About Steven Hammond
Steven Hammond has been a hobby gamer since he received that blue book of wonder for Christmas, 35 years ago. In the years since he has written articles for Pyramid Magazine and the Kobold Press Blog, and contributed to a couple supplements. Twenty-five years ago, he began his first software engineering job as an intern for the Department of Energy Laboratory in Chicago. When Steve combines his love of games and his love of software, great things like this site are born. An earlier version of this site won the Excellence in Innovation award from Obisidan Portal in 2012.
Education
Steven is also passionate about education. He served on his local school board for 7 years, where he led a number of important subcommittees. Steven is also a Solar System Ambassador. He volunteers his time to visit schools, scout groups, etc. to teach people about astronomy and the space program.
Software Engineering
In addition to his gaming exploits, Steven Hammond was an earlier employee and continues to be a technical lead at PatientsLikeMe as they strive to bring patients to the center of health care. Steve also developed a site to put the Higgins Armory collection, online. This is one of the largest collections of medieval arms and armor in the Western Hemisphere. You can find links to these and other software projects below.
- PatientsLikeMe — http://www.patientslikeme.com
- Higgins Collection — http://www.higgins-collection.org/
- Fantasy Olympian — http://www.fantasyolympian.com/
- mage-hand (Ruby wrapper for the Obsidian Portal api) — https://github.com/shammond42/mage-hand
- CAV-Command-Conolse (no longer operating, looking for new maintainer) — https://github.com/shammond42/CAV-Command-Console
Bibliography
- Treasure by the Pound III: AGE Conversion — Kobold Press Blog, Kobold Press, March 2013
- Conversion of prices from earlier articles to the Adventure Gaming Engine ruleset, used in the Dragon Age role-playing game.
- http://www.koboldpress.com/k/front-page15283.php#.U4naGZRdVVo
- Treasure by the Pound II: Non-precious Metals — Kobold Press Blog, Kobold Press, January 2013
- Rules for awarding non-precious metals as treasure in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
- http://www.koboldpress.com/k/front-page14865.php#.U4naMZRdVVo
- Treasure by the Pound — Kobold Press Blog, Kobold Press, January 2013
- Rules for ingots and other bulk metal forms as treasure in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
- http://www.koboldpress.com/k/front-page14651.php#.U4naRpRdVVo
- Necklace Vital — Kobold Press Blog, Kobold Press, 2010
- A King of the Monsters top 10 contender.
- http://www.koboldpress.com/k/front-page6528.php#.U4nZ65RdVVo
- Howard Carter — Danger Magnet Magazine, 2008
- Real world archaeologist Howard Carter re-imagined for the pulp mythology of Hollow Earth Expedition. Reprinted on this blog.
- The Book of Dragons — FASA Corporation/Living Room Games, 2004
- I wrote the chapter title "The Mated Pair, Asante and Night Sky" for FASA in 1996, but they canceled the product line before publishing the book. LRG published it under license years later.
- http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/78041/The-Book-of-Dragons?filters=0_2150_10106_0_0
- The Right Tool for the Job — Pyramid Magazin, Steve Jackson Games, July 1998
- New guns and gun rules for the Feng Shui role-playing game.
- http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=153
- San Juan in the One and Twenty — Pyramid Magazine, Steve Jacson Games
- The flooded remains of San Juan, Puerto Rico as a Cyberpunk setting.
- Reprinted in the Best of Pyramid Volume 2, November 2001.
- http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=1641
- http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/pyramid2/
Blog
Weapon Wednesday: Taking Down Big Game
Feng Shui
13 July, 2016
Sometimes in Feng Shui 2 you go up against something really big and tough: a big bruiser, dinosaur, a giant worm, Tanbi Garau. When dealing with such big game, you need a whole new class of…
Sylvan Master
Feng Shui
15 June, 2015
Or, WTF Are Those QR Codes in Feng Shui 2
If you were one of the 3,400 Feng Shui 2 Kickstarter backers, or have since acquired it from one of several fine purveyors of gaming pdf’s, you may…
Feng Shui Site Friday: The Rust Garden
Feng Shui
17 October, 2014
So, yesterday brought some exciting news. The Feng Shui 2 Kickstarter passed $163,000 and funded the Mook Attack Sheet Generator. That will allow me to take the tool you can find on this site,…
Sorcerous Weapons
Feng Shui
15 October, 2014
Magic weapons should rare. They should also be awesome. The sorcerous weapons below make good MacGuffins for an adventure. However, if a hero is going to use it long term it should probably…
Mook Monday: Demons from the Underworld
Feng Shui
13 October, 2014
It is Mook Monday during Vile Sorcery week. That can only mean one thing: demons! Here 4 terrible demons, inspired by a few classic Shadowfist cards. There are only 2 posts left before the end…
Feng Shui Site Friday: Ancestral Tomb
Feng Shui
10 October, 2014
This is an exciting week for the Feng Shui 2 Kickstarter. It is the last week, and that means two things. The final mad rush is about to begin, and the best stretch goals are about to come…
Weapon Wednesday: The Guns of Hollywood
Feng Shui
08 October, 2014
This week’s theme is Action! We are exploring the fun that could be had by incorporating the movie industry into your campaign. Action! Week has brought fight scenes on a sound stage and movie…
Mook Monday: Hollywood Stars
Feng Shui
06 October, 2014
Ah, the glitz of Hollywood. Home to the stars that entertain us and the mass of wannabe’s who fill roles like “Zombie #1” and “Falling off ledge guy.” Here is a collection of Hollywood’s…
Feng Shui Site Friday: Sound Stage
Feng Shui
03 October, 2014
The Feng Shui 2 Kickstarter is more than half-done, and things are going very well. I swear I thought of this weeks theme before Robin’s Blowing Up The Movies stretch goal was announced. I’m…
Weapon Wednesday: Water Guns
Feng Shui
01 October, 2014
Wrapping up Ocean week, we have three “water guns”. Not the Super Soaker kind, but the kind that can shoot underwater, including a big one to take down aquatic demons.
