My time at the Seattle Geekly Game Day

The first game was the 2nd edition of Betrayal at the House on the Hill. It was a fun game where we end up wining a chess game with Death.



The next game we played was Who Would Win? A game a new game I picked up a few months back. The game played great and I think 5 player is the right number of the game. The box says 3 min for the number of players, that could work with one vote to win. 4 players could work, but there could be ties. 5 is the magic number for the min number of players. It was a fun game with some great match ups, here are some of the match up we came across:

• Wayne Gretzky vs Stephen Speilberg in a cooking contest.
• Darth Vader vs Stephen Hawking in dogsledding.
• Helen Keller vs Blackbeard in juggling.

We next played Back to the Future: The Card Game. Its is Chrononauts with a Back to the Future fell to it. It was fun once I got the feel of the game.



The next game that got played was Rorschach, a game with inkblots. What you see is not always what others see.



The last game of the night was Zombie Dice, with one of the players rolling and keeping 10 Brians.



Game day was fun and I even got a shirt as a give away.

. . . and here all the good pictures I took.

My summer of conventions.

Here is what I did during the summer.

San Diego Comic-Con
Had fun. I did not get to all the panel I had wanted to, but I did get a few autographs I wanted. One being was the full cast autograph of the Mythbusters and one I did not plan on was with two of the Farscape cast signed a Farscape comic book cover.
Got the chance to walk the floor of the convention more than the past and found some good swag and other items I did not know I wanted till I found them as seen here.


Here are the videos I shot at SDCC.


Here are a few panel I went to that were found online:
Mythbusters Panel Podcast from San Diego Comic-Con from the Nerdist Podcast.
Comic Con 2010: Joss Whedon Experience Panel (When Nathen Fillion shows up)
Comic Con 2010: Bones (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5)

A panel I wanted to goto, but could not get in to or end up skipping:
Comic Con 2010: Big Bang Theory (Intro song by BNL) (Part 3) from CBS, good camera placement, got the whole stage.
Comic-Con 2010: Castle Panel (Reads form Heat Wave) (Pranks on set) (Embarassing moments on set) (Ryan and Esposito's relationship)


GenCon

Here are the videos I took while at GenCon.

Some videos that I show up in that were filmed by the people at Fear the Boot.

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Booter Dinner (Buca di Beppo) - Video #1

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Booter Dinner (Buca di Beppo)- Video #2

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Wing Night

Dan Runs Star Trek

Here is a search on YouTube for the Wil Wheaton Panel at GenCon.

D&D Preview Show from Gen Con from Dungeons & Dragons Podcast.
Dark Sun Seminar from Gen Con from Dungeons & Dragons Podcast.

Dragonflight
Played in some RPG game with some convention friends and played some new boardgames. Fun times.

See pictures here.


PAX

I got to be in a YouTube video that was shot at PAX with Paul and Storm, Molly Lewis, Wil Wheaton, Kim Evey, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot and the 68 volunteers and PAX enforcers who showed up on a tweet.

I'm the one who took the bottle of water from Storm [0:28 - 1:12].

Click to watch.




Here was the basic idea (in video form):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGsqbpm7YZU

Behind the scenes pictures of the video being shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heathbar/sets/72157624750465359

Also check out the D&D podcast with the members of Acquisitions Incorporated that was done was at a panel durring PAX.

Update to the PAX video.

The video is out as you can tell from the post. I'm the one who took the bottle of water from Storm [0:28 - 1:12]. Click to watch.



Also added a few more pictures to "PAX Video Project":

My Friday at PAX.

It started at lunch, I checked twitter and fround a re-tweet of the following:

PaulandStorm Want to take part in a cool video project that
will take ~60 minutes of your time? Meet us at #PAX Bandland at 6 pm.

I got to the Bandland area before the time and ran across Storm (of Paul and Storm) and asked him what the video project was. I got a basic run down of what they whated to do. I said that sounded good and I will be there. He said that he would make me leader of some sort (with me be in the know of the project). We gathered at the place and others showed up.

Paul gave a speach (see the YouTube video for the speach):



At the count, there were over 60 people showed up to help.

I ended up being singled out to start the project. People were set up along the 2 and a half blocks from Paul and Storm's hotel. Me and two others were taken to the hotel. One was left just outside the hotel, one was left just outside the elevators on the first floor and there was me. I got to go to the hotel room and hang out for a little while it was worked out how this was start. It ended up starting with Storm handing the water bottle outside the room door, where I took it to the elevator where I rode it down to the lobby and handed it off to the person waiting down there. I was a little nervous, but I think it turn out fine.

