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By Tracy Hickman, August 9, 2010 1:35 pm

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Laura Hickman, Felcia Day and Tracy Hickman in the top secret XDM booth (#1921)

The ultra secret meeting of XDM Xtreme Dungeon Masters at the Gencon Game Convention held August 5th through 8th in Indianapolis, Indiana, was another smashing success this year with hundreds of new recruits, the release of our ‘Quest for the Tavern’ adventure module and visits with celebrities!

Felicia Day, star of ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog’ and her web series sensation ‘The Guild’ made a special effort to visit our XDM booth. She regretted not having been able to make our Killer Breakfast and was delighted to find time in her extremely busy schedule to make her way over to our booth for a visit. After a few moments of mutual geeking out (we appear to be fans of each others work) we presented her with her own copy of XDM: Xtreme Dungeon Mastery which will now personally grace either her library or the back of her storage closet depending on how things go. One thing is certain: Felicia is one of the warmest, genuine and most charming individuals I think I have ever met anywhere.

Bupu and Raistlin visit XDM

Of course, not everything at the convention is all fun and games … well, OK, mostly it IS fun and games since it is primarily a game convention but NOT for us hard working XDM Ultimate Grand Masters! Much of it was about explaining just what is an XDM to game players from around the world who would stop and stare at our booth in wonderment.

These aren't the games you're looking for..."

Thursday was the first day of the convention and was largely occupied with time in our top secret XDM booth which was located on the main aisle and directly across form the Wizards of the Coast booth (thus making us the easiest of the top secret booths to locate. There we had available for the first time the incredible ‘Quest for the Tavern’ adventure module which will soon be available to you for ordering online from our XDM store. We were also giving away Dragonsbard Eventide Bookmarks and signing up new subscribers in the booth through our ‘Where’s Laura?’ special discount program. Howard Tayler spent his time ‘defacing’ everyone’s book and module by drawing a custom character in the back of each on a page left blank especially for the purpose. That evening, Laura and I celebrated in our favorite way … dinner with R. A. Salvatore and his wonderful wife, Diane.

The Top Secret Booth at Gencon (booth #1921)

The members of the Eventide lunch gathering at Gencon

Friday was time to get right down to business with the enthusiastic committing of commerce in our secret booth all morning and a writing seminar as well as the recording of a podcast in the afternoon for DragonHearth. I also managed to take the gathered early subscribers from Dragonsbard Eventide to lunch that day … and it was a delight to relax, talk over the story and get to know each other.

Friday night Laura and I made an appearance at IUPUI (that’s Indiana University – Purdue University Indiana) in Indianapolis where we did a short Killer Dinner and presentation … then tried to get some rest before the big final day at the con!

Saturday brought the premiere XDM event: Killer Breakfast! With a sold-out house of 860 tickets, Howard Tayler on the art board and Laura Hickman hosting the show — we were prepared for a very special Killer Breakfast. This year’s theme was a cross between a December Holiday celebration and a PBS pledge drive. We called it, ‘It’s a Wonderful Gaming Carol.’

Howard Tayler	Killer Players for Breakfast
Grand Master XDM at work. (Photo by Candice Haase)	XDM Laura encourages the mob. (Photo by Canidice Haase)
The Killer Mob (Photo by Candice Haase)	The view down the table. (Photo by Candice Haase)
The family that dungeons together ... (Photo by Candice Haase)	Santa (Frank Mentzer) tells the XDM he is on the 'naughty' list. (Photo by Candice Haase)

An XDM proposal on stage at Killer Breakfast

There were many great moments during the show but perhaps my favorite was when (by secret and special pre-arrangement with the XDM masters) a young XDM’s girlfriend’s character was killed and he leaped up from the table, asking that I kill HIM instead of his girlfriend. proposed marriage to his girlfriend right in the middle of the game. I called them both out in front of the table to consider this act of selfless sacrifice in the middle of Killer Breakfast. I asked the young woman why I should kill her instead of her boyfriend. She said something about suing me. I then turned to her boyfriend and asked why I should kill him instead of her. (This being his cue) he said because I love her and want to marry her!

At which point, as you can see, he knelt down on stage, pulled out the open box with the ring in it and asked her on the spot.

Careful study of the photo will reveal that she has, just moments later, already gripped the box and is responding in the affirmative.

Now, I cannot say that XDM is responsible for gamers actually being able to not only date but actually MARRY beautiful women … but I think that there is evidence here to support that theory.

