Photologue: FantaSci 6
The final picture from the previous entry--an icon of geekiness--serves as a nice precursor to the events described herein. Be warned, fair readers: should you not care for the wild and terrifying world of science fiction, if your soul screams at the sight of stormtroopers or lurches at the lightest lisp of LARPing, turn away now and save thyself... for what lies beyond the LJ cut is a secret so dark, so terrifying, so unforgiving as to be nearly unutterable...
I went to a science fiction convention.
AAAAAIIIEEEEEEE---
Oh. It's just a picture of the convention center. Nevermind, then.
FantaSci 6 was held at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, a nifty little structure with lots of fancy waterworks in the front. The water was blue... exceedingly so, as if someone had dumped in several thousand gallons of food dye. Weird.
The featured guest of the event was Richard Hatch. You might know him as "Captain Apollo" from the original Battlestar Galactica, or as "Tom Zarek" from the new series. You also might know him as an actor from daytime soap operas... but if that's really how you recognize the guy, this event probably wasn't your scene.
I found him to be very engaging and approachable, a high-spirited person deeply rooted in his convictions that his role in life is to help facilitate communication, through acting and instruction. He's also a big fan of Star Trek and Firefly. Jen, Rob, Courtney and I sat through his discussion panel in a very very cold convention hall, listening to anecdotes, watching trailers, and asking questions. I kid you not, he maintained eye contact with me for nearly the full length of the two hour panel.
Toward the end of the discussion, he began talking about the universe and mechanics of his new RPG, The Great War of Magellan. Mr. Hatch was assisted in this by a gentleman formerly of note within the gaming industry whose name escapes me; he introduced himself with a brief curriculum vitae that seemed to consist primarily of his career failures... how inspiring. In any case, the gameplay aims to improve on D20 combat (thank heavens) and incorporate it better with actual roleplaying.
During the explanation, Mr. Hatch cited examples to illustrate key concepts of the game. "This is a game where you definitely don't want to get hit," he said. The universe runs and works on different clan interactions and operations, with periodic honor battles to determine the hierarchy. "In most games, if you get into a fight, you fight something until it dies... not so in 'Great War of Magellan'. If I fight him," he says, standing three feet away and pointing squarely at me, "I'm not going to kill him. I'll send him into battles and on missions on my behalf."
Great news, everybody! Richard Hatch isn't going to kill me!
However, these guys might.
Boffer fighters. Prior to the Richard Hatch panel, the room was used for a demo of boffer fighting, the ancient and time-honored tradition of wrapping a length of PVC pipe or fiberglass rod in foam rubber and duct tape, grasping the end, and cudgeling the ever-loving shit out of your buddies with it. The kilts were optional.
The scene was surreal: grown men and teenagers wielding foamy swords and axes and plywood shields, bashing and swinging and chucking self-sewed bean-bag "throwing axes" at one another. They battled over and over, yelling out the colors of their weapons to indicate the damage done by each touch. There was even talk of levels and classes... live action roleplaying with attitude and brutality.
Naturally, after the demonstration battles they asked for members of the audience to try it out. After much goading, I took off my watch and glasses and picked up a "sword".
Kyle "kilo_foxtrot" F. vs. Random "Lord LARPER" Guy
Results: kilo_foxtrot triumphs undefeated in three bouts. Gentlemen kneel and women of stature throw themselves upon him. There is much rejoicing.
I felt a little bad about repeatedly hitting him in the face and head... but hey, in my world that's valid target. Masks are our friends, people.
Succumbing to peer pressure following my own efforts, Courtney got up and gave it a few shots, just to get a feel for the weapon. Once she started following through on her swings, her form looked better... and a little scary. She had fun laughing maliciously at the pain of her opponent.
Yes, that is a large Romulan with a bow and boffer arrow.
Following the battles and celebrity stare-downs, we all headed outside and soaked up some warmth in the sunlight. Behind us, a gaggle of geeks milled about a table in the shade, LARPing a game of "Vampire: The Masquerade". I made the suggestion that we walk over to them and actually bite them, in the spirit of authenticity; this motion was amiably declined. Below and in the distance, several children were happily beating themselves senseless with the help and guidance of the boffer group.
Jen and Rob (a couple, though not engaged as I previously thought) had been to quite a number of conventions in the past, complete with rueful tales about "that one time at Godzilla-con". Courtney had been to a few, and this was technically my second, thanks to Running GAGG X. Still, it was the first time I'd been to an event like this without knowing the folks running it ahead of time... and it was great.
Courtney and I partook in a game of Klingon Bingo ("Klingo", if you will). I counted... oh, I think three male Klingons and one female. One of the guys was actually a guard: he stood by the bathrooms, one hand on his belt, the other on his bat'leth, just staring at everyone silently... until he responded when I yelled "Qa'pla!" at him. I only saw a single Stormtrooper, and I'm not sure he counts: he was dressed as a Jedi during the Richard Hatch panel. We were also graced with a Stargate mechanic and several folks in medieval garb, as well as a Death Star gunner in a wheelchair. ("That's very noble of them, I think, to give consideration to veterans.")
There was also a small filmmaking/propmaking company represented in the vendor hall. They submitted a short film for the Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters" parody project last fall, and had a Ghostbusters proton pack on display that I gave semi-serious thought about swiping.
