Garrison Keillor (of the radio show A Prairie Home Companion) hits the nail straight on the head when he says “Writers, Quit Whining.” If anyone out there catches me complaining about what I do for a living, feel free to give me the metaphorical smack upside the head. Even on its worst days, writing novels and creating games makes me …

The fine folks at Pelgrane Press have compiled a list of game designers’ favorite, underrated roleplaying games. Simon Rogers (of ProFantasy Software fame) is kind enough to name-check me near the top, but you’ll have to scroll down a bit to find my answer to his question.

J. Steven York, author of the Stygian trilogy for the Age of Conan, just launched a new website celebrating the efforts of minions everywhere. Seems appropriate for May Day (which was yesterday) somehow.

In the latest issue of The Escapist, legendary game designer and Manifesto Games CEO Greg Costikyan offers up a history of tabletop gaming and shows how such games have inspired and informed the computer games of today. He argues that tabletop games will continue to do so, and I hope he’s right. This essay should be required reading for any …

Board game super-fan Tom Vasel writes tons of great reviews and interviews game designers and publishers of all stripes. On the website for his podcast, The Dice Tower, Tom presents excerpts from several of those interviews, in which he asks for advice for aspiring designers. It’s well worth the read.

I get a phone call at 3 AM on Saturday, and the first thing I think is that it must be something horrible–or a wrong number. No one calls with good news or to say hi at 3 AM, so I’m really hoping for a wrong number when I pick up the phone. “Hello?” “Mr. Forbeck?” Ouch. No wrong number …

GAMA just launched a new program called Games to Troops. Publishers who wish to donate 168 games can have them sent to US military Moral, Welfare, and Recreation locations around the world. I’m wondering if I can find 168 authors’ copies of things around here somewhere. No matter what my opinion might be of my country’s leadership, I always support …

The auction for the first-ever copy of the first edition of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game is over. The boxed set went for a staggering $810.00. Congratulations to a2jeff, whoever you are, and to Greg Stafford too! Greg has a whole new raft of auctions up too. This includes the first-ever copy of Reich, a boardgame published by Chaosium …

Just four and a half hours left in the auction of the first-ever copy of the first edition of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, and it’s up to just shy of $800. I’m looking forward to seeing if there’s a last-minute burst of bids. I see many of Greg’s other offerings are going for decent prices too. The autographed …

My wife and I ran down to Chicago on Saturday night to see Wicked, the musical based upon Gregory Maguire’s book. It tells the story of the Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West. We loved it. I’m a sucker for children’s literature–especially with strong elements of the fantastic. Things like Alice …