Charlotte's Web

aveline:

isabela:

sebastian:

varric:

fenris:

anders:

merrill:

dog:

hawke:

(alternative) hawke:

Ebook and Paperback Available Now!

My behind-the-scenes book on Dragon Age II is out now, featuring new interview material from David Gaider and other BioWare folks! Ever wondered how the Dragon Age team creates party members? Or what it's like to be in the Writers' Pit? Or why DA2 got barely one year for development right after Origins had seven? Then you'll need to hear the whole story...

Back blurb:

Rushed through development in just a year to capitalize on the runaway success of its predecessor, Dragon Age II's writing team had only a few months to write an entire game before handing it off to voice acting and development. The result was an often ramshackle sequel featuring a smaller world, fewer companions, and repetitive quests—as well as some of the best characters, dialogue, and storytelling BioWare has ever put to screen. Based on new interviews with DA2 writers David Gaider, Jennifer Hepler, Lukas Kristjanson, as well as editor Karin Weekes, author Charlotte Reber tells the wild behind-the-scenes story of how a team at the top of their game made the best of an impossible assignment to create the series’s first fully voiced protagonist, its charmingly unreliable narrator, and a crew of unforgettable party members to bother, befriend, and romance. From DA2’s inception to its mishandled marketing campaign to its volatile reactions from players, Reber’s book raises a mug of ale to the game that was—and the game that might have been.

1. Varric's original character concept was essentially "sleazy used car salesman dwarf from the Jersey Shore"

2. Cut from the game was planned pre-prologue content where we would've gotten to know Carver and Bethany better first. The world we could have lived in...

3. The scrappy tis-only-a-flesh-wound energy that Hawke and co have is the very same energy that fueled production of the game. Life imitates art... I particularly enjoy this quote said from one dev to another during a discussion over EA's apparent doubt that they could finish DA2 on schedule:

"They don't know we're an airplane on fire. We're coming in. We're gonna land this thing. It might be missing a wing when it lands, but we're gonna land it."

What could be more Hawke than that.

As someone who also works in narrative design (albeit not on RPGs), this peek into DA2 really captures what the work is like -- joyful collaboration, agonizing restrictions, fighting for every last word you can squeeze in against the clock and the budget. As a writer you never do get to tell a straightforward story, or wrap up the story quite the way you set out to at the start. It's a real scrappy way to create. Your story always has to adapt and overcome obstacles and evolve in service of one unexpected thing or another.

(Though DA2's dev cycle is obviously the most extreme possible example of how difficult it can be -- but that's what makes this game so singular, isn't it! For better or worse.)

Ebook and Paperback Available Now!

My behind-the-scenes book on Dragon Age II is out now, featuring new interview material from David Gaider and other BioWare folks! Ever wondered how the Dragon Age team creates party members? Or what it's like to be in the Writers' Pit? Or why DA2 got barely one year for development right after Origins had seven? Then you'll need to hear the whole story...

Back blurb:

Rushed through development in just a year to capitalize on the runaway success of its predecessor, Dragon Age II's writing team had only a few months to write an entire game before handing it off to voice acting and development. The result was an often ramshackle sequel featuring a smaller world, fewer companions, and repetitive quests—as well as some of the best characters, dialogue, and storytelling BioWare has ever put to screen. Based on new interviews with DA2 writers David Gaider, Jennifer Hepler, Lukas Kristjanson, as well as editor Karin Weekes, author Charlotte Reber tells the wild behind-the-scenes story of how a team at the top of their game made the best of an impossible assignment to create the series’s first fully voiced protagonist, its charmingly unreliable narrator, and a crew of unforgettable party members to bother, befriend, and romance. From DA2’s inception to its mishandled marketing campaign to its volatile reactions from players, Reber’s book raises a mug of ale to the game that was—and the game that might have been.

and that's the story varric is telling. no, hawke didn't save the city. they didn't save the viscount. they didn't save their family. they didn't save the mages. they didn't save the grand cleric. they didn't even save themself. but here are five-six people they did save. people you don't even know and probably don't even care about but they exist. they matter. and hawke was the only person in the world that cared enough to stand at their side even through all their flaws and mistakes and imperfections. and they were better people for knowing them, and their lives were better for hawke having lived in it.

👋 Hi Wellies,

First—

Ukazu says, a rising tide lifts all boats, including the S.S. Check, Please! She’s hopeful that the success of Heated Rivalry, as well as another queer romance graphic novel-turned-TV show Heartstopper, will make the dream of seeing her work onscreen into a reality: The book has been optioned for adaptation. — Vanity Fair

Check, Please! has been optioned for a film/television adaptation. A while ago, actually—and that’s lovely. Nevertheless, the vast majority of options do not become television because it takes a million things going right to get projects off the ground.

That being said.

Ahem.

Speaking of getting projects off the ground...

From when Bitty first stepped out into the rink at Faber, to when he kissed the ice at graduation, we've all been part of this fun, weird, magical world of Samwell hockey. But when I left the world of Samwell hockey, I left knowing Jack and Bitty's story was done. Bitty's journey as the first openly gay NCAA Division I hockey captain was done. We baked the last pie; we shut off the lights at the kegster; the story was complete.

…But as I looked around I realized, I had one more story to tell.

Which is why I'm thrilled to announce that a brand new volume of Check, Please! will be serialized in 2026. Dozens of new comics, exciting update drops, your favorite characters with brand new storylines, and characters you've yet to meet.

Hello, Internet Land—SMH is coming home.

This fifth year of Check, Please! will be filled with shenanigans, drama, hockey, pies, Haus parties, and a new message of acceptance that is near and dear to me. And it's been brewing over the last year and half! But with the latest boom in queer hockey stories, I figured, hey! ¯\(ツ)/¯ Here's another one to look forward to. :)

Marginalized athletes still face harmful bigotry, and for this reason, queer sports stories are more important than ever. I love Samwell hockey and how each of you has embraced this roster of athletes.

There's so much more to come.

Ngozi 🏒🥧❤️

=

MORE NEWS? SURE:

instead ask:

is it SINCERE

was it CATHARTIC

was it FUN TO MAKE

is it MADE BY ME