Author | Billzilla

Bill Bodden has been writing professionally for more nearly a decade. A contributor to Madison Magazine, Geek Monthly, Scrye, Knucklebones and Games Unplugged magazines, Bill's writing was included in the Hobby Games: The 100 Best and the forthcoming Family Games: The 100 Best essay collections. Bill has also had gaming-related work published by Green Ronin Publishing, Fantasy Flight Games, Mongoose Publishing, and Games Workshop/Black Library. Bill works as the wholesale sales rep for Green Ronin, and in his spare time paints miniatures, reads, plays games and cleans up after four cats. Bill lives in Wisconsin with his wife, Tracy.


Queen of Swords Press: Great Stories Make Great Books

Posted on November 9, 2021 by

Queen of Swords Press has been publishing outstanding fiction for a number of years now. Featuring an emphasis on stories with LGBTQ representation, they are creating a space for themselves in the publishing world by bringing great stories to the world. I asked Queen of Swords chief Catherine Lundoff – herself a successful author and editor – a few questions about Queen of Swords and how they came to be.

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Design Diary: Tales of the Changing Breeds

Posted on April 3, 2021 by

When I was first approached about writing a story for an anthology covering the Changing Breeds, I was intrigued by the possibilities. Changing Breeds refers to White Wolf’s Werewolf: the Apocalypse game: more specifically, Changing Breeds are all the other were-creatures besides wolves: tigers, foxes, panthers, crows, bears, and many more. Werewolves are by far the most numerous of the werecreatures in White Wolf’s World of Darkness, but the others still exist, and most are still fighting the good fight against the Wyrm’s agents.

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Drive Thru Sale Brings the Halloween Treats!

Posted on October 25, 2019 by

DriveThruRPG has launched their annual Halloween sale, and as usual, it’s a doozy; thousands of items — more than ten thousand items on Drive Thru RPG alone — are marked at 25% off. As usual, the suite of Drive Thru sites — DriveThruRPG, DriveThruFiction, DriveThruCards, DMsGuild, and Storytellers Vault — are each offering this sale on a huge selection of items. I thought I’d take a moment to highlight several items I’m particularly fond of to illustrate the depth and breadth of what’s available now through October 31. Most (but not all) follow the Halloween theme of horror and the supernatural.

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Scarred Lands: Desert of Lost Relics Design Diary

Posted on September 5, 2019 by

When I started out running a D&D-based game for friends a few months ago, I was thinking about converting the adventure into something I could publish on the Slarecian Vault, Onyx Path’s community content site for the Scarred Lands. I talked about that game back in March, in this blog post over on my website.

After my game wrapped, I put the finishing touches on the write-up, and turned it over to the person who was managing the project: Travis Legge. Travis and I first met at Madison, Wisconsin-based GameholeCon last year (I think – maybe we’d met before and I just forgot) and talked about a project wherein multiple people would each contribute a chapter to an extended D&D campaign using the Scarred Lands setting. I was intrigued, but also had concerns. Collaborative work takes a lot of communication to pull off successfully, and a solid guiding hand to keep things moving and make sure all the strings line up, or at least connect, to keep the storyline flowing.

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Design Diary: Desert of Lost Relics

Posted on July 23, 2019 by

Available now at DriveThruRPG.com I’ve recently finished my third community content project, and it went live today, Tuesday July 23, 2019. It’s an adventure for D&D 5E in the Scarred Lands setting, and it’s called Desert of Lost Relics. Desert of Lost Relics is suitable for 4-6 characters of levels 4-6. I wrote this adventure […]

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Certain Dark Things a Worthy Vampire Tale

Posted on June 30, 2019 by

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Certain Dark Things, about a Mexican vampire on the run from gangs, the police, and rival vampires trying to wipe out her family.

The story begins with Domingo, a teen-aged picker who makes his living going through garbage to find things to salvage and sell. On his way to work, he sees a striking young woman on the train, and he finds himself smitten — even obsessed — with this strange young woman walking a rather vicious-looking dog.