Greg Benson from Mediocre Films shot the video on his Flip Video Camcorders in mostly on shot with a few pick up shots. From what I heard the video come out to be about 9 to 10 min long. After editing it my end up being shorter.

After my shot was over, I followed the action snapping some picture along the way, missing out on the final shots due to having to wait for the next elevator. I saw a little of what was filmed and it looked great. I can not wait to see it, for the the full final video and to see how my part came out.




This was one of the things that made the day great. I ended up meeting a friend from con past. We walked around for awhile and had some lunch. And after video project was over, I got to hang with a w00tstock friend I ran into along with Molly Lewis for a while along.

It was a great day with some great item purchased and great swag.

The time of ScoobyThulhu.

ScoobyThulhu is a game of Scooby-Doo with some Cthulhu in it.

The game was played 10 Fear The Booters on Thursday night at 9pm (That would be Aug 5th at GenCon). I am not sure of the game system, it is a quick to build characters.

The game was great. Laughter was all about and we had a full cast with 5 guest star characters. I was able to snag a few of the characters after the game (see below).

Cast:

• Freddie
• Daphne
  Gimmick: "But I'm so pretty.", +High Charisma, +Accidentally points out the hidden lever, -Dumb as a box of rocks, -Oblivious, Fatal Flaw: Damsel in distress
• Velma
• Shaggy
• Scooby-Doo

The special guest stars:

• Batman (I played him, I could have a little better.)
  Gimmick: Utility Belt, +World Greatest Detective, +Fighting with sounds effects, -Can't stay out of trouble, -Target for Villains, Fatal Flaw: Over engineered traps
• Don Rickles
  Gimmick: Hilarious, +Knows everybody famous, +Devil's advocate, -Winded on stairs, -Knows everyone famous, Fatal Flaw: Unable to be killed; Diplomatic
• Speed Buggy
• Davy Jones
• Vincent Price

See here for some info on other guest stars: http://scoobydoo.wikia.com/wiki/The_New_Scooby-Doo_Movies

Pictures taken durring the game:



More to tell or was in the game please comment on the is post.

The times of Then, Here and There.

Its a busy year for conventions. Looking at 7 major/large conventions this year. The largest number for for me (so far).

Emerald City ComiCon
- I only went one day this year and with some great panels, I did not get all the time I would have like to look around. I will be doing the full three days next year.

Sakura-Con
- Three days of fun. I even got my tickets for next year.

PaizoCon
- Great SWAG bag. I did not get in on any of the games. Did sit in on a few of the seminars. Saturday was Free RPG Day and had a good game of D&D with a preview of the new Dark Sun setting. I will try it again next year and register early to get into a game or two.

Comic-Con International
- This is 3 days away with w00tstock the night of the first full day of the convention. The schedule has been reviewed and some plans have been put together (in my head) that I hope come to pass. Now I just need to finish packing.

Gen Con Indy
- This will be my first GenCon. Going with two friends for a first time all around. I have done my research on what to expect, but time will tell on how much fun will be had.

Dragonflight
- A local RPG convention with people I have played with in the past. The games they have listed look great, with the full weekend of playing games.

PAX
- I have my full weekend ticket already purchased (this year), with the passes now sold out. Looking forward to the geek bands and such for the conventions. With some good swag from what I picked up from PAX past.

This is one last trip planed this year. It would be to see my brother and his family over on the east coast some time mid-September around my birthday.

It has and will be a busy time. Fun times.

The time of the weekend.

The weekend started after work on Fridays. Headed out for a meet up for some food. After the consumption of food, we went to the place of gaming. One of our group was not there and after arriving at the place one of the other player were not feeling to well and was not up to gaming, but was OK for boardgames. A boardgame night was not planned and we did not have a large choice, luckily there was a copy of Ticket To Ride available. Fun was had and I came in 2nd with 132 points with a good end game scoring, but lost out to Norm, who scored 153 with some good passenger scoring.

