July 6, 2023: LibertyCon Report For Reals

I always have a good time at LibertyCon. Chattanooga is a wonderful little city and, for me, Liberty is the crown jewel. This was the 35th year of the show and possibly the best ever. From my admittedly-skewed point of view, having Gaming get double the area was a win. (Shout out to MIB MistyKat Gutierrez, who runs Gaming very well indeed.) It was great having Jean McGuire and Irene Zielinski there – we put our best foot forward. I already told you that Munchkin raised $3,400 for the show's charity, which this year was the Ronald McDonald House. The group's representative hunted me down in Gaming to thank me, which was classy of him! But the real thanks should go to the bidders who outdid each other for charity.

Snapshots . . .

• Demonstrating Wiz-War using the wonderful pieces sculpted by Kim Beaton and painted by Ben Williams . . . on the lighted board built by Jean and husband Joel.

• Getting to play no fewer than three games that were new to me. (And so many people wanted to pitch me games that next year there will be a program slot just for that.)

• Watching Jody Lynn Nye's wonderful xenoarchaeology panel and helping the learned professors speculate on the purposes of various human artifacts.

• Getting my butt royally kicked (not unusual) in Rich Groller's traditional game of Terraforming Mars, but the kicking was done by a first-game newcomer rather than Rich himself (unusual). Quit that smirking, Irene! (I got pretty badly beaten up in Munchkin Cthulhu, too. Had fun anyway.)

• The second karaoke performance of my life. At least, this time I had the words.

• Making a big Munchkin announcement. Technically, citizen, this information is available at your clearance, but for reasons that are not available at your clearance, it cannot actually be released to you at this time. IYKYK. I'm sure you understand and will comply. Until we get the art colored and post the announcement, of course.

• After the con, doing tourist stuff with the gang . . . riding the Tennessee Valley Railroad, and exploring Rock City, which has, you know, ROCKS.

Seriously: if you live anywhere near Chattanooga, you should stalk Liberty and, when membership sales are announced, buy your membership during the couple of hours it is available.

More cons are upcoming for me! This weekend I'm going to Brick Rodeo in Sugar Land . . . the biggest Lego event in Texas. We will run little trains. And, after more than ten years, I will once again run Evil Stevie's Pirate Game.

I will also be going to DragonCon. And to ConnectiCon in Hartford, which has actually supplied a URL that gives you 10% off a membership if you use it. I approve of this idea! Everyone should always get a discount for being associated with the Illuminati, am I right?

-- Steve Jackson