The 07' Open House in Review

[Warwolf]

I'm going to rip off the ideas of a couple others and post my Open House story in installments.

Chapter 1: An Amazing Start with Some Early Troubles

My preparations for this year’s open house began late last year. I had been in communication with “The Big Siembieda” about a couple projects I wanted to write for Palladium. I was in the middle of the most amazing phone conversation I’ve had in my life (discussing how the business was doing, developments with the movie, and other things) when Kevin said, “You’re going to want to save your pennies, because as you… are [a potential freelancer], and are more than welcome to attend the Freelancer’s Get-Together. Needless to say, I was floored, excited, and most of all honored. I assured Kevin that come Hell or high water, I would attend.

The next step was figuring out how I would do so on my limited budget. So, I contacted several of my friends (including those that had attended the first OH with me) and got people on board for splitting a room and gas. The original plan was to have MadManMike as my copilot since he was eligible for the Freelancer night as well. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out (you can read Mike’s review for the details) and I was looking at making a nine-hour drive alone. Luckily, Flecchi insisted that I take him with me, even though he’d be stuck at the hotel with little to do for two days. I was hesitant to do that to him, but as gas prices rose and my cash reserve dwindled, I took him up on his offer (thanks again, by the way).

Another post to follow shortly...

[Warwolf]

Chapter 2: I Get Taken for a Ride (and not in a good way)

Cut to the Wednesday before the Open House. I picked Flecchi up from Rolla, MO and headed to my grandparents’ place in Festus, MO (a total of about 3 ½ hours for me, 2 hours less for Flecchi). It was raining the entire time (I loaded the car in the rain… suck), and we hit a major accident on highway 44 (a tanker off in the median and a car on the opposite side with its roof sheared off), we each mumbled a little prayer and continued on our way. We arrived at my grandparents’ a little behind schedule and I called Enterprise to let them know I’d be an hour or so late picking up the car. No problems… or so I thought.

I was only about a half-hour arriving at the rental agency, but they informed me that one of the workers had just gone to pick up a car from a different location. That meant a half-hour to forty-minute wait, but I told them that was fine (I try not to sweat the small stuff). Unfortunately, that was just the beginning. The assistant manager called me up to complete the paperwork while I was waiting that way I could take off as soon as the car arrived. As soon as I handed her my license, she asked if the underage driver fee had been explained to me. I asked exactly what was considered underage (as I’m 22) and she said that under 25 meant an additional $10/day! Since that was not explained up-front when I reserved the car, she waived it (whew… but there’s more). Next was them informing me that I HAD to take the OPTIONAL coverage since I only carry liability on my piece of crap car. All told, including a $100 security deposit I wasn’t informed of ahead of time, I was looking at over $300 to rent the car… ¾ of what I had budgeted for the entire trip!

Allow me to explain myself to those of you who are saying, “You should have planned better.” When I had reserved the car, I was quoted at $118 TOTAL!! Then, I had called two days prior to make sure everything was in order, which they assured me it was. Now, they were trying to more than double the original price! Uh-uh... you see, I’m a nice guy until I get pushed too far, then all bets are off. I explained to the lady that I had been quoted at $118 and even had the business card with that price and my confirmation number on it… written by their agent. After roughly an hour of arguing with them, I managed to get the security deposit waived and the price knocked down to $198, plus they gave me a free upgrade (a new, red, Dodge Caliber… pretty nice). I was satisfied at that for the time being, and headed back to get loaded up. Once I arrived home, I found out that they were supposed to have gone over the features of the vehicle with me. Additionally, it hadn’t been cleaned and had a decent amount of pet hair scattered in the back (which Flecchi just happens to be severely allergic to… luckily he had doped himself on anti-allergy meds). Finally, the car turned out not to have cruise control… this was going to be a long trip.

[Warwolf]

Man you were off to a rough start.

Tell me about it. Here's the next portion.

