Monday, June 26, 2006

Retirement My Ass

So a few months back I decided to really back off of freelancing; focusing only on my Behind the Spells and trying to catch up on some reading. Guess what? I'm back!! Over the last few days I've gathered up some ideas and am ready to return to the d20 fray. Here's what I'm planning...

*Behind the Spells: It's not over yet. There are 7 issues remaining to fill out subscription obligations. After this, the print version hopefully won't be far behind. As I finish up the pdf series, I'm thinking of things to add to the print version to make it more desirable even to those who have the pdfs. The compilation will utilize errata that's been pointed out in reviews. Magic Missile will be fleshed out to be more on par with the other releases. As the very first in the series, MM was a prototype. The mechanics presented will either get a makeover or additions (maybe both!). There will also be a section on how spell secrets can be discovered in a campaign.

*Dragon Magazine ideas: It's high time I again submit to this grand 'ol mag. After rejections during the 2nd edition days, I hope to break in with some cool ideas under the new-ish regime of Erik Mona. One idea I have is an article on rules for using objects as familiars. Things like coins, cloaks, and even rope can be an arcane casters best friend!

*Fiction: While I never did dive back into fiction writing, I was asked yesterday by David Jarvis (of Reality Deviant Press) to contribute to a series of fiction pdfs he's planning. After some thought, I decided to go for it. I'm bringing along a character based on an NPC I wrote for Foul Locales: Behind the Gates. Delrick Jhomes, investigator of arcane matters (and an NPC in a past campaign), will be involved in a mystery concerning the return of a death cult thought long extinct. The human's companion is a small sentient ooze named Teek who communicates with Delrick via telepathy. If this sounds at all interesting, keep an eye out for more news.

*Castles & Crusades: Let's try this again. I just ordered the 2nd printing of the C&C PHB (from the sale I mentioned previously) and would like to write a module for this system. If you recall, there was talk of doing this through Ronin Arts some time ago but it never came to fruition. I've got the new writer's guidelines from Steve Chenault (Troll Lord honcho) and am eager to ponder some ideas. Steve said to email him in two weeks. Likely, this is due to their attendance at Origins this weekend but that's just a guess.

*Temporal Digest: Somehow I'm still going to follow up on this as well. Since a lot of the contents are likely going to be tweaked OGC, this series shouldn't be too tough to start up and continue.

That's it for now! If something falls through the cracks here, there's always something else to work on--moving back to pdfs-only or pitching DCCs for example. This post was inspired by Mike Mearls most recent livejournal entry. In it, he states that, at present, there is no reason to freelance. Bah! Link: http://mearls.livejournal.com/126121.html

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back.

Bret said...

Thanks, guys!

Contrary to Popular Belief...

...I'm still around! Feeling a little nostalgic for the old blogging life tonight so decided to stop in and post an update. Oh, life, yo...