Howdy folks. Today I turned 44 years old.  I got a little nostalgic and started thinking of all the games I’ve been a part of over the years and all the wonderful friends I’ve made through gaming.  I started gaming in jr. high, deep in the woods of beautiful East Texas,  and of course we started with the DnD Basic set about 1978-79.  Many hours of great gaming were had on Grayhawk, and on our own world “Elder World.”  Some of the great friends I met and still love include: Robert West, Thomas Driver, Scott Austin, Wayne Walker, Lee Johnson, [...]

Yesterday, with the announcement of the new iPad, I read through the features until I came to a phrase which stopped me dead in my tracks. It had nothing to do with the processing speed, nor the nifty new display, or anything of the sort. It was the phrase, Post-PC world. I paused and went “huh” the way my folks must’ve done when we suddenly were thrust headfirst into the Digital Age after spending the whole of humanity (as far as we know) up into that point in a strictly analog environment. Ultimately, why we didn’t take to the stars, [...]

We humans, collectively, don’t like to ever admit we are wrong or, heaven forbid, don’t know something. We’ll feign knowledge with sage nods and carefully cover the gap in our information base with clever banter or a quick shift in topic. That’s human nature for you. As writers, our job is to tell a truth. Not the truth, for wisdom lies within our fiction, but a truth. We should have some bit of something we want to convey. The truth of the matter is if we don’t know what we want to convey well enough than how is it possible [...]

Saturday was comprised of lots of gaming. We started off with Savage Worlds and I ran a session of Agents of Oblivion and then played a number of board games. I pride myself in the games I run and this one did not go well. It was not the fault of the players, but I had an issue with the hood flying up while I was running an errand prior to the game which threw me into a state of shock I didn’t realize at the time. I’m grace under pressure as  a general rule and don’t get flustered, nor [...]

Today, it looks like it’s going to get up to the sixties in Memphis. It’s a strangely beautiful break to see blue skies and feel the warmth of the sun in between the bizarre snows we’ve been having of late (and are again scheduled to have next Tuesday). To be honest, it makes me a little stir crazy to look outside and be tempted by a false spring. I recall my lab class back in college. One of the few classes I attended with enormous, distracting windows (back when windows were windows and not Windows).  You see, my high school [...]

Today, I’m going to take a stab at finishing off Dragon Age. I got really close to the end, but then I was distracted by writing and other projects, and decided to get back to it when it came up in a conversation with my buddy, Barry Green, who now dwells in Nebraska, curse him! At any rate, Dragon Age can teach us a lot about execution. Bioware has solid chops when it comes to execution. If one examines its disparate pieces, you can see a lot of familiar elements in this fantasy fare–there are demons, there is a quasi-Western [...]

Today, I’m better. Thanks for asking, but not quite hundred percent. My body wants more sleep, but I want to keep things going here, so I’m offering up one solid tip from my private arsenal of GMing experience. Enjoy! A lot of folks run good games. Of that, there is no question. Whether it’s home material or purchased product, in every set of hands it comes across a little different. What is the one element which keeps players coming back to the same game and same GM over and over? Oh, I’m sure you can list a lot more things [...]

I’m scrambling around today trying to deal with various logistic issues, but I have planted my seat in the chair and am giving my rapt attention to you. I’ll get down to business in a moment, but want to thank all the positive commentary on yesterday’s RWR. Please spread the word about The Razorwise Report, and please, please, join our forums or Twitter or Facebook and provide some public feedback. Emails are always appreciated, but when you discuss things publicly, we get more eyes on various topics, discussions can arise, and the synapses fire a lot more. In other words, [...]