Banter...Not Bantha

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/toon/savageencounters

The latest DDM miniatures set, Savage Encounters, releases this month. To help celebrate, we've asked Jared von Hindman of headinjurytheater.com to create a set of cartoons for each of the minis!

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/duadp/2009November

Heroes must recover an ominous artifact ... which is guarded by the angels of Hestavar.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20091110

Halfling communities rely on observant scouts and lucky gamblers in equal measure.

http://paizo.com/store/blog&source=rss#v5748dyo5lam5

A couple of weekends ago, I set about the task of going through every one of Paizo's products looking for game crunch that could potentially be updated for the Pathfinder RPG at some later date. As I was reminded about all of the cool things we've done in the distant past, I realized that much of our current community wasn't yet with us in 2005, when Paizo Publishing was a magazine company and paizo.com was just a fledgling website. So this is the first of my Paizo History 101 lessons. Today's topic: Compleat Encounters!

Set the wayback machine for late 2004: Lucasfilm had just taken the Star Wars Fan Club in-house, and that meant that we would no longer be publishing Star Wars Insider. We still had Dragon and Dungeon magazines, but asking our entire company to rely on the continuation of a single license was just too risky for us. So we decided to make our own gaming products. I had just started GMing again after a multi-year sabbatical, and I was looking for some short scenarios that I could drop into my campaign as random encounters, or XP-gap fillers between the adventures I was running. My good friend Bob Watts was working out of the Paizo offices at the time, and he knows minis as well as I know RPGs, so we came up with the idea for Compleat Encounters: a single package combining a short scalable adventure, associated map tiles, and three unpainted metal minis to go with the adventure.

Seeing as we still had two monthly magazines to put out, we didn't have a lot of bandwidth at the time, so we contracted Mike Mearls to come in to the offices and write the first two encounters: Dark Elf Sanctum and Death Shrine of the Ninja Cult. Wayne Reynolds did the character concepts for the minis, Neil McKenzie sculpted the first set and the legendary Dennis Mize sculpted the ninjas, and Chris West did the cartography!

We ended up releasing a total of seven Compleat Encounters over the next eight months. Looking through these sets, you'll find some familiar names, both in the credits and in the products themselves. James Jacobs gave us our first look at the Mwangi Expanse in Throne of the Gorilla King; James also penned Grove of the Mad Druid. Sean K Reynolds unveiled one of Golarion's biggest bad boys in Vault of the Whispering Tyrant. Pathfinder RPG designer Jason Bulmahn gave us The Liberation of Prince Thorgrim, and former D&D manager and novelist Keith Strohm authored Terror in the Chamber of Pain.

In these products, you'll find Paizo's first steps into the world that would one day become Golarion. The map tiles included in each set became the genesis for our continuing GameMastery Map Pack line. And the miniatures themselves have been broken out to form the core of the Pathfinder Chronicles Miniatures line</a>. We also have the individual encounters available without minis.

So check out the Compleat Encounters line and see the genesis of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting!

I figure my generation (late Gen-X) is the last to have any real memory of the Cold War and its impact on US-Soviet relations. For my kids terrorism and wars in the Middle East will be the defining conflict in their memories. Even I don't remember most of the fear of the Cold War, just the sense that America was winning as the Soviets lost in Afghanistan and slowly introduced more and more freedoms via glasnost and peristroika. Still, I remember Red Dawn and reading Red Storm Rising, stories about actual US-Soviet conflicts. 20 years ago today though the end of Soviet tyranny began with the people of Berlin (East and West) rising up to tear down the wall that separated them for so long. Presidents Reagan and Kennedy gave two of the most remembered speeches pertaining to the Wall.

First Reagan:



Kennedy:



The Cold War didn't end with bullets or bombs or missiles. It ended with People demanding freedom. Pretty fitting I think.

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We've put up the first draft cover and one of the interior pieces to Snows of an Early Winter (formally October Surprise), our next Call of Cthulhu adventure. Check it out here:

http://www.supergeniusgames.com

.

Saw it on succedblog.com, it's amazing!

I just want to know what the heck is going on?

When I got up this morning, I found a note had been slipped under my door. It was from the manager of the Palace Station Hotel & Casino asking me if I'm SURE that I really WANT to head home today. It went on to offer me the option to stay for ANOTHER night in my room for only an additional $15.

While that's a terrific, deal, I don't imagine many people can just extend their stays by a day on short notice ... so the note really smacked of DESPERATION to me. Which is a shame. The Palace Station is not a high-end hotel, but it's fine ... and it's CLOSE to the strip ... and I'll probably consider staying here the next time I come to Vegas because their regular rates seem to be only about $30 a night. Of course, if they're REALLY this desperate, I don't know how much longer the Palace Station will be around.

I'll cross my fingers that it is. I DO like a bargain!

Now it's time for me to finish packing, head down and get my car from the valet, and drive on back to San Diego county. I'll probably be stopping in Baker, CA to get some Alien Fresh Jerky ... yummmm! I'll try to make some Twitter and Facebook posts from the road ... y'know ... just for fun.

http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2009/11/twenty-years-ago.html

More later,

Italy!

Sue I returned from our trip to Italy last Wednesday night. Neither the flight there nor the flight back was particularly pleasant (nine hours is a long time to be crammed into a small seat surrounded by crying babies), we both caught nasty colds there, and I couldn't ever seem to get onto a regular sleep schedule while there (and still can't). And the trip was still 100% worth it.

We had an amazing time. The weather, first of all, was really nice, with sun and temperatures in the 60s and 70s. The first three days we toured around Florence, seeing all the sites in the central part of the city, like the massive cathedral there (a Renaissance church so grand you would say it wasn't even built to human scale), the Palazzo Vecchio and its numerous statues, the Santa Croce Basilica, the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge covered with shops that have been in operation for hundreds of years, and a lot more. We saw a number of Michelangelo works, including the David, of course. It was a great trip for history and art.

