Christmas was fun.  I worked Christmas eve and left about 2:00pm.  (I had to kick a couple of guys out cuz there was no way I was working until 4:30 on Christmas Eve.)  I went to my parents house for the big party.  I was supposed to meet my wife and daughter there, and I called them before I left work, while I was driving over there and many times while I was at the party.  I was starting to get worried.  I called a buddy of mine that lives fairly close and sent him over to check on them.  Turns out my daughter was asleep and my wife was catching up on Heroes episodes while her phone was on the charger up in the bedroom.  Neither of them heard me calling the two cell phones and home phone.  So even though they got to the party very late, they did make it.

For Christmas I got some goodies I wanted including the Dead Reign RPG from Palladium Books.  I am reading it now, and I have to say that Palladium has the right idea when it comes to RPG releases.  Full color cover with eye-catching artwork.  Black and white interior with a good mix of artwork to round out the text; all presented in a softcover 8.5X11 perfect bound format.  The Dead Reign RPG is 225 pages and retails for $22.95.  You can walk away with a complete RPG for a twenty dollar bill plus some McDonalds money.

Now I love the production values on the new 4E stuff, and the Dark Heresy stuff is Abso-freakin-lutely gorgeous!  But I saw the new book in that line selling for FIFTY DOLLARS!  (Not the main game, a friggin suppliment!) Times are tough, and getting a quality RPG for ‘around twenty to twenty-five’ bucks is the sweet spot for price point on brick-and-mortar-dead-tree RPG’s.  Guess which one I’ll be emulating for our Pandora Project RPG release?

I just posted the newest Otherverse release over at OBS.

It’s the first of many new releases from us in 2009.  I was going to do a new years resolution like “I want to release X number of new products.” but decided against it.  I don’t want a certain quantity of product as much as I want to release great stuff people want to buy.  So the goal is to double our gross sales from 2008 to 2009.  With some of the projects in the works I think it is a very doable achievement.

I spent some time today updating my master spreadsheet.  I keep track of our products, how much they have made vs. the cost to pay the artist and writers, monthly earnings, average income over time etc.  I hadn’t updated it in a few months, so it was a pleasant surprise to see where we were at the end.  Certainly I am not making “quit-my-day-job-and-work-from-home” money, or anywhere close for that matter.  (More like “it-beats-slinging-burgers-at-the-food-court-for-the-same-income” kind of money.) It’s great to see products I put out in 2006 still bringing in sales; it all adds up to a nice part-time income.

Almost done with the christmas preperations.  A few presents to wrap, some cookies and cup cakes to make for the big party at my parent’s house.  I do have to work tomorrow but I expect I’ll be out of work by early afternoon and off to Mom & Dad’s house for the festivities.  Then Christmas around the tree at home.

I am really jonesing for Adobe CS4.  I may allocate some of my Christmas cash towards the purchase.  (Mom & Dad always hand out a little green on Christmas.)

I read over at ENWorld that we should hear more on the new GSL early in January.  That should break the PDF log-jam with publishers like myself deciding weather to support 4E or move on to 3.5/Pathfinder or some other system.  I am leaning towards a Modern “rules-light” system for my games, as well as dual-statting for OGL 3.5; but it’s all kind of up in the air currently.

Since we haven’t done it in a while; our Hawt Chix for today:  Eliza Dushku

(My wife knew her when they were both in Boston during college.  I’m sure Kevin Bacon is only another three or four hops from there in the six-degrees game.)

And for good measure…

I got an email from my buddy this morning.  He’s been drawing some stuff and is also very excited about the Pandora Project material I have shared with him.  Here is a sketch he did recently:

I hope to have some stock art from him for sale soon.

Took some pictures last night to send out in the Christmas Cards this year.  Also included a picture of the best Christmas Tree Topper ever invented in the whole history of ever!!

Doesn’t my daughter look happy to be taking pictures?

Our Tree.  Take a look at the top.

For the second year in a row Master Chief watches over our presents, protecting them from The Covenant, The Flood and the Grinch.

So Merry Christmas!  Happy Hanukkah as well.  (I’m lookin’ at you Daniel Perez.)

I just posted the latest PDF from Chris Field at OBS:

He’s got several more projects in the pipe-line, so look for more soon.

I read in a post over at ENWorld that we might hear some news on the revised GSL late this week or early next week.  I certainly hope so as I feel the uncertainty is putting a bit chill on PDF publishers.  If the new GSL sucks only slightly less than the old one, then we can move on and not support it with gusto.  If it allows publishers enough freedom to make a go of it then those of us on the fence can jump in with both feet.  Either way I am good.

I just have to say that I think WOTC has utterly dropped the ball on the whole 4E roll-out.  The Digital Initive is DOA, 3PP have been strung along from the beginning etc. etc.   It’s a real shame, because I want to support 4E but as it stands I am not feeling the love.

Overall sales have been down, and from the beginning I have attributed that to the “Big Chill” effect of WOTC’s tepid support of 3rd party publishers.  But PDF’s are still selling, Modern is holding strong and there is plenty of product in the pipe-line.I was talking with my Star Wars GM over the weekend and we were trying to decide what RPG to play when we wrap up or Saga Edition game.  We want to do the 40K RPG but all of us are former GW employees, and one of them just got laid off for no better reason than a personality conflict so he’s not really down with anything Games Workshop related.  (GW’s antics with hiring and firing are legendary.)

The good news is that we may end up playing the Omens of Armageddon campaign arc I have been working on. Having a regular group to run through the scenarios will help me flesh out the story and tweak better than any third-party play testing.

