40K Rogue Trader's Rising Star

A quick hit today, as I frantically attend to matters of business across the real world and Internet. This absolutely deserves a post, however, so I will proceed.

Jason Marker, the man behind Motor City Gamewerks, is one of my very dearest friends on the planet. Despite our close personal and professional associations, he has somehow managed to rise above and continues to impress in the freelance game design and writing industry, proving that daily communicating with me will not kill your career as previously suspected. I know the guys at Fantasy Flight are loving his contributions to their Rogue Trader line, as evidenced by the latest posting on their website.

So, without further ado, read the latest developer's journal for Rogue Trader, then be sure to drop Marker a line and issue your congrats.

Thinking Like An Artist

I always loved to draw, and I guess I still do, but my problem is that I can never get that image in my head to appear properly on the paper. It seems like it should be such an easy thing to do, but it's one of those genes that I just don't have, like caring about cars or understanding the appeal of reality television. Luckily, there are qualified artists out there willing to tolerate me long enough to illustrate my thoughts as best I can describe them.

That leads me to this point: I often find it hard to think like an artist. What's worse is that I'm sure that I think I can think like an artist, but I can't. Follow me on that one? While I have this image in my head that I can't draw, I have myself convinced that surely I can describe it using words, right? After all, that's what I do! I'm a writer! If only it were that easy.

Let's talk about the challenges of communicating with your artists. Read on for more.

Discussion: Gaming With Family

It's been a while since we had an old-fashioned discussion here on Jason Richards cannot be trusted, so I thought that today would be as good a day as any to take a stab at another one. I was a little curious as to exactly how many readers here regularly game with family. Do you game with a spouse? Kids? Siblings? Parents? I know that a lot of us get introduced to games through family, and I figure that most of us have good family gaming stories.

I'll give a couple of my family gaming tales below the fold, but in the meantime, feel free to drop a comment and share your stories and experiences with the class.

Qucik Hit: My Fantasy Writing Retreat

Ah, to be alone with my pen

As my writing "to do" list picks up and the day job continues to pile on its burdens, I find myself fantasizing about getting away from it all. I've often wanted to just take a week off, get out of the house with nothing but a stack of notebooks and a box of pencils, and just write until my fingers bleed.

What little free time I have to write is taken up by little things, here and there, that while they are related to writing, lack the full creative release. This blog is one of those things that I love to do, but it doesn't produce material that can be packaged and sold. Other things include handling the financial side of publishing, or getting contracts written and distributed. Artists need to be contacted and their work reviewed. That's in addition to responsibilities at work, with the family, and at church. It all adds up to a hectic life, at times.

I wonder how much work I could get done if I had nothing to do except write. No Internet. No television. No video games. Just a good, long week alone at the family ranch where I can sit on the back porch and watch the cattle graze, or make a couple of sandwiches and find some shade by one of our stock tanks. I keep telling myself that getting away for a week of relative solitude would be good for me, and that everyone should do it, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger.

I've also often talked with colleagues about getting together in a group to pound out some manuscript or other in a week-long writing and gaming marathon. That would be a real blast, and I'm working on some way to make that happen. I get to see them far too infrequently as it is, so some quality buddy time would be very welcome, and isolated from the world I feel like we could produce some sort of quality supplement in the course of a week.

Alas, vacation time is in short supply and the rest of life presses on. I'll do it someday, soon. Hopefully.

The Ensemble Cast Of Characters In RPGs

What if you're not just a one-character kind of guy (or girl, if any of you mythical female gamers are reading)? The role-playing hobby teaches us that we should create a character and hold on to it, pouring ourselves into that stat sheet and working hard toward achieving that character's hopes, dreams, and goals. We become incredibly attached to these fictional people because, most of the time, they are reflections on ourselves.

However, in my greater effort to personally examine individual trends, mechanics, and stations in hobby gaming that we all take for granted, I have begun to ask myself whether or not it's best that we all play only a single player in a game from session to session. That's how it has "always been," but that's never a good reason to keep on doing something if it's the only reason. What if it were more important to the game that you challenged yourself to play new types of characters, take up different roles within the group, or simply to pick up a stat sheet for a session that is better suited to that particular adventure or mission than your standard character?

Let's talk about it. Read on for more.

Read My New Comic Book Online, TODAY!

What an amazing day!

I'm very pleased to announce the online release of my new comic book, The Uniques Tales #5: Around the World. I'm grinning from ear to ear as I read the final product, and I can't be more thrilled.

I was approached some time ago, probably six months or more, about writing an installment of an ongoing project for the dynamic team of Adam Withers and Comfort Love. These amazing artists and writers are the creative force behind The Uniques, a terrific supers-genre indy comic. If you're not reading it, you should.

Read on for the tale of how I managed to swing this incredible opportunity.

Train-Wreck: Some Of My RPG Writing Failures

Some things go horribly, horribly wrong. Actually, make that most things. Despite my best efforts, I have often fallen short of the mark on a number of my RPG-writing endeavors. Let's turn the spotlight on some of my blunders and broken promises, shall we?

Read on for more.