Decipher just announced that it’s going to release some new books for its Lord of the Rings and Star Trek Roleplaying Games as PDFs through DriveThruRPG.com. This may include some books in which I had a hand back when I worked as Decipher’s Lord of the Rings RPG developer. Or not.

Honestly, it’s been more than three years since I left that position, and I can’t recall the titles of everything we had in the works at the time. Jeff Tidball carried on in my stead, and I’m sure the lion’s share of what may see the light of day will be the excellent fruits of his labors. I’m happy to see the material will finally be available to the public.

Beyond the Storm: Shadows of the Big Easy is now available as a PDF download through Lulu.com. This is the big, RPG-industry charity jam book I mentioned before. It came out fantastic and on time, both of which should amaze anyone who’s worked on a project like this. It features RPGs, RPG adventures, short stories, and essays–all with a Big Easy theme. Aaron Acevedo, Aaron Axelsen, Scott Bennie, Jason L Blair, Leanne Buckley, Heather “Squish” Cornelius, William Edmonds, Crazy Elf, Matt Forbeck, Caz Granberg, Seth Johnson, Adam Jury, Mischa Damon Krilov, Lindsay Labanca, Mur Lafferty, Jason Mical, Veronica Pare, Jeff Preston, Mikko Rautalahti, Sean Riley, S. John Ross, Janice M. Sellers, Angi Shearstone, Geoff Skellams, Adam Tinworth, Ursula Vernon, David “Doc Blue” Wendt, Stacy S. (Niedecker) Wendt, Michael Wendt, and Brook Willeford all chipped in both time and effort.

For my part, I wrote up the “Naked Room Service” tale I referred to here a few weeks back, as a tribute to one of my best times in the Crescent City. (Anyone know that name from my RPG work?) That’s a fun story for everyone, but if you’re a gamer it’s the least of a fantastic lot. The book includes a couple short but complete roleplaying games, for instance, and some damn good writing all around. For $10, how can you go wrong? The only reason not to buy it now is that you’re waiting for the $20 dead-tree version to arrive in a couple weeks. You could get both!

Wizards of the Coast is on the prowl for new talent for their Dungeons & Dragons staff. I chatted with Bill Slaviscek about this at Gen Con, and he said that for the first time they don’t care if you have previous publication credits or not. They just want great designers.

If you’re interested and think you have the chops for the job, here’s you chance to prove yourself. Go take Wizards’ RPG Design Test. Even if you’re not looking for that kind of job, I found it fascinating to see just what the top RPG publisher in the world looks for in a new designer these days.

Here’s another way to do something good while getting a great game out of it. Greg Stolze came up with Executive Decision, a live-action game set in the White House, and asked a few of his friends (other gaming geniuses like Dennis Detwiller, Chad Underkoffler, Ron Edwards and D. Vincent Baker) to come up with scenarios for it.

Greg has put the game up at Fundable.org. Once he gets $1,000 donated to the Red Cross for hurricane relief, he’ll release the game as a free PDF for everyone to enjoy. So, chip in some cash to help Katrina victims and give gamers everywhere the gift of a great game. What’s not to love?

Like lots of people, I think playing games is a great way to spend your free time. If you agree and you’d like to help spread that message, you have a few huge opportunities coming up in November.

On November 5, it’s Worldwide D&D Game Day. Teach people to play Dungeons & Dragons or, if you don’t know how, it’s a great time to learn.

November 20—26 is National Games Week. This covers any kind of nonelectronic game, but it mostly centers on the adventure game industry.

The same week also hosts National Games and Puzzles Week, which is now part of the Million Minute Family Challenge. It’s no coincidence that both are held over the week of Thanksgiving, the perfect time to play games with your family. There’s no better way to entertain those relatives you only see twice a year! 🙂

If you love games, November is the time to show it. And now is the time to prepare for those days. Get to it!