Okay, that's not really a thing... but we do have an extra long update for all ya'll. First I'd like to thank all our backers for helping us reach another stretch goal. I won't lie... I'm kind of excited about the prospect of designing WINGED TROLLS.. and we're not talking the lovely folks you find on X that drink too much Red Bull... I'm thinking something more in line with a bestial, regenerating version of the characters from the Gargoyles cartoon.

Anyhow... we have a fantastic update for you today...   

First up, join me for a trip down memory lane as I reveal parts of my personal ORIGIN story to explain how excited I am about the OG5E Journal!

After that is a wonderful video featuring two of the best and brightest designers I've ever had the opportunity to work with... Toni Winslow-Brill and Greg Marks!

Long before I worked for Wizards of the Coast, I was simply a fan. In high school I had friends I played with. I started an official campus club in college. Not long after I graduated I discovered the RPGA. I’d been aware of this sacred organization since first seeing ads for it in Dragon Magazine when I was a kid, but as an adult I discovered that folks actually gathered regularly in much larger groups to play something called Living City. 

The year was 1998 and I was at Dragonflight, a convention that took place at Seattle University. I had recently completed the TSR Writing Workshop that Wizards hosted in downtown Seattle, and I had brought an adventure I had written to run at the show. My brave players stuck with me for a 12-hour epic play session over a table set up in a dorm room on campus. Afterwards, I asked what they were going to do next, and that’s when they led me to an area roped off specifically for Living City play. I noticed that folks came here to play and stayed all weekend long, focused solely on this shared world experience. They made a character and then bounced from table to table, a different GM each time, and were all playing in the same world together.     

I. WAS. HOOKED! 

I made a character and played. I spoke with the organizer and learned how to start my own official club and I did, recruiting friends to help and posting flyers (clearly pre-Internet) in a local game store. I don’t remember how we got our content back then, but we did, and our local community exploded. We were the Company of the Rose (appropriately named for Portland-based nerds) and we held monthly game days at Ancient Wonders in Tualatin. We also got involved in playtesting 3rd Edition and everything. 

Fast forward five years and I had been authoring content for Living Greyhawk and also a contract editor for the same campaign and many others. I was called in for an interview in customer service. I’ll be honest that it wasn’t how I wanted things to go, but I made the most of it. I worked hard, and I was happy to be there. That was 2003. I spent the next 20 years at Wizards proving myself (and proving to myself) that I belonged there, pretty much every single day. I loved working there, but ultimately it was the community that I have always loved even more. I stayed involved the entire time… right up to the point where I was the product manager for 5E and running the D&D Adventurers League at the same time. 

We had the community playtesting everything for this new edition of the game and the DDAL supported every product Wizards released. In my humble (okay maybe not so humble) opinion, this was the heart of our success, and the soul of the game lived within. 

This brings me to my point, however. The OG5E Journal will be a vehicle for us all to drive our love of this game forward together. In addition to feature articles with new content for all parts of the game, we’ll present Eldritch Explorations with new ideas and collect your thoughts and dreams for where this game might go, and how our products at Goodman Games can get you there. 

One column in particular, Notes from the Gnome, will be my direct line to all of you. In that column, I’ll answer questions, address concerns, and wax poetic about this wonderful community and a game we all love. If you’d like to write me (the gnome) please do so by emailing [email protected]. In the subject line put ‘Notes for the Gnome.’ I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you. 

One last note I’d like to drop on you is that our upcoming organized play season, titled Aereth Reborn will kick off with Episode 1: Dread Dawning at GaryCon and culminate with an epic at GenCon this summer. After each episode has premiered, we’ll be making them available as a very reasonable and inexpensive purchase online. You can grab them from our site that way, and even play them at home to stay in touch with this new shared world campaign (and really shared system since there will be DCC versions as well). As the story progresses, if you're playing 5E you'll be able to actively engage with the BETA rules (if you haven’t already) for the Dragon Rider’s Primer, so please join in the fun!!! 

 

Keep Rollin’ 20s and Good Gaming! 

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