Palladium Open House 2007

VIP FRIDAY

Arrived in Detroit at 12:30, rented car at Enterprise and drive self to Ramada. Gonna need to remember that I'm gonna need some good lead time on Monday morning to return the car and get checked back in at the airport for the flight home.

Well, it's almost 3:30 and VIP Friday starts at 4. I'm gonna grab a bit to eat and head over to Palladium's offices!

12:30am and I'm back at the hotel. What a great day!

Spent the first couple hours going through the racks of books (bought Powers Unlimited 2, Rifter 38, and a copy of...MACHINATIONS OF DOOM! Oh, and a great t-shirt(my 5 minutes of fame))

Talked with several other gamers and Palladium staff. After another quick bite (sandwiches, egg salad, pasta, bratwurst & kraut, etc..) we were ushered upstairs to the VIP greeting.

Kevin talked to us about the state of Palladium and how the fans have helped put the breath of life back in the company and how Palladium is gonna kick the competition's ass! The Rifts movie was discussed, as was the Robotech contract delays, and other projects that we'd like to see (unfortunately, even with Erick in attendance, After the Bomb was not mentioned).

After the main event, gaming started. I was unfortunately unable to get into the AtB game: Beer Run, but was able to get into James Brown's (no the other James Brown) Beyond the Supernatural game: Search and Rescue.

I played local Officer Mike Somerset who was teamed up with a number of other whacked out city folk who were part of a Search and Rescue team looking for a little girl who had gone missing at Granson National Park in Kentucky. It was a great game, and James was a great GM who really rolled with the punches as the group split and went running every which way, but eventually saved the girl and the day.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the game was interrupted momentarily when a Coalition Officer in Deadboy Armor came strolling through the warehouse (my pictures came out looking like ass...).

Well, that's all for tonight. My voice is almost gone and I'd like to save some energy for more gaming tomorrow. G'Night.

SATURDAY

Day 2 started with me hitting an early matinée of Spiderman 3 (not bad, but it could have been better) before heading to the Open House and just in time for the Game Design and GM Panels. I'll share some of my favorite sound bites:

"F**K the Rules!", Kevin Siembeda
'Never trust a Role-Player,' paraphrased from Jason Richards
"A Game Master who can't improvise is dead," Jason Marker
"GM's need to be a master of improv," Kevin Siembeda


The two panels actually spilled into one another and eventually into the Freelancer Forum, but after two-and-a-half hours I needed to get some food into me, so I headed out for a short while.
When I returned several people were gearing up for the costume contest...

Can you guess who won the best of show? The CS Officer of course...

Well, Erick's After the Bomb game started shortly after that. I think most of the other guys spent nearly two hours in character generation before we began - for several it was their first (at least in using the second edition rules). But once we got going... Wooo, what a trip!

(NOTE: Unfortunately, these pictures do not capture the real intense strategy moments of the game, just the times I could reach for the camera)
I have to say that it was a blast being GMed in my #1 favorite RPG setting by the guy who created it. I'd like to tell you about the adventure Erick had for us, but I'll have to save that story for another time as it is getting far to late for me...

G'Night.

SUNDAY

Argh, I over slept this morning. I had to rush because Erick Wujcik's Entropy game was scheduled to start at 11:30 and I didn't get out of the hotel until quarter-to! But when I got there I found out that the game was moved back to 12:30, so I had time to run out and grab some breakfast.

Unfortunately, traffic delayed Erick's arrival until after 1, but when the game got going it was worth the wait. The game setting was "Entropy", a non-palladium system game that he and the others had started building at the Detroit Gaming Center. It's an epic setting that's grown into the stuff of legends, and Erick gave us just a taste it. Some very wow stuff!

Things wrapped up around 4:30. No real photo ops today, so no pics.

If you didn't make it this year, I hope you make it in 2008.