Dave and Marty head to C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo to grab some interviews with Game Designers. Designers interviewed are Cam Banks, Creative Director at Margaret Weis Productions and driving force behind the new Marvel Superheroic RPG, and Kenneth Hite, author and game designer, whose works include Trail of Cthulhu and Night’s Black Agents.

Marty Burnham is a suburbanite moonlighting as a city dweller.  While he dips his toes into the great city that is Chicago, he often turns tail at the first signs of “trouble”, retreating to the safe confines of his townhome, which he shares with his two cats and his wife and their collection of boardgames.  She is braver than he.

An avid gamer, Marty has been playing games since he was a small boy, a time when elves and trolls seemed fairly ridiculous and far away.  Growing up he longed for those bygone days and now tries to relive them whenever he can by sitting around a table and rolling dice while cursing his friends and secretly believing them to be trolls in disguise.   Marty also likes movies and comic books.  This means Marty is a giant nerd with serious issues regarding reality and fantasy.  He wishes the lines were more blurred, but finds that the pain involved from throwing oneself off of a roof in an errant attempt to prove he can fly is, while understandable if drunk, incredibly painful and self destructive if sober.

In his real life, Marty has earned a Bachelors Degree in Film, so naturally this means he teaches, on a part time basis, Photoshop to teenagers.

He loves creating Play The Game and hopes that others enjoy it as much as he does.  He really, really needs them to.

David Morton’s geek cred dates back to 1979 when he played his first games of D&D, Space Invaders and Asteroids.

“By Night”, for over 25 years, he has been a play tester for both analog and video games . He loves the social aspects of hanging out with a group of friends enjoying the relaxed pace of card, board and miniature games as well as slinging “Trash Talk” while handing you your butt in console and computer games.

“By Day”, he has worked as a cinematographer in Film and Video for over twenty years. He has traveled the world and set foot on every continent with the exception of Antarctica, which he hopes to accomplish some day. Dave is an avid cyclist that builds his own bicycles and is currently studying Aikido and Japanese with painfully slow results.

“It’s all in the wrist” – Keven Flynn

In this episode of Play The Game Podcast, Small Jobs:

Jon Smejkal shows us the basics of painting the face of a miniature.

“Proceed with the countdown. All groups assume attack coordinates.”
-Admiral Ackbar, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi

Assemble your squadrons and prepare for battle in X-Wing Miniatures Game! Launch your rugged Rebel X-wings into desperate missions or take control of nimble TIE fighters and outnumber your enemy in this fast-paced game that puts you in in control of your favorite ships from the Star Wars galaxy. X-Wing recreates the excitement of all your favoriteStar Wars space battles and allows you to imagine your own. However you play, you’ll need all of your cunning and skill to claim victory.

Last summer, Fantasy Flight Games announced X-Wing, a fast-paced game of tactical space battles. We are now pleased to say that this highly anticipated game will be launching onto shelves in the summer of 2012.

So this past weekend I attended C2E2, Chicago’s Comics and Entertainment Expo.  This is it’s third year and it continues to grow.  The amount of people in attendance on Saturday was staggering and I look forward to seeing the numbers when they are finally released.  I’ve been to all three shows and it’s really amazing to feel like you are a part of something from the beginning, getting in on the ground floor and being able to watch it grow.  This really is an amazing show and the folks at Reed should be commended for continuing to give Comic Book and Pop Culture fans the show that they want.

But, Hey, waitaminute!?  This is a podcast (and website) dedicated to gaming, so why all this hubbub about a comic book convention?

Well, I’ll tell you why.

Comics, Games and Movies are among three of my favorite things.  Now it could be said that I have far too many hobbies and this would probably be true.  But I like to think of myself as a well rounded geek and so I take pleasure in many forms of Pop Culture.

More to the point, this year I got to sit down and talk with the Creative Director of Margaret Weis Productions, Cam Banks.  Mr. Banks is the driving force behind one of the company’s latest releases, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.   He was a very amiable and interesting guy to talk to.  We shot an interview and will be posting it to this site in the near future.  We’ll also be including it with a few other segments we are putting together for a special C2E2 Episode of Play The Game.

The reason I am so excited to get to talk about the game, which I have yet to test out, but hope to in the next few days, is that the old Marvel Superheroes game put out by TSR all those years ago was my first foray into a much larger world, both of gaming and of comic books.

So I feel some allegiance to role playing those four colored heroes.  They’ve    helped to make me the person I am today.  And no, I don’t dress in spandex and haunt the darkened city streets of Chicago, putting fear into the hearts of criminals. I’ve seen Kickass and I can tell you one thing for sure…I’m no Kickass.  I tend to vomit when I bleed.  And cry.  Cry when I bleed, not vomit.

Anywho…

Back to my point, if I have one.

C2E2 always reminds me of why I love comics, superheroes and entertainment in general.  It’s about the stories and it’s about the community.

Gaming is very much the same way.  Friends sitting around telling stories.

Friends and stories…

I guess those fall into a few of my favorite things, too.

Marty

C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo) happens in April and is a good kick off to con season. The attendance has been rising. In its inaugural year, 2010, 27,500 attended, last year, 2011, 34,000 made it to the show. They haven’t released the numbers for this year but Marty and I were thinking it felt like more then last year. We’ll see.

One of the things noticeably absent was a designated gaming area. Last years C2E2 had an area located across from the dealer hall. It was a nice open space with plenty of tables conveniently located close to all the panels and venders. This year with the change of location that area was axed.

Marty and I did attend a few panels devoted to area’s relevant to gaming. The first was a panel devoted to Kickstarter. We really like what Kickstarter is doing for gaming and we plan to devote a few minutes to Kickstarter projects we think are worth noting in future episodes. The second panel was devoted to tabletop gaming. The speakes, Kenneth Hite and Will Hindmarch both work in the gaming industry. Ken has been writing and designing games since 1981, full time since 1995. His credits are extensive including GURPS, Trail of Cthulhu, Day after Ragnorak and many others. Will has worked as a writer/designer on Dragon Age RPG, World of Darkness, and Marvel Heroes RPG. Both speakers were excellent and Ken was kind enough to grant us some of his time for an interview.

The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill recaptures the magic of the first half of the novel that initially introduced us to Hobbits, the Shire, and a certain magic ring…
You’ll steer the fates of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, the wizard Gandalf, and other familiar characters as they begin their journey out of the Shire. You’ll encounter terrible trolls, bitter storms, rampaging giants, swarms of Goblins, and the strange creature known as Gollum. You’ll meet new Dwarves, burgle treasures, and answer riddles in a deadly test of wits. With three scenarios drawn directly from the first half of the novel, five new heroes, treasure cards, and three copies of each player card, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill brings you as close as you can get to reliving this classic work of fiction without finding your name on the page.
Another expansion, currently scheduled for release later in 2012, will introduce related scenarios that conclude Bilbo’s classic adventure!

Ban Dai is coming out with this little gem.  Star Trek The Deck Building Game “The Original Series” Edition. They were trying it out at GAMA a couple of weeks ago, I just heard about it from Marty. Like the “The Next Phase”, this one will be a stand alone as well as have the ability to be mixed in with the other two sets. I don’t know about you but I’m curious to see how Kirk’s stats line up against Jean-Luc’s or see how Data fares against Spock. I’m looking forward to trying it out at Gencon.

UPDATE: Shadow run was fully funded just three days into their Kickstarter campaign. As of today they’ve reached $690,000 and have over 15,000 backers. Congratulations!!!