Headed Down to a Beachless Sea

When people whom I know at a casual level asks me about where ever it is I go every August, I don't feel the need to be secretive. I tell them Indianapolis. When they ask why, I am a bit shyer. Come on, I grew up when everyone around me thought I was weird that I knew what a hobbit was. And the constant map drawing in my notebook gave many teachers a wrinkled brow upon their viewing of my "journals." Lordheads help me if a soccer or hockey coach caught me reading a Jim Apro drawn Batman comic book. "We go there for the beaches." I answer.

Ah yes. Tomorrow I take my coachman's vacation from a lot of hanging out in Cleveland, only one friend in jail, look I just bought him two beers, down to the shores of Indianapolis. And there I will bathe in tidal wave that flood the convention area with a medium-sized town's population of gamer dorks. And it's about damned time.

For the last four weeks I have working on my scenarios, which is not unusual. But at the same time I have been in-charge of, but not really in-charge of, setting up Peryton's and my booth. Yes we've gone and moved our basement business into the cottage industry of convention booth-buying tabletop gaming work producers.  Over the past year it has been something of a humbling experience, but I expect next year to be easier, after I get a view from No-Man's Land of the Dealer Hall at the bayonet level of vision.

The last minute writing has, as usual, invigorated me with love of whatever it was that I felt compelled to write back when the convention organizers demanded my game event submissions.

Spacers(TM) is looking especially awesome. Yes faithful play-testers (has it been long enough to call you players yet?) more space opera scenarios are on the way. The "53 Miles West of Venus" session is going to tie in nicely to the release of a little ditty that I am calling Spacers: Universe. It should be available right around Christmas. But don't hold me to it, because you know how I am with deadlines.

For my Call of Cthulhu stuff, my little angle is still getting worked out. But still no where near being ready to publish, certain people reading this blog. Horror is hard for me. But hopefully my two tales "The Moon Rock and the Astrologer" and "The Tarot Deck" will impress someone. I might not be as good as most of the GMs I know that specialize in horror at CoC, but I am clever and a fairly talented GM. My self-spun yarns might be starting to catch up with me this year. See you after 10pm if you're around.

My T&T scenarios have sold out this year. That is unusual, which I mean to say that I think my efforts since 2005 are starting to pay off. While I have been able to pull four to seven players for any T&T session at GenCon that I run; on the pre-purchased ticket buying metric, I've never had more than four people buy in. Ken St. Andre and Sligo are running events as well, last I heard. I think my titles for my favorite game, My Game, are rather unimaginative, but the tales I am telling in "Balrog in the Basement" and "The Tunnels of Hard Knocks" I feel reflect my usual comfort with the Tunnels and Trolls game system as well as my exuberance in presenting fantasy sword and sorcery as I see it.

So tomorrow, I head out to the White River where palm trees grow and women dressed as my favorite Batman babes show me their cleavage. I can deal with the long walks and bruising on my shoulder, where Peryton keeps hitting me for looking at the other women. I am at the beach.