Friday starts a new…
Mook Monday: Pirates and Sharks
Feng Shui
29 September, 2014
Arrgh, Matey…
It’s Mook Monday again and this week’s theme is beach front battles. So, what sort of ocean bad guys spring to mind. Pirates of course. Because of the power of Chi, we have both…
Feng Shui Site Friday: Turtle Beach
Feng Shui
26 September, 2014
The Feng Shui 2 Kickstarter is going gangbusters. We, the fans, have unlocked all the archetypes and the second pop-up juncture is coming soon. Related to this post, Atlas Games announced the…
Weapon Wednesday: Compact Shotguns
Feng Shui
24 September, 2014
Wrapping up our urban jungle week, we have 3 compact shotguns for mean streets and close quarters of an urban environment.
MAG-7 (12/4/5)
I don’t know why this little piece of awesome from…
Mook Monday: Urban Trouble
Feng Shui
22 September, 2014
Despite the title, Mook Monday is not just mooks. We will cover a variety of featured foes and bosses as well. In keeping with this week’s urban jungle theme, we have some urban trouble makers…
Feng Shui Site Friday: The Urban Jungle
Feng Shui
19 September, 2014
Welcome to the jungle
We take it day by day
If you want it you’re gonna bleed
But it’s the price you pay
— Guns N’ Roses
The urban jungle. That’s the theme of my Feng Shui blog posts over…
Weapon Wednesday: Light Machine Guns
Feng Shui
17 September, 2014
Welcome to Weapon Wednesday, because alliteration is always awesome. No? Well how about because the Feng Shui 2 Kickstarter goes live today! I want to start my series of blog entries with…
A Golden Comeback
Feng Shui
16 September, 2014
Click, click, click. Light from the naked bulb reflected off polished brass as bullet after bullet found their way home into the magazine. A man in a nicely tailored suit, droped the full clip…
New Fudge Dice
Fate/Fudge
12 September, 2013
I’ve been a fan the Fudge (Free-form Universal Donated Gaming Engine) role-playing game since it first appeared in 1995. However, Fudge dice were always hard to find; and the original plain…
Hyperborean Race in Golarion
Pathfinder
23 February, 2013
Northern Avistan has seen a lot of activity over the last couple of years. The Jade Regent Adventure Path took us through the Lands of the Linorm Kings and over the Crown of the World. And,…
Howard Carter in Hollow Earth Expedition
Hollow Earth Expedition
19 May, 2012
This was an article I wrote back in 2008 for the premier issue of Danger Magnet magazine. Last week was Howard Carter’s 138th birthday and an exciting new Egypt Exhibit is coming to the Boston…
Arkham Horror Toolkit
Boardgames
26 February, 2012
- App: Arkham Horror Toolkit
- Platform:iPhone
- Price: $2.99
- Rating: ***
- Systems: Arkham Horror Board Game and Expansions
- Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
I remember that first game of Arkham…
iCrit: Make Critical Hits Even More Fun
Pathfinder
14 January, 2012
Platform: iPhone/iPad
Price: $1.00
Rating: 4-Stars Systems: Pathfinder, OGL 3.5
I have been a fan of Paizo’s Game Mastery cards for a while now. Their treasure cards are great, especially…
New Archetypes for Hollow Earth Expedition
Hollow Earth Expedition
12 January, 2011
We’ll kick things off with a “blast from the past” as I try to get some old content back online. Hollow Earth Expedition by Exile Game Studios, is one of my favorite games of all time. Here…
Tools
FS2 Mook Attack Sheets
Feng Shui
Making separate attack rolls for each mook in a fight just slows the game down. Generate over 600 rolls all at once and cross them off as you use them.
FS2 GMC Name Generator
Feng Shui
Generate a set of random names for your FS2 game master characters.
About
Copyright & Licensing
With only a few exceptions, this site and all of its articles, content, markup and source code are…
Copyright © 1996 – 2023 Steven Hammond. Some rights reserved.
That being said, much of the content is licensed under generous terms in a variety of ways. Licensing is indicated by tags on the articles. The following table links to the license text for the relevant tags.
| Tag | License |
|---|---|
| OGL | Open Gaming License |
| CC | Creative Commons License |
| MIT | MIT Open Source License |
| CUP | Community Use Policy |
Legal Incantations
This site is operated as a labor of love. As such we don't make any promises about its function or availability. On the other hand, we're not making any money so we aren't going to share any private information that we collect. Details are described in the documents below.
Information on copyright and licensing is covered in the licensing section.
Terms of Service Privacy PolicyContact Me
We won't share your e-mail address with anybody.