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The yearly gaming convention Gen Con is a fantasy world unto itself. A 'home away from home' for tabletop RPG players, board gamers, and miniatures fanatics, the Indianapolis-based event attracts thousands of nerdfolk from across the country. It's also a mecca for card gamers, and has traditionally been one of the crowning moments in the yearly tour circuits. The World of Warcraft TCG has its National Championship slated for that weekend, and Magic the Gathering traditionally offers huge winnings to Gen Con attendees.

Sony Online Enterainment continues its serious support for the Legends of Norrath online TCG by announcing a $100,000 prize purse for the winners of their own Gen Con event. Championship qualifiers have been held regularly for the last few months, and there are still three chances to make it into the big show. Even if you don't make it in via the online events, players at the show will still be able to qualify by participating in duels on the Thursday and Friday of convention week. The top individual prize to the first place winner is $25,000. Attendees will also get the chance to play against the new Ralkor Bloodmoon raid deck. Groups that win against their evil opponent are promised 'phat lewt'. Make sure to give him one for us if you make it out there.

If you're in EverQuest or EverQuest II this weekend, you'll get a little extra present alongside the usual money and loots. Cards for the free-to-play fantasy card game Legends of Norrath regularly drop in the games, but every once in a while Sony Online Entertainment offers up a special treat. This weekend is one of those times, with the new Chardok raid deck cards dropping all throughout the game. The cards start their appearance in the game at 2pm PST today, and will continue through 2pm PST on May 27th. You've got more than a month to grab as many of the 31 cards in the deck as you can.

According to the events calendar there are also Championship Qualifiers this weekend. Several rounds of play are happening through Sunday if you're interested in participating. At the end of the weekend's play the top two places will have a Match Play Constructed Deck playoff to determine the winner for the ultimate prize: $500 USD, a "Bye" into the 2008 Legends of Norrath Championships, paid hotel and air travel to Gen Con Indy, 4-day Gen Con Indy badge, and the winner's likeness on an upcoming Legends of Norrath game card. And second place is $750. So ... not bad for a weekend's work.

Good luck, card players.

The next Legends of Norrath Promo Weekend is imminent, beginning at 2:PM PDT today, and will run until at 10:00 AM PDT on Monday, April 7th. The usual deal of increased card drop-rates in EverQuest and EverQuest II applies, as well as the introduction of two new cards.

Players will be able to snag the Icewell Commander card (seen at EQ2Players), as well as the handsome dog pictured here, the Blackburrow Troublemaker. Look at his sweet face -- how can you not want to take this adorable Gnoll home?

SOE recently posted a new video developer chat. In this month's edition, Midori "Momochi" McDaniel chats with EverQuest 2 character artist Thomas Sincich, about his work on EQ2's fifth expansion and Legends of Norrath, his character work on the Arasai and Sarnak races, and his designs for epic armor and the Soulfire weapons.

You can download the entire DevDiary chat and see some of Thomas' absolutely stunning artwork, but it's a bit large, so we've transcribed it here for your enjoyment. Click through the break to read the whole thing, and check out some of our previous EverQuest 2 developer interviews.

SOE's Legends of Norrath trading card game just introduced it's 3rd set, dubbed Inquisitor. You've probably heard about all the new gameplay features it adds to the game, but let's face it, many players are just interested in the loot cards. These are special cards randomly mixed into packs that can be redeemed for in-game items in either EverQuest or EverQuest II. Items like unique mounts, non-combat pets, housing decorations and more.

Just in time for this weekend's tournament, SOE provided us with exclusive screenshots of what many of these items look like. We've put them all in the gallery below. So get to clicking and see what in-game bling awaits the lucky.

Another "Double Threat" Loot Tournament is scheduled for Legends of Norrath players this weekend, offering the chance at fame, glory, and some shiny new cards. Your 10 Event Pass entry fee will guarantee that you receive a minimum of three Inquisitor booster packs, as well as one of two loot cards and a special promotional card. The promotional card is none other than King Tormax, Lord of the Storm Giants. Once a formidable raid target in Kael Drakkal, he's now a bit of a pushover with new levels and gear, but plenty of people would surely like to pick up this card to remember him at his best.

The two loot cards on offer at the tournament are the Familiar of Phara Dar for EverQuest and Fury of Di'Zok for EverQuest II. The event will kick off at 7AM PST on Saturday the 22nd of March, and go until 9PM PST the next day -- and yes, this is one of the tournaments that only U.S. residents can enter. Check after the break for full tournament and prize details.

File this under "Hilarious", and "Fairly Embarrassing". Featured at Cuppytalk, we see a screenshot taken from Legends of Norrath (click the picture for a full-sized version). It appears an epic battle has just been won, and upon close examination of the stirring victory message, something isn't quite right:

You have defeated the Bridge Keeper and all three of the Royal Family of Di'zok to become the rulers of the castle of Chardok! The bards and troubadours of Azeroth will sing your praises for years to come!

That's right, your great deed is so immense that it transcends game universes. Now all that's left is to find out where the portal between the two is, so that you can meet up with your new fans in distant lands.

