Day 2 – Seminars, Swag, and a Whole Lot of Nerdy Joy

I woke up to the natural rhythm of my subconscious arguing with itself, forcing my frontal lobe to beg, “Can we not?”

The time? 4:45 a.m.

I attempted to go back to sleep, but five minutes later my alarm decided it was its turn to talk—reminding me, in cheerful melody, that once again sleep was not in my deck today. I swear the imaginary operator in charge of my sleep schedule needs to hire a second hamster to keep that wheel turning.

Dragging ourselves out of bed, we shuffled toward breakfast like zombies chasing the scent of brains—or in this case, bacon. We were greeted by your standard “complimentary” breakfast: fake eggs, pancake-shaped mystery disks, and bacon that probably once knew a pig. Still, food is food.

Bellies full and brains half-functioning, we headed back to the Monona Convention Center for a full day of seminars.

Morning: Panels & Presentations

We spent the first stretch of the day bouncing from seminar to seminar. Retailers, developers, publishers, CEOs—you name it. We took notes, absorbed wisdom, and even got a few sneak peeks at upcoming products. Definitely some valuable stuff in there (some of which I can’t wait to talk about on stream later).

When lunchtime rolled around, we were gifted with a delicious Mexican meal—thankfully not spicy, which meant I could eat it without bursting into flames. Bless whoever planned that.

After eating, we made the executive decision to head back to the hotel for a nap. Azure got a full hour. I got maybe 35 minutes of closing my eyes and arguing with my own brain again. Still, it helped enough to get us back on our feet.

Afternoon: The Exhibit Hall

This. Was. Nerdvana.

Everywhere you looked—dice towers, paint sets, plushies, toys, scrolls, bags, collectible pins that turned into miniatures, even dragon eggs filled with mystery treasures. It was an overwhelming wave of color, creativity, and cool ideas. We couldn’t see everything (there was just so much), but we talked to a ton of awesome vendors, made a few new friends, and even got a couple leads on a new distributor or two.

We placed a few orders, gathered more contacts, and by the time our brains hit sensory overload, it was time for dinner.

Dinner & Demos

Dinner was surprisingly good—roast beef, chicken with mushrooms, scalloped potatoes, couscous, and for dessert? Blue Bunny ice cream sandwiches. Absolute win. (chicken was a little dry but filling)

Then came the Paint & Take portion of the event, where we each got a miniature to paint. I ended up with a goblin swinging a jagged sword. I went for a hardened autumn leaf vibe with the blade—definitely planning to add more to the base once we get home.

After that, we wandered over to Demo Night, where publishers had their latest games available to try out. First up was Dungeon Crawl Classics, an RPG that leans hard into old-school D&D vibes.

Azura’s rogue, Sparks, kicked off the session alongside my cleric, Maka. Our party (which also included a dwarf, another rogue, and a fighter) followed a trail into a cave and ran into a ”pretty beefy” door.

Our fighter tried to smash it open—rolled a 2.

Our dwarf followed up—rolled another 2.

Azura’s rogue? Walked up, turned the handle, rolled an 18, and casually opened it.

Classic.

Inside, we found a cloaked figure radiating shadowy mist. We rolled initiative and went to work.

Azura smashed it with a club.

The dwarf tried to get fancy, did a spinning leap, and rolled a 1—accidentally smacking Azura’s rogue for 6 points of friendly fire.

After some chaos and cackling, my cleric finally landed the finishing blow: mace to the face.

Huge shoutout to Jen, our DM for the night—you were amazing. And to the other players—we didn’t catch all your names, but y’all were awesome. Thanks for the laughs.

More Games, More Wins

After that, we played through several more demos, adding our favorites to the order list and collecting raffle tickets with every game. By the end of the night, we had way more goodies than we could carry—thankfully, ACD thought ahead and offered to ship our winnings directly to us.

I remember looking at the boxes and wondering if they’d make it home before we did.

As the night wound down, Azura’s social battery hit that “5% and flashing red” so we headed back to the hotel. It was one heck of a day, and while we were wiped, we couldn’t help but feel excited about all the new stuff we’ll be bringing to the shop. And so we ended the night with our minds full of happy new memories.