Surreal Times

I haven't written anything in quite a while, but I will have a good bit more time around the house in the coming weeks, and certainly have plenty to write about.

The Covid-19 Coronavirus is certainly topic #1 in our daily lives these days. We have watched things escalate in recent days to the point that the governor of Pennsylvania has closed all public schools for the next two weeks (at least), and my employer has said that if you can work from home to do so for the foreseeable future. All school activities are cancelled, including the music program's trip to Hawaii in the first week of April. I am a board member of the band parents' association that has organized the trip, and to say that a lot of work has gone into this would be an understatement. Mainly though I am disappointed for Grace. We may reschedule into the summer, postpone to next year, or....who knows.

As for coronavirus end-of-the-world preparation, people are in full panic-shopping mode. As a family we don't typically keep a whole lot of food on hand, buying what we need when we need it. Stopping at the grocery store on the way home from work yesterday to grab something for dinner, I was greeted with the following sight:

Blizzard-mode at the grocery store

From a work perspective, I work for the largest clinical laboratory in the US, and one of the labs that the government has turned to in order to ramp up coronavirus testing capacity. The country is underprepared and behind the 8-ball at the moment, but the combined capabilities of us and the other major private labs should help make a difference soon. We are fierce competitors on the street every day, but today we are all working to expand testing capacity as much and as soon as possible. I work on the business side, not the medical side, but it is nice to get a reminder every now and then as to what we actually do, and the impact that we can actually have...

As for us personally, the kids will be off school for two weeks (at least), I will be working at home, Amp will be working onsite under restricted-visitor conditions, and pretty much all of our usual activities will be cancelled or curtailed. Depending on who you believe, one or two people at our high school have tested positive for the virus, which potentially opens up an unlimited pandora's box of community spread. The drama club performed four shows of Seussical the Musical last weekend, following which an exhausted Grace had a low grade fever and other flu-like symptoms for a few days. And I have some sniffles and a cough. So...probably nothing unusual. Probably. Mom is locked down in a nursing home at the age of 88 with a cough and a low-grade fever.

Despite recent damage control press conferences, our government's reaction to this threat has been not-enough not-soon-enough bordering on incompetence. Hopefully the price to be paid for our ineptitude isn't too severe. But it probably will be.

On a more positive note, Seussical was a great success, and Grace had a really nice role as Thing 1. It was perfect for what she wants - being a featured dancer, a good amount of stage time, goofing around, singing in ensemble numbers, and being the drama club's best tumbler. Proud papa... More on this to come.

Thing 1 is mine...

Amp has started a new part time job. Julia is rapidly nearing the end of her school years. Grace is growing up way too fast.

Ryder supervising me work

As for me, more of much of the same I guess. One thing that I am trying to do is work on some artistic endeavors. I have done some sketching and some painting. More on that later, but I have always wanted to paint, and I am finally doing some. To varying degrees of success.

Anyway, more to come. In the meantime, my sincerest wishes that everyone stay happy, healthy and safe.

Seussical the Musical

Garnet Valley High School Performing Arts Association's spring musical was Seussical the Musical. It ran for four shows from March 5 to March 7. In retrospect, we were lucky to get the show in before the school district shut down due to the Coronavirus pandemic on March 13. Many other high schools didn't get their performances in before everything went weird...

Grace was "Thing 1", part of the group of 6 Things that were on stage pretty much anytime the Cat in the Hat was on stage. In other words, most of the show.

Six Things (Thing 1 is mine)

She got to act, goof around, do tumbling runs, and dance. Lots and lots of dancing. In other words, pretty much the perfect show for her.

Cat and Things Chorus Line

Amp is in her seventh (!) year of working on costumes, and this is the third year that she is head of Costumes, and a key member of the core creative team. My pride in watching these shows is hard to describe. So much of the visual impact is because of the work of Amp and her excellent team, and I get to watch my daughter perform. First Julia for 7 shows, and now Grace in her fourth show (High School Musical, Annie, Hunchback of Notre Dame and now this).

