Feel the Magic
It feels good to have so much in production and going on behind the scenes. The Redux TMNT RPG is magnificent. Everyone loves the written remembrances and art tributes – some are touching, some are beautiful, some are funny, all are worth reading. Many of you will be able to relate to one or more of them and will enjoy reading all of them. The list of writers range from film writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber and TV producer Ciro Nieli to comic book and RPG creators like Jim Lawson, Sophie Campbell, Freddie E. Williams II, Louis Antonio Delgado, Kevin Long, and many others, as well as notable friends of Erick Wujcik.
Sean Owen Roberson has been breathing new life into the redux books and all the TMNT & OS Kickstarter items. Everything is looking beautiful and reading well. He’s been lovingly rediscovering and working on Erick Wujcik’s original game materials. What a joyful project! Gamers worldwide are going to love these RPGs more than ever.
Note: Kickstarter Backers, remember the pledge manager WILL close at the end of June, so please fill in your Backerkit survey if you haven’t done so already, and think about adding Exclusives now, while you still can because that capability ENDS when the BackerKit pledge manager closes in a week. When we say Kickstarer exclusive we mean it!
Wayne and Alex are working to keep many projects moving along, including sending in something like 20 books for reprint. Our cheerful warehouse guy, Caleb, is excited to be shipping so many books to gamers and distributors. Me and Sean too!
As for me, I’m swept up in a whirlwind of activity. I’m deep into Yin-Sloth Expeditions and writing up a storm. I love this book. I’m even doing a few new pieces of art for it.
When I’m not writing, planning, or handling business, I have been doing a series of video chats with JM DeFoggi covering, in depth, the history of Palladium Books. This will be expansive and pointed discussions to eventually appear on Palladium Books’ YouTube channel in various forms and segments. This idea is the result of our fans asking me to write an autobiography or history of Palladium Books. I would like to except I have a zillion game books to write that people want even more. Besides, it’s more fun to hear and see the person talk about their creative journey. These chats are inspired, in part, by videos with the Glitterbois and Legion of Myth, among others, and the clear fan interest in these subjects and the history of gaming. I don’t know about you, but I would love to be able to watch videos with industry iluminaries like Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Greg Stafford, Erick Wujcik, Keith Parkinson, and others, but they’re no longer with us and no such video archive exists. The recent loss of Kathy Simmons and Julius Rosenstein have made this feel all the more imperative to both me and Sean, who has insisted on comprehensively documenting these memories.
I think JM and I have 15 subjects in our chronological outline, and we may add a few more as I remember additional fun stories and Sean keeps suggesting subjects we should include. It has been fun and I hope you’ll enjoy watching them as much as JM and I are enjoying making them. By the way, I intend to continue a similar series of interviews with the Glitterbois. Why? Because they are approaching the subject from a different point of view, ask different questions, have a different audience, and I like chatting with them. Plus there are so many details and events to talk about that I could do a hundred interviews and still touch on different subjects within them.
On a personal note, everyday I’m trying to be my best self and celebrate Kathy’s beautiful life as best I can. I’m trying to be the light. Meaning, I’m trying to embrace the beauty and magic life has to offer. Life is hard and it can get ugly at times. I’m choosing to embrace the light. To focus on fun, kindness, and goodness and to pay it forward. So please, try not to let day-to-day strife, worry, and hardships get you down. Don’t lose hope. Remember that role-playing games are a wonderful, fun way to escape your everyday stress with friends and fellow gamers – even if it’s only for a few hours.
Kathy is my renewed inspiration. I have come to realize she created beauty, joy, and real world magic without even realizing she was doing so. I know this from the endless stories by neighbors and people we knew. And from complete strangers.
I have had a cavalcade of strangers – people who don’t know Kathy has passed – who will see me in the front yard and walk over to tell me how much they loved our Halloween display, or how much they liked to stop and chat with Kathy on their way to the nature trail at the end of our street. Others have told me how they enjoyed Kathy’s lovely landscaping and especially how much they enjoy the menagerie of wildlife attracted to our home and to her.
Just yesterday morning, the water meter reader waved and motioned to me as he made a detour down the driveway toward the house. I was worried there was problem, but he smiled and said he had been doing this work in our area for the last three years, and our house is always his favorite. He explained he always enjoys seeing the dozens of squirrels and wide variety of colorful birds, and sometimes a deer or other wildlife in our yard. It was magical, he said, and always made him feel happy. He then commented on the beautiful white cat he saw trot across the yard. Just one of the 9 feral cats Kathy had neutered, spayed, and fed daily. She cared about and fed everyone and everything. Her gentle, inner beauty just spilled out into the world and made our home a magical paradise in the middle of the city. There are so many enchanting moments that feel like a scene are from Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.
I hope I can keep the magic going as well as she did, and be the light that helps to show people that there is magic in the world and in our books. I encourage you to be the light in your part of the world and game on.
– Kevin Siembieda, Game designer, writer, friend
