BtS: Magic Aura at KQ

http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/article128.php

The story and related research for this one came rather easily. It was the spell secret that proved difficult--how do you tweak a spell who's sole function is to show an illusion to someone who is actually looking for it? Find out through the link!

Compendium Review

New customer review over at Paizo for BtS: Compendium: http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/t/trickyOwlbearPublishing/behindTheSpells/v5748btpy83z0

Kind Words for BtS

Looks like BtS at Kobold Quarterly is getting some kind attention from various folks. Monte Cook wrote on Wolfgang's Open Design LJ: "It's pretty cool." For a more wordy opinion, see Robert Emerson's blog post here: http://emersonsbookshelf.blogspot.com/2008/12/kobold-quarterlys-behind-spells.html

The KQ Connection

If you had told me two weeks ago that I'd be writing for Kobold Quarterly, only the preeminent magazine who is more than capable of taking the place of poor deceased (print) Dragon, I'd have laughed. But, here we are. As I mentioned at the Tricky Owlbear blog, we're now producing smaller BtS issues exclusively for the KQ website. All thanks is due to Ed Healy, KQ's ad manager and host of the Atomic Array podcast (and an all-around nice guy). Check out Color Spray here: http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/article117.php

In other news, Linda and I were out Xmas shopping yesterday and I got a surprising amount of presents bought (using no credit cards I might add!). It was 4 solid hours of shopping though and I was more than happy to come home and rest. :)

Still 6 Months Away But...

...let the Trek-gasm begin!!!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/

Compendium Review

Here's the latest words of critical praise, this time from Rpg-resource: http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/index.php?article=3954&visual=4

Busy Busy

Before I launch into what's been going on, I feel I most post this review link to the BtS: Compendium for those of you who feel (rightly so too) that the Tricky Owlbear blog isn't worth checking on too often: http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/t/trickyOwlbearPublishing/behindTheSpells/v5748btpy83z0

"So how's the job going?" is a phrase I hear often. Well, it's going pretty damned well. I currently have two routes a day. The first is from 10am to 1pm and runs from the Pottsville area to Fleetwood and then returning to Muhlenburg. Then I have a little time to myself to grab some lunch and rest before heading out to be in Schulykill Haven by 3:30pm. From here I journey to Cressona, Pottsville again, and then north into what feels like the frontier of civilization (just northern Schuylkill Cty but that's close enough!) before returning to Muhlenburg between 6 and 6:30pm. All told, including travel to and from the start/end points, I work an 8-hour day; just happens to be split into two sections.

Last week was a bit rough as I was fighting the flu and some light-headedness but most of that seems to be done with. The money is good for my work and they even through me a Sat. route every other week for some extra bucks. Even with the upkeep to the car and the gas needed, the $$ is still worth my while. And a good thing too since I just got the bill for my ankle MRI (yikes!). At least that one was still under the insurance before I lost it.

Thanks to everyone who wished me well since it seems to be helping. Here's looking forward to many months of uneventful and financially fruitful driving.

New Job!

I love driving. Love it. I've always wanted to use my own vehicle to do courier work. Easy, high-paying, and no annoying people to deal with (except perhaps a brief road encounter in traffic). Well, my dream job has finally come. I was out doing some orientation for a company today and I'm one of 80+ independent contractors doing work out of the company's Muhlenburg hub. For the time being, I'll be making double what I've made in the past (before taxes, but still good!). The work could not be easier--picking up bank slips across Schuylkill County and transporting them either back to the warehouse or very close to the starting point in the evening. The hours are a bit longer than I'm used to (10am to 6:30-7pm) but the work is so easy who cares?! Driving is also a great time to get inspired through either the scenery (I'm driving through some very beautiful areas) or via music you're listening to. Should be some great brainstorming time for my writing projects and I'm getting paid for it to boot. Life is good.

Tendonitis

That's the official diagnosis of my left ankle problem. The treatment is to wear a foot wrap, take 2 Aleve a day for 2 weeks, and do an exercise once a day until I see the doc again in a month. All in all, much better than I could have hoped for really. Much preferable to surgery. The whole process was actually pretty smooth. EIP (the extremity place where the MRI was performed) was especially friendly and fast and got the results to my local doc within a few hours. According to the technician there, EIP's pay program should bill me for my out-of-network cost even if my health plan doesn't recognize the facility. Not a bad deal.

Today is a rather dreary day so I'm hoping to get some writing done--specifically on BtS: Darkness which will be a kind of lead-in to BtM: Creeper.

