Well, because our gaming panel track expanded this year, I didn't get to game as much as I would have liked. Still, got in a playtest of Alpha Wolf Pack with some of the crew at Epic Games. That was very much fun. Those guys are already big fans. It was pretty neat to sit down with the president of the company, their lead level designer, one of their lead developers, and one of the founders of the Escapist website and roll some dice with them.
I also got to hang out with Darwin Bromley, one of the fathers of modern board gaming. He's largely responsible for bringing Settlers of Catan over to the United States and turning board games from monopoly into something akin to what we have now. He taught me how to play Seven Wonders, and we played a game of it. Seven Wonders was the big hit in terms of board games that year. It was like Argricola in scoring, but had a neat mechanic where you passed cards around to your left or your right. You had to pull cards to make runs or matches, but you had to pull cards so that your opponents to your left or right couldn't make runs or matches.
Jason Bulmahn, the lead Pathfinder designer, hung out with us quite a bit as well. He even taught us a few drinking games.
Jason Morningstar was there, heralding the indie spirit, and ran a fantastic panel for us where everyone got to participate in some indie game techniques through live participation. He helped run the Games on Demand tables, so if you came, you could have played in a game with Jason Morningstar. Clint and Jodi Black showed up as well (the folks who run Savage Worlds). Eloy LaSanta, one-may publishing house was present as well, being the jack of all trades.
The big coup, of course, was getting Monte Cook and Tracy and Laura Hickman. Monte was there to talk about his TSR days and to hear about his new project Numenera. Tracy Hickman ran our charity event, which was a role-playing session with the Guild. The cast of the Guild played a table top RPG with Tracy and we auctioned off one seat at that table for charity - our annual drive for Lou Geherig's disease.
Anyhow, I'll leave you with a few pictures of our panels and the Warmachine tournament which ran in the gaming basement.
Jason Morningstar, Tracy Hickman, and Laura Hickman do a panel on Storytelling through Roleplaying
It's the Legion of Everblight vs. Trollkin! Both sides were exquisitely painted.
Great shot of some Trollkin on the move.
Two warbeasts slug it out.
He wasn't used in the tournament, but he made for a great picture - the Trollkin Mountain King. Amazing model and paint job.
A size comparison of that Mountain King.
An exquisitely painted Deathjack and support squad.
Infinity! Check out that awesome Infinity terrain!
And here's the big panel! Tracy Hickman runs an RPG with the Guild playing the game!
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