Q: Do You Want To Make A Small Fortune In The Gaming Industry?

A: Start with a large one!

This little bit of professional advice was given to me at Origins from a seasoned dice professional. Given the expense of attending summer conventions alone, either as a game company or just an individual, this should be fairly apparent. I read this week that the average per individual cost for attending Gen Con was estimated to be around $900 (a real loose estimation). Travel, hotel, food, admission and purchases sure add up quick. I'd think it would come in more toward $600 (a sixth of that being admission fees/event costs!). Keep in mind, vendors typically get there a day or two before the con for set-up (one more day of expenses).

Anyhow, I've been a bit delinquent with my posting here. This was just a ping to let all twelve of my faithful readers know I'm still alive and rolling. The summer con season did not kill me, and what doesn't kill you just makes you stronger...

Gen Con Aftermath will be posted soon!

I Know I'm A Geek 'Cuz...

Somewhat related to BoG, there are just things that make the inner geek tingle. Like knowing that a two handed sword does 3d6 damage in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. And that such an item costs 30 g.p. (at least that was the going price back in 1978). Lots and lots of games geeks can spout out much more on the damage and cost of items, but I'm more surface level. I just know what appealed to me when I was introduced to the game. I have no clue why my brain has deemed that info important enough to retain...

As hinted in the earlier BoG posts, the inspiration for the Badge of Geekness material came from a little gem of knowledge from my travels with Tolkien. That's why those prior posts had the Hobbit and FotR depicted. It is simply this:

Chapter 1 of The Hobbit is titled: An Unexpected Party

Chapter 1 of The Fellowship of the Ring is titled: A Long-Expected Party

Tolkien begins both books with a party, of sorts. The unexpected party is the Dwarves who show up at Bilbo's doorstep thanks to Gandalf. The long-expected party is Bilbo's self-planned 111th birthday bash. Both mark points of departure from the Shire for Bilbo.

I just think that's cool JRR trivia.

And it only took me three posts to get that brain nugget out...

Badges of Geekness, Part 2 or 3

Based on the last post(s), I'm guessing that there's going to be a need to define the different Badges of Geekness that one can acquire. Off the top of my head, there's got to be one for "The Order of the Ring" (Tolkien) and "The Society of the Elder Things" (Lovecraft). These are two authors who have been embraced by gaming geeks en masse thanks to the various incarnations of their works/themes in role-playing games. We can also add "The Pittsburgh Assemblage" for Romero and his monstrous zombie efforts. There's plenty of other badge categories, but these are the ones that I personally would have a shot at wearing.

Now my knowledge of those topics above isn't very broad. The shards of information I possess on those topics were gained from my casual exposure to that particular genre. I have not spent hours memorizing every nameless horror introduced to this world by H.P., or tried to understand the Elven language of J.R.R. In fact, I've only read the Hobbit once and LOTR twice. I base my badge credentials on this one fact alone:

I can sit around a gaming table with a group of complete strangers and mutually enjoy the banter that flows forth from any one of the topics above.

A Badge of Geekness is like wearing a t-shirt from a place you've visited. You've been there, done that and want to share the excitement of the experience with other folks. Problem is that there aren't too many folks who have been to Middle Earth, Miskatonic U, or even to shopping mall chock full of zombies.

Geeks go to places that don't exist.

And all we get are these little badges...