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The Tax Man Cometh
Contrary to internet rumor, the tax reform bill running through Congress right now does NOT eliminate business expenses as an offset to business income. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t either help or hurt yourself a LOT when it comes to managing your taxes as a publisher. As a disclaimer, I’m not a CPA or…
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Setting Review: High Space
I’ve dabbed in science fiction settings for Savage Worlds (see my posts on Savage Eclipse Phase for an example), and one of the resources I used was High Space. Both Eclipse Phase and High Space share a post-scarcity economy, in which most resources are much more readily available thanks to nanoscale 3-D printing, allowing most items to…
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Meeting Management for the GM
As noted in my biography, I do have a day job in addition to my role as Chief Monster Officer. As a result, I’ve learned a lot about a lot of different topics, including how to run a meeting. For a maximally productive meeting, it helps to have certain roles filled, and filling these roles around…
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Shelfie- RPG Shelf
I’ve mainly shifted over to digital books for my RPG needs. I was an early adopter of eBooks – I had an electronic ink eReader before the Kindle was a thing. So shifting over to PDF form game books was a natural extension, except for that one company that just doesn’t want to publish in that format. However, I…
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Review: Learn to Paint Kit from Reaper
OK, so let’s say you’ve decided that minis are for you. Next step is to actually procure some. Ebay is a great option for bulk quantities of basic minis, but at some point you might want to have the exact sort of mini to fit your game. This is especially important with Savage Worlds because of…
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Obligatory Year in Review Post
2017 has been an… interesting year for a lot of folks, but it has been a big year for Happy Monster Press – this is our founding year, and the run up to our January 2018 Kickstarter. On the gaming front, this year saw me running ETU and Savage Rifts, improving my Roll20 GM skills,…
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Weapon of Choice: Easy Roller Dice
For the last couple of years, I’ve been running my in-person games using Easy Roller‘s Metal Dice. These are black metal dice with various colored numbers, and are extremely sturdy. They roll with a satisfying thunk, and have nice weight in the hand. Easy Roller runs promotions on a regular basis, and if you want to…
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Minis vs. Theater of the Mind
RPGs have their origin in tabletop wargames. There’s no getting around that history, and the fact that, as a result, miniatures have been a feature of RPGs pretty much from day one. The question, of course, is whether to use them or not, and if so, when. I’ve mostly been running theater of the mind…
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Advice for the New GM
My sister just messaged me to let me know that my tween nephew has ambitions of becoming a Dungeon Master. You know, the kind who runs that other role playing game. While the rule system is different, I think the essential skillset of the gamemaster translates pretty well across to Savage Worlds, so here’s some of the…
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Is There a Plot in a Plot Point Campaign?
Plot point campaigns are one of Savage Worlds’ key innovation. The idea is to provide a campaign framework that doesn’t mandate railroading the players while simultaneously providing enough story to keep the characters interested. Plot Point Campaigns, on the other hand, have some form of beginning, middle and end. Often, they require just as much sequential…