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Well, November is packed with (writing/editing) work:

* Freelance editing project, at my day-job rate.
* Starting DFRPG edit work Real Soon Now. [1]
* Working on STotC at odd moments. [2]
* UA PDF project progressing. [3]
* Day-job editing of many, many 2 yr old DOCs.
* Once again, pondering Hyperworld. [4]

I think that this weekend is the last anyone will see me in a social context until December.

NOTES:
[1] That would be the Dresden Files RPG.
[2] That would be the Strange Tales of the Century sourcebook.
[3] That would be the Thin Black Line, the Order of Saint Cecil sourcebook.
[4] That would be the revisiting of my "Hyperworld vs. the Invadroids" CiaB. . . and a backdoor new edition of T&J under the PDQ# rubric.

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I am pondering constructing a PDQ# hack for Truth & Justice, along the lines of the Space Opera Hack.

There's a lot of lessons learned since T&J came out -- two whole books from me, and whatnot.

Hm. I wonder if I should build this as the "Hyperworld" hack, and test it a couple times as a pick-up game at upcoming cons.

If I could make that work, it would kinda rock.

(more pondering)

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I am torn between whether Zorcerer of Zo Actual Play reports are more entertaining than Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies APs.

On the other hand, it's ALSO a tough call between Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies and Truth & Justice artwork.

What do you all think, on either question?

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Inspired by this thread on Story-games.com, I went to check the numbers on lifetime sales for Truth & Justice.

Across IPR (Print, PDF, and Print+PDF), OBS (RPGNow and DTRPG), and e23, as of today T&J has sold 1027 copies!

IPR:
* [Print] = 91
* [Print+PDF] = 53
* [PDF] = 24

OBS = 705

e23 = 154

TOTAL = 1027

Woo-hoo!

(Oh, crap -- I need to update the T&J pages to remove the RPGNow PoD option and add in the IPR link!)

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In the wake of the multi-year "mostly dead" status of Pen & Paper, and the looming demise of Geocities (where my other publications credits are listed), I have begun to try and assemble a decent CV of my work in the gaming industry over the past few days.

It's harder than I thought it would be (especially for an egotist like me!)... apparently I did not keep adequate track of ALL of the work or award nominations I received.

Still, I can say, with some assurance that, since 1998, I have worked on...

20 RPG books

and wrote

50 articles or columns.

. . .

Whoa.

Still assembling data; will let you all know when the credits page on the ASMP site goes live.

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I havta print out a lot of material to at least get a handle on the basic form to build a jeepform superhero game.

DAMN YOU, WRIGSTAD!

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"Fanfare for the Amplified Man" from Truth & Justice could work really well as a jeepform con-game.

Must ponder.

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So, I'm back from Gen Con 2008.

I have a Red Bull to hand, wine chilling in the fridge, and two loads of laundry percolating sudsily.

Here's my attempt to offload some of the awesome so MAI BRANE can cool off a bit.

If I don't mention you by name/LJ userid, please do not be offended -- I was overwhelmed by meeting so many people.

ALSO, if you have amusing, enlightening, or terrifying Chad-necdotes from Gen Con, post them in the comments section for the edification of all (and possibly me!).

Hey, ho: let's go!

* [info]semioticity is a hoopy frood. (on drive back, got a master-class in anime. Rock on!)

* [info]drivingblind and I designed a new PDQ# (underlying system of S7S, second ed. of PDQ) on the ride to Indianapolis. Got to test it with Amanda (what's yer LJ, woomaan?), [info]clarkvalentine, and [info]necanthrope at the con -- and it's pretty damned hot.

* EVIL HATS:
** I now think of [info]lcdarkwood as my crazy Cuban little brother.
** I should never try to teach [info]drivingblind to suck (business-related) eggs. He's already a step ahead. Bastard.
** The Valentines are my valentines. You guys rock. (I need to hook you two up with my buddy Mike in State College, for reals.)
** [info]rob_donoghue is a repository of awesome... but I already knew that.
** [info]adamdray is a sweetheart, and really dedicated to RPG editing. (You RPG editors should fricking join [info]rpgeditors now!)