Amp's Team's Costumes in all their Glory!

Our GVPAA director has done a great job of creating a community and a supportive atmosphere.

Grace and Horton the Elephant

The kids work ridiculous hours, but (for the most part) love every minute of it.

Grace and Maisey le Bird

The quality of the result shows.

Grace and the Cat in the Hat

And one of the great things about the program is that it is very inclusive, allows everyone to have their moment in the spotlight, but at the same time commands a commitment to excellence. They work hard.

Drama Club Sophomores

Grace's sophomore class is strong. Good actors, good singers and good dancers. Her friend group in drama club, coupled with her friend group in band and chorus, spans all grades, which is a nice thing.

Grace and Admirer

The GVPAA now does a late spring show (the third of the year), rehearsing after the spring musical ends (Seussical), and performing their shows in late May or early June. These shows include alumni, current students, and other community members. This year it was supposed to be The Sound of Music. Sadly, that isn't going to happen...

Grace with Lulu and Addie

Looking forward to next year, there will be The Addams Family in the fall and Newsies in the spring. Let's hope that can actually happen.

I'm already curious as to what the Director will pick for Grace's senior year. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Ren Faire 2019

During the football game at Ridley last night, Grace texted me to say that some of her friends were going to the Renaissance Faire out toward Harrisburg the next day (today), and did I want to go? Being the needed mode of transportation, I said sure. Julia was interested in going as well, but Amp was busy with costumes for the play, so the three of us decided to drive out and meet up with her friends (and the parents that were taking the other group).

We had been to the Ren Faire once, quite a long time ago, but when I went through old blog entries to find exactly when that was, I was surprised. Turns out it was mid-September 2010. Grace would have been 6 and Julia would have been 12. Wow. We enjoyed it and had discussed going back at some point, but for whatever reason it never bubbled up to the "let's go" stage. But now it had.

It was much as I remembered it. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure if much of anything changed at all in 9 years. Ridiculous traffic getting off the Turnpike exit and to the venue, but efficient people keeping cars moving and into the fields that you park on. Lots of people in costume. "Period" merchandise to buy at generally steep prices. A wide variety of food options, none of them healthy. All sorts of venues of all different sizes for performers of all kinds.

We found the other group quickly, and spent some time as a larger group of a dozen or so before Grace and her friends wandered off, leaving me and Julia with the other parents. Which was fine. We watched several street performers before settling in to watch Circus Stella, a husband and wife team doing a circus acrobatics show. They were entertaining, and ended their show with some trained dogs doing tricks, which is always fun.

Circus Stella

We did some more wandering and some eating, and then settled in to watch Aaron Bonk do whip tricks and juggle swords and other sharp objects, adding fire for more fun. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day, as he was extremely talented (holding several Guiness Book of World Records titles) and very funny. It drizzled a bit during this show, but that was the only tiny blemish on  an otherwise fun 4 or 5 hours.

Aaron Bonk - Whips, Fire and Swords

Grace had an interesting lunch: a Meat Sundae. This looked like an ice cream cone, but was made up of some sort of pastry/bread/roll cone, filled with a few tater tots on the bottom, then some sliced beef with gravy, then a scoop of mashed potatoes on the top. She pronounced it good.

Grace with a Meat Sundae

For comparison to the 15 year old Grace shown above, I found a picture of the 6 year old Grace from our last Ren Faire trip. It seems like just yesterday and at the same time a million years ago. Weird...

Grace at Ren Faire 2010 - Age 6

Julia had a good time with me and Grace had a good teenager time mostly without me. Hanging out with the other parents was fun, and we all agreed we should try to remember to go back again next year. With Mom next time...

