Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. I'll put the kettle on ... you're an hour early, aren't you? No? It's me? I'm an hour behind? I'm still tripping over the time change. Last week, I went to GAMA Expo, the business con for tabletop games. I got to show off the advance copies of Defy the Gods and collect pre-orders. I also got to tell people a new version of Raccoon Sky Pirates is coming! I drove down with Faye of Goblin Door Games, a Horizons Fellows this year who I've mentioned before. Her...
7 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in, have a seat. The snow is finally starting to melt around here. On the table, we have a tin of shortbread cookies, and in the kitchen, your choice of tea, coffee or hot cocoa. So hey, a few weeks ago I got a little preachy about promises and contracts. Although I wasn’t talking mainly about Jay Dragon, I did imply she'd done some things, or failed to, based on conclusions I drew from the Rascal article I mentioned. I was too hasty. The Rascal piece was more...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. On the table, I have a bowl of kiwis—the indie game designer of fruits. They're hard to peel, but I swear it’s worth it. (If you’re into OSR, just beast it and bite right through the fuzzy skin.) I know this talented up-and-coming game designer named Faye Weaver. Faye is a Horizons Fellow this year, like I was last year. And she’s been getting frustrated about, well, the crickets. I think everyone who puts a game out there feels this way sometimes, so I...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in, out of that snow. My it's cold out there—winter is biting down. But it's cozy in here. Have some hot cocoa. I made it with warm milk this time. Did you read the Rascal article about Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast? It's the kind of cautionary tale that keeps me up at night. If you don't have a Rascal subscription, do get one. But for now, here's my best sum-up: Possum Creek Games, led by Jay Dragon, made some big promises to the writers and artists who helped...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in, sit down. I'll take your coat. No flowers on the table yet, although the weather keeps trying to sucker them into popping up. What a year already. I don't know about you, but I'm white-knuckling it for the next 10 months before the midterm elections. Then—if I haven't already been shipped off to fight in the Davis Strait—I plan to vote for every aspiring Senator, Congressperson, school board member or dogcatcher who'll stand up to the White House. All I...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Happy holidays! Please, come in. You're just in time for us to light the candles. What a year. In many ways, I won't be sorry to see the end of it. In other ways, it was wonderful. Regent Printers in Hong Kong have sent most of the hard proofs. I've reviewed the pages and requested a few corrections. I'm just waiting on proofs for the spot gloss, gold foil and ribbon bookmarks ... those last two for the special edition. They should've gotten here on Friday. Everything is bumping up...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. There's still a few patches of snow on the ground—winter coming in fits and starts. How are you? Me? A weight is off my shoulders—Defy the Gods is at the printer. You can read more about it in the breathless Kickstarter update I sent out yesterday. In fairness, I was feeling breathless. Or like I was just starting to exhale. The printer is reviewing the files. They'll send a report by the end of the week. I'm gonna pay half the print cost soon, with an...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please come in. It's rainy and blowy outside, and someone said we could get snow. But it's toasty in here. On the table, we have a pile of decorative gourds. I marked numbers on them with a Sharpie so you can roll them like dice. After months of frenzied work on Defy the Gods, I'm suddenly left with nothing to do. The text is complete, the book is laid out. We're waiting on the index and the last four pieces of art—out of 75! Sometime in the next 10 days, we'll submit the...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please come in, sit down. Have some cold fizzy water—it's way too hot out there. On the table are echinacea blooms—they're back! Since the Defy the Gods Kickstarter wrapped, I've been keeping a low profile. Writing the text, fixing things, finishing sections that were rough. I mean, that's what I'm doing now. At first, I just took the weekend off. Went to a movie. I found myself working on an old card game idea—a fast-paced sword duel played in real time instead of turns....
8 months ago • 1 min read