Monte Cook's Blog, page 146

Experimental Might for Haiti

All (100%) of the proceeds from all pdf sales of Books of Experimental Might I and II in January will go to MercyCorps and their involvement in relief for Haiti after the horrific earthquake there.

I know these books have been out a while and many of you have likely already purchased them, but they remain our best sellers. I hope that if you haven't picked them up yet, you might use this as a good opportunity to give them a try:

Experimental Might I

Experimental...

Big Picture Versus Small

I cannot seem to divide my focus well. At any given time--I suppose like most of us--I have a big project to work on and a large number of small tasks. If I'm focused on the project, I can't remember to do the little things to save my life. No amount of lists or calendars or programs or organizational tricks work.

Likewise, if I decide to turn my attention to the small tasks--making an appointment with the vet, sending off some checks, going to the grocery store--I can'...

Starting at the End

It's been a very long time since I've written a game product to a specific length. It was probably World of Darkness, and even that was pretty flexible. It was also three years ago already. Since then, the only game things I've really worked on were Book of Experimental Might I and II, and Dungeonaday.com, all of which could be characterized by being "as long or as short as they need to be." In fact, that's one of the many, many things I love about working on Dungeonday.com...

Happy New Year!

Have a great 2010! I know I'm hoping to!

Merry Christmas, Internet!

I'm probably not too likely to be posting much here until after the new year. But when I do, I'll tell you about the Pathfinder adventure I'm working on, what's new and cool with Dungeonaday, and perhaps make some other cool announcements. 

I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!

My Very Tenuous, Possible Link to Avatar

When we were developing 3E, we recognized that we needed animals that could serve as appropriate foes and allies for mid- and high-level characters to help druid and ranger abilities continue to be valuable. It was my idea to create "dire" versions of various animals, based on the dire wolf/wolf dichotomy. (I know, it only makes sense in a D&D sort of way.)

Today I discovered that those six-legged horse things in Avatar are called direhorses. Given that...

Speaking of Christmas Gifts...

It's still a really good time to get that gamer you know a gift subscription to Dungeonaday.com.

Every weekday, the gift recipient will get a new encounter, building an entire campaign. These encounters are all organized by hyperlinks to each other and a massive glossary so the information is all right there at the member's fingertips. Each week there's at least two new journal entries from me with behind the scenes information, design explanations, and DM tips. ...

Christmas Gifts

There's still time to order Ptolus Moleskine notebooks or "Monte Cook said" game rule t-shirts and get them by Christmas if you live in the US. Make your orders by Dec. 21st at noon CST to ensure it.

Me and Christmas? We Go Way Back

I've always loved Christmas. Not just the day, but the whole holiday season. It started as a kid, of course, because my family always made a big deal about Christmas. We weren't really the kind of family to make "bed deals" about a lot of things, so that made Christmas extra special. I think it was just the novelty of it all that appealed to me more than anything. At Christmas, everything was different. The house was different (there was a tree in it), TV shows...

Dungeonaday.com For the Holidays! (Take 2)

(This is slightly different than the info in the previous post on the matter.)

The holidays are approaching, and I wanted to tell you about a special Christmas gift offer for Dungeonaday.com. Now you can give a subscription to your gaming friends. What's a better gift to a gamer than new content every weekday for a year? This would be a great idea for a game group to give their DM (you know the one, the guy or girl who works so hard to provide you with...