Hey Folks!

Just a reminder that the 2009 Summer Game Summit is coming up soon! Some of you are wondering what that is right now, and I’ll tell you. It’s Ottawa’s bi-yearly classic gaming convention. Good old fashioned dice rolling or minature moving or card playing. It’s fun for everyone, with a plethora of board games for people to rent out and try! There’s also lots of Warhammer, W40k and Lord of the Rings tournaments for those with miniatures armies itching for a fight, and an RPG den for people to learn how to play D&D ! I’ve also heard there will be Pokemon and Chaotic tournaments as well. For those more artistically inclined, there’s (miniatures) painting workshops, where you get your very own little miniature that you can practice your painting on and keep after! There’s gonna be loads of paints and and paintbrushes for people to use. Of course, the most obvious reason to go is because we’re gonna be there!

So without further ado, here’s all the info:

Date: August 29th-30th

Place: Nepean Sportsplex

Website: http://www.gamesummit.ca/

That’s what our good friend Hank Hill would say if he worked at Toys on Fire.  If only, eh?  Oh well, it’s probably for the better anyway, now I get to say that!  Especially after today!  We recieved lots of dice and dice related things!  For one, the Pounds-o-Dice are back in stock: these are always a good deal, and they’re always your best bet especially if you need a whole darn pound of dice (which is close to 100 dice.)  We also got some nice wooden DRZs (Designated Rolling Zone) which is basically just somewhere to roll your dice on something soft, and keep them from going everywhere.  And last, but not least, we got a Dice Tower otherwise known as the Dice Boot (which I like to pronounce with a German accent.)

May you be blessed with crits aplenty.

This weekend I traveled incognito to CanGames (Ottawa’s gaming convention) under the clever guise of “Conrad Albatross” to see if I could get the inside scoop on Ottawa’s gaming underground. I arrived at the convention center at around 2 pm on Saturday and was instructed to enter through the back door. My accomplice handed me my pass and I began my surveillance of the convention.

On first glance, it appeared to be a gamers paradise: miniatures, role-playing books, and boardgames as far as the eyes could see, but on a closer look it revealed something else… something I’d like to call “mad dealz.” “Mad dealz” is a term you use to describe an excess amount of savings to products you’d normally pay out the nose for. I was immediately drawn to the tables where I could find plenty of old Dungeons and Dragons books. These conventions bring product of the highest, and sometimes rarest quality, and today was no different. Toys on Fire brought its usual, enormous selection of board games (probably the largest in the city) and the prices killed the convention market, as usual. I quickly began to lighten my pockets.

After buying the weight equivalent to a small car in books, I quickly turned my attention to my second mission: finding “mad Warhammer dealz.” I was armed with $120 to get as much on the list as possible for our beloved Stephen- and ending up spending $180. Yes, the “dealz” were this “mad.” These conventions always somehow end up being tax-free, it was amazing.

As the show was winding down our friend Bill showed up after his job to take a look at some “mad dealz” at the show as well. As we all got our fill, Alex and I hopped in Bill’s stretch SUV limo thing and took a ride. That’s right, a DANG (forgive the pun, Dang) LIMO! It had a TV and an intercom, and crazy lights, and beverages, and EVERYTHING. BIG FAT TIRES AND EVERYTHING! I was King of the Town in that limo. Muchos gracias, Bill. We owe you one.

All in all, it was a lot of fun meeting up with our toy/hobby retail brethren, and local hobbyists to nerd out for an afternoon now it’s time for me to go back to being cool.

Why are you laughing? I’m cool, I swear!

I mean, I’m playing D&D tonight, but that doesn’t mean anything! I have an assortment of leather jackets!

…fine, don’t believe me? I’ll just put a HEX ON YOU! Or maybe a plague! A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!

Conrad “the Hitman” AlbatRoss. Chris.