Dragonmeet 2012

Goblins and
goddess.

First of all, apologies for the lateness in my post.  I always try to get them out on Sunday and most of the time, I achieve this by bulk writing posts when I have the time and then scheduling them.  However, this one could not be scheduled as it was about the great experience I had (and gained) from Dragonmeet 2012, where I met up with lots of gamebookers and other great people in the gaming community.

I met up with Emil before the convention to  have a little discussion about Goblin's Bounty, which is coming along very nicely.  I also had a demo for people to play at the convention.

The fans are enraptured.

I then got to the convention in time for Steve Jackson's and Ian Livingstone's talk '30 years of Fighting Fantasy' where they entertained us with stories about them living in a van together,  being accused of making children fly with their books and how their first shop was so small, they had to leave it whenever a customer came in.  There was also lots of good stuff about the future of Fighting Fantasy where they announced that House of Hell will be the second fighting Fantasy gamebook to be released by the Tin Man and Jonathan Green announced that he is planning to write a book about the history of Fighting Fantasy and that there will be a kickstarter for it soon.

After the talk, I had a great chat with Tony Hough, artist, who has put his talents into illustrating some Fighting Fantasy books and is also responsible for my favorite Fighting Fantasy cover.

This is not Tony Hough - this
is my favorite FF cover.

Now this is Tony Hough.

We bonded over our mutual love of Terry Gilliam and manga and he told me some very interesting stories about his illustrations, which are awesome.

If you want to see more of his work, you can view his black and white drawings here and his colour illustrations here.

If you would like to buy any of Tony's art, you can go here.  If you would like to commission him, you can go here.  I'll be doing a post on more of Tony's work next week.

Sam Richards. Tweet RPG master.

I was also approached by Sam Richards of Tweet RPG fame  and we had a good chat about where he wants to take his innovative marriage of gamebooks and Twitter.  I'm looking forward to what is coming up.

I then headed over to the fighting Fantasy stall, noticing Michael J. Ward selling his new Destiny Quest book and made a mental note to talk to him when he wasn't being surrounded by enthusiastic customers.

Jonathan Green

The Warlock.

It was all happening at the Fighting fantasy stall - Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone were signing their adoring fans' Fighting Fantasy books (including mine - thankyou!) whilst the Warlock was selling a variety of Fighting Fantasy merchandise and trying to keep up with the demand.  The Tin Man and Jonathan Green were also there for a chat.  It was gamebook central.

Steve Jackson and the warlock
discuss who gets to ride
the dragon home.

Ian Livingstone talks to a fan whilst being minded
by the Tin Man and Jonathan Green.

Graham Bottley spearheads theAFF2 revival.

The Fighting Fantasy stand was not the only one that had all the gamebook goodness on it, however.  I also visited the Arion Games stall where Graham Bottley was selling his latest addition to the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG - the Heroes' Companion with its simple yet flexible rules for managing domains, mass battles, wilderness creation, curses, more types of magic and much much more.  Copies will be available from Cubicle 7 in the next six weeks or so, so stay tuned!

Michael J. Ward and myself.

Although it was only 2pm at this point, I was approached by Michael J. Ward who had closed his stall down because he had actually sold out of the Destiny Quests that he had bought with him.  It was great to finally meet Michael who had created the Destiny Quest series.  I was glad to hear that there is a third book in the works, planned for late 2013.  Until then, you have the Heart of Fire to beat.

The day went too fast but I also managed to squeeze in a game of Lords of War, a card game where fantasy races battle it out.  It was a close and enjoyable game, so I'm glad I played it.

It was an excellent day and I heartily look forward to next year's Dragonmeet.  I have plenty more posts to write about the day, such as a review of the AFF2 Heroes' Companion, Destiny Quest 2 and new projects from various people.

In the mean time, check out the Tin Man's 12 days of gamebooks and updates from YOU ARE THE HERO, the title of Jonathan Green's history of FF blog (also on Twitter) and back Goblin's Bounty to make it even better!

There's plenty to do in the world of gamebooks, so get stuck in!

Lastly, here's a picture of myself and Ian Livingstone :) (thanks, Ian Livingstone!)