This is not the blog you are looking for . . .

I try not to write about politics or even think about politics, because when I do I suffer the same side of side effects that come with your latest pharmaceuticals: may cause nausea, vomiting, and intense rage. To me, politics are just a joke, they are a systematic (and far to successful) attempt to disenfranchise individuals in a democracy.

People I know well know better than to "talk politics" in front of me. I usually know better than to aggravate myself by delving into things. However, it was pretty much impossible to ignore politics for the last 6 months. And my lack of sleep is a testament to that. So I am going to shout out my one last gawp and let it go for good.

If you want an interesting read sometime, check out George Washington's Farewell Address to the American people. I will admit that taking something from over 200 years ago and trying to apply it to modern times is often foolish. However, some words from Washington ring hauntingly true for me--particularly his thoughts and warning on political parties. Check this out:

"In contemplating the causes, which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by Geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavour to excite a belief, that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts."

Or how about this:

"All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests."

Oh, it gets better:

"Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."

If I may indulge in a terrible analogy, politics is like professional wrestling. You have to be highly skilled and trained in certain areas to make it look real, and when done right can make two sides seem to truly despise each other, but in the end it is scripted. The two major parties are run by a handful of people who essentially hold all the power in this country, with the mutual understanding that despite the results of elections and the swings of fate and fortune in the political arena, they are all getting paid (and getting power) at the end of the day.

Before the "if-you-don't-like-America-move-to-Russia" geniuses chime in, let's get one thing straight. I don't hate America. But I do hate hypocrisy and self-delusion. I don't hate the idea of a representative democracy, but I do hate that the two political parties do not always represent whom they should be representing.

And I really hate that the political parties think that by putting on such a great show, assisted by their various media extensions, that we might be misdirected into ignoring where the real power lies. But I hate it more that they are right in that thought.

There, now maybe I can sleep again.

Do not announce to the world what you are going to accomplish; accomplish something that the world cannot ignore.

My adventure in Dungeon magazine, "Massacre at Fort Dolor," was published today at the online home of Dungeon magazine: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/duad/20080828.

I am very happy with how it turned out, especially the art. I am completely hopeless when it comes to the visual arts, so any artistic work leaves me awed. I wish I could have done a better job with the maps, but the cartographer did a fine job of creating the maps exactly as I envisioned them.

It is scary to think back when I was writing this, as I turned in the text of the adventure BEFORE DDXP 2008, which was in February--practically 4 months before the 4e rules were released and several weeks before I had a final draft of the rules. If I were to rewirte the adventure now, I can envision many changes I would make. But that is how just about any creative process is, I think.

Anyway, I hope people get a chance to play it, DM it, and make it part of their D&D games. Greg Marks, one of the other Factionmasters for the Xen'drik Expeditions campaign, also has an adventure in Dungeon this month, and I am looking forward to seeing that as well.

Wow. A week has passed since GenCon, and I feel like I am still recovering. Even when there is no big excitement happening, GenCon is always draining. With LFR officially launching there this year, I feel like a ran a marathon.

I am not, by nature, an optimistic person. I tend to hear only the negative feedback and fret overly much. A few years ago at GenCon when I was one of the writers of the Mark of Heroes Special Event, three different people stopped my wife and I as we walked between the doorway and RPGA HQ to say how much fun they had DMing/playing the adventure. After we got to HQ, my wife said, "Isn't that great!?" I had no idea what she was talking about. As nice as getting compliments is, I literally forgot in 30 seconds that people has offered them. There is something to be said for never being satisfied and always striving to be better, but it does take a toll. Then I began to worry that I came across as ungrateful for the compliments. Just a small peek into an ugly psyche.

That anecdote just goes to illustrate how neurotic I can be about projects I am involved in. So GenCon this year was particularly nerve-wracking. Thankfully, Dave Christ and his team of HQ workers and DMs pulled off a great event. And Chris Tulach put in his 80+ hours per week to make sure anything he could control was ready. Sean Molley and Pieter Sleijpen, the other two Global Admins, were there as well, doing their usual crack work. Even the players, for the most part, were great and patient.

While that launch went better than I could have hoped, there was other great news as well. I found out my Dungeon adventure "Massacre at Fort Dolor" was going to publish this month. It was also revealed that the new Dungeon Delve book from WotC, which I worked on along with some other RPGA veteran writers, was going to hit the shelves in February 2009. And I was relieved to know that the adventure Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress (adventure P3 in the series published by Wizards) would be released in March 2009. I was keeping mum on all these projects, and they all finally became public in one form or another, so now I can talk about them.

