Skills And Thrills

Time to talk for a bit about one of my favorite RPG subjects — skills and skill systems.

A few weeks ago, game designer Rob Donoghue posted an article on his blog about skills and skill failure, and it’s gotten me to pondering a bit. Rob’s a talented game designer and analyst, so he’s good at making you think about such matters. ;) So I thought I’d riff a bit on Rob’s ideas, offering my own spin and opinions and hopefully more food for everyone’s brains.

Click to read more ...

GenCon 2012 After-Action Report

Hi honey, I’m home!

After a ten-hour drive made all the harder by general sleep deprivation the last couple days of the convention, I am at last home from GenCon 2012 — my nineteenth GenCon in a row. I hadn’t planned on attending this year, since at present no one’s paying me to do game design work, but my colleagues at Hero Games and the Indie Press Revolution (IPR) expected they’d need some help with the booth, so I packed up my car and drove to Indianapolis.

Click to read more ...

More Kickstarters I'm Supporting

Time for the latest installment of "Kickstarters that Steve is backing." I think these are some fun projects worthy of support, and I hope you'll agree. ;)

Click to read more ...

Acquitaine, My Acquitaine

Time for a bit of self-promotion. ;)

I recently made available through the Hero Games Online Store my most recent gaming supplement (or mini-supplement, if you prefer): Acquitaine.

Click to read more ...

Scrivening

At the risk of making it seem like this blog is turning into one focused on reviews (which I assure you it ain’t), here’s another review — this time for a computer program rather than a book.

As a writer I’m always interested in tools and procedures designed to make writing easier. Recently I’ve heard several writer friends speak highly of a program called Scrivener, which can be found here. It costs $40 but there’s a free trial version you can test out. So I figured it couldn’t hurt to spend a day or two seeing if it would be worth learning to use.

Click to read more ...

The Sword And Sorcery Anthology: A Review

The two or three of you out there who are regular followers of this blog know that I’m a fan of Swords And Sorcery Fantasy (in addition to many other types of Fantasy, of course). I’ve written about what I think S&S is a couple of times in my Defining Fantasy article and a blog post about analyzing the subgenre using the radial categories concept.

So several months ago when I learned that a new anthology of Swords And Sorcery stories edited by David Hartwell (and Jacob Weisman) was due out later this year, I was really excited. This collection, imaginatively titled The Sword & Sorcery Anthology, is now out. While I don’t normally use this blog to write reviews, I think this is a worthy subject for discussion.

Click to read more ...

The Purpose Of An RPG Book

I don’t remember where, but recently I read an article or overheard a conversation in which the author/speaker said something like, “the purpose of this roleplaying game supplement is so-and-so.” That got me to thinking, and seeing as how this is the Internet Age I’m going to do my thinking here on the virtual page, in public, for y’all to read. ;)

What I’m thinking about is this question: What’s the purpose of an RPG book?

Click to read more ...

Recent RPG Reading

As someone who loves RPGs and has worked at designing, writing, and publishing them for the past twenty years, naturally I try to read RPG products from time to time. Partly this is out of professional interest, partly in search of tidbits I can use in the games I run, and partly for the fun of reading through a well-written, well-put together product.

Since I know that the dozen or so of you out there reading this blog include a few gamers, I thought I’d post some quick “reviews” of RPG books I’ve read recently and enjoyed. Hopefully some of these will spark your interest as well and you can pick up a copy. ;)

Click to read more ...

UBCon 2012 Report

Well, I’m back!

I spent the past weekend as the gaming guest at UBCon 2012, the twenty-third UBCon to date, at the University at Buffalo (I kept thinking it ought to be referred to as SUNY-Buffalo, but apparently no one calls it that). I’m glad to report that it was a great con. Attendance and enthusiasm were high; everything from the “Gaming Asylum” to the cosplay events to the panels was well-attended. There was a constant hum of activity and fun.

Click to read more ...

Even More Kickstarters Worth Supporting

Howdy folx! Time for another installment of "Kickstarters I'm backing that I think you should, too." ;)

Champions Live Action:  My business partner and fellow Hero alum Darren Watts has launched this project -- a book of rules that will bring the awesomeness of Champions to the world of LARPing! As I understand it, the rules involve a very, very streamlined version of the HERO System tailored to this type of play, and use a stopwatch as the randomizer. Sounds like great fun and I encourage you to pledge to help him get the book published.

The Encyclopedia Of Golden Age Superheroes:  Jess Nevins, well-known and talented researcher/writer on all things geeky and cool, particularly early-period things, is back with this latest in his series of superb reference volumes on cool subjects. His Encyclopedia Of Fantastic Victoriana is all kinds of amazing, and I have no doubt his forthcoming volume on Pulp heroes will be equally so (in fact I can't wait to get my hands on it). Now he's tackling the subject of the superheroes of the Golden Age. You definitely want to get in on this and snag a copy for your library!

