2011 » Troll in the Corner

So You’ve Just Discovered Your Favorite Author Is Bat Spit Crazy…

Sep 092011

Or has views on some topics that are massively divergent from yours. Or possibly has turned out to be a morally reprehensible letch. There are numerous issues that can come up when you look at an author as more than a name on a cover. Sometimes they come up because you went looking for more information on someone you admire. And sometimes it’s because they do something so bizarre that it gains them a new place in the spotlight.

There’s been a lot of banter on the internet recently about author Orson Scott Card and his decision to rewrite William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The outcry over Mr. Card’s latest work isn’t specifically what I’m here to talk about. Mainly because the more I read about the man and his views, the more it makes me want to pound my head into a wall. The whole thing has reminded me of the controversy Anne Rice caused among her fans several years ago when she went Ultra Christian out of the blue–and then a few years later decided she wasn’t anymore. Which, in turn, got me thinking about how far can an author push his or her fans (intentionally or unintentionally) with their personal beliefs or lifestyle before fans start to back away.

Is there a point where you, as a reader and a fan, decide that no matter how much you’ve enjoyed an authors past work you can’t bring yourself to support them by buying their future works? Is there a breaking point where you get rid of everything you own that they’ve written? Do you get rid of the dog eared copy of that award winning book that spoke to you so strongly at some point in your life? Do you start looking at their past works and wondering what hidden agenda they might have, or analyzing what scenes “really mean” in light of seeing who they are today? Whether it’s about Mr. Card’s personal philosophies, or what some say is a decline in his work, or about any other author, I’m curious to know if anyone out there has given up on a favorite author. Or if there’s a point where someone you currently love to read could lose your favor.

[tags]Literature,Author,Crazy,Controversy,Orson Scott Card[/tags]

A brief musical interlude

Ben's Corner, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Sep 092011

Here’s a brief interlude of semi-nonsensical music from a semi-non talented musician!

That would be me, by the way.

Yesterday afternoon in a fit of potentially misguided creativity, I install the Garage Band app on my iPad. I spent the evening with my kids making silly songs with them mostly in control. When they finally passed out from exhaustion, I took control of my badly finger smeared tablet and made this little ditty:

Tech Support

Click that link to listen. Right click to download. Middle click to confuse your browser.

It’s an ode to all of those who work in tech support, or have enough computer savvy to be deemed their family and friend’s person support guru. It’s only about a minute and a half long and is by no means a musical masterpiece, it being the my first attempt at a song without the intervention of a 5 year old. But I think it gets the job done. All in all it took me about one hour to cobble it together.

I’m particularly proud of the fact that I used no loops and made three percussion tracks all on my own. Go me!

I’m hastily shoving this into my RPG soundtrack area as well because it could conceivably be used as such. Perhaps in a Paranoia game.

To change the meaning or not to change the meaning: THAT is the question before us.

Literature, Troll in the Corner 3 Responses »

Sep 092011

Over the last few days, there has been a flap over Subterranean Press’s reissue of Orson Scott Card’s novella Hamlet’s Father. I have not read the novella. The flap, which is the word I’ll use instead of the stronger one I’d prefer, has to do with Card’s reinterpretation of Hamlet. According to every secondary source I’ve seen, the root of Hamlet’s problems (and indeed, most or all of the other problems in the play) is that the characters are gay, gay, gay.

Confession: I do teach English. I will do my level best not to bore you. Shakespeare is not my area of expertise, but for so many reasons, this is an interpretation that cannot stand.

I came to science fiction and fantasy as a fan relatively late. Part of the vibe that I’m getting from people I’m reading comments from on Twitter and journals and emails is that people who grew up on the Ender’s Game series or are huge fans of it are bitterly disappointed. I have only read one book of Card’s, so I don’t know enough to comment there.

I see two primary issues:
1. The lack of tolerance is appalling. As Elizabeth Bear recently pointed out in a guest post on Charles Stross’s blog:

[T]he one thing I notice about the writers in my cohort is that we are multicolored, multicultural, multinational, multiethnic. We come from a wide range of class and religious backgrounds and life experiences. We do not conform neatly to gender binaries or established sexual identities. You cannot assume that we are male, or heterosexual, or white, or American or English or Canadian, or of protestant or Jewish background, or that we are probably professional or middle class. The thing–the only thing–we have in common is that we are science fiction and fantasy fans.