Saturday was here and I headed over to PaizoCon. Picked up the swag bag that you get with the convention. Score. The bag had 3 books, 2 modules, a magazine, a minature, a game map and a game aid. With not being able to getting preregistered for any of the games, I checked out a few of the seminar. With a break from PaizoCon, I headed over to Dragon's Lair (in Bellevue) for Free RPG Day. I had wanted to pick a free game they had available and ended up signing up for a D&D 4th ed game of the module they had free for Free RPG Day, Bloodsand Arena (a Dark Sun game). Fun was had and after the game (with a roll off of 17) I was given Tomb of Horrors (the D&D 4th ed update of the original module). I was informed by the Wizard GM that ran our game, that the module is not being sold and is only given away as a prize by Wizards. Score.

Sunday. I sat in on a few more seminar and called it a day.

That was my weekend.

w00tstock 2.x poster on the wall

The poster has been framed. With the odd size, it took some work to get this done. Found a oversized frame that I knew it would in and got a custom cut mat. I did not know that there were so many different blacks and textures for a mat. With the mat, frame and poster now together, it has found a home on my wall. The good news is that it did not cost a arm and a leg to get framed. It cost around $38.00 for this frame job. A lot better than than the quote of $70 for a total custom frame job.

Boardgame Night with Arkham Horror

With a group of four (two people down from our normal RPG night group) we played our first game of Arkham Horror. We played it for about 3 hours and got about over the half way point before we called it a night. For a first game I think it went well. There was a lot of rules review, but with the next game, it will go a lot smoother the next time.

Not a short game. The box says 2 to 4 hours and it was more for a first game.

With this being the first time I have played it, I would give it a 7 out of 10. It had a feel of a RPG, like we normaly play.

The night called w00tstock 2.0

The quick run down of Friday, the day of w00tstock 2.0 in Seattle.

Boardgame night was canceled early Friday. Checked to see if tickets were available. Yes! They were. Got directions to The Moore. Waited for work to end. Went home for a while. Headed to Seattle from Bellevue. Sat in traffic. Sat in more traffic. Found a parking spot right across the streen from The Moore. Got my ticket, which was a balcony seat. Waited for the show to begin. My seat was in a great location. Great view of the stage and the sound was no problem. Took a fair amount of video and pictures. Almost killed the battery and maxed out the memory in my camera. Got some great shots.

See my pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heathbar/sets/72157623894528639/
And my videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/White425

Great show! It was last minute and fun as hell (well, if hell can be fun, if it snowed maybe.)

Also check the post below post for some of the videos that was played at w00tstock.

Videos of w00tstock 2.0

Found the videos that were shown at w00tstock 2.0 in Seattle and posted them here in one place.

Also found the musical interludes that were included in the show over at Phaser Rock.

My new minicards.

Ordered a set of 100 minicards with my contact info to hand out to people that I meet up with at conventions and such.

For the info side there is a drawing of myself on the left side, my name, email and other links on the right.

• 2x Location shots (New York and Seattle shot I took)
• 2x Paintball shots (ones that I really liked, that took a while ago)
• 2x Costume shots (single person shot with a great costume)
• 2x RPG related shots (two that fit nicely in the frame)
• 2x Gaming related shot (with the click shot it had the grouping and layers; with the Apples to Apples, it was a my winning hand that I snaped a shot of)

Found 10 pictures that would fit in the 1.1 in x 2.76in frame.

MiniCards by MOO USA
us.moo.com/en/products/minicards.php

My time at Sakura-Con 2010

Day 0 (Thursday)
After work, me and Rich headed over to the Washington State Convention Center to pick up our badges for the convention that started the following day. After dealing with some trafic and a quick line, the badge was in my hand. Next was for Rich to set up his art in the art show. With that set up, we got a bite to eat at the Subway outside the convention. Home we went to rest up for the next day.

Day 1 (Friday)
With the dear's room not opening till noon, we had a lazy morning. We made good time and got there before the dealer room opened. Rich was not able to get a Artest Alley table, but was able to split a table in the dealer's room. With a borrowed exhibitor badge I was able to get in before the others and help Rich with a quick set up at his table. With the doors open I was free to look around. After once around the dealer's room, I headed off to a pannel and then watch some anime where I rested my tired feet. I had brought my Pokewalker to keep track of the steps durring the convention, I had noticed a good number of people had the same idea. With moving the Pokewalker from my belt to the lanyard I was using with my badge. With that move I had a good number of people come up and do the friend connect.

Day 2 (Saturday)
With this being main day of the convention, we headed off earlier from the day before. The dealer's room was already open when we got there. I did my walk thru for another look around to find some thing that I may or may not know I am looking for. One item that was found was at the Ninja-Bot booth was a free Level 5 Mudkip with some great Battle Moves. I also got a chance to look around the Artest Alley and picked up some Iron Man and anime postcard art.

