A Grand Return?
Perhaps not so grand, but here I am, none the less!
It has been a busy four months or so, and though I'm not at a break between projects (I have plenty left to do on the adventure for Serenity Adventures, as well as some work for Rick Hershey on the Steampunk Musha RPG he has in the works), I am at a break between have-it-in-by-now-or-it's-late deadlines. The next "official" deadline (in red pen on my calendar) I have is in late May (when I will be away in Greece and Turkey, so I will certainly have it done early). It is such a nice feeling to be able to give myself permission to *not* work for one day. Then it's back with my nose to the grindstone the next!
I realize I didn't blog about DDXP and my experiences with 4th Edition, and this is in part because I am a bad blogger. It is more, however, due to my participation in the conversational reviews we're doing in an ongoing fashion on the current issue of Secret Identity Podcast. Max Saltonstall, Brian LeTendre, and I are better together as reviewers than we are apart (well, in my case, anyway), and if you don't mind listening to the audio version in 15 minute increments (that's the length of our segment, "Action Point Counter Point"), that's far better as far as gaming goes than what you'll see here on my blog.
In short: DDXP was great. I saw James Wyatt (but, blast! The store did not have his newest book to get signed!), Ed Greenwood (who did have books to sign), the indomitable Shawn Merwin (who is one of the leaders in two--two!--campaigns right now), a large chunk of the Living Kalamar Clan who I've gotten to know over the years, friend-of-the-blog and writing director for the Cormyr region of Living Forgotten Realms Andrew Schneider, my young cousin-in-law Jack who allowed us the pleasure of taking him to his first convention, and many other awesome people from the RPGA and WotC who I've become fond of since first becoming involved in organized play. For me, seeing all those folks is really the height of the convention--we all get together to play games, sure, but playing games is at its best when you get to play with people you *like*.
4th Edition? I'm intrigued by what I saw. There are a lot of positives as far as how they've streamlined combat, and the little that was saw of the skill challenge system definitely left me wanting to see more. So I'm even more eager to get the rule books now than I was before the convention. The biggest thing that 4e has against it is that it's coming after 3e and 3.5, systems that people who like D&D pretty much liked (as opposed to coming after 2nd edition, which I suspect the majority of gamers knew needed some work).
But there's more news here than just convention catch up. I should have posted this at the beginning of the month, since we're almost at the midway point: for the month of March, my story "The Valley" is being published/hosted on The Edge of Propinquity Web zine. (You may know them as t_e_o_p.) Mine is the guest story for the month: the rest of the zine is serial fiction from four dedicated authors who grow their worlds with each installment. It's a site well worth checking out--and of course, I'll be delighted to hear responses to the story.
Those seem like the major updates since I last posted. I expect to get back on track now that I'm back (and that the deadlines aren't hovering so closely around my neck as usual). I may even finally get to work on the novel I was supposed to have finished by... when did I commit to on this blog? The end of March? Heh, self-imposed deadlines don't have nearly the motivation factor they need....
It has been a busy four months or so, and though I'm not at a break between projects (I have plenty left to do on the adventure for Serenity Adventures, as well as some work for Rick Hershey on the Steampunk Musha RPG he has in the works), I am at a break between have-it-in-by-now-or-it's-late deadlines. The next "official" deadline (in red pen on my calendar) I have is in late May (when I will be away in Greece and Turkey, so I will certainly have it done early). It is such a nice feeling to be able to give myself permission to *not* work for one day. Then it's back with my nose to the grindstone the next!
I realize I didn't blog about DDXP and my experiences with 4th Edition, and this is in part because I am a bad blogger. It is more, however, due to my participation in the conversational reviews we're doing in an ongoing fashion on the current issue of Secret Identity Podcast. Max Saltonstall, Brian LeTendre, and I are better together as reviewers than we are apart (well, in my case, anyway), and if you don't mind listening to the audio version in 15 minute increments (that's the length of our segment, "Action Point Counter Point"), that's far better as far as gaming goes than what you'll see here on my blog.
In short: DDXP was great. I saw James Wyatt (but, blast! The store did not have his newest book to get signed!), Ed Greenwood (who did have books to sign), the indomitable Shawn Merwin (who is one of the leaders in two--two!--campaigns right now), a large chunk of the Living Kalamar Clan who I've gotten to know over the years, friend-of-the-blog and writing director for the Cormyr region of Living Forgotten Realms Andrew Schneider, my young cousin-in-law Jack who allowed us the pleasure of taking him to his first convention, and many other awesome people from the RPGA and WotC who I've become fond of since first becoming involved in organized play. For me, seeing all those folks is really the height of the convention--we all get together to play games, sure, but playing games is at its best when you get to play with people you *like*.
4th Edition? I'm intrigued by what I saw. There are a lot of positives as far as how they've streamlined combat, and the little that was saw of the skill challenge system definitely left me wanting to see more. So I'm even more eager to get the rule books now than I was before the convention. The biggest thing that 4e has against it is that it's coming after 3e and 3.5, systems that people who like D&D pretty much liked (as opposed to coming after 2nd edition, which I suspect the majority of gamers knew needed some work).
But there's more news here than just convention catch up. I should have posted this at the beginning of the month, since we're almost at the midway point: for the month of March, my story "The Valley" is being published/hosted on The Edge of Propinquity Web zine. (You may know them as t_e_o_p.) Mine is the guest story for the month: the rest of the zine is serial fiction from four dedicated authors who grow their worlds with each installment. It's a site well worth checking out--and of course, I'll be delighted to hear responses to the story.
Those seem like the major updates since I last posted. I expect to get back on track now that I'm back (and that the deadlines aren't hovering so closely around my neck as usual). I may even finally get to work on the novel I was supposed to have finished by... when did I commit to on this blog? The end of March? Heh, self-imposed deadlines don't have nearly the motivation factor they need....