2. Shakespeare, whoever and whatever you believe him to be, is about the language. I hated Shakespeare with a passion until I saw his work performed. These works are meant to be read aloud; they’re meant to be spoken. When the poetry is taken out of the language, as Card has apparently done, you’re killing genius. Scott Lynch:

Card’s got every right to tinker with Hamlet to his sad little heart’s content. What draws my fierce mockery is that his Hamlet’s Father willfully ignores the character and content of the original. The assertion that it reveals “what’s really going on” in the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark is a reeking lie. It isn’t an elegant interface with Shakespeare’s creation, but a complete re-invention of it, steam-cleaned of its original texture and meaning. OSC’s sternly moralizing, dull-as-a-brick Hamlet can only be conjured by completely disregarding everything the original character said, thought, and did. Now, if that’s what you want to write, go ahead and write it. Just have the honesty to call it what it is… a bloody rewrite. Not an honest engagement with the original text.

Subterranean Press, who published Hamlet’s Father, is taking reader concerns seriously. Bill Schaefer has posted an open letter to readers on the SubPress website.

A positive result of this whole discussion: via the Twitter hashtag #buyabiggaynovelforscottcardday, a sizable list of sf/f books with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender characters and/or content has been assembled by @wordroot, and can be found at http://bit.ly/oXE1XF.

Have a seat! What do you think?

10 Questions With Eddy Webb and Rich Thomas From White Wolf

Interview, Role Playing Games 3 Responses »

Sep 082011

I’m lucky. Today I got to interview Eddy Webb, Senior Developer and Rich Thomas the Creative Director for White Wolf/CCP Transmedia. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview, guys.

As a long-time fan of the World of Darkness I’m really excited for the release of Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, or V20 as I’ll refer to it for the rest of the interview. What would you say was the number one reason for doing V20?

Rich Thomas: We really wanted to celebrate the 20^th anniversary with something really beautiful, and in a way that would not just be celebrating the game WW made, but the games created by all the fans. People’s lives were changed by Vampire, and we wanted to give those fans something that spoke to them about the amazing ride we’ve all been on.

Eddy Webb: Absolutely. We really wanted to make something for the community to celebrate this milestone. In fact, the top of the credits page has a dedication to the various communities that kept the game alive all this time.

Were you surprised at the fan reaction and/or demand for V20? Was the demand more intense than you had initially thought it was going to be?

EW: It really was. I mean, we certainly went into the project thinking it was going to be bigger than some folks thought it would be – the distribution chain quoted us a number they thought they would be able to sell of V20, and we doubled that in the end. But the sheer PASSION of the response after all this time – that was surprisingly intense.

RT: Intense, gratifying, wonderful, invigorating passion. Being able to get direct feedback, stories of how the game changed people’s lives, relationships and marriages that came from playing VtM- these conversations were all so much more immediate than was possible during much of the time we were making the game.

I’ve noticed that there’s been some confusion among the fan base as far as the distribution method for V20, that it was only going to be available for distribution as a physical book and only available at the Grand Masquerade or for those that pre-ordered the book through White Wolf webpage. As I understand it, that’s not necessarily the case. Care to elaborate on what distribution channels are being used to get V20 out to the public at large?

RT: The original intention was that this was going to be available directly for fans to order through our WW store via the pre-order process. Part of the confusion was some awkwardly written announcements that made it sound like it was only available at Grand Masquerade- the GM edition was only available there, but that wasn’t how it read. That was completely our screw-up and caused a lot of confusion. Once we started hearing from fans who couldn’t afford the deluxe price (and later we heard from fans who only just heard about V20 at all), we decided that PDF and PoD versions would give those folks a chance to have it too.

EW: Exactly right. We wanted to make sure that those fans that bought the book sight unseen got a special, luxurious copy of the book, but pretty early on we decided that we wanted to do a more persistent version that later fans could acquire. However, between a lot of crunch to get the book out on time and some technical problems in our website in communicating things, we weren’t able to really talk about the new options until GenCon.

And I understand that we can also look forward to new Classic World of Darkness sourcebooks, the ability to order older books, as well as a Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition and perhaps even, one can hope, a Mage 20th Anniversary Edition? Any plans yet for Wraith 20 or Changeling 20, or is that still undecided? What distribution channels are you looking into for these products?