Chapter 3: The Race to the Ramada

So, we got underway somewhat later than we wanted after loading the car, gassing up, and making a pit-stop at Wal-Mart. We took I-55 into St. Louis, arriving right as rush hour was starting. To make matters worse, as we were heading over the bridge into Illinois (AKA: The Land of Corn), the sky opened up and it poured hard enough that I couldn’t see the lanes (and I was in the middle of a 3-lane stretch). Thankfully, we made it through with only one idiot almost hitting us. After only one mishap (missed an exit), we made it to my friend’s in Assumption only a couple hours late. I got to visit and see my friend’s new baby and chat with some people I almost never see, finally getting to bed in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

After not nearly enough sleep, I awoke Thursday around 5:00 A.M. We were on the road an hour later, with a seven hour drive and the loss of an hour ahead of us. It was pretty much smooth sailing (even through Chi-town, which surprised me) until we got into Michigan and had some chump in a VW Golf come flying up on my tail. Even when I sped up and got over, he didn’t pass me. Instead, he’d wait until I was in the slow lane and try and pass me on the right. He even pulled up even with us at one point and glared over, prompting Flecchi to bob up and down repeating, “Here we go, here we go, here we go.”

Since I was run off of highway 44 last year by an idiot passing on the right, I don’t appreciate this guy’s antics at all. So, I sped up in an attempt to get away from this guy, as I wasn’t in the mood for games. A little while later, I catch him off to my right in the far lane trying to fly past. I’d had enough, so I dropped the hammer and shifted in front of him to block him into the lane and force him to slow down (he was putting others at risk, and I didn't like that). He followed me off the highway when we went to gas up, but he kept going once I pulled over. Frankly, I was in the mood for a fight after the previous day, but it's better that he rolled on.

Chapter 4 might be up soon as well.

[Reddenedone]

Enterprise tried to charge us double from our quote as well.... but thank goodness that Bryan's got that intimidating male anger voice .

[Warwolf]

Enterprise tried to charge us double from our quote as well.... but thank goodness that Bryan's got that intimidating male anger voice .

Like I said, I'm a nice guy most of the time. But times like that call for aggressive negotiations. Mostly, I threatened them with having to not rent the vehicle since I didn't have the money.

Oh, I forgot to add that once I got the price dropped to $198, I was still pushing for a further drop. At this point, a random guy that was waiting offered to cover the rest. Unfortunately, my personal code of ethics prevents me from accepting money from strangers like that unless I can pay them it back later. Not to mention, I knew I had the company over the barrel and didn't want him to waste his cash.

There is more to come on that ordeal, but it has to wait until the part where we got back from the OH.

[Warwolf]

Chapter 4: An Epic Meeting

Luckily, there were no more incidents other than being forced to take the wrong exit by some rude drivers, and we made it to Taylor in good time. As we were unloading our stuff from the car, I caught someone in a Lazlo Society shirt. I said something like, “Hey, more Palladium people… which ones are you?” It turned out to be Ten Tigers, Apocalypse Zero, and none other than Subbie himself! I had shaken Sub’s hand before he introduced himself, but once I found out it was him and introduced myself, he offered his hand again. He then asked if I wanted a ride to the Freelancer Night, and I agreed.

I had barely gotten stuff situated and started to make myself look presentable when I got the call to go. Once we got to the truck, Sub took a moment to show off all the cool stuff he had brought for the auctions (including the Rifts logo window decals he had made) as well as his original art. One other thing (that most people haven’t seen yet) was the new piece of commissioned art he was giving Kevin as a birthday present. I won’t ruin the surprise in case it makes its way to a print or into a book somewhere, but it is friggin’ AWESOME! We all three chatted a bit on the way over and arrived some time after 4:00 P.M. There weren’t too many people there (though NMI greeted us at the door), so we thought we were early until someone informed us that some of the guys had gone to Kevin’s house to pick up some stuff (something I wish I could have helped with).

My mind is a blur about this first bit, but I remember talking to Rabid Southern Cross Fan (who I had to admit I was “Robotech stupid” to) and I think the Mannings. I know there were others that I chatted with at this point, but I seriously can’t remember exactly who (sorry). At some point, I remember DLDC coming in and greeting me and perhaps Philpott. We immediately started discussing his project (which is going to be amazing beyond belief, by the way), and I even got to peruse the manuscript a bit. I’m not sure how long I was there before Wayne and the others showed up with the truck to offload, so we all jumped to help out. What was it that required a truck to move from Kevin’s house you ask? His comic collection.

