I got back from GaryCon VIII, about 8:00 PM Sunday. What a blast!

I only played three games all weekend, but I had a ton of fun meeting people, swapping stories, and sharing our mutual love of gaming.

I got signatures of tons of gaming celebrities, like Darlene, Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask, Terry Kuntz, Jeff Butler, Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, David “Diesel” LaForce, Mike Mornard, Jeff Perren,Terry Pavlet, Stephen Sullivan, Jim Ward, Tom Wham, Lou Zocchi, and Ernie, Elissa, Heidi, Cindy, and Luke Gygax, and more.

I showed those artists from back in the day a stipple drawing my brother did of a dragon. It’s about 18 x 24. They were impressed, which I thought was cool.

On Sunday, I made the rounds of the original TSR artists and and bought something from all but Diesel and Darlene, who were not there. If Darlene was there, I missed her

I also ran into Aaron Yonda, who plays Chad Vader and Hal from the Chad Vader YouTube series. I also met Brad Knight, who plays Randy from the same series, and got their autographs on my copy of the program guide. Aaron even invited me to game with them, but our schedules didn’t sync up.

I also met Pat Kilbane, an actor some may know, who is working on a D&D documentary. See Dorks of Yore for future announcements. I got him to sign my program book too.

Really cool, I met +Satine Phoenix, who I had not heard of before, but does more than one RPG podcast: Game School, on the TSR Podcast Network, and is a 20+ year D&D player. She also hosts her own PodCast, Drawmelt. She is also the very talented artist behind New Praetorians. It was her first Gary Con too, and it’s cool that I now call her friend. She was so cool to do a video plug for this blog! She also just gave me a sketch of a dragon she did at a con when I showed her a picture of a print of a dragon my brother did. I also asked her to sign my program. She even drew her own portrait.

I made several new friends, most that I know from online, and we finally met in person.

I even have an opportunity that isn’t a done deal yet, that is just making me geek out!

One of my online friends, +Mark Hunt, bought the IP for Gang Busters, and great things are coming. I recall seeing something about Gang Busters, but I had a lot going on when I saw that, and didn’t realize it was Mark until I ran into him. He has NPC cards with mugshots, and they make great character sheets for convention and pick up games. Follow the G+ TSR Gang Busters Community for lots of cool stuff. I’ll mention them when it’s ready. We talked about collaborating on some things in multiple genres/rule systems, one of them being Gang Busters! Wow! I haven’t played in 30+ years, so I guess I need to brush up on the rules….

I was present when a Hollywood style deal happened. It was a verbal 30 second thing. One person said they had an idea for a Kickstarter, but needed voice actors for the introductory video, and a person who lives in L.A. said, “Send me the script and I’ll get X and Y to do it. They’d love to do it since they are gamers.”

There are so many cool things I learned that I can’t talk about, either because it isn’t a done deal, or not my place to discuss.

I bought 3 Jeff Easley pen and ink drawings that he did for some game company in Canada that folded and never paid him. Not only did I buy the originals, but he signed over the rights! He is a super cool and nice guy! I’m going to be making t-shirts and other things to sell online (CafePress). I told him whatever I make, I’m sending him a copy. Using Gimp I got the black image for light colored items to look great, but swapping the colors and getting the transparency right for a white image on a dark shirt, is a bit tricky for some reason. So I’ll put some more time into it tonight. Hopefully, I’ll have things good to go for doing shirts soon.

Everyday of the last four days has been the most awesome and unexpected series of right place/right time that I have ever had in my life! I am just so excited! Zach, my youngest, said he’s never seen me so excited. I was telling that to someone else and they said I ought to buy a lottery ticket. I hadn’t even thought of that, so I did. Not that I expect to win anything, but just in case….

I don’t expect to get rich or quit my job, but I think I could make enough to pay off some bills quicker, and have some fun money. Even if it’s only enough to support my hobby, and I just have fun with it, is all that’s important. Life is good!

I’m so glad I was off work Monday to recuperate after not getting enough sleep several nights in a row. I’m getting ready for the huge mental shift in gears that will come Tuesday morning. There’s usually some catastrophe that happened when I’m out of the office that I have to clean up. So I have decided to not let whatever it might be derail this great mood! Turns out it was Outlook not wanting to start and asking for the debugger. Thankfully, just start it in safe mode as per Google search results.

No emergency, things not crazy busy, This is the best return to the office after time off I have had in a long time!

I’m going to review my prior Gary Con VIII articles and find all the places I mentioned I’m doing a full article. I can think of at least three I proposed, but think it might be six or more.

See below for links to my other articles on Gary Con VIII.

GaryCon Day 0, GaryCon Day 1, GaryCon Day 2, GaryCon Day 3, GaryCon Day 4, Gary Con Wrap Up