Hi, guys!
When I get back to Italy, I'll try to write a full report from Origins. Song of Blades and Heroes didn't get the award for best miniature rules (frankly, being nominated was already a lot, and some of the other contenders were giants) but the award ceremony was great, including a tribute to those gaming personalities who recently left us... the Gary Gygax tribute was a tear jerker, many a person in the hall had tears in their eyes.
The awards were short and sweet. I finally put faces to many names that I've been reading for years on the covers of games of all kinds.
The best rules award went to Classic BattleTech, that had a lot of demo tables and support... congratulations to this great game.
The best surprise is that Splintered Light Miniatures won the award for best historical minis with its Romano-British 15mm! So my congratulations to David McBride for a great line of miniatures.
Tomorrow morning I'll still have a couple of demo games (by the way, Song of Blades and Heroes got lots of positive comments and attention), then I'll have to pack up and go back to Italy.
All in all, the experience has been great and I got to meet guys from the Yahoo! Group and lots of SBH players who were happy to stop by for a game.
Even MDRG got its spotlight with a "get the gasoline barrel" scenario. And I got interviewed for a podcast, more about this later.
My most sincere thanks to all the Origins staff and especially to the Miniature Hall guys and to the great Mike Demana without whose help making it here wouldn't simply be possible. I owe you one, Mike.