More about Freelancer Thursday soon.

[Warwolf]

Chapter 5: Freelancer Night

We rolled up our sleeves and moved Kev’s collection onto a large rolling cart, but with some left over, we were forced to carry some of the boxes (the man treats us like were slave labor or something ). As we were coordinating comic boxes by genre, I got to witness Irvin’s mad skillz when it came to comic knowledge (and my lack of it). During this time I ran into the likes of Jason Richards (yes, the real one), Reelman, and those crazy Mannings again (again, there were many others, but my mind is drawing a blank ), with Kevin and Alex coordinating the show. After that was task was accomplished (the stack took up most of the back wall of the storage room and was probably about three feet high!) some of us took a minute to stand around and chat until we realized that people had already gotten busy bagging T-shirts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be much help as I have exactly one to three ways of folding laundry and none of them would have put the logo where it needed to be. Luckily people like Josh Hilden, Joe Bergman, Braden, and several others seemed to have the situation under control.

I had greeted Kevin earlier after we had finished with his comic collection, but I found he and Wayne discussing something, so I decided to go over and chat with them both. Kevin informed me that the name badges had been entrusted to Reelman, and that I could go and get mine. I pointed out the fact that I probably didn’t have a badge, to which Wayne replied, “No, you should have a badge.” We went over to take a look, and sure enough, no badge. I popped off with the fact that I’m the guy that always gets forgotten, prompting Kevin to ask for my real name again. Once I told him, he slumped his shoulders, let out a sigh, and threw his arm over my shoulders saying, “I am so horrible with names.” I assured him that it was all right, and Wayne offered me Todd Yoho’s badge instead telling me I could use a sharpie and write "Warwolf" because that’s all people needed to know. He did note that he still needed to print a badge or two anyway and that he’d try and get one to me the next day.

At some point, food arrived (pizza and sub-sandwiches) and a few guys, including Jeff Hansen and myself, moved tables and set up chairs for the meal. Then, it was like watching a school of piranhas descend on chum, as everyone filed in for their share (though everyone was polite and pretty tidy about it). I hung back while other people took their seats to make sure there were enough for everyone, and ended up sitting off to one side. After a minute or two, I noticed an open spot right as Subjugator or Apocalypse Zero said something about me sitting all alone. The seat was right between Apocalypse Zero and Julius Rosenstein. I had been disappointed last year that I hadn’t gotten to chat with Julius more, so I took my opportunity and had an awesome conversation with him and A-Zero where I got to hear about some of Julius’s campaigns. Included in that was his annual “Halloween Dungeon” where whatever costume his friend’s wore became their character for the adventure! A-Zero and I shared a bit about some of our gaming stories and it was time to move upstairs.

Kevin opened up with why he had decided to organize a dedicated Freelancer Night (I believe it’s in his Secrets of the Open House murmur, so I won’t repeat it here). He then proceeded to introduce everyone and what they were working on. I can’t reveal any details other than what is already common knowledge (such as Carl Gleba’s Minion War and Braden’s spaceship book for Phaseworld), but suffice it to say there’s a lot of cool stuff coming down the line for this year and next (hopefully including a project or two I’m working on). Next, he moved on to a plethora of other topics that included why certain freelancers couldn’t make it for the weekend (Todd Yoho’s job, Wayne Breaux’s car trouble, etc.), he even announced that Brandon, Taylor, and Josh had run into some difficulty of their own getting there. He also talked about the Robotech license, the movie deal, the pre-orders for Machinations of Doom and Minion War, and a few other interesting things.

As Kevin was giving his speech, I remember I kept looking back, because sitting right behind me was Johnny Z himself! I have to wonder whether or not I creeped him out by doing so, but I was just awe-struck. Also while Kevin spoke, I got a couple phone calls which I tried to ignore until I realized it was around eight. Spectre and his crew were flying in and I had promised to pick them up if they didn’t have a ride! Luckily, he was just calling to let me know they made it. Unfortunately, Reaper_219 called to let me know he was having problems getting in touch with his two passengers (more friends of ours). Since I was the de-facto trip coordinator, I tried to call them both with no luck. Luckily it mostly panned-out the next day.

