At this year’s Gen Con, my pal Dan Tibbles of Bucephalus Games gave me the birthday present he’d been threatening me with for months. I had no idea what it might be, and when he handed me my very own card for his company’s game Bill of Rights, he caught me by surprise.

I had the chance to play the game with Anthony Gallela at PAX, and it’s lots of fun. In the game, you take the part of someone involved in the Constitutional Convention, and you struggle with the other players to push through the version of the Bill of Rights that your character would like best. Each player has a card that secretly defines his or her positions on various issues. While the game comes with several of these cards, there was room for more, so Dan printed up a special set of promotional cards featuring famous game designers. The six cards feature James Ernest (Lone Shark Games), Andrew Looney (Looney Labs), Mike Selinker (Lone Shark Games), Mike Stackpole, John Zinser (AEG), and me.

You can get the cards from any of the people shown on the cards. I have a whole carton of them. Hit me up for one at a show or a signing, and I’d be happy to share.

I had a fantastic time at the TAGIE/ChiTAG conventions this weekend. I drove down on Thursday morning and made it in time to join the panel on “Design and Development,” moderated by my friend Mike Gray of Hasbro. It’s always a kick to join Mike on one of these panels because I remember sitting in the audience of one of his panels when I was starting out, over 20 years ago.

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Later today, I’m off to TAGIE (the Toy and Game Inventor Expo) held down at Navy Pier in Chicago. Assuming rush-hour traffic doesn’t devour me alive, I should be on my first panel at 11 AM on “Design and Development,” moderated by the ever-excellent Mike Gray.

Tomorrow, I have two panels. The first, “Online and Interactive,” starts at 10 AM, and the second, “Meet the Inventors,” is at 2 PM. That night, I’ll be at the TAGIE Awards ceremony at the Adler Planetarium.

On Saturday, I’m part of the “Ask an Expert” sessions. I hope to find some time to wander around ChiTAG (the Chicago Toy and Game Fair) too before I head home. That part of the weekend is open to the public at very reasonable rates ($5 for kids and $10 for adults), so if you’re in the area, stop by and check out it. And if you see me, be sure to say hi!

The voting is open for this year’s TAGIE Awards, and since the award ceremony is on Friday night, I assume that they’ll have to close the voting soon. For all my game industry friends out there, the Game of the Year nominees are strong. They include Reiner Knizia, Peggy Brown, and Arne Lauwers. Be sure to stop by the website and vote!

I’ve been asked to be a speaker again at this year’s Toy and Game Inventor Expo (TAGIE). I had to back out at the last second last year due to a family illness, but I had a great time at the show the year before. The convention is held on Navy Pier in downtown Chicago on November 19 and 20.

If you’re an aspiring mass-market game or toy designer, TAGIE is a fantastic introduction to that industry and provides a crash-course on what you need to do have a shot at succeeding in it. Hasbro is the lead sponsor this year, and that means you can expect to see top folks like Mike Gray and Mike Hirtle there among many other luminaries.

I’m also going to attend the TAGIE Awards ceremony, which honor the top creators in mass-market toys and games. This is slated for the evening of November 20 at the Adler Planetarium. Even if you can’t make it there, there seems to still be time to nominate people for Toy Inventor of the Year, Game Inventor of the Year, Rising Star Inventor of the Year, and Young Inventor of the Year. Reuben Klamer, who designed The Game of Life, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Leslie Scott, who designed Jenga, will be one of the presenters, along with actresses Daryl Hannah and Hilary Shepard, and Tim Walsh, designer of TriBond and Blurt.

If you love toys and games but don’t want to see how they’re made, come out for the Chicago Toy and Game Fair (ChiTAG) instead. It’s held on Navy Pier too, but on the two days right after TAGIE, November 21 and 22. It’s all about seeing and playing the latest and greatest toys and games instead. I’ll be wandering around the show that Saturday, soaking up all the fun. If you’ll be at either event, be sure to say hi!

I had a jam-packed weekend. I started off by taking Ann down to the High Voltage Software Halloween party in Hoffman Estates on Friday night. This is held in a motion-capture studio—essentially a wide-open warehouse—filled with dozens of wildly creative people competing to come up with the best costume. Ann went as a geisha girl—a.k.a. ninja momma—while I broke out my tux and went as everyone’s favorite British spy, complete with a name tag that read “HELLO. MY NAME IS Bond, James Bond.”  

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This weekend, you can find me at Geek.Kon, the all-geek-matters convention in Madison, Wisconsin. I’m one of the guests of honor, along with Bill Bodden, Aaron Pavao, Kyle Herbert, Chad Corrie, Sandeep Parikh, and reps from Raven Software.

I’ll be wandering around for a good part of the show, but my confirmed schedule includes “Gaming Publishing” at 1 PM on Saturday, another showing of the Brave New World film proof-of-concept at 4 PM on Saturday, and “Professional Writing” at 10 PM on Sunday. I will likely also be at the mass signings at 3 PM on Saturday and noon on Sunday.

If you’re in the area, come on down and join the fun. I hope to see you there.

The savvy souls at ArenaNet managed to capture many of the panels the held at PAX on video. Better yet, they posted them on YouTube!

They recorded one panel I was on with Will McDermott and Eric Flannum, speaking about my upcoming novel based on Guild Wars 2. It’s in two parts, and you can see each below. This took place at 1:30 PM Pacific Time on September 5, 2009. Considering the long night before and the fact I was starting to fall ill that morning, I think I managed to be mostly articulate.

Check them out here, or go to YouTube to see Part 1 and Part 2 larger and in HD.

After that last post, it might have seemed that I was all conned out for the year. Just when I think I’m free, though, they pull me back in!

The fine folks at Geek.Kon, a new geek culture convention in Madison, Wisconsin, have asked me to be one of their guests this year. I’m slated for a couple panels and will join in at the mass autographing sessions too. I hope to see you there!

I had a fantastic time at PAX (the Penny Arcade Expo) last weekend. Unfortunately, since then I’ve been laid up with some evil con crud, and that’s substantially changed a few things in my schedule.

Allow me to explain.

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