Just In Time for Christmas!

Well, well, well. Looks like another of my Fantasy Flight assignments has dropped just in time for all your last-minute Christmas Shopping needs. This time it's The Frozen Reaches, first book of the Warpstorm Trilogy. There's a little something for every Rogue Trader player in this book. Back-room politicking for Rogue Traders and Seneschals, secrets to uncover for Explorators, objects of faith and desire for the Missionaries, and more Orks than you can shake a really big stick at for everyone else. So keep an eye out for this one, and Happy Holidays!

War...war never changes...

Let's rock!

Well, well, well...looka here! My latest book, Battlefleet Koronus, has been announced over at Fantasy Flight's website. Pay close attention to that flavour quote attributed to St. Drusus, I wrote that.

Something New!

Hey look! My latest book, Edge of the Abyss is now on sale. Get your ass to your FLGS or to your favorite online retailer, and lay your money down for this newest addition to the Rogue Trader library. It's chock-a-block with setting info, NPCs, planets, crazy people, and it has more hooks than a fishing trawler.

Gencon

Man, the costume contest was intense this year*

Okay, here it is finally. Now that I've been able to catch up on sleep and unpack everything that happened, here's my post about GenCon 2010. Let me preface this by saying that this is from my point of view, and I'm just some opinionated smartass with a 'blog. I am, in no way, objective or unbiased and I implore you not to assume in any way that this is real journalism. If I miss stuff here, it's because I missed stuff at GenCon, and I wasn't going to pretend that I was a really real reporter with a fedora and a little card that read "press" in my hatband. So, keeping that in mind and without further ado, here's my report!

Southern Comfort

Heave to, and prepare to be boarded!

Why, hello there Gentle Readers! So, there were no posts last week because I had a furiously busy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday then The Wife, The Kid, and I piled in the car and decamped for our annual pilgrimage to North Carolina. Now, after stops in beautiful Columbus, OH and quaint Lynchburg, VA, we have finally arrived in the Outer Banks. See, every year for the past ten or so years, The Wife's step-uncle, who is a wealthy restauranteur here, has invited us down to spend a week. We, and when I say we I mean roughly twenty adults and children, stay in a huge, fuck-off house on the beach with a pool and direct access to the ocean whereupon we cook, eat, drink our faces off and play a lot of board games and cards. Last night The Wife and I spent a nice evening teaching our nieces and nephews, fine young men and women between the ages of ten and fifteen, the finer points of Pandemic, which was awesome. So, you may ask, is there some kind of downside to ten days of concentrated awesomeness in which we travel through the part of the country where American History was invented and culminates with hot and cold running mojitos and sand in our clothes? Well, kinda yeah...

A Comedy of Errors

Welp, they made it. Our first night of Rogue Trader was a pretty rousing success. Here's last night's game log. Enjoy!

Risk Assessment

I'll take min/maxing for fifty, Trebek!

Let's get this out of the way right off the bat, I love it when bad shit happens to characters. Your character, my character, it doesn't matter. When a cunning plan doesn't survive first contact, when a die roll goes bad, when you role-play yourself into a corner, whenever something unfortunate happens in game it warms the cockles of my stainless-steel heart. Why? Because that threat, that jeopardy, it makes me tingle all over. In my opinion, a game that doesn't punish as much as entertain, and doesn't have an element of risk, isn't much of a game at all.

Run Out the Guns Boys, It's Time for Rogue Trader!

All ahead full!

So, as my tens of regular readers know, my gaming group just finished up a long-term epic scale game that was a mash-up of Shadowrun, In Nomine, and Call of Cthulhu wherein we nuked Hastur and then went mad. Now, into the smoking breach in our schedule left by the nuke steps a new campaign called After the Gold Rush set in Fantasy Flight's Rogue Trader setting. Hilarity is about to ensue.

Friday Mea Culpa: No Excuse Edition.

Mea culpa, mea culpa...

Okay, look. I know going over two weeks between posts is total bullshit. I know I've let down my tens of readers, and for that I'm sorry. I don't really have a good excuse, not one that holds water anyway. Let's just say that I took a little hiatus, and I'm in good company, but now I'm back. Instead of boring you with what I did on my hiatus, I'll just skim some important points, starting with what caused my absence, the train-wreck that was Origins.

Hastur, Hastur, Hastur. See? Nothing hap...

