Diana Jones Award Party

If you are involved in the adventure gaming industry in a professional capacity, you are invited to attend the Diana Jones Award ceremony (and party) on the evening of August 17, 2005, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The invitations just went out last night. If you haven’t gotten one yet and qualify for one, drop me a line, and I’ll send you all the details.

Gen Con Schedule

I’ll be at Gen Con Indy next week, from Wednesday through Sunday. I’m not tied to a single booth this year, but I do have some appearances scheduled. Here’s where and when you should be able to track me down:

Wednesday, 9 PM: The Diana Jones Award ceremony, held at a secret location. (If you’re a professional in the adventure gaming industry, you’re cordially invited. Drop me an e-mail for details.)

Thursday, 4 PM: Secrets of Eberron seminar, Embassy Suites: Consulate room.

Friday, 10 AM: Marked for Death (Eberron) novel signing, Exhibit Hall: Wizards of the Coast booth. I get to join Keith Baker and Don Bassingthwaite for this one.

Saturday, 10 AM: Blood Bowl novel signing, Exhibit Hall: Sabertooth Games booth.
Sunday, 10 AM: Blood Bowl novel signing, Exhibit Hall: Sabertooth Games booth.

I’ll also be helping out with the Gamer Olympics (along with Ken Hite), as needed, and wandering about the hall in a game-induced daze.

Superhero Playmates (Toys)

I spent all day Monday in a long meeting discussing the other top-secret collectible game on which I’ve been working. (I announced the first, High Stakes Drifter, a couple weeks back.) Toward the end of the day, the question came up: “When can we tell people about this?”

The answer: “Right now.”

So: I’m working on a game with the working title Marvel Heroes Battle Dice for Playmates Toys. The game features collectible pop-dice that are hollow and pop open when you squeeze the sides. In the course of play, you place collectible prepainted plastic figures into the dice and roll them. Since you can’t see which figures your opponent puts into each die, there’s a lot of bluffing going on. Because both the dice and the characters can affect the game in different ways, it starts simple but has a good amount of depth. There’s a lot more to it than that, but you’ll have to wait until we’re ready to release the rules before you can get the whole story.

As you might guess from the title, the initial release, due in early 2006, features characters (both heroes and villains) from Marvel Comics: Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, etc. The figures are only about 15mm tall, but they have an incredible amount of detail. Playmates’ long experience with making toys really shines through here.

If anyone out there’s interested in playtesting this game on very short notice, drop me an e-mail. Experienced game-bangers only please.

Wizard World Chicago Report

I had a great time at Wizard World Chicago this past weekend, even though I was only there for less than six hours on Saturday. I didn’t have a booth and wasn’t scheduled to do any signings, so I just floated through the place, saw the people I wanted to see, bought a passel of comics, and left.

Of course, it wasn’t that simple.
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Birthday Fun

Birthdays as a 37-year-old father of five are a bit different than when I was younger and childless. I slept in until 8 AM this morning, then joined my wife in taking all five kids to the dentist down in Rockford, Illinois. Then we took the whole crew to Sapora Playworld, a human habitrail for the under-five-foot set. Imagine ten McDonald’s playlands stuck together and on top of each other, and you have a good image. I spent a couple hours crawling around in these, chasing after our three-year-olds, ably assisted by our six-year-old. We broke for lunch but went right back at it again.

After an easy afternoon, Ann and I are off for a dinner out and then a play at the New Court Theatre. I’m told I can pick up the Fireside Grill neon sign I won at the play. That should take us to the end of the day, with a good night’s sleep ahead.

As I said before, I don’t hate birthdays like many people I know. I want to keep having them as long as possible. The alternative seems far worse.

Birthday Day

Today’s my 37th, which puts in me my late 30s for the first time. I have a long, busy day ahead of me, but I’ll try to reflect more on it later. (This strikes me as a metaphor for my life over the past few years.)

Unlike others, I always enjoy and respect birthdays. After all, it’s yet another personal best for “Most Consecutive Years Still Breathing.”

Fifth Diana Jones Award Shortlist Announced

London, 2nd August — After much debate, the shortlist for the fifth annual Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming has been announced.

The award is given to whatever the Diana Jones Award Committee believes has best demonstrated ‘excellence in gaming’ in the previous year. This year the committee has shortlisted three items. In alphabetical order, they are:
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Great Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday morning, I drove down to Games Day Chicago. The team there, led by the Black Library‘s US sales manager Vince Rospond, treated me like gold. They’d flown in 50 copies of Blood Bowl for the show, and we sold out of them just after 1 PM, just over three hours into the show. Lots of people came by later to ask about the book but had to go away disappointed–at least until September, when the book hits stores here in the US. (Of course, if you’re in the UK, you should be able to get it now, and we Americans can also get another early shot at it at Gen Con Indy.)

I helped out with the Black Library’s seminar from 2—3 PM, telling a bit about myself and the book and taking a few questions from the kind and fun crowd. At 5 PM, I helped David, Gary, Jeff, and Vince tear down the booth, after which Vince and his crew took me out for a fine steak dinner to cap an excellent day.

On Sunday, Bill Bodden (from ACD) and John (from Dork Storm) and Judith (from Whad’ya Know?) Kovalic came down for a cookout and a Beloit Snappers baseball game. They got to hang out with the whole family for lunch. Ann did a fantastic job playing the hostess, and the kids behaved themselves and made us proud. Plus, the Snappers staved off a late rally to win the game.

The only real disappointment was that I didn’t bother to keep a copy of Blood Bowl for myself. Better to get it in the hands of readers than to hold on to it myself. After all, I’ve already read it. 🙂

Games Day Chicago

A last-minute reminder that I’ll be at Games Day Chicago this Saturday. As noted on the Guests page, I’ll be there signing copies of my Blood Bowl novel, which is so spanking-new that it won’t be generally available in the UK until August and the US until September (unless you find it at Gen Con Indy, at which I’ll also be signing copies). I’m told I’m to host a seminar of some sort on the book, which could involve a bit of a reading and a Q&A session if I’m left to my own devices. If you’re in the area and are a Games Workshop fan, please stop by!