As I mentioned to a couple friends at GenCon, this was the first time in probably ten years that I’ve had to think about what I was going to wear at the show. For the past decade or so, I’ve been in Fantasy Flight uniform – one-color t-shirts, the first few years, then full-color t-shirts, then fancy, long-sleeved, button-up-the-front, embroidered shirts the past couple years.
But now? Now I’m representing InnerWorkings and myself. So I decided to go with a shirt, tie, and slacks (to show I’m professional), with a pair of sneakers (partially to show that I’m still a fun gamer geek, and partially to avoid the blisters I got from my dress shoes at Expo). The uniform seemed to to do the trick, but it got a little hot outside the air-conditioned convention center.
My big release for the show was the New Gods’ Handbook, for the New Gods of Mankind RPG, published by Dark Skull Studios. I was one of a handful of writers on this book, so I got to spend some time in the booth, singing its praises to all who passed by.
I also spent some time working the booth for Skirmisher Publishing, for whom I serve as editor on their line of PDF products. They were running some awesome-sounding Cthulhu Live events which, like most years, I simply didn’t have time to play in. “Next year,” I promised myself, “I will schedule time one night to play.” I seem to recall making a similar promise last year.
Other highlights of the show for me include checking out Red Juggernaut, Jim Long’s new company, which is doing some great-looking boardgames and developing a sweet new IP (I’m a suck for property-driven games). Speaking of properties, I had a long talk with Sean from Reality Blurs about their dark fantasy RunePunk setting, a shorter talk about their upcoming Iron Dynasty world, and the possibilities for the future.
And then there was hanging out with Jim Pinto, graphic designer, art director, and fellow game designer. Jim’s been around a little longer than me, mostly with AEG, and we’ve known of each other for years, but never really hung out until now. Now that we’re both working independently (or as I prefer to call is, “Gone ronin”), we’re discussing projects where we can combine our talents for maximum synergy. Exciting stuff. I’ll keep you posted.