My Weekend

I don't normally write much about my real life and how that goes here, because I have other places to write about that.

But I just had an awesome gaming-related weekend, and the vast majority of it was gaming-related.

Friday, I had a chance to meet with Derek Chinn, who designed Telepathy. I had a chance to play a couple of unpublished prototypes, as well. I hope to write more about this later (say, once one or more of the prototypes see print, or if I have news to spill - and I do hope to have news to spill). Mike - the district manager at Uncle's Games set it up for me.

After that, my wife and I went to a game night hosted by a friend of one of her co-workers. We had a chance to play Werewolves of Miller's Hollow a couple of times. It's always fascinating to me how many variants people use when playing this one.

Saturday, we went to play D&D at Phoenix Games to celebrate the release of Player's Handbook 3.

Following that, we headed to The Airlock for boot camp. You see, The Airlock has two pricing tiers. Members pay less than non-members, but to become a member, you need 50 missions and a Boot Camp. The Boot Camp was useful, as there were one or two system-related things I still had questions on.

I also learned a bit more about the Catalyst Game Labs situation. ICV2 had an article about it, and then Catalyst responded again on their official blog ... After reading everything I could track down anywhere, I suspect that Catalyst will eventually be okay. Some products may be delayed - but gamers are used to that by now, right?

Sunday, I received a message from CROC about a scenario I wrote for Claustrophobia. He'd found a rather glaring error in the copy I sent him that made the game unwinnable for the humans.

AND I finally ordered my subscription to Spielbox, because they are about to start publishing in English.

Spielbox, by the way, was the first home of a lot of small game expansions. In the past, I've ordered several back issues so I could get the Minotaur, the Guardhouse, and the Carriage.

Three of these four weekend events are things I hope to write more about later. I also need to write more about game stores, but that will wait at least until after I"ve visited Gamma Ray Games (another local game store).

PAX '09: How I Got A Badge

Map
Originally uploaded by Gamethyme

I can't figure out how to scheduled a post with Flickr, so this will be up a few hours earlier than normal. In fact, it'll be up Tuesday Night instead of Wednesday Morning. Don't get used to early posts, however.

I need to write about PAX. And I still haven't given GenCon a full writeup, either.

I will do both of these in detail later. For now, the Tale of How I Got A Pass.

As long-time readers of this blog will know, my home Game Store is Phoenix Games (at the moment, this may be a better link). Phoenix is where my weekly Wednesday gathering is held, and it's where the bulk of my boardgaming dollar goes.

You will also know that I demo games for Asmodee Editions. This is not restricted to Phoenix. One of the game stores I visit often is Uncle's Games, as it's about a mile from where I work and is a well-run game store. I spend the bulk of my role-playing dollar there.

I had been asked for feedback on whether or not Asmodee should consider a booth at PAX. My plan was to buy my pass on payday. Unfortunately, PAX sold out.

I had loaned my copy of Dixit to the Uncle's Games district manager in hopes that they would pick the game up (they did, by the way - they loved the game). When I swung by to pick my copy up on Monday, there was an employee there that I didn't know. We spent some time chatting, and I'd discussed a desire to attend PAX, as I was loaning a number of my games to the game library.

"Let me pull some strings and see what I can do," she said. I left her my name and number and e-mail address.

Thursday morning, I had voice mail. "This is Jodi from Uncle's," she said, "I have a PAX Pass for you, but you have to be willing to spend some time in the tabletop gaming area."

What? You mean I have to spend time in one of the two areas where I had planned to scout most heavily? In exchange, I am free to wander the convention for a few hours?

So, to make a long story short, I wound up at PAX, wearing a badge that said, "Uncle's Games," a very odd feeling. (If you're reading this, Jodi, thank you again!)

I took a few photos, and compiled a report for Asmodee. I even got to play a few games. Some of you will notice that this list is very similar to another list I recently compiled.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to talk about PAX and GenCon and the games I played. I think we all know how good I am at keeping to my plans, however.

PAX Confirmed

Just a quick note to confirm: I will be at PAX this weekend, so next week's post may be late.

It will certainly include The Adventure Of Obtaining A PAX Badge.

Many thanks to Jodi from Uncles Games for making it possible.

Tale to follow.

If you happen to be at PAX, be sure to drop by Tabletop Gaming to say "Hi."