Earlier this week, I joined the cast of Order 66 along with fellow authors Rodney Thompson and Jonathan Stevens, discussing The Unknown Regions. Received a lot of praise for the feats and talents, which was a bit unexpected given that I'd been too busy to follow the forums at WotC and elsewhere lately. I'll try to check in later on. I'm glad we've had such a positive response to the book.
You can download and/or listen to the podcast here.
Today, Starwars.com posted an article/ interview on The Unknown Regions with myself, Daniel Wallace and Rodney Thompson. At the moment, it also has a link on the main starwars.com page, though that page cycles often.
Tonight I was a guest on the Order 66 podcast, Episode 101, where we discussed creating non-player characters from story and mechanical perspectives, as well as the limits or fun of using accents.
You can find links to my previous apperances on the show here.
The Unknown Regions, the last book fo the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Editon line is now available, or will be very shortly. It was a lot of fun to work on, and delves into areas of the Star Wars universe we haven't seen before. It also holds a lot of tools for gamemasters creating new worlds, creatures and encounters. Regretably, some of the names listed on the cover are not correct, and mine is one of the missing, but the listing on the inside credits pages are correct.
With the line ending, I hope to post some author's notes for some of the products, including this one, in the future.
The Star Wars Miniatures game version of the Point Blank scenario is now live on the Wizards of the Coast website. It focuses on the central (non-mass combat) encounter from the RPG scenario.
Wizards of the Coast posted the product page for the upcoming Saga Edition book, Unknown Regions. This is the last Saga Edition book, and my latest product. This takes my total number of print products for the line to 6.
Wizards of the Coast posted my Saga Edition encounter/mini adventure Point Blank today, mixing regular encounters with the Clone Wars Campaign Guide mass combat rules. Includes new mass combat unit stats one might typically use in a Clone Wars battle.
Additionally, this is the first official game material featuring Brak Sector (the sector I created for my first WEG RPG book) outside of the classic movie era. I've always wanted to expand its history and story, but wasn't certain what was happening in the sectors around it until the Star Wars Atlas was released last year. I built on the information I learned from that book (see Dots on a Map entry) for the backstory of this battle.
Today, Wizards of the Coast posted my New Republic Stat Pack to their Star Wars RPG/Minis website. Much like the Fringe pack from last week, it features characters from the recent minis sets suitable to use in a New Republic era game. Of course it's also adaptable to other eras, with the exception of the Yuuzhan Vong. Once again, I was able to use all of the current RPG books as needed for the stat blocks.
New on the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars RPG/Minis site, my latest article called the Fringe Stat Pack. It features new RPG stats for some of the Fringe faction minis from the recent Star Wars Miniatures sets like Jedi Academy, and so forth. I also took advantage of the fact that I wasn't rectricted to any particular campaign guide for the feats and talents used.
Usually, when creating new stats for printed products, we try to stick with the core rules and new features of the featured product. We know for sure that the players have those two products and can use the stats as designed. There are times when we break this, and sometimes it makes sense to do so, but we try to minimize it. Since the stat pack is a standalone article, it's easier to combine elements from several sources, when it makes sense for the character. Of course, if an GM doesn't have the book in question, it's easy enough to substitute a given talent or feat for one they do have.
Minis Mayham, a podcast on the Star Wars Miniatures game, just posted their 1 year anniversary episode. Joining the regular hosts are myself, Gary Sarli (Star Wars Saga Edition editor and Jedi Counselor) and Christopher West (cartographer for nearly all of the Star Wars Minis maps). We discuss the end of the Minis and RPG game lines, our past work on the game and our current endeavors.
You can find the episode at the link below. You can find my past interviews by clicking on Interviews in the menu bar above.