EW: Anything beyond Werewolf 20^th (W20) is undecided. We were happy with the response to V20, kicked some numbers around, and decided that W20 made sense for us to do. If we’re in the same place next year and Mage 20^th makes sense, we’ll consider that, as well as other potential projects. We’re playing everything year to year, constantly reassessing what makes sense for us as a company and for the fanbase as a whole.

RT: Right now, we have no intention of using the traditional distributor/retailer or chain store channels. WW books- both new products and backlist- are available via our publishing partner DriveThruRPG. We’re hoping to do a deluxe version of WtA 20^thbut that’s as far as our plans have reached.

I’ve noticed a unfortnate trend among local retailers. Because there weren’t many products coming out to brick and mortar stores since the release of Geist, I’ve actually encountered at least two retaillers that have reduced the shelf space for White Wolf products tremendously and have practically told their customers that you guys were getting out of the RPG business. Anything you’d like to say about that, just to clear up any confusion?

RT: I guess that’s natural from their point of view. We aren’t putting books into their stores, so it seems to them that we’re out. Well, we’re not. We’re publishing new products for cWoD, for nWoD, and for Exalted, with our new model of PDF/PoD, and we’re creating at a pace and with quality standards that make sense for us and aren’t the grinding “publishing treadmill” of the 90’s.

EW: It’s also indicative of how the lines of communication have eroded over time. For years we’ve communicated primarily to distributors and advertising outlets, and that filters down to the fans. Now we’re moving towards more direct-to-fan communication because we’ve found problems with these previous modes of getting the word out. It does mean, however, that those who aren’t aware of how to talk to us now assume that we’re silent because we aren’t making products anymore.

So…about Scion second edition…..:-)

EW: Since we’re been talking about our new direction, it seems like everyone has a list of wish list books, including more or updated Scion books. I wish we could do them all, but the reality is that when you have over 20 game lines and you’re making most of them available again through print-on-demand, we’ll never be able to do all of the books everyone wishes we would. We’re constantly looking at what there’s strong demand for and how that intersects with our resources and capabilities, so nothing’s impossible.

RT: Who knows? We’ve got a lot of possible projects, but Scion deserves some love too.

Is there anything you can tell us about the Onyx Path? What little information I’ve seen amounts to basically the .pdf released fo the GenCon slideshow. Any little tidbits you can share?

RT: Besides presenting older projects like the Mage Convention books, I think where the Onyx Path might lead is very much going to be dictated by what response we get from the fans with the V20 Companion, Children of the Revolution, and Hunters Hunted 2. In the same way that the Open Dev process for V20 gave us such an amazing series of dialogues with the fans and inspired the Onyx Path releases this year, the Open Dev with the new projects will take us towards other projects we haven’t imagined yet or will confirm a few we already have in mind.

EW: One of the things that’s been strange since GenCon is that up to now, we’ve announced things once they were well underway. With V20, we’ve moved to talking about things well in advance of any concrete plans. When we announced Mummy, for example, at GenCon, all I had was two-thirds of a title, a PowerPoint slide, and a four-page document of notes at home (which quickly became obsolete anyhow). The community is still used to us having all the answers and holding back information instead of being out there very early and the answering being “We honestly don’t know yet.”

How do you feel that the rise of digital publishing and online distribution has transformed the RPG market, both for publishers and for fans? Do you think we’re going to see a time when brick and mortar stores carrying RPG or comic products is going to go the way of the dinosaur?

EW: I wish that weren’t the case, but when big-box bookstores carrying more mainstream products are folding, it’s hard to believe that more niche retail stores are going to buck that trend. Certainly some owners have done some very smart things to keep going, but I think the trends away from brick-and-mortar stores aren’t exclusive to the RPG industry – certainly music stores have been struggling since the iPod.

RT: Absolutely. The brick-and-mortar stores are going to have to evolve as well, I think. On a bigger picture level, the barrier to entry has dropped further for folks who want to create RPGs and get them to market. There’s a huge shift that’s empowered by the rise of ePublishing and our little niche of the overall publishing biz is changing as well.

Do you believe that there is one perfect RPG system?

RT: On a playing level, I think there are systems that combine with setting to really connect with how you internally imagine your characters- so they’re perfect for you. On a game design level- absolutely not. On a business level: any versions of the Storyteller and Storytelling Systems!

EW: I believe each person has a personal perfect system, because everyone has different needs from such a game. Sometimes, you have to write that perfect game for yourself, though. That’s how I got started….

Do you get a chance to actually play RPGs and, if so, what are you currently playing?

