"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

It's funny how many people I've come to know in the gaming community over 20+ years.

As I did at Cold Wars in the spring, I saw Pete Mancini. He was one of the convention speakers (!), giving a talk on intelligence reforms post-9/11. In some ways he's grown and changed since I last hung out with him regularly in Boston in 1987-88. In other ways, he's just the same charming, funny, slightlysilly fellow he was then. The good-est news is that he may be moving out here from Tennessee!

I ran into my friend Bob MacDonald, who I seem to see only at cons now. I ran into a chap from Baltimore who came over a few months ago, had a few games of DBA, and then vanished off the face of the Internet. I was very glad to see him, as he's a nice chap; we seem to have very bad luck with email, as I wrote him several times, he wrote me several times, and we never got each other's messages. I'm not sure how that happens. I saw another local gamer, Patrick, who is the Scarlet Pimpernel of gaming--he's always about to run a game, or almost able to make one I'm running, but never actually appears. I was glad to see him and confirm he still actually exists. :-)

There are one or two vendors I always see at HMGS events and chat with (like the Kermit fellow I mentioned in the prior post). Another is Bob Charette, sculptor, author, and the leader of john_arundel's 14th century living history group. He asked after you and Glenda, P, and hoped you were well. I saw Bill Gray and spoke to him, but he affected not to know who I was, so I didn't press the matter. I saw but did not speak to George Nafziger, John Hill, Pat Condray, Sam Mustafa (authors all) and some local gaming personalities like Andy Turlington and Rich Low. I did have a nice natter with Kevin Lepley and Mark Hayes. Of course I saw a good bit of the infamous gr_c17 :-) and my game ch-hosts Phil and Eric.

I had some great good fortune in that Eric was playing in one of Bruce Weigle's 1866 games and got me invited in. I've long admired Mr W's games, both for their incredible scenics and for the rules themselves. It was nice to finally play in one and meet the man himself, who turns out to be a terrifically genial and pleasant person. During the course of that, one of the other players recognised me by name (odd feeling) and someone else stopped by and watched the game and chatted for a while "because I saw your name tag and recognised you fromt he Internet--I wanted a chance to talk to you". And neither of them wanted to poke me in the snoot, so I must not be as abrasive as I sometimes fear I come off. :-)

There were some reeanctors in uniform, but the only ones I knew were out of uniform: Ed Seufert (who stopped by our game) and Jim McGaughey (who I saw int he distance in the dealers' hall).

I'm probably forgetting a few, but it is nice to go to a big regional thing like that and find I know people instead of wandering around like a total outsider.

Next: #3 and closing, the games.