* Booth set-up was pretty fun.

* Ron Edwards is somewhat different, somewhat the same, from how I expected him in person. Nice guy, ultimately -- gave me some of the absolute best advice on the ZoZ demo, which paid off bigtime over the rest of the con. Alas, we never got to talk extensively about bat penises. (But we will in the future. [Not a joke; SRS BISNIS.])

* Phil Reed is half the man he used to be... and looks great! (JEALOUS!)

* My mind was blown before the close of the floor on Wednesday. I finally met a vast number of virtual friends I've known close on a decade face-to-face. This had ramifications.

* I have a mutant ability to inadvertently collect many, many drink tickets, despite distributing the ones I received liberally. This had ramifications.

* While drinking, when [info]princeofcairo tells you to "go home," you should frickin' listen, or else...

* ...[info]iamnikchick will try to kill you with an Irish Car-bomb. (She almost succeeded. [I will have my revenge, I swear to you!])

* The Weber Grill (restaurant) is a place of beauty and horror (they give you a crapload of FANTASTIC eats! [Plus, two words: pretzel rolls!]).

* I got to shake hands with -- and share a smoke outside with -- CHEWBACCA (and his lovely wife)!!11!!!!eleventy-one!

* Did not get to hang with the superheroes, other than a brief meeting with Hygena ([info]melodymuse).

* Hangover + soup = not ded.

* The Indie seminar track on Friday was full of awesome.

* Got to spend more time (but not enough!!!) with D. Vincent Baker, Emily Care Boss, and Joshua AC Newman, and Julia Bond Ellingboe. I MUST go to Dreamation -- or JiffyCon -- to hang with them.

* I learned how to demo! The ZoZ one really worked, and I had numerous wonderful portrayals of Kitty Princess Dinah, Pix Spritely (Apprentice Fairy Godmother), Lion-Boy, and Harry Dustbin (Living Construct Wizard). [The T&J demos kind of sucked, because the guy who wrote them is a fricking idiot.]

* I got to tell (again, but this time in person) [info]robin_d_laws how important GURPS Fantasy II: the Madlands was to me as a writer and game designer.

* The ENnie Awards were fantastic. Very nice, quick, fun awards show. If I never hear that Paizo musical sting again, I will be happy mans. On the other hand, I now see what a big goddamn deal my ENnies for T&J were ("Wait, I have one of those glass thingies!"), and am sorry I wasn't there back in tha day.

* "Strippers, hookers, and blow" -- while intriguing in the theoretical -- are probably not the best practical use of my Gen Con dollars, [info]ross_winn. Just sayin'.

* Along with the rest of Evil Hat, turned lemons into not just lemonade, but Mike's Hard Lemonade. Woo-frickin'-hoo!

* I played D&D 4e... and I liked it! I am fascinated by the fact that the game design is so damned tight that I could figure out about 85% of how stuff worked from the frickin' character sheet (props to [info]rob_donoghue!).

* I got to play John Adams, in clockwork power armor, kicking the hell out of British redcoats. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

* I have met two of my three Pyramid editors -- [info]sdharing and Steven Marsh. All I need is S. John Ross for the hat-trick.

* I made Regina Sutton scream so sweetly. (The Shab-Al-Hiri Roach demo -- Jason Morningstar, people... give him some love!)

* Only a few groupies, and even less so of the female persuasion. (Those female groupies I met get extra AWEZUM points, tho...).

* Playtest of S7S Vehicle Combat: FTW. I now can move forward on finalizing the damned game. W00T!

* Geek chicks in corsets = FTW. Geek chicks in evening gowns = even more FTW. Geek chicks in evening gowns that incorporate corsets = FLAWLESS VICTORY.

