Last night, I sat in on a live podcast as people talked about tabletop role-playing games.
The podcast was Misdirected Mark out of Buffalo, NY, which is hosted by Chris Sniezak and Phil Vecchione, both of whom have extensive gaming resumés, which includes, at the very least, writing for Encoded Designs, and included perennial co-host Bob Everson and the Host of Down With D&D, the Mad Wizard, Shawn Merwin.
After a long day of driving for myself and future Doc Palindrome contributor, Curt Markham, it was nice to sit down and take part in something that was the entire goal of that drive (at least for myself). I feel like I managed to contribute to the conversation, even though my return to gaming is relatively recent (I ran a one-shot, this past weekend, more on that, next week). I had been more of a part-time gamer over the last few years, and found that, admittedly, frustrating. I missed the excitement of gaming, but found the games that were being played to be more of the same crap, ultimately. I had attempted to start a gaming podcast, but that fell through.
However, my love of the hobby was thoroughly reinvigorated by the coming of Savage Worlds reintroduction of the Rifts setting, called ‘Savage Rifts.’ When the opportunity came up to join Curt at GenCon (who is showing his brilliant animated film, Search for Silverspear), my immediate thought was, ‘How could I not?’ Initially, I thought I might partake in some games, here or there, but sign-ups were few and far between, and nothing that was available to me jumped out. Besides! thought I, This is my first trip to the Mecca of Gaming! This is something you’ve wanted since you were 13! Don’t you want to just walk the floor and take it in?
Yes, I agreed, Now stop talking to yourself.
The Misdirected Mark podcast was a great experience and I have some gamer friends that I hope to meet up with, but Saturday will be the big day for wandering around and seeing what this whole thing is all about. I may try to podcast, here or there (I picked up a handy mike for my phone, specifically for that purpose), but if I don’t have anything out, don’t feel as though your missing anything (you should maybe be used to that, by now).
My hope is that this will reinvigorate my Con-going bug, as well, as I hope to have a bunch of Cons under the Doc Palindrome belt by the end of 2016. If I don’t have anything else up until Monday, please forgive me, I’m probably having fun.
I would like to thank Chris, Phil, Bob, and Shawn for helping me kick off my Con experience in a great way! Those guys make great stuff and deserve your attention/support/money! Bonus Plus!: Chris told me I was an asshole GM and that he loves me for it!
If you want to help support more great trips like this one, hit up our Patreon! It’s only a buck! Just one lousy buck! (At least until I can get some swag on there!)
Also, a very special thanks to Shawn Gleason who is supporting both the Doc Palindrome Patreon and the Red-Trunker Radio Patreon. With a little luck, he’ll be doing some stuff around here, soon! Also to Cmar and Resnick, of course, who’s tireless efforts deserve reward.
More to come…