06/21/2004: "The Thing In The Street"
It's been a while. What's been happening in my life?
Not a whole lot, I'll admit. The wife, some friends, and I paid a visit to the San Diego Wild Animal Park about a week ago and took in their little dinosaur exhibit. We'll have a few pictures up in the gallery soon. It almost makes me wish I'd paid closer attention to which dinosaurs were which. This last weekend, June 5th-6th, was a local Civil War reenactment in the lovely city of Perris. Being as it's inland, and it's also June, it was pretty hot out there. The battles were pretty good, though, and the company is always interesting.
I'm thinking of starting a somewhat regular column here and calling it, "Neighborhood Oddities." See, my wife and I can take pictures of the weirdness that occasionally occurs in our apartment complex, and you guys can stare at it. For starters, what the heck is this thing?
I was in the living room doing something (writing? preparing to write?), and Amy calls me into our bedroom. "Gary, get in here, quick!" I figured she must be calling me to observe the typical feline slapstick that our cats find so amusing, but no. When I came into our bedroom, she was looking out the window, her eyes like saucers.
Looking over her shoulder (not hard to do, mind you), I see this thing in the middle of the street, flanked on either side by two guys. My first thought was, "Is that a camel?" But it wasn't. It wasn't anything I'd seen before. I figured it was a guy in a suit of some kind, a clever costume of sorts, but I still can't be sure. I could see the lines where a person's body should be, but that position, bent over like that, walking on those odd legs, couldn't have been comfortable at all. And when it moved, it didn't move like a man in a suit.
So what is it? If you know, drop me a line. Give me a clue, or spoil the surprise and flat-out tell me.
We'll be going to see Chronicles of Riddick this weekend. The last flick we saw was Troy, and it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The action sequences were entertaining, at least.
As for writing, what can you expect to see with my name on it in the coming months? Let's see . . .
Artifacts of the Ages: Weapons of Legend
I'm pretty sure that The Game Mechanics are releasing this book fairly soon. It contains several legendary weapons that are designed for use with the rules originally presented in JD Wiker's "Swords of Our Fathers" and Rich Redman's "Staves of Ascendance" (both of which were later combined in a print edition, "Artifacts of the Ages: Swords and Staves," published by Green Ronin). These rules were also included in the new edition of "Unearthed Arcana." Should be plenty of fun for just about everyone.
Fireborn
Fantasy Flight Games' latest non-d20 role-playing game should be released at GenCon Indy this year. This is the largest project I've had the pleasure of working on thus far, and I'll be there with bells on to promote it! In this revolutionary new game, you take on the role of a mythic dragon who has been reborn in the body of a human being in the modern day. The game includes guidelines for flashbacks (much like those in the Highlander films), which allows your characters to have a certain unique duality.
Hungry Little Monsters
This is a charity product that has been organized by Sean K. Reynolds, along the lines of his "Swords into Plowshares" product (which was originally released on RPGNow, but is currently available for free on Sean's web site). It's filled with all sorts of monsters that have been created by industry professionals, including a couple by yours truly.
What am I currently working on?
Artifacts of the Ages: Rings
The next Artifacts book to be released by The Game Mechanics involves rings, jewelry, wondrous items, and magical baubles. I'm co-writing this piece with JD Wiker, and it's a lot of fun so far.
That's about it for now. I'll try and get back here with more updates just as soon as I can.
Regards!