Why I Haven't Done So Much Preparation for my Speeches and Why it Doesn't Bother Me

So I have a presentation this Sunday at Tracon in Tampere and then in a few weeks at Ropecon.

I really haven't done jack shit to prepare for them, honestly. I want the Magic, Referee, and Tutorial books for the box to go to the printer this week (Tower of the Stargazer went this morning) and the Rules and Weird New World early next week (and then I'm DONE!). I'm swamped.

But I'm not so concerned.

Because I'm a freak.

But you already know this if you read this blog. Remember this post? Where I told about complaining about the Carcosa controversy while on the first date with the woman who would become my wife? There's the secret.

(quick aside: Remember, first dates are basically other people auditioning for whether they're cool enough to hang out with you a lot. Don't go easy on them, hit them with the most you that you've got.)

(No, that wasn't meant to be dirty. I reconsidered and decided not to use the really bad "immediately blast them with the essential you" double entendre.)

(see, that first one wasn't actually dirty in comparison, now was it?)

But Maria didn't know anything about RPGs. So to explain Carcosa, I had to explain a whole lot more. And I do that all the time. "Argh! Something is funny/clever/infuriating/interesting! I must tell Maria! But she has no idea why that would be funny/clever/infuriating/interesting, so I must explain the entire history of the subject to her first!"

You name it, RPGs, movies, comics, pro wrestling, if there's something I'm interested in, I want to assault her with tales about it.

Since I'm publishing RPG material and sort of have to justify all this time and money spent to her, RPGs come up a lot. I have to explain why I'm doing things and how it relates to what and how things have been done in the past.

I'm also a goofy bastard so I'm unconsciously channeling (in theory, anyway) George Carlin and Tony Robins, so I'm animated when I talk.

So I've actually had plenty of practice with both the content and the delivery of that content for a live presentation.

I just have to be able to adapt the whole thing so it's good for a crowd of people instead of having an audience of one. And there's no good way to practice that without doing it, so...

Wish me luck. I'm going to need it. :D