Now I can fret for the next 6 months about how they will be received . . . :-I

As a young kid playing D&D in my friend's basement in the late 70s and early 80s, I would leaf through the classic D&D adventures--Keep on the Borderlands, White Plume Mountain, Tomb of Horrors, and others--and dream that maybe someday I could create something similar. How cool would it be to create something that thousands--or maybe even tens of thousands of people--would test their characters' mettle against? How awesome to not just tell a story, but to create something that would allow others to live their own stories?

Through the intervening years and various editions of D&D, I continued to play and enjoy the hobby. The dream of creating an adventure for honest-to-goodness publication slowly began to take a backseat to other realities: jobs, chores, family, and the endless obligations of living in the 21st century. On a whim in 2001, I decided to look into playing in the RPGA's Living Greyhawk campaign with the release of 3rd Edition D&D. I connected with a wonderful group of players in my area, and we started playing. Since the RPGA runs on the back of volunteers, I eventually had the chance to offer my time to do a little work for my local Living Greyhawk triad, led by Sam Weiss. Far from glamorous, the work involved creating some NPCs and areas of Keoland where adaptable adventure could be set. The work was fun, and it rekindled that flame--the love of the game I grew up playing and the desire to give people the means to have the same kind of fun I got out of the game.

Step by step I got more involved. Volunteering my time to the Keoland Triad for various projects eventually led to a spot on the Triad editing adventures. The flame grew stronger. The Triad work led to writing adventures for Living Greyhawk and Living Kingdoms of Kalamar. The flame grew hotter. Campaigns came and went, and I continued to seek opportunities to learn as much as possible about the game and the craft of designing adventures.

In late 2007, I was selected by Chris Tulach to be one of the three Global Administrators in the Living Forgotten Realms campaign run by the RPGA. I couldn't have been more excited. I cannot even begin to count the number of hours I had put into various campaigns since 2001, mostly on a volunteer basis. I did it all because I wanted to get better at creating games, and I wanted people to have fun with characters and worlds and plots we all shared.

Then came the email. Andy Collins, RPG System Design & Development Manager for WotC R&D, emailed me. My LFR position meant I had to have some advance rules knowledge of 4e, and I assumed the email was an update for that. It wasn't. Someone was needed to help develop an adventure for R&D. That pre-teen kid I used to be, sitting on a stool in his friend's basement gripping a tattered copy of Tomb of Horrors, fell right off his seat.

Although I had a lot of projects going, I couldn't turn down an opportunity like that. And so started a new journey. Bruce Cordell, with whom I would be designing the adventure, emailed me the details. My wife asked who Bruce was, and as an answer I just started pointing out all the books on my shelf that he had worked on. There are many, and they all contain great work. I have to admit that just the act of pulling all those books off the shelf intimidated me. But I was up to the task, right? After all, I had written a couple dozen or more adventures for the RPGA across many campaigns, and I had edited almost as many. How much harder could it be?

Yeah, but this was 4th Edition, and I really didn't even have a final copy of the rules yet. My total experience of 4e adventure writing was one adventure for Dungeon magazine, and making notes for a couple of Living Forgotten Realms adventures. Ah well, I've never before let a total lack of knowledge get in my way, so I wrote down one of the first rules of writing that I learned on an index card next to me: "Always be finishing."

So now it is over, and I look back through my work notes and my personal journal on what I have learned. I know I can certainly churn out word count. I know that compared to 3rd Edition, writing adventures for 4th Edition certainly isn't going to be any more difficult, and parts of it are certainly much easier. Adding levels or a class template to monsters is so much easier. Working on creatures that would have had me banging my head on my desk in 3rd Edition were a breeze in 4th. I didn't use any math much more difficult than what my daughter does in 1st grade in changing monsters. I know that I love the new skill challenge format: any mechanic that can help a DM or adventure writer make better encounters by making them think inside a format is a good thing--precisely why sonnets make such great poetry. The methods of putting encounters together help make them more dynamic and potentially fun for the player. Oh, and I know that Bruce Cordell is a great person to work with: very knowledgeable and the most generous and supportive of collaborators.

Now comes the interminable wait until the adventure is released. It'll be worth every second.

I am right in the middle of two writing projects: one an adventure using the 3.5 rules, and the other using 4e. Both are long and complicated projects that require a lot of planning to get things right. In terms of plot, I am enjoying writing the 3.5 adventure much more, because it is the final Crimson Codex adventures for the Xen'drik Expeditions campaign. It has given me the chance to go back and look through old adventures, tie up loose ends, and just reminisce for a few moments about all the fun I have had working on that campaign.

