My Poor Memory

My Poor Memory

Last weekend I was at a signing and someone asked me about a recent project I'd worked on. And I couldn't remember the name of the book! The book that I wrote. How embarrassing is that?

Here's the thing, though. What I could remember was the name I'd originally intended for the book. I couldn't remember the name it was changed to, however. (For the record, it was Curse of the Riven Sky, the original title of which was Revenge of the Storm Queen.) This actually happens to me a lot in this context, however. See, in publishing, and in particular game design, things change a lot before a product is ever published. And so my faulty memory gets confused with prior versions.

For example, when someone asks me a rules question about D&D 3rd edition, I can often remember the three different options we came up with to handle a certain situation. I can remember which one Skip liked, and why, and which one Jonathan favored. I can even often remember the meeting room at Wizards of the Coast where we discussed the rule. I just can't remember which version of the rule ended up in the actual book! So I have to look up rules as much or more than anyone, if that level of detail is really needed.

Still, it's embarrassing.