My interview with best-selling author Margaret Weis is featured in the new issue of Kobold Quarterly magazine. In it, she shares a fun story about working with Joss Whedon and Universal to create the Serenity roleplaying game.

KQ #15 also includes new traps for 4th Edition D&D and Pathfinder RPG, mounted combat rules for 4E D&D, druid variants and new weapons for Pathfinder, the ecology of the Giant Ant, Monte Cook on simulation, and the beautiful cover by William O'Connor you see there.

You can get the issue in print or PDF. Convenient!

A psychedelic take on the olden days of Dungeons & Dragons adorns the Wizards of the Coast D&D bus at the Penny Arcade Expo. (Bear in mind the "olden days" were when I started playing. I am olden.)

The parking lot also featured a tent where WoTC demoed Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game: An Essential D&D Starter (4th Edition D&D) -- aka "the red box"-- and the Castle Ravenloft Board Game; giant dice that people could lift and heave; and a stage for activities such as a spelling bee for words like Blibdoolpoolp, Flumph and Zagyg.

The Red Box demo was a lot of fun. I suspect I'm a key target audience for this product: I enjoy 4th Edition but when I play it I'm often overwhelmed by all of the stuff I have to manage just to hit monsters. My character sheet is like a control panel for a fighter jet. Red Box appears to fix that -- I can go as simple or complex as I want.

Over on his Facebook page, Paizo's Erik Mona says that they're planning to release a starter set for Pathfinder within a year or two. Bringing in new players and activating dormant gamers = good.