My friend John McLintock is running a series of contests to celebrate the 5th anniversary of his gaming blog “Roll Dice and Kick Ass!” As part of this, I’m donating a signed copy of Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon. You can also win games and books from other authors and designers like Bill King, Academy Games, Q-Workshop, Jim Swallow, and many more. Check John’s blog for all the details.
During all my running around at Gen Con, I wound up being recorded for three different podcasts. In the first, Cam Banks and I chatted with Ryan Macklin and Kevin Weiser for This Just In … From Gen Con!We ranged over a lot of topics, including the Smallville RPG and the Diana Jones Award. It was 11 AM on Gen Con Thursday, so we were all still relatively fresh.
I mentioned before that the IAMTW put out an excellent e-book entitled Tied In: The Business, History and Craft of Media Tie-In Writing. Besides being out for the Kindle and other e-book formats, it’s also now available as a trade paperback. If you’re a fan of tie-ins and would like to know about how they make their way to you, be sure to pick it up.
My friend Jim Lowder recently appeared on WUWM — Milwaukee’s NPR station — to chat about Family Games: The 100 Best. Listen in to hear him wax philosophic about games for all people and how great they are.
Last Wednesday at Gen Con, I hosted the annual Diana Jones Award party, during which I was proud to announce that BoardGameGeek.com had won this year’s award. I’d tell you all about it, but fortunately Jeff Tidball recorded the whole thing. Watch the video for all the details.
Congratulations to Derk Solko, Scott Alden, and all the other people who make BoardGameGeek.com such a fantastic oasis on the Internet!
Freelancer extraordinaire Matt James went around Gen Con and asked people to bless his dice. Wil Wheaton does the hammiest best job of it, but there are lots of great bits here. I was happy to be included too (at about 1:55), if only so I could make some use of all those years of Catholic School.
I had a wonderful time at Gen Con this year, packing in as much fun, friends, and games as I could into the five days I spent at “the four best days in gaming.” It started out with the Diana Jones Award party on Wednesday night and wrapped up with a race through the exhibit hall with my son Marty as we tried to jam in as many demos as we could. The many, wonderful, and varied moments between those two posts are still pinging about in my brain.
I hope to have time to do a proper con report in the near future, but while I was gone the toilet in the bathroom over my den overflowed. We have workers in assessing the damage and drying everything out, a process that’s already involved removing about half the ceiling and carpet in the room and raising the blood pressure of our insurance adjuster. Nothing irreplaceable was damaged, and I had my laptop with me on the road, so all my work and data is safe (and I have both automatic onsite and offsite backups set anyhow). Now it’s just a matter of cleanup and repair and figuring out where I can set up shop until it’s all done.
Anyhow, thanks to everyone I met and hung out with at the show, either in seminars or games, meals or bars. You were all wonderful and made my year. I can’t wait to get back to Gen Con again.
I leave for Gen Con — a.k.a. Gamer Christmas in August — tomorrow morning, ready to take Indy by storm. If you’re going to be there too, be sure to hunt me down and say hi and share some dice or drinks.
I’ve added a couple new details to my schedule. I’m joining Cam Banks for Ryan Macklin’s podcast “This Just In… from Gen Con!” in the Caucus Room at the Westin at 11 on Thursday morning.
I should also be at the Catalyst Games booth from 4–5 on Saturday. I’m told they’ll have actual hard copies of Spells & Chrome for the rest of the authors and me to sign.
Plus I hope to be at the mass signing for Gameplaywright’s The Bones at the Indie Press Revolution booth. That’s from 1-2 on Sunday.
My full schedule is after the break. Hope you can join me there!
Actually, Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon hit stores yesterday, but I’ve been away from the computer for a few days and I’m just getting to write about it now. It’s available in numerous electronic formats as well as in the traditional flattened-tree-pulp version. If you put your mouse over the widget to the right, you should get a pop-up image that can steer you toward the right place to make your purchase. To whet your appetite, be sure to download a free PDF of the first chapter.
So far, the reviews for the book have been fantastic. My co-author, Jeff Grubb, has an excellent roundup of them on his site, and the four reviews on Amazon so far have all rated the book at five stars each. If sharp fantasy adventures set in a vividly built world are your thing, be sure to pick it up. I hope you get the chance to enjoy it!
RSS
Newsletter
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
