Although we'll play a lot of games, of course, my favorite bit is the vendor hall. Because I like buying things. And it's fun to interact with famous game designers, get demos of new games, and pick up free stuff. Here's what I'm checking out at this year's show.

• Third World Games impressed me last year with Battle of the Bands. This year there's a new Bands edition and an expansion set. Their new games Portable Adventures and Testimony of Jacob Hollow look interesting as well.
• Lord of the Rings Trivia Game. Apparantly a very well done game; not the usual simplistic question-and-answer bit.
• Crimson Skies from WizKids, a clix game of aerial combat. I've already bought the core rules and one pack of planes, and we liked what we saw so far... particularly the mechanism for mid-air collisons.
• Steve Jackson Games has Strange Synergy, a card game of customizable super heroes.
• A couple years, Pinnacle was trying to re-establish Great Rail Wars in the miniatures market, but I don't think that caught on as well as they had hoped. So I'll be looking for some good sales. Plus Rhonda and I tried out the Deadlands RPG for the first time a few weekends ago.
• This is Wizards last year with the Pokemon license, so the new owners will be at Origins to start their show of support. The new owners just happen to be Nintendo, by the way. So while Nintendo is on the show floor hawking the new generation of Pokemon, Wizards will be unloading giveaways and promo cards like a Water Blast from a Blastoise.
• There's a Spongebob TCG out. Could be fun.
• And this might be the year we finally buy into Looney Lab's Icehouse.

Wish us luck. Send money. More updates to come through the convention.