Can the Gen Con buzzword competition survive in a world where former also-ran Kevin Kulp now reigns as defending champion? In 2012 his ruthless use of the term incubate won him the the crown he had so fiendishly slavered for, for so many years.
If this sounds like madness to you, a) it is and b) here’s the recap.
Each year at Gen Con, players of this cruel insider marathon attempt to drop a ridiculous and/or repellent piece of business jargon into conversation in as many contexts as possible. Straightfaced usages score full points. Visible irony warrants a deduction. For extra points, slip it into podcasts, ENnies acceptance speeches, or like circumstances in which an innocent public is subjected to the buzzword’s full horror. Super extra points are awarded for causing some other unfortunate soul to use the word as if it is a thing decent, sane people actually say.
Past buzzwords have included wheelhouse, idea farm, and the verb form of status.
This year we’re not letting you off so easy. The terrifying term of 2013 is eventize, a malformation of the English language in which one proposes to take something and make an event out of it.
Examples of use:
- “When this hits retail, we’re going to eventize the heck out of it.”
- “In 2013, it’s not enough to launch a Kickstarter. You have to eventize your Kickstarter.”
- “We’re working on a way to eventize our errata.”
- “Really, when you think about it, all gaming is a process of micro-scale democratized eventization.”
As suggested by the final example above, derivations of the term will be accepted. It goes without saying, rules lawyers, that the ordinary word event, unadorned and alone, earns you nada. It is a thing a decent person might say.
Report point-scoring activities to me for inclusion in the final tally, to be announced after the show. All judging decisions are final.
Hail, raiders of the Gen Con high country! To celebrate the launch of Hillfolk and its companion volume Blood on the Snow, we've arranged two signing events at the Pelgrane Press booth. We have so many contributors at the show that we're going to be splitting our signers into two bunches. 
During the other night’s 13th Age game, the characters had three minutes before a disguise self spell expired, exposing one of the PCs to a dangerous potential enemy and the rest of them to the discovery of their ruse. After a little bit of dialogue I realized what I really ought to be doing. I grabbed my iPhone and used Siri to set a three-minute timer. This immediately sent shivers of suspense through the entire group. The ability to set a timer at the gaming table is by no means new. But the combination of the voice command and everyone's understanding of what that meant added an extra frisson of tension to the classic ticking clock situation. Now, I would only use this in a dialogue sequence where real time and game time roughly equal one another. Here it worked delightfully. Thanks for the GMing assist, Siri.
In the 
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