Origins 2014: Day Four

     It should read "Day Four-The Final Hour", since I made it to the con and realized I had forgotten my badge. So back home and worked out a plan where partner in crime (the wife) drops me off and runs a couple errands with the kids while I go in and say my goodbyes.

     I stopped to congratulate Jason Hardy on Shadowrun fifth edition getting the Origins fan favorite rpg award. Look at this guys, he knows where his towel is.

I took my leave and then said adieu to these folks

Tony Steele

Kay Steele

      These two are amazing, as artists and human beings, plus they put up with my grousing about teenagers (of which I still have one) Mr. Steele won the award for best professional digital color work (Baseball Monster), so congratulations, sir!

Next stop, Demon central!

Heather Kreiter, Queen of demonic steeds!

     Heather has recently taken the step into working on her own stuff, and with the popularity of her My Little Demons, who could blame her. I am sad the pic came out a little blurry, but I was worried I would run out of time. What can I say that has not already been said.

Across the way, I found a familiar Leezard

Kirk "Leezard" Hardtle

          Kirk works in his Liquid Leezard studio, lately he has been zombifying different characters to great effect. Plus he is just a fun guy to hang out with, just look at his partner perched on my shoulder there.

I then spotted someone returning to his table....

A blurry Scott Frank

     He typically shares digs (read-table) with the Steele's but was gone when I first arrived. Scott does a lot with miniature painting and 3d printing, great designs. Makes me want to get my own 3d printer. Then I realize I don't have the money, nor the skill. Mr. Frank, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

Next is the father/son duo of...

James (left) and Bill Stolpin

     Bill is fantastic, whether he illustrating dragons or painting a watercolor landscape. Unfortunately I never asked what James does, I guess that means I should interview them sometime. Ooh, something to look forward to!

Douglas Bushong

     Here is Douglas Bushong, 3d image and animation master. He has these awesome little viewers that work like the view masters from when I was a kid. A great guy with some wonderful skills, he has a pretty wicked sense of humor as well.

     Said goodbye to the delightful Jeff Carlisle, but due to his popularity and the fact he was in a tiny space, I did not get a picture with him. His natural good looks probably would have broken my camera anyways.

Andy Hopp

     Next to last, we have Andy Hopp, weirdo extraordinaire. I finally caught him alone at his booth, his thousands of adoring fans had been temporarily sated. This undergraduate of the unusual is at the top of his game. This is another hoopy frood who knows where his towel is.

Finally, we have...

Charles Urbach

     This man always has a crowd showering him with acclaim, I can't believe he hasn't collapsed under the weight of it all. It was during this time that I got the message that my ride was outside. I said my goodbyes, snapped a picture and dashed out of there. Maybe not quite like that, but you get the idea.

     All in all it was a marvelous four days hanging out with friends, making new ones and relaxing. I could leave knowing I had not wasted my time, maybe other people's but I was alright. Plus, I still had the rest of Father's Day to come, woohoo! Take care everyone.

Origins 2014: Day two/three

     When I stay late at the con, I have a hard time posting after or first thing the next day. So here we go.

     This year they are using even more of the convention center than before. This space marine was guarding a door at the end of a long, empty hallway. "Can I see your ID? I guess you can see the miniatures hall now." You can hear the disappointment in his voice that he can't vaporize you "Man what a worthless post!" and inside.

     The terrain is awesome, as usual. I love when you can look at a setup and guess what they used to build it. Here is another one.

     I did some hanging out with friends, and in one instance of trying locator someone, I got into a game of Xcrawl, run by the inimitable Brendan LaSalle (I hope I got his name right) Xcrawl is set in a modern day fantasy world where Xcrawl is a televised sport/dungeon crawl. It was cool seeing the other players get into character, shouting catch phrases and busting out moves. I kind of lock up when I am playing a game I am not familiar with, alongside complete strangers. Despite that, it was a lot of fun, but I had to hurry back to the dealer's room!

     My friends were going to BD.s for dinner, eventually forming a fairly large group. Thankfully we had made reservations. The food was good, the company even better. There was a drawing, if you signed up for their (BD's) club they would randomly pull an application and that individual got a free desert. They winner was Kay Steele who picked the biggest desert and shared with her end of the table.

Left to right; James and Bill Stolpin, Kay Steele, Tony Steele (obscured by Scott's hat) and Scott Frank

     Afterwards we retired to the Crown Plaza where we lounged around their fire pit (?) drank and socialized.

     Afterwards I went home, tired but content, and not willing to stay up long enough to post. *sigh*

     Each day, before heading to the con, I have stopped by my local coffee shop to get a cuppa. If anyone happens to be in Westerville, the Java Joint is a great place for coffee! One of these days, I might try to run a game there. Enough of that, onto day three!

     Saturday I stopped to pick a friend up so he could go to the con for a day. When we arrived there was a pulsing mass of humanity awaiting him at registration. I wished him luck and headed off. Now that I think about it, that was a little mean. The first part of the day, I had my daughter with me. Since she had no desire to see the dealer's room, we skipped the ginormous line and just wandered around downtown and hung out. We then left to have lunch with my wife and boy assistant #2 (my youngest) and then my wife and I returned. We basically visited friends for the rest of the day, but we did stop and try Mayfair's Witches board game. Based on Terry Pratchett's book series of the same name, you are one of four witches roaming the countryside helping out. As you solve the various problems, you accumulate victory points, though if certain things happen on the board then everyone loses.

     We then went to the Happy Greek with friends and had dinner with friends, topping it all off with a "galactic burrito" (the nickname our friends gave it when they came Thursday night)

devouring the galactic burrito

     So ended Saturday. More to come later!