Toward the end of Kevin’s talk, Brandon, Taylor, and Josh rolled in looking like a bunch of hoodlums crashing a house party. I only got a chance to say hello to all of them as I was running around talking to people, but I reasoned that I had all weekend to catch them. As things were winding down, I caught Kevin in the hallway outside Wayne’s room and made sure my invite extended to VIP Friday which he confirmed it did. We talked for a bit more, and he instructed me to leave the spelling of my name with Wayne so he could print me out a name tag. I obliged and stepped into Wayne’s office to leave him my name. I remember that there was someone else in the room that I talked with as well, but I can’t remember exactly who. DLDC stepped in after me to leave his name as well, and we all were engrossed in our conversation when A-Zero and Subbie showed up to claim me for the ride back to the hotel. I wasn’t quite ready to leave, so I secured a ride with DLDC instead. As we readied to leave a little while later, I started to spell my name until Wayne retorted (in a tone as if to say, “Who do you think I am?”) with, “I know how to spell your names.”

I had a nice chat with El Magico on the way back to the Ramada about the projects we were working on (his secret project is going to blow people away). I called Spectre once I got in to see if they were still awake, which they were. So, I let myself into my room to find Flecchi crashed out in a cocoon of blankets on the bed. I then aired up my mattress and dropped by Spectre’s room. I was greeted with a room full of people that I only knew two of, Spectre and his little brother. However, I soon found out that Armorlord and Kythis were among the visitors. I sat and talked with them for I don’t know how long (impressing a few of them with my slotted combat system, and finding out that I was somewhat of a living legend among Spectres group ), until people started gravitating toward sleeping surfaces. We all bid one-another good night and I returned to the room to pass out.

I know I talked to more people over the course of Thursday, but I’m finding now that I should have done this every night rather than waiting until a week later. So, if I talked to any of you that read this and I didn’t happen to include our conversation, I apologize and let me know so I can amend this review. Specifically, I remember I talked to Scott Johnson and Thom Bartold, and at least said hello to Braden. However, I don’t remember exactly when that was in the afternoon or evening.

VIP Friday is up next...

[NMI]

Then there was that cool NMI guy you talked to!

glad you had a good time Warwolf! And I pity the people who didnt respect your reqest for no pictures! Damn them! Damn them straight to hell!!!

[Warwolf]

Then there was that cool NMI guy you talked to!

glad you had a good time Warwolf! And I pity the people who didnt respect your reqest for no pictures! Damn them! Damn them straight to hell!!!

You heard the mod people... off to Gehenna with you.

I knew I talked to you at some point, but I thought our longest conversation was on Saturday (when you revealed some of your Machinations of Doom regarding the next version of the boards ). Do you remember exactly when we chatted? If so, I'll amend my review to include it.

[Warwolf]

Chapter 6: VIP Friday (part 1)

I awoke about a half-hour later than I wanted to, and would have missed breakfast. Luckily, Flecchi ran down and grabbed a few bagels for me while I organized stuff for check-out. We had to shift rooms at noon since I booked a single for the first night to save money, so we had to miss Spiderman 3 with the rest of the gang. After a quick shower and hurried packing, I ran to the front desk to grab our new keys. We managed to get everything in one trip (including my desktop since I am too poor to afford a laptop), and settled into the parlor suite. For some reason, the room seemed bigger than the one we were in last year, and other than the internet needing to be fixed, we didn’t have any problems.

After a jaunt to Wal-Mart to pick up a bit of food, Flecchi and I returned to the room. Shortly thereafter, Spectre called and asked if we had eaten. His group had gone to lunch without him and bum around since they didn’t have VIP tickets. I offered him a gourmet Hot Pocket, so he was at the door in a couple minutes. Not long after we had eaten, the rest of the crew called from the road. They were about an hour out and the VIP started in 45 minutes, so I told them to step on it. I took the time to sharpen a couple of neglected blades for my costume (which I didn’t end up wearing), and the three other members of my group arrived at the hotel right as the VIP event was scheduled to begin. We hurriedly unpacked the car and then the two with VIP tickets (Rigil and reaper_219) piled in with Spectre and I for another Indy-worthy performance on my part in what Rigil dubbed, “A jet-fighter without wings.”

