This is Mark Plemmons. In addition to being part of the Kenzer Development Team, he was pretty busy setting things up before both events. Pretty nice guy. I missed getting his autograph on the Bundles Of Trouble copy I brought to the con. It was one of my favorite covers with fictional game designer Gary Jackson and his son walking off into the sunset. This was the issue that dealt with the death of Gary Jackson. Though not necessarily based on a real person, Gary's first name come from Gary Gygax and the last name comes from Steve Jackson.
From left to right, Steve Johansson , David Kenzer and Knights creator Jolly Blackburn. The left an empty chair next to Steve in honor of D Team Member Brian Jelke, who couldn't make it to he convention. You'll notice the white board behind Steve. When something particularly finny was mentioned, Steve would make a note of it on the board, to more laughs. Tried to get a picture of the board, but it wasn't showing up.
David & Jolly are two of the people to watch in the industry. David's Kingdom of Kalamar started KenzerCo. Now, he has a well paying job as a lawyer, which allows him to keep KenzerCo. going during the lean times. His passion for gaming shows in products like Kalamar, Aces & Eights and Hackmaster. Jolly did a magazine called Shadis several years ago, which is where the first strip for Knights of the Dinner Table appeared. Eventually, he left Shadis and started The Knights book. Shirtly after that, he joined Kenzer, and the rest is history. Knights is not only an awesome gamers comic, it has several interesting articles. With Dungeon and Dragon Magazine no longer being printed, KotD is one of the few remaining in print.
Every year at Gencon, fans of KotD fill a big room one night for live readings of some of the best strips of the past. There were some good ones this year. My favorite may have been the inspired reading from the five guys who did a strip from The Black Hands. This is another group that is part of the Knights universe. They spend as much time fighting each other as they do their enemies, and they are getting a pep talk by their DM Nitro prior to entering the Hackmaster Tourney at GaryCon. Funny stuff!!!
Mark Plemmons gets the sound set up before the show and lays out all of the comics that will be read live during the night. Great job Mark!!!
Before the reading, they had a guy (missed the name, but I will post it if I get it) who sang two gamer songs. He did Dice Life to the Smash Mouth song All Star and did Still D&D To Me to Billy Joel's Still Rock N Roll To Me. Good stuff.
Prizes for the Live Readers. There was a certificate for 1 Potion Of Healing and one for 100 Experience Points.
This one was for 214 GP's, 36 SP's and 1087 CP's. Every gamer should have one of these framed on their wall. I like the Potion of Healing on. I wonder if you could get the DM to honor it though?
Packed rooms greeted the D&D Q&A and this Forgotten Realms Seminar. People want to know what's up with he Realms. Well, several books are coming, both paper back and hard cover. Plus, a Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is coming right after the 4.0 Core Books are released, followed by an adventure which they didn't name.
The bearded gentleman by the screen is Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood. He's been a part of the D&D world for probably 30 years or more. The Realms have become the primary D&D Campaign Setting, or at the very least the top seller of settings. The future still looks bright for this setting, and as I mentioned, more books are coming too. Ed made a comment about wishing there had been more maps for the expedition To Undermountain book that came out this year, but they have to think about cost. They can't afford all the boxed sets like they did back in the 80's. It was mentioned that there will be plenty of Forgotten Realms content as part of the D&D Insider deal that would appear in the digital Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, for a monthly fee of course.
This one should have been in Batch #5 as it is from the D&D Game Room. This is the guy who will set you up with your character for the next game session.
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