Twenty One Pilots - Bandito Redux

Grace's favorite band is Twenty One Pilots, and when they announced they were coming around again on a later leg of their very long Bandito tour she wanted to go again. I had fun last time so I had no problem taking her. I ended up driving two of her older neighborhood friends, making us a group of four. The link to my post about last year's show is here. For a description of the show, reference that post, as this show was very similar to that one, with a few minor differences. But basically the same. And just as good this time as last time.

Don't drop Tyler...

Like last time, the crowd was young, and leaning female.

Finale - Trees

The energy in the place was amazing, and other than an interlude of a few slower songs in the middle, everybody stood all night. Which I suppose works better when you are 15 than when you are 50+.

Taking a bow on the crowd

The only bad part of the show was getting trapped in a back corner of the Wells Fargo Center parking lot and taking a long time to get out and on the road. Oh well. Small price to pay for an evening of fun and a happy daughter.

Next year if they are still doing the Bandito tour, we'll probably go again...

Homecoming Dance 2019

Continuing a very busy week, tonight was the Homecoming Dance. What started as a couple of friends coming over to our house to finish makeup and hair and take some pictures turned into a bunch a band friends coming over for pictures. And then a bunch of Drama Club friends. And then Grace had an escort to the Dance (yikes!). All of which was great.

Grace and Friends

We had friends...

Mandatory Back of Dress view

And more friends...

Drama Club sophomores

And Julia!

Grace (in heels) and Julia (not...)

And more friends...

Too dark for more outside pictures

And a lot of happy parents taking loads of pictures. On the deck, on the front porch, on the stairs inside, in the family room, all over the place. In every possible grouping and combination.

Grace and escort and friends

It was great. Everyone looked absolutely wonderful (and growing up way too fast). I've known some of these kids for a long time...since they were little. They aren't little anymore.

Hamilton

Julia's 21st birthday present was her favorite thing - tickets to see a Broadway show. We were able to get 4 tickets for the whole family to see Hamilton at the Forrest Theater in Philadelphia. This is something that we have all been wanting to do for a long time, but had been unable to get tickets in the ongoing ticket lottery for Broadway.

The tickets we got were fantastic (4th row of the balcony, right in the center), and the Forrest Theater is a wonderful old theater in which to see a show.

Hamilton

I won't bother with a lengthy review of the show, as they can be found all over, but I will simply say that it was terrific in every regard. The kids have been playing this soundtrack to death in the car since it came out and got popular, but actually seeing it onstage with the sets and choreography was obviously a whole different experience. Our cast for this touring company was fantastic, especially Edred Utomi as Hamilton, Paul Oakley Stovall as George Washington and Peter Matthew Smith as King George. Bryson Bruce as both Lafayette and Jefferson was also terrific. There really wasn't a weak link in the cast, and we only had one understudy (Tre Frazier as Aaron Burr); he was solid.

Hamilton - Forrest Theater stage

Julia was thrilled (as were all of us). Highly recommended for anyone who likes musical theater (or pop culture phenomena for that matter...).

Digital Art - Baby Steps 1

I've had some time the last few evenings to play around with the new Wacom Intuos tablet and Corel Painter Essentials 6, the free software that came with the tablet.

The picture below is the very first thing I have ever done, which is to follow along with a YouTube tutorial introducing the features of Corel Painter Essentials by way of a follow-along "paint a mountain scene."

Mountains -  A beginner tutorial follow-along

It's not high art by any means, but it's a passable pseudo-impressionist painting. I've seen worse.

The biggest challenge was to keep moving along and resist the temptation to keep stopping and trying to fix things.

Baby steps. But you have to start somewhere.

Digital Art

Wacom Intuos drawing tablets are pretty cheap. Photoshop is complicated. So I bought a new iMac.

