It is common practice for writers and game designers to put Easter eggs into their work. They are often targeted at super fans, whose deep knowledge of the topic at hand lets them get the joke. I did this somewhat frequently in my early days as a freelance writer, except I put in things simply to amuse myself. In particular, I put punk references ( Read more... )

2011 wasn't the worst of years, but it wasn't the best either. It was up and down, sweet and sour. I started the year living in Austin and working a day job at Vigil Games as lead writer on the Warhammer 40K MMO. I'm ending it back in Seattle with my family and I'm pretty damn happy to have reunited with Nik and Kate on a permanent basis. I don't ( Read more... )

It isn't often that my punk rock life and my gaming life come together but it happened this week.

The story begins in the early 90s, when I was living in NYC and helping to run ABC No Rio, a non-profit punk club and arts center. ABC was full of characters and one of the most colorful was Donny the Punk. Although he was a long time member of the NY ( Read more... )

In 1990 I spent a couple of months of the summer traveling Europe with my girlfriend Stacey and our friend Kathy. We started in Scotland, moved down to England, and then over to the Continent, where it was youth hostels and Eurail all over. We visited many countries and had a great time. One place we didn't get to, however, was Prague. It was on my ( Read more... )

I read a review today of a movie called Until the Light Takes Us. It's a documentary about black metal. I did some internet searches to find out more about it and so ran across a British documentary called Murder Music: A History of Black Metal. I ended up watching most of it on YouTube and it was interesting. It occurred to me midway through that ( Read more... )

I was watching some live footage of bands like the Bad Brains and Black Flag on YouTube today when it occurred to me that some shows I had actually been at might be on the internet somewhere. I started doing searches on ABC No Rio, CBGBs, and other clubs I used to go to in NYC in the late 80s and early 90s. I discovered a bunch of clips from the ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

In 1985 I went to an "Unpatriotic 4th of July" festival on the Boston Common. This was the year I really into punk rock and I saw some formative shows (like Black Flag) that summer. A bunch of bands played that day but two stood out for me. First, the Dicks, led by the mighty Gary Floyd, a self-proclaimed "fat faggot from Texas." I had never heard ( Read more... )

If you are in the Seattle area this weekend and you missed seeing the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets at PAX last month, you have another chance to see the masters of Cthulhupunk. On Saturday night the Thickets are playing at the Funhouse, a punk club on 5th Avenue located right near the Space Needle. Toren and Warren will be thrilled to discover ( Read more... )

I brought home some cool stuff from my travels. I'll do the GenCon swag later, but for now it's Finland. This doesn't count the Finnish booze that Nicole bought.

Bilekuosi: This is a card game whose name translates to Dope Fiend. In the game you get to both deal and take drugs, while playing cards like "Crackwhore" and my favorite, "Damn fucking ( Read more... )