After Florence we went to the walled city of Lucca. Lucca was a city of Medieval importance, but because it (thankfully, I'd say) decreased in strategic value by World War II, it suffered little damage, unlike the surrounding region. This means that much of Lucca looks just as it had long ago, making it picturesque--and challenging to get around. Lucca was where the Lucca Comics and Games show was held, a 140,000 person convention at which I was a guest of honor. But I'll write about that tomorrow.

Toward the end of the trip we went to Pisa and saw the infamous leaning tower. (As the folks from Lucca like to say, "Pisa's only claim to fame is a mistake.") The tower had just been renovated, so its white stone glistened--practically glowed--in the sun. The nearby cathedral, while not as large as its counterpart in Florence, was very impressive and very beautiful on the inside.

It's been difficult for me to write even those three paragraphs about Tuscany without mentioning the food. I'm no foodie, but even a pedestrian like me was blown away by each and every meal we had in Italy. I'd often find myself saying things like, "This is just a potato. How can a potato be this good?"

Thankfully, my tour director, Sue, likes to maintain an aggressive schedule on vacations, and so we did a lot of walking and stairclimbing to work off all the fabulous meals. (And to be fair, our schedule was likely not as aggressive as she would have liked.)

I'd love to go back someday. I hope to see Rome and Venice someday, and more.

View series to date here. Updated archive soon.

• 17:45 @stannex How'd it go? Looking forward to your post-con report. Hopefully next year I can make it. #
• 18:56 @BeSmartFin A little over 8k #

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Today started with my turn to speak at GamesU. It being 10am on Sunday at a convention, attendance was light ... but that's okay. The people who WERE there were quite appreciative, and the whole thing was taped and will be viewable online sometime soon.

I was a little worried because USUALLY when I've done the "Running A Small Game Company" seminar it's been a panel discussion ... and it's been HIGHLY interactive with the audience. This was neither. I feared that there was no way I could LECTURE on the subject for an hour ... but it turns out I should have had more faith in my own ability to just keep blabbing. Actually, I think I did a pretty good job ... though I guess the Internets will let me know if I'm wrong on that count.

After that, I stayed to watch Ryan Macklin and Ed Healy talk about "Podcasting 101." I have some aspirations to start up a podcast or two in the next few months, so I figured I could USE some schooling. It was a terrific chat, and I came away very much further enthused about the possibilities.

The afternoon was filled with two more seminars, some debriefing of the convention (in particular the GamesU program), chatting with friends and colleagues who were heading out, and finally watching a little football and catching a bit of a nap.

A group of us went to the MGM to have dinner at Emeril's cajun seafood restaurant. Delicious stuff (BAM!). Then, after getting back to the Palace Station, we joined a group of other con staff and guests in the faux Irish pub for drinks, more convention talk, and general geekery. A fun evening to top off a fun weekend.

I had a great time at NeonCon and, after talking to the staff, I only expect the show will get bigger and better in the coming years. I hope I'm able to come back and be a part of that.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20091109

We tour through the draconic hall of fame, with a look at a true schemer -- Jalanvaloss, the silver dragon, in today's Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons preview.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drcact/20091116

Broaden your background and options by detailing the otherworldly patron your warlock serves.

• 08:33 Morning world! Today is Thing 4's second birthday. Woot! #
• 11:52 @robert_emerson Have you seen our Pathfinder Shaman? :) tinyurl.com/ydboxhz #
• 12:16 @robert_emerson Check your email. :) #
• 12:37 @robert_emerson :D #
• 12:59 Working on some new Pathfinder projects. A new template, a new spell, and a couple of prestige classes. #notthesecretPathfinderProject #
• 15:39 To Rep. Brian P. Bilbray: Please vote for health insurance reform. bit.ly/1xhcYF #hc09 #CA #92027 #

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I spent most of the day in the GamesU room listening to presentations on Breaking into the Industry, Marketing, The Future of Tabletop Gaming, World Development, and Pitching to the Pros. It's been a long time since I've had the luxury of spending so much time in seminars at a game convention ... and I'm LOVING it. Although the Internet connection turned out not to be fast enough to allow video streaming of the seminars, I believe the audio is going out live ... and all the talks are being video taped for later uploading to YouTube.

I also got to have meals with Erik Mona, Josh Frost, and Ed Healy (just to name a few) ... including an amazing steak dinner at the Golden Steer.

Plus, I managed to squeeze out time to finalize the notes for my panel tomorrow morning on Running A Small Game Company. Hopefully I'll get a decent sized audience because I'm kinda counting on questions to help carry me through the whole hour.

Tune in and see how I do.

http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2009/11/carl-sagan-day.html

Today is the first annual Carl Sagan Day. Please remember to set your mind a couple decades ahead for the duration of the day.

More later,

• 11:47 Reading the first few chapters of the secret #pathfinder project. Can't wait for this to get out. #
• 11:50 Sounds about right: tinyurl.com/y879jdr #
• 12:25 @stannex Travel well my friend! #
• 12:26 @jasonlblair Huzzah! #
• 14:33 Seriously thinking about converting Solid! to Savage Worlds.... #
• 17:10 Got my copies of The Cold Case of Robert Suydam and A Peculiar Pentad. Loving the 6x9 size. #cthulhu #
• 17:51 @pookie_uk Good or bad, please let us know. :) #cthulhu #
• 18:59 @stannex By doing what we do everynight Stan. Try and take over the world! #
• 21:34 @stannex Maybe I'll eBay them before you get home.... :P #

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