Day two was better in many ways than day 1, primarily because Lindsay didn’t get a migraine, yay!

We started by getting a bit confused about buses, you see the Google Maps information for buses in Dublin is utterly useless when it comes to what stops they use, and we ends up walking to a stop a bit further away because we knew the bus left from there whereas the stop that Google Maps told us about had no information at it at all and said it was a put down stop only.

But we now know where the right stop is after asking the driver.

We missed Accessible Yoga sadly, but I arrived int one to get into line for signups to Kaffeklatchs, but I missed out on the one I really wanted to do by one space, because the git right in front of me signed up his friend despite it being only one signup per person, so was very annoyed by that, especially as the people manning the signup tables shrugged their shoulders when I made them aware.

But what can I do, anyway I made it to my first panel which was Making the Transition from Player to Games Master, and I got a lot of useful information from that, and I followed this up with The Impact of Kickstarter on the Gaming Industry which was really good, but sadly in the panel Steve Jackson said that it’s likely that SJG will stop offering their Kickstarter projects outside of North America, which would b devastating if they did that before Car Wars.

Then we walked off to Point Square for some seminars over there, and it’s not the easiest walk in the beating August sun, but we got there and found a great waiting area for people with access stickers, which was great, Lindsay did a panel on women in STEM and I did one on Webcomics with some amazing comic creators including Tamsyn Muir and Phil Foglio.

We then took a Luas back to the CCD to try and get into the interview of Parris McBride and George RR Martin, but we didn’t get in I am afraid, but that was alright, we just decided to go do our souvenir shopping where we got presents for Megan, Paul, Mary and Janes boys.

We did manage to get into the Steve Jackson interview, he is a guest of honour and the first from the gaming industry ever, so it’s a big deal, and it was great hearing him talk about how he got where he was, and the background to the Secret Service raid on his company over a GURPS supplement.

Then we got into a panel on the Representation of Marginalised People in Gaming with Laser Malena-Webber from the Doubleclicks, and Tanya DePass which was brilliant, I am very passionate about representation in games, because the same white European troops get very dull in games, and I am really desperate to see games with big influences from outside Europe.

Then I went to a panel on Modern Alternatives to Classic Boardgames, which was alright, but it was a bit simplistic for me, I was hoping for something that goes beyond 101, but it was very much a 101 to board gaming panel.

I managed at this point to have a seizure and had to be helped by first aid, it was very very very mild, I think it was because the panel room was facing the sun and it was quite low and in my eyes, but I was fine.

This was followed by a bit of a let down in Introduction to Grimdark, the discussion was good and interesting, but half the panel had no idea about what Grimdark was with one panelist’s having never heard of the term before, and the moderator had no voice, which meant that the panel was a bit unfocused, but still the discussion and book reccomend and the were good.

We then had a sandwich for our tea, and I had a good sit down after my seizure to kind of recover, so it was a bit of a worrying time because Lindsay was being very worried about me.

Then had my best event of the day, Romance Plot or Not, which was a blast, we were supplied with four ridiculous romance story plots and had to guess which one was a fake, and my team finished fifth which was cool, and as a result of that Lindsay wants to read a book featuring a bad boy biker, who just happens to be a werehedgehog!

After this Lindsay went into a panel on Sex Positivity and I went to some parties, the DC party’s was cool, the China party was very good, Frances party was kinda dead and the Japan party was also quite good, I may have eaten lots of snacks!

Then we had to rush off for the bus back to the hotel and we ordered in a spice box for tea, which was really good, and then at about 01:20 we went to sleep utterly exhausted!