Hal-Con: Conor meets Steve Jackson!

     So Hal-Con came and went. It was a lot of fun for the day I went. There were two moments that stood out though, for the sheer physical pain that they caused me. Thus we have!

My two most failing encounters at Hal-Con:

     First thing in the morning, we had just gotten in the building and had done a circuit of the vendor gallery (it was actually the vendor room but gallery sounds much more interesting to me), and had checked out where the workshop rooms etc were. On our way out to eat and to pick up our other two compatriots for the event, I hear Tylor say to me "go stand by the lost in space robot so I can get a picture". My heart sinks at this comment, and all I can manage is a "I hate you so much right now". This was the "lost in space robot" in question:

Now, I'm not even a doctor who fan, in fact I'm close to being the opposite. That being said I still know my goddamn sci fi robots. Thankfully only a few people were around for that..... episode.

Now, onto the actual one where I embarrass myself. I don't even need help sometimes!

     So Steve Jackson of SJGames was a guest, I had found this out and got excited for the first time in ages (also, the moon may have turned blood red for a moment, but that's a tangent). When I found out there were going to be autographs it was even better! So I wracked my brain on what to grab. It went in the following order: My first idea was a star munchkin card, the clown trooper to be specific. Then I thought why not get him to sign the paper and dice RPG book for star munchkin? That would be a better choice. While waiting for our companions to get ready it finally hit me like a bolt of lightning. I have a couple of old choose your own adventure books, one of them was written by Steve Jackson. It's called the Citadel of Chaos. So I went and grabbed that, pleased with my selection of item to get autographed by someone I was actually interested in meeting.

I will pay dearly for that choice shortly.

After about 20 minutes in line waiting I finally come up and get to shake the hand of someone that has provided me with hours of entertainment. I can make a direct connection to him to quite a few items in my gaming closet. I shake his hand, pleased with my cleverness and excitement I present him with his book to sign. 

This is the exchange that follows (slight paraphrase):

Jackson: Heh. Now, there's two Steve jacksons in the game industry. One was the writer of this book, and it wasn't me.

Me: Really? (I'm pretty sure my face was beet red at this point)

Jackson: It's true. Now I can still sign this, but I promised the other Steve I would sign it the wrong Steve Jackson.

Me: I'm ok with that.

So this is what I walked out with:

I shook his hand again, thanked him for vandalizing a book, and walked away. Apparently this happens to him once and a while.

The other Steve Jackson lives in the U.K. And works for Games Workshop by the way. Oh, and he used to write choose your own adventure novels. Go figure.