Daniel Solis

You have just one day left to get a bunch of family-friendly RPG PDFs, including Happy Birthday, Robot! Just go to the Bundle of Holding site and pay whatever you like. Beat the average threshold and you'll get even more RPGs! Here's the complete list on offer: Hero Kids : An ideal introduction to fantasy roleplaying for children aged 4 to 10. Mermaid Adventures : Exciting undersea adventures and strange mysteries. (Ages 6-11.) The Princes' Kingdom : Young heirs to the throne of Islandia, visiting the citizens of their land and solving problems. This bundle is the first .PDF version of The Princes' Kingdom sold anywhere! (Ages 5+, plus an adult.) Happy Birthday, Robot! : The charming storytelling game by Daniel Solis for families or classrooms. (Ages 9+ -- and especially good for grownups.) Adventures in Oz - Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road : A loving journey into the lands of L. Frank Baum. (Ages 8+.) Project Ninja Panda Taco : Jennife...

It's been a while since the news that Do and Happy Birthday Robot would be going out of print . We're working to set up our files for print-on-demand for those who still want to get their hands on a physical copy, but any new hardcover copies are not planned for the foreseeable future. Beyond the books, I've been thinking about whether either brand would be a good candidate to enter  the burgeoning storytelling board game market. In particular, Do may be well-served by converting many of the mechanics into card components. I can see a deck of cards expediting several parts of the storytelling process without changing any of the core rules. But would a direct port of Do into a card game be a worthy endeavor or should a Do card game be its own unique thing? Still set in the same universe, of course, but with entirely different mechanics more akin to a co-op strategy game? Happy to hear your thoughts on the matter!

You remember the last time Operation BSU played Happy Birthday, Robot! right? Oh boy. Thankfully, they acknowledge that they're gleefully corrupting what is meant to be a kid and family game. And boy, are they gleeful about it. When your first line opens with eating babies, that's how you know this will be an odd session. Set the table, tuck in your bib, and read the complete story here . Tune in to Operation BSU on Saturday nights, 10pm EDT. http://operationbsu.org and their Google Plus page . "Like a morning show, except better. And at night."

For many months, I've promised the story of Happy Birthday, Robot! and its license to Sandstorm, but each time I think it's over, it takes another strange turn. So, here's an overview of the story so far: I licensed HBR to Sandstorm. I got an advance on royalties. Sandstorm fell silent for many months. I heard third-hand that they ceased business operations. Now, we're going through formal steps to get my license back. If you want more detail, read on! Origin of Happy Birthday, Robot! I made a fun, family-friendly little storytelling game that seemed to have broad appeal. Folks on the internet liked it and I ran a couple successful playtests at Dreamation 2010. I ran a Kickstarter in 2010 to publish it as my first commercial product. It was one of the very early Kickstarter successes out of the indie RPG community. Evil Hat's Partnership Before launching the Kickstarter, I consulted with more experienced people about self-publishing and the costs therein...

Labyrinth Games & Puzzles in Washington D.C. just hosted a big event called a Taste of Storytelling, featuring Happy Birthday, Robot! and Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple . The store owner was very kind to host my wife and I over the weekend and give us a tour of the city. We saw lots of cool schtuff and there was way more to see than we could fit in one Saturday. We'll return soon! But the main event was on Sunday and it was awesome. About thirty attendees played six different sessions of either Do or HBR. It was my first time actually being in the room while others taught and ran my games, which was a surreal and exciting experience. Probably my favorite moment was when everyone fell quiet at the same time, long enough to overhear me ask "So... what could possibly go wrong with using a sword as a baseball bat?" During short one-shot games like these, I've been trying to relax the writing requirements of Do . Upside: It speeds up play quite a bit when pe...

Evil Hat's webstore has a 10% discount on most games, including Happy Birthday, Robot! and Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple . Same discount applies to PDFs, too.

Here's a resource for all teachers, parents, librarians, bookstore staff and who want to incorporate Happy Birthday, Robot! into kids' learning. Teacher and education consultant Cassie Krause offers gameplay tips, extension learning advice, and experience guiding a whole class in a single story. Best of all, it's totally free, licensed under Creative Commons from Smart Play Games . » Download Classroom Activity Guide for Happy Birthday, Robot!

