Two Kickstarters for You

You can tell I’m busy when I don’t get around to updating the blog for, um– Wow, has it been five weeks?

It was a crazy five weeks. We started our eldest at high school and the quads at middle school. I spent a week in China working on a couple upcoming iOS games for Ubisoft Shanghai. And just last night I sent off the last chunk of the new edition of the Marvel Encyclopedia, which is due out in March of 2014–or tomorrow, in publishing terms.

Meanwhile, other things keep happening. Case in point, I’m involved in two Kickstarters at the moment. The first is Cthulhu Haiku II and More Mythos Madness, an anthology from my fellow Alliterate and longtime pal Lester Smith. This is becoming an annual tradition with Les, and the first book was a hoot. I’m honored to be chipping in a short tale for this one. It’s already funded–the goal was $13, after all–so you’re guaranteed to get a book if you join in. As I write this, you only have about 48 hours to join in.

I’m also involved in Help Fund My Robot Army and Other Improbable Kickstarters, edited by anthology superstar John Joseph Adams. As you might guess from the title, this is an anthology of stories told in the form of Kickstarter drives, being funded on Kickstarter. It’s so meta, I couldn’t resist it. I suggest you don’t even try.

My tale will be about time travel, which is going to make for a bit of a twisted Kickstarter page. You’ll see. This one’s already funded too, and we have around 68 hours to go, so don’t wait long. Go back it.

Now that I’m done with the Marvel book, it’s back to finishing the Monster Academy books for me, plus knocking out a few short stories I’ve promised people for other things. Then it’s on to Loot Drop (the original novel I sold to Tor earlier this year), and after that I’ll tackle the Exalted novel for my pals over at the Onyx Path.

So, the year doesn’t promise to get any less crazy, but it’s guaranteed to be fun. Thanks for reading!

 

It’s a Dangerous Games Fiasco

image-327486-fullAs part of the Kickstarter I ran for my Dangerous Games novels, I promised to create a playset for Fiasco based on the novels. For those who don’t know, Fiasco is a fantastic tabletop roleplaying game created by Jason Morningstar, which won the Diana Jones Award a few years back. It’s a fantastic game, although very different from your standard “kick down the door, kill the monsters, take their loot” RPG, mostly because instead of trying to beat the bad guys, you spend the game trying to make the story as interesting as possible. Which usually involves making things harder on the characters by consensus.

It’s great. Trust me.

I wrote the playset up in early August and then played it at Gen Con, the largest tabletop games convention in this hemisphere. As always, I had a great time at Gen Con, talking to people about games, although it was a little eerie spotting out all the places where horrible things happen in the Dangerous Games novels, especially when wandering past them in the middle of the night. (All three of the books are out and available for the public now, so be sure to tell your pals.) While I was there, I had a chance to playtest the Dangerous Games playset for Fiasco with an all-star crew.

Keith Baker (creator of Eberron and Gloom) and his wife Jenn hosted the game session in their suite. Jason Morningstar – the designer of Fiasco himself – joined us and bore with me as I confessed that while I loved the game I’d not actually played it until that day. He taught me everything with a smile and coached us all along with fantastic class. Wil Wheaton and Peter Adkison had been slated to join us, but they had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts. The fantastic Kristin Firth stepped in to fill their shoes.

We had as amazing a time as you can pack into a game in two short hours. I incorporated their suggestions into the text, gave it a quick polish with the feedback from the other playtesters, and finished it up. Jason posted the results over at the Bully Pulpit Games site earlier this week. You can go grab it now for free. 

I hope you enjoy it and have just as much fun as we did playing ordinary gamers with powerful ambitions and poor impulse control. To celebrate the playset’s release, I’m keeping Dangerous Games: How to Play on sale for just 99¢ until Monday. Be sure to get it fast.

Thanks for all your support!

My Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books Schedule

TSafariScreenSnapz001his weekend, I’ll be zipping up to Waukesha to take part in the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books for the first time. I’ve heard lots of great things about it over the years, and this time around the ever-kind John Klima (of Electric Velocipede fame) invited me to take part in the Science Fiction Writers of America‘s slate of programming. I should be there on Friday night for the keynote, and I’ll be around most of Saturday as well. My official schedule is as follows:

September 21

  • 9:30 AM: Graphic Novels Panel, with Mike Norton and Bill Willingham. (Room N130)
  • 10:45 AM: Science Fiction Gaming, with Gary Kloster and Bob Love (Room N130)
  • 1:30 PM: Glitter and Mayhem/Crowdfunding, with John Klima, Lynne M.Thomas, and Michael D.Thomas (Room N130)
  • 3 PM: Signing (Commons Student Lounge)

If you’re in the area, come on out and say hi and join in the fun.

 

Battle Isle: Threshold Run Kickstarter Launched

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As you might recall, I’ve been writing an online comic for an upcoming video game from Stratotainment called Battle Isle: Threshold Run. (Start here and take a quick read. We have four episodes up so far with more on the way soon.)

Yesterday, Stratotainment launched a Kickstarter for the game. It’s a turn-based strategy game that fans of the strategy genre, board gamers, and war gamers should all enjoy. The drive is for the iOS version of the game, and from the development bits I’ve seen, it’s looking great.

The pitch video for the Kickstarter is hilarious. Watch it for that. And for the shout-out Thomas Hertzler gives me at 2:42.

Battle Isle: Threshold Run takes place in 1946 Germany, soon after the end of WWII. An alien invasion forces the people of Earth to band together against this common foe, even as the wounds from their last conflict are still healing.

The Kickstarter has a slew of great rewards, ranging from a copy of the game all the way up to getting your likeness into the game as a commander. You can even get limited edition models of some of the tanks in the game, sculpted by my old pal Tim Prow.

Anyhow, check out the video, take a look at the drive, and pledge what you can. And please spread the word. Thanks!

The Dangerous Games on Sale Day!

DG-HTW-3DDangerous Games: How to Win – the third in my trilogy of thrillers set at Gen Con – goes on sale today. You can buy it at Amazon, Smashwords, DriveThruFiction, or right here. Better yet, both How to Cheat (Book 2) and How to Win are on sale today in print-on-demand editions as well, which means you can get the whole set in both hardcover and paperback editions – with the ebooks tossed in for free – as you like.

How to Win is a wild ride of a novel that ramps up hard from the first two books. How to Play (#1) is a basic murder mystery, although it’s a why-done-it rather than a who-done-it. How to Cheat (#2) bumps up from there to a crime novel, complete with professional assassins hunting down targets.

I often describe How to Win as “Die Hard meets Gen Con.” Ken Hite tells me it’s his favorite of the three books – the one he most wished was longer – and he cited Die Hard too, as well as The Taking of Pelham 123. The action hockey-sticks here, and the body count rockets right alongside it.

To celebrate the release of How to Win – and the fact that I’ll be at Gen Con starting tomorrow – I put How to Play on sale this week for only 99¢. It’s a great chance to get in on the ground floor and then hop on the roller coaster ride from there.

Melanie Meadors posted about the series today and calls How to Play “just plain FUN!”

Abhinav Jain (a.k.a. Shadowhawk over at the Founding Fields) gave the first book a great review and raved yesterday about How to Cheat too. He says, “It continues to amaze, despite the constant exposure, that Matt can write in so many different genres so well and that his books are always a blast to read.” And he gives the book a rare 10 out of 10.

James Floyd Kelly, who’s reviewed each of the books over at GeekDad.com, covered How to Win today and says, “It’s violent… horrifying… vengeful. And totally entertaining as you keep reminding yourself that it’s only a story… it’s only a story… GenCon is safe… GenCon is fun.” 

Things like that just make me smile. I hope the books will do the same for you. Grab them, read them, and spread the word.

Thanks for your support!

 

The Dangerous Games: How to Win Roll Call

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Dangerous Games: How to Win debuts today! As with the previous two Dangerous Games novels – How to Play and How to Cheat – How to Win is packed full of real-life people, mostly game designers I know and hang out with when I can. This time around, a big chunk part of the novel takes place in the Writer’s Symposium at Gen Con, so a large number of the names that appear in the book belong to other authors I know through the symposium.

