Work on my AD&D campaign, of course. I remember drawing this entire walled city in Advanced Math.
What I Did in High School
Trench Warfare: Comedy Gold
I’ve been working for Microsoft since March of 2008. A lot of water has passed under that bridge, but an oddball highlight was the time I convinced them to finance a comedy radio serial about trench warfare.
It was all to promote an Xbox LIVE Arcade game called Toy Soldiers. To do the job, I hired the very talented folks at the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, old friends of mine who have produced a number of audio dramas and some excellent short films. We worked on the script together and they produced the serial in three parts. It’s quite silly, and I think it’s still a lot of fun.
My Dad spent his career as a radio announcer so I grew up around a radio station, immersed in the technology and the history of radio. I wrote and produced a number of short radio dramas as a kid using the station’s recording studios, so this project was a natural one for me. We had a great time making it. Did it meaningfully impact the sales of the game? Well, maybe not, but if you aren’t having fun then you’re doing it wrong.
“With some imagination, we could turn war into something everyone could enjoy!”
My KIY novella has been reprinted
Fourteen years ago I published my King in Yellow novella Sosostris through Armitage House in a 100-copy limited-edition chapbook. It was the culmination of a decade of KiY rumination and experimentation that included two other Armitage House chapbooks, Broadalbin and Ambrose. Sooner or later I’ll get around to revising and reprinting the trilogy, but at least Sosostris has returned, albeit in an even more limited form.
Graeme Phillips is the Scottish publisher of the Cthulhu small press zine Cyaegha. The new issue, #12, reprints Sosostris for the first time since our chapbook. Cyaegha is limited to just 75 copies, however, so if you want one you should visit his website promptly and place your order.
So There I Was Sitting in a Bookstore Cafe
Looked up from my laptop and at the end of the aisle ahead of me, face out, is a book I published fifteen years ago: A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography & Concordance by Chris Jarocha-Ernst. Then before I could even start typing this, I looked up and a friend of mine was standing there grinning at me. Apparently this particular bookstore-cafe was the right place to visit tonight.
Sectional
I had to draw a diagram of my childhood sectional couch to explain to my wife the kinds of boss forts I could make. Is this not normal?
Puppetland 1st edition ebook available now
Can’t wait for the new edition coming in 2015? You can get the first edition of Puppetland published by Hogshead in 1999 right now from the Bundle of Holding, alongside other fantastic indie games like James Wallis’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Emily Care Boss’s Breaking the Ice, Vincent Baker’s Dogs in the Vineyard, and many more, all for one low price.
This Puppet Is . . .
Artwork ©1999 Raven Mimura
In Puppetland, there are no numerical attributes and no dice. Characters are described using a common set of descriptors plus a few custom ones, a bit similar to Over the Edge.
When I first designed Puppetland, my standard descriptors were a bit scattered. For the new edition we recently Kickstarted, I’ve revised that substantially to use a unified system. I think it may resemble that of the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG, but sadly I never actually read it and am unsure.
Anyway, here’s a look at that section of the new Puppetland rulebook.
The New Normal
Dispatches from Revland consists of two sections:
- My professional Facebook page from 2011-2014.
- My blog from 2001-2002.
I’ve imported all of these into this site to ensure that my data belongs to me. I had another blog that ran from about 2002-2006 (I think?) but those posts are currently locked in an old SQL database backup and I have not imported them here yet.
“I will not make any deals with you. I’ve resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own.”
My King in Yellow novella “Sosostris” only ever saw print in a limited-edition chapbook fifteen years ago. In keeping with that small-press tradition I’m happy to say that Sosostris will soon be reprinted in the delightfully old-school British zine Cyäegha. Graeme only prints 75 copies of each issue so stay tuned.