That said, the rules headaches and stat block frustration of the 3.5 adventure is enormous. Even though I am still getting the hang of 4e rules, having only written one 4e adventure so far, there is no comparison at all. I have literally written 4 comparable 4e encounters in the time it takes me to write one 3.5 encounter. Now a lot of this is the fact that I am trying to put "cool things" into the 3.5 encounter, so I am rummaging through over a dozen books, as compared to the 2 books I am using for 4e. But still, just the stat block figuring and refiguring alone is driving me crazy.

In the 4e adventure, which is a project I cannot talk about right now, I am in the middle of sketching out what I hope is going to be a fairly involved by highly amusing skill challenge. I am a big fan of the skill challenge format, although many good adventure writers and DMs were using similar systems in their work in 3e, even though there wasn't a name for it.

I am also in one of those places where I have written so much since the last time I judged, that I am getting antsy. I want to play the game again. Soon. I don't believe in writer's block, but I do believe in the field of RPG adventure writing you start to lose your edge if you don't keep playing/DMing. And I was never the sharpest knife in the drawer to begin with . . .

I am not a big fan of hot weather--hence living in the north. I seem to remember a time when it was in the 20s and 30s in the winter, 50s and 60s in the spring and fall, and 80s and 90s in the summer here. And I loved the spring and fall. I swear that for the last three years, it has been in the 20s and 30s for 175 days, in the 80s for 175 days, and in the comfortable 50s and 60s for only a week in the spring and a week in the fall. This makes me unhappy. I want someone to do something about this.

Too busy. Have 10 minutes before next meeting.

DDXP went very well from where I sat. I rode to the show with a 4e D&D skeptic. He ran 7 4e events and played in one 3.5 (two-round) event. On the ride back, all he could talk about was how great 4e was, and how much he hated 3.5. Granted, that's just one person. But I think when the full rules are released, the (mythical) average player will like 4e just fine.

I have, as of this moment, 9 adventures to write or finishing writing. Three of them are 3.5 (one LG adventure and two Xen'drik adventures), and the rest of 4e. I have completed writing my first 4e adventure, and it was a great deal of fun to write--definitely moreso than 3.5. There are also some writing projects on the horizon that I can't really discuss yet, but let's just say I haven't slept very well for a few days because I so engrossed in the planning and writing of these.

My daughter turns seven this week, and she wants a bowling party. THAT'S MY GIRL!!! Ten screaming and giggling girls running willy-nilly in slippery shoes, carrying heavy objects. Doesn't get any better than that. I also have to practice my bowling-ball juggling, because I promised my daughter I would try. I'm sure that'll turn out well.

It is always a good thing when I don't have the time to write a blog, because that means I have been too busy, and too busy for a freelancer means steady work. Despite the work, I needed to clear my head as I move from one project to the next, so I am taking the time to post.

Thursday the 28th of February is the first day of the D&D Experience (DDXP) in Crystal City, Virginia. For anyone who isn't into D&D, DDXP is the first place the general public will be able to sample the upcoming 4th Edition rules of the Dungeons and Dragons game. To put this into perspective, this is, to a D&D enthusiast, the equivalent of getting to read the first couple chapters of the Harry Potter novel three months before it is published. People who are going are excited, and people who can't go are going to be sitting by their computers waiting to read updates from the people who can.

As one of the Global Administrators of the Living Forgotten Realms campaign, I get the chance to be one of the people running the 4e demo games. In fact, the first slot of the convention, I will be parked at a table running "Escape from Sembia." This is very exciting, but it also a little scary. I am someone who likes to be over-prepared when DMing, and there really isn't a way to be that prepared when the rules aren't even out yet.

I also will be taking part in some seminars and meetings regarding Living Forgotten Realms. After not being able to say anything about the campaign, or really not knowing much about the campaign myself, this is going to be both a lot of fun and a great relief. I will get the change to meet with the other two Global Administrators (Pieter Sleijpen and Sean Molley), many of the regional administrators, some of the WotC R&D folks, many new players, and a bunch of old friends I have made in the RPGA over the years.

If anyone is going to be at DDXP, please stop by the LFR players meeting on Thursday evening between 6PM and 7PM. I'd love to hear from you.

