It took awhile - probably due to Imperial interference - but I received my copy of Age of Rebellion Strongholds of Resistance today. It looks great as always. I'll put some of it to good use at the convention this weekend...
Good news for my non-baseball and/or non-Royals loving twitter followers: my feed should be a dominated by a lot less baseball for awhile. It's been a great postseason and an exhausting few days between the end of the series and yesterday's epic victory parade, for which I had a front row seat. Fortunately, there has been a sudden surge of Star Wars tabletop games news the past few days. First up is the just-announced Star Wars Force and Destiny Nexus of Power sourcebook, of which I'm one of the writers. 
Midwest GameFest opened its event registration to Kickstarter backers, and should be open to all in the near future. I'll be running Star Wars, Savage Worlds The Last Parsec, D&D Adventurers League, and Numenera. The D&D AL events aren't posted yet. There will also be panels on Saturday afternoon.
Events will continue to be posted until the con, so check back for more or to see if space has opened up on a full event.
AetherCon is a free online game convention, complete with games and panels. I've been invited to participate in a panel called One Small Step: Giants of Space. My fellow panelists are Katrina Ostlander of Fantasy Flight Games (and one of the developers I've worked with) and Jason Walters of IndiePress Revolution and Hero Games. d20 Radio's GM Chris is the moderator.
AetherCon happens to fall the same weekend as Midwest GameFest, so this panel will be my only chance to join in this time around.
You can find more information about participating on the Aethercon site, but here's a brief rundown:
AetherCon is a free to attend, free to partake, non-profit initiative. Thoughout the weekend there will be a plethora of tabletop RPGs on offer for all to play in. Among those will be three, three part tournaments taking place over the three days of the event with final tables to be played on Sunday.
All games will be run on the free, browser-based virtual table top Roll20. This program will allow GMs and players alike to simply click on a link and enter the playing area as opposed to needing to download and install the software to participate.
In addition to the collection of independent RPG playing opportunities and those run by RPG publishers, there will also be Q&As and themed panels as well as speedpainting duels using the free, browser based conferencing program Anymeeting.
Maps are great tools for RPGs, both in play and as sources of inspiration. Following on from last week's Maps of Mastery Stats post, here are a few ways to use those maps in RPGs. As it happens, Fantasy Flight Games posted a new preview of Star Wars Age of Rebellion Strongholds of Resistance, highlighting Rebel bases in the book. I had a great time with that section.
Deck plans and bases are among the more common map types in Star Wars games, so both make good starting points for map based adventures or encounters. Maps can be great sources of inspiration.
Quite awhile back....like several years ago....I posted some Star Wars RPG ship and vehicle stats for some of Christopher West's Maps of Mastery sci-fi maps. First in Star Wars RPG d20 Saga Edition stats, then a few in Saga and West End Games d6 when the RPG license was between companies. They are still on the site, and have remained reasonably popular. I've been wanting to do an update for the Star Wars Edge of the Empire / Age of Rebellion / Force and Destiny RPGs for the longest time, and never could seem to find the time.
Well, now I have.
I'll be a guest at the new Midwest GameFest in November in Overland Park, KS (Kansas City metro area). I'll be running games, of course. My schedule is yet to be determined, but it will include Star Wars RPGs, The Last Parsec (Savage Worlds), and likely a couple of others depending on a few other factors, mostly time. D&D and Numenera are high on the list.
There is an ongoing kickstarter with a few days left for those interested in getting a bit of a deal on pricing and swag. There are still stretch goals to meet.
This past weekend wrapped up the busiest and most condensed span of conventions I've ever dealt with. It was fun, but hectic. Kantcon followed by GenCon followed by Kansas City Comic Con and wrapping up with Star Wars Day at the K (Kaufman Stadium, home to the Royals MLB team). I ran three different Star Wars RPG adventures in seven sessions, The Last Parsec twice, and D&D 5e twice (plus one non-convention session). 
John 'Dak' Morton interviewed me recently about working on the Star Wars RPGs over the years, and it was posted to starwars.com tonight.
John is, of course, the actor who played Luke's snowspeeder gunner 'Dak' The Empire Strikes Back. I met him at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim earlier this year.
It may or may not have hit stores just yet - these releases tend to be a bit nebulous - but it exists, and here's my copy that arrived Tuesday. The Star Wars Force and Destiny RPG Core Rulebook is (almost) now available (probably). I had a great time on this. It it the third of the 3 core rulebooks, and I'm happy to have been involved in all three, and many other FFG Star Wars products over the past several years. 
Today, Fantasy Flight Games announced Keeping the Peace, a Guardian sourcebook for Star Wars Force and Destiny RPG. I'm one of the writers.