Last week I noticed I was inching ever closer to a thousand Twitter followers. It thought, "Hey, I should do something nice for Mr. or Ms. 1,000." Turns out it was Mr. Matt Bogen who sent my count over two milliwheatons! As thanks, I'm sending him signed copies of Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple and Happy Birthday, Robot! » @MattBogen

Happy Birthday, Robot! was up for several awards at GenCon 2011. First up, HBR didn't win any of the categories in which it was nominated – but an awesome thing happened instead. Every time HBR was nominated, the presenters would each make a complimentary comment about the game. Heck, even the winner of Best Game took the time in his speech to talk about how much he wanted HBR to win. I also got some personal compliments from the host, so that was even more awesome. HBR had a very strong showing at the Indie RPG Awards, winning second-place in a number of categories. Here is the placement and judges' commentary from each category. Indie Game of the Year: First Runner Up with 21 points "Zagging when everything else zigs. I love that I'm seeing games aimed as intro games--and for youngins--that are less crunchy and more Narrativist. I've long wondered what the RPG world would look like if the jumping off point had been, say, fanfic rather than wargames....

Awesome! Alexander Williams ran a marathon three-session run of Happy Birthday, Robot! at the Tower. (You may recall his last report from this post .) This time, he played with a group that was almost entirely kids and it ended up being the craziest, weirdest story yet . Mikael Dahl posted this actual play report from playing Happy Birthday, Robot! Happy Birthday, Robot! Robot, asleep, was dreaming of cogs and gears - but slept through the alarm! Robot was late for the party, and everyone but Sally was already leaving the place. Sally ran to Robot's room, trying to save the party, but tripped. The crash only just woke Robot up. Sally got off the floor and sat up, shouting "Robot!" Together, they found the party and called their friends back, but the cake was a lie! Robot gasped in surprise and said "Sally, let's elope". "Yes", replied Sally, and held Robot close; "but first you should open your present". Robot danced and c...

Vote for Happy Birthday, Robot! at the Ennies! There is some stiff competition from major games with a lot more market presence than our little Robot, but there's always hope. Hope and your vote! So go to the Ennies voting page and vote for Happy Birthday, Robot! in these categories: Best Game, Best New Game, Best Production Values, Product of the Year. Let's make this a very happy birthday for Robot. » Vote for Happy Birthday, Robot!

Holy crap! The Ennie 2011 nominees were just announced and Happy Birthday, Robot! is nominated in four categories! Best Game * Happy Birthday, Robot! (Evil Hat Productions) * Icons Superpowered Roleplaying (Adamant Entertainment/Cubicle 7) * Legends of Anglerre (Cubicle 7) * Mutants & Masterminds Hero’s Handbook (Green Ronin Publishing) * The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions ) * Honorable Mention: The Laundry (Cubicle 7) Best New Game * A Taste for Murder (Graham Walmsley) * Happy Birthday, Robot! (Evil Hat Productions) * Icons Superpowered Roleplaying (Adamant Entertainment/Cubicle 7) * The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions ) * The Laundry (Cubicle 7) * Honorable Mention: Stars Without Number (Sine Nominee Publishing) Best Production Values * Gatecrashing (Posthuman Studios) * Happy Birthday, Robot! (Evil Hat Productions) * Legend of the Five Rings, Fourth Edition (Alderac Entertainment...

Alexander Williams shares his experience running several sessions of Happy Birthday, Robot! "I ended up running three games of HBR in a day, twice with an eleven year old and a fourteen year old and once with an all adult group. The big take-away from that? I should never play with children because they're too violent and nasty. Also, they never needed an explanation of what a complete sentence was; adults? It took them a while to figure out that complete sentences were." » Read the stories on his blog » Photo: CC BY Alexander Williams

Charles Starrett had only one wish for Father's Day: To play Happy Birthday, Robot! with the family. He posted his family's Father's Day-themed story on his blog and kindly allowed me to repost it here: Happy Papa’s Day! Papa walked downstairs and opened the cabinet doors to find chocolate. Papa saw J there and she promptly ate the cake batter! S scolded J and J bit S’s butt fiercely but silently. S turned and made Papa punish bad J but Papa refused. He wouldn’t dare hurt J because she’s awesome and he had received J’s bribe previously! S protested hysterically and Mama whined but sent J to bed. Papa made J serve him his dinner but she ate his dessert. Papa asked, “What happened?” and ate J’s dessert but apologized. Papa launched a world-scale invasion while riding on S’s back. J backed down immediately. Papa apologized and paid S’s medical bill. Papa won anyway. » Charles Starrett's Blog » More about Happy Birthday, Robot!

