Work Continues

Had a pleasant weekend and hope you did too. Finished up Paul Kemp's second novel in the Erevis Cale trilogy and now I'll start the 3rd in Richard Baker's Last Mythal trilogy hopefully tomorrow. We gamed today but not D&D. I can count the amount of times on one hand that I've played Vampire but today, I can honestly say, was the most enjoyable yet. Greg has an intriguing plot gearing up and I'm looking forward to its unfolding. I'm also getting a feel for my Gangrel character and enjoying beating the crap out of our enemies while being surly.

In writing news, I'm about halfway through checking the BtS issues for typos and anything that needs clarifying. So far the total word count is 42,501. I'm guessing the compilation will clock in at upwards of 90,000 words once the new material is in place. The omnibus will make one sweet addition to d20 bookshelves, if I do say so myself.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday today and doesn't eat too much. Why does everyone say that? Eh, who cares if you eat too much? You only live once! :)

And here's something to give thanks for; Fantasy Flight Games is having another unbeatable $5 sale on many of their products. Go wild!: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/5dsale.html

Quite the Sale!

A store called Comic Masters was going to have a massive store wide sale today for the holiday. On my previous trip, the guy there said even the WotC books could be up to half off. Like any good red-blooded D&D consumer, I dutifully noted the sale on my calendar. Well, I'm back from my little shopping trip and, sure enough, the rack of rpg stuff was indeed "50% off"! Here's the lineup of books I nabbed at half retail price...

Voyage of the Golden Dragon (Eberron adventure)
Secrets of Xen'Drick (Eberron)
Red Hand of Doom (don't worry Brad, I won't read it) ;)
Champions of Valor
Tome of Magic
Monster Manual IV

These were all titles I wasn't going to worry about buying but, like I said to the guy today, how can you pass up 50% off? I also managed to get some more Christmas shopping done. Now it's back to some Behind the Spells work before the holiday.

Another Review for the Week

Chris Gath provides a look at the 5th installment of Behind the Spells, in this case Dancing Lights: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews_info.php?products_id=6034&reviews_id=14580

Timely Delivery!

I got home from work to find three packages waiting for me. The first is 3 boxes of delicious Wolfgang candy (vanilla butter creams = yummy!). Package two held an autographed copy of the soundtrack to Big Trouble in Little China (not signed by John Carpenter but rather Alan Howarth, a producer of the cd; still cool though). Package #3 is the best of all--print copies of Temporality!!!!!!!! With new sleek/simple page border art and what appears to be more art in general, this book might just be the pinnacle of my d20 writing career (at least so far it is). If you haven't picked the book up yet in print, you're missing out. Bring the power of time to your campaign! :)

New Review

Chris Gath, a staff reviewer for RPGNow, expressed interest in reviewing the Behind the Spells series after winning BtS: Shield in a pdf giveaway I held some months ago. Since then he's reviewed not only that one but the first three issues in the line. Today, issue four--Animate Dead--rolled off his review line. Have a look here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews_info.php?products_id=6001&reviews_id=14552

Today will see continued work on the BtS collection and some leaf cleaning around the house. Oh, and for those of you who are Ronin Arts fans, Phil has opened his own store complete with discussion forum here: http://www.roninarts.com/

Fun Reading

Quick entry. When you've got some minutes to string together, have a look at these RPG morivational posters. Quite a hoot!

http://www.cruisegazing.com/RPG_Motivational/page_01.htm

BtS Finale and Collection News!

After handing in the final issue (Dispel Magic) last night, I awoke to find not only the pdf already on sale but also a press release from Phil concerning the printed collection. Guess I'd better get to work! Read all about it here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=180378

[Um, ignore those blank entries below. Blogger was acting up this morning.]

Gone Too Soon

Just saw that composer Basil Poledouris passed away on Nov 8 at the way too early age of 61. For those of you who don't follow movie soundtracks, Basil was responsible for the great Conan the Barbarian score as well as many others including Starship Troopers, Robocop, and Hunt for Red October. I had hoped he would be tapped to score the still developing 3rd Conan film but can now only hope his great themes are at least used in some way.

Also of note is the passing of Jack Palance. I'm too young to have appreciated his cowboy works of decades past but did not miss his fantastic turn as Curly in the City Slickers films. Jack was a Pennsylvania native who eventually came to Hollywood after brief stints as a prize fighter, football player, journalist, and Army man. He also enjoyed writing poetry and fiction ("Believe it...or not!").

Rest in peace, gentlemen.

Apply Directly to the What?!

Loralee (one of my two bosses) enjoys the HeadOn commercials so much (see the blog entry where I mock them along with WotC's Races of... books) that when someone gave her a mock ad of a similar product, she brought it into the store to share with us. Be sure you're not drinking anything when you click the below pic as it may come out your nose!

PDF Sale A-Plenty

Can't say as I've been keeping up on the whole RPGNow merger with Drivethru and the ENWorld gamestore, but I do know that Dark Quest Games is continuing their sale on pdfs. My own precious Temporality can now be had in pdf form at 30% off here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=6874

On a side note, has anyone picked this up in print yet? I have yet to receive my author's copies and may just break down and order it from amazon.

Work Phrases

If I can remember these little tidbits until I get home, they'll make nice little snippets for my blog readers. Today's phrase of the day was spoken by me to one of our old women customers. She wanted something for motion sickness so I displayed the packages of Dramamine and Bonine we carry. Since each are powered by 25mg of Meclizine, they are (at least as far as I'm concerned) identical. Both products even came in packages of 8 so the only difference was that the Bonine were chewable. When the woman said she wasn't sure which to pick, I said that it was her choice and offered this helpful interrrogative:

"Do you prefer to chew or swallow?"

Inside I was both cringing and giggling at the risque line. It's a good thing not everyone's mind is as firmly in the gutter as my own. As it turned out, she prefers to swallow. :)

Ebay Ahoy

Just a quickie tonight. I'm offering up a smattering of books and the ST: Next Gen widescreen movie collection here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZvantas1QQhtZ-1

New CDs

I'm a supporter of brick and mortar establishments. I'll drive an hour+ to a game store to see what they have and then drop up to $20 (usually for minis these days) just because I like to have somewhere to drive to and want to support their continued existence in some small way. When it comes to the difficult to find items, however, then I go internet. Who doesn't these days, right? More and more I find myself becoming an Amazon junkie. As "unknown" soundtracks from favorite composers come onto my radar, I invariably find myself buying them from amazon.

My newest acquisitions? Both early James Horner outings: Battle Beyond the Stars/Humanoids from the Deep and the brief but well done Brainstorm. The first two for one combo was released by GNPCrescendo and apparently dubbed from the original vinyls. Oh well, I'm just happy to have the music. Not a lot of standout bits on first listen but further runs may prove more fruitful. On the other hand, Brainstorm I find particularly pleasing and should find an excellent fit in the planar campaign's eerie finale.

As for gaming, I've begun dispel magic and hope to have it completed by the end of the weekend. Anyone know if the name of Orcus is fair game? I mean, Necromancer Games uses him and his likeness but do they have a special agreement with WotC? Perhaps I'll just go to those boards and ask them.