In contrast to the sad news of yesterday's entry, some good news came my way at the end of 2007. I was selected to be one of the three Global Administrators for the Role-Playing Game Association's (http://www.rpga.com) new Living campaign: Living Forgotten Realms. I was very fortunate to be considered for the position, and I get to work with some very creative and dedicated people. There are several things that interest me in the project:

* The campaign will be one of the first places to use the new 4th Edition rules of the D&D game. I will get the chance to look at the rules and do some adventure writing, editing, and planning a little earlier than the rules are made public. For anyone who loves games, that in itself is enough for celebration.

* The Forgotten Realms is getting a 4th Edition revision. Outside of Middle Earth, I can't think of another fantasy game setting more prolific and well-known than the Realms. Getting to play in that sandbox, even if it is just a small corner of it, makes this little writer's heart go a-pitter patter.

* It's gaming. It's writing. It doesn't get any better than that in my estimation.

Not long after I learned about the position, my pal Alana Abbott (http://alanajoli.livejournal.com/) put me in touch with the fine folks at Secret Identity podcast, and I got to talk with Brian about Living Forgotten Realms and other RPGA stuff. The podcast they produce is wonderful for fans of fantasy, sci-fi, comics, and the like. http://secretidentity.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-12-18T12_12_10-08_00 is the link and the interview starts at about 55:10 into the podcast.

The real fun starts at the D&D Experience in Washington DC on February 28 - March 2. That is when the first preview adventures of 4th Edition D&D are running. I will be there, splitting my time between running 3rd Edition adventures for the Xen'drik Expeditions campaign and the 4th Edition preview adventures.

As a long-time player of games of all shapes and sizes, I am hard-pressed to find a metaphor that describes my state of gaming happiness.

OK, so it's been several weeks since my last entry.  Such is life.  I have way too much to write about, but I am going to try to stick to one topic at a time.

In mid-November I took a couple of days to read a book that had been on my desk for almost a year: North by Frederick Busch.  Busch is one of my favorite authors, and I relish the time when I am in the middle of any of his work, whether it is novel, short story, or essay.  At about the halfway point of the novel, after I was stopping by reading the evening, I flipped to the back to read the author bio--you know, get an idea of what he is up to and what new works of his I have missed.  Much to my dismay and great sadness, Busch died just before North was published.  It was like a gut shot.

Back in 2000, as I was writing a critical thesis in pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College, I has the opportunity to interview Busch.  He was as gracious and honest a person and a writer I could have ever had the honor of talking to.  My thesis was on his use of Herman Melville as a fictional character in his astounding novel The Night Inspector.  We spoke for close to two hours, and even the small glimpse I received into his passion of both subject and craft was, quite honestly, wholly intimidating to the wanna-be writer I was back then--and in some ways still am.

So now I wrestle with the dilemma of whether or not to seek for a journal or magazine that might be interested in publishing the interview.  Either way, I strongly suggest anyone who likes good writing, or who is interested in the thoughts of the proverbial writer's writer, to seek out some of Busch's work.

On Thursdays, a local bakery makes pizzas, and I really like their spinach gorgonzola.  So if I happen to be in town doing errands on Thursdays, I stop in for a slice.  However, being a hot spot for lunch, I often have to stand in line for a few minutes.  Today, I was put into a position that can be great fun or absolute hell, depending on the circumstances.  The position I am talking about is when you are standing behind someone in a line, and then a person who the person ahead of you in line knows comes up behind you.  Inevitably, they begin talking through you, and you cannot avoid eavesdropping.  As a writer, this is often a great thing, because you can eavesdrop and observe without even having to make a pretense at not listening.

So these people begin talking about various things, all of which ended with me using every amount of self-control I have (of which I have very little to begin with) to keep from cracking up in fits of laughter.  First, one of the speakers was there with her grandson.  Apparently he dressed up as Harry Potter for Halloween.  The other speaker said, "He does look a little like Harry Potter."  Not only did the kid look nothing like the illustrations I have seen of Harry Potter, but he looked nothing like the actor portraying him in the movies.  The little fella was short, blonde, and round.  Neville Longbottom, maybe.

Then came a discussion of Christmas and how they had no money for gifts, and how tough it was living from paycheck to paycheck.  As they are saying this, they are putting down over $30 on overly expensive pizza, pastries, and coffee.  A cream puff from this bakery could feed a family of 4 for a weekend.  My tongue is still bleeding from where I bit it.

Finally, the conversation came around to how terrible television is.  Now my wife and I decided not to purchase cable for our home, so we have a TV with rabbit ears that get a couple of channels but mostly static, and we rent anything we want to watch.  So these people were railing on and on about how terrible television programs are, and how there is nothing on television worth watching.  Except, of course, for the 50+ shows they do seem to like and watch faithfully.  Including American Idol.  And apparently any show involving home videos of people getting hit in the groin or taking painful-looking falls.

