Do you love speculative fiction? How about free books? Then February is looking like a good month for you. A host of writers have gotten together for a wacky bookastrophe! Here’s how it works: Each author involved in Crossing The Streams is running a contest on his or her site. The rules of the contest vary by site; I don’t know what Ari or Marcy are going to do. Two lucky winners in each contest will receive a signed book from the author in question. But wait! There’s more! Once the individual contests have all ended, the authors will join forces to choose a single winner from...

The last few months have been a busy time, but you can expect to see much more activity here on HDWT in the months ahead. I just returned from running a celebrity D&D event in Los Angeles, and I’m going to talk about that… but first, a few links you might find interesting. Eye On Eberron: Vadallia and Cardaen The lives of the Tairnadal elves are shaped by the heroic deeds of their ancestors. But just who were those heroes? This month’s Eye on Eberron examines the legend of two of these fallen champions, including the patron of High King Shaeras Vadallia! Character Theme: The...

It’s been a busy few months. Since my last post I’ve gotten married, moved to Austin, and been working at a new job. Together, these have conspired to dramatically constrain my free time, which has meant that I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like. Hopefully that will change soon. For now, I wanted to make a quick announcement about an upcoming project I’m involved in. Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero is the product of a group of artists, musicians, and writers – a music CD paired with a shared-world anthology of cyberpunk fiction inspired by the music. Contributors...

As always: The material I do for Eye on Eberron is canon; anything I say here is just my opinion. Take it for what it’s worth! Over on Dungeonmastering.com, Frank asks: I have a quick question about the warforged from Eberron. In 4e, it is written that they only need four hours of ‘inactivity’ to regain all the extended rest benefits, however they are still fully aware and perceptive of their surroundings during this time. So i was wonder, what constitutes ‘inactivity’ per se? Would one be able to do simple tasks during this time? Specifically could they work on learning...

There are many things I want to post about in the next few weeks. I had a great time at PAX, and I’ve had a number of game-related thoughts I’d like to share. However, I wanted to start by mentioning a few of the major changes happening over the course of the next six weeks. First, I’m getting married! On September 9th, I’m marrying Jennifer Jean Ellis in Portland, Oregon. Here she is, trying to appeal to my well-known love of gnomes… There’s an entire post to be made in how we met, the path that we’ve taken over the last few years, and where I hope we’ll...

Today on Twitter, Joe Hill* said “Want Jason Statham as the 12th Doctor. Can’t you see him snorting coke off a Weeping Angel’s boobs, then head butting a Dalek TILL IT CRIES?” This put me in mind of the following dalek, seen here pausing to exterminate someone on her way to a tea party with the Autons… … Though I don’t think Doctor Statham would have a hard time making her cry. * Joe Hill is the author of a number of the novels Horns and Heart-Shaped Box and the comic series Locke & Key. If you haven’t read Locke & Key, I’d like to...

At PAX I’ll be playtesting a secret project I’ve been developing with Looney Labs: Cthulhu Fluxx. Not being a Lovecraft fan, Andrew Looney wasn’t inspired by the subject in the past. Given my recent work on Cthulhu Gloom, Kristin Looney suggested that I pitch an idea… and since then we’ve come up with a game that’s going to be a lot of fun. What’s important to me is to create a game that is worthy of the Mythos connection – something where the gameplay feels like a Lovecraftian story, and not simply classic Fluxx with Cthulhu as a Creeper. I also...

I know it’s been a long, long time since I’ve posted – the last few months have been focused on work and domestic life, and I’m getting married in just a few weeks! There’s a lot of interesting news I can’t quite announce yet, but watch this space over the next two weeks. Meanwhile, I’m going to PAX. I’m going to have games to playtest, and I always like to chat with people about Eberron, Gloom, or patriotic baby ducks if there’s free time. If I’m sitting around looking for playtesters I’ll tweet about it, so follow HellcowKeith...

I started last week with a slight sore throat. I didn’t think much of it, as it didn’t get any worse over the course of the week – a week spent at home with relatively little contact with others. When I took my next journey, however, it quickly turned into full-blown flu and laryngitis. At the moment I can barely talk, which makes running a game or speaking on a panel a little hard to manage… and I don’t see this going away without some serious rest time. So sadly, I’m canceling my trip to the east coast for PAX East next weekend. I’m sad about it, but...

I have a number of loose ends I need to wrap up before I can get to the many improvements and articles I’d like to do for the site here. However, I wanted to point people to the articles I’ve been writing for The Escapist, chronicling my journeys DMing around the world. So far, the following locations have been covered: Kosice, Slovakia Boise, Idaho Sofia, Bulgaria If you’re interested taking part in HDWT in the future, check out my post here! Be sure to check back – I have plans for the site in the months to come.