While promoting my game, trident in hand, today, a group of young women passed accompanied by (I think) their grandmother. Some of them responded when I said my usual “Can I interest you in Master of Olympus?” but they carried on walking; I then called after them “You get to hold the Trident!”. This earned me an icy glare from Granny, which I’m not sure I deserved, but I still scratched the latter phrase from my pitch.
The Expo is finished for another year, and my efforts bore far less fruit than they would if I were a big published company. I’ve learnt a lot and, importantly, built on my connections in the community: I spent a long time chatting to a mathematician who told me that some viruses have Buckyball-like structures; we then had to turn to a philosopher (Amy) to determine if viruses are living things. I caught up with a friend who runs a youth club involving board games, as well as designers David (also a self-published author, website here) and Scott (along with his publisher from Nuts!).
Late in the afternoon I suggested to Sarah that she we play a game of Olympus, which might gain interest from passers by. She proceeded to beat me at my own game – this is her fourth play through, so that seems about right from a skill and experience point of view. In my conversations today I was able to wax lyrical about board games like never before: I finally got to say “When you host a play through of a game you’ve designed, you create a Safe Space” without it sounding too pretentious.
You won’t be hearing from me for a while: I need to crash out, catch up on paperwork and get on with the day job without distractions. I’m looking forward to a relatively chilled summer, before I embark on the next big adventure – the rule book. I’ll be running wild and free, just like my penultimate spoiler, the goddess of hunting, animals and wild places: Artemis.
Master of Olympus 