Why subscribe?

After 25 years creating content for the digital and tabletop gaming industries, I’ve collected a lot of scattered, scribbled, half-remembered mental clutter. Some of it useful, some of it… less so.

And I have to put it all somewhere!

So here’s a place to start storing it out—a personal Cabinet of Curiosities, filled with words, and role-playing games, and action figures.

Writing is a craft I’m always desperately looking to practice and improve (for example, by exploring the advice and experience of other writers here as well). And hopefully, to provide any useful advice and experiences of my own.

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Who Am I?

They say the O’Carrolls had a vampire numbered among them; Tadhg O’Carroll, so cursed for killing his own brother, the priest Thaddeus.

​They also say the Bartletts had a son favored by Charlemagne, until struck on the head with a golden chessboard and killed by a jealous rival.

At some point, these two families combined (possibly forming unstoppable vampire chess players). From working the silver mines of Ireland's Offaly and Tipperary counties, their descendants emigrated to the coal mines of southern Illinois, and then on to Chicago. That’s where I came in, smashing these two family names together into one slightly confusing personal name.

If I were to write my own mini-bio, it would go a little something like this:

Bart attended the University of Wisconsin and later the University of Washington (for that nice “UW” synergy), settling in the Pacific Northwest where he now toils in the silver mines of digital marketing. In previous incarnations, he worked in London as the world's slowest bartender, and spent two years in the Peace Corps, teaching ESL in Sichuan, China. He is still afraid of the dark after watching Poltergeist as a child, and once struck out in Little League while simultaneously getting hit by a pitch.

Projects

Some of my own projects have included the following adventures written for Dungeons & Dragons 5e, in support of the Extra Life charity.

Lost Laboratory of Kwalish explores an alternate expedition into the Barrier Peaks. The legendary inventor Kwalish disappeared eons ago somewhere in the peaks… as it turns out, finding a crashed planar ship and studying its technology to fuel his own experiments—only now, Kwalish’s lost research is desperately needed!

Infernal Machine Rebuild involves a search for mysterious mechanical components scattered across distant places—and times. The now-lost Temple of Moloch and the construction site of the legendary Tomb of Horrors are two of those locations. However great the risks, finding the components demands the effort, for whoever does so can reassemble the fabled Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad!

Extra Life unites thousands of gamers around the world to play games in support of their local Children's Miracle Network Hospital. Since its inception in 2008, Extra Life has raised more than $30 million for sick and injured kids. Sign up today and dedicate a day of play for kids in your community!

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