Winter Cometh!

So my work in the winter issue of Kobold Quarterly, which was just released contains some pretty awesome racial utility powers for Tieflings, Gnomes and Minotaurs for use with 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons. The powers are akin to the ones introduced in the Heroes of Shadow book and most of them have a very ‘classic’ feel to them, hopefully invoking warm thoughts of the racial bells and whistles of yore. I’m offering them to my players as freebies in my game, as I feel stuff like this is flavorful, fun, and having little to no impac on the balance of the game…things I feel have been put into 4e to begin with.

Anyway, I won’t give much more than that away though, because you should really run out and pick up a copy, after all it’s only 6$ for the PDF! Don’t run out and grab it only on my account though (actually yes, please do) because there is a lot more in there than just my ramblings, such as the wisdom of Monte Cook and much, new stuff for your pathfinder games, book reviews and a whole bunch more.

The Pitch

Originally my query contained racials for Dwarves instead of Minotaurs, however after WotC published some dwarven racials of their own, I needed to adjust my pitch as to not be doubling up on similar content. This was my first experience in the freelance world and also my first experience with needing to turn on a dime when something pops up, it was exciting to be perfectly honest. I’m pretty comfortable with Dwarven tropes and stereotypes, but forcing myself into Minotaur territory proved to be a fun and useful lesson in both game design and writing in a professional manner.

While I remain a huge fan of Rob Schwalb’s work, and I’m pretty sure he’s well aware of that, I must say I’m definitely biased to liking my own Dwarfy traits, just a bit more. It was great to feel like part of the industry, like I managed to carve out my own minuscule little corner of the D&D world. I can’t imagine how guys like Schwalb crank out so much work, so often, and with such high quality. I definitely feel like I’ve got my work cut out for me if I want to make it there someday, and I’m not sure that’s what I’m aiming for but this freelancing thing sure is fun, and I plan on doing a whole lot more of it.

Onward!

I also got some pitches that received a thumbs up and am currently working on revising them for Kobold Quarterly, I cannot give any spoilers though so I suppose you guys will just have to hold out until the next issue or two. It’s going to be be co-written by my lovely wife, I can’t wait to work with her doing revisions on what we’ve dreamed up. Until next time, thanks for reading!

Vague Vagueness

I originally intended to reveal a bit about my article and give some explanation behind the writing process of it, as well as a few snags I ran into but I’ll keep that post for another day. I want to keep what I wrote a secret for the time being, so once Issue #20 of KQ is released I’ll be sure to actually post that in a follow-up blog, right here.

Where Are The Keys To My New Lamborghini?

Ah yes, money. Remember my mention of it up there? I read blogs of guys like Robert Schwalb, and am lucky enough to have cool friends like Steven Townshend who are frank and candid about these sorts of things. Any honest freelance writer will all tell you the same thing: being able to eat and keep your lights on simply from freelance writing is a near impossible feat.

They also tell you that you really have to enjoy what you’re doing, because if you don’t then you probably shouldn’t spending all this time in the word mines. Aside from these points I’m honing in on, they have a lot to say about punctuality, people skills and a lot more – if you get a chance to listen to these guys talk at DDXP or in any other medium and are interested in writing, pay close attention. Take notes even.

Anyway, I’m not trying to sound like a veteran here, because I’m as green as fucking grass when it comes to this stuff, but I do love it. In case you haven’t picked up on that yet. I’m well aware of the minimal amount of glory involved in being a freelance writer, but that’s not going to stop me, because I have found passion here and I intend to stick around until it runs out. Hopefully the well is deep.

Thanks for reading.

So, Gencon has come and gone and yes Obsidian Portal won that ENnie we wanted so badly and I’m very proud to be an integral part of such a great team. Despite what both Micah and Ryan say about me earning this ENnie just as much as they did I have a hard time taking credit for something as amazing as Obsidian Portal.

Somehow just running my mouth in our social channels and sending newsletters and editing the podcast and networking with people and setting up contests and finding campaigns of the month and… okay well maybe I do play my part. Still, it doesn’t seem to stack up to hour after hour of coding, innovation, billing, marketing and more. I’m not quite comfortable with the idea of actually being an part of something so cool, far beyond resetting people’s passwords and teaching them how to spell their own names. Guess I better get used to it!

A Couple Kids from the Midwest vs. Paizo: Round 1

Revenge of the Iron Lich was ousted by the big boys when it came to my other nominations, which is understandable. Especially understandable after attending an ENnies ceremony and realizing exactly how flowchart-esque the outcome seems to work. It goes something like this:

• Is Paizo Nominated? If yes, Gold medal.
• Is Wizards of the Coast nominated? If yes, Gold medal.
• Are both Wizards of the Coast and Paizo nominated? If yes, Paizo wins gold, WotC wins Silver.
• Is one of the games in the list a hot new game from an Indie studio? If Yes, Gold or Silver.

