Big Pile of Books: Long Time Ago ....

With this entry I am at the end of big pile of books the end of my desk. In the process, however, in the process I've come across books that I've had lying around, meaning to talk about for some time, and books that I've meant to finish so they earn their place at the end of the desk. But those will be a different kettle of fish (or perhaps multiple kettles).

Defining a Galaxy: Celebrating 30 Years of Roleplaying in a Galaxy Far, Far, Away, by Bill Slavicsek, published by Owen K.C.Stephens/Rogue Genius Games, 2018

Provenance: Gift of the author. Bill Slavicsek was a co-worker at TSR, my boss at Wizards of the Coast, and he and his Lovely Bride, Michelle, come visit every Thanksgiving.

Review: A lot of the attention of  recent "gaming history" has been, naturally, about Dungeons & Dragons, and there are a number of good books out on that subject. This one is on an equally intriguing subject, in that it covers one of the great early licenses in our hobby - the Star Wars RPG from West End Games.

There have been three tabletop RPGs about Star Wars - the West End version in 1987, The Wizards of the Coast version in 2000, and Fantasy Flight version in 2012. I contributed to the WotC version. Bill worked on both the West End and WotC incarnations, and it is the West End version that is very important to how games are developed and how licensed properties are turned in to RPG. In particular, Bill goes into detail on the nature of lateral development.

By 1987, the original trilogy of movies was done. There was talk of more, but no definite plans. There had been a few original novels (a trilogy on Han Solo, A trilogy on Lando, Splinter of the Mind's Eye (since retconned out)), some animated cartoons, and a Christmas Special that had been shown once, then buried. The Marvel comics had a good run but were winding down. West End Games had a lot of stuff from the movies, but very little hard facts about the universe behind it. What was the Kessel Run? Who were all those aliens in the bar? How did the Force work?

This is where West End, and Bill in particular came in, creating the connective tissue and background for the universe. Using what was there to build the support scaffolding for it. In a movie, you can just show a bunch of driods - no one from the audience has the chance to question who they are. Not so in an RPG. The various aliens had names "Hammerhead" and "Squid Head", names used in the toys. Bill christened them Ithorians and Quarrens, and gave them home worlds and characters. In doing so, Bill developed the depth of the universe, not giving you new stuff, but developing the material that was there. Lateral development was a requirement for transitioning between film and the tabletop.

And it stuck. These creations became foundational for the expanding Expanded Universe (now called Legendary. Novels were based on the information presented. The backstories have been accepted as canon. And while changes occurred as new movies and television shows were created this material became core reference for the universe in a variety of media.

And it is kind of cool for Bill to see something that he had created 30 years ago get a name-check in a new project. It is also cool for us to see the process behind the scenes that helped create this expanded universe. Bill's style is open and conversational, a befits a memoir. He's telling stories about his time at West End, and the creative magic that they made there.

Interested? The book can be picked up on Amazon, or here.

More later,

How I Came To Write Scourge

It has been, what, forever, since I've talking about Scourge, my Star Wars novel, right?

I mean, an entire universe has rebooted since then. But I'm still pretty happy with how things turned out.

So in honor of May the Fourth, here's the secret history of how Scourge came about:

In early 2008, some ten years ago, I was contacted by an editor at Del Rey, who said "I understand you can write quickly. Would you like to write a novel based on a Star-Wars licensed computer game?" I confirmed the first and asked to learn more about the second.

The game involved was Star Wars: Battlefield III, from a company in England. They sent me the overall plot, which involved force-using clonetroopers. It was interesting. But checking around, I couldn't find any reference to the game itself in the gaming press. Not even a "hey, we're working on this." So I was concerned that I would put a lot of effort into something that might not see the light of day.

Talking with my agent (who is brilliant, by the way), we hit upon putting a kill fee into the contract - if the whole project fell apart, I would be paid for the work done. The good people at Del Rey said sure thing, but there was no way this book would be cancelled. So I novelized the plot of the game, keeping all the main points, touching all the locations in the game, and adding a few grace notes here and there while justifying and deepening character behavior. And they liked it. We were good to go.

And then the game was cancelled. Others can go into the whys and wherefores, but Star Wars  Battlefront III game was never going to happen. And the book project was shelved as well.

Which was cool, because I got paid for the work I did. It was a win.

Then Del Rey came back and said, "You know, we've signed a contract with you. Would you be willing to roll that over into another book?" And I asked what book and they said "Something for the new Star Wars Old Republic MMO."