"We decided to play some Happy Birthday, Robot tonight after the show because my highest aspirations in life all revolve around corrupting the architecture of what are essentially children's storytelling games to the purposes of perverts and aberrants." So begins Alexander Williams' weird tales of playing HBR with his friends. Check out the increasingly bizarre stories on the Operation BSU blog . Thanks for sharing, Alexander! If you liked those stories and want to make your own, one of the Operation BSU folks will be running three MANY sessions of HBR at PAX East. Here's the thread with all the info on Happy Birthday, Robot! at Pax East .

Until the end of February, you can get $5 off the Happy Birthday Robot hardcover+PDF bundle (or $2 off the PDF alone). Get the deal straight from Evil Hat Productions or from Drive-Thru RPG and Indie Press Revolution .

Knights of the Dinner Table #168 has a very warm write-up for Happy Birthday, Robot! and small story games in general. Many thanks to contributor and fan Ashok Desai for the kind words. Here are some of them! "Now this game is just charming. It was floated as a concept on the Internet and financed through fundraising site Kickstarter, but flew to such astounding success and gained so much support that it's now available in many places in a startlingly attractive hardback.[...] "There's no character ownership at all, any player can write sentences about anyone in the story solong as it makes sense. The resulting tales tend to come out rather like those cheerful, thick-paged children's books found in all good nurseries, not least because you're operating under an often draconically strict word limit. That's not a criticism though. The limit is good. It makes you try harder.[...] "All in all it makes a pretty good manual on how to introduce the v...

Scott Merrill heard about Happy Birthday, Robot! from the promos on the Drabblecast . Here's the story he and his friends created: Robot met an old friend, but he was different. Robot was saddened with disbelief, but smiled broadly. Robot said exactly what he felt, "One arm suits you!" Robot's friend frowned and took off running, but came back. Robot said, "Excuse me, I though you knew that I eat appendages." "Specifically, your's and my brother's." A foot fell off Robot's friend, who exclaimed "Mon frere!" Robot's eye widened and he reached for his friend's purple face. Robot ripped his nose and screamed "I'll enjoy you, friend/brother!" Robot hugged his brother tightly. They both wept. Robot chewed slowly. Oh my. With friends like these, who needs snacks? I guess that just goes to show how the average Drabblecast listener plays the game. Remind me to be cautious if I'm ever invited t...

Megan Getting married was certainly the biggest personal event of 2010. If we could survive organizing this event while also planning a move to a new house, a trip to Seattle and publishing HBR all at the same time, we can survive anything. Speaking of which, just a split second after the above photo was taken a tornado siren started blaring in the background. No worries, just a drill. Here are the pics and vows . Seattle And then there was the honeymoon in Seattle, where we saw the sights, heard the sounds, met the people, and ate everything we could fit in our eager stomachs. We're eager to return soon to absorb every inch of that lovely city and its colorful characters. Pics here . Happy Birthday, Robot! With the help of more people than I can count (but at least 110 ), I published my first game. For as much time as I once spent trying to design RPGs, then board games, it's funny that my first game would be an odd off-shoot of both species. As usual, you can find...

Today brings you three tales of Happy Birthday, Robot! courtesy of very creative players ranging in ages from single-digits up to grown-ups. (Also some advice about recurring mature-ish themes in actual play.) First on the lineup, a story from Petrie's, a store with a strong focus on community-building around gaming. Together with three kids, they wrote two great stories. Happy Birthday, Robot! Tiny Robot plays with balloons... Oh, happy Robot! Robot’s friend plays balloon-catch and tag. The dog ran and ripped the balloons which scared Robot and his friend the goofy-looking professor. “Aah!” said Robot and he blew out the flower cake’s candles. It was time to open the sparkly presents. Robot happily played with his shiny new toys and said proudly “Happy Birthday to me!” Robot’s doggy kept trying to take Robot’s toys with another happy robot. The End It's cute when you can tell a player just wanted to use an extra word. That's when you get stuff like "flower ...