Regardless of the outcomes though, it was an honor to just be nominated and I’m not attempting to discredit any of the hard work and amazing job Paizo does with its products. Perhaps next year but I’ll not be holding my breath so much though. Lesson learned here is that it takes a lot to come out on top in the very crowded industry that we work in. Which is why the adrenaline rush of OP’s win and my newfound friends from Critical Hits was enough alone to ride out another year on.

Leveling Up

What does this mean for me as a writer, a content director and one of those “creative types” in general? Well I’m going to keep hitting it hard at Obsidian Portal because things there are going awesomely and I’m going to keep doing what I love. I’m going to keep creating fourthcore content where I mash video games into table top RPGs and people hate me for it. I’m going to keep running my game about vampires and skeletons and other childish bullshit. All these things are sure-fire steadfast elements of my life now, however there I do plan one small change.

Priorities, I’ve got them in my sights, my finger is on the trigger and my breath is held tight. I’ve submitted some pitches and actually gotten 2.5/3 accepted. One for web, one for print and another to be revised and re-pitched. I can’t be more happy about this and I’m going to keep plugging away at building up a writing resume/portfolio of published works. This was a genius albeit obvious piece of great advice I received upon meeting Ed Greenwood this year. My wife helped me pitch, brainstorm and she’s always there to shoot down my terrible ideas so I’m very thankful for that. I couldn’t live without this woman. Honest. I’d never be wearing pants.

Very much riding this Gencon high as far as it will take me. I met SO many awesome people this year I could make an entire paragraph or two just filling it up with their twitter handles but I’ll refrain from doing that. I will say though that this community that we are part of is an amazing one albeit self destructive at times. I’ve never felt so at home around “total strangers” and I cannot wait to do it again next year and collaborate with you all throughout this one. Cheers!

With last Friday’s big announcement regarding the 2011 Ennies, I was totally caught off guard. I had a good feeling and hope that Obsidian Portal would be up in the running once again for our outstanding service but no Idea something as seemingly insignificant as Revenge of the Iron Lich would even come close.

I was driving to work and got a text from Sersa: “We fuckin’ did it man“

Blood, Sweat and Gears

I poured a lot of heart and soul into co-writing this with Sersa but never even fathomed it would be recognized by so many, including some real luminaries in the tabletop RPG industry. In two categories to boot, a nomination for Best Adventure and Best Free Product. At first I felt guilty, like I was riding on Sersa’s coat tails or something, because after all I’m not the father of Fourthcore, just the lucky SOB he decided to partner up with.

Though shortly after I reflected on all the nights I spent up till 3am editing my own stuff for perfection, dreaming up ideas for encounters, terrain, flavor, creating Embacar and many other things (including tweaking those damned pregens countless times). I learned the importance of writing deadlines, and the pitfalls involved with barely meeting them. I learned how to take criticism in a tactful manner. But most importantly, throughout my freshman fourthcore production I quickly learned the art of “okay, now crank it up to eleven“.

I’m unexplainably shocked and enthralled to see it recognized in such a tremendously honorable way. The module is up against some tough competition (Paizo, Catalyst, Cubicle 7, etc.) with insanely high production values and full art orders so as far as I’m concerned it is amazing to even be nominated. I’ll keep my fingers crossed though, and probably revert back to some shameless self promotion for good measure.

Loot: Pearls of Wisdom?

Another thing I learned quite a bit about the way things work in today’s world is the importance of “If you don’t promote yourself, nobody else will”. All of the time and effort I put into annoyingly self promoting the module on my blog and others, on twitter, facebook, podcasts and pestering random strangers in my FLGS. It must have paid off somehow, at least in some small capacity.

I know that game design, freelance writing and the like will most likely never be paying my car payments or keeping my family fed. I’m a realist and I can deal with that, but I’m not going to let it stop me from doing something I love so much. Robert Schwalb and all his blatantly truth ridden insight be damned I’m going to keep on doing this because it’s what’s in my blood. It might not pay my bills but maybe someday it will buy me a coffee and take me out for a nice lunch, eh?

Rolling for Diplomacy

If you stumbled across my blog, gotten it from twitter, G+ or wherever else I thank you for reading. I know there is a lot of vitriol in this industry regarding design and writing, especially in the case of Fourthcore. However, for every “tl:dr” forum troll who’s sent walls of hatred and assaulting words my way there’s also been at least 2 people who tell you to press on and wade through the shit with a smile on your face. People like Sersa himself, Steve Townsend, Brian Patterson, Steve Winter, Wolfgang Baur, my amazing wife Angela, close friends and my boss Micah and so many others. Thank you for all your encouragement and support.

Keeping my fingers crossed for now.

Update (7/8/11): My submissions are apparently still being looked over and not rejected quite yet. Regardless I’ll be looking forward to any feedback I receive.