I justified my trip to the convention on the basis of research for my NaNoWriMo project, which is an adventure story set around a sci-fi convention gone horribly, horribly wrong. Ironically enough, I had come up with the idea before even hearing about the convention. How convenient! The title that I'm leaning toward is "The Wrath of Con"... as if you even had to ask.
I went to a science fiction convention.
AAAAAIIIEEEEEEE---
Oh. It's just a picture of the convention center. Nevermind, then.
FantaSci 6 was held at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, a nifty little structure with lots of fancy waterworks in the front. The water was blue... exceedingly so, as if someone had dumped in several thousand gallons of food dye. Weird.
The featured guest of the event was Richard Hatch. You might know him as "Captain Apollo" from the original Battlestar Galactica, or as "Tom Zarek" from the new series. You also might know him as an actor from daytime soap operas... but if that's really how you recognize the guy, this event probably wasn't your scene.
I found him to be very engaging and approachable, a high-spirited person deeply rooted in his convictions that his role in life is to help facilitate communication, through acting and instruction. He's also a big fan of Star Trek and Firefly. Jen, Rob, Courtney and I sat through his discussion panel in a very very cold convention hall, listening to anecdotes, watching trailers, and asking questions. I kid you not, he maintained eye contact with me for nearly the full length of the two hour panel.
Toward the end of the discussion, he began talking about the universe and mechanics of his new RPG, The Great War of Magellan. Mr. Hatch was assisted in this by a gentleman formerly of note within the gaming industry whose name escapes me; he introduced himself with a brief curriculum vitae that seemed to consist primarily of his career failures... how inspiring. In any case, the gameplay aims to improve on D20 combat (thank heavens) and incorporate it better with actual roleplaying.
During the explanation, Mr. Hatch cited examples to illustrate key concepts of the game. "This is a game where you definitely don't want to get hit," he said. The universe runs and works on different clan interactions and operations, with periodic honor battles to determine the hierarchy. "In most games, if you get into a fight, you fight something until it dies... not so in 'Great War of Magellan'. If I fight him," he says, standing three feet away and pointing squarely at me, "I'm not going to kill him. I'll send him into battles and on missions on my behalf."
Great news, everybody! Richard Hatch isn't going to kill me!
However, these guys might.
Click to viewBoffer fighters. Prior to the Richard Hatch panel, the room was used for a demo of boffer fighting, the ancient and time-honored tradition of wrapping a length of PVC pipe or fiberglass rod in foam rubber and duct tape, grasping the end, and cudgeling the ever-loving shit out of your buddies with it. The kilts were optional.
The scene was surreal: grown men and teenagers wielding foamy swords and axes and plywood shields, bashing and swinging and chucking self-sewed bean-bag "throwing axes" at one another. They battled over and over, yelling out the colors of their weapons to indicate the damage done by each touch. There was even talk of levels and classes... live action roleplaying with attitude and brutality.
Naturally, after the demonstration battles they asked for members of the audience to try it out. After much goading, I took off my watch and glasses and picked up a "sword".
Kyle "kilo_foxtrot" F. vs. Random "Lord LARPER" Guy
Results: kilo_foxtrot triumphs undefeated in three bouts. Gentlemen kneel and women of stature throw themselves upon him. There is much rejoicing.
I felt a little bad about repeatedly hitting him in the face and head... but hey, in my world that's valid target. Masks are our friends, people.
Succumbing to peer pressure following my own efforts, Courtney got up and gave it a few shots, just to get a feel for the weapon. Once she started following through on her swings, her form looked better... and a little scary. She had fun laughing maliciously at the pain of her opponent.
Yes, that is a large Romulan with a bow and boffer arrow.
Following the battles and celebrity stare-downs, we all headed outside and soaked up some warmth in the sunlight. Behind us, a gaggle of geeks milled about a table in the shade, LARPing a game of "Vampire: The Masquerade". I made the suggestion that we walk over to them and actually bite them, in the spirit of authenticity; this motion was amiably declined. Below and in the distance, several children were happily beating themselves senseless with the help and guidance of the boffer group.
Jen and Rob (a couple, though not engaged as I previously thought) had been to quite a number of conventions in the past, complete with rueful tales about "that one time at Godzilla-con". Courtney had been to a few, and this was technically my second, thanks to Running GAGG X. Still, it was the first time I'd been to an event like this without knowing the folks running it ahead of time... and it was great.
Courtney and I partook in a game of Klingon Bingo ("Klingo", if you will). I counted... oh, I think three male Klingons and one female. One of the guys was actually a guard: he stood by the bathrooms, one hand on his belt, the other on his bat'leth, just staring at everyone silently... until he responded when I yelled "Qa'pla!" at him. I only saw a single Stormtrooper, and I'm not sure he counts: he was dressed as a Jedi during the Richard Hatch panel. We were also graced with a Stargate mechanic and several folks in medieval garb, as well as a Death Star gunner in a wheelchair. ("That's very noble of them, I think, to give consideration to veterans.")
There was also a small filmmaking/propmaking company represented in the vendor hall. They submitted a short film for the Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters" parody project last fall, and had a Ghostbusters proton pack on display that I gave semi-serious thought about swiping.
I justified my trip to the convention on the basis of research for my NaNoWriMo project, which is an adventure story set around a sci-fi convention gone horribly, horribly wrong. Ironically enough, I had come up with the idea before even hearing about the convention. How convenient! The title that I'm leaning toward is "The Wrath of Con"... as if you even had to ask.