Matthew Sprange, one of the founders of Mongoose Publishing, just released I Am Mongoose, and So Can You!, a new book aimed at showing you how you can make a living in the tabletop gaming industry. I’ve only read through the free sample up at DriveThruRPG.com, but it seems like solid, sensible stuff. The PDF’s a bit pricey at $29.95 …
Who Quits a Day Job?
Sandy Antunes has an excellent column up on RPG.net today, in which he reveals the results of an informal survey of RPG designers and developers. The question he put to them was: “What is your day job?” The results are not particularly scientific, which Sandy (whose day jobs include astrophysicist and stay-at-home dad) freely admits, but they’re fun. I didn’t …
Around the World in XX Games
My pal Keith Baker (the man who created Eberron among many other great games) is planning the adventure of a lifetime later this year. His aim? To travel around the world, running roleplaying games in exchange for hospitality. He calls it Have Dice, Will Travel. If you are a gamer who happens to live in an interesting place and have …
Back to Lothlórien
Turbine recently posted an article on The Lord of the Rings Online that I edited: “Hero’s Guide to Lothlórien.” The inimitable Will Hindmarch did an excellent job with the heavy lifting of actually writing the piece and taking all the screenshots. If you like MMOs or The Lord of the Rings in any form, be sure to check it out.
Game Balance Is Overrated
I recently wrote this bit on a private mailing list. Jeff Tidball saw it and asked me to repost it over at Gameplaywright.net in the discussion about Things We Think About Games, the game-ruminations book he and Will Hindmarch put together. Which I did. And so I thought I’d post it here as well. I’m interested to hear what you …
Scrye Folds
ICv2.com reports that Scyre, the last remaining magazine devoted to collectible games, is ending its run in April. By my count, Scrye was also the last adventure game magazine of any stripe left in wide circulation, joining Dragon, Dungeon, InQuest, Games Quarterly, and several others in the periodicals graveyard. I used to love reading gaming magazines, but with the rise …
BIFF 2009
The Beloit International Film Festival announced its 2009 lineup this week. The festival runs February 19—22, and I’m hoping to make the most of it. I’ve not heard of many of the films on the docket. If any independent film buffs out there could offer some recommendations, I’d appreciate it. I actually managed to see several films in a theater …
Forbidden Mail
A couple weeks ago, I received my first e-mail from a concerned parent about More Forbidden Knowledge. Honestly, with a title like that, I’d have figured on more outrage in my inbox by now, but I’m happy to be wrong on that point. The woman had some real, if misguided, concerns, and I did my best to answer them. You …
Congratulations x2
A quick shout out to two friends of mine who’ve had good news this week. First, to Carl Kluzke, who made it through the first round of Paizo‘s 2009 edition of its RPG Superstar competition. (Think American Idol, but for RPG designers.) The boundary chalk magic item he concocted for this is good fun with a cool twist. Good luck …
Superhero Wishes at Bookgasm
Fellow IAMTW member and comic-book legend Paul Kupperberg recently asked a bunch of us to tell him which superhero we’d like to write a novel about and what kind of story we would tell. Oh, and did we have any horror stories about such books to tell? You can see my answer–along with those of Richard Lee Byers, Greg Cox, …