Gen Con 2018

Another Gen Con is behind us, and I’ve finally caught my breath enough to present some highlights of what I did and saw this year.

System Mastery Seminar

I’m a fan of the System Mastery podcast, but this is the first time I had a chance to see the hosts in person. Better yet, it was at a live recording of the podcast. I bet I can hear myself laughing on the recording! I really wished I could have stayed to meet Jef and Jon, but had to rush off to another event before this one even ended because it was a 10 minute walk away. Such is Gen Con!

Plot Points Seminar

The Plot Points crew: Ben, Sarah, and Brad

Remember what I just said about System Mastery? Same deal. I’m a big fan, but never attended a recording before. (Though I was lucky enough to meet Ben last year and hang out for a while.) This year I got Sarah’s business card and chatted with Brad for a few minutes. Wanna know who my favorite is? I’M NOT TELLING!

Monte Cook Games Seminar

This year Monte Cook Games tried something new for their seminar. Instead of sitting on stage and telling us what’s coming up, they divided the attendees into small groups and let us talk to pairs of Monte Cook Games folks about whatever we liked. It was pretty cool, and I learned from Monte that they’ve got Invisible Sun books in the works covering more details about Satyrine as well as more creatures.

Invisible Sun Session

The only game I played at Gen Con this year was a session of Invisible Sun. I’ve been preparing to run the game for my home group, so I was looking forward to seeing what it’s like to play the game. It was fun, though it was strange that none of us ever used our signature character-type abilities. The best thing about the session for me was that it demonstrated that this seemingly-bizarre and outside-the-box RPG is still just an RPG, and plays like one.

The “Strangest Things” Burger

A restaurant called Burger Study ran a Gen Con promotion where they were serving a monstrosity they called the Strangest Things burger. it was a burger with American cheese, peanut butter, and blueberry jam between two Eggo waffles. I am by no means an adventurous eater, but I wanted to try this thing.

Going in…
It was partially edible! I didn’t like the blueberry jam (at all), and it rendered the meat inedible, but I STRANGEly liked the mix of cheese, peanut butter, and Eggo waffle.

Costume Parade

The costume parade on Saturday was an excellent showcase of costumes, as usual. Here I’m sharing my favorite costume of all because I’ve never seen it done before: Firestorm. He even had simulated flame hair, thanks to a lighted fan blowing a piece of flame-shaped gauzy cloth.

Dungeon Master Interactive Stage Adventure

This was pretty cool…a group of performers acted out a semi-improvised fantasy adventure with the help of volunteers from the audience.

Almost everyone on the right is a volunteer!

Goodman Games Seminar

Some of the things Joseph Goodman and crew talked about at this seminar were the upcoming DCC Lankhmar, the soon-to-launch DCC Dying Earth (now led by the excellent Marc Bruner), DCC module #100 by the also-excellent Harley Stroh, and the upcoming Cthulhu Alphabet book.

After-Hours DCC Gaming

This is the first year I caught a glimpse of the semi-organized off-the-books gaming hosted by Doug Kovacs and some of the other Goodman Games crew. I didn’t have time to join a game (because it was late and I value sleep too much), but I loved the atmosphere here, and I hereby vow to game with this gang next year.

A sighting of the famous Judge Evie!

Exhibit Hall

As usual, I spent most of my time in the Exhibit Hall, though still didn’t get to see it all. But I did see Ken & Robin at the Pelgrane booth, saw a lot of my game designer (and editor) friends, and bought too much stuff.

Speaking of buying too much stuff, I was proud to grab the latest Star Trek Adventures sourcebooks by Modiphius and, right next to them, the new Vampire 5th Edition.

That’s It

If you’d like to see more of my Gen Con photos, go check out Gnome Stew’s Gen Con 2018 roundup, featuring some of my many pictures. (My wife and son make fun of me for taking so many pictures–many of them things I already got pictures of in previous years–but I don’t care! It’s fun!)

Midsouthcon 2018: Day 3

Midsouthcon 2018 continues! If you missed the previous posts, here they are:

Kaffeeklatsch with Mike Resnick

(A smart blogger would have thought to take a photo of this event.)

These informal breakfasts with individual guests of honor are common at Midsouthcon, though this is the first time I went to one. It was great, and I’ll be going to more in the future. The six of us eating with Mike grilled him about his career, how he got started editing (it was tabloids), his interest in Africa, the other places he’s visited, the ups and downs of dealing with Hollywood, and his working hours (he’s pretty much a night shift worker).

Panel: Short Story vs. Novel

with Bill Webb, Juanita Houston, Herica Raymer, Allan Gilbreath, and Mike Resnick.