And I had to say no, because my day job was working on an MMO, and while the guys at ArenaNet were cool with me doing a Star Wars novel, even a Star Wars licensed computer game novel, they really drew the line at me doing work for a directly competitive product. That's cool, I had to agree with them, so I had to say no (but I kept the money already earned).

Then Del Rey came back AGAIN as said "You know, we've signed a contract with you. Would you like to roll that into another, original book set in the Star Wars universe? Oh, and we can pay a little more since we don't have to give a piece of the action to a game license." And I said yes, cleared it with my day job, and gave Del Rey about a dozen pitches.

And some were cool and some were interesting/silly - A Dexter Jettster mystery that started in his diner, a story involving that Giant Green Bunny named Jaxxon,  and The Autobiography of Jar Jar Binks (which I REALLY wanted to do, believe it or not, and do it straight.). They settled on a novelization of a game product I has written with Owen Stephens at WotC - the original was called Tempest Feud, and it dealt with Hutts and Corporate Space, which I had loved since the very early Han Solo books.

They sent me background information on Hutts, most of which is stuff that I myself wrote for the game product, making me my own source material. The name we settled on (after much batting about) was Scourge, and the cover was a surprise to me, showing up in my in-basket about the time it was released to the general populace (I would have given the cover Jedi rose-colored glasses as described in the book, but that's me).

Of course, over the entire course of events, with changes of both direction and editors and schedules (this was a done-in-one, so did not have to be part of a larger series), this quickly-written novel took longer to complete, finally being published in 2012. It took so long that I got my final payment on the contract before I turned in the manuscript (contractually, it had to be closed out with X months of signing, or upon delivery, and the contract timed out before I made official turnover.)

All this is not the worse example of how the sausage is made, and the folk at Del Rey were great to work it, and I'd jump at another chance, in this revised and rebooted universe (makes phone hand symbol and mouths "call me!"). But I am quite content to be one of the final entries in what would now be the "Legends" category, and Scourge can still be found some of your better used-bookstores (and some of the not-so-better ones as well).

Oh, and the original plot? I considered posting it, but the original plot the game was based on, after things fell apart for it, was moved over to ANOTHER game under development. So you can find the basics of the main character, X2, HERE. So I could have written that book after all. But it did finally see the light of day.

In the mean time, May the Fourth be with you. More later.

Bits and Pieces

A lot of stuff worth noting:

The Basic Rules for the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons is out, and you can get the free pdf version of it here. I am credited in the book both for "Drawing from further development by:" and "Additional consultation provided by:" Both are accurate credits and I am pleased to be mentioned. On the latter credit, I reviewed a (very) early draft and gave them my curmudgeonly what-for. On a quick scan of the final product I find that it is is readable, engaging, and moves the discussion that is the D&D game forward. I particularly like that they have pulled from the TSR novels for their examples and archetypes, and have woven the worlds tighter to the core rules.

AND

The D&D Starter Set, which is starting to show up, has the rules, plus dice and an adventure. Not to miss a trick, Frog God Games has released the first non-WotC D&D Adventure here. The adventure is by Clark Peterson and Christopher Laurent, but I would be remiss to point out the veteran TSR editor Steve Winter is listed as developer and one of the editors. Steve is also one of the designers (with Wolfgang Baur)  on the first separate WotC D&D adventure, Tyranny of Dragons.

AND

Speaking of games, the new season of the Guild Wars 2 Living Story has just launched, and has gotten great responses, which makes everyone at work very happy.

AND

One of the GW2 team, Leif Chappelle, has had his first novel published - City of Tigers, available in kindle and dead tree editions. Leif was kind enough to provide me with a downloaded ARC a few months back, and I have failed him utterly by not reading it. But you should check it out, regardless of my failure.

AND

Another member of the GW2 Team, Matthew Medina, has HIS first novel out - Bloodfire, in both electronic and paper editions.

AND

Another friend and member of the old TSR Crew, Troy Denning, has his new book Crucible, for Star Wars, just out in paperback.

AND

That's enough AND for the moment. There will be more. Later.

Star Wars! (Nothing but Star Wars!)

This Saturday is Star Wars Reads Day, and I will be celebrating with an appearance at the University Bookstore up in the U-District, starting at 6 PM. I will join noted Star Wars memorabilia collector Gus Lopez, and look forward to finding out if my "Revenge of the Jedi" button is worth anything. Plus: Stormtroopers! (Or so I have been told). Looking forward to it!