OK, so there's more that comes before that and more in between. Something like:

Over the last few years I have become interested in digital drawing and painting.
Seemed like something that would be fun to try.
But there are so many different tools and software.
So start small.
Wacom Intuos drawing tablets are pretty cheap and still highly rated for beginners.
Drawing tablets hook to computers via USB, and the computer runs the software.
Software choices are endless.
Many of them free.
Most have their own fairly steep learning curves.
Abode Photoshop is considered by many to be one of the best for digital drawing.
Might as well tackle the Photoshop learning curve directly.
A good start might be to get an inexpensive Wacom Intuos and try Photoshop for a while.
Adobe software is now only available by online subscription/download.
Online subscription is the current version only.
The current version of Photoshop only runs on Mac OS one version higher than I'm running now.
I could upgrade my 2010 iMac one version and hope that Photoshop would run effectively.
Any Mac OS upgrades after that one bump are not possible on my old machine.
I've been looking at a new iMac for a while now.
There's a few other software things that wouldn't run well, or at all, on the old iMac.
iMacs are pretty cheap, relatively speaking.
So I bought a new iMac today.
And a Wacom Intuos Medium drawing tablet yesterday.
And a $2.99 per month iCloud upgrade to 200 GB of storage so I can get the 16,989 photos and 437 videos off the old iMac.

As of now, 14.07 GB out of 102.8 GB of photos and videos have uploaded to iCloud. In ~5 hours. There are 15,637 items to go. So... maybe 30 hours to go at that rate. iCloud bulk uploads like this are notoriously slow the first time. Or so they say.

I won't set up the new machine until the backing up of the old one is complete, as I guess I have a fear of confusing the iCloud by putting a new machine on the same Apple ID while it is doing all that work on the other one. Seems reasonable to me. It might even be correct, who knows.

This also addresses the many-years-overdue issue of 9 years of my family's photo history being on one hard drive with no recent backup. Which is a good thing. The backup, that is, not the 9 years of neglect prior to that.

When the new machine is set up, I'll download the Photoshop trial and give it a go. I have played around with the new tablet on the old machine (last night) with some free software that came with it. It's fun. But hard. I think I will enjoy the challenge posed by the learning curve with the tools, although I know that there will be times that I will get frustrated and want to throw the whole bunch out the window. Hopefully those moments will pass. Or maybe just the Wacom tablet goes out the window and I keep the nice new computer.

I'd add some pictures to this blog post but this old computer is really busy right now...

[As a footnote, the current Mac OS is Mojave. Before that was High Sierra. Before that was Sierra. Before that was El Capitan, which is what the 2010 iMac is running. It can be upgraded to Sierra, but that's the end of the line for that hardware (no High Sierra or Mojave). Grace's 2013 iMac is running Sierra. Catalina is the new Mac OS due out this fall.]

Spring 2019 Painting

I've done a good bit of painting over the last few months, especially in the past few weeks since the new range of Citadel Contrast paints came out. I'm always a sucker for something new. The Contrast paint range is basically just a highly pigmented glaze, so in that respect it's nothing new, but the new range release is notable in that they have released about 3 dozen colors at the same time. More on those particular paints later. In the meantime, here's a few of the smaller odds and ends I have painted over the course of the spring.

WizKids unpainted minis has a blister pack of 3 giant spiders. I bought two packs and painted them in about 10 minutes using just the Contrast paint "Blood Angels Red". One of the molds has wrapped victims on the base. These were painted khaki and washed with a brown shade. I have lots of spiders of various manufacturers (you can never have too many) and these 6 red ones add some variety to an existing mix of predominantly blacks, browns and grays.

WizKids Giant Spiders

I also had a blister pack of 2 pack animals. These were painted over the pre-primed white base coat with a variety of Contrast paint colors (browns, tans and greens, with a couple pops of brighter color). These were good examples of what the Contrast paints do - color, shade and highlight all in one go. These are nice little minis, and can be useful on the table (I like everyday scatter/clutter like these), but with the limited amount of painting time I have available, investing a bunch of time in these to paint them nicely in the traditional manner wouldn't have happened very easily. In an absolute minimal amount of time, I have these 2 done. Not great paint jobs by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly serviceable.

