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."

More than Words

There was a package on our doorstep today from my mom. I thought it might have been a belated birthday present; it was a large manilla envelope obviously filled with a random assortment of items. It turned out to be a collection of letters, papers, holiday cards and a decades old cassette tape*--20+ years of letters my grandmother had saved.

Tucked among the numerous envelopes was a letter entitled "Glenner Journal Entry". When I was in nursing school, I did some volunteer work at the Glenner Alzheimer's Center here in San Diego. Apparently I had to answer a questionnaire after my time was over. My mother thought G.G. would appreciate it so I had sent her a copy. I'm glad I did. I had forgotten this story until today and I'm not sure I would have rediscovered it on my own.

My grandfather had dementia for years before he passed away. My wife's grandfather recently passed after a short period of increasing dementia. I often run into older patients at my hospital experiencing early to late-stage memory issues. There is no way to describe the emotional and physical toll that caring for a loved one suffering from dementia can take on family and friends. The Glenner Center is a day-care facility where families can bring their loved ones to be cared for, fed, exercised and socialized while the family's take care of necessities or simply take a break.

Among the often heart-breaking challenges I saw every day, there were moments like these that reminded me of the importance of empathy and communication--with, and especially without, words.

[Names have been changed for privacy.]

Current and In-the-Works Projects

For the past year, I've been finally fulfilling my dream to become a game designer. Publisher, editor and designer Christina Stiles has been kind enough to take me under her wing and get me involved in a number of projects I'm incredibly excited about, and many of them are releasing soon. You can already pick up my first professional editing piece, Xaolings, in PDF. 

Two series I've become heavily involved in are titled "Bite Me" and "Strange Brew", both for Pathfinder. "Bite Me" currently focuses on putting lycanthropes into your game alongside player-characters, but will expand to other supernatural creatures like vampires. The large "Pathfinder Guide to Lycanthropes" will be releasing in its entirety later this year, but several PDF products have come out already: "Playing Lycanthropes" and "Wereblooded". Another product, "Skindancers", is in final layout and will be releasing within a few weeks.

"Playing Lycanthropes" and "Skindancers" were written by two-time ENnie-nominee, Robert H. Hudson Jr., with both contributions and editing by yours truly. 

My first Name-on-the-Cover

Musical Interlude

And now, because it's been a while since I've posted about my awesome daughter, here is your musical interlude.

The Dread Pirate Snuggles
Cuddler of the Seven Seas

"Favorite"
Sung to the tune of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
Lyrics by Rich Howard

You are my favorite Ro of all there was,
there was,

You are my favorite Ro of all there was,
there was,

Of all the Rowans there ever was,
you are my favorite one, because,

I love you so much,

You are my favorite Ro.

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"Love"
Sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques"
Lyrics by Megan Tiffany Howard

I love Rowan,
I love Rowan,

Her dad, too, (Her mom, too)
Her dad, too, (Her mom, too)

We're a happy family,
We're the Howard family,

I feel loved, too
I feel loved, too

Gratitude

I just finished editing a 15,000 word game document on shapeshifters by Robert Hudson. There is such a rush getting something like this to click, balancing interesting prose against the right game mechanic to present what you're thinking in an elegant way, knowing that people will use what you created to tell stories and build enduring memories with their friends. I freakin' love this job.

And I have another one just like it.

It's all over my About page that I have a day job in addition to my writing; I'm a critical care nurse at UCSD Medical Center's medical intensive care unit, or MICU*. All intensive care units are busy and extraordinary places to work and ours is no exception. Luckily, I work with an incredible group of nurses, managers, staff and doctors that make our unit culture one of support, laughter and encouragement. I couldn't get through 12-hour shifts without them.

So, with one job I get to support people's physical bodies during the hardest times in their lives, help their families understand what's happening to their loved one, and be there emotionally, professionally and spiritually when medicine can no longer help. With the exception of raising my daughter, there is no greater honor than that.

And with the other I get to inspire imagination and design games that people will use to enjoy the life they're living right now!

I could not be more grateful.

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* = There are four different ICUs at UCSD; contrary to popular medical shows, not everything is trauma. The NICU or neonatal ICU deals with our youngest patients. Those nurses are rockstars in my book. Our BICU or burn ICU deals with patients from little kids to the oldest adults, some healthy other than serious burns, and some where their burns are yet another in a list of medical challenges. I've floated to the BICU before and they deal with some of the saddest cases I've ever seen. The SICU or surgical ICU are our trauma specialists. They deal with the car accidents, falls, gunshots, stabbings and surgical cases that fly in from around the county and beyond. My unit, the MICU, deals with anything that's not a newborn, burn or car accident--kidney failure, liver failure, severe pneumonias, strokes, heart attacks, multisystem organ failure, seizures, and any number of other issues.

Author J.M. Perkins on "To The Best of Our Knowledge"

I'm proud to announce that friend and colleague, action-horror author J.M. Perkins, recently won the "To the Best of Our Knowledge" 3-Minute Futures contest with his short story, "Social Scene Alert". "Social Scene Alert" was selected from 750 entries by sci-fi legend Kim Stanley Robinson and brought to auditory life by Gates McFadden and the Ensemble Studio of Los Angeles.

All of John's stories, including his recent novel CHEMO: How I Learned to Kill, are a demonstration of his inspired imagination. His writing makes me laugh, gives me chills and forces me to contemplate life in a way few others can, making him one of my favorite writers in the industry. "Social Scene Alert" is John at his best, managing to do all three in just 500 words.

Make sure to keep listening after the story for interviews with Kim Stanley Robinson and Gates McFadden, as well as the two runner-up stories also dramatized by the Ensemble Studio.