Welp, that's it. Sadly, we did not all die in a nuclear fire while being consumed by a Shoggoth. There were, however, a few casualties. While we were crossing Lake Hali in a boat made of bones, Franco, our own Wayne Smith, decided he'd jump into the lake, which was made of mist, to see where the light beneath us was coming from. Of course it was the gate to Hastur's realm, and while down there in the mist he happened to look upon the face of The King in Yellow himself and was instantly driven mad. So, there's one. Then Yuri went absolutely apeshit when Franco started speaking to him in Yuri's mother's voice, blaming him for the miscarriage of a sister he'd never heard of. Yuri was then tranqued when he tried to twist Franco's head off. This all culminated when the remainder of the party lowered the nuke into the gate and buggered off back to Carcossa and eventually back to Earth where, as we discovered in the epilogue, they were put to work ferreting out and destroying the last vestiges of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. Sadly, it was during the denouement that it was revealed that Yuri did, in fact, come to an unfortunate end. After intensive therapy and behavioral modification, Yuri was brought back to operational status with the team and even went on a few missions until at last he tricked the job into killing him as a way to end his constant emotional pain.

Now, I realize the the guys I play with and I may be in the minority here in regards to what we think is a positive outcome, but all in all it was a great way to wrap up a long and epic campaign. Sure there was a lot more Munin could have thrown at us, he could have kept us busy for years. It was better to go out on top, though. So now Shadowrun's over and it's time for me to take over as GM and run a Rogue Trader game. The RT game is already shaping up to have every session end with "and hilarity ensued", so it's looking good at first blush. I'll keep you posted.

Hey! You! Looka here!

Hot damn! My first assignment for Fantasy Flight, in which I developed a whole bunch of awesome new rules, has finally been announced! Just look at it. I couldn't be more proud of the work I did here. So, save up your pennies, kids, and get yourself a copy right here.

Friday Bonus Post: Marines! We Are Leaving!

Oh, Marines. Look at how awesome and over-the-top you are...

Guess what, Gentle Readers! You know who has two thumbs and just landed an assignment writing for Fantasy Flight's Deathwatch line? *points to self* This guy! How awesome is that? Pretty awesome, I'd say. So, if you're keeping score at home, this is now three projects I have running with Fantasy Flight right now. Have I mentioned that I like working with these guys? 'Cause, you know, I do. So, yeah. Space Marines. I'm stoked. Plus, you know, at least there'll finally be a book out there about marines in space with my name on it. As usual, I'll keep you abreast of the situation.

Better Late than Never, Eh?

It's ours, Precious!

Today is our birthday, Precious. I know it's been woefully quiet this week at the Gamewerks, but don't fret Gentle Readers. The Furnaces are burning and the gears are grinding and the belts are moving in the background as I scramble to finish up a couple Rogue Trader assignments for Fantasy Flight. I'll make it up to you next week, as I plan to spend the next four days alternating, like Hemingway, between fits of drunken debauchery and furious, inspired writing. Next week we're going to talk about Dwarves, scale, and my awesome Cthulhu birthday cake. In the meantime, please check out these fine establishments for all of your game blog needs.

The Old Girl: Vehicles as Characters in Your Game

 

"She's not old, she's in her prime."

I'm not going to lie to you gentle readers, I'm an inveterate gearhead. I love machines of all kinds, but vehicles especially turn my crank, as it were. Anything from a 50cc minibike to a five-kilometre long starship capable of blowing suns all to hell and back, you give me an owners manual and a little time and I'll obsess over every little niggling detail from cylinder compression to the exact placement of the heads. I've also got this tendency to name and anthropomorphize my own vehicles, which is kind of a common quirk among gearheads. I name every vehicle I own out of a mixture of love and superstition, and feel that you can't keep a machine running without love no matter how well you maintain it. Sadly, in role-playing games, modern and future ones at least, any vehicles the players might have are often treated as background. Sort of a simple, bite-sized deus-ex machina that magically moves players from one spot to another in game without a thought. This is a missed opportunity, though. A missed opportunity for adventure and hilarity that can come from making the vehicle itself a character.

Fly Spaceships, Get Money, Cleanse Xenos: Getting to know Rogue Trader.

Before I started writing for Fantasy Flight, I'd never given the 40K setting much thought. Not for lack of interest, because there was a lot about the setting that I liked, but because it was a miniatures game and the last thing I needed was another expensive hobby. Well, that and I can't paint worth a damn. Anyway, I always observed 40K from the outside, enjoying the art in the books and the over the top, no holds barred feel of the setting, but never really getting that far into it. So when Ross from Fantasy Flight contacted me to do some work for Rogue Trader I had some serious catching up to do. Apparently I needed to know more than what I'd gleaned from my friends over the years, i.e. Squats Suck, Space Marines are Awesome and Red Onez Go Fasta.

Jason's Weekend with Ross and Sam or Where all the coffee is strong, all the waitresses are good looking, and all the game developers are above average.

Hey kids. I'm back on track after the whirlwind of the holidays, so I figured I'd celebrate by actually updating the 'blog. Shocking, I know. Anyway, let me tell you about my weekend, wherein I went to Minneapolis to hang out with the boys from Fantasy Flight Games.