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Jul. 7th, 2008 10:15 am
Gencon Memories
As we all know, reality is a hallucinatory state brought on by low blood sugar and fatigue toxins, that hits you shortly after the convention ends. So, while some lucidity still remains to me:
OUR FLIGHT from Sydney to Brisbane was cancelled. We were placed on an earlier flight. This was fortunate as that flight ended up leaving an hour after our original flight had been scheduled. High winds had apparently closed two out of the three runways at Sydney Airport. I still can't quite see how.
We had to change seats to ones that were not next to the emergency exit because I refused to put my bag in the overhead locker. This is because I had my hat in it. This was the hat, for those who know. For everyone else, when you get to the picture from the Scarlet Pimpernel freeform, you will understand. On the way home I just wore it.
THE HOTEL looked better on the website than it did at eight that night. However, it was where the map showed and they did have our reservation. And yes, the convention had paid as they had for our flights! What a wonderful arrangement!
THE CONVENTION CENTRE was where the map showed as well, and only a short walk. Too long if you are dressed in velvet, it is raining and your umbrella is back at the con, but otherwise perfectly acceptable. Brisbane's South Bank is a strange mixture of aggressive urban renewal and subtropical decay. Our route took us past an old, white plaster catholic church with high windows and a mock-stone grotto containing a statue of the Virgin amongst the fringing palm trees. A coterie of homeless was camped there, every time we passed and whatever hour we passed except for Sunday morning when all these elderly people were filing into Mass.
The first time I looked up inside the actual hall, I ducked. White piping, struts and corrugations that bowed out like the underside of a ship. Given the number of stormtroopers patrolling, I'm guessing one of the smaller star destroyers.
THE PEOPLE that I hadn't seen in ages! This is obviously my year for renewing connections and rediscovering delights. I'd never really gotten how discreet the roleplaying and 'straight' SF/Fantasy fandoms were. Must be. I mean, there were people there we know currently. Nearly all our panels were with Stephen Dedman who like us bridges the gap in his work, plus one with Sean Williams who was there to be worshipped by Star Wars fans. But that one was chaired by Chris S. who I knew back in the days of ARIEL (the Australian Roleplaying Information Exchange Library) and who gave me such an exquisite introduction ("is there anything creative that Kyla hasn't done?" I blush, I blush!). And there was Phillipa B. who used to run Macquariecon and is now organising Sydcon (would you run something Kyla? It doesn't have to be new!). Michael W. Good grief! How long has it been since I saw him (in a frock coat, to boot)? And Nigel, who remembers me from working at Disney? At Disney? And I've forgotten the name of the woman who said she played my freeform Imago at Necro X and it had "stayed with her". Damn it and thank you!
THE PEOPLE that I met for the first time! Actually, I'd heard of Random and his freeforms long before, but this is the first time our paths have crossed. And Steve Darlington was but a vague web presence before. I was on a panel with Robin Laws, whose Laws of Gamesmastery have read and vainly attempted to practice (I just can't seem to get over the GM-is-not-the-author bar. This despite being on the panel about collaborative writing). I sat next to Tracy and Laura Hickman during signing sessions and ended up confessing that David and I met playing Dragonlance. And I won't hear a word against Peter and the other Gencon staff who were nothing but helpful, charming and enthused the entire time, not to mention correcting the spelling of my name at the signing booth.
THE FREEFORMS were fantastic. I didn't actually play anything else, unless you count an impromptu game of Dungeontwister between panels. I had forgotten how much I really, truly, absolutely adore them.
This is Lady Katharina Hellner, informal ambassador for Austria and chaperone of Her Grace the Grand Duchess Maria Anna. In Paris on the eve of La Grande Terreur to arrange a marriage, identify a murderer and start a war. Personally, I thought the Scarlet Pimpernel was a myth. He wasn't and nor was he the only fictional character present that evening. I absolutely can't say who the other was, but the debrief was hilarious. Superb freeform, by Megan B.
This is Creation. And this is Random's Ball of Dreams, which is based on the masquerade sequence in Labryinth. I stutter typographically as I attempt to describe this: perhaps a few clarifying points will suffice.
We started as archetypes with generally vague and distant memories. As the game proceeded, we received new character sheets with more information. Some of us turned out to be human beings who had been ensnared by the Goblin King. Some did not.
At a certain point the film was put on. This was a timing device. The ball scene took place. We danced around Jareth and Sarah. And then we had until the climax to finally sort things out amongst ourselves.