WizKids Pack Animals

A Shambling Mound. A classic D&D monster, and one of the nicer WizKids figs. This was painted the traditional way, using a muted palette of greens and browns. I should have put a human figure in some of these pictures for scale... this miniature is ~2.5 inches tall and ~3.5 inches wide at its widest (the outstretched arm). I have another one of these in stock which I will probably paint in a more "fantastical" manner (whatever that means).

WizKids Shambling Mound

The Treant model is another large WizKids fig (being about 5 minutes tall). I don't like the paint job, but it's done, so that's something. This ended up being one of those models that looks good up close or in person, but will probably look very dark and dull on the table. Maybe I'll find another and try it again.

WizKids Treant

You can never go wring with some torture chamber furniture... Or a mirror.

WizKids Torture Chamber stuff

Lastly, I painted 4 Games Workshop Hormagaunt figs in a hive fleet Kraken color scheme. I posted some pictures of my Tyranid Genestealers in the cotton candy explosion color scheme, and after Grace pointed that out I have trouble painting anything else in that scheme. Maybe I'll do some more Genestealers in these classic colors. [These actually have a little more detail work before they are done, but while I was taking pictures...]

GW Hormagaunts

I've also made some progress on some larger efforts. More on that soon.

Long Time Comin'

So on a recent late January day at the USCIS office in West Philadelphia, only a few blocks from where we lived back in the late 1980's, Amp was sworn in as a US citizen. She was eligible for citizenship about 26 years ago, give or take, on the basis of our 1990 marriage, but for one reason or another never bothered to file the necessary papers and slog through the subsequent bureaucracy to get it done.

She filed the first application (with its large check attached) in March of 2018, and was given an estimated completion date of September 2019, about a year and a half later.

We waited. Filed some additional forms. She went down to the above-mentioned office for an interview and paperwork review in May of 2018. Went for an additional review in late 2018. Was scheduled for her citizenship test (on American government, history and geography) in early January 2019. Passed the test. Was scheduled to come back for the oath-taking later in the month. Did so. And then immediately, on site, registered to vote.

Which I suppose brings us back around to the reason for finally slogging through this process. Having lived in the US since coming to college from overseas in the fall of 1984, the idea of having a voice but not a vote was brought painfully home in 2016.

She missed the 2018 midterms, but that's the last one.

Along with a voice, she now has a vote.

Painting Table January 2019

It's been a while since I've done one of these, or for that matter a post of any sort. This thought struck me while I was looking at the giant mess pile that is my painting table in the basement. Most of what is on the table is stuff that is more or less recently-ish in process. So without further ado...

The whole mess

At far right, we have a tray of Warhammer 40k figures used for games of Kill Team with Ryan and Josh. Genestealers in front are basically done. The Eldar guardians in the middle are maybe 50% done. The Space Marines tactical squad and scouts in the back are perhaps 80-90% done. There are some other bits less done on other parts of the table.

Warhammer 40k for Kill Team

Middle-ish we have a bunch of blister packs of unpainted D&D miniatures. Some character figures, some monsters, and some torture chamber scenery. Plus a very large remorhaz figure in the box in the back. There's an earth elemental and an arcane altar on the little paper plate. And the box for a fantasy ruins terrain kit.

Unpainted D&D minis

On the left side of the table, which is the more active side since it is where the lights and the paints are, we have a variety of things. There is a mostly done Shambling Mound figure for D&D, and a group of Umber Hulks. There are some black primed tyranid warriors and smaller critters for Kill Team. I see a torture rack. A few treasure chests. An iron maiden (the torture device, not the band). A couple of character figures that have been started. And the first test piece of the Azyrite ruins set whose box we saw in the prior picture. Oh, and an owlbear with a little paint on it.

The more active bits

On the gaming table, we have odds and ends of a waterside terrain board I am making. And the main bits of a Tamiya 1/35 scale Panther ausf "A" model that I am building. More on that in a separate post. I think I built this exact kit in the early 1980's (it is copyright 1975), and again in ~2000. I felt like building a tank model kit, and I love the Panther. A pretty tank if there is such a thing. And this particular kit is crazy cheap on eBay, relatively speaking.

