Gen Con on the Other Side of the Booth

Monte's Journal

"When I started working in the game industry, it was at Gen Con. My very first day working full-time (not as an intern) for ICE was at Gen Con 1990. It was also my first Gen Con ever. I had never had the opportunity to go just as an attendee, for fun.

For those first few Gen Cons, my job was to "work the booth" a few hours each day, which meant sell product and chat with gamers. It was fun, actually, and got me into the habit of talking to and even making friends with the people who play the games I worked on -- something slightly rarer than you might think.

Then I went to work for TSR, and Gen Con really changed. TSR owned the convention, and everyone was required to work eight hours each day on some aspect of the convention, either "in the castle" (the TSR booth looked like a huge castle at the time) or in some other way, like selling tickets, organizing events, and so on. It was a lot harder to have fun at Gen Con with so much responsibility. TSR also valued game demos very highly and ran five or six of them in the castle for its different game lines. This was pretty worthless, actually, because you can't "demo" a setting in 15 minutes, and while you can demonstrate a game in that amount of time, who at Gen Con in the 1990s needed a demonstration of how to play D&D? But we didn't make the rules, nor could we effectively comment on them. "

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Ecology of the Death Knight

Dragon

by Matthew Sernett
Art by Steve Argyle

“From the dark into the light,
From the small unto the great,
From the valleys dark I ride
O’er the hills to conquer fate!”
— “Horseman Springing,” Lilla Cabot Perry

None can win the war with death, but losing the war does not mean the combatants have seen their last battle. Warriors who wish to fight beyond the limitations of flesh and blood can seek a forbidden way to steal their souls from fate. The cost of this immortality is death, but the fearless few who pay this price become death’s allies. Indeed, death bestows power upon them. Their fleshless bones clad in skins of armor, their brittle fingers clasping weapons with a grip of iron, these knights of death take command of their souls and their destinies. When they charge from the shadowy afterlife into the lands of the living, death knights ride to wage war upon life itself.

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D&D Insider

This is the recent news on the new on-line gaming platform for Dungeons and Dragons. To read more go to Wizards.com.

clipped from www.wizards.com D&D Insider features a variety of resources that will help players and DMs if they choose to subscribe. D&D Insider is part client applications and part web resources. The client applications will be rich Windows clients, with some functionality only available when the user is online and identified as a D&D Insider subscriber, and others available even when the user is offline. D&D Insider will launch in June 2008 with the new Player’s Handbook, but is not required to play D&D 4th Edition; it simply provides extra options that you can unlock with the subscription. These digital tools are by no mean necessary to play the game, but are designed to facilitate some of the game’s aspects. Next time: A look at digital objects, including the virtual mini, tiles and tokens!

The New Zombies Aaaargh!

I really like the new zombies that are for the 4e. I look forward to using these creatures for my campaigns.

clipped from www.wizards.com The simplest monsters are cooler in the new edition of the D&D game, and zombies are no exception. But even though they're soulless animated corpses, zombies don't have to be dead simple. The 4th Edition designers threw the new zombie a bone, coming up with a few ways that everyone's favorite corpse creatures can function in the game to give more chills and kills. To this end, in the Monster Manual, three exotic zombies appear. The first is the chillborn zombie, the coldness of the grave given just enough volition to be bent on murder. The corruption zombie is a paragon of rot with a great throwing arm. The final new zombie is the gravehound zombie. That list might spark some preconceived notions about what these undead do. All three possess the implacable resilience of regular zombies, but each comes with an added spin. You might expect easy clichés and predictable performances, but the ideas behind these new breeds of zombie aren't dead on arrival.

Release Dates For 4e

Here are the release dates for 4e Dungeons and Dragons

clipped from www.wizards.com 4E Release Date Finally, I wanted to share this last bit of exciting news with everyone. After conferring with our various trade partners, the Sales Team here at Wizards came back with word that they'd rather have the three core rulebooks release in the same month than over three consecutive months. As that's how we originally wanted to release them, Brand and R&D got together with our Production Team to see if we could accommodate the request. The answer is YES! The new release schedule looks like this: April: D&D Miniatures Game Starter and Dungeons of Dread boosters. May: H1: Keep on the Shadowfell 4th Edition D&D adventure with Quick-Start Rules. June 6: 4th Edition Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual.

The Weave

The mystery of the weave is a complicated thing and the future of the Forgotten Realms makes it even more complicated with the death of Mystra. The magic of the Realms looks to change and the face of Toril will never be the same.