EW: I play in a biweekly D&D 4e game, I play two Masquerade LARPs a month, and I’m currently in a monthly Dark Ages: Vampire game. I’m also getting ready to start up a game at the office of a new RPG I wrote for fun.

RT: When I’m in ATL, I play a D&D4th game DM’d by Ethan Skemp. I’m in a couple of other D&D games down there including an old school version called Pagan Lands by Justin Achilli, and from home I’m Skype-ing into a game based on the Scarred Lands DM’d by Scott Holden. Surprisingly, I’m in two V20 games at the Grand Masquerade, which will be very cool as I haven’t played a full session of tabletop Masquerade since the original playtesting in 1991.

Pretty much every gamer has their favorite snacks and drinks during game night. What are yours?

RT: A six pack of Coke Zero or Diet Cherry Vanilla Doctor Pepper. I get so caught up in the game that I’m not even aware of what I’m eating, so I try and keep the bags of chips away or really quickly it’s an empty bag.

EW: Actually, I’m pretty agnostic, and lately (like Rich) I’ve been trying to stay away from the snacks as I watch my weight. Getting older makes it harder to go on soda and chip binges, sadly.

RT: Of course, a scotch near the end doesn’t hurt the diet. J

Convention Review: Dragon*Con Overview

Conventions No Responses »

Sep 072011

This year, my wife and I were lucky enough to be able to go to the massive sci-fi/fantasy convention known as Dragon*Con. For those of you unfamiliar with the convention, they cover EVERYTHING: comics, movies, tv, books, tabletop RPG’s, LARPing, miniature games, puppets, etc. Pretty much, if you can think of it in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, then there was someone (or something) there representing it at this international convention in Atlanta, GA.

This was not only the first Dragon*Con we’ve been to, but also our first convention ever. We were a little overwhelmed in the beginning, but soon fell into the spirit of fandom and thoroughly enjoyed our stay (not without some much appreciated help from some great new friends we made while there). There was a lot to cover, and we saw as much as we could, but there was no way for us to do everything. So, with that as a disclaimer, here’s a list of some of the upcoming coverage I’ll be discussing:

Gaming

I didn’t have a chance to take part in any of the games going on at the con, but I did get to go to a panel with Brian Green , ckknight, Bill Bridges, Elonka Dunnin, Mike Capps and Jason Bulmahn. They spoke about each of their jobs, and how writing relates and is involved in them. Afterwards, Jason Bulmahn was nice enough to sit down and answer a few questions with me.

Literature

So many great authors were at the Con this year, including Laurell K Hamilton, Faith Hunter, Kevin J. Anderson, Jonathan Maberry and Brent Weeks, to name a few. Kelly was able to sit in on a panel about Hunting Monsters for Fun and Profit, and I got an interview with Brent Weeks (NY Times Bestselling author of The Night Angel Trilogy and The Black Prism)

Web Series

Amy Okuda, Robin Thorsen and Wil Wheaton had a panel together about their involvement with The Guild. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard before.

Puppets

One of the most unexpected things to find at a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention was puppets, but I’m so very glad they were there. During the convention, the hotels aired Dragon*Con TV in the rooms and at the hotel bars. Think of Con themed Adult Swim bumps and spoof commercials combined with live coverage of the larger panels. While watching DCTV on Thursday, we happened upon a short show titled “Bob and Carl: Sci-Fi Janitors.” It was pretty funny, but we didn’t think too much on it, thinking it was just another random thing they were showing before the panels got started the next day. Later, while waiting in one of the MILLIONS OF LINES we stood in (seriously, there are lines for everything, from panels to the bathrooms), we noticed that we were standing directly in front of the Bob and Carl booth. These guys were absolutely awesome. This was where we found out that they were hosting an 18 and up Puppet Slam on Sunday night. By this time, we were hooked. The show was definitely worth the hour and a half line we stood in, and we are looking forward to next year to see what new hijinks Bob and Carl will be getting into. With the growing popularity of Puppets and tabletop RPGs, there’s no telling what will come out of it.

Zombies

The imminent threat of the “Zompacolypse” is on everyone’s mind these days, and even though some people attempt to say that “Zombies are dead,” they are horribly mistaken. (Seriously people, Zombies are Undead) Zombie culture has been rapidly growing in popularity over the last few years, and the fact that there were over 1000 zombies at the Zombie Prom this year (not counting the un-infected participants) proves it. We got a chance to sit in with several special fx and makeup artist that talked about ways to make your zombie costumes come to “unlife” without spending big bucks. I’ll also be discussing a panel we sat in on called “Zombie 401,” where zombie experts (Jonathan Maberry, members of Zombie Squad, and Drew Nielson, to name a few) answered all questions zombie related. Remember to be prepared, the Zombie Apocalypse is closer than we think.