 LOCUS Photo And Ephemera Archive:  An effort by LOCUS Magazine to "fund the preservation of a historic and irreplaceable collection of materials covering the science fiction, fantasy, and horror fields, including author and convention photos, correspondence, and other ephemera, accumulated by Charles N. Brown and Locus magazine over the past 60 years." How could you not want to support an effort like that? Even $1 helps to keep some of the treasures of genre literature available for generations to come.

So go ye forth, and pledge thy support!

Ad-Vancing Into Magic

In a recent Dungeons & Dragons blog post, Monte Cook (one of the designers working on D&D5) discussed returning to a “Vancian” style magic system for D&D, at least as one possible option. This has led me down a couple of avenues of thought, game design-wise.

Click to read more ...

The Pleasures And Perils Of Tekumel

I was saddened last week to hear of the death of M.A.R. Barker. Barker’s name isn’t particularly well-known outside of hard-core gaming circles, but in those circles he’s something of a legend. His Fantasy setting, Tékumel, sometimes known as “the Empire of the Petal Throne,” was the first one published by TSR after it published Dungeons & Dragons (it had its own set of rules; it wasn’t for D&D per se, though I have no doubt many gamers at the time used it for D&D games).

Click to read more ...

In Praise Of The Interactive Toolkit

There are a lot of people out there discussing roleplaying game design, or offering their particular advice on such matters. Some of that information I find useful and thought-provoking, some of it not so much, but overall I think it’s a great thing that these discussions are occurring. The Internet has made it possible to talk about these subjects (and so many others) in a way that simply wasn’t possible in the early years of the RPG hobby.

Click to read more ...

StellarCon 36 Report

This past weekend was StellarCon 36, my local science fiction/geekery/gaming convention. I’ve been going since StellarCon 7 — it’s one of those annual events on my professional/hobby calendar, and it tends to be great fun. This year was certainly no exception.

Click to read more ...

Humor In Fantasy

Recently my friend Allen Varney (whose website you should check out; there’s a link to it on my Links page) was kind enough to read one of my short stories (now actually referred to as “Chapter One of my novel,” or sometimes as “Shirley”) and give some some thoughtful constructive criticism about it. (Thanx, Allen!) One of the suggestions he made, and I think it’s a good one, was to put a little more humor in one character’s dialogue. I’d been thinking about that myself, because as what was a series of short stories evolved into a novel, I developed both of the main characters’ personalities more (in my head, at least, if not on paper). The one he referred to has slowly but surely taken on a slightly more humorous tone, here and there. “Updating” the earlier material to conform with how the characters turned out is, methinks, a Wise Idea.

Click to read more ...

More Kickstarters Worth Supporting

Time for another installment of "Kickstarters I'm backing that I think you would enjoy supporting as well." ;) These are all projects I've pledged some level of support to personally. They involve products that I think other gamers or genre literature fans will like as much as I expect to -- check 'em out!

Click to read more ...

The Power Of The Stick

As some of you may have seen, Rich Burlew’s Kickstarter for reprinting some of his Order Of The Stick books is just about to break 1.2 million dollars in its final hours, putting it in the top three earning Kickstarters of all time as of this date. He started out asking for $57,750 to do some reprints, and is now in a position where the postage alone to mail out the rewards will cost over two hundred thousand dollars.

Click to read more ...

Interview With RPG Geek!

The fine folx at RPG Geek were kind enough to interview me recently about my experiences in the RPG industry. You can read it at:

Steve Long interview on RPG Geek

And while you're there, check out their forums, reviews, and other cool stuff!

Doorstops And Pockets

As those of you who’ve been regular readers of this blog since its inception know, one of the issues I’ve been struggling with as I try to propel my writing career forward is the question of whether to try to get my novel published through the traditional route, or take on the brave new world of self-publishing. I’ve run into a factor that may decisively tip the balance.

Click to read more ...

Reflections Of A First-Time Kickstarterer

The Hero Games Kickstarter for The Book Of The Empress recently succeeded, and I’ve just launched my own Kickstarter for Mythic Hero. I figured it might be a good idea to do what so many others have done and post my thoughts, suggestions, and advice for the whole process. I know plenty of people out there are thinking of doing Kickstarters for gaming-related products. I’ve benefitted from the wisdom of those who came before me, and hopefully some who come after me will learn something from my experiences.

Herewith, said thoughts, suggestions, and advice. ;)

Click to read more ...