The Travel Bug

Since leaving Flying Lab I find that the thing I want to do most is travel. During the three years I was working two jobs, I had to plan my travel carefully and husband vacation days. I spent some every year on GenCon and then of course there was our epic trip to Finland for Ropecon. For the time being at least my schedule is more free, and I just want to go all over.

I will be at GAMA Trade Show in Vegas in a couple of weeks. This will be the first time I've been in years, so that should be fun.

In July I hope to be out of the country at another convention. I've received the invite and plan to go but visas must sorted and all that. I'll announce plans when I'm sure everything is a go. It's a country I've never been to before, so that's exciting.

That's all good but I want more. I want to visit my friend Jess in Shanghai. I want to finally take Nicole to Belize. I want to go to Salute in London one of these years. I want see Australia and New Zealand (I was invited to GenCon Australia last year, but after I said yes they stopped answering my e-mails, which was weird). I want to walk the beaches of Normandy. I want to visit Istanbul and see the city my grandmother got booted out of. I want to visit friends in LA, Boston, Montreal, and DC. I want to go to a punk rock festival in Chicago. I want to head east again and see Poland. And I always want to spend more time in my home away from home, NYC.

I want to, but reality intrudes. This year it's probably Vegas, the mystery trip, GenCon, and maybe some business up in Edmonton.

Road Trip

We got back a few days ago from our first official family road trip. We decided to go on short notice because Kate's mid-winter break, Dundracon, and Nicole's mom's surgery all coincided in a workable way. So we spent a couple of days in Portland, the weekend in San Ramon for Dundracon, and then the final few days in San Francisco. Overall, the trip worked out well and we had a good time.

The Portland leg was potentially dicey. We were there to support Nik's mom and if her surgery did not go well, there was a chance we'd have to stay longer than we planned. As it turned out, the surgery went surprisingly well, they did less than they thought they'd have to, and she was released a couple of days early. While there we had a chance to hang out with Nik's brother Chad and his girlfriend Megan and it's always nice to see them. Alas for Kate, no Voodoo Doughnuts this trip.

We made it down to San Ramon on Friday night, but not before a thoroughly unpleasant cop pulled us over and gave us a speeding ticket. Everyone else on the freeway was also speeding but we had out of state plates and that made us a target. Fucking cops. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. We still don't know how much this is going to cost, but it's likely to be over $250 and we really can't afford that right now.

Dundracon was good fun though. We haven't been able to attend in something like 7 years, so it was nice to make it back. Dundracon is a convention that still puts roleplaying front and center and that's a rarity these days. The downside for me was that most RPG sessions were 6-8 hours long and I could not find a game I wanted to play that fit between the seminars I was doing. The only scheduled game I played was actually a minis game, a re-fight of Rorke's Drift using (heavily) modified Sword and the Flame rules. Also played four pick up games of Dominion with Bruce Harlick and a rotating cast of opponents. That is a damn fine game.

The seminars seemed to go well. Ken Hite was my co-panelist on many of them. Get Ken and I chatting about history and an hour goes by quickly. We got to be the youngsters on a seminar about the early days of gaming, but we had a support role there, as the focus was rightly on Steve Perrin and Ken St. Andre. I had never heard Steve talk about the creation and impact of the Perrin Conventions (an early set of house rules for OD&D popular on the West Coast), so that was quite interesting. We take the internet for granted now but it's fascinating how differently D&D was played in various regions back in the 70s.

One feature of Dundracon I have always loved is their flea market. Gamers can rent a table there by the hour and sell whatever they want. I've found some great deals there over the years and this year was exception. This year's score was two old Avalon Hill games. I got an unpunched copy of Napoleon at Bay and a beat up but complete copy of Midway. Total price: $5. Also found some interesting old stuff in the dealers room proper. I picked up Heart of Oak, the minis game companion to the Privateers and Gentlemen RPG. Also got an AD&D adventure that I totally missed when it came out: I8 Ravager of Time. It caught my eye because it came out of TSR UK and many of those guys went on to work on WFRP.

