“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke That’s one of my favorite quotes, and I’ve applied it to just about every facet of my life. These days, I’d amend it to “No plan survives contact with reality.” Or, really, any contact at all. Plans rarely work out exactly the way you think they will, …
The Queen of Death in Stores Today!
Today is the official street date for The Queen of Death, the final novel in my Lost Mark trilogy for Wizards of the Coast‘s Eberron setting. To celebrate: Go on out and buy a copy now! If you’re one of those readers who can’t stand to start reading a trilogy until all the books are published, today is your day. …
New Open Design Project Launches
Having enjoyed the first Open Design project, which resulted in the fantastic Steam & Brass, Wolfgang Baur is ready to leap into the breach once more. Chip in as a patron at any level, and you can get in on the ground floor of the project now. Start by helping to choose what it will be.
Marvel Meets the Soaps
I’ve long explained to my wife that superhero comics are the male equivalent to the soap opera: continuing storylines, implausible plots, cartoonishly drawn (literally and metaphorically) characters, and over-the-top dialog. Now, according to ICv2.com, Marvel helps me put another nail in that argument’s coffin by teaming up with Guiding Light to help promote each other. Newsarama has an interview with …
Indie Game Development
Greg Costikyan of Manifesto Games (a venture started with my fellow Alliterate Johnny Wilson) posted a column about how the budgets of computer games have grown to the point that publisher can no longer afford to experiment much anymore. You could take his points and apply them to tabletop games almost verbatim. His closing says it best: I don’t mean …
Back to Basics
If you keep up with the news, you probably know that Congress recently approved a bill that allows for the revocation of habeas corpus and permits the President to define what constitutes torture, among other things. I don’t want to turn this website into a political forum, but let’s say I’m less than comfortable with this. A good friend of …
New Mirrorstone Site
Wizards of the Coast has revamped the website for Mirrorstone, the young-adult imprint of its book-publishing department. Their Knights of the Silver Dragon section, dedicated to the series I created for them, looks prety snazzy. They even have a new photo of me up on my bio page, although I’ll have to get them to update the text. Still this …
Life on the Sea
While researching Billy Campbell before our interview, I discovered that he’d just spent over a year on a round-the-world voyage on the barque Picton Castle. That’s a man who knows how to live. In an alternate life, I’d take on that kind of a trip too. Back when I was working with ICE, I used to go to a lot …
Steam & Brass Released
Today, as a patron of Wolfgang Baur‘s Open Design experiment, I received my copy of Steam & Brass, the first fruit of my fellow Alliterate‘s efforts. At first glance, it looks fantastic, and I can’t wait to dig into it farther. Wolf’s a great adventure designer, and the patronage system gave me a chance to peer over his shoulder as …
Good-Bye Bastion Press
Bastion Press, the d20 publisher run by my friend Jim Butler, officially closed down today. That’s always a sad thing, but Jim seems to have taken care of things the right way. Instead of turtling down, he reached out and found some people who were willing to take over parts of the business from him. Greg Dent, creator of the …