Kansas City Book Club: Vegas Knights

I recently discovered that the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society has named my novel Vegas Knights as the subject of their next book club meeting on August 22, at the Oak Park Barnes & Noble. If you’re in the area, pick up a copy of the book and join in!

As far as I know, this is the first time any of my novels has been the topic of a book club meeting, and I’m tickled by the idea of people sitting around a bookstore and talking about one of my stories. Big thanks to whoever put it forward, and I hope all the folks in Kansas City enjoy the book!

Gen Con Seminars

A few people recorded a number of the seminars in which I took part at Gen Con. I don’t have details for all of them yet, but right now you can go listen to a whole bunch of the seminars over on Jason Pitre’s site. Scroll down there, and you’ll see “The No-Nos of Game Design,” on which I joined Stan!, Jeff Bellinger, and Daniel Solis. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

You can tell this one was early in the convention, as I still have most of my voice left. I always get hoarser as the days roll on.

The Marvel RPG

One other big thing happened at Gen Con. The Margaret Weis Productions team announced that their big license for their next roleplaying game is from Marvel Comics! MWP creative director Cam Banks asked me to join the team developing the base game, which puts me in the lineup next to folks like Will Hindmarch, Jeremy Keller, Amanda Valentine, Rob Donoghue, and Phil Menard.

More details to come as the MWP folks release them to be shared.

Back from Gen Con!

I had a fantastic time at Gen Con this past weekend. My eldest son Marty came along for the entire trip, and Ann drove the quads up for the rest of the weekend on Friday. The little ones (who are now 9) had never been to Gen Con before, but they’d heard all about it – and a lot of my friends at the show had heard all about them.

I’m jamming on several deadlines at once at the moment, so I don’t have time for a full recap right now, but the highlights include:

  • Hosting the Diana Jones Award party and announcing that the award went to Jason Morningstar’s RPG Fiasco.
  • Celebrating my birthday at Gen Con the next day – along with Rob Schwalb, who shares the day with me.
  • Playing in the True Dungeon VIP game on Saturday with Marty, along with Mike Selinker, Monte Cook, Colin McComb, Eric Harshbarger, Ray Vallese, and a fistful of other game designers. Even with that kind of dream team, we got barbecued by a red dragon at the end, but we had a ball.
  • Having my wife and kids with me at the show for the first time ever.
  • Catching up with old friends.
  • Making new ones.
  • Sitting on the writing and game design panels. I always learn as much as I offer up.
  • The Friday night Reactor 88 Studios after party.
  • Meeting puppeteer Jim Martin, who also directs on Sesame Street.
  • Playing games with Marty, Ron Magin, and Brad McWilliams in the Mayfair Games suite.
  • The way the Steve Jackson Games team treated my kids like royalty, especially Andrew Hackard, Paul Chapman, Phil Reed, and even Steve himself, who hadn’t been to Gen Con in 10 years. Blame John Kovalic for turning my brood into Munchkin addicts.
  • Hanging out with my ENnies Dream Date a bit on Wednesday and Thursday nights – and then seeing him for five minutes during the actual cocktail party we were supposed to attend together.
  • Watching Jeff Tidball and Ken Hite fight crime, ’70s style.
  • Giving a complete stranger the shirt off my back at a party while my consigliere Ken Hite negotiated the details of its return.
  • Having Dan Tibbles hand me a 24k-gold-plated Iron Die. Shiny!
  • Doing some actual business.
  • Having so many of my great friends meet my kids, who’ve they’ve heard me blather on about for years, especially John Zinser, who made sure to fill their arms with games.
Thanks so much to everyone who came to my seminars and especially those who came to my book signing. An extra special thanks to the Gen Con management and staff, my incredible friends who treat me and my family so well at the show and do such a fine job running it. This was my 30th Gen Con in a row, and I’m planning on at least another 30 more!

Reactor 88 Gen Con Afterparties

I host a few parties at Gen Con, notably the Diana Jones Award Ceremony shindig, which is for industry professionals only. (If you qualify and need details, just ping me for them.) Over the past few years, I’ve also helped out with the Reactor 88 Studios afterparty, traditionally held on Friday at the SubTerra Lounge (250 S. Meridian St., in Indy). This starts at 9 PM and is open to any and all who care to join us.

That’s been such a success that the Reactor 88 folks have decided to expand the party to Saturday night as well. Join us at the same place and the same time, just the next night. Hope to see you there!

Lots of Star Wars vs. Star Trek

I’ve been on the road for the past few weeks, wandering about the Northwoods of Michigan and Wisconsin, but I’m back now, trying to catch up and gear up for Gen Con at the same time. Since I last posted about it, I’ve done a lot of press for Star Wars vs. Star Trek, including the following bits.

First off, I was on the Sean Moncrieff show on Ireland’s Newstalk Radio, and I chatted with the pleasant and funny show’s namesake for about 10 minutes and had a grand time. You can find a recording of it on the show’s highlights podcast on iTunes.

I also was on This Week in Geek with the Birdman. We had a bit more time to spend, and the chat ranged over a broader spectrum of topics, but it highlighted Star Wars vs. Star Trek for sure. 

There’s also a great review of the book over by Tabz over at Quadruple Z. She loved the book, writing “kudos to Matt for not making it another academic discussion.”

At Cinema Sentries, Mary Kay enjoyed the book too. She writes: “For any lover of science fiction, fantasy, or just plain debate, this book is full of real life facts and lots of fun “what-ifs”.”

At J.K. Woodward‘s website, he got a kick out of the book: “I cannot reccommend this book enough!!”

Also, at the Daily Blam!, David Anderson gives the book high praise. “I found this book to be instructive, detailed, and most importantly, fun.”