9/11

There are a lot of ways we can look at it.

We can lament the first responders that lost their lives, price who rushed to their doom to save others.
Or we can celebrate the fact that we had so many heroes within our midst.

We can mourn the attack that hurt so many, so deeply, in an attempt to break our spirit.
Or we can choose to celebrate the fact that we have survived with our spirit so very much intact.

We can agonize over the very high cost of what followed, in terms of gold and more importantly, lives.
Or we can take comfort that so many were willing to place themselves between us and danger, whether you agree with how it was done or not.

We can discuss this day in the terms of blame, politics, and name calling.
Or we can hit the people that do so with a stick.

Leave the bickering for another day.

Today is a day to honor what was lost, and take solace in what it proved we have.

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So GenCon was cool.

I got to hang with several notables in the field of nerdom.  I went to dinner with Howard Taylor and Michael Williamson.

The crew of Smirk and Dagger Games invited me to hang out.  They didn’t even get mad when we came up with the most horrible Run For Your Life Candyman supplement ever.

The guy that invented Killer Bunnies came to my booth to tell me how much he like Redshirts, and I managed to avoid squealing like my daughter when she gets a new stuffed animal.  But just barely.

I spent time chatting with Randy Milholland of Something Positive, and Lar Desiuza of Least I Can Do and Looking For Group.

I had a booth right across from Slugfest Games.   Years ago one of their bigwigs graciously allowed me to pitch one of my board games to them.  And then in a polite, professional, and not unkind manner they ripped it apart.  I used the advice they gave me to improve how I went about game design.  I would quite literally not have my company today if it wasn’t for them.  I told them so too.

I met a lot of folks who retail my game, and sold a lot of product.  Like a ridiculous amount.  We sold through all of the promo cards we had in stock and our artist, David Reddick was there to make custom Redshirts.  We actually turned a profit going to GenCon, and I have been informed that doesn’t happen very often.

And  managed to trade copies of my game for a few hundred dollars of other peoples games.

I only had one person say that the rules were so badly written that they practically ruin the game.  Granted they were a famous cartoonist, but hey, you can’t win them all.

There are days when it sucks to be Skippy.  Those four days in Indianapolis where not among them.

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I know I’ve been gone a long time.  But between running a business and caring for children, something had to give.  This site was one of those things.  So for those of you on subscription, or occasionally popping back in, hello again, I am now going to be making an effort to keep up on here.

I arrived at Vegas for the Star Trek Creation con on Tuesday.  Nichelle Nichols was present as a guest of the con.

Over the weekend, she had moved on to Space City Houston, where there was another booth set up by the WeaselPants team.  Suspicious.

At GenCon Ms. Nicholls was a guest of Honor yet again.  I think that she is stalking us.

Vegas was hot and expensive.  We sold some product (although not as much as I would have liked) and made a ton of good contacts in the Star Trek community.  I got to finally meet my artist David Reddick, in person.

Lessons learned from the Star Trek con:

1. If you get the theme from the Gary Shandling show stuck in your head, it ain’t coming out any time soon.
2. If you take a booth assistant to a Star Trek convention, make sure she knows something about Star Trek.  So she doesn’t accidently try to sell your game to LeVar Burton.
3. This is the theme to Gary’s Show…
4. Be nice to people.  You never know when that woman you helped in booth set up might turn out to be the personal assistant of a famous Trek Actor.
5. Australians in Star Fleet uniforms are crazy.
6. …the theme to Gary’s show…
7. Most famous actors are very pleasant well-adjusted people.  But a few will go off like a human land mine.  They don’t have anything personal against you, but if you happen to be there when they detonate, it will end badly.
8. For some reason, people will approach your booth, tell you that they bought your game online, and hated it.  And then they will buy the promo cards.
9. …Gary called me up and asked me if I would write his theme song…
10. There is such a thing as a Tribble crane machine.

More details on GenCon soon.

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This past weekend I attended Dallas Comic Con.  It was a success, and by success I mean I made more money than I spent.

I had several interesting events transpire while I was there.

I go to meet Randy Milholland of Something Positive and Joel Watson of Hijinks Ensue.  I have gotten piles of entertainment out of their comics, so I gave each of them a free copy of the game.  They both knew my artist David Reddick and were impressed with his work.

While I was there I tried to sell my original Star Wars movie poster.  It turns out, lots of people want to buy an original Star Wars movie poster.  Not many want to pay near what it’s worth however.

