GenCon 2010 Wrap up

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The Return of the D&D Red BoxGenCon 2010 flew by quickly. I had a good time (aside from my wife falling an injuring herself).

Our Star Wars Saga Edition Retrospective was full, with about 50 attendees. It was entertaining. We had a lot of good questions, though not really any rules questions, which was somewhat surprising. The panel was also large, with myself, Owen KC Stephens, Gary Sarli, Christopher West, Gary Astleford, Patrick Stutzman, and T Rob Brown. Rodney Thompson and Chris Perkins were interested, but other commitments prevented them from coming (or arriving in time).

Among the new items announced at the Dungeons and Dragons Preview seminar was my first D&D 4e print product, Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale. Can't say much yet other than it's a box set with a book, tokens and poster maps. Also met my fellow authors in person for the first time (Matt James, Brian James and Steven Townshend). Click here for a picture of the cover.

The Rebellion Era Campaign Guide did not win an ENnie for Best Supplement, but the awards show was entertaining. Congratulations to the winners.

I found some time to run a Star Wars Saga Edition game for a few friends and introduce it to them. They ended up hunting down the books in the dealer's hall before the show was over. I've had this sort of reaction most of the time when I run a Saga Editon game at a con, which is a lot of fun. 

For those who have asked if the Saga Edition books are more or less expensive now that the line is over, I will have to say....both. Depends on the book. I've seen Force Unleashed for as cheap as $10, others at cover price or up to $20 more. Kotor and Starships of the Galaxy remain impossible to find. I saw really good prices on the minis and maps, though.

I played in Savage Saturday Night, Pinnacle Entertainment Group's Savage Worlds RPG open gaming night. Ended up in a Ravaged Earth setting game (by Savage Worlds licensee Reality Blurs) with its creator, Eric Avedissian. They had well over 100 people, and twice what they expected to show. I think most everyone got into a game, however. It was interesting to see huge variety of settings now available for one system being played in a single room.

As usual, I also attended several seminars and meetings, among which was one on the new Gamma World RPG from Wizards. As an old-time Gamma World fan, I'm looking forward to this one. It's humoursly presented and though it's 4e compatible, it has a lot of its own unique design elements. 

I also pursued new freelancing opportunities in writing and cartography, caught up with old friends and met a few new ones along the way.

Next, prepping for Star Wars Celebration V...

The Rebellion Era Campaign Guide End Notes

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With a recent 2010 ENnie award nomination for Best Supplement, I thought it was a good time to talk a bit about the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide, released July 2009. The design team for this book also included Rodney Thompson (Saga Edition line developer), Owen KC Stephens (Saga Edition and freelance author), JD Wiker (d20 Star Wars author/developer) and Britt Frey (freelance author).
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Nominated for an Ennie Award

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My Star Wars RPG book the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide has been nominated for an Ennie award for Best Supplement! My fellow authors on the project were Owen KC Stephens, JD Wiker, Rodney Thompson and Britt Frey. Online voting will start soon.

The Unknown Regions received an Honorable Mention for Best Cover Art.

Additionally, Star Wars Minis and RPG fans of Christopher West's works will be glad to hear he was nominated for his Swamp Map, produced by his own company and fully compatible with those products.

You can find the complete list of nominations here.

GenCon: Star Wars Saga Edition Retrospective

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For those Star Wars Saga Edition (and Minis) fans attending GenCon this year: I'll be participating in an unofficial (i.e., non-Wizards of the Coast) seminar focusing on those games, along with Saga Edition editor/developer Gary Sarli and likely others involved in the game system. Attendees can sign up on the GenCon site. The seminar itself is free.

Game ID:  SEM1013330
Gaming Group/Company: GMSarli Games
Title: Star Wars Saga Edition Retrospective
Description: Game professionals who worked on the Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition take a look back at the product line, sharing their experiences and what they learned from their work.
Start Date & Time:  08/05/2010 02:00:00 PM
Duration: 2 hours
Location: Marriott : Indiana Blrm B 

Minis Mayham 42 - Life, the Universe, and Scenarios!

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Last week, I was a guest on Minis Mayham #42 podcast, where we discussed 8 scenarios entered into their first scenario contest, and they announced the winner. With one exception, I played through all of the scenarios multiple times. They were very creative and fun. On the podcast we discuss their strengths and weaknesses, presentation and balance. Good stuff for scenario designers to consider. At some point, I think they will post the scenarios to their forums.

Each used Christopher West's excellent Maps of Mastery maps, available at his website. This was the first time I'd used Chris' maps in play, and they are equal to his official Star Wars minis maps. For those who don't know, Chris was the artist on all except one of the official maps over the years. His Maps of Mastery releases are just as easy to use, but lack any official Star Wars images. They're good for both minis and any sci-fi RPG.

