Since I have been back from Gen Con real life obligations have colluded to prevent me from posting the planned Gen Con recap blog entries. Or, maybe it was the mullet I borrowed from Kentucky Fried Gamers. My IQ dropped the moment I put it on and has not yet recovered.

Currently the internal network is down at work leaving me with a moment to crank out a quick entry.

One of the cool things I missed at this year’s Gen Con was Green Ronin’s Hobby Games: The 100 Best book. The following meme lists the hobby games found in the book and asks the blogger to indicate their level of personal experience.

Boldface if “I own this game.”
Italics is “I have played this game.”
Italic and Bold are “I both own and have played this game.”

Bruce C. Shelley on Acquire
Nicole Lindroos on Amber Diceless
Ian Livingstone on Amun-Re
Stewart Wieck on Ars Magica
Thomas M. Reid on Axis & Allies
Tracy Hickman on Battle Cry
Philip Reed on BattleTech
Justin Achilli on Blood Bowl
Mike Selinker on Bohnanza
Tom Dalgliesh on Britannia
Greg Stolze on Button Men
Monte Cook on Call of Cthulhu
Steven E. Schend on Carcassonne
Jeff Tidball on Car Wars
Bill Bridges on Champions
Stan! on Circus Maximus
Tom Jolly on Citadels
Steven Savile on Civilization
Bruno Faidutti on Cosmic Encounter
Andrew Looney on Cosmic Wimpout
Skip Williams on Dawn Patrol
Alan R. Moon on Descent
Larry Harris on Diplomacy
Richard Garfield on Dungeons & Dragons
William W. Connors on Dynasty League Baseball
Christian T. Petersen on El Grande
Alessio Cavatore on Empires in Arms
Timothy Brown on Empires of the Middle Ages
Allen Varney on The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Phil Yates on Fire and Fury
William Jones on Flames of War
Rick Loomis on Fluxx
John Kovalic on Formula De
Anthony J. Gallela on The Fury of Dracula
Jesse Scoble on A Game of Thrones
Lou Zocchi on Gettysburg
James Wallis on Ghostbusters
James M. Ward on The Great Khan Game
Gav Thorpe on Hammer of the Scots
Uli Blennemann on Here I Stand
S. Craig Taylor, Jr. on A House Divided
Scott Haring on Illuminati
Dana Lombardy on Johnny Reb
Darren Watts on Junta
Greg Stafford on Kingmaker
Lester Smith on Kremlin
Wolfgang Baur on Legend of the Five Rings CCG
Marc W. Miller on Lensman
Ted S. Raicer on London’s Burning
Teeuwynn Woodruff on Lord of the Rings (boardgame)
Mike Breault on Machiavelli
Jordan Weisman on Magic: The Gathering
Steve Kenson on Marvel Super Heroes (Jeff Grubb version)
Gary Gygax on Metamorphosis Alpha
Greg Costikyan on My Life with Master
John D. Rateliff on Mythos
Chris “Gerry” Klug on Napoleon’s Last Battles
John Scott Tynes on Naval War
Erick Wujcik on Ogre
Marc Gascoigne on Once Upon a Time
Mike Bennighof on PanzerBlitz
Steve Jackson on Paranoia
Shannon Appelcline on Pendragon
JD Wiker on Pirate’s Cove
Richard H. Berg on Plague!
Martin Wallace on Power Grid
Tom Wham on Puerto Rico
Joseph Miranda on Renaissance of Infantry
James Ernest on RoboRally
Paul Jaquays on RuneQuest
Richard Dansky on The Settlers of Catan
Ken St. Andre on Shadowfist
Steven S. Long on Shadowrun
Peter Corless on Shadows over Camelot
Dale Donovan on Silent Death: The Next Millennium
Matt Forbeck on Space Hulk
Ray Winninger on Squad Leader
Lewis Pulsipher on Stalingrad
Bruce Nesmith on Star Fleet Battles
Steve Winter on The Sword and the Flame
Jeff Grubb on Tales of the Arabian Nights
Shane Lacy Hensley on Talisman
Douglas Niles on Terrible Swift Sword
Ed Greenwood on Thurn and Taxis
Mike Fitzgerald on Ticket to Ride
Thomas Lehmann on Tigris & Euphrates
Warren Spector on Tikal
David “Zeb” Cook on Toon
Mike Pondsmith on Traveller
Zev Shlasinger on Twilight Struggle
Kenneth Hite on Unknown Armies
Sandy Petersen on Up Front
R. Hyrum Savage on Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
George Vasilakos on Vampire: The Masquerade
Kevin Wilson on Vinci
R.A. Salvatore on War and Peace
Jack Emmert on Warhammer 40,000
Chris Pramas on The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Steve Jackson on The Warlord
John Wick on Wiz-War

Clearly I have more gaming to do! I will attempt to post the recap entries later this week.

