The Things You See in the Wilds

It's a nervous party that huddles beneath the sheltering trees. Stories of big lizard men from Mordikarr, signs of passing creatures in the ruined village, and now the kill-site of some large flying predator make for uneasy travel. They're also nervous about food supplies, not for the people, but for the mules. They've used a fair amount of the grain they packed, and they're pretty far west. After some debate the party agrees to travel west two to three more days, and then head back, possibly following the old road west to see if it brings them back to civilized lands by a shorter route. Let's see how it goes...

Kindle - Blink of the Light

I've finally managed to get something written that I like enough to publish. My first short story, Blink of the Light, is now available on Kindle! It's about Anne, a college student stressed by finals, a fight with her boyfriend, and a stalker-streetlight. One of my readers described it as "suburban Lovecraft," which is about what I was hoping for. Mission accomplished, I guess.

To get some eyes on it, I'm running a promotion for the remainder of the holiday weekend, so you can check it out for free May 26-27. Need a bedtime story? I hope you'll take a look!

• Blink of the Light on Amazon.com
• Blink of the Light on Amazon.co.uk

Also available in other Amazon stores.

Labyrinth Lord - The Beastmaster

I'm sure this has been done before, but my quick web search didn't turn anything up so I decided to just roll my own. Recently one of the characters in my Wilds game met an untimely end. The player had the opportunity to take over one of the NPCs associated with the party, but wasn't really interested, so after a chat about what he wanted out of his next character, this is what we came up with.

Wilds - Beyond the Swamp

After hearing more from the stranger, Mordikarr, about what lies nearby, the party decides to follow the abandoned trail that leads south, hoping to find the old stone road they'd been following west. Everyone is on guard owing to the wild man's description of the lizard people that live in the swamps south of the stone road.  Onward, into the Wilds!

The Wilds - Guided Tour

It was a busy night. As the party slept, a stranger, a man dressed in a thick cloak and crude armor, surprised the possibly-drunk-Rawon on watch. After cautious conversation about the relative merits of whiskey versus mead, and an introduction to the stranger's beast-companion Suren, others heard the voices and approached in haphazard fashion. The newcomer, Mordikarr, claimed to be the last of 'his people', who had been killed by the Gola-ka, the beastmen the party had fought. He lived in the wilderness, accompanied by Suren (who proved to be a fisher, and Ava, a large spotted owl).

After Rawon headed off an attack by Raúguey, who seemed to think Mordikarr was a mind-controlling wizard, the stranger agreed to lead the party to water, and show them a strange tower that was nearby. In the better light of the camp, the party noticed the cloak he wore was actually stitched together beastman hides, and the sword he had slung over his shoulder was one of the big crooked bladed swords they carried.

A bit nervous but in need of water for the beasts, the party agrees to travel with Mordikarr. Here's how it goes...

Observations on Play by Email Games - Part II

In the first part of this two-part series, I wrote about the setup and prep I use for running play by email (PBM) games. This article will focus on the action, the actual running of the game. If you've followed the advice in the previous post, you have players ready, a game concept set, character info at hand, a mailing list running, an organized space to write in, and a schedule to follow. Now what?

Observations on Play by Email Games - Part I

If you read this blog, you've probably figured out by now that I run a lot of play by email (PBM) games. The biggest reason for this is that my old gaming group is now about a 10 hour drive away, which means my face-to-face gaming with my favorite gamers is rather limited. At the time of this post, I've run at least a half-dozen long-term PBM games, years of gaming, hundreds of turns. A few weeks back I saw a post on rpg.net asking for guidance on running a PBM game, so I thought I'd put together a collection of notes based on my own experiences. Hopefully it'll prove useful to anyone trying to run a PBM game. This post is focused on setting up for a PBM game, the next post will focus on running things.