Arriving only a few minutes late, I was assaulted at the door by an overly-friendly Jason Richards. He was on his way out the door as I was entering, and decided to practically tackle me as he gave me a hug while declaring, “There’s the man!” I’m still not quite sure what that was about, but he was gone again before I could react. I greeted Julius at the entrance and continued on in while the others were getting their badges (Julius remarked about me using last year’s badge and I noted that Wayne hadn’t gotten mine to me yet). I walked to the back to harass Wayne about the badge when I came across Tony Falzon and Kevin stocking sodas for the dinner. Wayne ended up being at the Ramada dealing with an issue over the presidential suites. So, I offered my assistance and finished stocking sodas for Kevin while he went and chatted with people. The next hour or so is a blur, as I know I talked to several people (I think it was at this point I got to chat with Adam Withers and Comfort Deborah Love), including Nightshade_37 who I remembered from the year before.

At some point, I walked into the back again in time to catch Kathy Simmons tending the absolutely heavenly-smelling foodstuffs. I commented that the food smelled excellent and she responded that she hoped it didn’t disappoint the guests. I assured her that if it tasted as good as it smelled people would be just fine. All too soon, the call for dinner was made. I caught Adam and Comfort discussing where they were going to eat and invited them to some of the open seats at our table. I helped myself to one of the sandwiches, some Swedish meatballs, and some excellent mustacholli (sp?). Returning to my table, I noticed Nightshade and another guy sitting at an empty table, and decided to be social. Blowing off my friends with, “I can talk to these a**holes any time, I’m gonna come sit with you two.” I shifted over a table. The unknown individual ended up being Narcoleptic Monk from the boards, who had shown up to see how the “professionals” ran games. I had an excellent conversation with these two gentlemen over an equally excellent meal, and then proceeded to commingle once more.

I’m pretty sure I ended up over at the cash register talking to Chris Guertin and Joe Bergman (the Deadboy) about our experiences with Palladium, including Joe’s Cyclone armor from back in the day. At some point, Kevin stopped in talking about spreading the word that the registers were going to close while everyone went upstairs for Kevin’s talk. I heard Kevin mention that he didn’t know how he was going to get word around since the karaoke machine was upstairs, so I stepped in to offer my services once more. For those of you that weren’t at the ’06 presentation of the signed print to Kevin, I called the entire warehouse over to participate (what can I say, calling cadence for BSA color guard and five years in choir lets me project my voice when I need to). Kev accepted my offer, so I ran my uncut covers out to my car and went in search of a steady platform. Julius directed me to some milk crates stacked along one wall, and I snatched one for a makeshift soap-box. After I made the announcement (thanks to whoever echoed down the line to squelch conversations), I got an audible thank you from the one-man Warwolf fan-club, Mr. Jason Richards.

Next time: Kevin's talk and Julius's game.

[Nightshade37]

Good times indeed.

[Lord_Dalgard]

Chello!

Next time: Julius's game.

that's what I want to hear about!

Tony

[Warwolf]

Next time: Julius's game.

that's what I want to hear about!

Okay, okay, I give. Here it is :

Chapter 7: Dances with Warwolf (who, ironically, doesn’t dance)

I helped haul chairs up the steps for more seating (the room was PACKED) as Kevin started his talk. I finally managed to find a seat next to one Jason Richards (weird how that guy always seems to be around ) along with Brandon Aten and Ramon Perez. We got to laugh as Brandon was cracking jokes half the time, I think he may be trying to get Kevin to fire his sorry butt. Anyway, once more it was an excellent expo about Palladium (my project did NOT get announced this time as it’s still speculative… don’t want to get any fans fired up if it doesn’t pan out ). I truly can’t remember most of what was talked about (and honestly, it was largely the same as what the Freelancers heard Thursday), so I won’t waste any more typing on it.

