The Diana Jones Award website has a spiffy new makeover. Drool over it for a while, anticipating the eventual release of the sixth annual shortlist.
Who knew this would last so long? No matter how much longer it goes, it’s already been a great ride.
Stafford’s Games, Your Gain
Greg Stafford, the legendary shaman of the gaming industry, is selling off some of his personal games collection on eBay. This includes, among other gems, an autographed copy of the rulebook for White Bear & Red Moon, an autographed copy of the Prince Valiant RPG, and–get this–the first copy of the first edition of the Call of Cthulhu RPG.
It’s still in the original shrink-wrap.
Apologies (and thanks!) to Anthony Ragan for the heads-up.
Protospiel’s Proposition
I’ve just agreed to be this year’s guest of honor at Protospiel, a small convention dedicated purely to novice game designers. It’s scheduled for July 13—15 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, home to my alma mater, the University of Michigan.
If you’re an aspiring game designer–especially for board or card games, although games of all types are welcome–I recommend attending, if only to see what others of your ilk have rattling around in their brains. I’m looking forward to it and hope to see you there!
Death Match Interview
Over on the Black Library’s forums, the Norseman just posted an interview with me in honor of Death Match being released this month. He asked some great questions, which I answered as best I could. Be sure to check it out.
GamingReport.com Reviews Battle Dice
GamingReport.com has a review of Marvel Heroes Battle Dice. The reviewer glosses over the depth of play that the various powers and dice rules give the game, but I’ll take the free publicity.
Site Upgraded
This weekend, I finally got around to updating the site’s software to WordPress 2.02. At the same time, I added some cool bits to the comments. Now, the site can automatically e-mail you a notification whenever someone comments on a particular post. You can even subscribe to a post without commenting first. (Of course, if you already subscribe to comments via the RSS comments feed, you’re all set.)
Also, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, you’ll see an automatic tally of how many words I’ve written in the posts on this site, not including any comments. It seems I have a novel’s worth of writing up here already, which is either really cool or shameful, depending on how you look at it.
Gen Con Indy Keeps Me Guesting
The fine folks at Gen Con Indy have asked me to be a guest of honor once again at this year’s show. This will be my third year in a row to be so honored. Best of all, it’ll be my 25th summertime Gen Con in a row.
Back when I was a kid, my father would pack me and my pals in our 1976 extended cab Dodge Van (dubbed “the Magic Bus”) and drive us all out to UW—Parkside every morning of the convention. He’d drop us off there, then pick us up in the evening, secure in the knowledge that the worst trouble we’d get into was spending too much money on games.
Man, was I hooked. Now, so many years later, it’s incredible to be a part of the whole experience, one of my favorite times of the year. If you’ll be there too, be sure to look me up at one of my seminars or at whichever booth I might happen to be a part of. I’m looking forward to it!
Day of the Daemon Approaches
I’m on the comp list for the Black Library, which means they regularly send me boxes of their new books. This week, I got a couple cool surprises.
First, Cardinal Crimson by Will McDermott, the latest in the Necromunda series. I met Will at Gen Con a few years back and recommended him to the BL team, so I get a contact buzz of pride from that.
Second, I received a copy of Day of the Daemon by Aaron Rosenberg. Aaron’s been a pal for years, and I introduced him to the BL team too. Better yet, my friend Max Bertolini created the book’s fantastic cover. That’s a great combination for a great book!
Human Head Gets Back to Normal
As reported by ICv2.com, Human Head Studios will publish its first full-fledged roleplaying game this summer: Normal, Texas. I did some preliminary concept work on this line back when I was with the company, but after I left Jason Blair took it the other 99 yards down the field for the touchdown. The preview edition that showed up at conventions last summer looked great, but it only whetted the appetite for the real thing, which we should see at this year’s Gen Con Indy.
In the meantime, we’ll have to content ourselves with playing Villainy, Jason’s first card game. It looks great, and I can’t wait to play it. Sadly, though, I left my copy in the Playmates Toys booth at GTS in my mad dash to find my luggage before my flight left. (Some helpful GAMA staff had locked my bags in a closet for me on my departure day, but they’d gone to lunch when I needed to go. I found someone to open the closet, but there were a few harrowing moments of dull panic before that.) So, I’m still aching to play, and hopefully I’ll get my chance soon!
More Battle Dice Goodness!
Playmates Toys has just posted a PDF of the Powers reference sheet for Marvel Heroes Battle Dice. They also activated the organized play section of the website, so you’ll soon be able to join the fun with players across the nation.