New Year Update: 2015

It's been a while since I've done a personal post, mostly because of wonderful flood of writing work. It is way overdue for a life update.

Writing

If you follow this blog, you've probably noticed a significant increase in my posts under the All Things Gaming tab. With the release of Dungeons and Dragons' 5th edition last year, the opportunities in game writing exploded. As of January 2015 I am writing for:

• Two weekly and one monthly column at Tribality.com, plus interviews, reviews and more:
• From the Depths: 5th edition conversions of aquatic races, new archetypes for the core classes designed for aquatic settings, and discussions of aquatic adventures for a range of systems and genres.
• Rich's Gameroom: New classes, archetypes, races and more for 5th edition play, as well as discussions of non-5th edition material.
• Behind the Screen: Discussions of houserules, DMing and Playing techniques, system-agnostic discussions and more.
• Conversions of Southlands PF setting from Kobold Press to 5th edition
• Development and publication of "The Adequate Commoner" from J.M. Perkins

I'll also be interviewed on the gaming podcast, "Dungeon Master's Block". The recording is this coming Friday the 23rd of January, but I don't have a release date yet. I'll update this post when I find out.

Day Job

At the beginning of last year, I tore a ligament in my shoulder. After two months of "light duty" I had an MRI that confirmed the damage. It took almost six months of appointments, diagnostics, surgery, and rehab, but I'm finally back at the hospital working. Luckily, I still have "light duty" time available. Between the back injury in 2013 and the shoulder injury in 2014, I've decided that I've done all I can as a bedside nurse and it's time to move on to something new. I've applied for a number of positions in the hospital, including working closely with the EPIC electronic medical record team, and I'm hoping to start a new position before I permanently injure myself. I'm also looking into going back to school for a Masters degree. How that will affect my work and writing, I'm not sure, but moving away from hands-on work is an imperative.

It will be sad to leave my unit. My coworkers in the CCU at UCSD are the most professional, intelligent, caring, and skilled individuals I've ever worked with. Our management is top-notch and the opportunities for nurses to influence the workings of UCSD Medical is seemingly endless. I couldn't have asked for a better place to start my nursing career. The downside is that I kind of started at the top. Another unit wouldn't be as satisfying, even if the physical work was less, so I will need to continue my work elsewhere.

Family Life

As some of you know, we are expecting a little brother for Rowan in a few months. I'm incredibly excited about this, but also apprehensive about the significant lack of sleep for the next year or so. Rowan and her mother are the lights of my life and it's hard to imagine that I would have enough love in my heart for yet another amazing being, but I've been assured that my love is bottomless and little Grayson will simply make more of it available. I can't wait.

On the home-front, we're adding a guesthouse to our property. It's taken a while to get the permits and construction going, but we're hoping to have it finished in the next few months.

Stay tuned here for more information on the already-exciting happenings in 2015!

A Writer's Guide to Roleplaying: Developing Character

My first guest post hit the net Monday. It's an article I've been contemplating for several years on helping players enjoy their games more. There are hundreds, probably more like thousands of blogposts, articles, supplements and books written about becoming a better Gamemaster, but almost nothing on being a better player. When the www.tribality.com team contacted me to guest post on their site, they asked if I had any system-neutral material and this immediately popped into my mind. The response has been impressive.

You can find the post here.


11/4/14 ADDENDUM: I was informed this morning that the post has hit just under 4500 page views since it was posted Monday. I'm not sure what to say. Thanks to everyone who has been sharing it. I'm humbled.

The Adequate Commoner's Final Days

With only 3 days still to go, The Adequate Commoner has broken 200% funding with tons of cool stretch goals still to go!

When John first approached me with the idea for Adequate Commoner, I thought it was a fun novelty. Having worked with John on previous projects and become a huge fan of his prose over the past few years, I really should have known better. John has the unique ability to make me laugh and think (and even cringe with horror) at the same time, whether in his novels, short stories, or gaming supplements. Commoner is no exception.

With Adequate Commoner, John has taken Pathfinder to a new and wonderful place. Aspects of the game I've taken for granted for over a decade--race choices, traits and feats, skills, alchemical items, mundane equipment, stealth, ambushes, stakeouts--become hilariously life-or-death.

Of course playing a commoner increases the challenges on the table, but it also increases the satisfaction of a game well played in a way I didn't think possible. Commoner adds a level of appreciation for the subtleties of Pathfinder by teaching you to do more with less. So much more. Commoner has changed the way I will play every PF game from now on.

I can't encourage you enough to get in on this project from the start. Commoner is one of those rare products that injects new ideas incredible fun, all while it reshapes the way you think about your games.

Shoulder Surgery Update

As some of you know, I tore the labrum in my right shoulder while at work near the beginning of the year. Due to the way workman's comp needs to work, they put me on light duty for two months assuming it was a muscle issue and not actual damage. After two months, they had me go in for an MRI (which took a while to schedule), then I made a follow-up with my very cool MD (which took a while to schedule), who then referred me to a shoulder specialist (which took...you get the idea), who told me the MRI showed an "extensive tear" (hint: they don't often use descriptors in these reviews unless it's bad). My new (and also awesome) shoulder MD put the paperwork in for surgery (3-4 weeks to schedule), which then was delayed because I developed a bad chest cold, then delayed longer due to a scheduling issue.

Three weeks ago I had my surgery and the experience was very smooth. Other than the tear, apparently my shoulder cuff muscles and joint looks great with no signs of arthritis or other issues, which is awesome to hear. I had my checkup yesterday and was told that the post-surgery pain can go on for 3-6 months, but the doctor feels I'm way ahead of schedule on my recovery, which is all great news.

I start physical therapy this week and go back for one more recheck in 3 weeks. After that, I should be able to return to light duty (4-6 weeks) and to full duty after that.