The rest of the con was spent catching up with old friends (some of whom, like Tim, came out because we were going to be there). Endgame was nice enough to sell our wares so we didn't have to man our own booth (which is really how I prefer to do smaller cons these days). Sunday night we went out for a nice steak dinner at Izzy's and then Bruce, Ken, Nicole, and I joined Chris and Brian to record the 50th episode of their 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction podcast. We recorded for nearly two hours but I imagine the final episode will edit out many of the boxed wine jokes and off color comments.

After DDC it was off to San Francisco proper. We had a chance to meet up with Derek Pearcy, who we hadn't seen in person in 10 years or so. It was great to catch up and meet his family. We had lunch in the Ferry Building and I got to make my pilgrimage to Boccalone. Then he showed us around North Beach/Russian Hill. Very nice. The next day Bruce picked us up and we jaunted off to Sonoma. We had a terrific lunch at Restaurant Charcuterie, did three wine tastings, and picked up a couple of bottles to take home. Kate enjoyed an old time candy store (Powells Sweet Shoppe), which had a cool collection of vintage candy boxes and boardgames on display. That night we went down to Fisherman's Wharf at Kate's request. It's normally the sort of tourist beacon I avoid, but it was much less crowded at night.

The drive back to Seattle was thankfully uneventful. We spent almost all of it listening to an audio book, Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. The book brilliantly evokes what it's like to live in a Stalinist state. The ending was a little too tidy but it's definitely worth a read (or a listen).

Now it's back to too much e-mail and work. Hooray?

Hitsville US

A few quick notes before I get back to packing.

1. The most exciting news is that the game I spent the last year plus working on, the Dragon Age RPG, is out in stores this week. It's a classic style boxed set and it looks like it's going to do really well for us. Look for it in a game store near you.

I must also tip my hat to our partners at BioWare, whose Dragon Age: Origins computer game has sold over 3.2 million copies to date. There's a company that knows how to launch a property and make a great game.

2. I will be at Dundracon in San Ramon, CA this weekend. We won't have a booth (Endgame, one of my favorite game stores in the world, will be selling our stuff there), but I'll be around doing some seminars and playing games. I believe I'll be on the panel at the following seminars: Alternate Histories for Gaming, What's Cool, and Where Is the Hobby Going. I may also be on one in which old timers reminisce about coloring our dice with crayons and the like, but I'm not sure if I'm old enough to qualify at 40. Maybe Ken St. Andre will call me a whippersnapper.

3. I had thought I might head home to the Boston area for PAX East. After I left Flying Lab, I had to reconsider in light of new financial realities. Now it turns out that Wil Wheaton is doing the keynote, so I wish I had kept to my original plan. I still hope Wil has a wicked pissah time.

4. The forecast says chilly with a high chance of feijoada, churrasco, caipirinha.

5. Winter is almost over. And yet, it's still coming.

6. A note for readers of chrispramas.com. I was recently informed by Blogger that they are disabling the ftp option for blog updates, which is what I use. It is unclear if I can continue using Blogger with this URL, and I'm not keen on having one of theirs. I mirror this blog on Livejournal and Facebook though. If this site seems moribund to you, look over at http://freeport-pirate.livejournal.com or find me on Facebook. If that's not enough, I'm also on Twitter as @Pramas.

Summer's Over?

Weeks continue to fly by. Last weekend was the Penny Arcade Expo, which by all accounts was a huge success. My PAX was more miss than hit. I woke up Saturday feeling crappy. I made it in to the con in the afternoon because I had a meeting and needed to touch base with a few people. I did what I had to do, spent maybe an hour in the exhibit hall, and then went home. Nicole and Kate stayed out for the Jonathan Coulton show and didn't get home until 3:30 am. Sunday was a bit better but let's just say it was no GenCon for me. Next year I need a better strategy for PAX (and not getting sick would also help). They are doing a PAX East in Boston in March and I'm considering going to that. My family is in the Boston area and I have a bunch of friends there I haven't seen in ages. Do some business, see some people; seems like a reasonable idea.