Costuming/Cosplay

One of my favorite parts of the convention was seeing the amazing costumes people made of their favorite characters. There was everything from Marvel and DC characters, to TV and movie characters, to completely original characters. Some were funny, some were scary, and some were awe-inspiring. We took a BOAT LOAD of pictures, and I will put them up when we sort through and see what is NSFW and what’s not.

I’ll post more as I sort through all of my notes and recordings and photos (as well as recover from the LOOOONG weekend). It was great fun, and I’ll definitely be back next year. If you have the option of going next year, I highly recommend it. Just remember, as with all of the cons, wash your hands constantly! As some of my friends will readily share, Con Crud is no fun at all.

[tags]convention, dragoncon, review, comics, movies, tv, gaming, books[/tags]

I love having written – actually writing, not so much

Ben's Corner, Role Playing Games 1 Response »

Sep 072011

I’ve been spending a lot of my free time writing. Some creative writing for recently release projects, some for forthcoming projects and a whole bunch of almost-technical writing in the form of stat blocks, game mechanics and whatnot. I’ve always known that I love having written something, and putting my creations out there for the world to see. I’ve also always known that I sometimes enjoy, sometimes dread and sometimes even loath having to write – the actual act of creating those things I love having written. Creations a bitch, man.

Here are a for simple ways I’ve found over the past few years to optimize my writing experience, be as productive as I can and come to actually look forward to those writing sessions. Perhaps they’ll help you as well.

Gene Fowler, the American journalist and author, once wrote “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” I’ve never read a single other word written by this man, but I agree with his statement wholeheartedly.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

The time you write is important. Not just important in that you’re changing the world by adding a little bit of creativity to all of the previous creative bits that have already piled up. I mean, look at that clock. Writing at 2:47am when you’re bone tired may be a really, really bad idea. Conversly, if you’re a night owl without kids or an early starting day job, that may be perfect! Take a good, hard look at your schedule and your internal clock and figure out where you can snatch an hour or three to write when you are at your most creative. For me, that’s in the early evenings, around 8pm to about 11pm. My kids have gone to bed, on the nights I write my wife is doing her own thing and there are really no interruptions. Well, at least not until after 9pm, when my kids are actually asleep.

I’ve also found that writing on my lunch hour can be very rewarding, and provides me with a nice distraction during my day.

The point of all that being, you really do have an optimal time to write. It could be at 5am. It could be at 2pm. You know yourself and when you function best, but do a bit of experimenting if you can as well.

Tweet that Twitter nugget or it will rot in your brain

Distractions are my life blood. Seriously, if it weren’t for the myriad distractions available in today’s connected world, I’d have burnt out writing a while ago. I do love me some long stretches of writing, especially when I’m in that zone where everything flows and time melts away. That zone just doesn’t happen every day though. When I find myself getting frustrated, or having written myself into a corner – even dealing with a bit of the old writers block, I turn to a distraction.

I’ll fire up a twitter client and see what everyone else is dealing with. Perhaps I’ll vent my frustration on Google+, or put an idea out there to see if it gets shot down or lauded. It gives me five minutes away from the currently grinding process of writing, lets me think about peripheral interests and honestly fires up those creative juices. Perhaps this won’t work for you, but I’ve found the mini-distraction to be a great tool. When I’m cranking through the word count, I don’t need it and won’t use it. When I’m dribbling 4 words a minute, it helps a great deal.

As a side effect of this, I find that those pat little sayings I occasionally come up with for Twitter, actually get to twitter, and aren’t taking up space in my head, demanding attention from me while I try to write things longer than 140.

The Anthrax Principle

Music. Music, music, music! I use it as background noise, for the occasional inspiration, to set the mood I’m aiming for when writing and sometimes as a gauge for knowing when I’ve actually hit that creative zone of muse-influenced writing. (The Greek muses, not the band.) I’ve always been able to work better with music in the background. At my day job, while studying in school, and writing is no exception. One aspect of listening to music is I can use it as a tool to measure when I’m in that zone and for roughly how long I was in it. I know that if I start off writing to one song, and am suddenly aware of things other than my writing with a different song playing, that some amount of time has passed. A quick glance at my play list can show me roughly how much. It’s my muse measuring device.

