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Some of you may know about Shadowbane, and some of you may be hearing the name for the first time. But here are some thoughts on this whole big Forgotten Realms series I'm writing. (Originally posted on my website: erikscottdebie.com/2011/12/18/weaving-a-...)

THE STORY:

The Shadowbane series is all about my ephemeral, troubled hero: Kalen “Shadowbane” Dren.

When he first appeared as Shadowbane in Downshadow (book 1), Kalen was an uncompromising thief-turned-paladin who routinely bent the law in his one-man war against evil. He is chosen by the dead god of guardians, Helm, and gifted with a powerful magic sword (Vindicator) to cleanse the world of darkness.

Now in Shadowbane (book 2), Kalen returns to the thieves’ city of his birth, where his

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Merry Christmas, folks! It’s been a few weeks since I posted, so I thought I would drop by and provide an update for what’s going on with me these days.

Prince of Ravens (fiction): I am currently wrapping up my second draft of Prince of Ravens, which will be available in the summer of 2012 as an ebook. Prince of Ravens marks the return of a character of mine that I haven’t written about in ten years: the rogue, sorcerer, and general troublemaker Jack Ravenwild, native son of the city of Raven’s Bluff. Jack was the protagonist of my novel City of Ravens, which I regard as some of the best writing I’ve ever done. As City of Ravens readers might expect, he soon becomes entangled in all sorts of fraud, scheming, skullduggery, and misadventure. I’ll probably

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[Mostly cross-posted from my Blog]

Bill, the Gamesmaster (no not that kind silly), of our role-playing game group - referred to as 'Geek Club' by all and sundry - has been slaving away over a hot Obsidian Portal 'campaign wiki' (will webby wonders never cease? I remember attempting to affect a similar thing a few years ago by trying to get the Wikipedia engine running on my web domain, to track all of the characters, locations and evidence in the Call of Cthulhu RPG 'Masks of Nyarlathotep' campaign.) In the face of such community-spirited narrative-bolstering, I just had to do my thing and add a bit of art to the general flurry or activity.



So this is me at Geek Club. I'm a member of a race called the Tieflings, and get your spare change out, because I'm a Bard. You've got to love a bard....

For anyone who's interested, I now have a Q&A with Richard Lee Byers group on Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/group/show/57592.Q_A_w...

The recent reintroduction of Kara-Tur in the pages of Dragon magazine, has set-off a few complaints of stereotyping, which reminded me of the topic of real world analogues in campaign settings. While Kara-Tur is undeniably an adaptation of Southeast Asia, this is oddly rare in Fourth Edition: one of the design goals of the redesign of the Forgotten Realms (also known as the "nuking of the Realms") was the removal of real world analogues.

But why? This is one of the odder changes to the Realms. The benefits of most of the others tweaks (reduction in gods, removal of high level NPCs, re-addition of mystery) are obvious, almost inarguable. But what are the benefits of removing real world analogues?

Pros

The largest benefit of adding a real world analogue to your fantasy campaign setting

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O clube RPGArautos convidam todos a participarem nosso evento no dia 16 de Outubro de 2011, a partir das 10 horas, no divertido e animado espaço da Ludus Luderia, a quem agradecemos imensamente pela amistosa recepção. A Ludus fica na Rua Treze de Maio, 972, em São Paulo. Os interessados deverão se inscrever pelo e-mail inscricao@rpgarautos.com.br. Apenas os jogadores pré-inscritos estarão dispensados do pagamento de couvert lúdico, que permite a utilização do espaço. Os demais deverão pagar um valor de normalmente R$ 20,00 para entrar na casa. Além disso, nossas vagas são limitadas!!! Aceitaremos inscrições até as 11 horas do dia 15, sábado. Ou até o fim das

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Today is the ebook release of Dreams Spheres, which is book V of the Songs & Swords series. 

In this story, Danilo Thann and Arilyn Moonblade learn that the anti-elf bias of Waterdeep's nobility has reached a new and deadly level.

Here's a link to the Amazon.com page for those who want more info.

There's a lot going on in this story--perhaps a bit too much. Readers are more divided in their opinions of this book than any of my other Forgotten Realms stories, with the possible exception of Windwalker and its unconventional ending.  Whether you liked it, hated it, or responded with a resounding "meh...", I'd love to hear your thoughts.

It's great to see the backlist coming out in ebook format.  I hope you're enjoying revisiting old friends, or getting acquainted

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It's good to see the backlist coming out in ebook format.  This week the first three books of the Songs & Swords series (Elfshadow, Elfsong, and  Silver Shadows) became available as ebook "reprints." 

The timing is particularly good, since Elfshadow, my first FR novel, turns 20 this month.  One more year, and it can walk into a tavern and order feywine without worrying about getting carded.   

Hi Again everyone !

Well as promised in my last post i'm posting the first part of my sons (aged 13) character background for the new D&D campaign. We spent some time last week with the other players developing ideas for character backgrounds and below is my son's. Now let me explain why i'm posting this.

My son has played RPG's for about 4 years now on and off. During that time he has never really roleplayed as such. I appreciate that might sound harsh but we have both acknowledged that what he called RP and what I call RP are, or were, intrinsically different. He likes to simply shoot guns, swing swords and blow stuff up. He really is not interested in background. With the help of one of my experienced gaming buddies I think we might have now created a RP Monster. 

I hope you

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