This weekend is GwenCon, which is basically a big weekend of gaming at my former co-workers Gwen Kestrel and Andy Collin's house. It's a good time and chance to catch up with people from the WotC diaspora, but I think I'm going to have to skip it this year. It's been incredibly difficult to get any good work done the past month and I really need to have a solid weekend of that if I'm going to get out from under my current task load. Three years of the two job thing is wearing me thin.

Oh, and I'm really behind on e-mail at the moment. If I owe you one, I apologize. I am trying to catch up.

I guess summer's officially over, though it doesn't really feel like I had one.

Twenty Years of GenCon

It was 1989 and I was looking for distractions. I had just finished my second year at NYU and I was in a bit of a haze. The first great love affair of my life had ended badly and I was messed up about it. I decided I need to do something different and it had to be fun. It so happened that my roommate in Hayden Hall was from Milwaukee and earlier in the year a couple of his friends stayed in our tiny dorm room for a week. Before they left, they told me I could crash with them if I ever came to Milwaukee. I'm sure they thought they'd never see me because what were the odds of a New Yorker vacationing in Wisconsin? I thought to myself, "Milwaukee, isn't that where GenCon is?"

GenCon, for you non-gamers out there, is the biggest game convention in America. Gary Gygax (of Dungeons & Dragons fame) started it in Lake Geneva, WI in 1968 with 100 attendees. It grew year to year and changed locations many times. In 1985 the show moved to Milwaukee and remained there until 2003. All throughout my teenage years I had seen endless ads for GenCon in various D&D publications. Dragon Magazine used to do an insert that listed all the events. Even though I couldn't go, I'd read over all the events and marvel at all the cool stuff that seemed to go on there. I always wanted to go but it was beyond my means.

If I had a place to stay though, that would reduce the cost of going enormously. So I called the guys in Milwaukee, confirmed that I could indeed stay with them, and booked a flight for August. The convention was held at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center & Arena. That's right; I was making a pilgrimage to MECCA.

So I went out there for a week. I crashed on a couch, took the bus down to MECCA each day, and ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. I didn't know anyone at the convention. The guys I was staying with were, in fact, gamers big into Call of Cthulhu but they never went to GenCon despite it being in their home town. So I just explored the con on my own and it was by far the biggest one I had ever been to. I played a ton of RPGs and minis games over four days. I experienced the awesome auction (this was pre-Ebay remember). I went to seminars. I drooled over things I couldn't afford in the dealers' hall. Every company I had ever heard of and many that I hadn't were there. This was before you could order whatever you wanted online, so just being able to find some of these games was a treat, never mind meeting folks from the companies that produced them. The whole experience was awesome and when I got back to NYC I told all my friends about it.

Then a funny thing happened. After hearing my tales of GenCon, they wanted to go in 1990. So the next year I found myself back again. It soon became a tradition with my gaming friends in New York. We eventually started renting a van and turning it into a massively fun road trip. After awhile going to GenCon each year was no longer a question. It was just something I assumed I'd be doing one way or another. Now all of a sudden it's 2009 and I'm about to go to my 20th GenCon in a row. I can count on one hand the number of things I've done every year for twenty years.

Looking back on it I can see that my impulsive decision to go to GenCon in 1989 had a major effect on my life. I had wanted to try my hand at game design for years, but it was my trips to GenCon that made it happen. It was there I met people from various companies and hustled for freelance work. There I started my career as a publisher. There I met my future wife face to face for the first time. There Green Ronin won the Best Publisher ENnie Award three years in a row.

Tuesday night I'm heading out again. These days the show is in Indianapolis and it attracts more than 25,000 people each year. In many ways it'll be a GenCon like any other. I'll be at the Green Ronin booth with my friends and colleagues selling our wares. There will be business meetings, late night drinking sessions, and as much gaming as I can squeeze in. I'll attend the ENnie Awards Friday night and if I'm lucky take home one or two. I'll see many old friends and not have nearly enough time to spend with them. I'll have spent all year thinking about GenCon and then the show will go by in a flash.

