Because I like to consider myself Collector Times' primary gaming columnist, one of my main goals for Comic Con was to cover the gaming angle. It was a good thing I had a few other goals, because I found that there was very little to cover, at least on the tabletop roleplaying game front. Oh sure, there were plenty of video games (which I didn't go anywhere near, way too crowded and not really my field of expertise), and there were demos of new card and clickie and miniature games (all of which I avoid, seeing them for the money sinks they are), but there was not much for the RPG fanatic. Now, while there weren't any exciting new RPGs being demonstrated, or any RP-related give-aways, there were a few things to be found. On the showroom floor, I was happy to find Adventure Retail, Ltd. At first I was drawn in by Cthulhiana Corner, which had practically every Cthulhu- or Lovecraft-related item you could want. But after I was done picking out what I wanted from that corner, I found that the rest of the booth was full of gaming books, board and card games, dice, Toy Vault plush, pretty much the contents of a well-stocked gaming store. Adventure Retail was also the place to be if you're a fan of Aaron Williams (creator of Nodwick, several other comics, and a lot of geek/Cthulhu humor t-shirts). Not only did they have all of his graphic novels and shirts available at the booth, but this very prolific creator appeared several times for signings. Going down the next aisle, I was happy that I had only bought some Lovecraftian dice at Adventure Retail, because I found the Chessex booth! I'm a fan of Chessex dice, as they come in a wide variety of beautiful colors and their metallic numbers tend to hold up better than those used by other brands. The Chessex booth was huge, taking up about half of an aisle, and it was crowded. The shoppers were polite, however, and let me get in to feed my addiction. I was very pleased with the set-up of the booth - the dice were arranged by color series, which made for a very attractive presentation, and they were available in either boxed polyhedral sets, or individually. Lamps were set up every couple of feet, so you could hold potential purchases up to the light to see the full transparent and/or sparkly effect. Shoppers were given a little plastic basket, which not only served well to hold dice, but could be used for test-rolling if you're a more superstitious gamer. Shopping was a delight - rather than digging through a jar of mixed colors like I usually do at my local game shop, I was able to see everything laid out and pick out just the d10s I needed. Not only did I purchase colors that I'd previously only seen in boxed sets, but I purchased colors that I'd never even seen before, such as a black die with dark rainbow micro-glitter. I even picked up a d10 in their 2008 test color. I can't recall what it was called (the dazzle of glittery dice made me forget to take notes), but it's black and clear swirled together. An interesting effect, but from the distance it looks like a high-shine black, which isn't very exciting. It may prove more popular with gamers who like their dice to be a little fancy, but not glittery. In addition to the standard d4-d20 that most of us use in the various games we play, they had a selection of novelty dice. D10s were available in several languages, along with emoticon dice, doubling cubes, loaded dice, critical hit dice and more. Chris was quick to decide that we should get a sign language d10 for his mother, who is fluent in ASL. Once my Chessex purchases were safely in my bag, we found the Crystal Caste booth, which was smaller and not quite as much fun. Crystal Caste is known for their unusual crystal-shaped polyhedral dice (which I often find hard to read) and their beautiful Dwarven Stone dice, which are carved from natural semi-precious stones. I'm a big fan of purchasing those dice as a special present for the gamers in my life. They're a little small for regular use, but they make a nice statement. Crystal Caste was debuting their new Bloodstone addition to that line. They also had some individual Dwarven Stones for sale (usually you can only get them in the set), but unfortunately had only a limited selection available. Although those were the only RPG-specific booths I found, there were a lot of other things to entice gaming geeks. Many talented fantasy artists had booths where you could purchase prints fit to decorate your game room. There were a lot of fantasy comics available in the small press, indie, and artist's alley sections. The art show had not just prints, but original paintings by many fantasy artists, including amazing dragons by Spanish artist Ciruelo (who also had a booth and was signing purchases). At least two vendors had weapons, several had medieval costumes, and Cthulhiana was everywhere. Upstairs at the mezzanine level, several meeting rooms were set aside for gaming. Unfortunately, I found these to be largely disappointing. The only organized gamers appeared to be CCGs and other collectible games. There was room for open gaming, and one group that I approached was just settling down to play the new 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Everyone else appeared to be engrossed in card or board games. When I returned to the gaming rooms on Sunday, a Munchkin Cthulhu game was advertised. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to join in before I had to leave. And to be honest, though I'm eager to try Munchkin Cthulhu at some point, I'm not huge on gaming with a bunch of strangers. My own friends get pretty nasty and competitive in Munchkin, I'd hate to see how cut-throat it would get when no one has any personal ties with their fellow players. All in all, with everything else that was going on at Comic Con, I'm not sure I'd want to play a random game with random people there. If someone had been demonstrating a new RPG, I would have been keen on trying it so I could review it here. Or if there had been some sort of "beat this dungeon and win a prize" RPG, I would have been up for that. But unless I was meeting some on-line friends and this was our one chance to game face-to-face, I think my time could have been better spent. Panels were the most disappointing, however. The only panel I found was an early-evening Saturday panel entitled "Gamers in the Library?" To help you understand why I felt like I should be covering this panel, let me share an excerpt from the description in the Events Guide: "Did you know that at least 7 out of 10 libraries support gaming? From consoles to D20, board games to CCG's, gaming in libraries is a hot topic." Sounds like it would cover a variety of topics, including RPGs, right? Wrong. The panel was all about getting video games into libraries, and running programs and tournaments. The four librarians (three Teen section librarians and one university librarian) discussed the trouble they've had getting games accepted, the success they've had with making the library a popular place for teens, and the reasons why they felt that it was important for libraries to keep up with the times. Aside from video games, the only game brought up at length was Texas Hold'em. RPGs and board games each got one brief mention, and I don't think that CCGs were mentioned at all. Manga and graphic novels got more airtime than RPGs, as they were also held up as an example of something that teens want and libraries should provide. There were some interesting points discussed, such as the trouble of getting libraries to budget for video games, cataloging them, and the big issue, getting them to approve M rated games. Many teens want to be able to play games like Halo and GTA, and many parents are fine with allowing them to play those games, but the Powers That Be at many libraries are old fashioned and buy into the "violent video games are evil!" mentality. Librarians who wish to have a well-rounded video game collection have to fight this attitude. Over all, though, this was not the panel I was expecting, it wasn't relevant to my column, and I could have been out eating dinner before The Mutant Chronicles instead. Flipping through the Events Guide, I also found that Wizards of the Coast was doing portfolio reviews for fantasy artists. Obviously I didn't check that out, since I can't draw, but this would be a great opportunity for any gaming geek who is also a talented artist. In closing, it's clear that if I really want to write a good gaming convention report, I should go to, you know, an actual gaming convention. Comic Con was great, and I had a good time (because I like comics, after all), but those looking for gaming merchandise and events would best turn their attention to a big event like Gen Con or their own local conventions.

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Copyright © 2008 By AJ Reardon E-mail AJ at: ErtheFae@aol.com Visit AJ at: www.erthefae.com