Origins 2007: Steve Jackson

I met Steve Jackson under strange circumstances. I'd seen him around the convention a couple of times, especially in or near the SJ Games booth in the dealer room, but being a shy person I didn't go up to him and say "Hey, GURPS is still one of my favorite systems for any setting, and for years it was the only system I used, and I think your supplements are in many cases second to none"...and so on.

But it turned out that he was hosting a seminar during a time that I was available. The seminar was on...cryonics. Weird, right? I go into the room, and there are only two other people there. And then we have this very weird conversation. In brief, Steve Jackson has paid a large sum of money so that when he dies, he will be frozen by a certain company, to be thawed out at a future date when whatever it is he died of is no longer a problem and when the technology to bring someone out of deep-freeze is developed.

I have to say - Steve Jackson is an intelligent guy who is a classic geek. Not a stirring speaker - more like a guy you'd meet at your local gaming store who's always there and always talking about the latest min-max scheme to make his character invincible. He was clearly tired as well at this point in the convention.

It was exciting nonetheless to meet him - for a long time almost all of the gaming books on my shelves were GURPS books (and I've noticed that my international readers often check out my Eberron GURPS conversion rules).

As a side note, Munchkin Impossible beat out my pick, High School Drama, for the Origins Award for Best Non-Collectible Card Game, by a single vote. (Unlike in our national politics, the popular vote at Origins actually matters!) High School Drama is the first game written by a local from this area named Boyen, and I recommend it very highly. Looking through the game and seeing Boyen demo it a few times, I would have bought it if I wasn't absolutely broke. There's certainly no dishonor to losing to Munchkin, however, especially for someone's first published game. I look forward to seeing what Shifting Skies Press has coming up next - I know Boyen is working on his second game as I type, so stay tuned.

Origins 2007: Luke Crane

One cool thing that I got to do at Origins this year is to meet Luke Crane twice. The first time was at a seminar he and a few other writers (the authors of Inspectres, The Riddle of Steel and With Great Power) held, the purpose of which was to help aspiring writers and game designers learn the nitty-gritty details of self-publication. Basically, we got to benefit from some of their mistakes and what they had learned in their own self-publishing.

Luke talked for about 95% of the seminar, occasionally prompting one of the other authors to contribute. You get the impression that his mouth is always trying to catch up with his mind, and he's an active speaker, walking around the room in his socks, cracking jokes, swearing, but also providing a wealth of information and specifics.

The second time I met Luke was when he won an Origins Award for Role-Playing Game of the Year with his game, Burning Empires (AKA "The Brick"). He was running a Burning Wheel game in the same room where I was in a Burning Wheel/Artesia crossover game. It was fun to congratulate him and to watch him flip out. Burning Empires was definitely my vote for the award in that category. I also got to meet some other people who came to congratulate him - others from the Forge, a podcaster or two, and whatnot. Some I have to admit I didn't know at all, or didn't recognize (since I know these people primarily through their voice or their writing).

I think its cool that Luke was running a game when the awards ceremony was going on, and I think its cool that shortly after getting the statue, he was back to running his game, and the statue was put to the side to make room for the dice. I think that's a guy with his priorities straight.

Back from Origins 2007

...and it was amazing. Loved it. I'll post more about it when I have the energy, but the most exciting thing is that I might be writing a SciFi RPG system for Jolly Roger Games. By pure happenstance I was at the right place at the right time to pimp myself, as it were, and got to talk to a guy from JR who is looking for someone to write a system, and then some supplements, for a SciFi setting that he's already finished. I won't say more than that, but suffice to say, I'm really excited - and I need to put together writing samples ASAP.

Origins 2007

Well, I'm all signed up, looks like I'll be able to stay with three others so the hotel is cheaper, and I'm excited about going. I get to watch geeky movies and play in games and learn about new games like the new Changeling that White Wolf is putting out, and I'll also be in three panel discussions about things like game design and self-publishing. Good times.

If anyone who reads this blog is by any chance planning on attending Origins 2007 in Columbus, let me know and we can meet and maybe play a pickup game of...something. I'm up for almost anything.