Sloe Times

So I'm anxiously gearing up for Gen Con this year. It's generally the one opportunity that I get to hook up with my friends from Texas (and other parts of the country) and generally just have a good time. Over the years I've pretty much drifted away from role playing games and trading card games and pretty much settled into board games from a Con perspective.
Heh, the fun part is the same day I get back from the con is the bloggers tourney*.

The exciting new thing from last year was True Dungeon which brings out the fun of role playing, but in a live way instead of the traditional coffee table and paper action. They're back with "Return to Hommlet" this year and can't wait to get in on that. :)

On the board game front I learned how to play Settlers of Catan and Domaine last year, both Mayfair Games products. I had wanted to build a life size Settlers board for playing on this year but between the boy being born and now, time for such handy craft projects just hasn't been there. At the 2002 Gen Con I picked up a new game called Tenjo that seems to pretty much be history. It's a fun game set in feudal japan and has aspects of resouce management, negotiation, and conflict.

Something I had missed out on last year was the World Series of Gen Con Poker Tournament. This year will be different, other than hanging with the guys there's nothing more important than participating in the event(s). First place is $1000 (in merchandise and trip/con reimbursement), a 500 pc chip set, and a gift certificate and it's only $15 to play in the qualifier. Add on an extra $8 for an immediate re-buy and should be in good shape. The final tourney will be made up of the top 3 finishers from Thu, Fri, and Sat. For good or ill, your chip counts don't carry over to the final, it's considered a net new tourney. I'm pretty psyched about playing since I'm not certain how the field will be in terms of ability, but it should be fun. Sort of a bummer that the money prize isn't real money, but if they'll pay it forward, that's at least 3 years of vip con registration, travel, and hotel stays. Getting pretty excited just thinking about it.

* Please sign up for the Monty Memorial Poker Blogger Tournament, open to all poker bloggers and poker blog readers for a whopping $20. I need signups finalized by NEXT Thursday. As in, I'll be sending them in around noon of that day. ANYONE CAN PLAY!!!

Please sign up for Pacific Poker ASAP, by using my link or not. Then email me with your Pacific screen name and email address that you used to sign up. I'll probably post the list of players signed up this weekend to make sure everyone who wants to play is signed up. So far we have plenty of great folks like Hank, TheFatGuy, Pauly & Maudie signed up and ready to play. Seriously, playing with the bloggers is always a blast.