Highmoon's Ponderings

A week coming, but I needed it to be able to fully digest all that happened. Buckle up, cause it’s gonna be a long one.

I arrived in Indy Wednesday, Aug. 13, by mid-afternoon and because I had to wait for David Moore (The Game Master Show) to add my name to the room’s record, I left the bags at the Embassy Suites and went out walking thinking I’d pick up my badge.

Along the way I ran into Ed Healy (Kobold Quarterly/Atomic Array) as he arrived at his hotel, and seeing he also had to wait for his roommate to arrive and square some things, we went to get our badges and check out Indy. Gen Con Trade Day was in full swing and almost done for the day, and while Ed got his Exhibitor badge, I picked up my Trade Day pass (I get one as a member of the Press) and Trade Day swag bag. We eventually started seeing more and more of the see-them-once-a-year friends, many of them podcasters, and Ed went off to do some work on the Exhibit Hall while I went with David, Mario Dongu and the rest of The Game Master Show crew to the Red Eye Cafe. Except the Red Eye was closed as they were now doing some weird new hours. So we dipped into the Claddagh Irish Pub for some drinks and food for the rest. There we were eventually met up by Mick Bradley (TGTMB), meaning that aside from Josh, who’d be arriving the next day, my roommates were all here. A round of Guinness was had in that honor.

At the Claddagh I also saw briefly Chris Hanrahan (2d6 Feet in a Random Direction/Endgame) who introduced me equally briefly to D&D 4e Lead Developer Mike Mearls. Chris and I confirmed our panel the next day and we all went to our respective food and drinks. After the pub we went back to the Embassy; given that Press badges would be given out on Thursday morning I had nothing else to do, so we went to the lobby of the Embassy, took over three tables, and played the scenario of Vegas After Midnight that Mick and David would be running four times during the con.

L to R: Mario Dongu, David Moore, Mick Bradley & Me. Photo by Clay Karwan.

The game went extremely well and we all had a lot of fun. We were joined by Rich Rogers, Chris Norwood and Chris Perrin (Canon Puncture) and proceeded to have about three hours of awesome, campy, Vegas fun. After that we went up to our room and just talked about VAM for a while, trying to figure out the kinks and how to fix them. By then it was time to sleep, so I took a shower and then managed to fall asleep (with the help of my iPod) in the midst of a veritable snoring war between two one-night visitors, Mark Kinney (All Games Considered) and Clay Karwan (The Rolemonkeys).

It was later than I had originally planned to go to bed, but what the heck. Gen Con hadn’t officially started and I had already gotten in some gaming! Totally worth it. And that was just Wednesday.

About a month ago I got a new Schwinn Legacy cruiser bike as part of a goal to do more incidental excercise and lower the use of the car.

My wife also got a new bike, an Electra Amsterdam Ladies Classic 3 with a Tulip motif. We picked it up from the store last Thursday, but between work and the rains (aftereffects of Tropical Storm Fay) she hadn’t had a chance to take it out for a ride.

Today we needed to go to Target (about 7 miles away) to buy some more bike-related stuff, so we decided to take the trek on our bikes. It was a very nice experience. The sun was hot and there was some humidity in the air (normal for Florida summers) but we took it easy and leisurely, enjoying the ride itself, getting to see parts of Miami Beach we had never seen in the 5 years we’ve lived here. We also had to get used to our bikes, and that will take a bit longer, though we were both pleasantly surprised to find we are not in such bad shape as we feared we were.

See the highlighted route we took on this Sunday Afternoon Bike Ride.
We actually followed the very same route to the store and back, netting us a total of just about 14.5 miles on this trip.

The entire excursion took some four hours, between getting there, spending some time at the store and returning. At the store we picked up a new bike lock for my wife’s bike, a back rack for my bike, as well as some clothes for excercising and a new pair of Converse hi-tops for me (yes!).

As enjoyable as it was, we discovered (or confirmed, as these were not unknown to us) a few things about Miami’s general unfriendliness towards bikers. Miami Beach has got to be one the best places for biking, given how small the island is and how many backstreets there are in order to avoid the very trafficked main arteries. Even so, to say that sidewalks are friendly to walkers, let alone to bikers, would be a gross lie; and that’s when there are sidewalks, which is not everywhere. Most of the time you have to share the road with cars (because of course there are no bike lanes) and Miami drivers seem to regard a rider in a bikecycle as someone under the effects of an invisibility spell: they just don’t see you; at most, they notice you when they are about one foot away from you. And that goes for most pedestrians as well. We even have bells on our bikes to signal we’re coming through. Most people just stared at us dumbly, very much with a deer-caught-in-headlights look.

