Saturday At GenCon

I’m starting to get into a rhythm here at GenCon, which is a sure sign that it’s going to end soon. As much as I hate leaving on Sunday, I have to do it this year.1 And perhaps I should talk about what happened today instead of focusing on my imminent departure.

Once again I availed myself of the opportunity to sleep in and stay well-rested. This time, instead of grabbing lunch before heading to the convention hall, I went straight there and ended up, as I usually do, at the IPR booth. For the third year in a row, lunch serendipity occurred. This is a phenomenon where you run into someone with whom you have not been able to spend much time with, who then happens to mention in your brief conversation that he or she hasn’t eaten lunch yet. You say that you haven’t either, and spontaneously you decide to get food together, thus allowing you to spend more time with each other.2 Last year, this happening to me with Mike Mearls; the year before it was with Judd Karlman. This year, I was fortunate enough run into a hungry Daniel Solis at the right time. Dan actually seized the initiative; it turned out he really wanted to talk to me, and he ended up buying me lunch in return for advice on game design.

That Daniel Solis wanted my perspective on game design was a little boggling to me at first, but it started to make sense as we talked. We’d each published our first game in the last year, both of them significantly outside the mainstream design ethos of the RPG hobby, and we have similar concerns about the explication of rules and procedures in book form. We ended up having a great discussion about Daniel’s game in development, Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple, and I think both of us learned a lot from it. There was lots of scribbling on napkins, long pauses to think punctuated by excited verbal exchanges, and generally a sense that the things he was worried about were issues of presentation rather than design. It was cool to discover that I did have something to say, and I’m glad I was able to give Dan something that will (hopefully) help Do be a better book.

That was pretty much the highlight of the day, though the day isn’t over yet. Tonight is the meeting of the Wil(l)s. Apparently Wil Wheaton told Will Hindmarch that he wanted to play A Penny For My Thoughts with him. Will Hindmarch then asked me if I could bring my materials and join in.3 Ryan Macklin then caught wind of this and demanded the fourth spot. So now I’m grabbing my stuff and heading out to meet up with the three of them to play my game. Seems like a good way to start my last night at GenCon.

1 I usually stay until Monday and meet up with my parents, who drive over from Iowa, but because I’ve got the Agile 2010 Conference starting Monday morning, I have to leave early.

2 These moments, by the way, are one of the biggest reasons I love GenCon.

3 He caught me just as I was packing on Tuesday night, so I was able to grab my demo kit before I left home.