This panel explored the differences between writing short stories and writing novels. A few of the items discussed:

  • Mike prefers short stories (having written about 300, compared to about 70 novels). One reason is that he likes writing humor, and finds it hard to extend that into novel length without becoming unfunny.
  • Bill writes novels by starting with the scenes he knows will happen, putting them in order later and adding the rest. He says he “writes the cool stuff first.” He also doesn’t edit until the writing is done, and likes using writing sprints.
  • Juanita starts in the middle. She and Herica are pantsers rather than plotters. Herica says she visualizes her novel and “transcribes what she sees.”
  • Bill sells short story collections on Amazon, and figures he earns more there than he would if he sold them traditionally.
  • Mike said that when you read a bad story, one that makes you say “No, you idiot,” sit down and show that you can do it better. He says that some of his stories were efforts to do just that.
  • Mike suggests being careful and clear with transitions between viewpoint characters. “Never make the reader work unless you want him to.”
  • Regarding the need to target a reading level or age limit when writing, Mike said he never worries about that. “I assume I’m writing for grown-ups, and if they can’t understand it they probably shouldn’t be reading literature.”
  • When asked about his work schedule, Mike said, “I write, and every now and then I sleep.” (He did elaborate that he writes every day.)
  • Mike says he only takes a few days to write a story. “I’m running out of time.” He then admitted that “the mechanics come a little easier” now, after decades of practice.
  • Mike talked about writing softcore porn when he was younger, as did plenty of other science fiction writers at the time, including Marion Zimmer Bradley. He said a book would take him 4 or 5 days and earn $700 to $1000, for an annual salary of $24,000 if he wrote 25—higher than the average salary of the day. This taught him to meet deadlines and how to differentiate characters, because the ones in these stories looked similar and did similar activities!
  • Mike’s final advice: “Writers write, and those who aren’t gonna write talk about it.”

As a side note unrelated to writing: if you’re on a panel at a con, I recommend you remember what year you’re living in before describing the state of California as “the land of fruits and nuts.” Not cool.

Gaming: New York Slice

How could a pizza-lover not try this game? I saw a lot of people playing it, and eventually got a few minutes to give it a shot. The challenge in this game is to divide up the randomized pizza in such a way that other players can’t get too many of the slices they need to complete sets. The most exciting thing is that my friend Jenny ended up winning a copy in the raffle!

Gaming: KnitWit

I didn’t know what to expect from this one, but it turned out to combine spools and loops of thread with a word game. It was pretty clever. I didn’t win this one either, but I blame the noise level in the game room around raffle time. (If you think you see a pattern where I make excuses for not winning games, you are totally imagining things.)

Panel: Comic Book Scripting: From Plot to Page

with John Jackson Miller

John lived in Memphis when he was younger (like me) and has come to every Midsouthcon since the mid 80s (also like me), so it’s strange to me that I didn’t meet him until this year! I knew of him mostly as a novelist, so didn’t learn until this panel that he got his start in comics, in around 2003. John said that most kids’ mothers threw their comics away, but his mom—a librarian—made him put his in order.

John’s panel was a good one, demonstrating the basics of comic scripts. He talked about Marvel style vs full script, and what kind of things he likes to leave up to the artist, and how he breaks down what goes on which pages and different ways of dividing that into panels.

Final Costumes!

Let’s end this with one last duo of cool costumes:

Did you go to Midsouthcon too? I want to hear about your adventures in the comments!

Midsouthcon 2018: Day 2

MidSouthCon 2018 continues! If you missed the previous post, here’s a link: Day 1.

Day two of Midsouthcon, on Saturday, is always the biggest day—because it’s the only full day for this con. It’s also the day of the costume contest, which gives me more photos to show off.

Dealer’s Room

This is always a highlight of the show for me. Yes, I did buy some dice, but it didn’t count, because they were for my wife! (If I sound defensive, it’s because some unbalanced people have implied that I already own enough dice.) There weren’t many RPGs available for sale, and none I needed, but I did score a copy of the Necronomicon. I thought about buying The Captain is Dead or Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate, but snoozed too long and they sold out.

Panel: What Does an Editor Do?

Panelists (left to right): April Jones, Ellen Datlow, Toni Weisskopf, Mike Resnick, and Tommy Hancock.

A few tidbits from this panel:

  • Toni (publisher of Baen Books, who has been there for 31 years) says that an editor’s job is to “protect readers from crap.”
  • Ellen (editor at Omni for 17 years, anthology editor since around 1989, and currently editing for Tor) said that when she solicits stories for an anthology, she has had as many as a third of the writers end up dropping out.
  • Mike (who is currently editing “Galaxy’s Edge” magazine and has edited 45 anthologies) suggests not sending query letters for short stories.
  • Ellen gets questions about how she is an editor but not a writer. She used the analogy of a room decorator, and said that she can’t decorate the room, but she’s great at redecorating it.
  • Mike said that it’s important for an editor to know what their audience is looking for.
  • Toni said that in her mind every mark on a manuscript is a suggestion to the writer, and that sometimes suggestions are general (such as “My eyes glazed over here.”)
  • Regarding getting started as an editor, the panel recommended starting as an assistant editor (Mike), volunteering to read slush (Ellen), and taking unpaid work for a while (Tommy). Tommy warned, though, “Don’t make a career of not being paid.”

