity–Kars4Kids–which turns your old car into summer camp time for needy kids. It sounds like a great cause and an easy way to support it. Just keep away from that jingle on the site’s front page, which will earworm you in seconds. I donated one of my first post-college junkers to a charity like …
POD Board and Card Games?
The Game Crafter is a new site that promises to bring print on demand (POD) to board and card games. The prices aren’t great for big runs, of course, but they’re perfect for prototypes or for testing out ideas. I mean, $6.28 (plus shipping, I presume) to have a single deck of custom cards printed for a prototype is wonderful. …
20 Years In
While writing a bio for my essay for Hobby Games: The 100 Best, I realized that I’ve been working full-time as an author and game designer since I graduated from college in 1989, twenty years ago. It really doesn’t seem like I’ve been at it that long, but that’s likely because I enjoy doing it so much. In lots of …
Aaron Allston Auction
The Fandom Association of Central Texas (FACT) is holding an auction to help author and game designer (and longtime pal) Aaron Allston with his staggering medical bills. As you might remember, Aaron suffered a heart attack in March and underwent emergency quadruple bypass surgery. This saved his life, and he’s now on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, like many freelancers …
Music, Comics, Books, and Food
Ann and I just got back from seeing Fountains of Wayne perform at Studio M, in the basement of 105.5 FM in Madison. I won the tickets in a random drawing on Monday and arranged for babysitting right away. We drove up to the station and got there on time and enjoyed a couple free beers courtesy of the Capital …
KQ on Cordell
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 Kids in the News
Yesterday’s Beloit Daily News had a short article about the Together We Read celebration at the Beloit Public Library on June 20. The photo that accompanies the article shows all five of my kids sitting in the front row of a story reading. From left to right, Pat’s the one in the green shirt (partially obscured by the reader), then …
Brave New World Show at Gen Con
At Gen Con, the big event for me is Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Experience the Revolution. At 4 PM on August 14, the Reactor 88 Studios folks show off the progress they’ve made with their finished proof-of-concept piece for a Brave New World feature film. This multimedia event also features a live concert by Makeshift Prodigy. (ENT0904588) The event …