Cybercon Virtual Appearance

I just signed on to take part in a seminar at Cybercon, an online gaming convention that runs February 4—5, 2006. Come on by and pick my brain! Or the circuits of the Forbeck-Chatbot I’ll program to take my place!

Old Games Never Die

I just spotted the fact that you can play Fast Break for free at CCG Workshop. Well, some of you can. The software only seems to work with Windows, so Mac users (like me) are out of luck.

Fast Break is a humorous basketball CCG I designed for WildStorm Productions, published in 1996. It’s a fun game, but the orders for it were horrible. I think we sold more into Japan than the US.

We didn’t have an NBA license, which is probably the main reason the game failed. Because of that, many of the people at WildStorm ended up as players in the game. There’s a “Matt Forbeck” player card out there with my mug on it and some terribly fictional stats.

They have some other CCGs I worked on up at the site too: Dark Eden, Doomtown, Doomtrooper, Kult, Monster Rancher and WildStorms.

That’s some trip down memory lane. If you want a CCG of mine that’s still in print, try High Stakes Drifter, which WizKids just launched last month.

New (Old) Look

It seems like I’m forever tinkering with this site. It’s a perpetual work in progress. You may notice, for instance, that I added Dead Ball to the “Recent Novels” section in the sidebar. Or that I’ve altered the background color of the pages. Or that I’ve added a new header graphic.

And, yes, if the painting in the header looks familiar, it’s because it’s me. Shane Hensley, a few of the other Pinnacle guys, and I modeled for artist Lissanne Lake at one Gen Con many years back. She used the photos she took to make a few paintings for the Doomtown collectible card game published by Wizards and licensed after our Deadlands weird western roleplaying game.

Shane and I appeared as a pair of U.S. Marshals on one card, and Lissanne used my face for two cards for a rogue named Fasthands Freddy, a pirate who terrorized the Great Maze. The new header graphic uses a crop from one of those cards. The two originals hang on the wall in my office, along with the mask of Patriot (from my Brave New World roleplaying game) and a few other cool mementos from my years in the adventure gaming industry.

Writing & Reading (in Low Fashion)

I have the one of the greatest jobs around: creating games and books to entertain others. Still, it’s a job, and most of the time it’s serious work. Especially when I’m facing a hard deadline, it can seem like a gig in an office cubicle or driving pizzas somewhere would be easier, if not nearly as much fun. That’s how I felt last week while I was plowing through the first draft of Blood Bowl: Death Match.

Then I got a care package in the mail from my friends at the Black Library. It included six copies of Blood Bowl: Dead Ball and one of the limited-edition Blood Bowl t-shirts!

There’s nothing like holding a copy of a published book in your hands to make it all seem real. Until then, the book is just a collection of thoughts in my head that I’ve done by best to turn into bits and bytes on my computer by means of my well-abused keyboard. When it’s printed and bound, it’s a book–and just the thing I needed to keep me juiced up and rolling on its sequel.

The t-shirt made my day too. I wore mine on the day I wrapped up my first draft of Blood Bowl: Death Match, and I couldn’t have been happier with it. Woot!

Dead Ball Rolling!

If you live in the UK, you can now pick up your copy of Dead Ball, the second in my trilogy of books based on Blood Bowl, the game of fantasy-based football from Games Workshop. In this installment, Dunk and the gang end up getting blown out of the Old World and set sail for the distant isle of Albion to begin their quest for the fabled Far Albion Cup.

While you’re in the store be sure to pick up a copy of Darkblade: Bloodstorm too, by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee. This is the second in the series, and I know Mike’s having a blast writing them with Dan.

If you’re in the US, you’ll have to wait just a bit longer for Dead Ball. I got a few copies in the mail this week, but most stores won’t have them until January. (Amazon.com lists a December 27 release date though.)

Night of the Long Wands

According to GamingReport.com and other sources, Wizards of the Coast laid off 15 good people today. This includes:

Peter Archer
Gary Benion
Leeds Chamberlain
Mike Elliot
Joe Hauck
Cornelius Lee
Michelle Lyons
John Rateliff
Pat Robinett
Katie Roe
Charles Ryan
Tim Thomas
Wendy Wallace
Teeuwyn Woodruff

These are some of the best and brightest people in the company, many of whom have been with the organization for years. Peter ran the book division (which publishes my Eberron trilogy, The Lost Mark). Charles was the brand manager for Dungeons & Dragons, and one of my employees at Pinnacle. Michelle is a crack editor who just moved out to Seattle this year to take the job. Mike headed up the nonlicensed CCG design department. Joe was in charge of the whole nonlicensed CCGs branch. John is a fantastic RPG designer whose work I edited on Decipher’s version of The Lord of the Rings RPG. Teuwynn is a great game designer (RPG and otherwise) who’s been with the company for ages.

Getting laid off is never fun, and having it happen before the holidays makes it that much rougher. Many companies handle layoffs in December, as it helps trim costs just before the end of the fiscal year, but it doesn’t make it any easier for those who are cut.

If you know of anyone else affected by the cuts, drop me a note. I’d love to know which of my friends I should be worrying about and which still have their jobs.

To those of you who were cut, best wishes to you. I hope you can use the holiday season and your severance package to take a deserved (if involuntary) break and come out ready for more in the new year. If I can help in any way, just say the word.

Edit: Added Gary Benion and Teeuwyn Woodruff to the list.

Edit 2: Added Leeds Chamberlain and Pat Robinett

Old Friends Passing Through

Jim Kitchen, an old pal of mine from his days with Games Workshop US, passed through Beloit on Sunday on his way back home from a Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago. I met up with him, his lovely wife, and their son Jack for a quick lunch as a respite from crunching away at Blood Bowl: Dead Ball. Despite the fact that Jim’s been out of the adventure games industry for years, we still manage to keep in touch, although this was the first time we’d sat down across from each other in–well, I can’t recall how long.

Catching up with old friends like that is wonderful fun, even if it always seems too short. It’s like having a short sequel or even just reading the epilog to one of your favorite adventures. Fortunately Jim and family all seem healthy and happy, so this should just be the latest installment in an ongoing series of encounters. 🙂