One of my favorite non-writing recreational activities is Live Action Role Play (LARP). I’m an active member of the Camarilla, White Wolf’s official fan club and LARP group, and have been for over a decade.

While I don’t write LARP rules (at least not so far), there is still some crossover with my professional career. It was my experience in the Camarilla that encouraged me to apply as a writer for White Wolf in the first place, and both before and after I began writing for them I’ve written numerous fiction pieces of varying lengths set in the LARP chronicle or inspired by the LARP characters I’ve played.

That being said, here is a short story called “End of the Show,” which is the most recent little piece inspired by the roleplay I’ve been doing of late.

The Viking (love of my life and my personal tech-god) is helping me update my site here, so expect changes (hopefully for the better) in the very near future!

Doesn’t he make tech look easy?

One of my fans in the Philippines made a comment on his blog today comparing Changeling: The Lost to chocolate.  I was both pleased and amused.

I have fallen into a bad habit, writing-wise. I’ve gotten so busy with writing game material, I’ve fallen out of the habit of writing other things.

I realized this when a friend of mine asked if I’d contribute a piece of fiction to a newsletter he was creating for his Camarilla LARP domain in Southern California. Now that the newsletter is out, I am sharing the piece I wrote for it, “The Storm Within,” here.

I hope to write more “just for fun” work in the future, and link them to my excerpts page. I may even add some of my character backgrounds to my excerpt page in the future, as they are, essentially pieces of short fiction (and were a lot of fun to write.)

If you’ve not yet bought a copy of the World of Darkness Rulebook, or you have one and you’d like the .pdf version, Drivethru.rpg is offering it for free!

I don’t know how long this offer will last, so get it while the getting is good!

There’s a free PDF of Scion: Hero as well!

Ken Weigel of Game Geeks reviewed Midnight Roads. He was well pleased!

This makes me very happy! Check out the video review with the link above, or this and more reviews of Midnight Roads here. I try to gather up all the reviews (good and bad) of my work on my website, to allow folks to check out multiple viewpoints about it in one consolidated place. So feel free to browse any of the links off my resume for additional reviews of products I’ve worked on.

Speaking of which, I’m elbow deep in my first White Wolf project since taking a brief sabbatical this spring. Wish me luck!  The working title is: “The Rose-bride’s Plight“.

I’ve been traveling so much, I haven’t had time to post about my travels! I’m trying to make up for that, so over the next few days you can expect to see more and more Con Reports being added to my Events and PR pages. I’ll also try to update my resume, along with (hopefully) some excerpts from some of the awesome products I’ve had the pleasure of working on that have come out over the last *cough*six*cough* months.

To start ya off, here is the most recent Convention I attended as a Gaming Guest of Honor: Phoenix ConGames in Mesa Arizona.

Today is Free RPG Day, and among the products available at participating Friendly Local Game Stores is a demo of Hunter: The Vigil, which I worked on. (I worked on Hunter, that is, not the demo itself.)

I know that not everyone can get to their FLGS today (heck, it’s under high-heat advisory here in Bisbee, and I’m not going anywhere that doesn’t involve air conditioning or my lovely hard-working fans (The turn-y kind, not the squee-y kind). As well, some stores were unable to participate for one reason or another. Our local comic and game shop in Sierra Vista fell abreast of some foul weather and had a bad roof problem a few months ago which basically has set all their plans back drastically, including the plans to participate in most of the Free Game Day projects.

So, we’re going to make this easy for you. For one day only, White Wolf is providing a free downloadable copy of the Hunter: the Vigil demo from Drivethru RPG.net.  So, if you can make it to your FLGS, please do so. They are a great resource for the gaming community and they should be supported. But if you cannot, and you’ve been wanting to see what Hunter’s all about, here’s a means for you to do so.

Hunter: The Vigil Demo

This weekend (starting tomorrow) I’ll be guesting at Phoenix ConGames in Mesa, Arizona. An advertisement for the con is on the front page of the White Wolf site (center column, several articles from the top).

Among the activities I’ll be heading or participating in are two “Meet Jess Hartley” sessions (2pm Friday and 9am Saturday morning), two “Learn Dark Influences” sessions (3pm Friday and 10am Saturday morning), two roundtables* (2pm Saturday and 3pm Saturday) and a OWBN larp Friday evening and a tabletop WoD game Saturday evening.

* - I did not title the roundtables. They are using the name “Jess Speaks: Women in Gaming” and “Jess Speaks: Writing for RPGs”. I feel a bit like a New Age Guru! Despite the titles, these will be casual, friendly, discussion groups, with plenty of opportunity for questions and answers and group discussion.

Hope to see some of you there!