Friends, it is time for Gen Con. I will be there from sometime Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning. As I type this I still don’t know in which hotel I’ll be staying or what time I’ll be arriving.

So, who’s going? Give me a shout out if you see me, even if I am zoned out in my own world. I *love* to hear the words: “I read your blog”. If you’d like to join me for lunch, I plan to be at the RAM for lunch after Killer Breakfast on Saturday.

Those of you who have been to the Indy Convention Center know that cell phones do not get good reception and the ambient noise in most places make phone conversations impossible. If you try to call me, please leave me a voice mail message. Or, send me a text message.

Here is my schedule for this year’s convention:

Wednesday, Aug 15

• ?? pm – Arrive and Check in to Hotel
• ?? pm – Grab Swag Bag from Indianapolis Convention Center
• ?? pm – Gen Con Forum Stink
• ?? pm – BYOV Room Party

Thursday, Aug 16

• 11 am – Vendor Hall Shopping and Swag Grab
• 5 pm – LRP00089 Torchwood: Remember The Time?

Friday, Aug 17

• 4:30 pm – LRP00087 A Holiday at Hogwarts: Slytherin House

Saturday, Aug 18

• 9 am – RPG00010 Hickman’s Killer Breakfast
• 11 am – Lunch at the RAM
• 7 pm – LRP00056 Ten Thousand Bullets LARP: RIP

I hope to bump into each of ya there.

Physics rocks! Check out this demonstration of a Ruben’s tube. In this video a foil lined PVC pipe gives a real-world visualization of sound. Remember friends, PVC at this temperature can melt and emit noxious fumes.

I have been playing Puzzle Quest for my Sony PSP. It uses the same “connect-three-matching-items-in-a-grid” game mechanic throughout most of the game. What is interesting is the RPG aspect that they layer on top of it. The monsters you compete against have the ability to heal themselves, leech health and mana off you and alter the grid. As you level up you can train mounts, research spells and forge magic items which give you bonuses. It is a cute little game.

The lovely Signgirl and her son D joined me for the first night of DieCon this past weekend. Jon Bancroft’s daughter took us through a game of KinderBunnies. During the game Jon dropped off a coupon which Signgirl used to buy some games for D.

I wrote and helped run the Spycraft LARP for Atomic Squash. In all we had about 22 players and wrote 35 characters. Sorry Jirel, but the Cynthia Pride character was cut due to lack of players. Thanks again for writing up the information on the collectible card game.

Our biggest asset for LARP development was the wiki. I believe the ability to work online and see the edit history and recent changes made us more productive. It took some time to become adjusted to the wiki-style formatting. But everyone who used it seem to pick it up fairly quickly.

We published a guest list, a list of characters, on the Atomic Squash forums before the game. The feedback to the list helped us gauge player interest. We were better able to select which characters to put in the optional column in case not enough players showed up.

For a three to five hour game I feel that a 300-400 word character description worked well. It gives the player a good feel for the character and improves their game. For example I gave the Doctor Lo character a family. It was not important to the immediate events of the game, but helped define the character.

There were not big stories that encompassed a large number of characters. This allowed us to safely cut characters and augment the game by playing the museum curator and auctioneer as non-player characters (NPCs). Most players had at a couple goals that encouraged interaction with other players. Making Otto’s disappearance a mystery discouraged players from sticking to their small circles and encouraged them to circulate among the other players.

A couple players told me how much they enjoyed their characters. Seeing them enjoy the game made all of the hard work worth it.

I was thrilled to see Signgirl laughing and enjoying the LARP. Big points for you, sweetie! Now I’ll have to draft you to help me write a new Kobolds LARP.

I spent the Memorial Day weekend writing characters for the Spycraft LARP that Atomic Squash plans to run at DieCon this Saturday. I started Friday after work and worked morning to night on them. I took a few breaks to play Battlefield 2 and do some shopping. More on that in a bit.

