Sometimes people ask about hiring me on full-time someplace. I’m always flattered by this and willing to talk about it. I’m picky, though, and it would take a lot for me to give up freelancing and leave my hometown behind. I have an incredible support structure here, and I couldn’t buy the kind of help I get from friends and …
Hungry Little Monsters Ready to Eat
No, this isn’t about my kids. Hungry Little Monsters is an all-star jam d20 RPG book of monsters. All profits go to FoodForAll.org, a worldwide initiative to end hunger. You can buy the book now through DriveThruRpg.com or RPGNow.com for just $7, a bargain for a 63-page book that comes with separated artwork (placed in a separate file so you …
Dave Sutherland Dies
I’m a few days late on this, but my good friend Jim Kitchen called me tonight about it. Dave Sutherland, one of the first artists hired at TSR, passed away on June 6, just over a week ago. You can read a solid obituary on GamingReport.com. I never met Dave, but I knew his work. Anyone who picked up the …
A (Very Special) Gamer Olympics
This just in from a Gen Con press release at GamingReport.com: Brand new this year – Gamer Olympics! Ever wonder if a person could accomplish some of the feats if a Dungeon Master lays in front of a role-playing character? Now is the chance to find out! Test strength by swinging a sword as hard and as accurately as possible …
Core Stories in RPGs
Over on his LiveJournal, Mike Mearls posted some provocative ideas about something any successful roleplaying game needs: a core story. This sums up the game’s central theme from a player’s point of view in a sentence or two. It sparked off a few thoughts in my own befogged brain, which I added to his comments there. So you don’t have …
Rules Rule
Yesterday I wrote the rules for an upcoming game from Mattel. By that, I mean that the game was already developed and tested. They just wanted someone to sit down and write up the rules in a polished, publishable format. It’s been a long time since I worked on a rules set for a game with which I had little …
Modern Browsers
I just got a note from a good friend who told me that he could barely read this website in his browser. He sent me a screenshot, and I could see why. It turns out he’s using Internet Explorer 5.x for the Mac. As I wrote back to him, this site, like many others, doesn’t resolve well in older browsers. …
Character for a Cause
On eBay, Loren Coleman is auctioning off the right to become a character in an upcoming BattleTech or Mechwarrior novel. All proceeds go to the American Stroke Association, through the efforts of Loren and his wife Heather. Loren’s also writing the first trilogy in the upcoming line of Age of Conan novels I’m editing for Conan Properties and Ace Books. …
E-mail Tests Work
Stephen David Wark wrote to tell me that the e-mail notifications aren’t working. After a few tests, I figured out the problem. They do work, but only if I post directly within the WordPress backend software. If I use ecto, my favorite blogging software for the Mac, the e-mail notification plugin doesn’t recognize the post. There are a couple workarounds …
Subscribe Now!
If you check the pop-open menus to the right, you’ll see a new one: Subscribe. Click on that, and it exposes a link that lets you sign up to get an e-mail whenever I post something here. That way you don’t have to surf by here every few days to see what’s going on. You can just wait for a …