Just when you thought you had enough dice in your bag ... Harley abuses his powers for evil.
Way, way back in the lost history of RPGs, a man named Louis Zocchi created the Zocchihedron, better know as the 100 sided die. I had the honor of meeting Lou at GenCon, where he gave me a bag of his dice --- though none that I could recognize. He's made d3, d5, d7, d16, d24, and 100, all statistically accurate. (Haven't tested that claim out myself. Buyers beware.)

Lou is something of a legend amongst the older designers. He shows up to all the conventions, but hasn't moved on to the web yet. To buy dice from Lou, you have to find Lou.

Sure, you're thinking, I'd love to help out a guy that was around when the first D&D booklets were being hand assembled in a basement in Lake Geneva. But what's the point? Some games call for a number in the 1-3 range, but I don't know of any that call for 1-5 or 1-7. ("What day of the week is it? "Roll 1d7!")

But wait. You and I write games.

Muhahahaha.

Expect an adventure soon calling for a 1d7.

//H

DCC World Preview

A hefty 17-page preview of Áereth is up for your viewing pleasure. Jeff L. was responsible for the world creation chapter, pulling together half a dozen back stories into a single, unified whole.

I think he did a great job. I hope you agree.

You can down load the preview here:
http://www.goodman-games.com/downloads/DCC35-Preview-1.pdf

Parkinson Art

The store at keithparkinson.com is finally up. I encourage fans to stop by and support the memory of a very talented artist. It seems a shame that this could only happen after his death, but you know that any money going to his family is money well spent.

Is it dead?
Oof. Things got busy around here. Just put to death an editing nightmare. You know the horror film where the zombie keeps coming back? Same thing. Finally had to reach for the chainsaw. I love my writers but I've become utterly inured to the complaints of authors regarding changes made to work-for-hire projects.

Any sane editor only wants your project to be its best. Any changes made are made for this reason only. If you, as a writer, aren’t comfortable with that, I understand, but it’s your responsibility as a writer to not sign a work-for-hire contract.

Anyhow, a rant for another day. Fortunately most manuscripts don’t require this sort of treatment. But those that do, do.

Doodoo?

Yup.

Love from the Rockies,
//H

Big Deathy Shout Out to Belly Up, Aspen
Or, "I thought I'd already used up my 15 minutes."
So Jurassic 5 is coming to town. Once upon a time they were underground, but then the rest of us heard them and fell in love. Tickets for the show sold out over night.

But, working at a private school near Aspen, we know people that know people. I sent out an email and was CC'd on an email that contained, I'm not kidding, the words "Kimberly, take care of Mr. Stroh."

I'll probably NEVER see that phrase in use again, but judging by how happy H was to hear the news (she was both hipping and hopping) once in a lifetime is all a man can ask for.

Anyhow, if you're in Aspen this weekend, and spending time the five elements of hip-hop, I'll be in the crowd somewhere. Find me and I'll buy you a mohito to mark the silliness of this thing called life.

//H

I can die a happy man.
A while ago I wrote a story about Col, the Clockwork Inquisitor, for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. Nothing terribly brilliant, just the usual sword and sorcery affair. Given the chance to write the story again, I'd make some changes, but what author doesn't feel that way?

Today, on a forum board, I read someone quoting "my" character, but it was dialogue that I didn't write.

Col lives on in the mind of someone else. That's pretty darn fun.

And in other news...
Too busy to blog, but I'll try to get something up next week. Hope you all are happy and healthy.

Random Note
The Blogger spell check program doesn't recognize the word "blog." That's just silly.

//H