FREE BOARD GAME!!!

Tracy and Laura Hickman are giving away preview copies of their board game Santa's Sleigh Ride as a free download. Go to reindeergamer.com/ to get it. A color printer, card stock, and tape will be needed to bring the game to life, but that's not asking too much is it?

If you like the game, you have the opportunity to buy the full version. It comes with expanded rules, more printable components, and (drum roll) a full-color game board shipped to you. The first one hundred game boards will be autographed by the creators.

You may know the Hickmans as the authors of the Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonlance series of novels. I got Tracy's Xtreme Dungeon Mastery as a Christmas present last year. It is a wonderful guide to becoming a great role-playing game officiant.

This is not the Hickmans' first foray into direct-from-creator distribution either. Earlier this year they set up dragonsbard.com as a way of selling subscriptions to their novel in progress. Subscribers (like me) got to read each chapter of their novel, Dragon's Bard: Eventide as it was being written through weekly postings to a password secured site. Subscribers could comment in the site's forums, discuss the process with the authors, and even make copy edits. (I caught a few typos myself that will be corrected for the print version.) Not only do you get to take part in this behind-the-scenes experience in publishing. Subscribers also receive a signed and numbered limited first printing of the hardcover book.

Eventide's subscriptions are now closed, but you can still get a copy of the book. Better yet they've announced that the second book in the trilogy will be available for subscription early next year.

To sum up, Tracy and Laura Hickman are amazingly creative people finding new was to get their ideas to their audience. Show them some love!