17 Sep 2015

Listen to me on the Meeple Nation Board Game Podcast

by | posted in: Board Games, Podcasts | 0
I play board games.
Siedler box
I try hard not to play bad board games. I play excellent board games created by talented designers, developed by smart companies, and produced well with quality components. I owned Settlers of Catan and El Grande in 1997 (both in German) and proudly shared those games with as many people as would listen. Board games were back, baby!
 El Grande box
Since the late 90s, board games have skyrocketed to one of the best things you could be doing on a Thursday night with your friends. The best board games of the last 20 years are so well designed and developed that they set an extremely high standard of entertainment. All games published today must create a play experience good enough to attract the attention of gamers with so many options available. Each year, thousands of new games flood the market, and the best ones always rise to the top.
400-400
I talk about board games on a podcast called Meeple Nation. You can find Meeple Nation on iTunes, Stitcher, or whatever podcatcher you like. You can also find us at www.meeplenation.com. My excellent co-conspirators are Nathan Howard and Brent Mair. Meeple Nation is currently on episode 74 in its second year. We review board games, discuss issues in the industry, and interview game designers and publishers. Some of the insiders we’ve interviewed are Seth Jaffe and Michael Mendes of Tasty Minstrel Games, Ryan Bruns of Mayday Games, Ben Hillyard of Daedalus Productions, Chris Urinko of Daft Concepts, and Max Holliday of Ginger Ale Games.
Check us out.
7 Sep 2015

Why I don’t have a favorite color

by | posted in: Board Games, Podcasts | 1 
First published at Meeple Nation on 

Is it weird that I don’t have a favorite color? My brother’s play red and yellow respectively. At our gaming group, one dude plays orange, one green, and one purple (or blue if purple is not a color in the game). Me? I have no preference, at all. Really. The reason has everything to do with the board game Clue.

Which may seem weird as the characters in Clue are named after specific colors. Mr. Green, Miss Scarlet, and Col. Mustard are iconic figures of my childhood. Color Identity in Clue is even more apparent because you are representing that person in a story. So, why then do I not have a color identity, preference, or favorite.

I have many older cousins. These cousins and my older brother loved playing games and developed a strange affection for the game Clue to the point of not only claiming a specific color but also adopting the nicknames of their Clue avatars. My older brother already decided that he played Red, so he had no qualms about playing as Miss Scarlet, though he didn’t claim the nickname.

The problem was that I was the annoying younger cousin who wouldn’t go play with the little kids and kept trying to play with the older boys. By the time I was deemed worthy to join in the fun, all of the colors had been claimed. Green, red, blue, white, purple and yellow were all taken, and not just for Clue. My brother and cousins claimed their favorite colors for all games, and life in general.

And I never claimed a color, even though there was still a significant part of the rainbow remaining. Even away from the table top, when asked what my favorite color was, I would reply that I didn’t have one. Even after the release of Master Detective Clue, where new colors and characters were introduced, I found no real interest in claiming a character/color, and my younger cousins quickly claimed them. I didn’t really mind though, because not having a favorite color was something that was unique about me.

Decades later, my brother still plays red. Occasionally, my cousin still refers to each other as Plum, Green, and Mustard. We don’t play Clue much, but we all still love to play games. I still don’t have a favorite color, and I don’t mind at all. I like all colors and all meeples equally.

6 Sep 2015

My Project Backlog

by | posted in: Writing | 0

I have a large backlog of stories, projects and ideas that I am going to complete soon. These are mostly recent projects that I’ve been working on the last two years, projects I believe are worth publishing and worth other people’s time and money to read. I am seeking representation and publication. I am going to take one project and self publish it, though, to get it out there and try that avenue. So, to get it out there, and as a promise to whoever reads my blog, these are the works you’re going to see soon.

Novels

  1. I’m currently polishing a young adult novel about a modern-day science fair girl who discovers her estranged father is very much a mad scientist, the CEO of a laboratory of mad scientist. Instead of some Daddy-daughter time, she is force to attend the local high school, and she quickly discovers the parents have been experimenting on their children. She finds her life threatened, but uses her science and wit to escape all but her father’s malicious plans.I am going to try to publish this novel through traditional means.
  2. BethyMy second novel is a Middle Grade fiction that I co-developed with my blind daughter (8-years-old at the time). Her favorite stories were the Capital Mysteries and Cinderella, so we mashed the two together. Cindy is a blind girl whose father marries the President of the United States. She moves into the White House and struggles to find her place. Soon her father dies and her stepmother becomes very wicked toward Cindy, forcing her to do chores, hoping to get Cindy to find a new home. Cindy accidentally overhears things she should not, and her life is now in danger. With the help of a young Secret Service agent, Cindy becomes a spy in the White House, hoping to stay ahead of her step mother’s plans to get rid of her.I’m planning to self publish this story. I think it has an audience that will enjoy this very much. I think the actions and behaviors of my protagonist reflect a blind girl her age. I am modeling how being blind affects her after my own daughter.
  3. I am in the rewriting stage of my high fantasy novel, currently at 56,000 words. I need to expand several scenes and finish the side plots of a few characters so I expect it will end up around 90,000 words when I’m finished. This world has a unique magic system and I love the characters. It needs a lot of work, but will be my project after I get the 1 and 2 out the door.

Comic Books

I love comic books, and I grew up reading whatever books I could get my hands on. I have several projects in mind, and have writing scripts. I need to find an artist to collaborate with on these projects. I don’t have the funds to invest in the artwork, so the collaboration would be on spec. If you are interested, please email me at ryan@madsciencefiction.com and provide some samples.

  1. I have the first 6 scripts written for a comic book about aging a group of rugged Vietnam vets who escourt a winged princess back to her world through a portal deep in the Vietnam jungle to regain her thrown.
  2. I have a script for a one shot about a British princess who, after insisting on joining the military, becomes trapped behind enemy lines.
  3. I have another script for another one shot about a women who, after losing her leg in Afghanistan, goes to a water park with her friends, exposing her scars to the world. They find the park swarming with secret service agents protecting the President’s daughter, who is in attendance. The woman quickly discovers a plot by the agent’s to kidnap the daughter and jumps into action to save her.

Screenplays

I am also polishing a full-length screenplay, which I hope to enter into a contest soon. This story is my ode to the movie Real Genius, which is one of my favorite movies.

Short Stories

I also have a few dozen short stories that I am planning to finish or turn into something larger.

  1. I want to enter a story about a girl who wakes up in a bio dome 300 years after her death to find that she is part of a project to save humanity. The only other people alive are a young boy and his sanity-challenged mother. To keep the project going, she must get stay alive long enough to get pregnant.
  2. I am going to put up a few of my older short stories on this website for free. Look for them soon.
28 Aug 2015

Let the MAD SCIENCES begin!

by | posted in: Writing | 0

Hello. I’m Ryan and I write fiction. I’ve been writing fiction most of my life, though I don’t have any publications to show for it yet, largely because I’ve been working a day job and raising a family. My day job is technical writing, which is sort of like writing fiction, but instead of writing interesting things like characters and plot, I write about resin and bushings and software. My family includes a wife and three children. One of my children is blind, which has brought many challenges, but has also brought our family many opportunities.

Still, I have been writing and not publishing. In the past, I would write something and then when it was almost finished, I would move on to the next thing. This was likely because of fear of rejection or whatevers. Well no more! I’ve decided to follow in the footsteps of the great Dr. Frankenstein and take the silent death of all the characters in my fiction and create for them the life they deserve, published and out into the wide world.

ItsAlive

Basically, I’m going to mad science the shit out of my writing!