And They Gathered

Alan Moon's Gathering finishes up this weekend, and I'm one of those who likes to read the reports and see the pictures.

I'm sorry I'm not there, but I'm glad for my many friends who are. It's kind of surprising to me how many folks from Oregon and even the greater Portland area are there. Off the top of my head, Tim, Carrie, Doug, Mimi, Patrick, Benjamin from here, plus Jeff, Nick and Lorna from further south in Oregon.

It's amazing how many luminaries are there from the German gaming world, major and minor publishers, and so many game designers. And I'd like to pay tribute to the chroniclers who have let me see the games and the people, and hear about what's hot and what's not. First to my email pals Jeff DeBoer and Lorna Wong, who have caught me up during the week on how things are going, whether Havoc is seeing any play (!) and what new games they're excited about.

Next are the wonderful reports of Rick Thornquist. His headlines page gives a quick overview of his daily reports, which always have some great pictures as well. Of special note is his video report - in the first few minutes Tim Isakson, Doug and Mimi Walker are on screen talking about the new Cleopatra game which looks great.

I also enjoyed Valerie Putnam's article called Prose on Cons. I'm a little jealous she lives in the town hosting the event! And I appreciate Matthew Gray's reports on almost each day of the conference.

Games that look cool to me and I want to try: Nacht der Magier (in the dark or not), Thurn und Taxis, Cleopatra and the Architects and Friedemann Freise's new card game. So I'll be hoping some of these make it back to Portland in the arms or luggage of our friends, and get a little taste of the energy of a ten-day game festival.