We danced. I danced with Sorrow, Chance and Destruction. I was enspelled by Caution but put things to rights by talking with Risk. I conspired with Desire, flirted with Anger and embraced Hate. Simply incredible.
Unfortunately, Wit and Wedlock was cancelled at slightly past the last moment. So I am none the wiser as to what a Jane Austen RPG would actually entail. I mean, would there be vampires? Sigh. Perhaps next year?
Actually, I'm thinking of running a game myself.
THE PANELS
Over the four days, I sat on Freelancing 101, Freelancing - the Next Step and the Australian Freelancers Round Table. The first was with David and Stephen, and went really well. I mean, people were asking questions and taking notes! The second was the one with Robin Laws and it went really well. The third (at 10.00 am on Sunday morning) was sparsely attended and turned into a really cosy chat session with an exchange of contacts.
There were also two horror in gaming panels which we also did with Stephen and which were hugely enjoyable. We decided amongst ourselves that the first one should be more about the unfettered joy of terror and the second more technical, but I went on about LARPing during the first and at the second told the squid story, so, well. Stephen Dedman is an Evil Bastard. He said so. After hearing his anecdotes, I believe it.
The last was collaborative gaming which was us two and Sean Williams. His collaborator couldn't be there which kind of balanced the fact he has gotten immeasurably more published than... pretty much anyone? Also, he asked how David and I managed co-writing as a couple.
Answer: we just do.
Oh, and there was the Australian Horror and Fantasy Writer's reading, which was me, David and Stephen again. People turned up! David read his fiction from All Tomorrow's Zombies and Stephen from his Shadowrun novel. All I have in that line is a "flash" piece in Demon: The Earthbound so I read the start of Necromance instead. To the lady who came up to me after and asked when it was coming out because she was a lawyer and it sounded really interesting, I wish I'd got your email!
There was just so much going on. The Computer Games seminar. Tracy and Laura's Killer Breakfast. Actual tabletop RPGs, boardgames and wargames by the square metre. The stalls. Oh heck:
MISCELLANEOUS
Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.
People LARP Salute of the Jugger? Regularly? There's an international competition?
Hunter the Gathering : )
That Japanese place on the riverside walk. Best steamed vegetables ever.
Cosplay
Steampunk
"The Giant Flaming Broccoli Explodes!"
The Authors Anonymous Twelve Step Program
Did I mentioned we did signings? That we sold books!
Wow. This can also be an exclamation.
OUR FLIGHT from Sydney to Brisbane was cancelled. We were placed on an earlier flight. This was fortunate as that flight ended up leaving an hour after our original flight had been scheduled. High winds had apparently closed two out of the three runways at Sydney Airport. I still can't quite see how.
We had to change seats to ones that were not next to the emergency exit because I refused to put my bag in the overhead locker. This is because I had my hat in it. This was the hat, for those who know. For everyone else, when you get to the picture from the Scarlet Pimpernel freeform, you will understand. On the way home I just wore it.
THE HOTEL looked better on the website than it did at eight that night. However, it was where the map showed and they did have our reservation. And yes, the convention had paid as they had for our flights! What a wonderful arrangement!
THE CONVENTION CENTRE was where the map showed as well, and only a short walk. Too long if you are dressed in velvet, it is raining and your umbrella is back at the con, but otherwise perfectly acceptable. Brisbane's South Bank is a strange mixture of aggressive urban renewal and subtropical decay. Our route took us past an old, white plaster catholic church with high windows and a mock-stone grotto containing a statue of the Virgin amongst the fringing palm trees. A coterie of homeless was camped there, every time we passed and whatever hour we passed except for Sunday morning when all these elderly people were filing into Mass.
The first time I looked up inside the actual hall, I ducked. White piping, struts and corrugations that bowed out like the underside of a ship. Given the number of stormtroopers patrolling, I'm guessing one of the smaller star destroyers.
THE PEOPLE that I hadn't seen in ages! This is obviously my year for renewing connections and rediscovering delights. I'd never really gotten how discreet the roleplaying and 'straight' SF/Fantasy fandoms were. Must be. I mean, there were people there we know currently. Nearly all our panels were with Stephen Dedman who like us bridges the gap in his work, plus one with Sean Williams who was there to be worshipped by Star Wars fans. But that one was chaired by Chris S. who I knew back in the days of ARIEL (the Australian Roleplaying Information Exchange Library) and who gave me such an exquisite introduction ("is there anything creative that Kyla hasn't done?" I blush, I blush!). And there was Phillipa B. who used to run Macquariecon and is now organising Sydcon (would you run something Kyla? It doesn't have to be new!). Michael W. Good grief! How long has it been since I saw him (in a frock coat, to boot)? And Nigel, who remembers me from working at Disney? At Disney? And I've forgotten the name of the woman who said she played my freeform Imago at Necro X and it had "stayed with her". Damn it and thank you!