Was in Atlantic City Wed with Linda and we gambled many hours away. Before the losing of money began, we hit some of the outlet shops across from the casinos. Believe it or not, the places were quite reasonable. I got three shirts for my sister's youngest, a reusable shopping bad for her, and two sheets of Disney stickers for her middle child all for $7! We had a great day even if we didn't come home ahead.

Links Note: If you travel to Mike Ferguson's blog from here, please don't be alarmed when my link here points to his new site: Emerald Lich! Here's wishing Mike many happy years at his new location.

Happy Autumnal Equinox 2008

It's that magical time of year when the leaves change, night begins to outpace the day, and harvest festivals of all types swing into gear. It's my absolute favorite time of year and there's plenty of activities to keep my interest. Hiking can increase in frequency as spider and their &#^$& webs are out cold so it's a great time to take advantage of "bush-whacking" wherein you can go off-trail to explore.

Also up for this month is Celticfest held in Bethlehem, PA this coming weekend. Not sure which day I'll get out there but one of them for sure. I usually buy my sister's birthday/Xmas present there as she's also into the Celtic seen. Unfortunately, for non-drinkers like myself you have to be cautious when to attend for nights are when many come out to eat, DRINK, and be merry. Still, even fighting through stinky crowds is worth it for the festival's vendors.

New to this fall season is me getting an MRI on my ankle tomorrow morning. Seems I likely aggravated an old injury sometime either late last year or early this year (can't point to a specific incident) and now it hurts me at various times during the day--most frequently when I'm barefoot (showers are flat and hard!). Thank goodness my health insurance is intact until month's end. Speaking of that, I've only just begun job-searching with any regularity. Not too concerned. The universe will provide.

Back on topic--enjoy your cool autumn season, whatever you do!

Now Selling On Ebay

See here for a list of my current auctions: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZvantas1

Among the more notables are the Rappan Athuk trilogy of adventures from Necromancer Games and a quite rare Three Days to Kill adventure from Atlas Games. Why rare? Well, this is the limited edition (#107 of 500) module printed and collated by hand to be ready in time for GenCon 2000 and was, in fact, the very first d20 product for sale.

Compendium Podcast

Our first product-specific podcast commentary is now available for Behind the Spells: Compendium which you can listen to/download here:
http://www.trickyowlbear.com/podcast/description/bts-compendium.php

Entering the World of Podcasts

Whether the roleplaying public is ready or not, Scot and I have delved into the wide world of podcasts! I sketched out an outline in about half an hour and then Scot and I just recorded an off the cuff "Podcast Zero" for Tricky Owlbear here: http://www.trickyowlbear.com/podcast/description/ep00.php

We're great fans of the Car Talk show for NPR (which you can find at http://www.cartalk.com/ ) so we left most of the laughs in! You can hear me utter the awkward phrase: "We would like to read people's emails..." and near the end of the show we pretty much have a breakdown. Thank goodness is was over by that point! In any case, we had great fun and hope you do as well. :)

Kudos

Here's some kind words posted for the Compendium from the man we hired to do layout for the book--the extremely talented Stephen Wark: http://www.chirographum.com/weblog/?p=3681

Compendium Reviewed!

In case you don't check out the Tricky Owlbear blog very often, here's a note to say that the Behind the Spells: Compendium has gotten its first official review! Not too shabby: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=18174&products_id=56664

Lord Soth original art for sale

AS the layoff continues, I'm combing through my collection of D&D stuff to see what might make some $$ if offered up for sale. One item I'm willing to part with (reluctantly) is this original ink drawing from Valerie Valusek featuring everyone's favorite death knight: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130249814978&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=003

Consider giving this artwork a good home.

Movies of the Week

Scot and I decided to do a double feature this week in the form of Clone Wars and Mummy 3. Since we went from one theater into the next directly (taking time only to stop for more popcorn), I had to really pee til all was said and done. Were the flicks worth urinary disruption? Let's find out.

Clone Wars was, hmm, I can't really say I was highly anticipating it. It's always fun to revisit the Star Wars universe but the animation style I saw in the previews did not overwhelm me. Still, the movie turned out to be not bad at all. The action is pretty much constant which is good since the dialogue is still Lucas-cringeworthy as it has been with the prequels. The basic plot is OK (Republic wanting to gain shipping lanes through the outer rim) but when that plot hinges on Jabba the Hutt's son then you have to inwardly groan. If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil you by describing the Huttling itself but both my brother and I were surprised by its..ah..cuteness. Another cool little scene (yes, I said cool) was when Anakin and Asohka were trying to get the Huttling and themselves into the Republic ship. When the ship dropped its shields and a few droid ships kamakazied into the hanger before the heroes it was very unexpected! All in all, though, a mindless romp through the SW playground with the faces you know and the combat you love. Go see it with no expectations and you'll do fine.