It may seem the same, but this one is going to be different. I'll be celebrating 20 years of great memories, fun times, and enduring friendships. There won't be a party and there won't be cake, but it'll be special nonetheless. Thanks for everything, GenCon.

We Have a Winner

With GenCon coming up and the deadline past, it was time to pick a winner in the Make My Character contest. Thanks to everyone who participated. The winner is Bryan Smart, who Minotaur barbarian with the vicious executioners axe +5 pushed the right buttons. When will I rage? Later this week, thanks. Congrats to Bryan. I'll contact you privately about your prize.

That Would Have Been Timely

Months ago I agreed to be on a panel at Norwescon called Game Publishing Goes Digital. With the events of last week in the game industry, it was quite timely. I ended up moderating the panel, which included Jeff Combos from Exile Game Studio, Erik Mona from Paizo, Donna Prior from Flying Lab, and David Stansel-Garner from Catalyst Game Labs. I asked the Norwescon staff and the other panelists if they minded me recording the affair. I thought it would make a good episode of the Green Ronin podcast.

I need to listen to the file but I fear it isn't going to be usable. For one thing, there was a woman near the front with a cold and she was sneezing and blowing her nose throughout. The con hotel was also in Seatac, so the occasional jet would fly overhead. Then at the end of the panel I noticed my recorder had shut off. I had tried to get fresh batteries beforehand in the hotel shop but despite being an airport hotel they had no AA batteries. So I'll see how much got recorded and whether the sound is OK, but I may have to do something else for the next episode of the podcast. Too bad, as the panel went well and the topic is on everyone's minds in gamerdom.

Norwescon overall was a good time. Tim Nightengale did an excellent job on the gaming panels and the con was well run. All but one of my other panels went well. I wasn't sure what to expect out of the Orc one, but I was joined by Tolkien scholar Michael Martinez and he had some interesting things to say about the literary side of things. I also attended two seminars, one about writing for comics (because one day that proposal I put in last July might go somewhere) and one about the pulps (in which Erik Mona was in full effect). It was good to catch up with folks I hadn't seen in awhile, though I also missed seeing many others. It's wacky that we all live in the same city but often only see each other at conventions.

The Incredible Shrinking Weekend

I swear weekends are shorter and shorter. It's getting to the point where I feel the weekend is almost over by Saturday morning.

This past weekend I was a guest at local Seattle show Conquest Northwest, hosted by the always effusive Mondo Vega. I went the first year of this con and it was nearly its last. Monda has really turned it around though and Conquest is now a vibrant and fun con. A key, I think, was getting a lot of tournaments organized that would draw people to the show. There were Warhammer and 40K grand tournaments, a Flames of War tournament, and even an Advanced Squad Leader tournament. The Warhammer/40K room was hopping, with 30 odd battles going on at once.

Saturday afternoon I played in a Flames of War game put on by Chris Ewick from Tacoma store the Game Matrix. The scenario took place during the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank clash of WWII. Chris puts on a real spectacle, with over 100 tanks on the board. I ended up playing the Germans with a guy named Steve. Our objective was to take a Russian town. After several turns using long range fire to thin out the Russian ranks, I launched a classic blitz to try to seize it. The Russians blew away my Stug platoon but my Panzer IIIs got into town. The continued pounding of the Tigers, Panthers, and Elefants then caused the Red Army to break and flee. Victory was ours. Here's a picture of the blitz. There are more on the Facebook page.



After that I stopped by the Bucephalus Games demo table and chatted for awhile with Dan Tibbles, Anthony Gallela, and James Ernest. Then Chris Ewick appeared and offered to set us up with DBA armeis and ref a game for us. Well, how could we turn that down? So Anthony and I played Western Romans vs. Eastern Romans in a tense game. I thought I had him when I killed his general, but I could not finish them off before my mounting casualties spelled defeat. Next time, Gallela.

Today I felt like crap. Conquest is not a big show, so you'd think I wouldn't have to worry about con crud. By the afternoon though I was feeling really run down, had a headache, and was congested. I wanted to head home but I had a business dinner I could not miss. So I made it through that and then came home to chill out. On the upside the oyster po' boy was excellent.