Waterside scenery and a 1/35 Panther "A"

So that's some of the multitude of hobby bits that have gotten some attention recently. If I ever actually finish anything, I will post pictures...

Cold Weather Dog Cuteness

It's been a little while since I posted some gratuitous Ryder pics, so here we go. Feel free to skip...

With the onset of cold weather, Ryder has turned out to be quite the fan of stealing some warmth from someone else's flannel pajamas...

Hangin' with Julia

Or someone else's fleece blanket...

Hangin' with Grace

Or if nobody else is around, lying on a fleece blanket that someone in the family will then be kind enough to drape over and around him. He likes being bundled up.

Hangin' with a fleece blanket

And as a general rule, follow the sun. Wherever the sun hits the ground, he will follow it around. This position was a new one...

Follow the sun spots

Anyway, thanks for humoring me. More hobby stuff soon.

Jungle Ruins

I never got around to posting a finished look at the ruins terrain I wrote about making back in June. I also mentioned more recently working on some scatter terrain for jungle or other densely foliated areas. I have taken a picture of both laid out together.

Our Heroes Explore Long-Forgotten Ruins

I have a few more ruin pieces in process that I will finish at some point. I also have a lot more fake floral bits to increase the number of pieces of foliage scatter. The foliage scatter is a more pressing need...

SAS - Organizing and Cataloging

One of my stated short-attention-span goals before the end of the year was to review the cataloging and organization/storage of my now-pretty-big D&D miniatures collection. This turned out to be more work than I had thought it would be, but I finished this effort earlier tonight.

In short...wow, I've collected a lot of D&D miniatures over the last 4+ years. And it turns out that I hadn't been doing as good a job keeping track of them as I thought I had been doing. I keep a spreadsheet. Or it turns out I was keeping most of a spreadsheet.

D&D Miniatures Collection

Anyway, that's all fixed for now. Every miniature cataloged, accounted for, organized and filed away in storage boxes. Compartmented storage boxes are a wonderful thing, as is a good spreadsheet. If you're into that sort of thing. Which I most definitely am (as those who know me will attest!).

As of now, the collection totals 1,071 figures. Yikes. Not a typo... That is an average of roughly 22 figures a month for 4 years. My one main splurging vice really. Fortunately, a good number of these figures come from "bottom feeding" on eBay, buying stuff at its cheapest, and in batches. Not everything though, to be sure. In addition to a couple of eBay stores as my primary purchase avenue,  also do buy a few blind boxes at the Games Keep store in West Chester for ranges I know I like and have little of yet, but I don't do much of this. I like to buy what I want, not what chance provides me. That being said, I have gotten some treasures (relatively speaking) in the few blind boxes I have bought, and they are fun to open.

Perhaps sometime soon I will post some of the rarer or favorite figures I have collected.

PAX Unplugged 2018

PAX (Penny Arcade) runs a series of gaming conventions (East, West and South), and has for years. They are big shows. Last year (2017) was the first year for PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, a gaming convention geared exclusively to tabletop and roleplaying games, not computer games. I've had an interest in going, but hadn't followed through.

Fast forward to mid-week last week, when I texted Ryan and Josh and said "PAX Unplugged is this weekend...bummer we didn't plan something". Turns out Ryan was available (Josh was not), so I bought two tickets for Saturday.

I elected to drive down to give me flexibility for coming and going as I pleased. Ryan chose to take the train down and meet me. Which we did.

The show was at the Philadelphia Convention Center in Center City Philadelphia, and was pretty huge. Estimates from 2017 had attendance numbers at 45,000 turnstiles, or likely 15-20,000 distinct people (accounting for multi-day attendees). Tickets purchased days before the event would be waiting at the Will Call window. The show opened at 10:00am. So I got there around 9:15. Found the right place to go in this huge place, and had our two passes by about 9:45. Ryan met me soon after, and we waited in the huge lines to get in when the doors opened.

