Thursday Thirteen: The Ultimate Reward.

(Wanda getting her Chaos on.  Artwork by Brian Stelfreeze from Upper Deck’s Vs. System.)

The ultimate culmination of any inspirational activity?  Seeing a group of other people engaged in the creative pursuit that you were trying to expose the world to.  In other words, the writer is most satisfied when the readers take the ball and run to places way beyond anything previously imagined.

In a similar way, our local Miami Hobby League got me glowing last night.  I had missed the week before, and I could only stop in to touch base, since this election year is cause for major partying with wife and friends.  When I got there, I discovered that they were playing a bizarre and beautiful format that took my dreams for the game and made them more real than I could have ever done by myself.

1. They put 50 character cards in a hat.

2. All the cards had different printed team affiliations.

3. Each person picked three cards at random.

4. They chose one affiliation from the three.

5. They spent the week building mono-team decks with the single affiliation.

6. They used Random Punks rules.

7. They invited me to play, even though I only had my traditional decks that did not fit the format, and would have therefore had a huge advantage.

8. They wished me well when I declined in order to attend our election party instead.

9. They helped me brainstorm for the upcoming BigSpooky challenge before I left.

10. They filled my heart with an unusual sense of satisfaction, seeing my ideals for the game actually being incarnated on real life tables in my very own city.

11. They gave me mad hope for the future of our game.

12. They made me realize that the sky is not falling.

13. They inspired me to keep toiling on, no matter what.

Now you.  Make a list of 13 inspirational somethings.  Anythings.  Then link your list here: www.thursdaythirteen.com It will start a small movement, and you never know what will come of it.  It might even bring you the ultimate reward.