Calgary Expo Day Two
My adventure as a gaming guest at a rapidly expanding comics convention continued for the second and final day of the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. Apparently Sunday is traditionally a quieter day than the Saturday, but no one told the attendees that. If anything the aisles seemed more tightly packed than yesterday, with the costume quotient cranked up even higher. Must have been the rolling Nimoy multiplier effect.
Again robheinsoo and I found ourselves conducting a satisfyingly packed panel. This time it was the GM Troubleshooting workshop. This is my go-to topic for any con, since it’s what attendees most want to talk about. As an added bonus, the questions asked always serve of a snapshot of any local gaming scene. As a panelist I get a sense of the flavor and variety of the games being run and the issues GMs are grappling with. Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering came out of the questions asked at seminars just like the one we ran today. I’ve been doing them ever since and have seen the issues raised evolve over time. Today you’re less likely to get the erstwhile perennial: “How do I get my players to roleplay more?” That seems to have been replaced by a sense that there’s no one proper way to play RPGs, and thus no single correct path GMs should be obligated to coax their players onto. The issue of the problem player with the disruptive personality type still arises every time, and probably always will.
After the seminar we repaired to our appointed spots in guest alley and were able to do some in-depth workshopping of GM problems with panel attendees who swung by to give us further questions to gnaw upon.
At the beginning of the day, a booth kitty-corner from us was taken over by the Girl Guides, who in a genius move stacked their table high with boxes of cookies. By the time we came back from lunch, girl guides and cookies alike had vanished. Evidently they sold out their stock forthwith.
Directly across from us stood a carnival-style house of horrors. Outside it prowled several zombie babes. Yesterday’s zombie Supergirl and zombie Batmangirl were today joined by zombie slave girl Princess Leia. The first two undead superheroines lurched about in a friendly, playful manner. ZSGPL, whose prosthetic wounds were delineated with an extra dollop of nastiness, devoted her considerable movement chops to disturbing effect. She injected predatory realism into her stalking and prowling, remaining true to her unsettling performance art throughout the day.
Though the costumes on display ran the usual gamut, with plenty of Starfleet personnel, Wolverines, and anime staples, a new trend seemed to be bubbling among the costume brigade: the mash-up. There were the gender benders: girl Data, girl Wolverine, bare-midriffed Batmangirls (as distinct from Batgirl, who also made at least one appearance.) Then came the stranger semiotic collisions: barbarian Boba Fett, V For Vendetta pikachu, and wolf furryGreen Lantern. In a fast move off the starting blocks, there was an Eleventh Dr. Who/Amy Pond pairing. My favorite was the subtly offbeat choice of a Gwen Stacy outfit, executed in perfect retro style.
Thanks to Kandrix and team for the smoothly-run, well-attended show, and to Calgary RPGers for showing up to talk gaming!