Blog

Jesus. I haven’t posted to this site in over two years.

A big part of that was because I hadn’t gotten an SSL certificate for the site, and so anyone coming here to read stuff would get nasty “OMG IDENTITY THEFT!!” warnings, which severely cut down on traffic. A second reason is that blogs have sort of fallen out of the zeitgeist. A big reason is that I’ve been hella busy, as the kids say (they say that, right?) — after getting the FAR WEST PDF released (as mentioned in my last entry, back in September of 2023), we also released the hardcover to Kickstarter backers and to retail, so things got busy for a bit.

Well, I’ve finally gotten an SSL certificate for the site (thanks to namecheap.com), so no more security warnings, and I’m wanting to make a regular habit of posting to a site that I own and control — rather than playing in someone else’s walled garden. So back to blogging it is.

What’s up with me currently? Still releasing stuff for Adamant Entertainment and freelancing for other publishers as I can manage to get assigned. The next big project from Adamant will be the brand new third edition of our 1930s pulp adventure RPG, THRILLING TALES, which will be coming in the new year. The first edition was for use with d20 Modern, the second edition was for use with Savage Worlds, but for the third edition, we’re going stand-alone, and releasing an all-in-one core rulebook using, in my opinion, the best system for pulpy adventure, the famous D6 System of West End’s Star Wars fame. Can’t wait!

Another big thing coming up soon — Very soon. January 6th, in fact. — we’re offering those of you who missed out on the FAR WEST Kickstarter, or who didn’t get the chance to pick it up at retail, an opportunity to grab one of the remaining copies of the first print run. We’ll be running FAR WEST REDUX via BackerKit as a way to get those remaining hardcovers out to folks who might want them. More news on that when we launch, but in the meantime, you can sign up to be notified over at BackerKit!

This is good enough of an entry to get things rolling again. Feel free to comment below with any suggestions of what you might like to see me cover here. I’ve got some ideas, but I could always use more!

See you soon.

Today, 12 years after starting on this very long road, we finally released the PDF of the FAR WEST Adventure Game, to my long-suffering Kickstarter backers, and to the public via DriveThruRPG.

The process of designing and creating the game may have ended, but the journey is just beginning — first, the print version needs to go out to the backers, then a POD version made available through DriveThru, and then adventures, and supplements, and more fiction, and and and…

Well, you get the picture.

If you’re interested, here is a link to the product page at the store. Check it out, if you’re so inclined.

12 years. To quote the Foo Fighters: “Done, done — on to the next one.”

It’s been a month, and I’ve been remiss in updating (again).

Wizards of the Coast put out a questionnaire about their proposed changes to the OGL, which they soon abandoned after they received over 15,000 responses, with over 80% disapproval of what they were attempting to pull.

In response, they announced:

1) That they were going to leave the OGL 1.0a untouched and intact, and

2) They were placing the 5th edition SRD into Creative Commons — which is irrevocable.

Interesting times, indeed.

The question remains what sort of corporate fuckery will be coming down the pike with the forthcoming new edition of D&D, but honestly, that’s a bit outside of my concern, as I’m not entirely sure we’ll be producing any D&D material. I was more concerned about the continuation of the original OGL framework for what it meant for other systems released under it, such as the D6 system and FATE.

For now, it appears we can continue as before. I’ll call that a win.