Gen Con
Hey, all! Things are going well with both Oathbringer and other projects, and I should have a blog post for you about those going up fairly soon.
In the meantime, however, I wanted to let you know that I’ll be attending Gen Con (Indianapolis) this weekend. Unlike most conventions I attend, here I’ll have a full-blown booth with T-shirts, signed hardcovers, and lots of other swag for sale—including the convention exclusive hardcover of Snapshot and Dreamer. Huzzah! I’ll also be on panels and playing the odd game of Magic the Gathering.
Here are my schedule and booth details.
Dates: Friday–Sunday, August 17th–20th
Address: Indiana Convention Center,
100 South Capitol Avenue,
Indianapolis, Indiana 46225
Thursday, August 17th
Worldbuilding: Creating a Universe of Worlds
Time: 2:00–3:00 p.m.
Event Type: SEM – Seminar
Location: Westin – Capitol I
It’s one thing to build a world, but what do you do when you need a universe of interconnected worlds for your stories? Featuring Brandon Sanderson, David Mack, James L. Sutter, Marco Palmieri
This event is sold out.
*NOTE: If a panel is listed as sold out (people tend to grab the tickets for free events super fast!), you still might be able to get in. Most of the Gen Con panels have an overflow line, for people without a ticket, that you can wait in. Usually a good number of people from this line get into the panel.
Signing
Time: 4:00–5:00 p.m.
Event Type: Zed – Isle of Misfit Events
Location: Exhibit Hall
Have him sign your books! Only guests with tickets are ensured of a chance for a signing.
This event is sold out.
Signing
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: Dragonsteel Booth #467
The signings at my booth are first-come first-serve. Ask for details at the booth. They’re longer than the official signings, which are only an hour, and are sold out.
Magic the Gathering draft with Brandon Sanderson
Time: 8:00 p.m.–12:00 a.m.
This draft is being put together by Kara, who runs my booth. She’ll have details about when/where, but I don’t have them yet. Best to ask at the booth if you want to grab a spot.
Friday, August 18th
Q&A with Brandon Sanderson
Time: 1:00–2:00 p.m.
Event Type: SEM – Seminar
Location: Westin – Grand Ballroom V
Meet Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn and Stormlight series as well as the final Wheel of Time books. Ask him about his books, his projects, or anything else you’re dying to know!
This event is sold out.
Play Magic the Gathering with Brandon Sanderson
Time: 1:00–5:00 p.m.
Brandon will arrive at 2:00
Event Type: ZED – Isle of Misfit Events
Location: ICC : 141–142 : 6
Worldbuilders is a charity founded by author Pat Rothfuss in order to use the collective power of readers, fellow authors and book lovers to make the world a better place. We raise money for other charities who we believe do the best work in their field: Heifer International, Mercy Corps, and First Book. These charities’ missions and values are exactly what we have in mind when we think, “Where can this money do the most good?” We’re excited for the opportunity at Gen Con to have fans play games with some of their favorite celebrities all while generating money for these three charities who make sure the money we raise gets to where it’s needed most, and where it will do some real, long-term good.
This event is sold out.
This is a charity event, run with Worldbuilders, which should explain the high ticket price. It’s sold out, so don’t worry about it—but for the few of you I’m playing with, you’ll be playing sealed deck using Deckbuilder’s Toolkits. I’ll arrive an hour late, because of another panel, as the event starts at 1:00. (I’ll get there around 2:00.) However, I’ll have already built my deck, and you’ll spend your hour building yours. So we should be ready to play right when I arrive.
Writing Excuses LIVE!
Time: 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Event Type: SEM – Seminar
Location: Westin – Chamber
Join hosts Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler as they talk to authors and editors for a special live recording of their fast-paced, educational podcast for writers!
This event is sold out.
Writing Excuses LIVE!
Time: 7:00–8:00 p.m.
Event Type: SEM – Seminar
Location: Westin – Chamber
Join hosts Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler as they talk to authors and editors for a special live recording of their fast-paced, educational podcast for writers!
This event is sold out.
Saturday, August 19th
Signing
Time: 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Event Type: ZED – Isle of Misfit Events
Location: ICC – Exhibit Hall, Book Signing Area
Meet Special Guest Brandon Sanderson and have him sign your books! Only guests with tickets are ensured of a chance for a signing.
This event is sold out.
Worldbuilding: Making Magic New Again
Time: 2:00–3:00 p.m.
