Born on a Monday

Okay, so technically, this is a Friday but the Solomon Grundy quote was too good to pass up... so sue me.

So, I want to lay the groundwork for this blog. As opposed to my other blog, Dr. Mono's Game Design Blog, which concentrates on the development of my comic book miniatures game, Superhuman; Underwear on the Outside will run the gambit of my interests. I plan to review books, movies, games, and comics in this space as well as talk about the industries involved.

Of course, as a game designer, I will talk about my own exploits writing in the game industry and I will try to concentrate on running/playing games and the 4-color genre that I love so much.

Who am I? I'm a geek, not unlike you. I have a love of all forms of entertainment, but love games and comics above all else. Sure, I'm a musician, tech priest, psychologist, and overly-charismatic fat man. but I don't think of myself in those terms usually. I am a writer, a gamer, and a comic book aficionado.

As a gamer, I started like most Gen-Xers: D&D in my neighbor's basement when I was 8. This quickly progressed into TSR's brilliant Marvel RPG (Oh yeah FASERIP!) and Star Frontiers. But as time and years dragged on, my gaming needs included all manner of RPG's and miniature games and eventually made it to board games that I couldn't find in a Toys R Us.

By the time I was 12, I was writing my own games.. usually just to get rid of rules I didn't like as a gamemaster or to add rules for things that would come up in roleplaying sessions that were not covered by a given ruleset. My first RPG, however, was a ridiculously simple fantasy game called "The Sword and the Hand" which I only wrote to ease some of my friends into the more difficult 2nd Edition AD&D rules. That kind of thing continued long into my adult years with rules changed here and there and sometimes making up whole games with rulebooks as vague outlines in the dark, forgotten corner of the room.

Eventually, unsatisfied with random packaged games like Heroclix, I began writing the skirmish game, Superhuman. It was while working with my friends at Slugfest Games that I leaked an early treatment of some of the rules to Superhuman. It didn't get anyone to buy Superhuman, but that wasn't the point. It got me noticed. A year or so later, I was contacted by Cam Banks, the managing editor of Margaret Weis Productions. He had a simple offer: do what I'd already proven I could do... write for a superhero game. So I became part of the team that produced the Smallville Roleplaying Game. Not only did I get to work with people like Cam Banks and Josh Roby (Full Light, Full Steam), but I got to share writing credits with Bobbie Olsen (Fireborn), my beautiful wife Mary, and have an editor in Amanda Valentine (Dresden Files). This was a good team.. and Smallville not only ended up a phenomenal game, but it opened door after door for me as a freelance game designer.

So now I write, I play, and I read.

And I want to share it all with all of you.