Nuslyn - you are correct, the event was better than last year - and considering last year was the best convention I have ever been to in my life, that was quite a feat.
Ravenwing - the Deadboy stole the show - his costume got a standing ovation both Saturday and Sunday. He put an amazing amount of work into it, and it showed. I hope he comes up with another cool costume if they do another open house
A quick rundown of my weekend.
Friday: Arrived at 4:06 (damn constuction!) with 2 friends. Things had just started and already were going at a full pace. We had a chance to chat with Julius and Tony before heading off to the artist/freelancer's tables. Let me say this is not like any other con - EVERY LAST artist, writer and Palladium employee we talked to was eager, friendly and made you feel like you knew them your whole life. We talked at length with Scott Johnson, Kent Burles, the Manning brothers, and John Zeleznik. Due to bad timing (i.e. lots of people at their table and us not wanting to keep others from having a chance to meet the special guests) we briefly met Ramon Perez, Adam Withers, Comfort Love, Apollo and a slew of others.
Then, we looked at the list of books we wanted to buy, looked at the much shorter list of books we could afford to buy, cried, and finally made the tough decision about which books we were going to purchase.
Just before the call for dinner, I was able to introduce a friend of mine who had never personally met Kevin to the big man himself. He signed a few books for him before telling us to not miss out on dinner. Kathy was an excellent cook, her Swedish Meatballs were freaking amazing!
After everyone had their fill, we all went upstairs where Kevin talked for about an hour, letting us know what was going on with Palladium. Even a year later, he was still very appreciative of everything the fans did to help him and keep Palladium alive. While not out of the woods yet, he said they are in much better shape, everyone has their fire and drive back again, and that you are going to see some amazing things in the future.
Then, we gamed. We played in James Brown's BTS game (a great fun GM, definately get in a game of his if you ever have the chance). To make things even more memorable, 3 Palladium writers were at the table as well: Carmen, Levi (D-Bee's of America), and Taylor (Madhaven), and one of our forum moderators: NMI.
at 12:45 it was home to sleep it up for tomorrow.
Saturday: exchanged friends. One friend from Friday came, along with another friend who had been out of state last year, and had never met any of the guys before, or been to an open house (I asked Kevin to pose for a picture, shaking hands with my friend - a moment he is sure to remember for the rest of his life).
We started off the day by finishing up with the artists and writers we didn't get a chance to yesterday. We also picked up prints from as many of the artists as we could afford - and they were more than happy to provide us fanboys with signatures and stories of their careers.
After that, we spent just about the rest of the day sitting in on the panel talks. First Kevin and Eric talked about game design. Then, they were joined by all the open house GM's for a talk on GM'ing. After that all the freelance writers chatted with for a while - with Wayne's permission they talked about some of their future products, and wow, there are alot of books coming out that I want!!! And lastly was the artist's panel.
By the time we were done with all the panel talks, it was already 7PM and time for the costume contest. It was plenty of fun, with lots of interesting poses done before it was over. And, the maker of the Deadboy outfit donated the costume to Palladium, which was very cool.
A little after 8, we thanked Kevin and said our goodbyes, and drove on home. An awesome weekend, now time to relax and get rested up.
Eric
