The Fourth Annual Dungeon Crawl Classics Open Tournament is looking for GMs. To be clear, this isn't for the faint of heart. This is like the Iron Chef competition meets geek Mecca. Tournament DM's will have their badges covered as well as some other great perks. If you think you're up to the challenge, send Goodman Games an e-mail at info@goodman-games.com, and tell us about your DM experience, especially in convention settings.

//H

Winter Bound
So despite Jeff’s prediction of the end of winter we are nowhere close out here in Colorado. Snow is coming down, roads are closing --- good times. Bah. What does Jeff know about weather anyhow?

In anticipation of GenCon I downloaded a couple new books last night. Now I’m all fired up to run a new campaign. It’s fun, but a little disconcerting to think that whatever we play will probably end up as published source material at some point.

Strange times.

I’m also finishing up a special release for Goodman Games. Kam mentioned a while back that it was getting too expensive to keep up with all the releases, but this one should be pretty easy on the pocketbook. I’ll let you know more when we get closer to the release date.

Last week H and I went down to Santa Fe to scout out places for a restaurant*, and I had the chance to spend several hours in a forge, meticulously crafting glowing pieces of iron into … different shaped pieces of iron. I’m not going to be folding katanas any time soon, but just getting the chance to hammer on a glowing rod of metal was fun. As might be expected, hammering on an anvil for an afternoon is a real workout – that night H and I went out to dinner and it was challenging to even hold a water glass in my left hand. That sort of thing just makes me smile.

Anyhow. More later this week as some projects come into focus. Till then, stay warm.

//H


*Bad joke/reference. Sorry.

Another Day at the Office

Just got some of the art from an upcoming DCC special – a great piece by the brilliant (though slightly askew) Chuck Whelon, the same man that is the mastermind behind the Pewfell comic. Due to a severe crunch timeline, I had to order some of the art before I had written the adventure. The end result required a little bit of retrofitting to get the adventure to match the art, but that’s not so far from my usual modus.

When running games at home or abroad, I’m always playing from the hip to match the current mood of the group. (Just don’t tell the players that --- they’re under the misconception that I actually plan these things.) It’s a style of play that doesn’t suit all gamers, but it has served me well so far. Last GenCon I was even editing my own published material on the fly, tearing apart and rebuilding maps, just to make sure that the groups got to the dramatic conclusion in 4 hours or less. Good times.

What else? Even though the event is 6 months away, GenCon madness is nearly upon us. Things have ramped up considerably inside the Goodman Games’ secret arctic headquarters, and I’m assuming this is true for most other small publishers. We take a busy schedule, double the work, add absolute deadlines, and somehow are all friends afterwards. Last year’s schedule was a bit feverish, so this time I’m striving to set aside time to simply sit down with folks and chat. But at the end of the day, it really is a business trip --- albeit with people in furry tails and feathered wings.

Heh. And what a great industry to be in.

New Roads
Sorry for leaving that last post up so long. It took Cath to kick me out of my slump, which is saying something. Not out of character though, if you've known me for a while.

[self-righteous rant deleted.]

So where are we? The next box set is coming out in late March/April. I’m proud of this, not so much for the writing, but for the cartography. One of the chief criticisms I get about DCC World is that the sucker is just too darn large to be useful. Whether or not that’s true, this next box set (and the one following) go a long way towards making a specific section of the world manageable.

Roads. Detailed histories of small towns. NPC personalities. Cool things that are fun to write and give a world life.

The product isn’t for everyone. One of our chief design goals for DCC World was to ensure that you didn’t need to go out and buy the GM’s Guide to Áereth, and the Player’s Guide, and the Elf’s Guide, etc. just to feel like you weren’t missing out on anything. It’s all there in the box set. Any GM can write towns for themselves, and they could probably do a better job that I can. Drawing roads just requires an image editor. You get the idea. But for anyone new to the line this is a chance to pick up 5 DCCs, and some more background material on Áereth, all for a measly $20.

So anyhow. Thanks for putting up with me, and hanging through to the end. But you and I know you should really be writing.

//H