It also (for me) provides a nice background noise, ranging from white noise filter to foot stomping, pile driving motivator. Your mileage may vary but I personally I love having some music on.

I cannot state exactly why, but I can tell you that the two best bands for me to write during listening are Anthrax and Pantera. These are the bands I hear the least of while writing, which is a great thing! They go the furthest towards putting me into that trance which is the opposite of Writer’s Block.

The Boot to Ass Principle

Sometimes you have to be your own boot in the ass. That’s all there is too it, really. There are going to be times you’ve set aside to write when you just don’t feel it. Your games will be calling you, or that new episode of whatever. Hell, even grooming your cat can look like an appealing alternative to sitting down and writing. Well put that damned cat brush away, put your ass firmly in the seat in front of your computer and start writing.

Even if what you write is pure, unadulterated crap, you’re still writing. In most cases, as you write you’ll get into the groove and at least be able to get a few useful bits and pieces out. Who cares if you have to delete 87% of what you’ve written. You’re in the digital age, it’s not like you’re sitting there with velum, ink and a rough stone. Force yourself to write as often as you can write and the act of writing becomes, if not easier, at least habitual.

No one is going to be your motivational coach with this except you. Exercise a bit of that will power and write, dammit.

Argyle & Crew torrent file

Argyle & Crew, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Sep 062011

Argyle and Crew was released last Thursday and is doing quite well! For several days it was the number one indie title on DriveThruRPG, which is very gratifying! The PDF is selling for $2.99.

Since I’ve released it as a Creative Commons title, allowing the free sharing of it without repercussions, I thought I’d include this link to the .torrent as well. This is the .zip file containing the three PDFs available at DTRPG. There’s another .torrent available from Demonoid (which is currently offline?) as well, which is the PDFs in a non-zipped format. That may or may not be working.

In other A&C news, I’ve got the printed proofs from Lulu.com and CreateSpace.com heading my way via the USPS. As soon as I approve those, you’ll be able to purchase the game as a full color softcover from both Lulu and amazon.com.

The files are also at DriveThruRPG and are in ‘pre-media’ – meaning, they’re being worked on. I should be able to get a proof from there in a week or two and have that available as well. You’ll be able to pick up the softcover from DTRPG for $9.00, with the bundle of both print and PDF running $10. Amazon and Lulu are a bit more expensive, for reasons unknown to this author.

I’ll be releasing a few more scenarios soon as well for the game, along with a lesson plan -all of which will be available free of charge.

I’d also like to remind you that 25% of all sales from this game go directly to The Wayne Foundation – a 503(c) charitable organization dedicated to stamping out child prostitution in the US and support those children who fall victim to it. This will include both PDF and print versions.

Last thing – if you know of any teachers, educators or child councilors who could use a copy, either give ‘em one, or let me know and I’ll get one off to them.

Convention Report: Pax 2011 Panels

Board and Card Games, Conventions, Dungeons & Dragons, Indie Games, Movies and TV, Role Playing Games, Troll in the Corner 2 Responses »

Sep 052011

Little more than a week ago, 70,000 eager gamers descended on Seattle for Pax Prime. In a dizzying rush they climbed several stories (well, rode the escalator) to the convention’s main expo floor to play test hundreds of popular PC and console games. And though I took my initial peek into the busy hall filled with vendors displaying their latest and greatest, I set about an immediate mission to scout the tabletop gaming areas, hoping to try out some new stuff and really sink my teeth into a weekend of role playing. Once I had a good note of where everything was, it was off to get in line for my first panel, and I learned that lines were just something I’d have to get used to at Pax (though I’m not sure I ever did). The following is a list of panels and the like that I attended which were specifically tabletop role playing related.

