Andy, Kristin, and Alison were the only official Looneys at Gen Con 2001.  They had never had a booth at this show before (Origins is their main show... where all the World Looney Tourneys are held), and only brought the three of them to run the booth and demos.  I have worked booths for various companies in the past few years (Inner City Games, Pegasus Publishing Shirts, Green Knight, Chaoisum, etc) so that I can get a badge and a hotel room in exchange for a few hours (9:30-6, ususally) work in the dealers' room.  When the booth closes, I can game to my heart's content.  I never did find any of the Looneys during after hours play time, but that's only a small harumph on the whole weekend.  I did so want to show Andy my new baby, but the karma-cops obviously didn't want that to happen, so life goes on.

    This year, I took up "E" to playtest at Gen Con.  Where better to find players than a major con?  So, after the booth closed, I grabbed some food and set off to find players.  This is harder than it looks for a basically introverted person.  I finally found a couple of people who were willing to give the game a shot (they were waiting for a friend to finish a game and were just sitting around killing time... not in the Chrononauts way, either.) I told them that I had never played through a full game myself, and they were my first guinea pigs...AND that I figured a game would last, oh 45 minutes or so.  They still were willing to give it a try.

    We set up the board, and since Icehouse pieces are so cool, we attracted another player... so a 4-player game was on!  An hour later, we still were no where near finishing.  I said to the group that my time estimate was way off, and they could quit any time they felt like it... they told me to be quiet:  they were having fun.  Definately a good sign!

    The friend the first couple had been waiting for finished his game when we were an hour and some minutes into the game.  He took my spot and continued playing.  I made a few notes about the playtesting (especially the rule about the 'within the tower guard exchanges') and refereed the rest of the game.  The final time for a 4 player game (with newbies learning new rules) was just under 2 hours.  They all agreed it was a good game and that they had fun.

    Two weeks ago I couldn't spell Game Designer.  Now I are one!

    There is nothing quite like the feeling of someone totally enjoying your creation.  Sitting back and seeing the concentration, the competition, the smiles... just the fun that they were having was such a high.  I highly recommend it to anyone.

    The next day I found my way to the open gaming area and hornswaggled 6 players into a game of E.  Actually, what brought them over was the Icehouse pieces.  They thought that I had checked out the pieces from the open game library and they wanted to use them to show a friend how to play Ice Towers.  They're my set, but I have no problem sharing... IF they'd playtest E with me.  It was another great session of testing... all the rules were basically in place at that point, and nothing new was added by this testing, but it was a necessary "shakedown cruise" as it were.  The 6 players picked up the rules quickly and the game lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.  (I've had 2 player games last a half hour to 45 minutes, so I figure that maybe add a half hour of time in for each 2 players you add.)  We had a rousing set of Ice Tower games after we finished, and the group were going to find the Looney Booth the next morning and get their own stashes.

    Thanks to all those who helped playtest this game!  For those of you who are checking it out for the first time, please let me know what you think.