Thursday, August 28, 2014

MCG at PAX

Come see me, Charles Ryan, and Batgirl at PAX Prime this weekend (Aug 29 - Sept 1, 2014); we're exhibiting on behalf of MCG. We're sharing a space with Green Ronin Publishing, so if you do stop by, you'll also get to see Chris and Nicole! (As an added incentive, note that on the days Batgirl is able to attend, she'll be cosplaying various characters from Numenera and The Strange. Promises to be some cool stuff!)

We'll be in the same room Green Ronin exhibited last year, in room 208 on the 2nd level (see map--BUT NOTE, we'll be in room 208, not 209. The map is a lie! On the other hand, we're the next room over). We're in the tabletop game area, so simply go up the south escalators to the 2nd floor and take a right to find us.




DRAGONCON ON EAST COAST
Meanwhile Monte and Shanna are winging their way east to DragonCon so say hi to them if you're there instead!  They have official signing details for Dragon Con!

Title: Autograph Sessions
Time: Sat 1-2 pm 
Location: International Hall South - Marriott

Go and see them. they'd love to sign your books, decks, fan kits, oddities, or anything else that you have! So bring them your goodies! (They also like cookies).




Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Best Game in Years

I'm back from Gen Con 2014. How was it, you ask? In a word, fabulous.

Many things contributed to Gen Con's fabulousness this year, including the many honors accorded to MCG (10 ENnies), the launch of a game near and dear to me (The Strange), as well as the rush I always get attending a convention filled with people who love games and geeking out as much as I do. (Plus, the entire MCG team hit it out of the park, as Monte describes here.) As it happens, it was also Batgirl (Torah Cottrill)'s first Gen Con, which was also grand.

However, the thing that really pegged the fabulous meter for Gen Con 2014 was that I also ran an RPG that has the distinction of being the most fun I've had GMing a game IN YEARS.

Really?

Yeah, really. Here's why.

We wanted the game I ran (and the game Monte ran for Numenera) to be a premiere experience for the players. The players were people who either made a high-level Kickstarter pledge to be there, or who made a winning bid during our charity auction to be there.

As it turned out, some of them were such amazing people that a couple had also volunteered to GM other games of The Strange at Gen Con. Before we discovered the overlap, I was also slated to run the same adventure (Eschatology Code) for the premiere game. We worried the experience wouldn't be as premiere for those players who were also running the same adventure themselves. So I wrote a new adventure especially for them called The Hum: Welcome to the Grand Bavarian (The Hum will also soon become available to the MCG Asset Team to run as demos across the world).

Did I mention these were amazing players? Everyone there was excited and pumped to be at the table, an experienced RPG player, smart, funny, and just as importantly, they were all gracious and pleasant people. (EDIT: One was so amazing that we hired her. I'm of course talking about Darcy Ross.)

Finally, it probably doesn't come as any surprise that over the past several years, every game I've run was a playtest. (Either DMed when I was still working as a designer on 5E, or GMed after I joined MCG and started designing The Strange.) If you've ever playtested a game, you know the drill. Play ten minutes, then stop when someone points out a problem. Hash that out for 30 minutes before you get to play another ten minutes or so before someone else calls a halt to deal with some new irregularity in the game. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat...

Fast forward to the convention. The Hum was the first RPG session I've game mastered IN YEARS that wasn't a playtest. It was just a regular RPG session. It was filled with players who weren't there to polish the game. They were there to entertained by me and The Strange. I hope they were.



Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Gen Con 2014 Schedule

I'll be at the MCG booth (booth 1653) at Gen Con at the following times (Monte Cook will be in the booth at the same time as me, which is convenient if you're looking for dual signatures on your copy of The Strange!):
Thursday: 10a-Noon, 2p-3:15p 
Friday: 10a-Noon 
Saturday: 2p-4p 
Sunday: 2p-4p

These are the times you can and should come by and say hello, or if you want something signed, this is when I'll be ready to oblige. I'm happy to sign anything, new or old. (Including copies of the D&D 5th edition, also out in time for Gen Con!)


I'll also be at the following seminars:

The Numenera seminar is on Thursday at 1p-2p 
The Strange launch event is on Saturday at 11a-1p

Both of those two events require tickets (but they're free).