PAX So Far

This weekend I've been at my third convention this August. Thankfully, the Penny Arcade Expo is in Seattle, so I didn't have to travel to get there. While PAX has some tabletop gaming, it's mostly a video game show. In just a few years it's gone from humble beginnings to a huge show that may top 40,000 attendees this year. Craziness.

Friday I worked in the office for most of the day and then met up with Kate and Nik. We went to the musical guest panel because our boys the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets were down from the Great White North to rock the con. The panel was ill-conceived though, as it put every single musical guest (some 25 people) on stage at once. Moderation was practically non-existent, so while there was some interesting talk from the bands answers tended to meander.

That evening we had dinner with Wil Wheaton and Toren Atkinson (the singer for the Thickets, long time artist for Green Ronin, and of course the co-designer of the Spaceship Zero RPG). We don't get to see either of them frequently enough, so it was great to catch up.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the Flying Lab booth doing press stuff. Did a bunch of interviews that seemed to go well. In the afternoon I was on a panel called "The Art of the Dungeon Master" with Mark Jessup, Chris Perkins, and James Wyatt of WotC, and Mike Fehlauer from Penny Arcade. The room was totally full and sadly they had to turn people away. I didn't know what to expect but it went pretty well. Mark acted as moderator and he did a good job and kept things moving. I wish we could have gone overtime to take more questions, but otherwise it was a good time.

Last night we went to the music show. The fist band was Anamanaguchi. They are from the "chip scene", which uses the sound code from old hardware to make music. So this was like modern prog rock overlaid with NES -style music. I got to say I found it intensely boring, but they were playing for the right crowd and got a good response. The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets played next and they rocked the house. I hadn't seen them play in 3 and 4 years and it was great to hear songs like Shoggoths Away and the Innsmouth Look once again. New guitarist Mario was really good and the two guitar attack worked well for them. I have seen the Thickets in some weird places (like the holiday party of Duthie's books in Vancouver) but finally they seemed to be in front of the audience they deserve. When they closed with Color Me Green, 3,000 odd people were chanting "Ia ia, Cthulhu f'tagn" along with the band. It was awesome.

Today more FLS press and hopefully a chance to walk around the exhibit hall.

GenCon #19

At the ENnie Awards on Friday night Peter Adkison assured the crowed that there would be a GenCon next year. This was a relief to me, as it'll be my 20th in a row and I'd hate to miss it because the con itself was canceled. It sounds like the success of this year's show ensured GenCon will get out of its financial difficulties and that is good news. There is no other convention like GenCon and it has a recipe that I don't think can be replicated.

This year's show was good but a bit strange for me. Coming so quickly after Ropecon I didn't feel like I was really there, if that makes any sense. The upside of that was that it was a real low stress show. I was still on a high after the Finland trip, all our GenCon plans went off without a hitch, and there was just nothing to get worked up about. Spending quality time with my GR homies and excellent sales ensured I stayed in a good mood for the whole show.

Green Ronin debuted the Wild Cards campaign setting for Mutants & Masterminds, the first of our George R.R. Martin projects, and sold out of that handily. We also had a lovely Freeport poster map for sale (coming to our webstore soon), which really does justice to Andy Law's new city map from the Pirate's Guide to Freeport. Fittingly, one of the four ENnie Awards we won was for Best Cartography for that book; well deserved, Andy! The surprise upset of the ENnies was the True20 Companion beating out Hero High. Traditionally, the M&M fans come out in force for the ENnies, so we figured if we won anything in the Best Supplement category it'd be for Hero High. Looks like the True20 fans really stepped up this year. Congrats to Erica Balsley, Dave Jarvis, Matthew Kaiser, Steve Kenson, and Sean Preston! I would also be remiss if I didn't mention my excellent co-authors on the Pirate's Guide to Freeport, Patrick O'Duffy and Rob Schwalb. That book picked up a silver ENnie for Best Setting, while Hobby Games: The 100 Best got one for the bizarrely named Best Regalia category. I must give a shout out to Jim Lowder, the book's editor, who did a tremendous job, and the 102 other contributors who made it sing. I'm hugely proud of Hobby Games: The 100 Best and it was great to see the book pick up an Origins Award and an ENnie this year.