Minis Mayham 31: A Year is Here
Wizards of the Coast announced today that they are not renewing the Star Wars RPG and Minis licenses. Both lines will come to an end later this year. It's disappointing news, but I've had a bad feeling about this for awhile, so I'm not exactly surprised. Still, I'd hoped for the best. I'll post more comments later on. For now, it looks like my last Saga Edition project will be the last Saga Edition product - The Unknown Regions, out later this year.
You can see the announcement here.
Just noticed that they also posted my latest RPG encounter today - the RPG version of 25 to Rescue. It features the Clone Wars Campaign Guide.
FYI, starwars.com posted an article announcing WotC's decision, inlcuding comments supporting minis and RPGs as important licenses now and in the future. You can read it here.
FYI, I've started a new journal page for long form posts and commentary here on the site. My first one is called Dots on a Map, and covers some thoughts on the new Star Wars Atlas and how it interacts with my earlier work. Click here or the journal link on the menu bar above. The news page you are now reading will continue to include news, information and shorter comments.
Now I know I've been busy, having overlooked posting this here. A couple of weeks ago, I was quoted on the starwars.com site in an article on the Scavenger's Guide to Droids. You can find it here.
My latest Star Wars Miniatures game scenario is now available for free from the Wizards of the Coast website.
During the fighting on Christophsis during the Clone Wars, invading droids have captured numerous techs and noncombatants, intending to ship them off world. Will the droids succeed, or will a hastily arranged rescue party of clone troops spoil their plans? It's 25 to Rescue.
Tomorrow is the official release for my next product, the Scavenger's Guide to Droids, for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition. It's full of new info for playing, creating and using droids, plus a huge number of new, expanded and existing droids. More info coming soon.
I had a good time at GenCon 2009 this past weekend. Played some Star Wars Saga Edition with the guys from d20radio and the Order 66 podcast. Ran around the dealers hall, talked with old friends and new, and checked out potential freelance work for future projects.
Order 66 won a silver ENnie for best podcast (after All Games Considered), so a big congratulations to them, especially as some other nominees had larger followings. The Clone Wars Campaign Guide won a silver for best supplement and Scum and Villainy won a silver for best cartography (both Star Wars Saga Editon RPG products).
However, the biggest highlight for me was participating in the benefit breakfast for Aaron Allston, hosted by the Indy Knights Star Wars fan club at the Ram. Aaron has authored Star Wars novels for some time, including several in the current Fate of the Jedi series. He suffered a heart attack with a quadruple bypass earlier this year and needs help with medical costs. A variety of Star Wars authors turned out as special guests, as well as Aaron himself. There was a good fan turnout, and everyone had a good time.
Pictured here are the guests: Troy Denning (Fate of the Jedi: Abyss, etc.), Michael Stackpole (I, Jedi, etc.), Aaron Allston (Fate of the Jedi: Outcast, etc.) with Ann Margaret Lews & Helen Keier (New Essential Guide to Alien Species) to either side, myself and Jason T Eberl (Philosophy and Star Wars).
Just to be clear, this was event was not officially affiliated with GenCon, but held off-site at the Ram, a restaurant popular with convention attendees. However, most of the guests and many attendees were also convention participants.
So, I broke down and started a facebook fan page. My wife suggested this some time ago, but it felt odd so I kept looking for other options through the security features on facebook, since I've kept my friends list fairly limited. In the end, though, it seemed the best way to go, especially after seeing Sean K Reynolds start one successfully.
So, if you're on facebook, look up my fan page, if you're interested.
Voting for the ENnie awards is now open. The Star Wars RPG and Minis games received several nominations. I wasn't involved in these fine products, although I believe the Order 66 crew used at least one of the episodes I was in as one of their samples to the jury during the nomination process.
The Star Wars products up for awards this year are:
Also, I didn't mention it here earlier, but my own Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide was nominated for Best Supplement in the Origins awards, but didn't win this year. The main Saga Edition rulebook was up for best RPG, but also came up short (it won two ENnies last year, though). The Clone Wars Minitures set did win best miniatures product, however.