In the wake of the multi-year "mostly dead" status of Pen & Paper, and the looming demise of Geocities (where my other publications credits are listed), I have begun to try and assemble a decent CV of my work in the gaming industry over the past few days.

It's harder than I thought it would be (especially for an egotist like me!)... apparently I did not keep adequate track of ALL of the work or award nominations I received.

Still, I can say, with some assurance that, since 1998, I have worked on...

20 RPG books

and wrote

50 articles or columns.

. . .

Whoa.

Still assembling data; will let you all know when the credits page on the ASMP site goes live.

So, right now, along with working on writing stuff for the Dresden Files RPG, chadu is also working on his next PDQ game, the first that will be published by Evil Hat. That game is called Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies (or "S7S" for short) and is looking to be seriously badass, despite all the rough treatment rob_donoghue and myself given the system (for some reason chadu thinks we're helping!).

But I want to look beyond S7S, to the greater future of PDQ games at Evil Hat. chadu brings several solid products to the table from the time he's spent developing PDQ games at Atomic Sock Monkey Press. The Zorcerer of Zo is the most recent of these, and has been generally well-received (and, now that I look back on my involvement with it, I see how it helped plant the seeds for today's partnership betwixt chadu and Evil Hat). But the games that got me to the table and watching Chad at work were Dead Inside (a big inspiration for my own Don't Rest Your Head game) and Truth and Justice.

Though it's a ways off -- beyond the wall of S7S and, likely, the Dresden Files RPG -- I'd like Evil Hat to take a crack at putting out new editions of these games, building on the strength of teamwork and design partnership we're able to bring to bear with chadu. If you'd asked me a few years ago if I thought I could ever be a part of such a thing, I would have laughed; now, with our powers combined...

So here's a simple little poll about what sort of things could (or should) be done with PDQ after S7S hits the street, with Evil Hat and chadu at the helm. I'll probably be putting up other PDQ-focused polls over the coming weeks as I noodle around the possibilities; thanks for participating in 'em.

Check out the post Fred Hicks / drivingblind made here:

http://drivingblind.livejournal.com/294198.html

The upshot is that I'm outsourcing a bunch of production/marketing/business responsibilities for Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies and some future PDQ and other gaming products to Evil Hat Productions.

There are many reasons for this arrangement. After all, Fred kicked ass on the Zorcerer of Zo layout. And I was extremely impressed with the production values of recent Evil Hat games like Don't Rest Your Head and Spirit of the Century. Additonally, working with the Evil Hat folks on The Dresden Files RPG has been a remarkable experience. And lastly, they have the tools and the talent with con-presence, marketing, and networking issues.

Despite this new arrangement, Atomic Sock Monkey Press will continue to exist. This isn't a merger. All current products -- Dead Inside, Truth & Justice, The Zorcerer of Zo, and Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot -- will continue to be sold and supported right here. But starting with S7S, some of new game concepts (and, maybe, some revisions of older products), will be produced under the EHP label. This frees me up from some of the business-end issues, and lets me get back to doing purely creative stuff. And every so often, I'm sure there will be "boutique" products that I want to get my hands completely dirty on, in all phases of production.

In any case, I retain full and complete ownership of my material published via Evil Hat. This was a key element of my arrangement with Evil Hat, and I am glad of their dedication to the "indie" aesthetic.

This is a great opportunity for ASMP-slash-me and Evil Hat Productions to leverage our individual strengths together, and I'm glad it's come to pass. And, as we all continue to work together, who knows what strange and delightful synergies may come of the arrangement?