The time I totally geeked out at Phoenix Comicon
OMG, guys. The photo above is seriously the most epic and nerdtastic photo I have ever taken.
I’ve been going to Phoenix Comicon religiously for the past few years, and even attended when it was a much smaller event in a neighboring city about 7 years ago (when it wasn’t yet quite glorious). When I first heard that all three top actors from Battlestar Galactica were going to be at this year’s event, I couldn’t resist paying for a photo op with all of them. And of course, I had to hold up Battlestar Galactica the board game. All three of the actors I’m in the photo with are pictured on the box! I love the show, and the board game is one of my favorites as well. The game thematically captures the essence of the show, the intrigue, paranoia and not knowing if your friend is a cylon!
I spent four sleep-deprived days at Phoenix Comicon. My sister and brother-in-law visited for the event, and we hung out with friends, shopped, listened to panels, met with celebrities and all around geeked out. The vendor hall seriously took two days to pore through. You could spend a fortune in there! We also took a photo with uber-hunk Jason Momoa, of Game of Thrones fame and the upcoming Aquaman movies. I also got to meet one of my favorite sci-fi writers and geeked out when I took a photo with him. Swoon!
I also got some time in to board game. A few hotels host events for Comicon, and the Hyatt, which is next door to the Phoenix Convention Center, hosts all the board gaming. There’s an entire floor dedicated to board gaming, along with a complete schedule of gaming, a library to check out games, and rooms to host Artemis and Magic. Naturally, some of my board-gamer friends were also at Comicon, so I stopped by the Hyatt to see if anybody was around looking for players. I ran into my friend and they had been half an hour into a game of Eldritch Horror. Drat! So I left and watched some short films about steampunk culture for two hours at another location.
On my way back, I wanted to see how my friend’s game was going, so I dropped by his table. One of the guys had to leave, so there was an opening in the 8-player game. My friend then asked the table if I could fill in for the guy who just left, and 6 male faces looked up and there was this awkward silence …
My friend then said, “She knows how to play.” Everybody breathed a sigh of relief. They all then agreed I could sit down. I totally saw the panic on their faces about letting a woman jump into a game halfway through, especially one as thematic and complicated as Eldritch. So I jumped right into the role of Wilson Richards, the pragmatic handyman. And guess what? Wilson Richards kicked ass and went on a monster-killing spree.
The game continued for another 2.5 hours (5 hours altogether), which is pretty long but that’s expected for an 8-player game. It seemed like 1 or 2 guys had never played before, but for the most part, the game hummed along. We had difficult mysteries we had to resolve, but in the end, we were able to defeat the Great Old One. The guy who owned the game and was curating the event had these awesome Arkham Horror dice, where if you rolled a 5 or 6, it would show an Elder Sign, which signaled a success. He also had a dice set for blessed players (meaning 4, 5 or 6 is a success) and cursed players (where only a 6 is a success).
So that’s how I accidentally ended up halfway through a 5-hour Eldritch Horror game. I usually do more board gaming at Comicon, but there were all these late evening panels that I wanted to go to, so I decided to attend those instead. So many choices and not enough time! One of the more random ones I attended (and was carded upon entrance) was a panel on Victorian sex, which ended up showing some porn from the silent era of movies. Whoa!! All in all, Phoenix Comicon was amazing, and I can’t wait to do it all again next year.