Dragon 417 - History Check: The Blood War article

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This month's Dragon magazine / D&D Insider includes my latest entry in the History Check series, History Check: The Blood War. The in-game history of the Blood War is long, varied and complicated...and even more so across the editions and major campaign worlds of D&D. I had a good time wrangling them into a History Check tale, with some additional guidance from Wizards. Fans of Planescape should recognize a few things, but the article also touches on a lot of points from various sources. The article art is also the cover.

Star Wars Wednesday - Blue Ghost of Star Wars' Future

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So, today's* astonishing news can be summed up in about 6 words:

Disney buys Lucasfilm. Seven. Eight. Nine.

By luck I seemed to catch the front end of the explosion that became my twitter feed. While still in the...wait, what? stage, confirmation tweets from Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee scrolled past and the race was on to learn what I could from work. I finally caught up on the rest after the work day was through, but for me, a lot of the news came through the various tweets from my main Star Wars sources and their retweets.

"This is where the fun begins." As they say.

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Star Wars Wednesday - Blue Ghost of Halloween Past

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I admit, after coming up with that title, I rather want to figure out how to do a blue Star Wars Force ghost now...right, so, the internet never fails to show that someone has indeed done this before. It is on theforce.net boards , though the image can only seem to be seen via google image search.

OK, it's Halloween. Since Halloween falls on Wednesday, looks like I'll probably have a couple of posts on the subject this year.

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Dragon 416 - History Check: Strahd and van Richten

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Dragon issue 416 went live today on D&D Insider. This time, it's a look at Ravenloft, just in time for Halloween. Kicking things off is my article in the ongoing History Check series, featuring D&D and Ravenloft icons Strahd von Zarovitch and Dr. Rudolph van Richten.

Wizards of the Coast is testing a new release method for Dungeon and Dragon magazines this month. They are releasing each as a full issue via PDF, instead of posting the content a little bit at a time throughout the month. Consolidated PDFs has been requested often since they dropped that format some time ago. They used to issue the full PDF at the end of the month after the individual articles were posted. If you like the new method, which I do, be sure to let them know somehow (forums, twitter, etc.).

Realms Works Beta Map

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I've added an excerpt of the fantasy world map used in the Realms Works beta test to my online portfolio. Realms Works is a new tabletop roleplaying game computer utility program that helps gamemasters organize their campaings. A demo of the beta was shown at GenCon this year.

More information on the product can be found here, at Lone Wolf Development. they are best known for the popular Hero Lab RPG characater creation software, used by many popular tabletop RPGs.

Star Wars Wednesday - One of Those Weeks

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Travel can really throw you off schedule. This is one of those kinds of weeks. The sort where you go "it's Wednesday, wasn't there some thing else I needed to do besides collapse at the hotel?" Right. That blog post....from a phone. There's an app for that...it just won't actually post any thing but a draft for some reason. No problem, that is what copy paste is for.

Next issue...I don't have all that handy Star Wars info with me.

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Star Wars Wednesday - Edge of the Emprie Beginners

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With any game line, there are products you hope to work on, or those you wish you had the opportunity to contribute to. As a freelancer, and even as an employee, passing over a particular project often means losing the opportunity to ever contribute to that specific product. There may be opportunities down the road for something similar, but never that exact thing.

This week, Fantasy Flight Games announced the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner Game. It's an introductory set for newcomers to roleplaying games and, obviously, Star Wars roleplaying in particular. As might be expected, it comes with pregenerated characters, dice, fold out maps and a simplified rules set.

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The Coriolis Defect RPG Kickstarter

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Earlier today, The Coriolis Defect RPG kickstarter campaign kicked off. If successful, I'll be one of the contributing writers on the project.

The Coriolis Defect is an RPG of re-history in the making. The PCs can "rewind" time briefly, altering the story by changing the past.

The Coriolis Defect is focused on thematic, narratively-driven gameplay, stories of "re-history in the making." The characters share a rare genetic anomaly, dubbed the Coriolis Defect. This anomaly allows them to briefly rewind history, offering a limited means to travel back in time.

For more on the RPG itself, see the The Coriolis Defect website.

To join in and contribute to the campaign, see The Coriolis Defect kickstarter page.

Star Wars Wednesday - Star Wars Celebration VI

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Star Wars Celebration VI marked my second journey down to Orlando for the great gathering of Star Wars fans. I had a fantastic time at Celebration V, and eventually worked out a way to go again this year. Though they were held once every 3 years, I hear they're moving it to every two years, as it was this time around. Hopefully, it won't always be the week after GenCon. That said, it will probably be the week OF GenCon at some point.

Anyway, having nearly not fully rested up from GenCon the week before, not to mention the day job in between, I hopped an early Thursday flight, to arrive just before noon.

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Star Wars Wednesday - SWRPG: Edge of the Empire Beta Announced!

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FFG Demo at their booth at GenConGenCon proved to be even more exciting than I anticipated. I was reasonably sure that the new Star Wars RPG from Fantasy Flight Games would be announced - something I was greatly looking forward to because I'm one of the writer/developers on the product. Having been under a non-disclosure agreement, I couldn't say a word throughout the process.

Prior to the announcement, FFG hung a black banner over one of their Star Wars banners, with a sign that said something along the lines of "new game to be announced at the In-Flight Report," which is their product seminar. The seminar room was very full. FFG walked through their various product lines, production updates and the occasional question. Once they got to the end, they had "one more thing" and announced three Star Wars RPG core rulebooks, each a standalone game.

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GenCon 2012 Report

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I had a great year at GenCon this past week. Friday, especially, was a good day. In the afternoon, the new Star Wars RPG Edge of the Empire was announced. I'm one of the writer/developers. See my Star Wars Wednesday post for the rundown on it and how it upped the excitement level for the entire show.

On top of that, the ENnie Awards were that evening. My D&D product Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale took a silver ENnie in the Best Monster/Adversary category. It was my first ENnie win, and a blast to be able to walk up on stage with my fellow writers (Brian James and Steve Townshend - Matt James was elsewhere) and lead developer Jeremy Crawford to accept the award. I told my wife, when else do I ever get to make an entrance to the tune Back in Black (which was WotC's selected acceptance music)?

Other GenCon comments and events in no particular order:

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Star Wars Wednesday - Gen Con 2012

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It is time for GenCon once again. As far as Star Wars is concerned, this means checking out the new X Wing Minis game from Fantasy Flight. I also hear there is a group running a Wizard's Star Wars Minis tournament, with new maps from Christopher West. Saga and d6 RPGs continue to show up on the schedule, as well as in pick up games.

It is also ineresting to see where people with interest or influence on the games show up. This year, the Order 66 podcasters have turned into a full on game company, complete with a booth and product to sell - their kickstarter success, the Edition Wars card game. Chris West will also be around with new maps on offer. Rodney Thompson continues to help develop the new version of D&D. I expect others will also reappear along the way.