Before anything else, I want to address the people that are my fans.

I do not know how to react to having fans.
You are all awesome.

If I failed to thank you for enjoying my work, if I seemed out of sorts, generally came off as curt or strange, or otherwise conducted myself untoward in any way whatsoever, I apologize profusely. I don’t think I managed to offend anyone, but I feel so unbelievably awkward when someone says “you have done something awesome” that I seriously forget how to be a human.

So: thank you for saying hello to me, it was wonderful to meet so many of you, and in the future please be like “MIKE! HIGH FIVE AWESOME TOWN!” and we will slap hands in a most epic manner that I am 100% prepared for and then talk shop or predict the weather or whatever. :D

THE MISTS OF AKUMA KICKSTARTER FUNDED!

I am super duper excited about the project!!! Not only are we really breaking into some truly unique ground with Mists of Akuma as a setting, going to be the first to bring in eastern fantasy to D&D 5th Edition, and enabling me to place some AWESOME art orders, the GM of my youth is writing an adventure for it! Chris Rippee is a peerless storyteller and I seriously cannot wait to see the final copy he turns over (there’s an encounter preview here).

If you would like to support the project but were unable to pledge to the Kickstarter, email mistsofakuma@gmail.com and we’ll get you sorted.

PaizoCon 2016

I have had quite a week. One of Hypercorps 2099‘s backers, Steve Caron, bought me a plane ticket to and from Seattle, and my inimitable (and unflinchingly polite, almost to a fault) right-hand man Michael McCarthy put me up in his hotel room for most of the trip. Once again, you both have my sincere thanks for your graciousness!

After a cramped flight to the west coast I wandered down to the hotel and dropped off my belongings before wandering around that area of Seattle for a while before hanging out with some folks in the bar. In the evening we got most of the Hypercorps crew together and made for a fantastic thai restaurant down the rail line, then hit up a grocery before getting to bed early.

Friday kicked off with my first Shadow of the Demon Lord game run by none other than Stephen Radney-MacFarland, then it was straight away to the first Hypercorps 2099 seminar and it went great! Unfortunately to make it to the Hyper RPG studio in time to appear on Rabbit Stew, we had to leave the panel in the hands of Luis Loza and Jason Nelson — I am assured it went well, but will make sure to put links to the Know Direction recordings of the panel so you can be your own judges (and will definitely share the video for Rabbit Stew when it gets onto YouTube).

That night we also did the first scheduled Hypercorps 2099 game, Operation Varsity. I had a very exciting very secret meeting somewhere before we came back to the hotel and sprinted into the game room late, but everyone was very cool about it. Because Steve had a penthouse suite (which was HUGE) we took the group up there and played with a gorgeous view behind us (and many glasses of rum drinks). Getting things underway I was in great trepidation because this was the first time I’d actually played Hypercorps 2099 in person as opposed to through Roll20.net, but there was no reason to be worried–a good time was had by all and the system performed as well in real life as it does through the Hypernet.😉

Saturday was my “whatever” day and  I mostly hit up seminars (which were all good) before the banquet. There was much talk of Starfinder and I look forward to it as much as you likely expect. I have spoken to many Paizo people and many other people about the new ruleset and what that means for Hypercorps 2099 and when I’m able to say more about any of that, I will do so.

Sunday was another day of enjoyable and informative seminars until the second Hypercorps 2099 game (Skirmish with Soldier Corps) which had seven players! It was SUPER intense and much to my delight, at the end of the table one of Friday’s players (a netjacker mechwarrior) was doing side battles with one of his friends (that scheduled game’s netjacker)! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!!

Immediately afterward, the Hypercorps 2099 crew got together and this happened.

My peeps are the best peeps.

The next day kicked off with a seminar for both Aethera and Hypercorps 2099; despite being the morning of the final day of the convention we had more attendees than panelists! There will be a link provided when Know Direction puts it up.😀 That night I hung out with Steve and my returning mechwarrior (Miles Smith) and we had one final Hypercorps game,  and it was as awesome as the rest of the sessions at PaizoCon!

Today (nearly 24 hours ago ~.~) I woke up and walked to the airport with Steve, hopped on my plane, and spent most of the trip brainstorming for Mists of Akuma and reading The Blood Chalice (a Warhammer 40k novel).

Interesting note: Starting Friday morning, my right ankle started doing weird things! There’s no real pain, just discomfort — it feels like there’s a bag of wet sand above my right heel. My regular source of wisdom for these things (my grandmother was a nurse for decades) was just as perplexed as I was. I’ll be taking it easy for a few days (no jogging) to see if some hot/cold pressing fixes it.

All told I had a wonderful time at PaizoCon 2016. All of the Paizo staff put on a fantastic convention and they have both my thanks and congratulations! I feel weird tagging them about Facebook and so on and so forth, but should any of them stop by my website (Cosmo I’m looking at you!) boom — ya been thanked.