We managed to post a list of characters for this year’s game. In total there are a total of 35 characters. Since we usually have around twenty players, the unfortunate reality is that a third of these characters probably will not make it into the game. I just hope some of the ones I sacrificed my holiday weekend to write find their way into the game. Here is the list of characters on which I worked the past three days (in the order on which I worked them):

• Vittorio Esperto: an Italian collector visiting the United States. (White Tux, Greased Hair, Pinky Ring)
• Malcolm Whitlow: a former Prime Minister of Australia. (Bald, Charismatic, Bold tie)
• Clodomir Uteem: an exiled islander and activist. (Dark Skin, Beard, Scowl)
• Nicole Mason: an Australian government official. (Plain, Flat Hair, Nice Dress)
• Jamal Riggs: a European Union tax agent. (Wrinkled jacket, Wing tipped shoes, Soul patch)
• Izanami Kishi: a famous Japanese actor and martial arts expert. (Black Formal Robe, Bald, Short)
• Hong Gildong: a Korean-born Texas oil magnate. (Comb over, False Teeth, Designer Tuxedo)
• Jeremy Wade: the assistant to Izanami Kishi. (Flamboyant, Curly Hair, Pink Shirt)
• Juan Kerr: the bodyguard to Elsa Beisheim. (Eye patch, Muscular, Van Dyke)
• Cynthia Pride: a British journalist working for The London Times. (Pantsuit, Short Hair, Notepad)
• Elmyr: a little known artist seeking some exposure. (Ascot, Chain Smoker, Earrings)
• James Camelot: a hacker who claims he has a program that can determine if paintings are fake. (Young, Nerdy, Skinny Tie)
• Pat Pennyworth: a beautiful auctioneer working for Fukabun Naka Auctions. (Stiff Prosthetic Arm, Stunning, Red Dress)

Yeah, I’m a slacker. I have a new respect for writers. Getting my head around most of these characters was a challenge. How do you make a tax agent interesting? What motives a wealthy Texas oil tycoon? What would compel somebody to spend time with a former Australian Prime Minister? I am convinced that writing involves hundreds of these little decisions. Good authors are the folks that make the best decisions.

I managed to accumulate enough points in Battlefield 2 to get promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant. So far I have earned 75,099 points and have played the game for a total of 825 hours.

I picked up Ozzy Osbourne’s new album, Black Rain. It definitely rocks. The album features some juicy guitar riffs, or as I heard a DJ once say, “.. the sound of finely tuned chainsaws”. It’s a beautiful thing. The lyrics were adequate but fell short of being great. Thankfully Ozzy did not completely disappoint me like Sevendust’s last effort did.

I am continuing to work on the Spycraft LARP for Atomic Squash. Our setting this year is an art auction. Here is the description of the game if you have not read it yet:

Mickey took twenty eight pictures of art items for the game. I spent some time last night uploading them to our game wiki and creating pages for them. By the way while I think wikis are terrible for software project documentation, we have succeeded in using one to organize our character sheets, art items, game rules and reference materials.

We are also trying to think of some nice items to give away as prizes for players. Last year for the Fight Night game Atomic Squash gave away a pair of boxing gloves. Cool, huh? Ideas?

I saw this on a fortune cookie yesterday: Doing what you love is freedom. Loving what you do is happiness.

Don’t panic! I just found out today is Towel Day, the annual celebration of the life and humor of Douglas Adams.

It was a busy week for me this past week. On Thursday I met Signgirl’s family and went to her graduation from Southwestern Illinois College. I brought my Olympus EVOLT E-500 digital SLR camera. In an attempt to appease her anxious five year son I let him snap a few pictures with it before the ceremony. He was mostly careful with the camera but thought it was cute to press his face against the lens. After the ceremony we went to a get together with Signgirl’s classmates and friends.

On Friday Bella Rose and her husband came over for an impromptu BBQ. I told Signgirl I usually like to plan things like that out better. But lately I’ve been trying quite a few things outside my comfort zone. Things were fine. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

The next day Signgirl took me to a graduation party hosted by a classmate, VA. VA recently moved into a house in Belleville not too far where I used to live on North Charles. She has already done some great work remodeling the place. Out back was a building that was once used as a bakery. It is now being used to house a couple old cars and a refrigerator.

Later that evening we met Nicholas and his fiancee, Delaney, for dinner at Union Station in St Louis. Afterwards we toured the mall stopping to see the floor show at the Fudgery and feeding the mutant koi in the pond under the train shed. There was some discussion about Ren Faires including the recent trend for pirate only faires. Arrr, looks like Signgirl wishes to go to one of these later this summer.

Jason came over on Sunday. I have been helping him write characters for the upcoming Atomic Squash Spycraft LARP game. We hammered out the backgrounds for a dozen or so characters. Jason laid out his plans for the two weeks we have left before we run the game at DieCon. He wants me to figure out how to print out the characters in a format suitable for our players. So I plan to be occupied with game work this week.

Signgirl is making a trip out of town. Her and D came over yesterday and stayed until I dropped them at the airport around 5 AM this morning. When I got back home, I climbed into bed and fell asleep. I woke around 11 AM and sent an email to my boss saying that I was going to be out today. Then I fell back asleep and didn’t get up until around 5 PM. Yeah, I am a bum.