One Week Ago: Friday at Gen Con 2008 in brief
Luke Johnson, Bob Farnsworth, Marc Tassin, Donald J. Bingle, and a handful of brave explorers of the early-morning light assembled for a panel entitled "Approaches to Game Writing" at 8 AM on Friday. The extensive, day-long Crash Course sponsored by Luke Crane wasn't on until 9 AM, and despite being awake and aware, I still managed to be late to the first seminar:
9 AM "Theory and Philosophy" with Emily Care Boss and Ron Edwards
While exploring the bowels of the Marriott, I saw what I believed to be Mr. Adam Dray (adamdray) disappearing into a forsaken corner of the Hotel that I had already determined did not contain the room I, and likely he, was looking for. Unfortunately, he was out of polite ear-shot; I made a solemn vow to look for Mr. Dray after finding the entrances to the "D" partition of the "Indiana Ballroom." If I found him, I would lead him to the seminar and attend it myself; if not, I'd enjoy the Exhibition Hall for the first time.
As I set out from the Ballroom, Adam Dray was already moving in the right direction. I introduced myself to him, suggested we "walk and talk," and sat down next to him. Many people offered explanations of what their games were about that Mr. Edwards found unsatisfactory. I held my tongue and did not say, "My game is about exploring the boundaries between civil disobedience and crime, rebellion and revolution." It felt... wrong, for some reason.
I skipped the next two seminars: (10 AM's "Design" with Jared Sorensen and Luke Craneand 11 AM's "Playtesting" with Luke Crane and Paul Czege) to finally explore the Hall. I introduced myself to Julia Bond Ellingboe, played a demo of Grey Ranks with Jason Morningstar (whose "One Cool Thing I Saw at Gen Con" video can be seen here. Note the mention of "The Princess Game" roughly 8 minutes in.), and another of Candycreeps with someone from Green Fairy Games. A scan of the snake-person I drew may show up on < ahref="http://www.greenfairygames.com/candycreeps.html">this page eventually...
I returned to the indie partition of the ballroom at noon for "Writing" with Vincent Baker and Robin D. Laws, which was chock-full-of-awesome.
The next two Crash Course events (1 PM's "Editing" with Thor Olvasrud and Alexander Newman and 2 PM's "Layout & Art" with Matt Snyder and John Harper) were skipped in favor of Lunching with my dear friend Liz/Guin and several members of her family, including my gracious host. I do regret missing the opportunity to absorb the wisdom of John Harper. Something had to give and it wasn't going to be healthy behavior. At least, not that day.
I returned to the Marriott at 3 PM for "Production (HTML, PDF, POD, Print)" with Luke Crane and Fred Hicks, which reinforced both lessons learned at Thursdays seminars and my own sporadic research. I absconded once more, missing "Marketing and Play" with John Stavropolus and Judd Karlman and "Money" with Ralph Mazza and Fred Hicks. Instead, I played a session of Advanced Dimensional Green Ninja-Educational Preparatory Super-Elementary Fortress 555: The Movie: The Sequel. I wore a black mask. I was Barry Callahan, the mysterious 5th grade veteran and pilot of the Stealth Black Rat mecha of the Teslatron team. Despite the preponderance of props it was clearly a tabletop game and not a LARP, though it was clearly a step in my journey to that unfamiliar corner of gaming.
I consumed delicious Turkish food with a party of twelve, and then I met up with Joe (thesporkinator) and his boss for our 9:49 PM appointment with the True Dungeon, my next step toward LARP-ness. The props, environments, and lighting were fabulous, the animatronics were cute, the sound was icky, and the hidden treasure tokens were a great touch. I'm kicking myself for not telling Joe after I found my first hidden thing!
There's so much more I could mention, but I've already rambled on far too long for Internet writing. Next: Braunstein and the Great Unplanned.
9 AM "Theory and Philosophy" with Emily Care Boss and Ron Edwards
While exploring the bowels of the Marriott, I saw what I believed to be Mr. Adam Dray (adamdray) disappearing into a forsaken corner of the Hotel that I had already determined did not contain the room I, and likely he, was looking for. Unfortunately, he was out of polite ear-shot; I made a solemn vow to look for Mr. Dray after finding the entrances to the "D" partition of the "Indiana Ballroom." If I found him, I would lead him to the seminar and attend it myself; if not, I'd enjoy the Exhibition Hall for the first time.
As I set out from the Ballroom, Adam Dray was already moving in the right direction. I introduced myself to him, suggested we "walk and talk," and sat down next to him. Many people offered explanations of what their games were about that Mr. Edwards found unsatisfactory. I held my tongue and did not say, "My game is about exploring the boundaries between civil disobedience and crime, rebellion and revolution." It felt... wrong, for some reason.
I skipped the next two seminars: (10 AM's "Design" with Jared Sorensen and Luke Craneand 11 AM's "Playtesting" with Luke Crane and Paul Czege) to finally explore the Hall. I introduced myself to Julia Bond Ellingboe, played a demo of Grey Ranks with Jason Morningstar (whose "One Cool Thing I Saw at Gen Con" video can be seen here. Note the mention of "The Princess Game" roughly 8 minutes in.), and another of Candycreeps with someone from Green Fairy Games. A scan of the snake-person I drew may show up on < ahref="http://www.greenfairygames.com/candycreeps.html">this page eventually...
I returned to the indie partition of the ballroom at noon for "Writing" with Vincent Baker and Robin D. Laws, which was chock-full-of-awesome.
The next two Crash Course events (1 PM's "Editing" with Thor Olvasrud and Alexander Newman and 2 PM's "Layout & Art" with Matt Snyder and John Harper) were skipped in favor of Lunching with my dear friend Liz/Guin and several members of her family, including my gracious host. I do regret missing the opportunity to absorb the wisdom of John Harper. Something had to give and it wasn't going to be healthy behavior. At least, not that day.
I returned to the Marriott at 3 PM for "Production (HTML, PDF, POD, Print)" with Luke Crane and Fred Hicks, which reinforced both lessons learned at Thursdays seminars and my own sporadic research. I absconded once more, missing "Marketing and Play" with John Stavropolus and Judd Karlman and "Money" with Ralph Mazza and Fred Hicks. Instead, I played a session of Advanced Dimensional Green Ninja-Educational Preparatory Super-Elementary Fortress 555: The Movie: The Sequel. I wore a black mask. I was Barry Callahan, the mysterious 5th grade veteran and pilot of the Stealth Black Rat mecha of the Teslatron team. Despite the preponderance of props it was clearly a tabletop game and not a LARP, though it was clearly a step in my journey to that unfamiliar corner of gaming.
I consumed delicious Turkish food with a party of twelve, and then I met up with Joe (thesporkinator) and his boss for our 9:49 PM appointment with the True Dungeon, my next step toward LARP-ness. The props, environments, and lighting were fabulous, the animatronics were cute, the sound was icky, and the hidden treasure tokens were a great touch. I'm kicking myself for not telling Joe after I found my first hidden thing!
There's so much more I could mention, but I've already rambled on far too long for Internet writing. Next: Braunstein and the Great Unplanned.