I kept track of them all as I went along, and here’s a checklist of the folks that show up throughout How to Win. I could tell you who each of them is, but that’s part of the fun of the books: finding those folks and figuring out how they all fit not only into the story but into the show.
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How to Play Only 99¢

DG-HTP-3DTo celebrate Gen Con starting this week – and the release of Dangerous Games: How to Win tomorrow – I’ve put Dangerous Games: How to Play on sale for only 99¢. You should be able to find it at the following places for this bargain price:

Please share the love and tell your friends and neighbors. I’m thrilled to be heading to Gen Con this week, and I want you everyone to be able to get in on the fun too, even if only through my books.

If you’re going to be at the show, you can grab the book too, but be sure to also come to one of my events and say hi. I have a special Dangerous Games panel on Thursday at 6 PM, and I’d love to see you there – or at any other time during the show too. I have my full schedule posted under “Upcoming Appearances.”

Happy Gen Con Week!

Stretching for the Red Aegis RPG

My pal Matt James (founder of Loremaster.org) and his brother Brian James launched a Kickstarter drive earlier this month for their brand-new roleplaying game Red Aegis. It’s a game about sweeping epics, in which you play not just a character but a familial line. Besides Matt and Brian – both excellent, proven designers in their own right – they’ve lined up help from folks like Ed Greenwood, Erik Scott de Bie, Stephen Radney-McFarland, Miranda Horner, Eytan Bernstein, and Claudio Pozas.

They’ve already funded and have reached a number of stretch goals, bringing in support for Pathfinder and Fate Core versions of the game. They also have 13th Age and Dungeon World rules on the horizon, as well as skirmish miniatures rules. Plus, if they hit $65k, I’ll write a short story for them as well.

Given that they’re already at $40k with 15 days left, there’s a solid chance they’ll make that goal. If you enjoy epic fantasy that gives you the sense of the world’s strong sweep of history, be sure to check it out.

The Battle Isle: Threshold Run Comic

logoI’m working with the fine folks at Stratotainment on some material for their upcoming video game, Battle Isle: Threshold Run. Although the game’s not ready yet, you can already start to enjoy some of it in the form of a series of short online comics I’m writing for them.

For those who don’t remember, Battle Isle was a hit series of turn-based tactical games that launched in the early ’90s. Thomas Hertzler, who worked on both the Battle Isle and Settlers series, co-founded Blue Byte Software, which published those classics. He sold the company to Ubisoft back in 2001 and retired from games, but he’s back now with Battle Isle: Threshold Run, which already looks like fantastic fun.

Stay tuned for more information about the game, and be sure to check in at the Battle Isle: Threshold Run site for more episodes of the comics soon.

Star Trek Catan at Gen Con (and Me)

star_trek_catan-right.pngMy friends at Mayfair Games are running a huge event at Gen Con based around their game Star Trek Catan, and they’ve invited me to be a part of it. They’re taking over Georgia Street, which runs east out of the convention center (it was the place with all the food trucks last year), and they’re hosting a free block party open to the public. It starts at 6 PM on Thursday, August 14, and it runs until 11.

The center of the event is the Star Trek Catan charity tournament. Tickets go for $100 each, with all proceeds going to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Indiana. There will also be entertainment by magician Michael Mirth and music from DJ M4RC3L0.

While the tournament’s going on, Mayfair’s going to record a live episode of their Bob & Angus YouTube show, in which two sheep puppets host a variety show centered on games. To lead off, they’re going to interview Mike Stackpole and me at around 7:15. After that, Walter Koenig will be on the show, followed by a number of other gaming industry guests. Wil Wheaton himself will be there to play in the tournament too.

In short, it’s going to be a huge amount of fun, and the money raised will go toward a wonderful cause. If you’re going to Gen Con – or if you happen to be anywhere near downtown Indianapolis that night, be sure to come out and join us.

[Edited: Corrected Wil’s involvement.]