This is yet another supporting anecdote in my theory that people as individuals are decent enough, but people as a whole are idiots.  But hey, I got the last piece of spinach gorgonzola pizza, so life is good.

My work with Informz has brought me into the 21st century.  I am slightly resistant to new technology, not because I don't understand it, but because I think in many cases technology can create as many problems as it fixes.  I do not have cable and barely watch television; I do not have a Blackberry; until a couple years ago I was mowing over an acre's worth of lawn with a manual lawnmower (as in the kind that doesn't use gas or electricity).  But when my work required me to work with text messaging, I had to get a cell phone that supported texting.

I can see all sorts of cases where text messaging is both helpful and important.  Broadcasting text messages in emergency situations is an underutilized and potentially life-saving communication medium.  However, sometimes I want to grab by the ears and shake vigorously a person who is in the midst of texting someone and scream at them, "Just call the damn person!"  The English professor in my also shudders at what the texting and IMing fads are doing to the literacy of those users.  That's the part of me I hide in public, because communication is damn hard enough without so many rules, but when people get so used to punching in "R U" for "Are you" that they write "our you" when they have to write something important and more formal, then it is time to step back and take a look at where we are heading.  We need to band together and make a stand!  R U with me!?

I have lots of teachers, friends, peers, and students who I try to keep in touch with, and these people write in a variety of forms and genres.  Every so often, when someone from outside the tabletop roleplaying game field asks me what I am doing, I am stuck with the task of trying to describe what writing an RPG adventure is like.  What is it like?  Well, it's like nothing else, really.  It's like a short story a bit, I guess, in that it is a relatively circumscribed work with a beginning and an ending.  It is also a bit like writing drama, because you have to write various parts and dialogue.  It is definitely a lot like interactive fiction, in you have to envision various paths that the characters might take.  In terms of leading the gamemaster through the play of the adventure, it is a bit like a user manual.  But it also has to incorporate sometimes incredibly complicated rules of the game, which makes it a bit like technical writing.

Sigh.  Why am I doing this type of writing again?

Whenever I see that a movie is being made based on a book I really like, my instantaneous reaction is a moment of thrilled excitement, followed by despair.  This happened again today when I saw that Feast of Love is in theaters.  I cannot think of many books that I like better which would be terrible in translation to the big screen.  I have not read reviews of the movie, but I do not expect them to be too complimentary, no matter how good the casting.  With books like Feast of Love, by great writers like Charles Baxter, the characters are almost beside the point.  I do not mean the characters are not created or depicted with anything less than brilliance.  The problem is, as with most great literature, the power is in what the character thinks and not what they do or say.  So when the movie forces the characters to say the great lines rather than think them, it changes everything.  Ah well.  I will go see the movie nonetheless, because I am a glutton for my own special form of torture.

I have always hated the idea of blogging. As a writer, the last thing I have time to do is write anything that I am not writing for a project. Even my journal, which I do write, looks more like a bulleted list of random thoughts than a coherent essay. So why start a blog now?

Simple answer: I am going to be starting a project soon that is going to require a blog. While the project has not started yet, I figured I might as well get a start on things, because unless something becomes habitual for me, it becomes a difficulty rather than a task. So here goes.

I am a freelance writer and marketing consultant. I am married with 1.1 children. I am overeducated (BA in History, MA in English, and MFA in Creative Writing). I spend about 66% percent of my work time acting as a consultant for a great software company called Informz. Informz (www.informz.com) started back in 1998 as a company providing software development support to companies like General Electric and Lockheed Martin. Since then, we have branched out and created some products to compliment our services. The other 34% of my time is spent doing various freelance writing and editing projects. I have taught creative writing (composition, fiction, and nonfiction) in just about every possible venue: private university, state college, community college, and even online. I have edited novels for a few different publishers, and I have worked with individuals looking for guidance in their writing. Currently, my largest projects are in the role-playing game field. Wizards of the Coast is the publisher of the Dungeons and Dragons game, and I create content for that game which people can play through the RPGA (Role Playing Game Association). If you are familiar with D&D in general or the RPGA in particular, I run the Crimson Codex faction in the Eberron-based Xen'drik Expeditions campaign.

I don't want to throw everything into the first entry of my blogging career, so I will end there. I am currently designing a Crimson Codex adventure, editing a novel, and doing research for an upcoming project pretty much simultaneously.

Like many, I listen to music while I write, so I will share what I am listening to at the end of each entry.