WotC Star Wars Site is gone...

It's the end of a long era: the Wizards of the Coast official Star Wars site is now gone, as the license reaches its end. Some articles and content will reappear on their forums, which will remain active. Follow this link for more info. 

Personally, I've been a regular contributor to the site since I started creating scenarios for the Star Wars Miniatures game in 2004. However, my first work actually appeared before then, when Wizards updated my Star Wars RPG adventure Talnar's Rescue from the original core rules to the revised core rules and posted for free. The adventure originally appeared in the short lived Star Wars Gamer magazine.

With the site shutdown, you may see a number of broken links here on my site - most notably those in the Star Wars Minis scenarios list. It may be awhile before I attend to all of those.

The Unknown Regions End Notes

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Earlier this month, Wizards of the Coast released The Unknown Regions, the last book of the Star Wars RPG Saga Edition line. This was my 6th book in this line, coauthored by Rodney Thompson (Saga Edition line developer), Daniel Wallace (veteran Star Wars source material author) along with previous Saga product designers Jonathan Stevens, Patrick Stutzman and Robert Wieland.
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Order 66 Podcast 104 - Into the Unknown

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Earlier this week, I joined the cast of Order 66 along with fellow authors Rodney Thompson and Jonathan Stevens, discussing The Unknown Regions. Received a lot of praise for the feats and talents, which was a bit unexpected given that I'd been too busy to follow the forums at WotC and elsewhere lately. I'll try to check in later on. I'm glad we've had such a positive response to the book.

You can download and/or listen to the podcast here.

The Unknown Regions

The Unknown Regions, the last book fo the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Editon line is now available, or will be very shortly. It was a lot of fun to work on, and delves into areas of the Star Wars universe we haven't seen before. It also holds a lot of tools for gamemasters creating new worlds, creatures and encounters. Regretably, some of the names listed on the cover are not correct, and mine is one of the missing, but the listing on the inside credits pages are correct.

With the line ending, I hope to post some author's notes for some of the products, including this one, in the future.

Point Blank - SWSE Mass Combat Encounter/Mini Adventure

Wizards of the Coast posted my Saga Edition encounter/mini adventure Point Blank today, mixing regular encounters with the Clone Wars Campaign Guide mass combat rules. Includes new mass combat unit stats one might typically use in a Clone Wars battle.

Additionally, this is the first official game material featuring Brak Sector (the sector I created for my first WEG RPG book) outside of the classic movie era. I've always wanted to expand its history and story, but wasn't certain what was happening in the sectors around it until the Star Wars Atlas was released last year. I built on the information I learned from that book (see Dots on a Map entry) for the backstory of this battle. 

New Republic Stat Pack

Today, Wizards of the Coast posted my New Republic Stat Pack to their Star Wars RPG/Minis website. Much like the Fringe pack from last week, it features characters from the recent minis sets suitable to use in a New Republic era game. Of course it's also adaptable to other eras, with the exception of the Yuuzhan Vong.  Once again, I was able to use all of the current RPG books as needed for the stat blocks.

Fringe Stat Pack

New on the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars RPG/Minis site, my latest article called the Fringe Stat Pack. It features new RPG stats for some of the Fringe faction minis from the recent Star Wars Miniatures sets like Jedi Academy, and so forth. I also took advantage of the fact that I wasn't rectricted to any particular campaign guide for the feats and talents used.

Usually, when creating new stats for printed products, we try to stick with the core rules and new features of the featured product. We know for sure that the players have those two products and can use the stats as designed. There are times when we break this, and sometimes it makes sense to do so, but we try to minimize it. Since the stat pack is a standalone article, it's easier to combine elements from several sources, when it makes sense for the character. Of course, if an GM doesn't have the book in question, it's easy enough to substitute a given talent or feat for one they do have.

Minis Mayham Podcast appearance

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Minis Mayham, a podcast on the Star Wars Miniatures game, just posted their 1 year anniversary episode. Joining the regular hosts are myself, Gary Sarli (Star Wars Saga Edition editor and Jedi Counselor) and Christopher West (cartographer for nearly all of the Star Wars Minis maps). We discuss the end of the Minis and RPG game lines, our past work on the game and our current endeavors.

You can find the episode at the link below. You can find my past interviews by clicking on Interviews in the menu bar above.

Minis Mayham 31: A Year is Here

 

Star Wars Saga Edition RPG and Miniatures Games Cancelled

Wizards of the Coast announced today that they are not renewing the Star Wars RPG and Minis licenses. Both lines will come to an end later this year. It's disappointing news, but I've had a bad feeling about this for awhile, so I'm not exactly surprised. Still, I'd hoped for the best. I'll post more comments later on. For now, it looks like my last Saga Edition project will be the last Saga Edition product - The Unknown Regions, out later this year.

You can see the announcement here.