R.I.P. Franz-Benno Delonge and Gateway 2007 notes

As I returned from Gateway 2007 this Labor Day weekend, I received the terrible news: Franz-Benno Delonge of TransAmerica, Big City, Dos Rios, and Hellas fame has died at only fifty years of age. Cancer was the reason and as one who has lost a close loved one to the same disease, I feel for the Delonge family and the good Judge's friends. Remember that you can always make a contribution to great organizations like the City of Hope to honor someone who has passed away in hopes that others in the future will have a stronger chance against this horrible disease.

While news of Delonge's passing has tempered the weekend a bit, I did spend most of it away at Gateway 2007 and it was a terrific event. The Live Action Wiz-War event was a smashing success with excellent attendance and although a couple of our props didn't make it down to the event, people had a great time. Our qualifying round lasted quite a while but the final game was over quickly due to a critical risk taken by one of the wizards and the fact that another player had the right card to take advantage of it. Classic Wiz-War, people kept saying.

I had a great time showing off new Z-Man titles like R-Eco and Duel in the Dark. Owner's Choice was also a big hit and I keep liking it more the more often I play it. Even had a chance to play it with Tom Jolly, who was disappointed that he couldn't find it in the dealer room and was trying to get mine from me in trade. Nothing doing, Jolly (I was able to saying that cavalierly since he'd already recorded a podcast for me).

Played great games like Shogun, Yspahan, R-Eco, Poker, tons of prototypes and, yes, even a game of Star Wars: Epic Duels. Sigh. At least I had a couple of glasses of Guinness in me to dull the pain.

Tons of shows are on the way. I have at least two show's worth from Gateway 2007, including the Q&A session with Tom Jolly (which I'm calling Stories of Self-Publishing, Part 2 since he talks a whole lot about it) and snippets from Protospiel West's event at Gateway - a chance for designers and playtesters to come together (and a very well-attended event!) This is in addition to a couple more shows I have in the can in a new series I meant to announce last week. Alas, I got too busy with work and life leading up to Gateway so you'll just get a whole lot of Boardgame Babylon over the next couple of months.

Thanks for downl...er...reading Boardgame Babylon.