The Legends of Norrath expansion set Inquisitor is due for release tomorrow, the 7th of March. In celebration, a series of sealed deck tournaments are being held, with the first one kicking off this weekend and going from the 7th to the 9th. The tournament has a heftier than usual buy-in of 20 event passes, but this gets you an Inquisitor starter deck and three Inquisitor booster packs to build your deck with.

Apart from this, entrants will also receive an exclusive Burynai Rockshaper card, and some extra booster packs depending on where they place in the tournament (everyone gets at least two extra packs, hit the jump for full prize listings). Unlike some LoN events, it doesn't look like this one is limited to US residents, so international players, now's your chance to get out there and show them what you're made of. The LoN event calender has details on the timing of the weekend's tournaments, and this information has also been copied after the break.

Tomorrow, SOE is releasing the details on 20 new loot cards in their upcoming Legends of Norrath: Inquisitor expansion set. But today, they gave us an exclusive look at five of them. Two for EverQuest and three for EverQuest II.

For those of you in the dark, Legends of Norrath is SOE's digital trading card game. It can be played within EQ and EQ2 or using a stand alone client. You collect cards to build decks to engage in head-to-head combat with other players. In every new set, SOE slips in loot cards. They have no function in the trading card game, but can be redeemed for in-game items.

The two new ones we have for EQ players are a new mount and an ammo slot item whose description was a little vague, but it looks like it allows the bearer to breathe underwater. For EQ2 players, we have the pirate cloak you see above which can also increases the size of the caster by 50%, a charm slot item that transforms the caster into a Burynai (the in-house pet that came with pre-ordering the last expansion, Rise of Kunark) and a ring that increases tradeskill experience by 15%. The cloak and mount look sweet, but that ring is crazy good considering crafting in EQ2 has its own 80 levels to grind through independent of combat experience!

Check out the LoN home page tomorrow for all the loot cards in the Inquisitor set that goes on sale next Friday, March 7th.

This morning, SOE will announce the release date for the 3rd set of their online strategy card game, Legends of Norrath. Inquisitor is scheduled to be released on Friday, March 7, 2008 with over 250 cards introducing new game play elements, new loot redeemable in EverQuest and EverQuest II and a new lore-based campaign free to all registered users.

Massively has the exclusive first look of the new features, new cards and a new video after the jump.

There are countless citizens of Norrath out there who would love to pick up the fair ruler of Qeynos, Antonia Bayle. Well, now you can! Err, pick up her card, that is. This weekend marks the next Legends of Norrath tournament, and all entrants will receive an "Antonia Bayle, Ruler of Qeynos" card. As well as this, they will have the choice of two loot cards, the "Nimbus of the Lover" for EverQuest and "Poisoned Fists" for EverQuest II.

Entry to the tournament costs 10 event passes as per usual, and is limited to U.S. residents. The minimum prize consists of the above cards, and 3 booster packs (with the top tier of players taking home increasingly more of these). The starting time is 7:00AM PST on Saturday February 16th, and the tournament will wrap up at 9:00PM PST on Monday the 18th. Check past the break for full tournament details.

EQ2Players has announced a February Loot Re-Roll for Legends of Norrath. Two shiny new loot cards will be available from now in Forsworn boosters packs -- and not only that, every Forsworn pack that has already been opened also has the chance of scoring you one, so check to see if you've been retroactively lucky.

The loot card for EverQuest this time around is called Visage of the Bixie Drone, and it would seem fairly obvious what you might receive for cashing this one in. However, more intriguing is the EverQuest II loot card, a Thermal Lunchbox. A container of some sort? Possibly linked to the Provisioning craft? Do you turn into a walking lunchbox? The little box icon included on the card indicates that it would be storage, but only time will tell what other surprises it holds.

The next Legends of Norrath promo weekend will take place on February the 1st, beginning at 2pm PST. As with the previous weekend, this doesn't affect LoN in-game, but rather, players of EverQuest and EverQuest II will find that packs of cards will drop from mobs at an increased rate.

Also like last promotion weekend, there will be two new cards on offer, the Fetid Goo and Runnyeye Cook. The Fetid Goo looks like a bit of a mixed bag if you read its effect: "When this unit is destroyed, destroy another friendly unit at the same quest". It's a good card for its power cost, but obviously situational. The Runnyeye Cook however looks to be a solid low-power-cost choice with quite a handy effect.

Last month the first qualifying round for the Legends of Norrath championships took place, and we're now staring down the barrel of round two. Beginning at 10AM PST on January 26th, the January LoN Championship Qualifier will commence. As with last round, there's about USD$5000 in prizes up for grabs, with the overall winner getting cash, a trip to Gen Con Indy, entry into the LoN championship and their likeness on a new card.

There is no entry fee to get involved, but only US citizens may participate. Aside from the main prize, players up to 16th place will be rewarded in cash. The first day will be a series of heats, and the top 16 from day one will advance to day two where final placing will be determined with more battles. Get the full details of the qualifier after the break.