It’s been a busy week of catch up, but that doesn’t mean I can skip out on my After Action report of the convention.

This was a fun little relaxicon for me. Anyone who has been at a con with me knows that I’m going balls to the wall most of the weekend, participating in panels and talking to anyone who comes along. I really wasn’t sure what to do with myself this go around. I had a whopping four panels to be on over the course of the weekend, and that was it.

So what did I do?

I wandered.

I played games in the video arcade, wandered the vendor’s hall and found a few things for myself and the family, checked out things along author’s alley, and enjoyed all that was there. What I saw of the Burlesque show Saturday evening was pretty damned amazing, and the DJ had the house bouncing in the evenings.

There was also the Artemis Bridge Simulator, virtual reality tournaments, and classic arcade tournaments going on in the game rooms.

So all in all for a small, first-year con, not a bad setup. I’m sure they’ll grow next year and make things that much better. Chalked full of Gaming, Cosplay, Fiction, Pop Culture, and more, it really is the celebration of everything “Nerdi”. It was well worth the trip down to Atlanta to spend a weekend with “our people”. The poor Normies didn’t know what to think. 🙂

Now, how about some details?

Per their website:
NERDI GRAS® is a celebration of all things geek. It’s 3 days of music, entertainment, video games, board games, and cosplay designed to evoke a Carnivale of color, sound, and energy. It’s a place where all are welcome to join in a community of friends who play together, are creative together, and share a desire to be a part of a true Nerd Bacchanalia.

I personally spent a whole bunch of time in the tabletop gaming area with MIB Irene, learning how to play a bunch of games from Steve Jackson Games

We managed to play a fair bit of the latest edition of Car Wars over the weekend. And it was a blast getting to play with Irene and one of oldest fans of Steve Jackson and Car Wars.

It gave me the opportunity to pick their brains about the universe, things they’d like to see in the fiction that we are creating and more of how the game system works now vs. previous editions.

About Car Wars

North America, A.D. 2070. It’s a new American frontier. The collapse of the U.S. government plunged the country back into the good old days – days of wilderness, lawlessness, and banditry. Modern-day knights and gunslingers are in demand to combat regional dictators, but the automobile has replaced the horse, and the machine gun and recoilless rifle have made the sword and Winchester obsolete. Autoduelling emerges as the popular sport, and the American Autoduel Association is formed.

Car Wars is a game of the freeways and arenas of the future, where the right of way goes to the biggest guns. Players customize their vehicles and outfit their crews and either dominate the road . . . or crash and burn!

And of all things, the last panel of the convention was Car Wars Game to Page, where they set up “Steve in a Box” (since he was sick and couldn’t make it to the convention) and I had the opportunity to read off Chapter 5 of Burning Roads, book 1 of the Autoduel Chronicles.

Then we played a good bit of Illuminati. I’d picked up the video game version on Steam a while back, but I still couldn’t get the hang of how to really play the game. So Irene was nice enough to give me the run down and teach me a few tricks on how to get ahead quickly.

It still didn’t help me out in the end, but I did manage to learn how to better play the game.

Here’s the details on Illuminati

They are all around us. Secret conspiracies are everywhere. In Illuminati, you increase your wealth and power to take over the world until only YOU reign supreme.

Now, this classic game of conspiracy and world conquest has been updated to include current events and up-to-date references! Illuminati is for two to six players and contains 110 cards with new card back designs. It features new art created by Lar deSouza, known for his 2008 Shuster Award-winning online comic Least I Could Do.

Find out more on the game here

Then there was this little game called Hack & Slash that I fell in love with. It was fast-paced, challenging, and packed full of those sarcastically funny cards that Steve Jackson Games is known for. I liked it so much that I jumped onto the latest Kickstarter. Hack & Slash Kickstarter

Then there were the people. I didn’t get a whole lot of pics, but we had a good time. There were a few highlight reels cisca put together over on TikTok

Then there was hanging out with Guest of Honor D.C. Douglas. If you don’t know who he is, he’s got one hell of a laundry list of accomplishments.

D.C. DOUGLAS

After 30 years in the “This Biz,” it’s easiest to just get to the beef:
VIDEO GAMES: Albert Wesker in 9 “Resident Evil” games from 2007’s “Umbrella Chronicles” to 2019’s “Teppen” – over a decade of badassery. Then there’s Legion in “Mass Effect” 2 & 3, Kamoshida in “Persona 5,” Pod 042 in “Nier: Automata” and Grimoire Noir in “Nier: Replicant,” Burton in “Borderlands 3,” Azrael in “Blazeblue,” Raven in “Tekken 6,” foxy grandpa Gunter in “Fire Emblem: Fates,” 89 in “AI: The Somnium Files,” Rufus in the “Trails” series, and many more Japanese RPGs and indie American games.
ANIME: Yoshikage Kira in “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure,” Kalego in “Welcome To Demon School, Iruma-Kun,” Shinji in “Lycoris Recoil,” Geo in “Bastard!,” X Drake in “One Piece,” Ryu in “Shaman King 2021,” The Praetorian in “Super Crooks,” Master in “Akudama Drive,” Randle in “Tiger & Bunny,” Edo in Netflix’s “Ultraman,” Battuta in “How NOT to Summon a Demon lord,” Gekko in “Boruto: Naruto Next Generations,” Kershner in “Sirius The Jaeger,” Igari in “Baki,” Ryu in the cult hit “Backstreet Girls: Gokudolls,” Kamoshida in “Persona 5: the Animation,” Shoot McMahon in “Hunter x Hunter,” Locus in “Berserk,” The Professor in “Cyborg 009,” Jasley in “Mobile Suit Gundam: IBO” season 2, Vincent Pike in “MSGT: Bandit Flower,” Genji Kamogawa in “Hajime no ippo,” and many more only 12 people know about.
CARTOONS: Deathstroke in “DC Super Hero Girls,” Newton on “The Rocketeer,” Chase on “Transformers: Rescue Bots,” Colonel Rawls on the final season of “Regular Show,” Superman on “Family Guy,” Mick in “The Tom and Jerry Show,” and a few pilots that died lonely and unseen.
FILM & TV: Pa Kettle in “Z Nation,” Bud in “Sharknado 2,” Zepht in “Star Trek: Enterprise,” Aiden Wexler in SyFy’s “Isle of the Dead,” and another 200+ appearances on random shows and weird films over the last 25 years. Check him out on IMDB and DCDouglas.com to spot more titles you know.

Then there’s this guy, Dimitri Walker

He was cool to hang with. Laid back, easy going, and he really dug the batch of Blackberry Mead I’d brought along to the con to share. His art work is was intriguing and thought-provoking to say the least, so I picked up a few pieces for the office.

Now, just to get the description right, I asked him what he calls his style.

Simplest put, my art is a mashup of fine Art, fan art, and whatever images pop into my crazy head done old school with an actual brush and canvas.

That’s been about enough of me blabbing. Time to get back to work. So, until next time, Keep reading, keep writing, and we’ll see you on the flip side.

The Kutte is hung, the Con is done. Keep your heads up and your pens sharp.

~William Joseph Roberts~ (aka Hillbilly)