It's amazing how long it takes to schedule and juggle appointments, but aside from that, everyone from my doctors to the HR people to the workman's comp people have been wonderful. I'm bummed the pain may go on for a while longer, but I'm very happy with the surgery itself and the relatively fast recovery.

Thanks so much to everyone for the support over the past few months. I'm looking forward to getting back to the bedside.

Lucid Storytelling Game

Lucid is a storytelling/RPG hybrid game that has been in development for the past 4 years. The game's original designer, Thaddeus Wilson, approached me early this year to get a designer's eye on it. When he first told me what his game could do I was skeptical, but happy to take a look and offer advice on what to do next. When I saw what he had created, I immediately asked if he needed a developer. Luckily for me, he welcomed me on board.

What is Lucid?

Lucid bridges standard role-playing and storytelling games with a unique mechanic that incorporates the best of both worlds.

In most role-playing games, there is a Game Master (GM) who has created or bought an adventure to run the players through. The GM is responsible for laying clues, playing supporting cast characters (called non-player characters, or NPCs) and adjudicating combats and skill challenges. Role-playing games allow the players to chose what their player characters (PCs) do, within the bounds of the rule system, but the overall plot is in the hands of the GM.

Storytelling games do away with the single GM and focus on cooperative storytelling between all players. No one knows where the storyline will wander or how it will end. Storytelling games allow everyone to participate in building the story in some way, whether by playing themed cards, rolling dice or simply using their imaginations. Unlike a role-playing game, typical storytelling games don't use player-characters and tend to have limited structure—the price of taking your imagination anywhere.

As a storytelling game, Lucid removes the single GM and allows each player to take turns as Director. Unlike most storytelling games, though, every player in a game of Lucid has a character to play (referred to as a Main Character) and the story follows a framework derived from the Three Act storytelling structure used in many plays, movies, TV shows and novels. During their turn as Director, a player introduces story elements in order to complete one of the Plot Points that make up the Three Acts, guiding the story to a both satisfying and exciting finale!

My Old Kentucky Home

Playing Apples-to-Apples Junior at The Creme Coffeehouse
Owensboro, KY

My wife and I flew home last night from a three-week vacation to Owensboro, Kentucky; the town where I grew up. My brother and his wife took a trip to Europe and we went back to spend time with his youngest kids, Carter and Laynie. I have nearly a dozen nieces and nephews (including three step, plus four great nieces and nephews) and I'm as gushing an uncle as I am a father. Every one of those "kids" makes the world a better place.

It's particularly fun seeing aspects of myself reflected in them--Maggie's love of games (and chocolate), Clint's dry sense of humor, Jesse's passion for fantasy, Jennifer's traveling, Sara's love of books, Josh's career as an EMT and firefighter, Laynie's bourgeoning fascination with the fantastic and bizarre (her favorite movies are Rise of the Guardians and Nightmare Before Christmas)--but of all my siblings' kids, spending time with Carter is like traveling back in time to hang out with myself.

My First Solo-Author RPG Piece from Christina Stiles Presents

"Rich Howard’s “Mundane No More” is a glorious little pdf, one of these hidden gems that are easily overlooked, but shouldn’t be. The rules herein make bookish characters work better, make the trip to the sage more compelling and generally increase the immersion into a given fantasy world. While personally, I enjoy a more active research (with rolls), combining this pdf’s rules with Rogue Genius Games’ research rules is extremely easy. So yeah, this is one of the hidden gems, a great file and well worth 5 stars +seal of approval!" - http://endzeitgeist.com/mundane-more-texts-tomes/

From RPGnow.com:

Mundane No More: Texts and Tomes presents a new look at the most culturally-significant and history-altering invention in history: the book, designed by author Rich Howard.

Words. We love them. We’re gamers, after all. From novels to rule sets to textbooks to cereal boxes, non-magical language is the foundation of our imaginations. So why is it that PCs rifle through libraries in search of spellbooks and magical manuals while leaving generations of carefully cultivated knowledge strewn under their muddy boots?

Mundane No More: Texts and Tomes, remedies this by turning fantasy (and modern) libraries into treasure troves of knowledge. Mundane texts provide opportunities for any literate member of an adventuring party to retrain unwanted feats, refocus their skill ranks into areas helpful to the campaign, and to gain rare and exotic recipes for poisons, inventions, and, yes, even magic items.

Game Masters can use mundane texts to introduce plot twists, foreshadow events, patch holes in a party’s skills, and provide characters with the knowledge to confront enemies to come.

Within the pages of Mundane No More: Texts and Tomes you'll find:

● A four-tier ranking system that describes the knowledge each text contains and how your characters can benefit from it.

● A system for using tomes to retrain your character's skills, feats, spells and more, compatible with the retraining rules found in Ultimate Campaign.

● Detailed crafting-recipe rules that encourage characters to research the creation of mundane tools and weapons, alchemical preparations, and magical items as opposed to ‘knowing it all’ with a single skill rank.

● Creation rules for mundane texts.

● A dozen pre-built tomes and manuals of all types and tiers ready to drop into your campaign right now.

Don't wait - pick up a copy and add the power of the written word to your character’s arsenal!

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ADDENDUM

"Mundane No More: Texts and Tomes" for the Pathfinder RPG by Paizo garners not one, but two 5-Star reviews! Reviews take time and considerable effort, so I greatly appreciate the detail and kind words these reviewers offer.

"...a beautiful concept that feels like it should have been in the rules all along. While the alternate rules for crafting new books adds a layer of complexity, it does so in such a way as to turn books into prized possessions; each with a potential story behind it..."

"This covers anything from a city guide to a bardic epic or a treatise on the mechanics of locks... or indeed any subject you care to consider, and means that any book a character picks up is potentially useful."