I know, I know. I’ve really let Reclaimer languish lately, and I’m sorry about that. I haven’t forgotten about it. Honest. I’ll get back to our hero and his quest to save the universe. Eventually. Maybe Reach will provide some much needed rejuvenation.

In the meantime, though, I haven’t dropped completely out of the fiction business. I’ve been honing my craft with some (super-)short fiction over at Ficly. The deal is that no story can be more than 1024 characters, so they’re really more like bite-size vignettes, which is perfect for me right now with my busy schedule.

How about a sample? Alright. Here you go.
——
Clanks at Midnight

The place smelled like shit and piss.

“I thought these things didn’t have bodily excretions,” I called out to my partner.

“They’re not supposed to,” she replied. “For some reason this one does. Someone’s been hard at work making a clank that can process food the way humans do.”

The clank was a junker, alright, especially since someone had unloaded several rounds of buckshot into the thing. Oil and grease spattered the wall around where it was slumped, and a puddle of very human sewage was leaking onto the floor around the thing.

“Makes you wonder what happened here,” I said thoughtfully. No answer. I looked around. “Mel?”

I found her in the next room looking at a scrap of paper she’d found on the desk. I looked over her shoulder and read: Nobody loves a clank at midnight.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Hell if I know, Joe. Nothing about this makes sense. We still haven’t found Mr. Peabody.” She sighed. “Maybe when we find him, we’ll have our answers.”

Maybe, I thought, but I wouldn’t count on it.
——
If you liked this, there’s plenty more where that came from and new additions on a regular basis. I try (try!) to write something every day, but that’s not always easy (or possible). Feel free to head over and check out my writing.

Also, Reclaimer regular HSAR maintains a presence on Ficly. He and I have been tag-teaming a science fiction story called Cartographer. It’s a fun experiment in cooperative story-telling that Reclaimer fans may find right up their alley.

So, while Reclaimer’s taking a break, check out some more fiction, and don’t hesitate to leave your comments. As always, feedback is not just welcome, it’s highly coveted.

Cheers!

Today is the first day of GenCon (and my birthday), so I’ll be down in Indy all day today through Saturday (I love living within easy driving distance) wandering the halls, visiting the Exhibitors area, and demoing as many games as I can. This will be my first GenCon, despite living in the greater Indianapolis area for the last several years. If you happen to be at GenCon this weekend, as well, comment on this post and let me know!

I’m excited to finally be able to attend GenCon Indy this year. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for several years now, especially since it takes place right in my back yard. I’ll be strolling the halls on Thursday and Friday for sure and possibly Saturday, as well, taking in as many sights as possible, meeting a number of people with whom I’ve only ever met through email, and just generally having a good time. I would be thrilled to meet as many of you as possible who will be in attendance, as well, so if you’re planning to be at GenCon Indy this year and would be interested in touching base with me while there, leave a note in the comments below or email me and let me know.

I also still have most of my stock of “I Flew” t-shirts, and I’d really like to sell as many off as possible so that I can stop storing them. At this point, I’m not even really looking to make a profit so much as just recoup my expenses, so I’ll be letting them go for just $8 apiece. GenCon Indy would be a great place to grab a shirt from me and save yourself the additional shipping costs. If you’ll be at GenCon and want a t-shirt, email me with your interest and shirt size. We can make arrangements to meet for the exchange from there.

I’m looking forward to experiencing this event, and I hope to see you there!

I’m having a hard time finding the time and energy required to produce Reclaimer comics on a regular basis. The part of the process that’s really hanging me up is the screenshot capture step. Most evenings right now I just haven’t had the time to fire up my Xbox and set up the scenes I need for the next two or three comics. As such, I’m asking for some help.

I’m looking for four to six individuals who would be willing to volunteer to produce screenshots for Reclaimer. I’ll send you a description of the types of images I’m looking for, then you collect said images and email them back to me. This would greatly aid me because then I can set up just about anywhere and put everything together. Not only will you be doing me a great service, you’ll receive acknowledgment and an official Reclaimer t-shirt.

If you’re interested in helping out, email me and let me know.

Here’s some media I captured from my Reach Beta experience last night. The first clip is my first ever assassination, complete with animation glitch. The second is another assassination, and I must say, I love the visuals on Elite assassinations. The last two clips are of back-to-back stickies from two different perspectives. All clips were rendered using Bungie Render Points.

As for the image gallery below, you can click to embiggen—or go to my Reach Fileshare.

I admit it. Reclaimer has been taking a back seat to other creative pursuits recently. It’s not a permanent condition, of course, but I thought I’d take a moment to share what it is I’ve been up to lately.

I’ve wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons for quite a while now, but I’ve had a hard time finding games on a schedule that works with my activities—so I decided to DM my own campaign. Of course, I’ve never actually played a single game of D&D in my life, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading over the last several weeks. I’ve been slowly collecting the 4th Edition books and now have copies of all three Players Handbooks, both DM guides, both Monster Manuals, Underdark, and the Eberron Campaign Guide. I’ll add more volumes to my collection as money permits.

There are also a lot of other really nifty tools I’ve been playing with in order to get my first adventure ready for play. The official D&D Character Builder and Adventure Tools programs have been really handy in building character sheets and referencing monsters for encounters. An additional tool I’ve been playing with this week is Profantasy’s Campaign Cartographer tool with the City Designer add-on. I’ve created a town, called Darkfall, for my first adventure, and I’ve been learning how to use the software to map out the town. The learning curve is a bit steep, but I’m finally getting the hang of it. The inset image is just a small part of Darkfall—and an incomplete one, at that.

I’m looking forward to running my campaign, and it’s looking like I’ll have a full party of six adventurers for the first session. I love telling stories, as Reclaimer fans have no doubt deduced.

Consider this an open thread. Tell me your favorite moments playing D&D, either as a player or a DM—or both. And I promise I’ll be getting back to producing comics again soon.

I was going to push out a Reclaimer comic today, but we had to put our dog—who was not just a pet but a friend and family member—to sleep this morning. She’d been struggling with her health for several weeks due to a resurgence of an auto-immune disorder she’d had for years, and up until last night, she hadn’t been quite ready to be done. It’s a bittersweet day for us because, on the one hand, she is no longer in discomfort but, on the other hand, we already miss her terribly.

If you’re interested, there is a gallery for Sheba over on my website.

I meant to post these way back when they happened, but I was actually able to catch up with the Halo 3: ODST truck on its stop in Indianapolis last summer. I didn’t post pictures then because, well, things happened and then other things happened and by the time I did get around to it, the game had already been out for a while, so I didn’t really see any point.

I did, however, finally get around to building my photo gallery on my personal site, and one of the galleries I uploaded were the pictures from this ODST stop—and I figured, Hey! Why not share the link with those of you over here who might be interested in seeing the pictures I took? You can find the gallery over here. Check it out, if you’d like.

And as an additional aside, apologies for the Reclaimer famine this month. I’ve had some personal stuff to deal with, most of which is more or less sorted out now. I just need to get through this week (and weekend), and hopefully, I’ll be able to get comics back up and running on Monday.

Sort of. Krevil sent me this YouTube video the other day. Apparently he obtained a Gold Elite Assault exclusive model from McFarlane toys and decided to repaint it as everyone’s favorite villain. The lighting’s not optimal, but it’s still wicked cool to see a Reclaimer character in the hands of a fan.

The polls are open for the 2009 Best of Halo Awards, and Reclaimer is up for Best Fan-Made Contribution again this year. Wanna show your support? Go vote! You’ve got a week to help put Reclaimer on top this year!