I got back from GAMA Trade Show a couple of days ago and naturally I’ve been sick ever since. Usually it’s Nicole who gets the “con crud” but since she didn’t come to this show I guess it was my turn. Although I was not feeling too great, I went out to see Anti-Flag on Friday night with Nik and Rick. We already had the tickets so I sucked it up. Anti-Flag was good but most of the opening acts blew. I find it hard to believe the Casualties are still around and they continue to suck. I wish they’d stop opening for bands I want to see.

GTS was very good overall. I expected more doom and gloom but the atmesphere actually seemed positive. There were a lot less RPG companies than there used to be. I suppose that’s not too surprising, but it really was a marked departure from GTS 3-4 years ago. Hal, Rob, and I pimped the hell out of True20, M&M;, and Thieves’ World, and answered a bunch of questions about the 40K RPG after that was announced. Retailers seem happy with our games, which is always good to hear.

Sadly, I did not get much of a chance to walk the floor. When not working the booth, I was in meetings scheduled and impromptu. Or spending an hour in the micky fricky business center waiting for the incompetent staff to find a package for me (they eventually let me go in the back room to look for it myself and I found it in less than three minutes). It was also a light year for swag. My house is too full of stuff already and I find I want to bring home less and less from cons. I was content with the new edition of Warhammer Ancient Battles, Human Head’s Villainy card game, a bit of the City of Heroes CCG, and a cool looking new book by Brom called Plucker.

It wasn’t all business though. Monday night John Kovalic and I had our Flames of War game and that was good fun. John and I have been friends for going on a decade and we had never played a game together before. This is true of many of my industry friends, since we often only see each at busy consumer shows like GenCon and Origins. Wednesday night the GR crew and Kate and George from GW went out to Samba in the Mirage to celebrate the one year anniversary of WFRP2. Giant capirinhas and meat on swords were suitably festive and a good time was had by all. It was nice to squeeze a little bit of Vegas into the trip.