We finished the day with our XDM seminar where we even showed some secret materials from our XPC: Xtreme Player’s Codex — to secret to share here just yet! All in all … it was a wonderful convention and we are already planning next year’s improvements to make it even better!

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By Tracy Hickman, March 22, 2010 3:15 pm

Underground Lair of the Trinity Gamer XDMs.

I arrived at Dublin Airport with eight copies of XDM: Xtreme Dungeon Mastery in my checked luggage intent on bringing enlightened role playing to the good gamers of Ireland. I was immediately confronted with three ‘queues’ — green for citizens of Ireland, blue for non-citizens with nothing to declare and red for non-EU citizens with goods for sale to declare. Upholding the ages-old lawful traditions of the XDMs, I dutifully (no pun intended) followed the red line only to discover that there was no inspector at all IN the red queue.

With calm bravado, I shifted my baggage into the blue line — and thereby smuggled my eight copies for resale into Ireland! The Irish would have XDM regardless of the hazard involved! I walked calmly down the ‘nothing to declare’ line and was soon inside sovereign Ireland with my XDM books prepared to sew the seeds of gaming revolution in that great country.

After being met, however, by the committee members from Leprecon, I had not been in the country more than half an hour before I announced to them that I had braved distance and customs inspectors to bring them XDM: Xtreme Dungeon Mastery books…

Whereupon one of the committee members said, “XDM? Oh, it’s marvelous, I just finished reading it last night.” Whereupon her friend reached down into her backpack and pulled out a copy of XDM they had purchased at a local Dublin Game Store.

XDM is challenging gaming around the globe!

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By Tracy Hickman, February 20, 2010 10:51 am

Grand Paladin-lord Horned Dragon Tracy Hickman will be attending the Lepricon Convention in Dublin, Ireland this March 12th through 14th at Trinity College in Dublin. After a thorough reading of Irish Import Laws, he has discovered (surprisingly) that there are NO laws prohibiting him from carrying a limited number of XDM: Xtreme Dungeon Mastery books into the country with him and disposing of them as he pleases. (We had our concerns about Chapter 11…)

That being the case, we look forward to running an XDM Killer Breakfast in Dublin and recruiting many new XDMs to the cause whilst we are there! So, if you’re available that weekend and happen to be in Dublin — come join me while I try to find the most ways of saying, ‘No, I really WANT to drink a diet Coke!’ in as many polite ways as possible!

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By Tracy Hickman, January 18, 2010 9:18 pm

Always searching for new and better ways of spreading the message of Xtreme Dungeon Mastery, Tracy Hickman has called for the first XDM Guild Moot … an online conference call for XDMs everywhere!

Scheduled for February 5th, 2010 at 7:00 pm Mountain Time in the United States, this moot will allow participants to speak directly with the 496th level Grand Paladin-lord Horned Dragon himself! This historic discussion may even end up as a special edition of the DragonHearth podcast!

In order to participate, simply click on the appropriate ‘Episode 1′ in the sidebar OR follow this link to the hosting location of this call to discover what you have to do to connect through TalkShoe.

Come join in a discussion with Grand Paladin-lord Horned Dragon Tracy Hickman and learn the current secrets during the first ever XDM Guild Moots!

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By Tracy Hickman, January 1, 2010 12:01 am

As XDMs we knew there are notorious players out there … and most of them with notorious Player Characters! We need to know them better … and how to handle them properly as XDMs and we need YOUR HELP!

Take this creature, for example. Who is he? Where did he come from? Why is he here? Where is he going? Is he even a he? What’s in his satchel? What does the sign behind him REALLY say? Based on the scant evidence from this poster … what can we deduce about this character and why he is so dangerous, Sherlock?

Here is where you come in! We will be posting characters like this one every few weeks here featuring some dramatically rendered (a.k.a. unreasonably quick) original art by Howard Tayler, each linked to a specific forum discussion thread. Whoever among our XDMs who posts the most intreguing, radical, awsome character background and description for the character posted (as judged with an entirely biased and partial eye by the Grand Masters of XDM will be invited to join Tracy Hickman in an online game event later this summer where they will be invited to PLAY one of the characters featured.

We might as well start the 2010 XDM Most Wanted Characters with Exhibit A: scrutinize this poster (click on the image to enlarge) and then post to the forum your thoughts on this obviously dangerous creature.

Let the Xtreme Character Creation for the games begin!