I’ve had a lot of things happen lately that I haven’t slapped up here on the blog for lack of time. I’ve Tweeted/Facebooked about them because I can do that fast, but I tagged them for later additions here and never got around to them. Rather than dribble them out here a bit at a time, I’m going to correct this now in one fell swoop. I’ll start with the one convention I’ve attended so far this year.
Gen Con was fantastic. I had my wife and kids with me the entire five days of the show, and they were wonderful. Marty (my eldest) spent most of his time with me, while Ann wrangled the quads. Gen Con’s a fantastic time, but it’s hyperstimulating even for adults, so we let the kids have it in small doses.
I, of course, gorged myself on it and saw all sorts of wonderful people, old friends, new fans, and fun folks. Highlights of the show include:
- The Diana Jones Award party, which I host, at which I rode a mechanical bull for the first time in my life. I set the record for the night at 41 seconds. My secret? Tip the bull operator well.
- Playtesting Legendary: The Marvel Deck-Building Game with Marty and the designer, Devin Low. A great game with lots going on and plenty of depth, it’s supposed to come with something over 500 cards, which means you can play it forever.
- Sitting on panels with the Industry Insider Guests of Honor and the Writer’s Symposium. I have lots of smart, talented friends, and it’s great to see them in their element like that.
- The Tsuro of the Seas launch party, to which Ray Wehrs invited Marty and me. Ray’s a wonderful guy, and he and Calliope Games know all about fun.
- Meeting Justin Gary and interviewing him about his Kickstarter for SolForge, a game he designed with Richard Garfield.
- Being a Dream Date for the ENnies cocktail reception. Thanks to Ben McFarland for winning that auction. He’s an excellent designer and a strong supporter of the industry.
- The showing of a rough cut of the InSpectres movie I co-wrote, co-produced, and acted in as a zombie, from Reactor 88 Studios.
- The Reactor 88 Studios afterparty, after the film. We had a blast listening to two of my great friends spin tunes.
- Playing in the Apples to Apples tournament with my entire family. We lost badly but had a great time with the family who shared the table with us.
- Playing Munchkin Apocalypse with Andrew Hackard in the convention hall with all my kids on Sunday. He’s a gracious host, a great teacher of games, and wonderful with kids, not to mention one hell of an editor/designer/manager.
- Delivering copies of the Brave New World Omnibus to several of my Kickstarter backers at Gen Con and chatting with many others. It’s so great to meet the people who make it possible for me to write those book this year.
All right, I lied. That was already enough for a single blog post. I’ll try to add more soon. It’s been one wild summer.