The Art of the Table: GMing Beyond the Basics

After about an hour or so in line, probably the shortest wait I’d have during the whole convention, I kicked off my Pax experience with an excellent panel on game mastering. Sage LaTorra of the recently released Dungeon World RPG joined Apocalypse World creator Vincent Baker as well as Polaris author Ben Lehman. Rounding out the group were Jeff Fasenfast of GoDaddy and moderator Ben Mandall, who did an excellent job keeping the conversation moving and entertaining. The panel offered several perspectives and some great advice to use behind the screen, most of which boiled down to the following: know your players and communicate with them. No advice can be better than that, and yet it is often what is missed by so many game masters. If I had to pick one secondary piece of advice, it would be this quote:

“Maybe what your game needs, is child endangerment.” - Vincent Baker

What Vincent was speaking to actually goes in hand directly with the previous statement. As GMs we need to know what our players want, we need to know what they are comfortable with, and sometimes we need to know what makes them a little uneasy, to push them to new greater heights. Perhaps putting children’s lives in danger isn’t quite right for your table, that’s not really what Vincent meant, but if your table is mature enough to handle that sort of content even though it might be outside of their comfort zone, it could make for quite the heroic scene to save those kids, or quite the emotional moment if they don’t make it.

Acquisitions Inc: The Last Will and Testament of James Darkmagic I

More of a show than a panel, this was something I knew I had to see. Timing being what it was, I was forced to skip over the the Ask the Dungeon Master panel offering more tips and tricks on running a great game, to instead wait in line a few hours dancing with nervous anticipation (or maybe that was just because I needed to go to the bathroom) getting ready for the live game run by Wizards of the Coast Dungeon Master extraordinaire Chris Perkins for an all-star team comprised of Star Trek and The Guild‘s Wil Wheaton, PVP Online author/artist Scott Kurtz, and the Penny Arcade boys themselves, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. In the most over-produced game of D&D ever, the minstrels Paul and Storm played an opening homage not just to Acquisitions Incorporated (the name of the collected group above), but to adult tabletop gamers everywhere. The adventurers arrived with grand announcements, stage lighting, and smoke machines, dressed in full costume… well, mostly… and ready to roll. I could go on telling you how much I enjoyed this latest foray into live gaming, or how clever the writing was, or how impressed I was that they fit such a story into 2 hours of play, or I could just link this unofficial video I found via the /r/rpg subreddit. Be sure to skip ahead to 3:30 seconds for when the intro song and game play begin, then catch part two which is in the playlist below the video.

Watching this game was one of the most incredibly fun experiences of the convention. I’ve watched the whole thing over again since coming home from my trip, picking up on a few jokes that the crowd’s laughter overpowered and I missed the first time through. I can’t believe that there isn’t a television show putting celebrities into a role playing game like this, or at least a more frequent web series. I was a little disappointed that Perkins wasted a lot of time at the beginning of the night with “dragon mounting” rolls, leaving combat to not more than a few rounds, but I understand that this was a story driven, presentation experience and that honestly, the combats didn’t really matter. I implore you to take the time to enjoy it, the last line by the Dungeon Master still makes me grin.

D&D Through the Ages

An expert team was pooled together for this panel which included creative minds such as Mike Mearls, one of the members of the team responsible for much of 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, also Mike Selinker, who did the same for the transition to 3rd Edition, and Keith Baker, creator of the Eberron Campaign Setting for D&D 3.5 and 4th Edition. The panelists discussed the history of changes from edition to edition, and the trend of modern rules lite games and recreations/rules hacks of older editions. The discussion was rife with stories from the round table discussions at Wizards during the last two edition changes, and it was great to hear some of the first hand accounts of how certain decisions were made. The best story had to be Mike Selinker’s with regard to the Open Game License, how that concept was borrowed from open source software programming, and how nervous the designers were to agree to the idea knowing that it could easily make or destroy their ownership of Dungeons and Dragons.

I will also say I was impressed with the candid nature of the panel’s responses with regard to comparisons of 4th Edition and Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMOs), or even comparisons of 3rd Edition to Collectible Card Games (CCGs) such as Magic the Gathering. There was an air of honesty in the given responses, openly stating to the audience that of course those games played an influential role in the development of the relevant versions of the game. The way it was stated, Wizards wasn’t so much looking for piggybacking the existing fanbases for CCGs or MMOs (although they did admit some level of that), but instead they were looking for new ways to handle game mechanics that simply didn’t exist at the time previous editions were created. I enjoyed the fact that nobody tried to dodge any questions or deflect, and I gained a new level of respect for Mike Mearls for how he and the others handled the crowd.

Next Week!

Although I didn’t play too many games during the con (to my surprise), I did have a chance to try out a couple of games that were new to me and to dive head first into a D&D 4e Dungeon Delve and the Wizards of the Coast booth’s live action D&D experience. Also, be on the look out for my picture gallery, I only had a crappy cell phone camera with me this trip, but I came away with a few cool shots to check out, here’s a few samples…