More later

Past, Present, Future

You know, it's been a long time since I've mentioned my Star Wars novel, Scourge, on this blog. Have you missed it? I know I have.

In any event, Star Wars-Union has just released an interview they did with me, in German and English, talking about Scourge (released in Germany as Die Geißel), RPG influences, and the elevator pitch for the unlikely-to-be-published Autobiography of Jar Jar Binks. 

Plus, on Saturday, October 5th, I will be at the University Bookstore for Star Wars Reads day, with Gus Lopez and stormtroopers. (Yes, stormtroopers!)

And as a bonus, bouncing around the Internets this morning is a link to an ancient site where the writer visited TSR in Lake Geneva, and I did the tour and had lunch with him. This is the Internet version of your old high school photos turning up (I am there, without a beard, much thinner and younger, and wearing a tie (a thin, white, leather tie, but a tie nonetheless)!

None of this should push down on my the page the fact I will be leaving for Grand Rapids tomorrow for GrandCon, and looking forward to playing games and kicking back for a few days.

More later,

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,

Commercial Message

This Saturday is "Star Wars Reads" day, with events all over the country. In Seattle, I will be at the University Book Store up at UW at 6 PM, signing my Star Wars: Scourge book. If you're in the area, and/or a fan of Star Wars, stop by and say hi, 'cause that's where I shall be.

May the Force be with you. More later,

Cello Wars

There are moments in my life where I regret having stopped practicing the cello. This is one of them.



More later,

Good Grief, More Hutts!

Star Wars: Scourge, is out, and getting nice responses.

I did a live podcast with the folks at the Star Wars Report, where we talked about Scourge, RPGs, the greater canon, Attacktix, and Uncle George's minivan.

I also went on at length for Big Shiny Robot, talking about the writing process and having a story make the jump from an RPG audience to a full book.

And speaking of RPGs, here's a review for the book from Roleplayer's Chronicle. And one from Geek-Life (complete with Jedi Mind Trick).

And finally, fellow content designer at ArenaNet Kim Kirch loved the book, and did some Hutt artwork, which I'm including here if you guys are tired of seeing the cover so much.

More later,

Giant Green Carnivorous Bunnies

More Star Wars memories.

The time when the original Star Wars movie came out was a nascent time for marketing and cross-promotion. I'll admit, it had almost a quaint innocence compared to the media-overload today. One of the things that was really, really cool was the fact that Star Wars had an ongoing comic book.

Because eight is better than seven

Movie adaptations had been done before - 2001: a Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes, both from Marvel. For Star Wars they rolled out a big tabloid and the first few issues of the book were the original movie. And in the wake of the original movie adaptation, the question was - what to do next? There was a larger universe out there, and at the same time, you could not radically change that universe since more movies were coming. Since the original film was a paean to the old serials, similarly the series continued with a riff on the Seven Samurai, or as most western fans had encountered the story, The Magnificent Seven.

So Han and Chewy found themselves on a distant planet, teamed up with a bundle of individuals called the Star Hoppers. They included a porcupine man named Hedji, an old guy pseudo-Jedia named Don-Wan Kihotay, a woman named Amaiza Foxtrain, a kid named Jimm Doshun ("The Starkiller Kid"), and a droid named FE-9Q ("Effie"). And a giant green carnivorous rabbit.

The rabbit's named was Jaxxon (he was a "Jaxx-rabbit", keeping with the punning), and he was large, green, and ate meat. The story itself involved the motley band protecting a small village on Aduba-3 for a bandit names Sergi-X Arrogantus, taking the Italian Western vibe of the entire project to its ultimate level.

It was a silly story, taken very seriously, and it was the FIRST comic story out of the box after those initial movies. But what I remember was the giant green rabbit, and how cool that would be to have more stories about him. And while he showed up a couple times at the edge of continuity, he and his species, the Lepi (of course), never got the respect that they deserved. I know, I'm talking about respect for a giant green bunny.

And here's where it turns personal - I read comics as a kid, then stopped in Junior High, and picked it up again when I was in college, primarily because of books like Star Wars and Howard the Duck (but that's another matter). I used to buy these books, then MAIL them to the future Lovely Bride so she could read them. And they became the start of the collection (now more of accumulation) of comics in the basement.

More later,

Huttness in Interviews!

The madness that is Scourge continues, as we see the first interviews for Scourge showing up on the 'net.

