The Worst Blogger

Easy joke is easy...

Holy shit! Has it really been since January since I updated this here 'blog? God almighty, yes it has. Well, I'm sorry Gentle Readers. A combination of being busy and apathy toward 'blogging has been my downfall. But, I'm back now if you're still interested. It's been a long and interesting seven months since we last spoke, and shit has most definitely gotten real since then. If you've got the time, I'd love to tell you about it.

Gencon

Man, the costume contest was intense this year*

Okay, here it is finally. Now that I've been able to catch up on sleep and unpack everything that happened, here's my post about GenCon 2010. Let me preface this by saying that this is from my point of view, and I'm just some opinionated smartass with a 'blog. I am, in no way, objective or unbiased and I implore you not to assume in any way that this is real journalism. If I miss stuff here, it's because I missed stuff at GenCon, and I wasn't going to pretend that I was a really real reporter with a fedora and a little card that read "press" in my hatband. So, keeping that in mind and without further ado, here's my report!

Friday Highlights

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No witty picture today. After spending a night on the floor in an undisclosed location, I'm not sure I even possess any wit. Anyway, here's a few nice things about Friday at Gencon:

• Crowd: Happy, (mostly) healthy nerds in their glory. Costumes are good for the most part. People are nice. Lots of exposed flesh, some of it even worth being exposed! Also, there are a ton of people here.
• Vendor Hall: I see game companies. They're everywhere, and they don't even know they want to hire me! But they will. The vendor hall is rockin', Fantasy Flight has a huge-ass booth with a large demo area wherein I played Descent and where I'll go mad today playing Arkham Horror. Sadly, White Wolf seems much reduced, has no product for sale, and their booth is essentially a sad imitation of a New Orleans beer hall. I've been in LARPs that were better outfitted than that booth.
• Panels: I sat one panel with Sam from Fantasy Flight discussing Rogue Trader. I attended another given by Matt Forbeck, Bryan Tillman and his afro, Owen K.C. Stevens, and Jeff Tidball. Very informative and I took copious notes. They were all, to a man, gracious, generous and hilarious.
• Ennies: I went to the Ennies last night as a guest of Fantasy Flight. Unsurprisingly, Paizo swept everything, earning about a brazillion awards for Pathfinder. Eclipse Phase and Diaspora also won some very well deserved awards, which was nice.

So, yeah. There you go. I've already had a good time, met some great people, and ended up with my business card case more full of other people's cards than my own, which is pretty good I'd say. I'll be driving tomorrow, so I can't promise anything in the way of an update. Y'all have a good weekend.

'Ere we go, 'ere we go!

Accessorizing!

Welp, I made it. After spending seventeen hours in the car yesterday because my sprintnav is a filthy liar, I finally made it to Indy. Now I've got my badge and I'm ready to roll. I can't say too much yet, seeing as how the dealer hall isn't even open, but it looks like a good party so far. I'll keep you all abreast of the situation Gentle Readers, either here or through my Twitter feed, which you should all be following anyway. Stay tuned.

Southern Comfort

Heave to, and prepare to be boarded!

Why, hello there Gentle Readers! So, there were no posts last week because I had a furiously busy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday then The Wife, The Kid, and I piled in the car and decamped for our annual pilgrimage to North Carolina. Now, after stops in beautiful Columbus, OH and quaint Lynchburg, VA, we have finally arrived in the Outer Banks. See, every year for the past ten or so years, The Wife's step-uncle, who is a wealthy restauranteur here, has invited us down to spend a week. We, and when I say we I mean roughly twenty adults and children, stay in a huge, fuck-off house on the beach with a pool and direct access to the ocean whereupon we cook, eat, drink our faces off and play a lot of board games and cards. Last night The Wife and I spent a nice evening teaching our nieces and nephews, fine young men and women between the ages of ten and fifteen, the finer points of Pandemic, which was awesome. So, you may ask, is there some kind of downside to ten days of concentrated awesomeness in which we travel through the part of the country where American History was invented and culminates with hot and cold running mojitos and sand in our clothes? Well, kinda yeah...

Friday Mea Culpa: No Excuse Edition.

Mea culpa, mea culpa...

Okay, look. I know going over two weeks between posts is total bullshit. I know I've let down my tens of readers, and for that I'm sorry. I don't really have a good excuse, not one that holds water anyway. Let's just say that I took a little hiatus, and I'm in good company, but now I'm back. Instead of boring you with what I did on my hiatus, I'll just skim some important points, starting with what caused my absence, the train-wreck that was Origins.

On my way to Origins

Okay kids, I'm out of here. Time to load up the car and hit the road. I'm off to Origins to shmooze, see old friends, make new friends, and generally have a larf. Hopefully I'll see some of you there. If any of you are going to be there as well, drop me an email, my address is in my profile over there at the left. Sorry this note is so brief, I've been buried under con prep. Perhaps I'll do some on-site blogging from Origins, or at least some tweeting. I'll surely have a lot to talk about come Monday. So, have a good week/weekend y'all. We'll talk next week.

Putting the Pro in Procrastination

If writers are, in the words of the inestimable Chuck Wendig, procrastinating shitheads, then I am their high-priest. Origins is six days away. Guess who has two thumbs and has only one of his four games ready for Origins. This guy. Right. Six days to port three games into new systems, build characters in those systems, and get familiar enough with those systems so that I don't look like an idiot. But that's not really what I came here to talk about today. Not really anyway. There's something else I've been putting off. Something in regards to Origins, and something that I need some advice on.

Anatomy of a Con Game

Okay, you guys are here, this door is open but it's dark inside. Who's going first?

Hot damn, two updates in as many days! I might just make it in the high-stakes game of RPG blogging after all. What I need now is a montage of me typing, staring into space, drinking coffee, changing diapers, and doing push-ups or jumping jacks or something backed up by the A-Team theme. Anyway, I woke up this morning in a cold sweat with a terrible realization. Origins is twenty days away! Twenty! Know how much of the prep I have done for my games? None. Well, hell. This is pretty typical, for me at least. I'm a terrible procrastinator, why put off 'til tomorrow what you can do next week? So, I've got a lot of work to do. A lot. But I figured I could procrastinate just a little longer and make a post about what goes into a good con game.

No! Sleep! 'til Columbus! Living Life Four Hours at a Time for Five Days Straight.

Oh, look! It's February already. That means we get to begin the run up to convention season. Early on in January, Wife and I were talking about the fact that I need to get my name out there. Get more eyes on my resume, shake more hands and make more contacts in the industry at large, and we felt that there was no better way than this than to make the rounds of this year's big cons. So I pulled out the calendar, dusted off my pregens and sat down to figure out my plan of attack.

Papers Please: Using Props to set the Tone in Convention Games

бумаги угождают!

Since I'm relatively new to the whole 'blogging game, I've been asking friends who are experienced 'bloggers what they'd like to read about at Motor City Gamewerks. Chris Perrin, proprietor of both the Echoes from the Rifts podcast and the delectable Blog Well Done and all around good egg, suggested I talk about my con games and the prep that I put into them. So, without further ado, lets you and me talk about using props in con games to set the right tone.