Lucca Comics & Games 2015

Lucca Comics & Games was a blast and a high-calibre experience not to be missed, as the second biggest comics and games convention in the world after San Diego CA, in terms of size and visitor numbers (300,000+). Lucca is certainly a creative force to be reckoned with as an international event bringing together a plethora of guest artists and creators (authors, game designers, illustrators, cartoonists, publishers, movie makers, etc.), and genres and platforms as varied as movie extravaganza (Star Wars) to D&D (Rob Kuntz and other D&D creators), to manga.

The atmosphere was upbeat, as can be expected from such a type of festival, with a plethora of costumed individuals hyped up by the Halloweenesque time of year, lending it a surreal vibe, against the solemn grandeur of the historical Tuscan town of Lucca. For the event spills well out of the confines of the halls and tents, into the Renaissance streets, past the opulent architecture of the town.

Most of all, we were impressed by the friendliness, dedication and professionalism of the team of volunteers, helpers and show enthusiasts who work consistently year on year to make Lucca Comics & Games a resounding success!

Meanwhile we shall leave it to the pictures to do the talking...

The fun starts here!

Rob meets up with fans at the Mondiversi Publishing booth

Rob and Amos Pons (Mondiversi Publishing)

Rob DMing the first session of The Cairn of the Skeleton King

Rob's workshop on design philosophy: Lateral Thought Processing in Real-Time RPG Design

Overhead view from the 'tower' of the dealers section

Rob at the Mondiversi booth

Rob and Mark Rein-Hagen, with our Italian interpreter and assistant, Anna

Awards ceremony

Mark Kelly, C.A. Suleiman and Rob doing his best zombie imitation!

Relaxing before the video podcast

The 'A Team' of behind-the-scenes helpers, Paolo, Irene and Gian Luca (Jurgen)!

Rob on the video podcast

Andrea D'Urso (left), one of the main event organisers, Lorenzo and Rob

Rob and Nathalie

Q&A

Presenting awards for the winners of the D&D tournament

Looking Italian!

Back in Hacking THINGS

So many things...  Don't we all have these...?  These... THINGS.  Most of us do not report on these things, for they are only, in retrospect, just things.  This, that and other.  Why I should feel, unlike so many others who do not report on their things, that is, to report my THINGS as important things by comparison, or, maybe not by comparison, but perhaps out of egoistic need to classify things as categories best suited to thing-mongers, perhaps?  Well, the keyboard presents an ever-present opportunity to alleviate the need for reporting on such things, which is a thing (or, many related things) of itself,  So here starts another round of thing-disgorging, or thing-acclimating, depending upon one's perspective or proclivity...

THING 1:  I have moved to France and settled with my wife-to-be.  We live in a secluded place in the mountains.  Just up the slope are the ruins of an old medieval castle (Genoese).  I have not been there as yet, but when we do investigate the ruin I will be sure to be looking out for the errant stirge as well as snapping a few picts to post here.  Otherwise the champagne is superb, as is the fromage...

THING 2: The LUCCA Comics & Games festival was a hit!  The festival had 300,000 attendees and could have sold more tickets.  I was very busy, participating in two interviews (one real-time video podcast) a Q&A session (see pict below), many signing sessions, received an honorary plaque award, did a workshop on RPG design philosophy, DMed 2 adventure gaming sessions, and attended many formal and informal dinners. Nathalie has a ton of photos and when we find the time we'll post some of these with descriptors.  There's much more to report, but this partial thing must suffice as the thing of the moment...

L to R:  Anna, my lovely and highly professional interpreter for the festival, myself, and Marco Signore. 

THING 3:  The Collector's Trove has confirmed a date in mid-January for the release of the RJK DVD collection.  More on this as we close in on the release date.

More things to follow...