Closing Time
I started as the newest writer of the RPG Girl Thursday column January 5th, 2012. Over 100 articles later, this is my final Thursday here at Geek's Dream Girl. When I signed my contract December of 2011, I was anxious. Eager. More than a little terrified. I'd been working in publishing through other jobs before the column; news intern, submissions editor, manuscript proofer, editor, writer. My entry into working with games had been a weird sort of lateral move. I'd been working as an assistant … [Read more...]
Last Second Gifts for Your Beloved Freelancer(s)
Tis the season to suddenly need to get gifts, and have no idea what to get people. Particularly when they're freelancers you work with, and/or are related to. This is my whirlwind, last second gift guide to useful gifts for freelancers, with a light sprinkling of frivolity. Stylebooks Whether your beloved freelancer has a non-fiction/news focus, or needs to abide by the ancient literary editorial arts, you can save them some cash on professionally necessary style guides. If they … [Read more...]
Brave New World 12: Building the Borders
Hullo, gentle readers. In this series of articles, we’re continuing to build our Beyond the Borderlands campaign for D&D Next. We put together our pantheon of deities last article, which, in turn, led us to naming and outlining some of the countries that we’d be including in this campaign. In this week’s article, we’ll continue to expand on some of these concepts, and we’ll begin to figure out where these countries exist in proportion to one another. Mapping It Out I want the cultures … [Read more...]
On The Impending New Year
On December 1st, I woke up to an email, two text messages and a phone call. They were notifications from different people that one of the men who urged me to be a writer was dead. He committed suicide. He left behind a lot of people. An entire community. Friends. Family. There were times where he was a creator. He wrote, he made live action characters look not like a sheet of stats, but a portrayal of a character. Down to the smallest tics. I hadn't spoken to him for years, for many years. … [Read more...]
Brave New World 11: Have a Little Faith
Hullo, gentle readers. As we continue to work on the Beyond the Borderlands campaign for D&D Next, we’ve filled in a lot of details, including the rough outlines of a history. One thing we don’t have yet is nations, partly because I’ve been lazy about pulling out my map and deciding where the action will take place. I’m getting to that point, but, beforehand, I want to work on something that’s even more fundamental to a world – the gods that created it. Basics of the Pantheon Back in … [Read more...]
#gamerHanukkah: The Tally
Ryan and I did our best to play games every night of Hanukkah. Though we did skip a night after I had a spectacularly bad day, we did end Hanukkah with an impressive tally of gameplay. As I mentioned earlier this Hanukkah, we played the card games Trifecta, and Romans Go Home. From there, we trotted out new finds and beloved classics on our quest to play a game for every night. For brevity, I'll only include games we successfully completed. Counting my last post, we did manage to hit our … [Read more...]
Brave New World 10 – Historic Significance, Part 2
Hullo, Gentle Readers. If you’ve been reading these articles, then you know we’re building a history for Beyond the Borderlands, a D&D Next campaign. We’ve outlined the various historical events and put them in an orderly list, and we’ve told our creation story (in our last article). Now, let’s continue the history lesson. Empires Rise and Fall After the power of Chaos was forced to retreat back into the darkness, the various peoples were left to lick their wounds and try to move … [Read more...]
#gamerHanukkah
2013 has been the year of trying new games. Since my fiance and I are trying to play at least one game for every night of Hanukkah, the recent card game adventures we've been having are ones I wanted to share with you. As an added bonus, these are games you can play with just about anyone; they also become a lot more fun when you start strategizing. Fish Cook Cheapass Games.2-6 Players. Time to play: 45 Minutes. $15. In Fish Cook, the players are chefs competing against each … [Read more...]
Brave New World 9 – Historic Significance, Part 1
Welcome back, Gentle Readers. As we’ve developed the Beyond the Borderlands campaign, we’ve thought of various elements of history, largely due to things suggested by the ideas we’ve had about the races, classes, and other elements of the game world. Now, we’re going to begin to put these elements in order and flesh out the various events, in order to begin to know something about the campaign we’re developing. Where to Begin In order to get started, I sit down with my campaign notebook … [Read more...]
The Holiday Episode
At some point in our gaming lives, we may be tempted to execute a "holiday" game. The temptation grows immense in winter, when the psychic critical mass of the world's winter holidays sits on top of your imagination and begs you to invite them to the table. Whether you're running with a real-world holiday, religious event from the game's canon, or your own home-brewed festival, I've got a few words of advice on making your very special holiday installment an enjoyable one. Player … [Read more...]