Back in June I wrote a mid-year state of the company post. Seeing how 2009 is just about to end, I figured I’d go over the second half of the year as well.

In general, things at Highmoon Games have been slow, as predicted in June. The personal issue I was dealing with, the ailment and death of my mother, pretty much took all my time, energy and desire to create so very little got done. That said, two things happened that helped give Highmoon Games a push and re-energize the company (and me).

In October, Highmoon Games became the new owner of One Bad Egg, the D&D 4th Edition publishing suit founded by Fred Hicks & Rob Donoghue (Evil Hat Productions), Justin Jacobson (Blue Devil Games) and Chris Hanrahan (Endgame). The Eggs decided to close the company but wanted to keep the products available to the public, so they approached me, something I am still very honored about. One Bad Egg‘s products are top notch and have become our best sellers by far, giving Highmoon Games a much-needed sales push that has allowed other projects to be funded. Far more important to me, though, is that these fantastic game aids continue to be available for fans of D&D 4e to enjoy.

After almost a year of trying to get things squared away, in early December we announced that Hal Mangold (Green Ronin Publishing, Atomic Overmind Press) had been brought on-board to do the layout for (the very very late) True20 Ancients: Rome. Matthew Kaiser and Spike Y Jones did an amazing job with the words part, and it had been on hold for far too long waiting for the graphic treatment. Bringing Hal in means that book will look like the fantastic tome it is, and I know True20 fans will be delighted once they have it in their hands. It is still too early to announce a release date, but I know we’re all shooting for a 1st Quarter 2010 date.

Not to be overlooked, Highmoon Media Productions (of which Highmoon Games is part of) celebrated its 5th anniversary in October 2009, something that amazes and humbles me, for I could not have made it this far without the support and patronage of great friends, colleagues and customers like you.

In looking to 2010, expect Highmoon Games to remain a bit quiet; I am going back to university to begin a degree in Nursing, so that will take most of my time and effort. Nevertheless, we will have stuff coming out during the year, like the aforementioned True20 Ancients: Rome (via Green Ronin Publishing), more conversions to Pathfinder of our Liber Sodalitas line, and at least one new issue of Targum Magazine. One of the beauties of running such a small company is that I don’t have to set my schedule months in advance, so new projects could show up by surprise. I guess you’ll just have to keep an eye on us.

It’s time to look to the future. Bring it on, 2010.

As a parting gift, take a look at these illustrations from Shawn Gaston, destined to grace the Pathfinder editions of two Liber Sodalitas products. Enjoy!

After a few months of being unavailable, we have the pleasure to re-release No Other Gods, our introductory adventure to Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era, from Green Ronin Publishing.

The text is identical to the previously-available version; the one thing that changed was the removal of the d20 License and logos, which prompted a small layout rearranging.

Customers who previously purchased the adventure were sent an update download link. Everyone else, here’s your chance for a way into the lands of Testament.

Now Available: No Other Gods (An Adventure for Testament)

Get your copy today!

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This wasn’t my best year for reading books, I will admit. I had an early surge but after February it all went a bit downhill, and now towards the end of the year I have had to push myself through a couple of books that are really good but that I seem to lack the discipline to finish. I’m looking forward to fixing that in 2010.

I ended up reading a lot more non-fiction than fiction this year, interestingly enough. The fiction I did read this year, however, was fantastic and truly rewarding.

This list includes books, roleplaying games and graphic novels.

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Read the reports for the Pilot, Episode 01 and Webisode.

I indeed had to return to Puerto Rico in June, so my friends and I decided to do our best to finish this game in the time I had. When we got together to play, we decided to wrap up the series in two sessions to be played over the two weeks I had available. That meant condensing four episodes into two action-packed extravaganzas. I merged the Screen Presences for episodes 2-3 and 4-5, giving us two final episodes that looked like this: 2/3/2/2 & 3/2/3/3. If you have played PTA you can see how that second merged episode is totally nuts; if you haven’t, the first spread is fine, with one spotlight character (3), but the second has three spotlight characters, meaning each of them is THE main focus of the episode, if that makes any sense. I knew that this would be tricky, to say the least, but we girded our loins and plunged back into the story.
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I learned about this from Mick Bradley and I’ve been thinking about it for about a week. Screw it, I’m in. I’m doing Creative Every Day 2010.

I’m doing this for two reasons:

1. To remind myself that every day I have to tap into my creative energy somehow. Maybe a clever sentence, a nice photo, a doodle, a bit of game design, something, anything. Big or small, it doesn’t matter as long as there is a creative aspect to it.
2. To focus my creative monkeys a bit. I tend to be all over the place sometimes, following way too many ideas and hardly completing any of them. This should help me have a goal.

That said, I’m not gonna beat myself up if nothing happens on a given day. If a week goes by and nothing, that’s another matter, and if it ever should come to that, I will be gracious and accept “defeat.” But I’m shooting for it.

Some of it may show up here, or on Flickr, or on Twitter, some of it won’t show up anywhere. This is gonna be by me, for me. But you are all very welcomed to tag along for the ride.

And speaking of tags, follow this series with the “CED2010” tag I created.

Yesterday morning I took the scenic route back home from the synagogue, going down all of Lincoln Road Mall, to the Oceanwalk Promenade, then up 5th St before heading home (see the MapMyRide.com Map). On a whim, I decided to count all the bikes I came across my way, whether parked or with riders. Everyone knows we have a lot of bicyclists here in the Beach, but I wanted to have a very rough headcount. It was 10 AM, and the temp was in the mid 50s, so I figured I would see only those out exercising, and those on their way to/from/already at work.

When all was said and done, I counted 146 bikes, including me, with about 85 of them being spotted just along Lincoln Rd. I am no urban statisticians, but that seemed like a lot of bikes for a 3/4-mile long stretch, let alone for the 2.5 miles of my entire trip. And that fills me with joy.

Check out these pics.
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