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Betrayal Legacy Board Game Review

Posted on May 24, 2019 by

15 years ago, the Avalon Hill division of Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro released a board game called Betrayal at the House on the Hill, to little fanfare. It was a game of exploring a classic haunted house, but with a twist: eventually, as the mansion was explored and the tension grew, one player would be […]

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Design Diary: Madison By Night for Storytellers Vault

Posted on December 4, 2017 by


Available from Storytellers Vault

    When I was approached about writing up the city I live in as a stretch goal for the Vampire: the Masquerade book Anarchs Unbound, I was thrilled. It was my first chance to contribute — in a meaningful, but small way — to the World of Darkness setting. My write-up was a side-bar, really — only about a thousand words — but the offer was made to me with a very short deadline in mind — less than a week, in fact — from accepting the job to turning over my completed draft. Once completed, I knew that there was more to this story, and I wanted the chance to expand on that very basic summary.

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    Into the Mist: Humans Are Tasty!

    Posted on January 26, 2017 by

    In Lee Murray’s most recent novel, Into The Mist, we follow the exploits of Sergeant Taine McKenna’s squad of professional soldiers, responsible for the safety of the group of geologists and biologists sent out to follow up on tantalizing news of the discovery of a large gold nugget. The squad is assigned to baby-sit this group of civilian scientists as they wander into the bush in search of the site where the gold was discovered. To make matters more complicated, shadowy corporate entities are interfering with the expedition, hoping to get the jump on their competitors and claim the mineral rights for their own firm. Tuhoe separatist rebels make an appearance as well, and they show up at a most inopportune time as the scientists and soldiers are struggling for their very lives against not only the elements and the rough terrain of Te Urewera National Park, but also against something more sinister — and hungry: a creature that seems hell-bent on picking them off one by one, and that shows a level of unnatural patience and cunning in hunting them down.

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    The Poe Twisted Anthology Satisfies

    Posted on October 17, 2016 by

    Many of the works of Edgar Allen Poe, while considered classics of literature today, don’t often match up with modern literary sensibilities. It was somewhat surprising for me then, to come across Red Stylo Media’s The Twisted Poe Anthology, an excellent collection of seven original tales inspired by the works of Poe. Published in 2011, this collection does not consist of adaptations — retellings of Poe stories — but rather, a brand new batch of original tales in the same spirit as Poe’s work. All of the individual stories are available as digital downloads for 99 cents each; I have added links to the descriptions of those stories for convenience’s sake.

    The first story, “Absolution”, is written by Jason Ciaramella and illustrated by Enrique “Zeke” Savory, Jr. Absolution is a tragic tale of loss and guilt inspired by Poe’s poem “The Raven.”

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    Looking For A Particular Demon? Look No Further!

    Posted on September 8, 2015 by

    Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures by Theresa Bane
    There have been an awful lot of demons mentioned in the bible, the Koran, the Torah, in classical literature, and elsewhere. You practically need a scorecard to keep track of all of them. McFarland & Company Publishers has produced a massive volume cataloging the numerous evil entities from the void, The Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures.

    Collected by Theresa Bane, this work includes a vast array of not only demons, but includes references to and entries for angelic entities, as well as a few with less clearly defined loyalties. These entities were written about in the religious texts of such diverse faiths as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Ashurism, and from such ancient cultures as Sumeria, China, Scythians, Mayans, and many African cultures.

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    The Hungry Dead, a Series of Tasty Morsels

    Posted on July 15, 2015 by

    The Hungry Dead
    Selected & Edited by Lester Smith
    146 pages
    Popcorn Press

    In a tribute to the speed at which the publishing industry is changing these days, The Hungry Dead is the first collection – that I’m aware of, at least – that purports to have been solicited, edited, collected and at the printer within one month. The fact that the solicitation process took place at least partly online may account for some of that speed.