Game: Greek Gods

We got in some more time at the board game library today.

We tried playing this one but couldn’t figure out the rules in the time we had available. Next!

Game: The Captain is Dead

This was a fun one! It took a while to set it up and understand what we were doing, but once that was done we liked it. It’s a cooperative game where you’re the crew of a starship that’s been struck with disaster, and you have to work together to fight off enemies and hold the ship together long enough to fix the drive and escape. I had to get to my next game before we finished this one, but my fellow player Jenny said that even though they lost, she plans to buy the game.

Paranoia (2017 edition)

Kerry Jordan, my favorite Paranoia GM, ran an introductory game of the latest edition of Paranoia. I’ve read this version but this was my first time playing. It was a surprisingly low-lethality adventure, I think because we started it without mutant powers, secret societies, built-in rivalries, weapons, equipment, or team roles. So I can’t really report on much of the game. (This was an adventure from the core box itself, so I hold Kerry blameless for the lack of clone churn.) I kinda liked the cards, and as usual my wife demonstrated that she was born to excel in a world like that of Paranoia. (Which is good news, considering the way our government is going!)

Costumes

Let’s wrap this up with the best costume photos I took today…

Photo credit: Young Mr. Garrett

[ Back to Day 1 ]

Midsouthcon 2018: Day 1

As I do most years, I’m attending Midsouthcon again this weekend. (If you are too, let me know so I can say hi!) Mike Resnick is one of the guests of honor, and I really hope I get to meet him.

Here’s how the first day of the con went for me.

Masks

I kicked off the con by playing an RPG in the very first gaming slot (2pm Friday). The game was one I’d been wanting to try: Masks: A New Generation by Magpie Games. It uses the Apocalypse World engine that I liked so much in our Dungeon World adventure at last year’s Midsouthcon.

My wife played her standard character type.

We spent at least half the time crafting our characters and their relationships and team dynamics, which seems in line with a lot of Powered by the Apocalypse games. I felt an affinity for the Janus playbook, the one our GM Jesse likened to a Spider-Man type, burdened with a lot of secret identity conflict. I used this to create Melting Pot, a political-minded (and patriotically-dressed) hero who is active in student government and has the ability to melt into a liquidy goo and also take on the properties of anything he touches. The last hour of our adventure happened at a place I chose–a women’s rally–where the Greek god Dionysus showed up to turn things into a wild drunken party.

Board Game Library

We spend the rest of the evening checking out board games from the con’s board game library. I like trying games I haven’t played before, and usually find something I like enough to eventually add to our own collection.

Yes, that’s Audrey II in the foreground.

This first one we tried was Macroscope. The goal is to be the first to identify a drawing through small holes that each player reveals in turn. I stunk at this game. It was still pretty fun, but I think I’d like this one better as a video game, because adding and removing the tokens covering the holes each round, and having to carefully slide out the drawing when it’s revealed, were both tedious acts of manual dexterity.

Macroscope

Then we played Hoard, in which you compete to steal as much of a dragon’s treasure as you can before he wakes up. I wasn’t amazingly horrible at this game.

Hoard

That’s it for day 1, though I want to show off how my wife was the star of the show with her new meeple earrings…

Watch for my Day 2 update tomorrow…

Gen Con 2017: Writer’s Life: Develop Your Writing Process

This is the second seminar I attended at Gen Con 50. The panelists were stellar and offered a lot of sound advice. Let’s go!

The panelists were (from left to right) Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon, Matt Forbeck, Karen Bovenmyer, and John Helfers. Karen was the moderator, and did a superb job at organizing and introducing the topics.

Matt Forbeck mentioned that this is his 36th Gen Con; his first was Gen Con 15. He got started writing in the game industry, and is now a full-time freelancer. Matt is currently contracted for four D&D-branded choose-your-own-adventure style books. (This excited Larry Dixon greatly, as did most of the other work Matt mentioned he’d done, such as the Marvel Encyclopedia.)

Larry Dixon said that he used to do 28 conventions per year. He has been a falconer and a race car driver, in addition to working on 60+ RPGs. Larry also worked on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. He said he loves teaching writers.

Mercedes Lackey: “I do this for a living–my mortgage is my muse.” Also, “I don’t have time to fart around.”

Larry backed her up, saying that full-time writers have to work quickly and efficiently. He said his process is “laziness,” because “I wanna go screw around. Fallout HAS to be played.” (He mentioned that Mercedes–who he calls Misty–is currently playing Fallout: New Vegas.)

