Showing results by narrator "Colby Elliott" in All Categories

Designers & Dragons: The '80s is a comprehensive picture of the growth of the RPG industry. This second edition expands the original single book into a series of four, and we’ve added over 10,000 new words to this volume alone. Take an in-depth look at ’80s style gaming courtesy of companies like Steve Jackson Games and West End Games, plus an intro to the small (but mighty!) presses of the decade. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.

Six of the best and most opinionated cyberpunk referees gather together with creator Mike Pondsmith to bring their best advice on how to make your tabletop dark future game epic. How to start a campaign, how to handle problem players, how to use character background to generate story, and much, much more! So, grab your mirrorshades and your netrunner's deck, choomba, 'cause things are about to get real!

Often, we treat games like work. We buy shelves of thick books. We plan detailed adventures. We memorize rules. In Play Unsafe, Graham Walmsley explores what happens when you throw the serious stuff away: when you stop working, stop planning and start playing. This book explains how to make role-playing less like work and more like play; stop killing other players' ideas and build on them instead; and put stories at the heart of your game.

How do you become a television writer? What does it take to create your own show? Did the writers of Lost really have a plan, or were they making it all up as they went? In a career spanning far longer than he cares to admit, Javier Grillo-Marxuach has not only written for some of your favorite (and not-so-favorite) shows.

Staggered by the terminal illness of his next-door neighbor and predecessor, Jack, the Stay at Home Shaman, finds himself unable to dream and enter the world of the Overlay. But with best friend Zeke’s help, the two embark on a mission to the dream realm to stop the corrupting chain-lightning and the mysterious flying V-shape menacing the neighborhood. But this challenge won’t be overcome without the greatest sacrifice of the Shaman’s career.

As winter takes hold of the neighborhood, Cole witnesses a brutal attack while patrolling The Overlay. Bizarre, inky-black creatures glide through the air devouring those in their path, seemingly coming from nowhere. What loosed these creatures on the Dream Realm and why do they hunt in Big Bluestem Park?

Using examples from Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s 1984, and the writings of Neil Postman, screenwriter Javier Grillo Marxuach (Lost, The Witcher, Medium) examines the utopia/dystopia binary and what it means live in the modern social media landscape.

Sometimes we love a work of art, not in spite of it flaws, but because of them. And a wish that that work of art could be better. Screenwriter Javier Grillo Marxuach (Lost, The Witcher, Medium) peers through the lens of the ill-fated Disney science fiction epic The Black Hole to show us what we can learn from a flawed gem as it waxes into nostalgia and why it has such a subtle hold on our hearts.

Every writer learns the basics elements of storytelling. Whether it’s The Heroes Journey, the Three Act film structure, or even the performing of a magic trick it’s all there. Even when telling a simple joke. Using these three basic elements, screenwriter Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost, The Witcher, Medium) breaks down the anatomy used for so many of the stories we love, from Raiders of the Lost Ark, to Gone With the Wind.

When does the band you love cease to be the band you love? Taking such disparate elements as the writings of Plutarch and the power ballads of 80’s rockers Foreigner, screenwriter Javier Grillo- Marxuach (Lost, The Witcher, Medium) examines what it means to be a creator of art during the Big Feelings of youth and how those feelings mature into collaborating and getting the work done in middle age.

It’s no secret that amazing television starts with a great script. But what makes a television screenplay compelling? An effective screenplay is a blueprint, a loan application, and work order. But first and foremost, it must be a work of art and a captivating read all on its own. Using his script for the proposed reboot of Xena, Javier Grillo-Marxauch (Lost, The Witcher, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) shares what he does to make a fascinating television screenplay, from the first slug line to the final fade to black.

After Comic Con International and New York Comic Con, where does a wandering nerd go next for adventure and fun? Why the wilds of Gen Con, of course! Third in the “Nerdly Travels” series takes Colby to the largest tabletop gaming convention in North America, Gen Con, to fulfill his 10-year-old self's destiny of roleplaying at the convention started by Gary Gygax. He'll meet industry luminaries, some of his childhood heroes and maybe even get surprised at the ENnie Awards!

Even after getting bad news at the doctor’s office, Cole Ellis knows the kids still need to be picked up and the realm of dreams needs to be protected. Strange, that the foreclosure two blocks over is bustling with crows in The Overlay, and stranger still, why is the dream neighborhood filled with the delectable smell of cookies for blocks in every direction? It may be time for Cole to call on the most powerful member of his team yet. And time for another to make the sacrifice of a lifetime.

When Cole set something free in the dreamworld of The Overlay, he had no idea it could cause harm in the real world. But now someone is dead and the shaman must use all of his newfound powers to prevent another tragedy and rein in a new menace known only as Dark Beard.

Newly minted dream-walker, Cole, finds everything didn’t get fixed after setting a mysterious spirit free and healing the bruised house next door. Trouble has moved down the road to the nearby Prairie Plains Park where something is attacking people in their dreams. Something hungry. But the Stay-at-home Shaman is going to need some help and a few tricks up his sleeve to tackle these new threats to The Overlay. It turns out naptime is no time to snooze.

When Cole Ellis hits a coyote late one night on I-80, he has no idea how his life will change. Now he travels to a dream realm every time he falls asleep…but all is not well in the drowsing world. There’s mystical talking animals, mysteriously bruised houses, and massive hulking monsters to deal with. How can a stay-at-home dad hope to save the neighborhood by naptime’s end?

Collecting the two first stories in the Dark Prairie Universe, Dark Prairie and Use Yer Brains tells the tales of two western Nebraska lawmen, from two different ages, and how they go about keeping the peace in Platte City. Some bad things crawl outta the ground, while others are brewed up in the local saloon and descend like a bolt of lightning. Whether it's the 1800s or the late 1900s, keep yer wits about ye, and yer six-shooter handy.

You won’t need to have read any of the other History of Arcadia books to become engrossed in the drama of Aspern Grayling, whose obsession with creating a new life-form - in the person of ruthless adventurer Pavo Vale - could destroy his whole world. A compelling descendant of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this is a tale of a man bent on conquest and of an adversary that may yet defeat him: the ghost of the Arcadian Devindra Vale, the only woman he has ever loved.

Ruins of the Grendleroot is a collection of 10 short, easy-to-run adventures for the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game. Designed for characters of first to fifth level, these adventures take place in the caverns, chambers, tunnels, and ruins of the mountain known as Blackclaw, within which lurks the Grendleroot - a strange and otherworldly sentience.

Jake Trapper isn’t your average organ acquisition specialist. He’s the best in LA. But Jake has a soft spot for underdogs, and his current case is Angel, a young girl from a broken home. She needs a kidney. So Jake makes a deal with a broker and gets seduced into the kidney business. When a potential organ donor is killed, Jake meets LAPD Homicide Detective Megan Densmore, who enlists Jake to help with the investigation.