Day 3 (Sunday)
The final day with a lot of walking around the dealer's room and around the convention center for the final rounds of looking and snapping some pix of the people in costume. I also paid for next years Sakura-Con for a low cost of $30. When the 6pm time frame came, the convention end and closed. With the exhibitor badge I was able to stick around for a while. We got some food and did a final walk thru of the empty dealer's room (which was not the dealer room any more). It made me a little sad that the convention was over for the year. :-(

With the Pokewalker I kept records of the stats:
Day 0: 02291 steps
Day 1: 08659 steps, ~13 friend connects
Day 2: 09572 steps, 30 friend connects
Day 3: 11930 steps, ~29 friend connects

For totals, if you keep in mind that 2000 steps = 1 mile, I walked over 16 miles with over 70 friend connection during Sakura-Con.

Check out all the pictures I took during the conventure.

My day at Emerald City ComiCon

The day started with waiting for my car pool pick up. We got there a little before 10am. I had preordered and just walked up to the badge pickup window and got my badge. I spotted the DC booth was near the door with that was starting to get a little long. I got in the line for the freebies. While I was waiting for the line to move I spotted Shannon and Matt from the Seattle Geekly Podcast. After my grab of comics and such, I started to head over to the media guests area when I spotted the Kirby Krackle booth where I picked up heir new album, E for Everyone. I continued on my way to nice sized line for Wil Wheaton, where I waited for a while till it was my turn. He commented on the shirt I was wearing, the How We Roll shirt, which was a highlight of the day. I picked up the Memories of the Future book, which he signed along with a picture I took of him last year. I also got another picture of him with the picture he sign. I had a idea that will take some time to complete. Like this shirt Wil had on Sunday, when Wil is in Seattle again (ether PAX 2010 or Emerald City ComiCon 2011), I will get another picture of Wil holding this year's picture to have a picture of a picture of a picture in it. That the plan anyways. After meeting Wil there was still some time before his panel started, I decided to play it safe and find a good seat for the Wil Wheaton Awesome Hour. The panel was great, I had heard the story before, but it great to hear it live by the person who wrote it. With me staying in my seat, the next panel to begin was Spotlight on Leonard Nimoy. I have not been to a panel with him and it was a great one to start with. I found out a few things about him I did not know of before. With me in the same seat, the next panel to begin was Spotlight on Stan Lee. It was great to hear him again. After these panels I had about three hours to look around the convention floor. I one stop I needed to make was to pick up the 3rd Season of The Guild signed by Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis and Robin Thorsen. I continued to look around, found some item I wanted to but, but held off till I get a good look around. I found for something I was not actively looking for, D&D Miniatures. I sent the last of the cash I brought with me on 22 figures. The price was good, but had a weird way of determining the cost of the figure. It was higher if the figure could be used a playable character. The convention closed their doors at 6pm, but there one last thing to do. Down on the first floor we has a Seattle Geekly Meetup which total of 22 people showing up along with Larry Nemecek and the hosts, Shannon and Matt. Had a great time and won a Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Battle Damaged with DIECAST metal with Display stand) by answering what alien had yellow blood. A few wrong answers were given, and gave the only other alien I could come up with. A ferengi. After this I got some food with some friends and then headed home.

This year I only went one day and I did not have the time to hit all the booth I would have like to. Next year they changed from a two day, to a three day convention and I will be doing the full three day. I only had the cash on me to spend. Next year I will bring more money to spend.

It was a great convention with some great panels. This was a great start to the convention season.

See all the pictures I took here at Flickr.

My Swag and Loot from Emerald City Comicon
(Click on the pictures for the labled items.)

We need a name.

That was the question I email to the group, that our character's group need a good name to be called instead of Mumble Mumble Mumble. Here the names we have come up with so far.

The Players:

• Drifters
• Crafters
• The A-Team
• Prowlers
• Rangers
• The Squad
• The Patrol
• The Worthy
• The Five Aces
• The Strike Team
• Hey Youse
• The Motley Crew (I still like it, although spelled this way so as not to be you know)
• Situation Unique
• One of a Kind Adventurers
• Them Weird People
• Those Who Do
• Wha-Who-Hunh?
• Rotto-Rooter
• Power Rangers
• Nut Crackers
• Group 42 (the answer to any problem)
• Devastators
• Equalizers
• Demolition Squad
• Veneniferous Team
• Vorpal Squad
  
  The GM:
• Plot Fodder
• GM's Bi*ches
• Railroad Runaways
• The Fab Five

Here is my game blog for my character with links on the right for the other character's blogs:

http://gamesandgadgets.org/theblogs/kross/

02/04/10 - updated some more name that were email to the group today.

