We went wild at Emerald City! It was a great convention and an amazing weekend. I wanted to say thanks to everyone who showed up for our two meetups (the Saturday night group is pictured above). There were WAY more people there than I had anticipated, especially for the one on Sunday morning. We’ll be kicking off our wrap-up coverage this Thursday in Episode #54 of the podcast. We got a ton of interviews with some big names, some new names and we checked in with a few friends from last year as well. It’s good stuff and you’ll want to tune in and listen!

Our next stop in the Big Month of Conventions™ is going to be Gamestorm down in Vancouver, WA and there is an announcement for people planning on attending the con. The much-anticipated game sign-ups are now open! If you want to guarantee yourself a spot in that one game you are just dying to play at Gamestorm this is your chance to nail it down. In order to access the system, you must have purchased a membership, and have an OpenID account with a profile. Early sign-ups are available until March 18.

Your Monday News is under the fold

Boardgames

• A couple tidbits from publisher Mayfair Games in the news. First, Mayfair announced back at the New York Toy Fair that the next addition to their Catan line would be Settlers of America: Trails to Rails. Now they have released a few more details about the game. Settlers of America: Trails to Rails will keep the familiar Catan hex-tile grid to present a map of the United States. Players collect and trade resources in order to purchase, migrate and build settlements, forge railroads and acquire locomotives. Railroads are used to distribute goods to the interconnected cities. As westward locations are settled, old sources of resources deplete. The addition of gold adds to the depth of play and increases options for the players. The game should be out this June.

  

• Mayfair Games has also announced that they are launching a new volunteer program and is searching for gamers who want to demo games at the Origins Game Fair in June 2010 and Gen Con in August 2010. If you aren’t going to be attending either of those two cons you may want to apply anyway. In the press release, Bill Fogarty, director of marketing for Mayfair, stated that they will “be looking for volunteers to demo games at other conventions and game stores”. Interested games can e-mail Bill Fogarty to request more information or an application.

Comics

• Good news for Browncoats, as Dark Horse comics has announced an original hardcover graphic novel titled Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale. The Shepard’s Tale, obviously, will explore the origin and back story of Sheppard Book and is being written by Zack Whedon from a detailed scene-by-scene outline by his brother Joss. Editor Scott Allie, quoted by Comic Book Resources had this to say about Zack’s writing.
  

  It was Joss’ idea, late last year, to bring Zack on for this, and we jumped at it, because by then I think he’d already written his first issue of ‘Terminator.’ So we knew he could nail this. There’s a scene, early on in ‘Shepherd’s Tale,’ where you see most the cast of ‘Serenity’ back together, and it’s the closest I’ve ever come to feeling like the show’s back. Sometimes with just one line – Wash – Zack perfectly recreates these characters. I can’t wait for people to read it.

  Look for Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale this November.

TV

• The *shudder* SyFy network has announced an air date for the premiere of their latest adaptation of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld books. The 4-hour Sunday night television movie will show on April 18 from 7-11 p.m. and stars Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica/Dollhouse), Laura Vandervoort (V/Smallville) and Alan Cumming (Tin Man). The synopsis from the press release:
  

  Matt Ellman (Penikett) is an American war zone reporter who has witnessed the worst of humanity first-hand, yet still grasps on to an optimistic spirit. When a suicide bomber kills both Matt and his fiancé Jessie (Vandervoort), they awaken separated in a mysterious world where everyone who has ever lived on Earth seems to have been “reborn” along the banks of a seemingly endless river. Determined to locate Jessie, Matt joins forces with a 13th century female samurai warrior named Tomoe (Jeananne Goossen) and American novelist Sam ‘Mark Twain’ Clemens (Mark Deklin). Together they sail upriver in search of its source, and to discover where they are and who put them there. Cumming guest stars as the mysterious ‘Caretaker.’

Video Games

• The action RPG Torchlight from Runic Games continues to win praise and awards. As reported on the Runic website, their game won Game Industry News’ RPG Game of the Year Award and the Game Developer’s Conference Choice Award for Best Debut. This news comes as Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer let slip that Runic is in negotiations with “multiple partners” to bring Torchlight to the realm of console gaming.