These are just things we’ll have to get used to as we bike more and more around here. The act of going out riding, however, is worth the hassle, and save for a few steep bridges here and there, the fact that Miami is as flat as a pancake makes biking a very easy activity. I’ll keep posting as we do more and more with our bikes, hopefully turning them from recreational vehicles to part-time modes of transportation.

Highmoon Media Productions is proud to present Heroic Moments #5: SEPULCHRE Strikes.

The international terrorist organization known as SEPULCHRE has its target set on disrupting the gubernatorial elections in The City. Can you stop twin agents Tom and Godiva from eliminating the candidates and thus throwing The City into turmoil?

Heroic Moments is the aschan series of single action scenes for four-color superhero games. This series is designed to be dropped seamlessly into any existing superhero campaign. No prep: just a set-up, some bystanders and a villain for your heroes to clobber.

NOW AVAILABLE from RPGnow!

Heroic Moments uses the free 4C System of marvelous superheroics.

Come and join the conversation at the 4C System Forum.

 
Josh & Me at the Gen Con Exhibit Hall

I’ve posted my Gen Con pics to Flickr (with some additions thanks to Josh Hoade, David Miller and David Moore) and you can take a look here:

Flickr Set: Gen Con 2008

One universal fact of this year’s con: no one took nearly enough pictures during the con. We all had cameras, mind you; we just didn’t use them. Personally, I wanted to get pics with my friends and that’s the mission I went on. I’m sure you can find tons of pics of the hall and events around (hint: do a Flickr tag search for GenCon08 or GenCon2008). 

I’m going to continue to hunt for other pics that were taken of me by others, so check back later to see if new photos have been added. Enjoy.

I’m still getting back to normal over here, especially with the storm Fay welcoming us South Floridians back from Indy. I still need to write my overall Gen Con report, but here’s a list of the stuff I brought back (no pic yet, later).

1. Starblazer Adventures – The new weapon for gamers. Seriously. 600+ pages of awesomeness and lethality. You want this. Plus the deal–$60 for softcover at the show + hardcover mailed in the Fall + PDF–was just too good to pass up.
2. Beowulf – It has a big eye on the cover and it’s staring at me right now. And it comes with the full poem! Gaming and culture all in one.
3. Thou Art But A Warrior – Polaris via the fall of Muslim Spain. I love me some historical games, and this period doesn’t get nearly enough love. I wanted to get it signed by writer Anna Kreider but didn’t.
4. Don’t Lose Your Mind – too late. This supplement to Evil Hat’s Don’t Lose Your Mind is a physical example of the beautiful madness tagline used for Changeling.
5. Sweet Agatha – Not really a game, more like a literary choose-your-own-adventure. I guess. Intriguing as heck. And I still have the Missing poster from last year (somewhere).
6. A Flower for Mara – An interactive play about death, loss, coping and the baggage we carry. I got this for various reasons, none of which I’ll go into.
7. Witch Hunter: A Child’s Game – Because my love for that game is strong, and I’m ready to start a new adventure with my PBeM group. Plus I got some Witch Hunter character journals as a gift to my players (and one for me).
8. An art print by Jeff Himmelman: The Witch Hunter – I’ve known Jeff for a couple of years as a podcaster, but he has been concentrating on his art hardcore lately, and it shows. He is destined to break out and be big in this industry and beyond. This print will be the cover to an upcoming Witch Hunter book (see the synergy?).
9. Two art prints by Rebecca Guay: Athena and Dwell on the Past – My thoughts about Rebecca Guay at Gen Con deserve a post all their own. Suffice it to say if I’d had a couple thousands to spare, I would have come back from Indy with a new masterpiece for the living room.

I also got some dice (including a number of custom dice from various sources!) and a signed copy of Blackstaff Tower by Steven E. Schend.

No review copies of any game were brought back this year (though a crapload of Privateer Press’ Monsterpocalypse minis game arrived at my home the day after I got back, much to my surprise and delight). More later.

Highmoon Media Productions is supporting The Tome Podcast’s Summer Contest with three “gift cards” worth of HMP products. The Tome also has other sponsors for their contest and in episode 78, Jeff takes the time to talk to all of us about our companies and the products we are giving away.

The Tome Show: Episode 78 - 2008 Summer Contest (HMP interview at 7:58)

Check out the episode to learn how to enter The Tome’s 2008 Summer Contest and win some great prizes.