Back from the Emerald Isle this afternoon after a fun time at Q-Con and with the Beasts of War guys afterwards (filming videos for DKH2, Urban War 2, etc).

Q-Con turned out quite busy with something over 1,500 people attending ever the weekend and a mix of wargames, board games, RPGs, LARP, cosplay and console/arcade gaming to amaze and amuse. What a mix! Personally I’m very happy with this sort of mix of gaming as it lets me have a peep into all manner of corners of the wider gaming world that I wouldn’t see if I had to go to a convention for each aspect on its own. Over the Saturday I gave a talk and sat on a couple of the panels of (alleged) notables speaking about game design, and the future of gaming among other things. That was an interesting experiment which was new to Q-Con, but which I expect to see back next year.

Accidentally bought myself a copy of Power Grid (I’ll explain why later) only to discover that it was a few mm too wide to fit in my case to carry home. Oh bother. Many other temptations were stoically resisted from the various traders at the event, and I got to feel virtuous (relatively) as well as entertained. All in all, a good convention and one I’ll be happy to go back to if I can next year.