Reviews

I sometimes do a little ego-cruising on the web, wondering what people out there have to say about what I do. Not that I don’t love all of you who come by here, but those who are wiling to stop by and sit a while are most likely to say kinder things. After all, posting a comment here means I’ll read it for sure. It’s the internet’s equivalent of saying something to my face.

It’s in the more distant corners of the net you find other opinions, like on Amazon.com. The people who write comments there aren’t professional reviewers, but they paid their money and read the books, so they get to say what they like–or don’t, as the case may be.

In the case of Marked for Death, the Amazon reviewers have given the book some good marks, some fair, and some bad. If you liked the book, I’d appreciate it if you could stop by there and give your opinion too. Amazon is the largest seller of books on the web, and I could use all the kind words I can get there.

Now, I’m not asking you to be a shill or to write something you don’t believe in. However, one of the best things you can do for an author is to recommend his or her work to other people. Many people have written privately to thank me for my work. If you can share those thoughts with the rest of the world, then you have my thanks.

Rules Rule

Yesterday I wrote the rules for an upcoming game from Mattel. By that, I mean that the game was already developed and tested. They just wanted someone to sit down and write up the rules in a polished, publishable format.

It’s been a long time since I worked on a rules set for a game with which I had little else to do. My first paid gig in the adventure gaming industry was writing the rules for Myth Fortunes, the board game from Mayfair Games that was based on Robert Lynn Asprin’s Myth Adventures series of funny fantasy books. Like the original novels, it featured artwork from the pen of Phil Foglio. Will Niebling and John Danovich created the game, but they knew that neither of them could write, so they convinced Mayfair to hire me to write the rules. And so my career in the adventure gaming industry began.

Working on this new game was fun too. Writing rules for a game you didn’t design is a form of technical writing. It’s like solving a puzzle, which is: Describe how to play this game in the briefest and clearest possible terms. It engages both sides of the brain, which is what I love about game design in general.

And, no, I can’t tell you anything else about the game, at least until it’s closer to being released.

Modern Browsers

I just got a note from a good friend who told me that he could barely read this website in his browser. He sent me a screenshot, and I could see why. It turns out he’s using Internet Explorer 5.x for the Mac. As I wrote back to him, this site, like many others, doesn’t resolve well in older browsers. If you’re using an older browser (like IE 5, which is the last version Microsoft made for the Mac before abandoning it), I recommend upgrading to the latest version.

At the least, check out the cool and free Firefox. It handles modern web standards like CSS, XHTML, and lots of other acronyms you don’t care much about but which make all the pages look much better. Plus it’s much more secure. And it has tabbed windows. In short, it rocks. I alternate between it and Safari (which is just as good) on my Mac.

I’m thinking about putting up an alternate style sheet that works better with older browsers too. Is there a demand for that out there? Would it help you? Sound off!

Games Quarterly #5 Online Now

The latest issue of Games Quarterly Magazine is available for downloading now. Print copies should show in mailboxes and in better game stores everywhere soon. If you dig through it, you should be able to find an article I wrote on Peter Adkison’s new company (Hidden City Games) and its new game (Clout Fantasy). It’s a collectible game, but instead of playing cards or moving miniatures, you throw poker chips. It should debut at Gen Con Indy (which is run by Peter’s other company, which he started after leaving the first company he founded: Wizards of the Coast).

Human Head’s Secret: Prey

The cat’s officially out of the bag, so now I can finally talk about Human Head Studios‘ top-secret video game: Prey. For those of you who have been playing PC games forever, you might remember that 3DRealms, the makers of Duke Nukem, promised to come out with one particular game before Duke Nukem Forever. That game was Prey.

Human Head has been working on the game under 3DRealms wing for years, and it’s finally coming to light. Gamespot.com has a great interview about Prey on their site, with lots more details, if you’re curious.

When I worked in the Human Head offices, I had the privilege of watching Prey develop and to playtest a few of the levels. This game is amazing. If you’re a first-person shooter or science fiction fan (or, better yet, both), you’re going to want this bad. It uses the Doom 3 engine, so it’s gorgeous, but the gameplay is fantastic too. Time to think about upgrading systems.

Blood of Heroes Coming Soon

A hot-off-the-presses copy of Loren Coleman’s Blood of Heroes showed up via UPS today. It looks great, and I have high hopes that it will make a great launch for Ace Books new line of Age of Conan novels set in Conan’s homeworld of Hyboria. The book is due on shelves on May 31, so soon you’ll all be able to get copies of your own too.

I had little to do with this book other than checking through the page proofs just before it went to press. My predecessor on the line, Jeff Conner, handled the actual story editing instead. Still, I feel a bit of pride to see the book made real. I hope you’ll all enjoy it.

Rolling Along

The weekend went well. The kids were great, and we spent lots of time over at my mom’s house, playing with her and many other members of our extended family. In the evenings, I managed to get through the proofs for Songs of Victory, the last volume in Loren Coleman’s Legends of Kern trilogy for the new Age of Hyboria series of novels due out from Ace starting this summer.

I also made plans to attend Games Day Chicago, the closest Games Workshop convention, on July 30. We should have advance copies of my Blood Bowlnovel there, a month before they’ll be available in bookstores in the US. I’ll be signing books there and host a seminar about the novel too. If you’ll be in the area, be sure to stop by and say hi!

Home (Not) Alone

Ann’s brother Nick graduates from Northern Michigan University today, up in beautiful (and nearly arctic) Marquette, Michigan. Ann and Marty (our eldest) made the trek up to help Nick celebrate this long-awaited event. That leaves me home alone with the quads, who are nearly three. So far, they’ve been great, although I can hear them barking at each other through the bars of their cages–I mean, cribs–in the next room while they’re supposed to be napping.

So, if I don’t get a whole lot done this weekend, I think you can understand why. 🙂

Character for a Cause

On eBay, Loren Coleman is auctioning off the right to become a character in an upcoming BattleTech or Mechwarrior novel. All proceeds go to the American Stroke Association, through the efforts of Loren and his wife Heather.

Loren’s also writing the first trilogy in the upcoming line of Age of Conan novels I’m editing for Conan Properties and Ace Books. As I started up on the job (I began with his second book; Jeff Conner worked on the first), Loren noted that I had developed his first large writing product ever: Chronomancer for TSR. He’d actually written it for Mayfair Games‘ Role Aids line of licensed D&D products, but when TSR bought the line the book went to them too. While it’s long out of print, you can still buy a PDF version from RPGnow.com.

Anyhow, if you’d like to be written into the BattleTech universe, here’s your chance, and it’s all for a great cause.

E-mail Tests Work

Stephen David Wark wrote to tell me that the e-mail notifications aren’t working. After a few tests, I figured out the problem. They do work, but only if I post directly within the WordPress backend software. If I use ecto, my favorite blogging software for the Mac, the e-mail notification plugin doesn’t recognize the post. There are a couple workarounds for this, so e-mail readers can expect a solution in time for the next post.