Professional Geek Achievement Unlocked

It's official. My first professional game credit is out in the world--editor on Xaolings by Todd Stewart. Xaolings presents a fascinating race born from the chaos planes. Todd has an impressive ability to describe creatures who are notoriously averse to being described. His mechanics for racial archetypes, feats and magic items were particularly impressive.

So, if you're interested in a new race for your game or are just excited to have something with my name in it, link over and pick up the PDF at www.drivethrurpg.com.

Writer's Bio

I was recently asked to submit a 150 word writer's bio to be used for several of the freelance projects coming out this year. I've never had to summarize my writing career before. The word limit was particularly inspiring; I'm a believer in limitations inspiring/forcing creativity. Some of you aren't gamers, or at least not Pathfinder players, so I thought I'd post a copy here.

Huge thanks to everyone who has supported and encouraged me to make this a reality. You can read more about that first AD&D game here.

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Rich Howard's obsession with gaming started 35 years ago when his older brother finally let him invade his AD&D game. Since his first sleep spell, Rich has wandered the world of roleplaying, board and computer games as fascinated with their potential to teach and inspire as to entertain.

In 2006 he started the move to professional freelancer by refining his fledgling skills, attending conferences and finishing his first novel. After running into Paizo editor James Sutter at World Fantasy 2012 he realized that the skills he'd cultivated as a writer and his decades of gaming experience could be used to give back to the industry that had inspired his own imagination. In the past year he's contributed to projects from Misfit Studios, Rogue Genius Games and Christina Stiles Presents, as well as becoming both lead designer on Misfit's Ultimate Shaman and lead developer for the upcoming storytelling boardgame, LUCID.

In Memoriam: Aaron Allston (1960-2014)

UPDATE 2/4/2016: The Kickstarter honoring Aaron by bringing Strike Force to the 21st century has funded in just 4 days. Please go check out the project and help support this amazing memorial.

Aaron Allston's Strike Force Kickstarter

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It's been an benchmark year for me. Aside from getting a promotion at my day job and having the best little family on the planet, I'm getting a steady stream of freelance projects for my dream job as a game designer. This morning I finished my writer's bio for the first of a series of pieces hitting the shelves this year, but my excitement was dulled by the news that one of my industry heroes collapsed at a conference yesterday and didn't wake up.

2014: A Month in Review

So far this month I've:

• ...completed a two-year project at my hospital that streamlines our electronic medical record system.
• ...presented said project to our hospital council and earned a promotion.
• ...had two game developers contact me to review their games.
• ...been asked to assist on a new RPG development project.
• ...was recommended to a new video game company for help with their character development.
• ...been hired for and completed an editing/development project for Rogue Genius Games.
• ...picked up three new freelance RPG development projects.

I couldn't be happier.

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Addendum, 1/31/14: I just finished the first meeting about a new RPG and I must say the system impressed me. It's midway through development so I can't elaborate, but the mechanics are sound, unique, and potentially far reaching; making it a Gateway Game for RPGs. What gamer doesn't want that?!?

Happy Birthday Dungeons & Dragons

January 26th, 1974.

I've already written about some of my earliest experiences with the game that changed the world. I still run into people who don't even know that roleplaying games exist, much less understand how they could influence a life as passionately as they have mine. It's been 40 years since the hobby was invented, and 36 years since I experienced it for myself. There is little success I can't attribute to my time around the table. As I say on my About page:

"It teased my curiosity about the world, then pressured me to meet new people and share experiences with them. It fed my addiction to storytelling, compelled me to draw out people's emotions, gently manipulate them, then put them back in a way they would tell their friends about for years. It forced me to read about culture, and history, and mythology, and science, and religion, and forensics, and linguistics. It relentlessly bullied me into becoming a better writer and then pressured me to introduce it to other people. One game is even directly responsible for my ability to do math."

There will be scores of posts today about D&D and the positive influence it's had on the lives of those who've played. I'm honestly not sure I can add much more. RPGs are my life, personally and professionally. They form the foundation for my closest friendships and will be the tool I use to bond with and inspire my children and their friends (at least until they find their own outlets). If you want to know more about why I love games, and RPGs specifically, check out the Popular Posts on almost any of my blogs. I write about them all the time.

So all I can say today is, thank you Gary and Dave, for the incredible life I've lived. Happy Birthday, D&D.

Afterlife

Yesterday I spent a few hours rearranging my office. A few hours won't be nearly enough, but it started the inertia on a Honey Do I've been wanting to finish for the last year. There's a lot to do, but the physical work isn't what takes up all the time, it's revisiting bits and pieces of your past while deciding which to keep, which to pack, and which to throw away. I have a lot of memorabilia; I'm a geek, it's what we do.

One of the more difficult decisions I made was to pack away things I inherited from my friend Matt--a small box of knick-knacks from his house, souvenirs from games long past, and file folders of characters and stories. While digging through his old writing, I came across a collection of typed poems I'd never seen before. I grabbed a random one from the stack and read it.

My Life, Part 2

Up to age 40, my life has been pretty amazing; not that I've always recognized that.

I've had my battles with depression, particularly in high school and university. I've had more relationship ups and downs than I care to talk about. Most of us have. Still, there's no doubt that when I look back on my life, the friends I've made, the family I've kept, the places I've seen and the geeky things I've experienced would make 10-year-old Rich very proud. What I didn't expect was that my life would get a reboot halfway through.