As I charge headlong toward my deadlines, I’ve been picking away at Bambi vs. Godzilla
One footnote hit me hard:
A traditional recipe for genius: inspiration, a plan, not enough time.
Not that I’ll claim genius, but that’s exactly how the creative process–and much of my best work–goes for me.
Poking around the web, I found the covers for the Blood Bowl Omnibus and Rumble in the Jungle (a.k.a. Blood Bowl #4). I don’t know if these are final or not, but they look pretty darn cool to me. The Omnibus cover features an accurate image of the Bad Bay Hackers’ helmet as described in the books. and the Rumble cover seems dynamic and fun. I miss seeing Max Bertolini‘s excellent work, but these still look like 110 yards of fun each.
I updated the “In Progress” page, with links for these books and most of the other stuff I’ve been working on recently. I also added to my “Appearances” page the news that I’ll be a guest of honor at this year’s Gen Con once again. It’s the 40th year for the show, and I hope to see you there.
My apologies to those who came out, but I didn’t make it to OddCon today. Between the various illnesses running through the house and some high-pressure deadlines, I couldn’t see my way clear to leaving town. My biggest regret is not being able to spend some quality time with my pal John Kovalic, who took a hard, personal blow this week. We made plans to have dinner at GTS next week, but I still wish I could have seen him today too.
Here’s to a better spring for us all, and a happy and healthy summer too!
The fine people at OddCon (read: Jerome Van Epps) have asked me to join them this weekend in Madison, WI. I’ll be there Saturday at noon for:
Turning your favorite story or show into a game. What kind of game would you make of Dr. Blink? Matt Forbeck, Christopher Jones, John Kovalic, Melissa S. Kaercher, Monica Valentinelli, Jerome Van Epps.
And then at 4:30 PM for:
All good things must come to an end: Looking forward to the last Harry Potter book. Matt Forbeck, Lisa Freitag, Greg Rihn, Ruth Nichols, John Wardale, Richard West
I’m looking forward to seeing many old friends and making new ones too. If you’re in the area, be sure to stop in and say hi.
It’s true. I found out from Mark Simmons himself last week. The official release is below.
It’s a crying shame. Mark’s been one of the industry’s biggest boosters, even from before he started the Games Quarterly Catalog 16 years ago. He turned around the Origins Awards before handing them over to Charles Ryan and then went on to rescue GAMA in the aftermath of the quiet doom that was the Miami GTS.
Matthews Simmons Marketing, which ran Games Quarterly Catalog, Games Quarterly Magazine, National Games Week, and the ill-fated Games Expo 2007 died because of the horrible contraction the tabletop games industry has suffered through the past couple years. MSM runs on ad money, essentially, and when companies hit hard times they cut their ad budgets–and sometimes don’t bother to pay their bills.
Still, it’s good to see that the two Richards (Hartnett and Martin Leep) will pick up GQC‘s torch and continue along Mark’s path. I wish them luck.
For me, this means I successfully wrote an article for every issue of Games Quarterly Magazine. I just wish it had been a longer streak. The magazine had the best pay rate in the entire industry. Still, as I told Mark, I’d have written for him for free if he’d asked.
Here’s to Mark and his crew. I hope they all land on their feet and that we see them again soon. They contributed so much to tabletop games, and I can only hope that MSM’s demise doesn’t prove to be the canary in the industry’s coal mine.
Read More
Amazon has noted the upcoming release of my fourth Blood Bowl novel: Rumble in the Jungle. As their listing states:
Fourth Blood Bowl novel that follows the rags to riches career of star thrower Dunk Hoffnung and his team the Bad Bay Hackers. After winning the Spike! Magazine tournament final, the Hackers set sail for the fabulous land of Lustria to seek new challenges. In the hot, steamy jungles, Dunk and his friends have to fight off zombies, pygmy halflings, lizardmen and more — and that’s before they face off against the Amazon team in the Tobazco Bowl!
Here’s to more fun and football fatalities, just in time for your post-Christmas shopping! Look for the book on shelves around December 26.
I had a great time down at Adepticon last weekend. I drove down on Saturday morning and reported in to the Black Library‘s sales manager Vince Rospond, who staffed the booth in the dealer’s room. After about a half hour, Vince pointed out where my longtime friend Jervis Johnson was wandering the gaming hall and sent me off to chat with him.
Jervis designed Blood Bowl, and we worked together on the Space Hulk supplements Deathwing and Genestealer, along with Richard Halliwell and Bill King–a true dream team. We caught up for about an hour before I got a call from my pal Keith Strohm, who was waiting for me in the hotel lobby. Keith and I grabbed lunch at a nearby place called Big Bowl and chatted for an hour and a half until I realized I really should get back to the booth.
Once ensconced in the booth I went about the business of helping Vince sell my books. While we managed that, a couple of long-time fans–Sean and Hobie–hunted me down, along with my old friend from my ICE days, Tim Schmidt. Besides the various Blood Bowl novels, I signed a limited-edition, leatherbound Deadlands–and the rulebooks for Deathwing and Genestealer, which I’d never done before.
I wandered around the gaming halls a bit, which included a trek to an outdoor wedding tent, which house the “Fantasy Pavilion.” I even bumped into Alex Fennell of Mongoose Publishing, playing his hot-pink 40K forces.
After the dealer’s hall closed, I grabbed dinner with Vince and Jervis–and any other GW employee who wandered by the hotel restaurant, including many of the staff of the Chicago Battle Bunker. As an unexpected pleasure, Jon Gillard, GW’s head of licensing, also joined us, and we had a chance to catch up as the evening wound down.
I made my good-byes around 10:30 and drove home, reaching my bed just after midnight. I had a wonderful time at the show. It’s always good to see friends and to soak up the excitement of hundreds of hardcore gamers doing what they love.
Although I worked for a couple years at Human Head Studios and served as the president of Pinnacle Entertainment Group as we developed a Deadlands computer game (that never quite made it), I’ve yet to have my name in the credits of a published computer game. It’s the nature of such things. I have friends who spent years of their lives working on computer games that never shipped.
For me, that changes on May 1 with the US release of ArmA: Combat Operations. The spiritual sequel to the smash hit Operation Flashpoint, ArmA: Combat Operations takes modern combat simulations to its highest level yet. I can’t wait to play it, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too.
I wrote the script for the voiceovers that play during the cutscenes before each mission begins, and I had a ball doing it. Best of all, I had the chance to work with my old friend Henrik Strandberg, formerly of Target Games fame. Henrik and I spent many years in the early ’90s working on games like Mutant Chronices, Warzone, and Doomtrooper. Now he’s a top producer with Atari, which publishes ArmA: Combat Operations among many other excellent games.
At the same time, I’m working on the novelization of the Mutant Chronicles film. Funny how it all seems to come full circle while still pressing on into new frontiers.
I just finished the first draft of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating Dungeons & Dragons Characters. Whew! Wake me when it hits shelves.
This Saturday, I’ll be at Adepticon down in Schaumburg, Illinois. I don’t know my exact plans yet, but I suspect I’ll end up signing some books and taking part in a seminar or two. If you’re in the area, please stop on by and say hi!