Dice in Mind Podcast Interview

The Dice in Mind podcast released a new interview with me a few days ago. We discuss my RPG and cartography freelancing, as well as some other subjects along the way. It is Episode 99: Sterling Hershey and FFG and Edge Studio, and can be downloaded here from Apple or Podbean.

They interview a lot of different individuals involved in gaming and/or the gaming industry, and take a broader view at times. A few previous interviews readers of this…periodic…blog might be interested are listed here for Podbean, but should also be on Apple.

• Episode 89: Katrina Ostrander (of Fantasy Flight Games)

• Episode 70: Bill Smith and Star Wars (former SW line editor at West End Games)

• Episode 43: Matt Forbeck (prolific freelancer of various RPG, Marvel, novels, and runs the Diana Jones Awards)

Gen Con Online 2021 Events

I am running events for Gen Con Online again this year. It was a fun if different experience last year, and we had some international players, too. This time I’m running a new (unofficial) Star Wars Edge of the Empire convention game called Project Deflect. It’s set in The Mandalorian time frame, and new players are certainly welcome. I’ll be using Roll20 for the tabletop, and Discord for audio and video (video is not required). The provided pregenerated PCs include some Mandalorians and other characters. Gen Con Online badges are free, but there is typically a cost for each event.

Here are the event times and IDs:

RPG21197450 Project Deflect Sep 17th (Fri) 8:00 pm 4 hrs Cost: $2

RPG21197451 Project Deflect Sep 18th (Sat) 8:00 pm 4 hrs Cost: $2

RPG21197452 Project Deflect Sep 19th (Sun) 10:00 am 4 hrs Cost: $2

Your band of inexperienced bounty hunters must retrieve a combat gear engineer who was forced to flee a corporate testing facility within a New Republic/Imperial warzone.

I won’t be attending Gen Con in person this year, for the first time since skipping 2000 due to travel out of the country. 2020 doesn’t count, plus I participated in Gen Con Online. Along with other factors, my wife and I thought it was too soon to risk such large crowds over so many days. Gen Con is trying to balance running the event versus safety, updating their rules as needed. We’re vaccinated (and highly encourage everyone to do so), but the skyrocketing delta variant has made things worse then we imagined. Beyond a potential breakthrough infection, the travel risks include a random accident sending someone to an overloaded emergency room or hospitals at capacity during the trip. We had to make an emergency room trip in a normal year, and it wasn’t fun then.

Hopefully things will improve next year. Whether you’re going or not, stay safe.

Gen Con Online 2020 Events

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With the unsurprising cancellation of Gen Con 2020 came the news that there would be an online version this year. The events list was released this week, and I’m running a couple of sessions of Star Wars Edge of the Empire (The Sandcrawler Gambit) and a couple of sessions of Genesys Android (Solar Storm). Both are original adventures by me, though I’ve used Sandcrawler Gambit as a convention regular for a while now. I’ll be running them via Roll20.

Gen Con Online registration is free, but some events including mine have a small fee ($2 for most RPGs). There are a lot of free events, though, and a fair number of seminars etc. using a variety of online resources like Twitch or Zoom or other virtual tabletops. More events are being added. At this point, when you select a game or event, it goes to your wishlist. All wishlists get processed in about a week to give people a chance to get into at least some events. People selecting events after the wishlists are processed can get tickets to events that still have openings.

Gen Con Online registration and information.

My Gen Con Online events.

Numenera - Explorer's Keys Now Available

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My first work for the Numenera RPG appeared unexpectedly at Gen Con. Explorer’s Keys, Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera was available at Monte Cook Games’ booth. Explorer’s Keys has everything you need to immediately run a Numenera session with no preparation. As part of that, it includes my first game related published cartography in quite a few years. It was fun, and given how weird the Numenera setting is designed to be, it makes for some entertaining approaches to map making. I’ve updated my cartography portfolio with a couple of them.

My contributions were for the adventures Embassy of the Inconstant Moon, Protomatter Heist, Goliaths in the Earth, Flight of the Seraph, and Microfuge State. Flight of the Seraph was also featured as the Gen Con Numenera adventure and included in an exclusive collection of Monte Cook Adventures given to the game masters running their sessions.

One of my maps is related to the weird ship featured in the Numenera short film The Strand:

While copies of Explorer’s Keys were on sale at the Monte Cook Games booth, it releases sometime this week or next, and is available for preorder on the Monte Cook Games’ website. I presume it will also become available at DriveThruRPG as well upon release.