I did 20 questions with Cape Rust on Geek-Life, where we talk about Hutts, Mander, and scum-and-villainy novels!

And over at the Fictional Frontiers Podcast, you can here me in the first interview with Sohaib. Sohaib is a great interviewer, but you you can hear me hem and haw, and see why I say I have "A face made for radio, a voice made for mime."

And while we're at it, I came across a review of my LAST book, Ghosts of Ascalon, (written with the mighty Matt Forbeck), over on The Backline. His concern is in moving a game's world to another media and if it suffers in the transition, and in light of that I will take "I was pleasantly surprised at how not crappy it was" as a compliment.

And I've been reminded that not only is Scourge available in classic crushed-plant-material version (with stylish embossed cover), but also as a heaping handful of digital bits for your Kindle.

AND I want to thank everyone for putting up with all of this linkage. After the book makes its street date next Tuesday, I will resume talking about collectible quarters. No, really.

More later,

Hutt Updates - A Giveaway!

The folks at Roqoo Depot are giving away copies of Scourge! Vote for your favorite Hutt and get a chance to win a copy of the book! (AND it continues here!)

And Lightsaber Rattling is doing a book giveaway as well! Check it out.

AND furthermore, TheForce.net is giving copies away as well. Woo!

More later,

Bitts of Hutts

Yes, I have more Star Wars-y things to say, but it is a pleasant Friday the 13th in Seattle, so I'm sending you to some micro-excerpts for Scourge to start the weekend off.

The Star Wars Books Facebook page has been running short excerpts from the book. Roqoo Depot has been collecting them up, and here is the latest, complete with links back to the previous ones.

Enjoy!

More later,

A long time ago, a galaxy far away

My first exposure to Star Wars was not by name. It was in when I was a sophomore in college (76-77), and was at the Pizza Keg in West Lafayette, Ind, with a group of other D&D players/SCAers/ and SF Fans. One of them was talking about a new movie coming out.

"It's science fiction," he said, "But the guys in the white space armor are the bad guys".

And that's the first I had learned about Star Wars.

It is kind of strange, in our media-savvy universe to see something like this creep up on people. I was aware of a novel (it showed up in the local at the Stewart Center (Purdue's student union)  for two weeks, before being rotated out). I think there was a very excited and long article in TIME that showed up the week of release.

And there were the radio ads. Yes, radio ads. They played all summer. I don't know if they do radio ads for movies anymore, but we had radio ads. I still remember "The Death Breath of the Dark Lord".



And then, the movie itself. It played in ONE LOCATION in Pittsburgh during that first run. And that was a multiplex out near Monroeville, twenty miles away. So our D&D gang gathered together, carpooled in our parents cars, and made the trip out, to a packed weekend theater and a line (a line! for an SF movie!) out front.

Once inside, the lights went down, and the opening drumroll for 20th Cent Fox. The simple tagline on the screen, the John Williams anthem, and the crawl.

And then that first shot, over Tatooine, of the blockade runner pursued by the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer that filled the top of the screen, and KEPT ON COMING. And you thought it was done, but no, that was just the cargo bay, there was MORE SHIP to come.

That was the gosh-wow moment for me. I was willing to buy everything else after that moment.

That's what I remember about the first Star Wars movie. I think we made the pilgrimage about a dozen times. Me, the future Lovely Bride, and the members of our D&D group. One time I took my little sister (who would have 13, and was impressed that my friend Frank could do a Wookiee imitation). Once the theater was so full, we had to sit in the front row, and the star destroyer rumbled overhead. And it was really cool.

More later,

Scourge: The Offer

So of course, part of being a writer these days is not just the ability to string words together, create engaging characters and pose for a decent author's picture (a skill that I have yet to master). In Century 21, you also have to leverage the social media in order to maximize your exposure. Yeah, I had to look that one up.

So, with Scourge coming out on the 24th of this month (as I've mentioned elsewhere), I'm going to try my hand at that with an offer. The guys at Del Rey pretty much have the sites that talk about Star Wars covered, but I get a lot of traffic here from my previous lives in D&D, comic books, fiction, and games, as well as my current alternate life creating stuff for Guild Wars.