After the talk wrapped up, I had planned to run around and get some signatures before the Palladium celebs were mobbed by adoring fans the next day. However, I was told soon after I returned to the warehouse floor that almost no one had signed up for Julius’s "Dances with Werewolves" (one of the two games I had considered playing in… the other was Carl’s Minion War game). I had originally decided not to jump into any so that other fans could have a shot at gaming under one of the greats, as this was my second VIP (even though there was no gaming last year). However, I told the fellas to let me know if they needed another. Just as soon as I was preparing to break out the books, my crew wrangled me for the game.

“Heck yeah, couldn’t have planned it better.” was what ran through my head as I gathered my dice and headed for the table. I still can't believe no more people signed up to game with this Grand Master of a GM. I won’t post many details, simply because I’m thinking of writing it up as a story for the Lazlo Society, but I’ll give the rundown. We were all ex-military guys that went to a friend’s bachelor party. He ends up dead (the latest in a series of four similar attacks) and we had to track down the perpetrator. Lucky for us, we had a psi-mechanic (Rigil), a college professor (Carl’s friend), an Arcanist (Spectre), a Nega-Psychic (reaper_219), and my psychic sensitive. The first half of the game dragged on for me, as I was noticing patterns as a player. Unfortunately, my character had an I.Q. of 9 and was not a leader type, so I reasoned he wouldn’t catch most of the stuff. It was kind of good for me though, as I’m typically the type that ends up dominating the decision-making and leading the group. This time, I let the group do its thing while I waited for my moment.

While I waited in the wings, I got up and ran around a bit. At one point I headed to the back to see if Wayne had gotten my badge done yet, and came across Joe Bergman in full regalia. I told him what an excellent job he had done on the armor. We conversed a bit and then he pressed me into service helping him get out of the armor. He walked me through the process (which was fairly simple), and we peeled the squishie out of the hard shell just fine. However, I don’t think I’ll ever forget how hard the helmet was to get off and what Joe told me: “The helmet is tight and you’re going to hurt me taking it off, but don’t worry about it I’ll be fine.” He had made the diameter of the helmet slightly too small, and it hurt him every time he took it off or put it on… talk about some crazy dedication!

Later, Wayne Smith came prowling out of the office looking for me. He made his way over to the table with something small in hand. My badge! I was stoked about having a staff badge, even though he told me to blame Windows Vista as it caused it to be in black and white. I told him I didn’t mind being different, and turned it over… then sighed. “What the hell is this, Wayne?” I asked, jokingly. “Am I not good enough for a Freelancer badge?” He had forgotten what I was working on for them and put "Game Master" down instead. I asked him if he could fix it when he got the chance (I’m picky like that) and he said he’d see what he could do.

Anyway, the game: my moment came when we were trying to gain access to personnel files to confirm our suspicions about the suspect. We had previously bribed a bouncer to gain access to security tapes and the professor was going to try the same routine. Instead, I decided to make things more interesting. I’ll save the exact details for the story, but I’ll say that I passed myself off as a “talent scout for Twin Peaks entertainment”. I sat with Julius and acted out all of the interactions in-character and had the guys busting a gut (including Julius). Long story short, things worked better than I planned, and we nabbed our culprit. About 15 minutes from the finale, Alex came by to see if we were wrapping up, as it was getting late. We finished in grand style and said our goodnights. Everyone seemed to have a blast at the VIP (and reaper and Rigil owe me one now for getting them tickets).

We got back to the hotel some time after midnight, and I got in touch with Madman Mike and Eryk Stormbright who had made it in while we were at the VIP. I met them along with Stardust and Necrocypher in the lobby and stood around to chat about the VIP. At some point, we lost Eryk and Stardust to their waiting Jacuzzi (lucky s*i*s with their free upgrade). Then, Necro and I got down to business discussing plans for a Rifts video game (no promises people, a few things need to happen before the project gets off the ground). If this thing takes off, I’ll probably be acting as a creative consultant while Necro gets to head things up as lead developer… I’ll just be happy to have a hand in a major Rifts product if things come to fruition.

Anyway, at some point we gained an extra face (though I never did catch his name) who chatted for a bit. Then, Carmen “Killer GM” Bellaire sauntered in and sat with us talking until some time around 5 AM! I was half-dozing by that point and had stated that I needed to finish PC’s for the Manhunter game (just six hours away at this point) but I had kept getting pulled back into the conversation. So, I returned to the room as everyone else retired and attempted to do a bit of writing. Unfortunately, Jeren was snoring so loudly that I couldn’t concentrate, so I took the option to get a couple hours of shoddy sleep before we got going for Saturday morning.

