Ok, I had meant to post things earlier, but at least it’s sooner than the last gap was long.

Gen Con was a blast, at least as good as last year, I would say baring a few things, even better than last year. Vegas After Midnight ran very well, and we got both exceptional feedback and a host of possible playtesters. VAM was stripped down to start, but Daniel Perez (http://dmperez.com/) focused in on something that I hadn’t been able to put a name to. That was that we only had half or less of the Madness mechanics in the game. We just had ways to incur Madness, but nothing about it’s effects, or how to track it. So we slashed the things on the character sheet that required Madness (really just a few things), and ran with the edited versions. As I said, they went great, and the feel of VAM without Madness is there, now we just need to add in the darker aspects of Madness to make it complete.

Going as press for the second year in a row was definitely worth it. I got a great interview with Greymalkin Press about their new game Desolation, which never got recorded due to a recorder snafu. I am working with them to get it redone soon. Oh, and btw, Matt Somers, one of the key designers, has been my friend since college. Full disclosure and all that.

I also got to play Hellas with Jerry Grayson (http://hellasrpg.com), and that was awesome. I had the pdf review copy before the con, but it was so nice I had to buy a copy. So you can expect to hear it played on The Game Master Show (http://thegamemastershow.com) soon, along with Desolation.

Met a bunch of old friends, many of them podcasters, and met a fair amount of new ones. Played several playtest sessions with them, like: Mythender, and Mecha. Two excellent games, that just need a bit more polish. I expect to hear about them coming out within the next year.

I did get to go to the White Wolf party this year, thanks Matt - I think, but if you want to hear more about that, you’ll have to listen to the podcast for The Game Master Show that comes out soon. We’re recording it tonight.

Toodles!

It’s been a looong time since I have last posted, but…

I am at Gen Con 2008, day 2 (Friday). Mick and I have run Vegas After Midnight (http://vegasaftermidnight.net) three times now, and it has been excellent. We have learned a lot of the rough spots, and already started sanding them down. We have loved all of our players, and a good portion of them we think are going to playtest for us. We are going to run it at least three more times before the end of the con, and I can’t wait to run them!

I’ve also done an interview for The Game Master Show (http://thegamemastershow.com), and ended up recording silence through my own fault. We also have played Hellas (http://hellasrpg.com), again, awesome - more to come on that front.

Ok, Erin is pulling me out to eat. So more later hopefully!

Of late, I have been endeavoring to work on Vegas After Midnight and mostly been succeeding. I visited Mick for three days and we hashed out a bunch of stuff for the alpha testing. At least some initial stuff. We have a looong way to go, and getting time to write up what we talked about is taking more time than I expected.

I rediscovered music lately as well. As a result, I have not kept up on the podcasts that I listen to, and my iPod doesn’t even fit them all. So I am going through them and listening now, and trying to catch up to the ones I want, and dumping the ones I know I won’t listen to. A few I am saving to listen to later, not important enough to listen to now, and not on my dump list.

We hope to get some initial documents out to the playtesters in the next week or so, so keep those fingers crossed, and blow on the dice.

I am not sure if it is post Gen Con funk, or just too much work, but I am feeling really burned out and just want to walk away from everything for a while. With family, work, The Game Master Show, Vegas After Midnight, my weekly game, The Signal, and everything else that fits into my week that I cram in there, I feel a bit overwhelmed. Which is funny, since I actually have less to do now than I did before Gen Con.

I may have to just take a step back from some of my non-work, non-family things for a little while and just take a breath or two. Our GM is gone for the next two weeks, and rather than run a game like I offered, maybe I will just chill. I may also be cutting down on some of the other gaming that I have been doing, so I can get more writing in.