At one point I woman with family in tow approached my booth, and I began my sales pitch.  Due to the angle one of my booth banners blocked the view of me from most of the isle.  Once I stepped out to show her more about the game I hear “Skippy?”  It was a guy who lived in my dorm in college.

I had a Skippyslist fan come up to the booth.  So far every single Con I go to contains at least one person who has heard of Skippyslist.  And you’d better believe that I will find a way to milk that into a sale.

At one point as I was heading out to grab lunch when I overhead part of a sentence between two fans. “–a bunch of web comics, and he works for Garfield.”

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This weekend I get to try out my first convention since Redshirts has arrived.  And so off I go spend the weekend selling as many copies as I possibly can.  I’ve never actually worked at a con where I was selling directly to the public before, so this should be interesting, to say the least.

So if you are in the DFW area, be sure to check out Dallas Comic Con.  And buy several copies of the game.

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As I left the convenience store there was a woman behind me carrying a large pile of snacks and drinks.  Being the nice person that I am, I held the door for her.

She stopped partway through and gave me what I can only describe as “A look.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

“Um, what?” I replied, as a master of the retort, as my brain scrambled to figure out why this lady was suddenly angry with me.

“What are you doing?  I don’t need your sexist condensation!”

Ooooooh!  That’s why she’s mad.

“I don’t think holding a door is sexist.”

“Well it is! I don’t need a man to hold the door for me!”

“I’m not holding it because you’re a woman.  I’m holding it because your arms are full.”

“I DON’T NEED A MAN TO HOLD THE DOOR FOR ME!”

“Have it your way.”

I considered telling her to move, but I’m sure she didn’t need a man to tell her what happens when you stand in  a rapidly closing heavy glass door with no way to use your hands.

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The day has come.  My first title as a game publisher is now out.  If you would like a copy, cure just head on over to WeaselPants Productions.

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If you are in the DFW area there will be a Redshirts Demo at Lonestar Comics in Plano. You can show up and play a game or two, and we even have some promotional cards available that will not be included in the core set. This is your chance to play the game before anybody else, and score some extra goodies.

Be sure to stop by and say hi.
That’s Lonestar Comics
3100 Independence Parkway #318
Plano, TX
(972) 985-1593
This next Saturday, March 31st.

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I arrived in Vegas on Sunday morning.  My first impression?  Bad location for the zombie apocalypse.  I’m staying at the Excalibur which is sort of like living inside the bastard step-child of a Dave & Buster’s and a Medieval Times, that was raised by chain smoking carnies I’m here to work however, so I am forced to ignore most of it, although I did allow myself a small gambling budget.

During the afternoon I wandered around a few Casinos and discovered there is a Star Wars slot machine.

Star Wars. Plus gambling. If there is one thing I have learned it’s that, ignoring 50% of the movies, Star Wars never lets me down.

My entire gambling budget later I was forced to conclude that Star Wars had indeed let me down.

While walking on the strip I learned that while prostitution is still illegal, that particular law is evidently not well enforced.  Periodically you find small packs of people handing out what I can only describe as “hooker trading cards”.  These cards are photos, along with vital statistics and phone numbers.  The people handing them out are wearing t-shirts with QR codes on them.  For those unfamiliar with QR codes, they are squarish black and white nonsense looking images that can be scanned by a smart phone and direct you to a website.  So it’s basically like checking out at a grocery store but instead of eggs and milk, you get a painful STD and and awkward conversation with your wife.

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Yesterday I hopped on a plane to fly over to Las Vegas to spend a week picking the brains of game industry veterans and trying to find distributors and retailers for Redshirts.  Here are my impressions of the trip thus far:

Air travel: Spirit Airlines has a economy based entirely on baggage fees.  There was a fee for every bag, including carry on.  A  fee based on bag weight.  I’m pretty sure there was also a fee for paying the fees.

Once on the plane: I was seated behind a family with two infants, and in front of a group of sorority girls.  Guess who was more annoying?

I’ll give you a hint.  The soroity girls had managed to turn “whoo!” into a form of punctuation.  “We’re going to Vegas! Whoo!” “Brittany isn’t pregnant!” “Whoo!” “I’ve decided to become a vegan!” “Whoo!”.  For the record, from their conversation it appears that vegan means “I will only eat animals that aren’t cute.”

At one point the girls decided to be profound, or at least what passes for profound within their social circle.  “Tiffany just tweeted “not every skinny girl is hot, and not every fat girl is ugly.  That sounds like something a fat girl would say!” “Whoo!”  Then an old guy in my row said “That sounds like something a ugly skinny girl would say.”

“Whoo!” added his wife.

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