Next: The fate of my Manhunter game, Sins of the Forefathers, along with other Saturday action.

[Warwolf]

So, I realized the other day that I never finished this review. So, here's the next installment.

Chapter 8: A Recurring Nightmare

Well, that’s how the first part of Saturday felt anyway. We arrived at the Open House shortly after it opened. One perk about having that little staff badge was being able to bypass the huge line that was still well into the parking lot. My friends put their stuff with me at the table and went to join the throng of fans waiting to sign up for a game. Meanwhile, I got to pull materials out to make the last four PC’s (and re-vamp a couple others) for my Manhunter game at 11:30.

Eryk and Stardust wandered over at some point to say hi and chat a bit, but I was stressing and doing my best to write up characters so I’m sure I didn’t make the greatest conversation at that point. I know they and other friends of mine all offered to help, but the unfortunate fact was that they couldn’t because I had to substitute skills and whatnot as I went. Luckily, after a certain point, I was able to turn over the characters to their players to have them choose additional skills and wrap up minor details (thanks again, guys). As this was going on, Subjugator popped in wandering if I had an opening. I did at that point, so he claimed the last opening in my game.

Eventually, Jeren made it over to the table after waiting in line for an hour to sign up for my game… “Wait a sec, you signed up for my game?” I asked. “Well yeah, I figured I’d better before it filled up.” he answered. Here’s the thing, my game was already full, as I’d pre-registered players for almost all ten slots weeks before the Open House. So, I rushed over to try and get to the sheet before anyone else signed up. Luckily, I got there as Spectre’s brother and two friends had just signed up.

“Hey, we just signed up for your game.” they greeted me. “No,” I responded, “unfortunately you didn’t.” I had to break to them as I pulled the sheet from the book. I then explained that unfortunately there was no room and that a sign-up sheet had been put in by mistake, but they were cool about it (if a bit disappointed). After that was resolved, it was back to the grindstone. Sorry again fellas, maybe next time I’m in OK visiting you’ll be available for a consolation game.

I know that at several points during the few hours I was working on pre-gens, several people wandered by to say hello. However, I feel as though I had to blow them off in order to get things finished for the game. Please accept my apologies, but after a similar experience last year (where we barely got started and then had a communication mishap that kept us from getting together after-hours at the hotel) I was determined to run my game!

Heck, I can’t even remember most of those that were right around me during that period. However, I know I only got to say a brief hello to hippie_mama as she chased one of her little ones past and at some point Ninjabunny and Shinitenshi dropped of some delicious haystacks and equally delicious snickerdoodles. I thought that they just had extra snickerdoodles, as I didn’t ask for those, though I found out after everything was said and done that they were actually for Josh Sinspaugh. So, Josh, I’m sorry I ate your snickerdoodles… I’m NOT sorry I at the snickerdoodles, ahahaha! Seriously though, this made me feel pretty bad as I couldn’t spare more than a minute or two to talk to these two awesome people that brought me free food. Sorry you two, next year you’ll have to hunt me down and force me to talk with you for a while.

At some point, Misfit (sawg) and his wife located me as it was slightly before the game was scheduled to begin. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t done (and was feeling like I was running a 3-ring circus trying to finish the character I was working on while answering the questions of the others working on theirs). So, after chatting with me a bit they wandered off until I was ready for Juli to work on her character. We relocated to the table set aside for the game only an hour late. While I wrapped up a few details and waited for Eryk and Stardust to finish in Carmen’s Killfest 2007, Juli finished up her character like a pro (even though she’s relatively new to gaming).

Once everyone was rounded up (around 1 P.M.), we began the game with me re-stating the intro. Unfortunately, the noise in the warehouse wasn’t conducive to playing the soundtrack I had compiled for the game (I didn’t want the table next to me to have to yell over it either). However, things went fairly smoothly for having nine players (I was NPC’ing the tenth for El Magico while he visited with some old friends). Unfortunately, just due to the number of players, having to occasionally repeat myself because of noise, and the fact that players put more emphasis on the beginning than I intended, we only got about 20% of the way through the game in almost 4 ½ hours of play!

