Despite a few hiccups, we had a great turn out for the signing event. The cosplay contest sorta never went down though, which makes a bit sad. When we were planning the event, we didn’t realize until much too late that we were conflicting with Dallas Comic Con Fan Days, which I’m sure drew a large crowd of superhero Cosplayers.
But I bet they didn’t have Wonder Woman. I mean the Wonder Woman. At least one person full-on face planted into the invisible jet while gawking, but hey, I can’t blame ’em.
No costumes, but there were plenty of great games going on and I met some wonderful people. I’d like to thank everyone that came out and let me deface their books. I’d also like to give a shout out to David and Stanley who helped organize the event. Hopefully we can do it again someday, though next time I’m in the store, I’ll be GAMING. (Any ganers in the DFW area, go check out the Roll2Play store – great setup!)
One of the best things to happen was getting to talk to a group of kids all clustered around an old school DM screen. And when I say “old school” I mean Gygaxian Era. These kids, most younger than my own 14 year-old son, were rollin’ with not the shiny new Fifth Edition, not Fourth Edition, not even Third Edition or Pathfinder. Nope, they were slaying inverted-armor-class-having, THACO-calculating beasties with AD&D.
Total trip.
When the signing was all wrapped up, I managed to get in a round of Mascarade with none other than A. Lee Martinez. We talked shop for a bit and I took in as much writerly advice as I could from this award-winning fantasy author, but our main focus was the game.
Mascarade, if I had to describe it, was sort of like that fun, childhood card game, Memory, but in Deathmatch mode.
Each player starts with a card which assigns a role such as Thief, Judge, Bishop, King, or Queen and a pool of coins. Each card has a power ranging from taking coins from their neighbors or simply gaining coins from the bank. However, once the game starts, you turn your card over and every turn a player can swap cards (under the table natch, so you can’t tell if they swapped or not), swap with a center “neutral” card, view their card, or simply activate the power of the card they think (or want people to think) they have. The winner is the one who gets thirteen coins (unless you are the Cheat and you can win with ten).
Speaking of ten, about ten seconds in, I was lost as to who had what, but I managed to stumble my way to a win. It’s a light, quick game that can support up to a dozen players (which would be madness but sounds incredibly fun.)
Overall, an amazing day and a wonderful place to hold my first official signing. Again, thanks to fans, friends, and Roll2Play for all the support!
Categories: Author News
RUSS LINTON 
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