So here is the deal - if you have a website or contribute to a larger site or aggregator, and you want to ask some questions about Scourge, my upcoming Star Wars novel, drop me a line at the grubbstreet email address, tucked under the handsome picture of myself at the right. I will pass the information along to Greg, my marketing guy at Del Rey, and he can set things up. I can do podcast interviews as well, though I will note that I am much more charming and witty when I have the time to take several minutes thinking about the question (which makes for good interviews but a lot of dead air).

Yes, I can answer questions about other stuff, but this is primarily about Scourge (OK, I can talk about the old Star Wars game from WotC, I guess. That's probably in-bounds). Any questions about Guild Wars would have to go through a different set of channels (though the answer to the question you have is: "When it's ready"). This is an experiment to see if we can talk about a Star Wars novel in places other than the regular Star Wars sites. And any sites that do interviews have those interviews mentioned in this space. If you're interested, send me a note.

After all, talk is cheap. At least, that's what people tell me.

More later,

Scourge!

And so it begins.


I haven't talked much about Scourge, my Star Wars novel, in this space. Part of the reason why is that I hate to talk about things until they are done. And by done, I mean in-your-hands, hey-ma-look-what-I-did done. The modern marketplace is a strange thing, and in order to make sure things "land" properly, often stuff changes. So only when I have a physical book in my physical possession do I feel comfortable talking about it.

However.

Scourge has an official street date - April 24 of this year. That's about three weeks away. And so, you're going to get about three weeks of notes, comments, interviews, and other nonesuch about the book. Material will be promoted. Insights will be made. Links will be had.

Speaking of the last, the good folk at Del Rey have been teasing the heck out of the book. They have released the front matter (the first part of the book that you usually skip over to get to the meat, including the dedication, acknowledgements, timeline, and legal stuff ) AS WELL AS the first pages of the introduction and first twelve pages of the book. Click on the cover in the reader-shaped object to open it up and enjoy. Its the electronic equivalent of flipping through the book at the store and pulling a couple choice paragraphs out, before you decide to buy.

Go check it out.

More later,

I Haz Cover!

The cover to Scourge, the  Star Wars novel I occasionally talk about in this space, has been unleashed on an unsuspecting world, along with an official ship date of April 24, 2012.

It is a very dynamic pose, and step away from a traditional look. I'm kinda excited about the whole thing.

More later.

What I've Been Up To

A new draft of the novel, the day job, conventions, a bit of exhaustion, and, finally, a vacation. So yeah, I've been busy.

Here are some of the details:

I did a interview about Scourge, the new Star Wars novel, with Skuldren at Roqoo Depot. I talk a bit about where I am coming from and my previous history with the Force. Yes, it is the first time I've talked about the book. (Oh, and Random House has a blurb up about the book - didn't know that was coming).

I have a much (much) longer discussion in a podcast on Guild Wars Informer. Seven and spent an evening in the lobby of the local Westin talking about my background, history of game products, and a lot about Guild Wars 2.

And speaking of Guild Wars 2, we had a humungous panel at PAX, "We" being me, Eric, Colin, Kristen, and Jon Peters. Now, WE were not humungous, but we were in a room talking to about a thousand people. That's pretty darn big. Here's a Nerd Trek page containing the entire panel, and here is the first part of that discussion (the first three minutes or so are technical problems as we try to queue up the latest trailer, but is fun because you get to watch David Campbell buck and weave as we try to get things fixed). And here it is under one file:



Plus, we have just launched Asura week, where we are talking about the diminutive geniuses of GW2. As part of that, I put forward one of our original "Concept Stories" describing a particular asura and sylvari team-up, as well as a short advise column for those who seek the wisdom of the asura. And a few more questions are answered here.

So yeah, after all this, I needed a vacation. More about that later.

[Update]: Oh, and I also appeared in a short video for Ed Healy of Gamerati promoting Fantasium, which used to be SPY Comics and is still my local comic book shop. This was the first stop of the Gamerati tour!

About That Star Wars Novel

I've mentioned on and off in these pages I've been working on a Star Wars novel. Now I can reveal that the Book-With-No-Name has a name.

Scourge.

And yes, it features Hutts. Expect additional teasing in the future.

More later,

Busy Season

Wrapped up with a lot of work all of a sudden, both in the day job and in the rest of my life, including, but not limited to, Norwescon this weekend.

I almost gave you a picture of a cat with a pithy saying beneath it that would make you Laugh Out Loud, but I restrained myself.

Instead, enjoy this enigma.

More, later

Update: The amazing Stan! posted a link to this, and despite all of the April Fish swimming about, I like this one the best. Heck, I would write this comic.