Football Joke

Football FINALLY makes sense..........
A guy took his blonde girlfriend to her first football game. They had great seats right behind their team's bench. After the game, he asked her how she liked the experience.

'Oh, I really liked it,' she replied, 'especially the tight pants and all the big muscles, but I just couldn't understand why they were killing each other over 25 cents.'
Dumbfounded, her date asked, 'What do you mean?'
'Well, they flipped a coin, one team got it and then for the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was:
'Get the quarterback! Get the quarterback!' I'm like...Helloooooo?
It's only 25 cents!!!!

The Forgotten

Yesterday at work near the end of the day, I had a question on a address on a order I was processing and needed my supervisor to sign off on it to complete it. I walk over to her desk, she is working and ask her to have a look at the item I have on my computer screen. I got a standard answer of a few minutes (she was busy). I give her a few minutes, she get up, locks her computer and walks off in the other direction. In my mind I go WTF. I find another available supervisor and get what I needed answered.

Two hours later after I am home watching TV, I get the following text message:

Omg Heath I just remembered I needed to go over your desk!! I'm soooo sorry I completely forgot!! So busy today!!

Followed up with:

Please accept my apologies!!

I followed up with:

Sure. The problem was solved. C U tomorrow same
time. Same place.

Three is the number.

Last week prereg opened up for Gen Con. I have my badge ordered, along with two friends. A room was booked a few weeks back and has been used to judge with what can be found thru the Gen Con Hotel booking links. So far that what we booked before is the best. Two queen beds, a fold out couch, a mini fridge, free WiFi and a free continental breakfast. For the location, it is about a mile or two away.

At this time we have 3 people confirmed and a maybe from a moved away friend that I have left a message on Facebook about this trip. At this time there are 184 days left to Gen Con, the first I have been to. From different podcasts, I have heard many stories and interviews of the good times that have been had and I look forward to that time. Its is going to be a busy time. About a week before there is Comic-Con, which I am going to with a friend from work and a friend of his, like we have for the past few years. The week after Gen Con is Dragonflight, a local RPG convention for the Seattle area.

Plans are being made to make the good times roll in. The time ahead look good. See you there.

Links and Info found.

Dark Tower
http://www.hotflashgames.com/darktower.htm
A classic board game found online.

Star Frontiers
http://www.starfrontiers.com/rules/
PDFs of the classic game from TSR.


Perfect Fit Buttons as seen on TV
https://www.buyperfectfitbutton.com/
Looks like a good idea.

The Unwritten (Comic)
http://www.dccomics.com/vertigo/comics/?cm=13677
Looks like a good story with some of the review I have heard.

Water Joe (caffeinated water)
http://www.waterjoe.com/main.html
I have heard of this product some time ago and just came up in a search. Water with caffeine.

The first post of the new year.

Looking over what I posted last year as compared to the year before, the number have gone down a lot. In 2008 I made 102 posts and in 2009 I made 28 posts. If I had to point a finger of blame, I would point to Twitter for that. Its micro bloging made easy. At this point I have 1,444 post or tweets as they like to be called.

Another look back to the books I have read, in 2009 I read 37 books as compared to the 32 books I read in 2008. I had set a goal to read more than the year before (not counting comic book) and have meet the goal for the last two years. Check out my profile over at Goodreads, a great site for those people who are reader of books and such. Sign up if you dare.

There are plans to attend to two big Cons this year. The first would be San Diego Comic-Con for the full time with a few friends from work. This will be my 4th year going. The second one would be Gen Con (two week after Comic-Con). This years' Gen Con would be my first time going. With the Pod Casts, Twitting and blog post from the last year I had wanted to go at least once (maybe more) for some time. Luckly my friend Norm had the same idea and wants to go too. A hotel room has been books for the time frame. The number of people the are positive at this time only number two, I am hoping more. In our game group there are at least 2 maybe at this time and also another maybe from a old gaming buddy (that had move away a while back).

And last but not the last, I have found or been point to some great geekie music (as seen in the below links):

Kirby Krackle
MC Frontalot
Jonathan Coulton
Lemon Deamon
Garfunkle & Oates