The Hordes assemble pre-opening

The place was even bigger than I had imagined, with an absolutely massive open gaming and dealer area on the second floor, and another huge tournament gaming space on the lower level. A variety of conference rooms and theater rooms for panel discussions were scattered in other places.

Philadelphia Convention Center

The dealer area was impressive. Every imaginable kind of board game and role playing game was represented. My purchases for the day were modest. A few oversized d20 dice on a whim (2 large and 1 huge)...you can never have too many dice, especially odd ones! Gale Force 9 monster card sets for challenge ratings 1-5 and 6-16 (these are new releases). A half dozen blister packs of unpainted D&D miniatures from WizKids (including 3 of the hard to find and expensive-on-eBay Beholders). And a second copy of Dungeon World from the Burning Wheel booth, but more on that later.

Ryan checks out a weird sic-fi Wild West thing

There were a few things that struck me about the dealer area, the main one being the number of dealers that were selling extremely high end stuff. There were several dealers selling dice made of fancy woods, metal and semi-precious gemstones. Now...I love dice...and own many more than any one person would ever need. But I draw the line, at this point anyway, at buying a set of 6 or 7 polyhedral dice for $25. Or $50. Or $100. Or more. Of which there were many options to do so. There was also a dealer (Wyrmwood?) selling all sorts of beautifully crafted wooden items such as dice trays, dice boxes, etc. Nice stuff for sure. And the people selling $5,000+ custom gaming tables. Beautiful stuff. All of which were getting a lot of traffic, and from what I could tell, a lot of sales.

I have become a fan of several people who are Twitch streamers, primarily via their posting VODs on YouTube, which I can watch/listen to in the background when doing other things around the house. These folks are mainly D&D streamers and/or game designers. My favorite among these is Adam Koebel, the co-author of Dungeon World, and the Dungeon/Game Master for a number of streaming game series on Twitch/YouTube. I find Adam to be an excellent Game Master and a very insightful voice on game design and game mastering via his series Office Hours. Anyway...Adam was one of three panelists doing an hour on Heavy Metal and Fantasy Role Playing games. Luke Crane, another well-known game designer (The Burning Wheel, Mouseguard, etc) was also one of the panelists. The panel was entertaining and funny. And seeing Adam in person was kinda cool.

Heavy Metal and RPGs panel (Adam Koebel)

Another set of Dungeons and Dragons celebrities that I got to see and say "hi" to were the player cast of Dice, Camera, Action, a streaming show on the official D&D channel.

The "Waffle Crew" from Dice Camera Action

Rounding out the day was a bit of fanboy fun. Adam Koebel was at the Burning Wheel company booth (distributors of his game) for a part of the afternoon, and I stopped by to get my copy of the book signed. I knew he was scheduled to be there and had brought the book from home. We chatted for a few minutes, and thankfully, he seemed to be a really nice guy. The risk of meeting a celebrity that you like (which he is within the RPG niche) is that they will turn out to be a jerk. Not that you can tell much within a minute or two or three, but a disappointing bad impression only takes a moment. As I said, thankfully that wasn't the case and he seemed really nice. I must admit that it felt a bit weird to have a fanboy moment with someone 20 years my junior, but whatever... I told him that my 14 year old daughter Grace recognizes him on the computer as "the cool pink-haired D&D guy". He laughed and signed another book for her. Nice.

Adam Koebel and my signed Dungeon World!!

Soon after, I headed home. It was a good show. Huge and crowded, but manageable because of the amount of space. As big as it was, I ran into two different people that I knew; something I would not have expected.

One last comment would be regarding the organization of the show. Professional and first class all the way. The volunteers helping to run the convention wore purple t-shirts labelled "Enforcer". They were everywhere, knowledgeable and polite. Very well done. Assuming it's back in Philly next year, I'll be back.