The Excitement

So, Gencon has come and gone and yes Obsidian Portal won that ENnie we wanted so badly and I’m very proud to be an integral part of such a great team. Despite what both Micah and Ryan say about me earning this ENnie just as much as they did I have a hard time taking credit for something as amazing as Obsidian Portal.

Somehow just running my mouth in our social channels and sending newsletters and editing the podcast and networking with people and setting up contests and finding campaigns of the month and… okay well maybe I do play my part. Still, it doesn’t seem to stack up to hour after hour of coding, innovation, billing, marketing and more. I’m not quite comfortable with the idea of actually being an part of something so cool, far beyond resetting people’s passwords and teaching them how to spell their own names. Guess I better get used to it!

A Couple Kids from the Midwest vs. Paizo: Round 1

Revenge of the Iron Lich was ousted by the big boys when it came to my other nominations, which is understandable. Especially understandable after attending an ENnies ceremony and realizing exactly how flowchart-esque the outcome seems to work. It goes something like this:

• Is Paizo Nominated? If yes, Gold medal.
• Is Wizards of the Coast nominated? If yes, Gold medal.
• Are both Wizards of the Coast and Paizo nominated? If yes, Paizo wins gold, WotC wins Silver.
• Is one of the games in the list a hot new game from an Indie studio? If Yes, Gold or Silver.

Regardless of the outcomes though, it was an honor to just be nominated and I’m not attempting to discredit any of the hard work and amazing job Paizo does with its products. Perhaps next year but I’ll not be holding my breath so much though. Lesson learned here is that it takes a lot to come out on top in the very crowded industry that we work in. Which is why the adrenaline rush of OP’s win and my newfound friends from Critical Hits was enough alone to ride out another year on.

Leveling Up

What does this mean for me as a writer, a content director and one of those “creative types” in general? Well I’m going to keep hitting it hard at Obsidian Portal because things there are going awesomely and I’m going to keep doing what I love. I’m going to keep creating fourthcore content where I mash video games into table top RPGs and people hate me for it. I’m going to keep running my game about vampires and skeletons and other childish bullshit. All these things are sure-fire steadfast elements of my life now, however there I do plan one small change.

Priorities, I’ve got them in my sights, my finger is on the trigger and my breath is held tight. I’ve submitted some pitches and actually gotten 2.5/3 accepted. One for web, one for print and another to be revised and re-pitched. I can’t be more happy about this and I’m going to keep plugging away at building up a writing resume/portfolio of published works. This was a genius albeit obvious piece of great advice I received upon meeting Ed Greenwood this year. My wife helped me pitch, brainstorm and she’s always there to shoot down my terrible ideas so I’m very thankful for that. I couldn’t live without this woman. Honest. I’d never be wearing pants.

Very much riding this Gencon high as far as it will take me. I met SO many awesome people this year I could make an entire paragraph or two just filling it up with their twitter handles but I’ll refrain from doing that. I will say though that this community that we are part of is an amazing one albeit self destructive at times. I’ve never felt so at home around “total strangers” and I cannot wait to do it again next year and collaborate with you all throughout this one. Cheers!