* Quotes:
** "I come from the desert, so I have the advantage." -- Leonard Balsera

** "I only have a +10?" -- Amanda Valentine

** CHAD: "So, Kitty Princess Dinah--"
LENNY: (pretending to be Ryan Macklin) "I've changed her name. It's Kitty Princess Dick Awesome now."
CHAD: (without a pause) "So, Kitty Princess Dick Awesome..."

** "Jet Black starts blazing away with Two Gun Mojo through the time distortion, ricocheting his bullets against a wall in AD 76, then into a plas-steel wall in AD 3030, and finally off of Abraham Lincoln's skull to destroy Doctor Methuselah's vile machine!" -- Chad Underkoffler

** (after blowing 6 pirate ships to hell) "Group hug, crew!" -- Josh Hoade (playing the capt)

** "I don't hug." -- Jerry Tidwell (playing the stoic first mate)

* My biggest regret is that I didn't get to spend more time with [info]xomec, [info]wickedthought, Luke Crane, and Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch. This will be remedied in the future, I hope.

* People need to buy my stuff, so I can shunt cash from ASMP profits into a convention fund. I would love to go to Dreamation, Origins, and Gen Con in the coming year. So start buying product!!!

* .. and more STUFF -- and THINGS! -- that I haven't recalled yet.

Thanks for a great first Gen Con, folks. I'm coming back next year, if at all possible.

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Okay.

I am all (physically) "ready" for Gen Con, except for packing my phone charger and calling a taxi tomorrow to take me to the Metro. I'm even breaking in the gel inserts for my sneaks.

I am equal parts excited and terrified. I've never been to a major convention. I've gone to smaller cons like EveCon and Dreamation, and that's it.

This is my first Gen Con. I have effectively zero knowledge of con-culture.

Be gentle.

In order to keep myself from going even more insane (than usual), I am making this post.

1. DC area peeps and LJ peeps: My Intarweb access will be spotty. I'll probably write off checking LJ for the entire week (ending 8/19). If there is anything of import I should know, post a link here or email me at the usual addy.

2. DC area peeps: Several Chadtoberfest 37 (observed) galas will happen when I return from Indianapolis. Emails to come, post-GC.

3. Gaming peeps: Please introduce youself to me at Gen Con, if you are there. Note that I may only know you by userid/LJ name. Also, the name/face recognition software in my robot-brain-from-the-future-(powered by alcohol) is buggy. I apologize in advance.

(To recognize me, note that I am standard-issue American Geek -- fat, bearded, glasses -- with following modifications: 1. Square hipster glasses; 2. Goatee is more white than dark; 3. Really ridiculous ponytail; 4. Exceptionally loud voice matched with strenuous Italianate hand-emphasis in conversation; and 5. Immense, smoldering animal magnetism. For reference, see here.)

4. The Embassy Suites = Hilton. Who knew?

5. Gamers: Wish me a "Happy Chadtoberfest," make sure I get your email address, and you'll get a present. (I'm a hobbit like dat, yo.)

6. Wish me a "Happy Chadtoberfest," buy me a drink, make sure I get your email address, and you'll get a rilly cool present.

7. If I'm not wandering around like a gobsmacked hayseed, my probable location will be booth #1939; it's the Forge/IPR booth. I will be running fairly short T&J and ZoZ demos there.

8. If your surname is Fiegel, Grubb, Haring, Herman, Hite, Jackson, Laws, Marsh, Nephew, Punch, Rogers, Ross, Stoddard, Stolze, Tynes, Winn, or Woodward -- I owe you an adult beverage of your choice.

9. If your surname is Baker, Balsera, Bohl, Chapman, Crane, Czege, Edwards, Forbeck, Kaese, Karlman, Kitowski, Lehman, Lower-Basch, Macklin, Mangold, Mearls, Newman, Nixon, Perez, Pramas, Reed, Tidwell, Wallis, Wick, or Wikstrom, we must thumb-wrestle for drinkery honors.

10. After-hours demos of S7S available with mild bribery. (Very mild.)

11. This list goes to eleven, which is one louder than ten.

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