Matt said that he can’t play or read anything anymore without having to “pull it apart” and analyze it critically.

Matt writes outlines for everything, writing 2-3 sentences per chapter. Matt takes 1-3 days to write an outline. He says he can write 5,000-8,000 words per day if he has a plan. However, he stresses the need to leave room for discovery, because that’s the fun of writing. And says that if you write too much in your outline, it’s hard to throw it away when you feel the need to change the plan. Matt likes to re-outline after a bit of writing, updating the outline with changes that have emerged.

Mercedes writes a skeleton outline:

  1. Premise
  2. Expand to a one-paragraph synopsis
  3. Expand to a five-page skinny outline
  4. Expand to a 40-page outline

Lately Mercedes just does the skinny outline. When she starts work for the day, she first revises yesterday, then writes new words. After she makes changes, she checks for continuity, from the start of the manuscript.

Mercedes added, “I always miss my deadline.”

John Helfers writes in 1-hour bursts, achieving about 1,500 words. When John starts the writing day, he spends about 15 minutes for revision, and then 60 minutes of ONLY writing new material.

Mercedes’s maximum word count for a day was 25,000 words in one 20-hour day. She also works on three different books at a time, each in a different point of the process, such as one she’s outlining, another she’s writing, and another in galleys. One benefit of this is when she’s getting tired of one she can switch to another.

Matt talked about having to juggle projects. He said you don’t know when one you’ve been hoping to work on will suddenly become available. Another struggle for meeting deadlines: “Life happens.”

Larry stressed that you have a system in place for communicating with everyone you’re working with. He said that “editors are there to help,” so writers should use them to do so rather than avoid contact with them when things are running behind. Editors want a good result too, he said. If you’re an inexperienced writer, they’ll already know that, so don’t think you have to hide it. Indeed, Larry said that editors talk to each other, and what’s most important to them isn’t who’s new but who’s an asshole!

Karen Bovenmyer quoted Neil Gaiman’s saying that you can make it in writing by having two of the following three:
* Great writing
* Meeting deadlines
* Being easy to work with
Matt says that only #2 and #3 are in your control.

Tricks the panelists use to get the job done:

  • Coffee (Matt)
  • Remember that what you do affects other people’s salary. People depend on you. (Larry)
  • Listen to soundtracks. (Karen)
  • …without lyrics. “I can’t fucking write to Hamilton.” (Matt)
  • Use a zero-gravity chair (Mercedes)
  • No windows (Mercedes)
  • Comfy chair (Larry)

Matt says that when writing becomes a job, you should take care to find a new hobby, something else that you do for fun.

Karen talked of the value of “thresholding.” She has specified a room where she does her writing, music that she uses for writing, and a time for writing. She also meditates for a set period before she writes.

A panelist (I forget which) mentioned that days off in nature can help recharge your writing batteries.

Larry says to trust your intuition. Matt also mentioned intuition, saying that you’ll learn to trust it more and more, and that following your intuition will help with your speed.

Larry advises considering, “How do I make this awesome?

Karen reminds us that “Fear is the mind-killer.”

The panelists concur that over time, efficiency improves.

Larry and Mercedes like to outline on road trips.

Larry pointed out that readers don’t care about the writer’s problems. All they see is the finished work.

On Editing Your Work:

  • Matt revises as he writes. He says to not be afraid to lean on the editor for some grammar and content issues. It’s what they’re there for! Don’t turn in a sloppy manuscript, of course, but you don’t have to make it perfect.
  • A panelist mentioned that writer David Brin will write a novel, lock it away, and then write it again. None of the panelists are willing to use this method.
  • Matt: “Until you show it to someone, it can suck.” He encourages us to play around with it.
  • Karen: “Do as well as you can, then send it out.”
  • Larry: If you like what you’re writing, others will too.

On Story Ideas, and Saving Abandoned Work

  • Mercedes doesn’t write down ideas. “If it’s a good idea, it’ll come back to me.”
  • Larry does, and says that some old notes are a good way to rediscover ideas that he wasn’t ready to execute at the time.
  • Karen: “I’ve sold short stories based on novels I wrote.” And, “I’ve sold homework!”
  • Larry advises that when you abandon something you’re writing, don’t throw it away. It just wasn’t ready. Karen says to keep sending it out.
  • Larry suggests you make notes, maps, and sketches of your projects, and save them. This can help when you write the sequel!

Recommended Resources:

  • Larry recommends Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder.
  • Karen recommends a YouTube series of videos by Dan Wells called “7 Point Story Structure.” (Sadly, it’s unavailable right now.)
  • Larry: Studying comedy teaches structure, and economy of words.

I’ll end this summary with my favorite line from Larry:

“Sometimes you have to take a jump. Life is an adventure. Don’t be a spectator.