Another negative was that the level of noise overwhelmed Sub about halfway through, and he had to get Ten Tigers to stand in for him (who was fun to GM for as well) while he calmed himself for a bit. Also, poor Juli was stuck on the sidelines for much of the time because her character got introduced slightly after the intro (which, again, took way longer than intended). I consoled myself with the fact that we were going to get together to finish things at the hotel. So, twenty minutes over-schedule (Spectre was next at the table, so he was cool with ten minutes of set-up), I wrapped with a cliff-hanger that still has several people wondering what is going to happen next. MadManMike managed to get a couple of pictures of the game (look for subbie drinking a 2-liter and a closer one of him bent over a book). I really wish things would have turned out a little better as far as the game went, but at least it ran longer than an hour this year!

Next: The second half of Saturday.

[Warwolf]

Chapter 9: So Many People, So Little Time

After the game wrapped up, I tried to make my rounds to meet people and get a few books signed while Rigil organized a pickup Robotech game. I know I talked to Whiltierna Aria, blueberrysm, Damian Magecraft, Skystreak (whom I had run into at the hotel as well), divinesteel, and so many others I can’t hope to remember them all (especially now that it’s a month later). However, it was a pleasure meeting each and every one of you. I also got to chat with the likes of John Philpott, Taylor White and Brandon Aten (briefly), Brian and Allen Manning, Apollo Okamura, Chuck Walton (who is in contention for my favorite Palladium artist… for those of you who haven’t seen his art yet, you’re missing out), and was even interrogated by Josh Sinspaugh about my current project.

One of the highlights during this stretch came when I approached John Zeleznik for an autograph. I introduced myself as Warwolf, and he smiled and said, “Yeah, I know who you are, you’re a pretty funny guy.” I was astounded as to how he knew me, so he explained that he’d perused the boards a bit before the OH to re-familiarize himself with the fanbase. The fact that he remembered me (and had a bit of praise on top of that) was an honor I won’t soon forget. I then stood by as gmask passed on Rifts Works Z #4 stating that he just wanted for the art. So, I jumped on the chance to buy #4 as I had never gotten a chance to purchase the portfolio when it was available. So, now I finally have something that I can hold over Subbie’s head, as he has #6 (nothin’ but love for ya big guy).

As the night wound down, I tracked down Erick Wujick (who was finishing up one of his games). I waited for him to finish his game and got him to sign a few of my books. While he was doing that, I told him that I was obligated to Kevin to pester him about China 3. His response was something along the lines of, “Well being here and running these games has definitely reminded me why I love them, so we’ll see.” There you go folks, now that he’s back stateside and got to attend the Open House, maybe we’ll be seeing the book relatively soon (I’d still give it at least a year or two though). After getting to hear this living legend talk for a bit about RPG’s in the current age, I had to get back to the hotel to try and get the game going again.

Alas, due to various factors, we couldn’t get people together to finish up the game. I’m undecided as to whether I’ll transfer it to PBP format to finish if up, or just shelve it to continue at the NEXT Open House. This, however, would force me to describe it as “The Game that Never Ends”.

So, instead of gaming, we got to help continue an Open House tradition by meeting up with several other fans and freelancer at Denny’s for a midnight snack. We didn’t quite get to take over like we did last year, but it was still a good time with good friends. I even got to show off the results of growing up in a household where food doesn’t go to waste, as I finished necrocypher and Stardust’s meals and then polished them off with the rest of Rigil’s sundae.

After that, it was a bit of time posting to the boards, and in bed around 3 or 4 A.M for another round of shoddy sleep. Next up is the last day.

[Rabid Southern Cross Fan]

My mind is a blur about this first bit, but I remember talking to Rabid Southern Cross Fan (who I had to admit I was “Robotech stupid” to)

Heh, just call me 'Rain Man'.

[cyber-yukongil v2.5]

any possibility of holding a fall open house. My job won't let me get away late spring early summer, just too busy. I guess I could quit, though then I have the money problem. descisions, descisions.