I’ve decided to upgrade to Adobe CS4.  I don’t really need to for many of the applications, but several of them (After Effects and Premier Pro specifically) have some new features that I need since they support the AVCHD codec natively. (Someone I know is getting a new Vixia HF100 for Christmas.) Photoshop, InDesign and the others I use for publishing are not on the must-upgrade list, so I may just opt for the Production Premium bundle.  But I may just spring for the full collection if I can muster the cash.  I may hold a big CS4 Upgrade sale come January.

Sorry for the lack of updates!

It’s been crazy at work as well as on the home front recently.  My wife has been down in North Carolina for her finals, so I am doing the batchelor thing this week.

I have several PDF’s on deck, look for one this weekend and more to follow shortly.

Still no GSL.  Big surprise there.

Saw Punusher: War Zone the other night cuz I didn’t feel like spending two hours in traffic.  It wasn’t perfect, but it sure beat the hell out of anything Dalph Lungren could bring to the table!

Rented some really bad movies recently as well.  One gem really shone forth; check out Dance of the Dead if your into zombie flicks. (Zombies take over the prom; with a premise like that you know your in for a good time!)

Thanksgiving was fun.  Spent it at the in-laws but they are only a few miles away so no traffic.  I took a four day weekend and as usual it is ending far too fast.

I did manage to get the latest Otherverse release up.  Look for one to follow after it falls off the front page.  I also got an email from Chris about his upcoming releases; plenty in the pipe-line.

With six hours to go on NaNoWriMo I am not gonna make it.  O did get some good work done, and will continue the project.  It relates to our game publishing so it should see the light of day eventually.

I picked up the new Space Marine Codex over the weekend, as well as a Tactical Squad of Space Marines.  Don’t know when I’ll get around to putting anything together or painting them, but I decided to pick them up.  I wanted to get that new Palladium RPG about Zombies, but they were sold out.  I am getting all my stuff at my local game store rather than going the discount internet route.  They deserve the business.

I rented HellBoy II: The Golden Army and Hancock over the weekend.  I really enjoyed them both.  I can see where they said Hancock fell off in the third act, but I enjoyed it anyway.  Jason Bateman is a hoot; I love his acting.  I have always enjoyed Will Smith and have had a crush on Mrs. Theron forever. What’s not to like?  As for HellBoy I love Guillermo del Toro’s style; and it really lends itself to the subject matter of HellBoy.

While sales have been somewhat down overall, I am pleased with the amount we are bringing in. We are hovering at the top 20% ofOBS publishers, so it’s time to step it up and see if we can’t make the top 10% this year so we can make the Platinum list.  I also want to get into the traditional distribution channel with some dead-tree products this year.

Oh, still no word on the revised GSL.  Yaaay WOTC.

Haven’t posted in a while, sorry for the dead air.  Lots going on.

I am seriously behind on my NaNoWriMo project, but have a four day weekend coming up.

Saw the new James Bond flick the other night.  See my review of it HERE.

Working on some new releases; look for one this weekend.

Today is a slow day at work cuz everyone is gearing up for Turkey-Day.  I expect to be off early today as well.  Have a great holiday everyone!

I finished the campaign on Gears of War 2 Sunday morning.  Loved it.  I was very disapointed when I found out you can’t do four person co-op on the campaign, but since I have played the new “Hoard Mode” I am hooked.  It has nudged Halo out of the top spot.  Very fun.

Still no word on the revised GSL.

Quick post before I head out the door.  Today is our once-monthly “Geek Day” so we’ll be continuing our Star Wars Saga Edition Sith Campaign.  Our GM is putting a lot of effort into it and we are having a blast!

Fantasy Firearms II just dropped off the front page, so I’ll be getting another new release up shortly.  Look for it soon.

NaNoWriMo is progressing, but I have fallen behind.  I haven’t updated the widget but I am at about 14,000 words.  Not good.  I need to pick up the pace this weekend and the following week to get caught up.  But since I tend to write in bursts it is still quite manegable.  I should be at 25,000 so I need a quick eleven grand to be back on track. Looks like tomore is gonna be a busy day.

I went by my local game store the other day right before my trip to the gun range.  I want to do a Space Marine army for 40K and was poking around.  (Not just any Space Marine army, but a homage to my first 40K army using all beak marines and studded pads like the first GW Space Marines plastics.) I picked up a White Dwarf and saw it was eight bucks!  When did WD get to be eight bucks cover price?  Jeeze.  I like a good WD but it should be “magazine” priced, not “gaming suppliment” priced.  Sure, sure it’s a top quality full color rag and all that.  But it’s still a magazine, a periodical and a GW catelog.

I’ve been hearing a lot about the fires buring out in Santa Barbera. I used to live there and know the exact area where they are hitting.  Of course, when I was there twenty years ago I sawe the same thing.  I went through a neighborhood where all the houses were gone, just chimneys and foundations left.  The fire jumped an eight lane highway to do it.  I hope they get it under control and no one (else) gets hurt.  It’s a shame to see such lovely properties be destroyed.  I miss California, despit the fires, the earthquakes and the smog; I really enjoyed my time out on SoCal.

I finally got Fantasy Firearms II finished and released on OBS.  Check it out!

I am behind on my word count for NaNoWriMo, so after this post I’ll be logging some keyboard time.

At lunch I stopped by Best Buy and picked up Gears of War 2, and a couple of CD’s.  P!nk-Funhouse and Taylor Swift-Fearless.  I have Darrius Rucker’s CD on order from Amazon as a gift for my daughter.  It’s nice we have similer music taste; she’ll like the new CD’s as much as I do.

I’ve also been updating my other Blog pretty regularly.  Feel free to check that one out if your interested in more non-gaming related stuff.  (Guns, politics and other crap.)