As a game store owner, every once in a while I get to do something neat, cool. Something even Reed Richards would have said "Oh, Man, how'd I miss out on that!" And, this past week, I got to do one of those things.

Every January, at the Doe Run Inn, in Brandenburg, Kentucky, a group of friends get together for a great time. Actually, there are two events KENCON and The Winter Retailers Retreat. I recently attended both.

KenCon is named for the founder, Ken Whitman (owner of rapidpod.com), who brings in friends from his days at TSR, and other publishing and gaming contacts, college friends, employees of his, and other friends and associates from all over. Attendees play games, stay in the inn (built in 1821!), and eat the food put on by the Inn's staff, and to say it is the best food I eat all year is not an exaggeration.

At KenCon, I got to play prototypes of games designed by award winning Tom Wham (inventor of the snit, Snit's Revenge, Planet Busters, Ironclad, Iron Dragon, and many more). I got to have a drink with Margaret Weis (and, if you don't know who that is, well, stop reading, and go collect stamps!) And visit with her about the upcoming Battlestar Galactica RPG. In fact, the whole crew from MWP was there, and we had a ball, playing Pharaoh (for Ken Bucks!), talking about stuff, and playing Settlers of Catan (I think this may be Margaret's favorite game of all time!).

And, we played a little bit of poker. Can you imagine playing poker with Larry Elmore and Jim Ward, and Jamie Chambers (writer for the Serenity RPG, and others)? (Uh, I lost). But, it was super cool.

Absolutely one of the best vacations ever, and I had a blast.

After KenCon closed, the Winter Retailer Retreat started, and there were a couple game designers who stayed over, and new arrivals by the truckload, including Jim Crocker (who used to write this column many months ago), Steve Nicewarner (who was the GAMA Retail Division Chairperson for a year), Anthony Gallela (executive director of GAMA), Scott Thorne (of Castle Perilous, and a personal favorite of mine; Scott is a fellow convention vendor, who has lent me much knowledge, and friendship over the years - see castleperilous.com), Dave and Kelli Wallace (owners of the Fantasy Shop line of games stores in the St. Louis area, and a game store in East Lansing, Michigan, too), Tony Lakas and Kim (owners of an entertainment store, similar to my own, in Indiana called the Danger Room!), and others (including Gordon who owns, with his wife, the Board Game Barrister game store). Last, but certainly not least, was Jon Huston and wife Lara, who own Troll and Toad, my favorite competitor for online games sales and convention vending. Also, Paul Burdick of Spell Binders in Ohio. (I hope I didn't forget anyone, but apologize in advance if I did.)

The Retailers retreat was held in the same location: The Doe Run Inn, featured the same great Food, and long hours of gaming, talking business, going on sight-=seeing jaunts (including the Fort Knox Armor Museum, named after General Patton), and did I mention gaming?

I finally got my Puerto Rico fix (played 5 games, won one), and learned San Juan, and Starfarers of Catan 2-player card game, and more.

So, for 5 days, I played games, hung out with my new girlfriend (Colleen), ate until I was so stuffed I could barely walk. (I am not kidding, one day I ate breakfast for so long, the staff actually came in and asked if anyone was ready for lunch!) And played more games. Talked a little business, and was the geek that I am, in all my geeky glory.

Isn't often I have this much fun. For me, most cons are work - travel, set up, sales, replenishing the booth, sales, tear down, travel - and lots of McDonalds, Waffle House and Shell gas-station hot dogs. But, this week, at KenCon and the Winter Retailers Retreat, I had fun. LOTS of fun, and nothing but.

And, the food! Oh, the food.... wonderful food, pan fried chicken, scratch made biscuits, pancakes, catfish, country ham, and all the fixins. Wow, I really love the food at the Doe Run Inn.

Anyway, I am a little hung over from the expressos I had yesterday, and a long drive home, and staying up late with Colleen and talking about the fun week we had. So, I hope I didn't forget anyone, or anything, that happened. However, that is unlikely.

New Games I learned this past week:

San Juan, St. Petersburg, Apples to Apples (can you believe we went over 100 rounds without me winning one!!!), 2-Player Starfarers of Catan, several Catan variants, and several others.

Still, my highlight had to be the poker game with Jim Ward, Jamie Chambers and Larry Elmore. (And we all got beat - by a girl who had a card in front of her to remind her what hands beat which other hands!!)

Now, back to the grind. A little Titan Games announcements: The website is under a major reconstruction, and I hope you all can visit there in the coming week or two, and see what you think. As of this writing, the site is not real pretty, but is functional. In the coming week or two we will have a great new look, a better search engine, easier ordering apparatus, and more information about the games themselves. So, please be patient.

Hope to see several of you again this year at GTS, Origins, GenCon, Dragon Con and the other cons we attend.

Marcus King
Owner
Titan Games
637 Capital Ave SW
Battle Creek, MI 49015
titangamesinc at aol dot com
http://www.titangames.com