GenCon Day One

As usual, my wife and I were the first ones to the booth.

"You know," I told her, "We won't have enough of anything."

We sold out of Seasons and Seven Wonders: Cities pretty early today.  We may have more later in the weekend (I hope I hope I hope), but I'm not holding my breath.

We had City of Horror in the booth, but weren't able to sell it.  The cardboard for this print run is ... substandard.  So they're ditching the batch and have already re-ordered. Hopefully it won't take long.  We do have a demo copy in the booth, and it's very good. I like it a great deal.

We also have some copies of Eclipse in the booth. I don't expect them to last, but the $90 price point may prove me wrong.  Time will tell, I guess.

Ever demo a game with the designer hanging out looking over your shoulder? It's a little nerve-wracking. Especially when it's a designer whose work you respect a great deal like Bruno Cathala.  The guys I was demoing it to had no idea who he was, so I headed to the 'Geek and started listing his games for them.  The other players realized that they owned half a dozen of his games and were appropriately awed.

Meanwhile, I was a nervous wreck, what if I messed a rule up? Thankfully, I didn't.  Bruno Cathala is one of the nicest folks around, too. And he set all of us at ease very quickly.

I say that a lot.

One of the designers in the booth - Jean-Louis Roubira - grabbed me at one point to introduce me to Regis Bonnessee. "He really wants to meet you," I was told.  And Regis was extremely nice and thanked me for my work on the translation.  It was a good feeling.

Both Jean-Louis and Regis are extremely nice, too.

And Pierre Poissant-Marquis is working the booth again this year - again: A very nice guy and very pleasant to be around.

Also working the booth are Matt Drake from Drake's Flames and Giancarlo Caltabiano from BoardToDeath.tv.

So it's an all-star crew in a lot of ways.

Played Today:
Evo x3
Divinare
Libertalia
Takenoko
Cyclades

Acquired Today:
Shadows Over Filmland and Out of Time for Trail of Cthulhu
The Book of the Smoke - for any Mythos-based game set in and around 1930's London
Blue Planet Player's Guide, Revised Edition
Fading Suns Player's Guide, Revised Edition
Our Last Best Hope - Stephanie had KickStarted this, and picked it up here.
Night's Black Agents - Another preorder pickup.

We even had a few of them signed.

Tomorrow, we will brave Cubicle 7. They are holding a copy of Yggdrasil for us, because C7 is one of the nicest publishers around.

Blister Count:
One. By the time Stephanie and I arrived, setup was basically done. Normally at this time, I'd be at two or three, all of them severe.  This year, I have one and it's not that bad.

Other milestones reached:
I had my annual Chick-Fil-A.  You can laugh all you want, but we don't have it at home, so I only get it once per year.