Lost and Found

Published: Fri, 07/20/18

Hey !

GEN CON!

Oh, sorry to scare you like that. Are you excited about Gen Con? I'm excited about Gen Con. I know you haven't heard from me in a while, and then for me to suddenly appear and scream in your face - that was a little rude, I suppose.

There are just so many Gen Con things to get excited about. Some of them are super secret and I can't tell you about them, but there are also the basic things like seeing all my friends that I have been missing, and meeting all the lovely Gloomhaven fans out there. You know, last Gen Con there were only 10,000 copies of Gloomhaven in existence. Now there are twelve times more, so things may get a little crazy!

Also we'll be launching the retail release of Founders of Gloomhaven at the show, which I am excited about, and we'll be demoing Forgotten Circles, which I am also excited about. Apparently I am excited about everything. I should probably calm down.

Of course, I haven't written to you in a few months, and I largely blame the millions of conventions I have been going to instead. There is so much work to catch up on every time I get back, this is really the first chance I've had to breathe, halfway between Dice Tower Con and Gen Con. It's a nice 3 week break filled with work I should have done a month ago!

So, yeah, speaking of Dice Tower Con, that was super fun and laid-back. My wife and I played lots of games with cool people, went to Harry Potter World (also known as Universal Studios, but every single person I talked to just called it Harry Potter World), and attended the Dice Tower Awards, where Gloomhaven won five awards. Five! It was a little silly, and if you want to see me awkwardly try to entertain a crowd on five separate occasions, I have provided the video below:

Video Title

Dice Tower Con is one of the four new conventions I added to my schedule this year, and somewhere along the way, I think it became too many conventions. Except that I had such a great time at all of them, I'm not sure what I can change for next year.

I mean, maybe the BGG@Sea Alaska cruise doesn't have to be an every year thing, but it was most definitely a highlight of the year. It was the first cruise my wife and I have ever been on, and we had a blast. I'm not sure I'd want to ever go on a cruise that didn't have a board game room, though.

And going to UK Games Expo was fantastic, but it was a bit far to travel. We turned the trip into a nice vacation, though, visiting Edinburgh, Devon, and London along the way, visiting wonderful English friends like Paul Grogan and Efka and Elaine.

Then there was Heavy Con. Definitely going back to Heavy Con, if only because I still didn't manage to get an 18XX game played, which was partly because I played a day-long game of Mega Civ instead.

And, look, I haven't even mentioned Origins yet and the Blue Peg Pink Peg 90s dance party meetup. (This wasn't what it was called, but it is what I will remember it as.)

So, yes, conventions have been stupendous. For the time being, though, I need to focus on some work. For instance, I am sad to report that Forgotten Circles is now behind schedule. Both Marcel and I want to make sure that what is presented is the best as it can be, and it is taking longer than expected to get to that place. Marcel has finished all the design work, and now it is on me to go through everything and make sure it is perfect, but that is a long process. Even though I've called it a "small" expansion, there is a lot of content here!

Fulfillment of Founders of Gloomhaven is well underway - mostly done everywhere except the US, where a good percentage of people are still waiting for their copies. The dust is far from settled on this one, but so far I've been pretty happy with people's reactions. It is definitely not for everyone, but I am hoping it will find a good audience that can appreciate it for what it is.

I also need to send another shout-out to Paul Grogan at Gaming Rules! for making a fantastic rules video for the game. Founders has a lot of rules, but Paul makes learning them a breeze.

And I should bring your attention to two more things as we approach the end of this larger than normal newsletter. First of all, Quiver Gaming Gear is producing some Gloomhaven player mats that are really slick and you can pledge for them on Kickstarter right now. I will warn you they are a bit pricey, but quality is great. And second, the solo scenarios for Gloomhaven are back in the BGG Store. So if you were interested in grabbing a copy of those, now would be the time to do it!

And with those commercials out of the way, I think it is time to get back to work! I gotta write an update for the Founders Kickstarter and then get back to editing. I hope to see you at Gen Con!