Event Type: SEM – Seminar
Location: Westin – Capitol I
Have you had your fill of spellbooks, wands, and wizards? Explore ways to make magic in your world exciting and new! Featuring Brandon Sanderson, Anton Strout, Brian McClellan, Christopher Husberg.
This event is sold out.
Writer’s Craft: Can a Hero be Too Powerful?
Time: 3:00–4:00 p.m.
Event Type: SEM – Seminar
Location: Westin – Capitol I
Is it possible for a hero to have too much power? Is there a point at which a powerful hero stops being interesting? Featuring Brandon Sanderson, Bruce R. Cordell, Howard Tayler.
Signing
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Location: Dragonsteel Booth #467
The signings at my booth are first-come first-serve. As for details at the booth. They’re longer than the official signings, which are only an hour, and are sold out.
Board Games
You should also be aware that various companies working on board games of my books will be there, doing demos of the games. The Mistborn board game, House War, has been printed and shipped to Crafty’s warehouse, and they’ll have a couple of copies to show off at the convention, but I’m not sure if they’ll have any quantity to sell there. Be sure to stop by the booths of both game companies to ask after the games, and maybe get in on a demo.
Note that I’ll have some copies of a special gamepiece on my person relating to the Mistborn board game for those interested. If you can find and ask me, you can get it.
Dragonsteel Entertainment (my booth) & Steve Argyle: Booth #467
Crafty Games: Booth #1929 (Mistborn game)
Nauvoo Games: Booth #2812 (The Reckoners game)
Scavenger Hunt
It’s Gen Con’s 50th anniversary, and we wanted to do something to celebrate. Since I’m sharing a booth with Steve Argyle—the illustrator who did these awesome endpapers for last year’s Leatherbound Mistborn—we figured we’d use them.
So, at Gen Con this year, Steve and I will have a limited quantity of generic creature tokens (for use in various card and board games) featuring Vin. You can use these for your games of Magic, for other games that they might fit, or just to have because they’re cool!
How do you get them? Well, the warrior token is quite easy. To get a copy, you just stop by the booth and ask either my people or Steve’s crew to give you one. We’ve printed off several thousand, so they should last for a little while. All I ask is that you don’t pick up more than one per person. (Please don’t come through, grab one, then come through later and grab another.) It’s okay to bring friends to collect an extra, then have them give you theirs—but I would like these to last for all who want to have one.
The Assassin token is a little more difficult to get. We only printed a few hundred of these, and after some discussion, Steve and I decided that we’d split them in half, then each come up with a game or scavenger hunt to give away our half.
I don’t know what Steve’s game is, so ask him at our booth. However, I settled on mine quickly. After all, I’m at a gaming convention, and you all probably know my nerd hobby by now.
I’m going to put up a bounty board of Magic cards that I still need for various set cubes I’m building. It will be a Google spreadsheet, open for everyone to read, that you can find here.
Yes, for now, it is empty. Each morning of the convention at 10am (on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) we’ll put up a new list of cards. (I’m going to choose mostly cheap cards, relatively easy to locate, so we’re not going to give you warning about what they are.)
You can show up at the booth any time during show hours with one of the cards on the bounty board. As long as it hasn’t been turned in yet, you can exchange it for a copy of the Vin assassin token. However, that’s the dangerous way to do it, as you might show up and find out that the card has already been turned in.
Instead, I suggest you come to my booth and look over the most current, up-to-date list of cards. (Which will list which cards have been turned in already.) You can then “claim” one for fifteen minutes. My staff will write your name beside it and a time—then you have fifteen minutes to return with the card. During that time, nobody else can snipe the card out from underneath you.
We’ll keep this physical list up to date, but I can’t guarantee that the on-line list will indicate which cards have been found already. Note that I intend for these to be cheap cards, $5 and under (with many under a buck) but I haven’t gone through my “to find” lists in depth to check which might have spiked in price—so you might want to quickly double-check on your smartphone the price of a card before you claim it or trade it in to us.
I’d again ask that you limit yourself to one card per person—but in this case, I’ll let you do a different hunt each day, for a total possible of three per person over the weekend. (Perfect for a certain planeswalker who creates assassin tokens.) I plan to sign all the assassin tokens ahead of time. (I can’t do that for the warrior tokens—there just isn’t time—though I’ll sign them during my regular signings if you give me one.) In return, I’d ask that you sign the Magic card you give me (on the back, please) and maybe write a little note or put Gen Con 50 on it or something.
Hopefully, this will be fun! If it’s popular, we’ll do future tokens for other characters. Either way, looking forward to seeing many of you at the convention!