As for Mummy, I wasn't sure what to expect. The previews lead you astray in that you think the gang will fight yetis...not so much. Quite the opposite in fact, which annoyed me slightly. The plot was even more simple than the earlier two flicks in the trilogy and the movie seemed to move a little to quickly from plot point to plot point. Yes, they didn't need to take much time to reintriduce Rick, Eve, and the gang, but some more character time would have been nice. I missed Rachel Weisz but welcomed back the actor who potrays Jonathan with open arms (he opened a nightclub named Imhoteps--classic!). At the end, my brother and I both agreed that we actually preferred Clone Wars to Mummy 3.

Faux Pas for McCain

Grabbed from Elaine Cunningham's LJ...

"An excerpt from a post by Michael Goldfarb on the blog of John McCain's official website:

'It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.'

Excuse me? It's a little unnerving to see this sort of sneering, dismissive, cheap-shot cliche employed on the blog of a presidential candidate. Insulting ANY portion of the electorate is bad politics, and employing shallow, silly generalizations is bad writing.Another thing that bothers me about this? The men and women in uniform who play D&D and read game-related novels--and there are quite a few of them--deserve better.Over the years I've heard from many servicemen who are a long, long way from home. I've mailed signed books, and donated novels and gaming supplies to base libraries.

For a couple of years, I exchanged emails with a young serviceman stationed in South Korea. He organized a yearly fundraiser at his base, collecting signed items the others might want to purchase and donating the proceeds to a local orphanage. I've talked to quite a few gamers at cons who have served in the military. And I've noticed that book signings near military bases generally have a stronger turn-out. (Submarine bases in particular--those guys like to stock up.) In short, it is my observation that "the D&D crowd" includes quite a few people who have shown themselves willing to suffer on behalf of others. Those I'm been privleged to meet, both in person and online, are exemplary young men. I'm guessing any one of them could teach Mr. Goldfarb a few things about the art of showing respect."

Ebay

Before I forget and the auctions are over, I'm purging some unwanted Grenadier figs here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZvantas1

I'll be sorting through my collection of stuff to see what else I can sell since my wallet's on life support for the time being.

And Now For Something...

...well you know the rest. Seems I'm going to have more free time to devote to writing as I was laid off indefinitely from my lab job this past Friday. The manager didn't want to do it to me in particular but things are so slow at the moment that, I think, some 15 of us are off on the unemployment train. Still, what with unemployment being extended to like 39 weeks and the pay (I hope) being enough to cover my monthly bills, it's a good thing. I picked up the Traveller core book and downloaded Mongoose's publisher developer pack. Now I can buckle down and crank out some Traveller goodness for Tricky Owlbear as we definitely need a new direction to go with our products.

In campaign news, my "Stop 4th Edition!" story arc has hit a unique landmark in that next session will see the integration of two adventuring parties into one mega-story! The planar PCs, who are the main PCs, are assaulting a land base of the evil chidahn, dragonfly-men from a foreign dimension. The chidahn are generating some kind of magical field around a gigantic artifact in orbit of a planet which is keeping their brethren in a prison pocket-dimension. When the artifact dies, it will loose its bond with the glyph gates which currently "caps" the prison demiplane. Unfortunately, the artifact's other function is to keep energy flows between the gates steady and, when it dies, the backlash of chaotic power will explode violently through each glyph gate in the multiverse--forever changing the realms they are on in ways impossible to predict (i.e. cause 4th edition). Now, if somehow the artifact can be destroyed on purpose instead of letting it die, the sudden collapse will actually "plug" the stream of power it controls--forever sealing the chidahn's prison while keeping the gate's from overloading. But how does one destroy an artifact the size of a small moon?

Enter the previous campaign's story arc involving Orcus and his meteor-thrower. While the planar PCs gear up to assault the shield-making chidahn base inside a dormany volcano, the Protectorate will make contact with the previous campaign's PCs since they are the ones most experienced with the doomsday weapon still in orbit of Toril. Will those PCs agree to help? Why wouldn't they, it's what adventurers do after all--save the multiverse! I hope everyone who's gamed in either campaign can make it next time for a Return of the Jedi-ish finale of epic proportions. One party takes down the shield while the other takes out the artifact. Simple enough, right? Mwahahaha! I'm looking forward to seeing how one group of players handles two PCs apiece as we switch back and forth between groups. One thing is certain--it will not be boring!