A little poem I wrote called "Breath"

I wrote this poem just today on my Yuwie blog and thought I would share it here to. It is called "Breath" 10/15/2007

clipped from www.yuwie.com when the world was young the breath was sweet she breathed in and she breathed out creatures breathed in, creatures breathed out creatures breathed out and she breathed in what breath we share was sweet what breath i breathed was sweet and i feel young when i breathe out she breathes in she shares my breath and the breath is sweet you and i breathe the breath of her always she gives us more sweeter than before no breath can ever be better than hers when no breath comes then we breathe no more so give our breath back to her breathe deep the breath of her no sweeter breath you can give back to her EPW

Will Heavy Magic Return to the Realms

I have been noticing that with the new 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons and the future changes of the Forgotten Realms. Like the return of the Empire of Netheral the death of Mystra in 1385 DR Year of the Blue Fire, will heavy magic return to the Realms. I think yes, the weave will be more malleable and with the way the current game and future game of DnD is played it should be easy to make the rules work for heavy magic. Now I think this is more true because of the epic magic that is already used. Perhaps they will just call epic magic heavy magic. It will be interesting to see what unfolds.

My Yuwie Earnings

Hey I just received may earnings report for September. I know it does not look like much at this time however I have only been using Yuwie for a short time and I only have a few referrals. It is also great because I use just like I would use Myspace but Myspace does not give me one penny. Not only do I earn with money with Yuwie but I also can earn money because of what I promote on my site or blogs. I hope you take the time to at least check it out because it is totally free to join. I also have put the member ship total for the month in this post.

clipped from www.yuwie.com Choose Month to View: September 2007August 2007 RSR for September 2007: $0.46 Status: Pending Audit Level Your Cut Views Earnings You 10% 2,385 $0.11 Level 1 10% 161 $0.01 Level 2 10% 86 $0.00 Level 3 4% 0 $0.00 Level 4 4% 0 $0.00 Level 5 4% 0 $0.00 Level 6 4% 0 $0.00 Level 7 4% 0 $0.00 Level 8 10% 0 $0.00 Level 9 10% 0 $0.00 Level 10 30% 0 $0.00 Totals: 2,632 $0.12 The earnings report is generated between the 10th-15th of each month for the previous month. clipped from www.yuwie.com New Members Total Members: 135,003 New This Month: 29,751 New Today: 1,399

The Orc King

This is one of R.A. Salvatore's best works and the book that is giving everyone the glimmer of the future of the Forgotten Realms. The Orc King was the most exciting read I have read in sometime from one of the best selling fantasy authors of our time. You will be inspired by what the future holds for Drizzt and his friends.

clipped from astore.amazon.com

The Orc King (Forgotten Realms: Transitions, Book 1) By R.A. Salvatore List Price: $27.95 Price: $16.77 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Ships from and sold by Amazon.com 34 new or used available from $15.98 Average customer review:

Drizzt is back in this exciting new trilogy from R.A. Salvatore!

An uneasy peace between the dwarves of Mithral Hall and the orcs of the newly established Kingdom of Many-Arrows can't last long. The orc tribes united under Obould begin to fight each other, and Bruenor is determined to finish the war that nearly killed him and almost destroyed everything he's worked to build. But it will take more than swords and axes to bring a lasting peace to the Spine of the World. Powerful individuals on both sides may have to change the way they see each other. They may have to start to talk. But it won't be easy.

New Magic Item: Vampire's Curse

I just made a new magic dagger called the Vampire's Curse. You can see it below or go to dndsnd Wiki. Let me know what you think.

clipped from dndsnd.pbwiki.com

The Dagger Vampire's Curse is 21 inches in length, made from solid silver hardened both magically and alchemically. The dagger is a +2 weapon for the most part and is actually two daggers one dagger is a 15 inch ironwood blade that slides in and out of a slot position above the guard of the of the silver blade, the wooden blade is also +2. The ironwood blade is attuned to the silver dagger and if it is removed or stolen will allways return to it's position on the silver blade within 24 hours. Vampire's curse is a bane to all undead increasing it's enhancement bonus by +2 and dealing an extra 2d6 damage against foes against vampires however it has one more ability much like a holy symbol you can hold a vampire at bay, it must stay at least 5ft away from the wielder once presented toward the vampire, which is a standard action. Should the wielder attack then the vampire may attack back at a -2 to all it's attacks and abilities.