Springtime for Harley and Something that rhymes with Germany…
OR “If I was a rich man...”

To be clear H & H are not well to do. We’re much better off than we deserve, but we don’t come close to the folks that jet in and out of Aspen.

However, like mice living in the shadows of a 5 star kitchen, we do pretty well off the scraps. (I originally wrote “roaches,” then thought better of comparing H to a roach. Me maybe, but not her.)

Add to this, the wonderfully bi-polar nature of springtime in Colorado, and you have a recipe for really good ride.

When I was younger, I swore to myself that I wouldn’t become someone who lived solely for the weekend. Sometimes I’m able to stick to my vow, sometimes I’m not, but sometimes – as much as it galls me to admit it – I’m fortunate enough to have a really cool weekend.

Friday Night: A friend buys us tickets to benefit dinner in Aspen. Free dinner and drinks plus a comedy show.

Saturday Morning: Wake up. Go to the skate park. Fall down on concrete for several hours.

Saturday Afternoon: Turn in 90k project. *Collective sigh of relief*

Saturday Afternoon: Different friend takes us out to dinner; we all go see Little Shop of Horrors.

Sunday Morning – Afternoon: Wake up. H & H go snowboarding. (Recall I was skating just the day before. Have I mentioned I love spring?) I finally step up to big air elements and come back unbroken.*collective sigh of relief*

Sunday Night: Begin planning next big writing project.

And? It’s snowing right now. The passes will likely be closed by sundown.

Even more fun than a return to winter conditions is this coming weekend ….

Ya Se Fue!

Yup. Ozomatli is having a free show in Aspen, Friday night. Ozomatli is found somewhere on the spectrum of Mariachi-Ska-Punk-Hip Hop, which (in addition to having something like 9 members), means that when these brothers get after it, Harley just can’t say “no.”

They're also some of the happiest performers on earth.

The show is followed by Spring Break – an entire week of skating / writing / boarding / sleeping out of my car. Plus, I promised a friend I would get her a paintball gun. Hades and all the Hells hath no fury like a scorned woman armed with a paintball gun. You heard it here first.

Life is good, kids. Damn, damn good. Again and again, I get better than I deserve. And you guys are part of that. Thank you.

Enough sap. If you’re in Colorado this Friday, and if you can pick me out of a darkened crowd of hundreds, I’ll see you Aspen.

Till then,
//H

8 Panels of ... DOOM!*
Introducing the Dungeon Crawl Classic GM Screen, for all your d20 reference needs - skills, status conditions, weapons, armor, poisons, combat actions ... but we all really know that the purpose of a good screen is to conceal the times when you fudge the dice rolls.

(Interesting historical anecdote: one of the screen designs submitted included a translucent panel for “defending against thrown dice.” True story.)







The screen comes with a special release DCC: Alex Anderegg’s “Ruins of Castle Churo.” Not every DCC fan wants or needs every DCC, but every DCC fan who GMs will probably pick up the screen. It's good to see Alex's work come out with such a high profile release.

//H



*The last time I was player (over 5+ years ago, now) was in Alex's long-running campaign, a game that featured goblins (who put the Viet Cong to shame), and a ranger whose signature combat style involved 2 morningstars. My personal contribution (such as it was) involved serving as the group's soothsayer --- a role discharged by reading entrails, the flights of birds, cloud patterns and inevitably declaring “Doom!”

Good times.

Fear the Gorilla
SEKGG is hosting Gorilla Con the third weekend in March (16th, 17th, & 18th), 2007, at the Holiday Inn Express, in Pittsburg, KS. More importantly, Jon Hershberger of Iron Crypt fame will be there, running a 1e version of my Vault of the Thief Lord. Vault is a favorite of mine, but it doesn't get much airplay since the box set it came in has so much other awesome material.

There are worse fates, I suppose. :)

Anyhow, if you are anywhere in Midwest, stop in. Gorilla is a relaxed, laid-back con, not like that other monster con we are all gearing up for. You have the chance to hang out with some good folks and game with the legendary TacoJon. (Don't even try it at GenCon. The man's games are already sold out.)

//H

Saturday, June 23 is...

So inexpensive, even a freelance writer can afford them. Free print products in your local brick and mortar. (And if your b&m isn't participating, ask them to.)

The silly part? Folks will be reselling the free DCC on Ebay the next day. And they’ll make a killing on it.

Not Free, but Worth It:

Hey! Quarterly, Iss. 1, Vol. 1.
More content than you can shake a stick at from the ol' timey country folks at the Sidedown Annex. I really wanted to contribute to this issue, but ran out of time. Maybe iss. 2. We'll see.

The Best of the Realms Book III: The Stories of Elaine Cunningham...
is available for pre-order right now. So what are you waiting for?

Deathy Welcome... to Jake Able if he makes it here. Heh. >:)

The Gang of Hard Rollers that is "Harley Stroh"

Writing gaming material necessitates relying on a team of professionals to make a product look good. Proofreaders, editors, cartographers, interior and cover artists – if anyone falls down on the job it makes the writer with his name on the cover look bad. Worse, when they all do their job really well, it’s usually taken for granted.

For instance, can you name your favorite layout artist? But we all know nothing looks worse than a product with lousy layout.

For Saga the list includes (in no particular order): Brendan LaSalle, Micheal Mearls, John Seavey, Eric Lofgren, Cliff Kurowski, William McAusland, Brad McDevitt, Jesse Mohn, Stefan Poag, Jeremy Simmons, Joseph Goodman, Liz Rich, and Aeryn Rudel.

I just received proof copy of Saga, and damn … these people made me look good. I spent an hour (when I should have been writing, heh) going over the manuscript, noting my errors for the final proofing. But golly, that sucker is going to look good. Even more exciting, you can expect to see it in a month, taking up precious space on the shelves of regular booksellers.

Anyhow, nothing new or surprising here. Just remember to thank all the folks that make us look good.