My intention for these pieces is that you can download them, host
them, print them out for noncommercial purposes, riff off them freely
— as long as everything you derive from them is similarly
open, noncommercial and shared.
NECROCHROME
Need to communicate with spirits from beyond the grave? There is, as they say, an app for that. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
How to Make a Book Safe
A Lovecraftian tale about trying to keep your secrets hidden. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
Unripe Fruit
A remainder from a game setting that never got made, this story is about growing up in a nomadic fantasy world, and how that can kind of hurt. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
TRANSMIT
A very short piece of science fiction about first contact. This was mostly written as an excuse for the first and last lines. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
The Turning of the Time
If you read Dead Leather Office in The New Hero, Volume 2, you already know the heroine of this story of time-skips and identity shifts. If you have not, you can read this one first for free. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
Whatever Happened to Lala?
Although it shares a setting with Mask of the Other, it lacks the cosmic horror found in the novel. The horror in this story is all mundane and domestic. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
Falling
Another story set in the dojo from Shrimp, this one deals with losing control, relinquishing it, and trying to hold on to it. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
7 and 7
This sequel novella to SWITCHFLIPPED has Kung Fu, a witch, and a mixture of self-pity and pity for others. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
A Hole in the Darkness
Gritty crime-noir drama about a cop and an ex-con bound by guild and hatred. Together, they dig a grave. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
ENZYMES
A wistful little tale of someone who can’t decide if he’s a vampire or not. He probably is. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
Zombis Blanc
A potboiler about rotten people in desperate circumstances. It’s the most medically and historically accurate zombie story I was able to write. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
Shrimp
A realistic peek at people in a suburban American strip-mall dojo, complete with realistic divorce friction and realistic bleak memories. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
Emily Speaks
My attempt at grappling with issues of feminist dialectic in a short, entertaining fashion. Or, if you prefer, a story about a piece of software that turns loneliness into cash. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
A Wind at the Window
A horror story concerning blasphemous marks in the snow of a Finnish winter, the college students it threatens, and the American veteran who may know more than he tells. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
In the Blindness of the Glare
Part of the deal with the Ardwin ransom was that I agreed to write a story for ten of the $50+ donors. Each one got to dictate one element for inclusion. This is that story. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
Icke
A sad story about a miserable kid and the perils of fish telepathy. Despite this flippant description, I consider this one of my more successful horror stories.
Two Things She Does With Her Body
Really, I think it’s better to read this without a lot of prologue and setup. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
Regret, With Math
Winner of the 2008 Richard Eastman fiction prize, “Regret,
With Math” is about a young man who studies the martial arts,
or doesn’t, and who dates his former college buddy’'s ex-
girlfriend, or doesn’t, and who gets in horrible, life altering trouble.
Or possibly doesn’t. It’s also about parallel universe theory. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
These People Mean Nothing to Each Other
Four short pieces form something greater than the sum of their parts. Also available in ePub and Kindle format.
The Kingdom of Nain
An ambitious, triple-sized supplement for REIGN Enchiridion,
this is a self-contained setting featuring arrogant wizards,
mysterious monsters, and downtrodden peasants striking back.
One Roll Spells
A bonus attendant on the funding of the REIGN Enchiridion,
this is a one-roll tool for making up odd and idiosyncratic enchantments.
One Roll Spells
Another Enchiridion premium, this lets you mill out monsters and mysterious
beasts with capricious abandon.
Reign Errata
Nothing in this world is perfect, and that’s particularly
true of a book that has the note “See page 98” on
page 98. Thanks to the vigilance of the fan community, a number
of mistakes, contradictions and plain ol’ perplexities have
been spotted in REIGN, and in the file above, they’re addressed.
The First Year of Our REIGN
The first six supplements, complied into one integrated file.
The Second Year of Our REIGN
The second set of supplements, also reorganized and tidily laid out.
The Third Year of Our REIGN
The most recent supplements, in one full-color PDF.
REIGN Supplement 1
Assets, Martial Path: Black Thirst, One-Roll Companies, One-Roll
Imperials and creepy shadow warlocks for your REIGN game.
REIGN Supplement 2
People of the Blade adds details to two of Heluso’s most
warlike cultures — Dindavara and the Western Marches.
REIGN Supplement 3
Secrets of Sorcery shows exactly how to build your own spells
and schools from the ground up. Also, there are giant insects,
miniature elephants and surprisingly useful rats.