My only real regret about GenCon is the same one I have every year: I wish I got to play more games. I spent most of the convention at the Green Ronin booth, with Thursday being particularly brutal because of last minute set up. That day we were all at the booth from 7 am to 6 pm. Saturday night I got to play D&D with friends from my college game group (Bill, Todd, and Aaron) and Rob Schwalb and two members of his group (Tom and Adam). We didn't come close to finishing but with such good company it didn't matter.

Like any good gamer, I picked up some cool stuff at GenCon. I'll blog about that later, as I have to get ready for work now. Overall, GenCon gets the thumbs up as always.

A Hard Day's Night Indeed

Nicole and I got back from Finland this afternoon after 21 hours of traveling. I was a guest of honor at Ropecon, the largest game con in Finland, so we got to spend the past week in the Helsinki area. We had been looking forward to this trip all year and I'm happy to say that it did not disappoint. We had an absolute blast and would go back in a heartbeat. I hope to write more about this trip when I have the time, but since we're flying out again tomorrow for GenCon I wanted to post something before we left.

We arrived Tuesday in the late afternoon and then we had a couple of days to do some sightseeing and explore Helsinki's cuisine and nightlife. Our companions on these adventures were Jukka and Katri. Jukka started us out right by taking us to an excellent Russian restaurant called Saslik, where I had my first tastes of bear and reindeer and discovered that pickles smothered in honey and sour cream is way better than it sounds. The next couple of days Katri, a photographer and LARP organizer, was our tour guide as we explored the city and a bit beyond. We went to Suomenlinna, an impressive sea fortress built by the Swedes in the 18th century. The next day we toured the National Museum and the ladies hit the art museum while I enjoyed the Military Museum and the nearby Army Museum. Both of those museums were empty late in the day, so I had them all to myself. Their English signage wasn't as good as the other museums but luckily I knew enough about the subject to figure things out.

We discovered that the Finns love their karaoke, and it doesn't seem uncommon to see older folks singing traditional songs and younger people singing metal in the same bar. I was looking for a song I liked and knew the words to and likely took my life into my own hands by singing "Back in the USSR" first. We saw many metal songs done, but almost always the power ballads. I guess the dudes are sensitive under that long hair. Thursday night we went to a club for the supposed National Finnish Air Guitar Championships, though in the end only four people competed. Katri was one of them and she was great but got voted out first. One of the judges, from a terrible cover band whose singer didn't know the lyrics to stuff like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Smoke on the Water", said that women weren't made for rocking out. Cue Nicole to go give the judges what for and fight for grrrrl power. It was a classic Nicole moment that I believe Greg Stolze (also a guest) snapped pictures of. Later that night a metal band called Waltari played. Not exactly my scene but it was fun to rock out with the Finns.

The con itself started Friday. I gave two lectures over the weekend (RPG Publishing in the New Millennium and then World Building for RPGs) and participated in a panel about designing licensed games (by way of Star Trek and the Finnish parody Star Wreck) and the off the wall game design challenge. Nicole and I also did a What's New with Green Ronin seminar on Sunday. My only real complaint about the con was that I was so busy I didn't get to see enough of it or play any games. We did get to watch a silent adventure film that Katri and some of her friends had made and that was quite fun.

Oh, and did I mention the drinking? Good lord, the Finns can drink. I held my own but I haven't drank so much in one week since college. Each night we were out later than the last, culminating with the legendary after party that kept us up until we left for the airport this morning. I discovered the long drink, a gin and grapefruit concoction that was invented for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, and enjoyed many of those. I felt it my duty to also try salmiakkikossu, a vodka drink flavored with local salty licorice. Did not care much for that, though the Estonian variant with a more menthol taste that we drank at the after party was pretty good.