THE PEOPLE that I met for the first time! Actually, I'd heard of Random and his freeforms long before, but this is the first time our paths have crossed. And Steve Darlington was but a vague web presence before. I was on a panel with Robin Laws, whose Laws of Gamesmastery have read and vainly attempted to practice (I just can't seem to get over the GM-is-not-the-author bar. This despite being on the panel about collaborative writing). I sat next to Tracy and Laura Hickman during signing sessions and ended up confessing that David and I met playing Dragonlance. And I won't hear a word against Peter and the other Gencon staff who were nothing but helpful, charming and enthused the entire time, not to mention correcting the spelling of my name at the signing booth.
THE FREEFORMS were fantastic. I didn't actually play anything else, unless you count an impromptu game of Dungeontwister between panels. I had forgotten how much I really, truly, absolutely adore them.
This is Lady Katharina Hellner, informal ambassador for Austria and chaperone of Her Grace the Grand Duchess Maria Anna. In Paris on the eve of La Grande Terreur to arrange a marriage, identify a murderer and start a war. Personally, I thought the Scarlet Pimpernel was a myth. He wasn't and nor was he the only fictional character present that evening. I absolutely can't say who the other was, but the debrief was hilarious. Superb freeform, by Megan B.
This is Creation. And this is Random's Ball of Dreams, which is based on the masquerade sequence in Labryinth. I stutter typographically as I attempt to describe this: perhaps a few clarifying points will suffice.
We started as archetypes with generally vague and distant memories. As the game proceeded, we received new character sheets with more information. Some of us turned out to be human beings who had been ensnared by the Goblin King. Some did not.
At a certain point the film was put on. This was a timing device. The ball scene took place. We danced around Jareth and Sarah. And then we had until the climax to finally sort things out amongst ourselves.
We danced. I danced with Sorrow, Chance and Destruction. I was enspelled by Caution but put things to rights by talking with Risk. I conspired with Desire, flirted with Anger and embraced Hate. Simply incredible.
Unfortunately, Wit and Wedlock was cancelled at slightly past the last moment. So I am none the wiser as to what a Jane Austen RPG would actually entail. I mean, would there be vampires? Sigh. Perhaps next year?
Actually, I'm thinking of running a game myself.
THE PANELS
Over the four days, I sat on Freelancing 101, Freelancing - the Next Step and the Australian Freelancers Round Table. The first was with David and Stephen, and went really well. I mean, people were asking questions and taking notes! The second was the one with Robin Laws and it went really well. The third (at 10.00 am on Sunday morning) was sparsely attended and turned into a really cosy chat session with an exchange of contacts.
There were also two horror in gaming panels which we also did with Stephen and which were hugely enjoyable. We decided amongst ourselves that the first one should be more about the unfettered joy of terror and the second more technical, but I went on about LARPing during the first and at the second told the squid story, so, well. Stephen Dedman is an Evil Bastard. He said so. After hearing his anecdotes, I believe it.
The last was collaborative gaming which was us two and Sean Williams. His collaborator couldn't be there which kind of balanced the fact he has gotten immeasurably more published than... pretty much anyone? Also, he asked how David and I managed co-writing as a couple.
Answer: we just do.
Oh, and there was the Australian Horror and Fantasy Writer's reading, which was me, David and Stephen again. People turned up! David read his fiction from All Tomorrow's Zombies and Stephen from his Shadowrun novel. All I have in that line is a "flash" piece in Demon: The Earthbound so I read the start of Necromance instead. To the lady who came up to me after and asked when it was coming out because she was a lawyer and it sounded really interesting, I wish I'd got your email!
There was just so much going on. The Computer Games seminar. Tracy and Laura's Killer Breakfast. Actual tabletop RPGs, boardgames and wargames by the square metre. The stalls. Oh heck:
MISCELLANEOUS
Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.
People LARP Salute of the Jugger? Regularly? There's an international competition?
Hunter the Gathering : )
That Japanese place on the riverside walk. Best steamed vegetables ever.
Cosplay
Steampunk
"The Giant Flaming Broccoli Explodes!"
The Authors Anonymous Twelve Step Program
Did I mentioned we did signings? That we sold books!
Wow. This can also be an exclamation.