REIGN
Supplement 4
A discussion of Ob-lob culture, values, religion and habits —
Two sets of their martial secrets, both for unarmed fighting and
for using wickedly sharp 'hell hooks.' — Aqueous Divination,
a system of magical fortune-telling, along with discussion of
just how to handle foreknowledge in your game — One-Roll
Ob-lob character generation.
REIGN
Supplement 5
This REIGN supplement fleshes out the continent of Milonda, specifically
its Ruhini
Desert. It's home to eye-eating immortal oligarchs, religious
prudes living side-by-side with lewd criminals, alligators, wind
boats, incense and the world's most effective magical healing.
Have fun.
REIGN
Supplement 6
I polled the fans about the order in which they wanted to se
e
some of my completed material, and the result was Supplement
Six. New Advantages, new Esoteric Disciplines (including at
least one for every Skill that lacked one in the main rule book)
and riding mounts based on the Cambrian super-predator Anomalocaris.
REIGN
Supplement 7
More feedback from fans indicated that one-roll Ulds and Truils
should find a home in Supplement
7. Also included: Unit-based tactical combat and an adorable
little short story. There's been discussion about port cities
in REIGN's unusually-shaped setting continents. Since I'm just
now starting a game based around a boat, I've created some handouts
for my players, which I'm also putting here. Remember, I'm a writer,
not an artist: Judge accordingly.
Muhulc,
a city in Opetka.
Darkport,
the northernmost Confederate port of consequence.
REIGN Supplement 8
has insight galore about the staid and stuffy citizens of the Maemeck Matriarchy, including their magic-ruining quellers — a group occupying a strange position straddling “really necessary” and “really despised.” Oh, and the Jawless warriors of The Empire.
REIGN Supplement 9
is chock-full of secrets. Shh!
REIGN Supplement 10
provides not one, not two, but three separate campaign frameworks for REIGN, ranging from roguish scumbags in Uldholm, to Ob-lob pirates, to the people who really run The Empire. As a bonus, those aforementioned rulers come with their own player handouts.
REIGN Supplement 11
provides a third combat system where, instead of trying to grandstand and seeing if you succeed, you find out how well you succeeded and adjust your grandstanding accordingly. And, if enabling PC show-offs is insufficient, it also has the nuts, bolts and cautions of constructing your own Esoteric Discipline paths.
REIGN Supplement 12
has giant trees, arboreal tribes of bragging heroes, a religion of perpetual self-exaltation, and magic that will burn off your fingers unless you take care.
REIGN Supplement 13
is an entirely fresh new setting of born wizards, fairy-tale monsters, and the sinister enchantment arising from the love of power.
REIGN Supplement 14
is another mini-setting, this time examining fantasy races like elves and orcs from a firm basis in fantasy genetics. It comes with its own handy breeding chart, completely safe for work, of course.
REIGN Supplement 15
is the third mini-setting, and it should be familiar because it's modern day Earth. The only difference is an invasion of telepathic aliens who have no idea how to fight head-blind humanity. It's entitled Out of the Violent Planet.
REIGN Supplement 16
is a grab bag of rules support. Nain, Ardwin and Out of the Violent Planet all get expanded material, but much of it is perfectly adaptable to any REIGN game at all, full stop.
REIGN
Company Reference Sheet
REIGN Character Sheets
Original: 8.5" x 11"
Revised: 8.5" x 11"
| A4
Revised Character Sheet, with Blank Space: 8.5"
x 11" | A4
…in Spaaace!
The exclusively-pdf narrative game of silly sods in starships is,
I generally find, rum-soaked.
Shades Of Gray
A free adventure for my Film Noir game A Dirty World. It has drugs, thwarted love, illegitimacy and murder. Standard hard-boiled stuff, really.
"Revenge is a dish best served...
in Spaaace!
Demo for ...in Spaaace!
Executive Decision
Like power? Hate responsibility? Executive Decision is the real-time
RPG where you and other cabinet members pursue your own agendas
in competition for the Commander-in-Chief's trust.
Meatbot Massacre
The game that started all this ransom model craziness is still ripe
with beefy mayhem.
Meatbot
Massacre: Accessories
Some nifty accessories for Meatbot Massacre, including a printable
hex map, fold-up paper minis, and preformatted data sheets to keep
track of your meatbot's stats.
These are a bit different. The license on these articles lets you
show them wherever you want, including in commercial books. But
you can only use them if you attribute them to me, and if you don’t
change a word of the text. Feel free to read them, share them, print
them out and leave them lying in subways — just don’t
change them.
