Sometimes I can be a bit too accommodating. Case in point: When arranging  my upcoming Guest of Honor stint at Origins this weekend, I offered a list of various topics I would be happy to build and host seminars around, rather than saying “I want to do these seminars. Make it so!” Which apparently led to all of my seminar slots at Origins being billed as “Q&A with Steve Kenson: An hour with Steve Kenson.”

Three slots. All the same:

• Thursday at 3:00 p.m. (GCCC – C214)
• Friday at 3:00 p.m. (GCCC – C214)
• Saturday at 4:00 p.m. (just to mix it up, but still in GCCC – C214)

I only learned this myself upon reading the Origins Master Event Grid. Now, I’m not inclined to think the promise of just spending an hour with me is enough to fill seats, especially given all the other things folks could be doing with their time at Origins, so I’m going to see if I can sweeten the deal a bit, and turn my accommodating nature to my advantage, with two offers:

First, since the seminar slots are now “whatever Steve wants to talk about” I’m going to choose a lucky winner from the audience (present by the start-time of the seminar) to pick the topic and tell me what the seminar should be about. If, for some reason, we exhaust that topic in less than an hour’s time, I’ll pick another audience member at random to give us a topic, and so forth. It can be comic books, superheroes, game design, freelancing, what it was like to work on Mutants & Masterminds, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, ICONS (or any of the numerous other RPGs I’ve written for), when I’m going to do another Kickstarter, queer issues in the gaming community … whatever you want!

Second, at the end of each seminar session, I’ll choose one lucky attendee who has gone the distance to win a free print copy of Great Power for ICONS. I should have a limited number of copies with me; if, for some reason, the shipping gets screwed up, winners will get their free copy shipped to them gratis via RPGNow. Limit one winner per seminar and one book per winner (even if, thank you, you attend all of the seminars).

Plus! Dan “The Man” Houser, ICONS artist extraordinaire, has offered to sweeten the deal: One lucky winner at one of my seminars will also be chosen to have a character of their creation illustrated by Dan and published in the upcoming Hero Pack 5! Plus you get a nemesis custom-designed for your hero (or villain)!

So, if you have a subject you’ve always wanted to hear me expound upon, or a question you’re dying to have answered, or you’d just like a shot at winning some gaming swag, come by and check out my seminars. I have no idea what they’ll be about yet, but I promise I’ll do my best to keep them interesting!

Please feel free to “like” and share this post widely and get the word out. If you’re going to Origins, I hope to see you sitting in one of my seminars!