I picked up my badge Thursday morning and got some coffee.  Heard people saying it took them 2-3 hours in line to get event tickets.  Given the length of the line, I believe that.  When I got in it later that afternoon it took only 35 minutes.  Unfortunately, by then over half the events I wanted to take part in, including some with 100 seats, were sold out.  My fault for not pre-registering and going in on a press pass I guess.

I ended up only getting one event on Thursday, a seminar on writing for RPGs.  I spent most of the afternoon taking photos in the Exhibit Hall which I will post later.  I spent a lot of the evening reading some excellent material by Michael A. Stackpole on how to write fiction.  It included some of his short stories.

Friday morning I played two introductory games of Days of Wonder’s WW II board game “Memoir ’44″.   I’ll post more about it later, but it is simple game to learn and seems to have a lot of replaybility.

Attended Mike Stackpole’s seminar on plotting a novel.  Showed him a shirt I had made after Origins with a quote from one of his seminars:  “You’re the author… suck it up and write!”  I didn’t get to talk to him long but I think he appreciated it.  He smiled at me and said “very good”.

This evening I played Steve Jackson Games’ “Munchkin Zombies” card game.  It is essentially the same mechanic as the other Munchkin titles, with more of the same Kovalik artwork and the same twisted sense of humor. 

I’m scheduled to play Fantasy Flight’s “Dust Tactics” later tonight.  I expect it will be fun, since Fantasy Flight’s games tend to be good (at least those I’ve played or demoed).