Stuff and Nonsense

There have been a lot of things happening and mentions on the web recently, and I thought I would collate them here. One thing that I have noticed in the Facebook Marching Society is that we often fire off a like, or a share, or a note and then it gets completely lost in the thundering avalanche of cat pictures and posts about lunch.

First off, the Kobolds. Wolfgang Baur and his merry crew are offering a Bundle of Zobeck, a collection of DRM-free PDFs, all for the price of ... whatever you want to pay. That simple and that complex. We're talking a lot of good gaming product here, at a cost of ... whatever. But wait, there's more! You can designate a part of your payment for charity. Wolf has chosen two charities - Heifer International, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. PLUS the bundle includes the frankly-amazing Midgard Campaign Setting, to which this humble author has contributed.

Go Vote. You know you want to.

Speaking of Kobolds, the Midgard Campaign Setting and things that this humble author has contributed to, voting for the ENnies is open. The ENnies, given at Gencon, are gamer-voter awards and .. well, the voting is a bit more complicated than the Washington State Primary, but if you understand THAC0 and Pathfinder, I think you'll manage just fine. The Midgard Campaign Setting (edited by the masterful Michele Carter) is up for Best Setting, while the Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding (which this humble author has also contributed to but, more importantly, was edited by the joyous Janna Silverstein) has been nominated for Best Writing and Best Game-Related Project. Dark Roads and Golden Hells (which this humble author did NOT contribute to, but still is really good product) is up for Best Supplement. Voting is until the end of the July.

Meanwhile, in non-Kobold gaming material, a lot of the old TSR/WotC gang are working on cool stuff. First up is Lester Smith with a Kickstarter for his Clashing Blades card game. Lester designed this game ages ago and this is for printing a customized deck. Then, Tim Brown is returned to his Dark Sunish roots with Dragon Kings, which will be a combination music/game product with art by Brom and design from the talented Thomas Reid. And Rich Baker and Dave Noonan have formed up Sasquatch Game Studios, and are Kickstarting their first project, Primeval Thule.

And as for me, I seem to be popping up in a number of places. Ten Ton Hammer did a "where are they now" bit on me, which was nice, and Ranting Dragon did a review of my first novel, Azure Bonds (written with Kate Novak, also known as the Lovely Bride), which was also nice. Topless Robot talks about my work in the little-known but apparently-appreciated game Dyvil, which I literally wrote on a dare for Steve Miller. Blog of Holding mentions a proposal I wrote years ago involbing a world wrapped in clouds. The Star Wars site Rooqoo Station gave a mention of my Pacific Rim review and Jay Lake (whose work I admire and whose blog I regularly scan for his link salad, though I don't know how he does it daily) mentioned my piece on Lovecraft. AND there's an interview with myself and fellow Loremasters Ree Soesbee and Scott McGough on Guildmag

And I have in my hands a copy of 13th Age, by former WotCites Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet, with art by Lee Moyer and Aaron McConnell. I read one of the early drafts, and was impressed enough to blurb it (and yeah, I meant what I said on the back cover) and now I look forward to reading it in the final form.

So for an old guy, and I don't seem to be slowing down too much. And that's a good thing.

More later,