Power Play - Now Available for Android on the New Genesys Foundry

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Tonight at Gen Con, Fantasy Fight Games announced Genesys Foundry, a new community content program for the Genesys RPG available on DriveThruRPG.com. Genesys Foundry features products, adventures, settings, and more for use with Genesys itself, as well as the campaign settings of Android Shadow of the Beanstalk (sci-fi), and Realms of Terrinoth (fantasy). Products are distributed primarily in PDF format.

Power Play is my second Genesys Foundry product, and I'm happy to have been asked to participate in the initial offerings. Power Play is a mini-campaign for the Android Shadow of the Beanstalk sci-fi setting. It takes place in locations within Heinlein, the major colony on the Moon. Heinlein also happens to be one of the areas I helped develop for Android Shadow of the Beanstalk, so it was fun to develop a new campaign for it.

Here's the back cover copy, with more information:

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Mysterious cybernetic malfunctions are attracting unwanted attention to 8CMod, an advanced, thriving lunar black market cybernetics clinic. 8CMod is more than a problematic unlicensed medical practice, however. Investigators soon try to unravel a web of organized crime, corporate corruption, and ambitious individuals out to seize control of one of Heinlein's standout companies.

This Android mini-campaign gives Player Characters the opportunity to manipulate the future of a specialized organized crime syndicate and an important lunar corporation. Do they expose dirty deals or maximize advantages over them? Do they play the part of kingmaker, or try to seize power and wealth for themselves? No matter their choices, they gain new enemies and allies before things are through.

This mini-campaign is suitable for 4 to 6 moderately experienced Player Characters of a variety of archetypes. It includes new locations to visit, new NPCs, new computer systems to hack, and multiple ways for the PCs to make their own Power Play.

Genesys RPG Now Available!

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Genesys, The Roleplaying Game for All Settings is now available! This game takes the narrative dice system used in Star Wars Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion/Force and Destiny and builds on it to provide a system adaptable to any genre and setting. Magic, superheroes, high tech, sci-fi, horror and more are all possible using just the core rulebook. A few example settings featuring some of Fantasy Flight Games' universes are included as examples and for use for those who want to dive right in - such as Android and Runebound.

I worked on the Build an Adventure section and most of the Tones section (but not those used in this preview). Build an Adventure is pretty straightforward advice on constructing adventures. Tones are layered on to settings. Android is a hard sci-fi setting, but it supports a variety of tones, such as mystery, drama, or horror. Other settings might match up with certain tones very well - such as space opera with a pulp tone. Tones also feature special rules to play up their importance and style of play. The Cliffhanger rule I worked up for the Pulp section is my favorite.

The core rulebook is now available, along with the Genesys Roleplaying Dice and the Genesys Dice android and ios apps. Note that the Genesys dice names and symbol names remain the same as the Star Wars dice, but the Genesys dice use different symbols (though they look similar to the Star Wars dice symbols).

You can download the PDF character sheet here, and the Gen Con 50 preview adventure here.

Update: Now available in PDF at DriveThruRPG.

Pablo Hidalgo Joins the 30 Years of Star Wars RPGs Gen Con panel

I'm very pleased to announce that Pablo Hidalgo of the Star Wars story group will be joining Bill Slavicsek, Sam Stewart, and myself for the 30 Years of Star Wars RPGs panel at Gen Con 50 this August. Pablo has become well known to Star Wars fans thanks to his many years at Lucasfilm working and interacting on the Star Wars website, the story group, books, and for taking listener questions on The Star Wars Show. Before all of that, Pablo was a freelancer for West End Games' The Star Wars RPG and Adventure Journal. 

Also, Gen Con has made another 200 tickets available for this event, so if you couldn't get a ticket earlier, try again. No change in time or location. 

Click here for the latest updates. 

30 Years of Star Wars Roleplaying Games at Gen Con

With Gen Con 50's advance event schedule going live and wish lists available, I'm happy to announce the "30 Years of Star Wars Roleplaying Games" event, with myself, Sam Stewart of Fantasy Flight Games, and Bill Slavicsek formerly of West End Games and Wizards of the Coast.

Fantasy Flight Games is generously sponsoring the event. It is part retrospective, part panel discussion about 30 years worth of roleplaying in a galaxy far, far away across multiple companies and game systems, featuring some of the designers involved. 

Join us at GenCon on Saturday 8/19/17 in Westin Capitol III at 5:00pm (Gen Con Game ID SEM17112485).

Things are still developing, so click here for the latest updates.