    The Hungry Dead is a collection of poetry and short stories that mostly hovers around the title’s stated theme. The excellent and evocative cover image shows a slightly decayed – yet no less well turned-out – young woman, a plate of brains in front of her, gold-plated knife and fork in hand.

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    Matt Forbeck: Monster Academy and His “12-For-12” Campaign

    Posted on March 25, 2014 by

    Matt Forbeck has been a bit busy over the past year. He started a series of Kikcstarters to support and promote a crazy idea: that he could write and prepare for publication one novel a month for twelve months. I caught up with Matt recently to ask him about one of the most recent books in that series, Monster Academy 1: I Will Not Eat People.

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    Review of Kenneth Hite’s The Nazi Occult

    Posted on August 12, 2013 by

    What is the fascination with Nazis and their pursuit of occult knowledge? The popularity of Raiders of the Lost Ark offers some evidence that we as a culture find the concepts intriguing to say the least. Perhaps, deep down, even the most cynical skeptic wants to believe that supernatural magic is real.

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    Reap The Whirlwind (Vampire: the Requiem) Review

    Posted on June 19, 2013 by

    I first got hooked into the World of Darkness about three years ago; I became intrigued by the Vampire: The Requiem setting thanks to a particularly good game I was in at the time, and my passion for the world hasn’t diminished since then. In support of Free RPG Day (June 15 this year) Onyx Path released a sharp-looking product called Reap the Whirlwind, a complete quick-start introducing new players to the vampire branch of the World of Darkness.

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    Interview with “Tale of the Wisconsin Werewolf” author Edison T. Crux

    Posted on December 12, 2012 by

    Edison T. Crux is an author whose first novel, “Tale of the Wisconsin Werewolf” debuts on December 15. The author will be attending an event at Pegasus Games

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    Visionary Comics’ C. Edward Sellner Talks Shop

    Posted on November 1, 2012 by

    C. Edward Sellner is the Chief Creative Officer for Visionary Comics, having launched the studio in 2006. Having embraced the digital publishing revolution several years ago, Visionary is currently one of the largest digital publishing houses in the comics industry.

    We sat down with Mr. Sellner to talk about comics in general and the Deadlands license in particular.

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    Matt Forbeck Talks 12-for-12 And Kickstarter

    Posted on September 18, 2012 by


    Matt Forbeck is an award-winning game designer and author whose most recent endeavor, “12-for-12”, is a personal challenge issued to himself to write a novel a month for an entire year. I caught up with Matt after his most recent Kickstarter campaign concluded to ask him how things were going.

    You’ve run a number of highly successful Kickstarters in support of your 12-for-12 initiative; what’s the most important thing you’ve learned about running a Kickstarter project?

    It’s a lot more work than you think. While I ran my Kickstarters, they seemed to suck up every bit of time I had as I kept thinking about ways to improve them. That’s especially true toward the end, when you’re either getting desperate to hit your goals or thrilled that you’ve shot past them.

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    Carnacki: Heaven And Hell Review

    Posted on August 3, 2012 by


    I’m a fan of Carnacki. The somewhat stuffy British paranormal investigator, whose adventures were first cataloged more than a hundred years ago in Carnacki The Ghost Finder by his creator, author William Hope Hodgson, have fascinated me since I was urged to read them by a good friend. I was curious, therefore, when I discovered that another author, Scotsman William Meikle, had taken up the mantle of telling some new Carnacki tales in Carnacki: Heaven and Hell by Dark Regions Press. I tried to be objective going in, but my fondness for the character had me pretty excited to read some new adventures.

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    Flash Fire Mini Reviews: Deadlands Comics

    Posted on July 18, 2012 by

    Visionary Comics brings the weird west world of Deadlands to full-color life with a series of comics by a variety of artists and writers. Five different issues featuring five different main stories combine to give readers the full-bore Deadlands experience. Combining elements of the classic Western with Steampunk – a fairly natural fit, as it happens – and horror, Deadlands offers a unique experience to gamers. It was only natural that such a two-fisted, four-color setting would make the jump to a more visual medium – comics.

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