As you can see we packed a lot into a week but that isn't what made this a truly great experience. The reason we had so much damn fun was the hospitality and friendliness of our hosts. I have never been so well treated at a convention. And the people we met were tremendous. There were so many hours of good conversation that I was hoarse by Saturday. We also enjoyed getting to know Peter Andreasen, a Danish LARP organizer who was another of the guests of honor. His room hosted more than one late night debauch by the end of the con. I learned a lot from Peter and various Finnish gamers about the very interesting LARP scene in the Nordic countries too, and I may write a bit about that when I have some time.

Last night was the after party for all the volunteers. As Ropecon is an all volunteer run show and it hosts 3-4,000 people every year, that means it was a big party. We had the entire top floor of a building, with food, a ton of booze (of course), karaoke, and a sauna in the back. I suspect the Finns get a certain enjoyment from taking Americans to a co-ed naked sauna but we were not fazed. Nicole, as a Finnish American who grew up on Minnesota, knew a thing or two about sauna culture already. There were up to 30 people crammed into a sauna made for far less, but that fit the spirit of the event. Nicole and I both had slowly been succumbing to con crud and I hoped the sauna might help sweat it out of us. I did feel a lot better after, though we will be rolling into GenCon a bit under the weather.

At the end of the night I volunteered to do some karaoke. They didn't have much in English but I smiled when I saw A Hard Day's Night. It was too perfect. So I belted that out and everyone drank and sang along. It was a raucous end to an awesome week. I can't thank my new friends enough for such a great introduction to Finland and the gaming scene there. Kippis!

Here Comes August

I've been slack about updating the ole blog lately because July has been crazy busy. Nicole and I are leaving for Finland on Monday and we have to tie up all loose ends and make sure everything is on track for Gen Con before we go. In the midst of that Nik and I went to the Portland area over the weekend for her high school reunion and various family visitation. That same weekend Flying Lab moved its offices from Queen Anne to Belltown. The new location cuts about 15 minutes off my commute each way and I can get here on only one bus. I have also escaped the bullpen at last and have a private office I share with one other person that has a lovely view of Puget Sound. Belltown is the north end of downtown and has lots of new options for lunch, which is great. The office is also a 5 minute walk from Singles Going Steady, the best punk record store in Seattle. Woot.

Usually this time of year it's all about Gen Con, but I'm actually more excited about attending Ropecon the week before. Don't get me wrong, I love Gen Con, but this is going to be my 19th in a row and I know what to expect. I will enjoy myself for sure, but it's unlikely to hold any surprises. This will be my first trip to Finland on the other hand and my first con in northern Europe. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Finland and Ropecon have to offer.

On the Gen Con front it looks like GR will (knock on wood) be able to debut the Wild Cards campaign setting for Mutants & Masterminds. This is the first of our George R.R. Martin projects and I think it came out great. Series author John Jos. Miller wrote a hugely comprehensive setting book, Steve made sure it's eminently gameable, and Hal made it look awesome. I think M&M and Wild Cards fans will be very pleased with the finished product. We've got some other Gen Con surprises in the works, but I'm not going to say more until I'm sure they'll make the show.

Now it's back to work. Much to still do before Monday.

Go Go August Begins

I'm leaving for the airport in an hour and jetting off to England. I'm the gaming guest of honor at a convention in Cambridge called Recombination. Today I've been trying to take care of dozens of small tasks so I can leave knowing that everything is well in hand. I'm taking a redeye and I got up at 6 am so there'd be a chance of me being tired on the flight. I'm coming back Monday night, working Tuesday and Wednesday at Flying Lab, and then taking another redeye to Indianapolis. If you see me the first day of GenCon, don't be surprised if I'm completely zombified. To my vast relief it seems my toes were not broken, just badly bruised. It surely would have sucked to start two weeks of travel with three broken toes. Particularly when Gen Con means being on my feet for 12 hours a day.

The debut episode of Green Ronin podcast went up yesterday and you can find that at the company website. I was hoping the advanced copy of Paragons that the printer sent would arrive before I left, but it's looking like it won't. Guess I'll have to wait until next week to get a look. So far everything seems on track for us to debut nine new books at Gen Con, which is pretty crazy. I think that's more than we released the first two years the company existed!