Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Airport

So I'm sitting in the SeaTac airport, awaiting departure. The Lovely Bride is doing Tai Chi across the way, by the moving sidewalk. A pleasant woman (I thought of my age) asks me what she's doing, and we fall into conversation, as people tend to. And I find out she has grandkids and her first husband died and she was heading for Dallas and yes, Heathrow is a terrible airport. And she asks me what I do and I tell her I design games.

What types of games? Computer games? Usually this follows with an explanation about how games are more than computer games, but at the moment, yes, computer games. And card games and RPGs and board games as well.

Do you know what my favorite board game is? She asked. I expected Scrabble or Monopoly, but she said Iron Dragon.

And I blinked at her in suprise. Iron Dragon, designed by Tom Wham, published by Mayfair, with a cover by Larry Elmore. A fantasy railroad game, where you use crayons to draw on the board. And she and I talked bout it, and other railroad games, and, yes, Scrabble as well.

But I was surprised that this mild-mannered-seeming woman played train games. And more importantly, played a fantasy train game.

It think the nerds have won, after all.

More later,