My Dreamation schedule

One of my favorite conventions is next weekend. Dreamation, to me, marks the beginning of a long stretch of conventions and good times that stretches from now until November at Metatopia. I've been attending Dreamation now for a few years, and never had a bad experience, felt unwelcomed or generally thought it sucked.

So, I urge you to attend. Come to panels, come play games, spend four days embracing your inner nerd/geek and make yourself happy. Although my stuff is only on the weekend, I WILL be there all four days.

Let's cover the big one first:
D814: "The DREAMATION 2013 Writer's Workshop" presented by John Adamus. A discussion and workshop of what's needed to take your ideas and make them practical - turning your imagination into a real game or book. Join John Adamus in this discussion of what you can do to make your creation come to life, while avoiding typical pitfalls, stumbling points and roadblocks along the way. 
Sunday, 12:00PM - 3:00PM;

Okay, this is huge. THREE HOURS?! It's going to be awesome. This year's topic is

"How to use Fate Core, Cortex-Plus, GUMSHOE and D20 To Write Your Story/Novel/Game/Whatever"

Go sign up! You WILL NOT regret it.

This year I'm being more ambitious than usual - in addition to the Writing Workshop, I'm running two games. Here are all the details:

Game I: R248: Night's Black Agents; "The Paris Sanction" presented by John Adamus. A deadly strain of the flu is up for auction, and plenty of terrorists have converged on Paris to bid. A week ago, a team of agents was dispatched to impersonate Basque separatists, but they haven't been heard from. Now it's time a replacement team to find out what happened, and hopefully stop the bio-terrorist weapon from getting into the wrong hands. Saturday, 9:00AM - 1:00PM

Why should you play in this game? How about PASSENGER JET CAR CHASE? It's early, I know, but it's going to be worth it.

Game II: R330: Night's Black Agents; "The Budapest Disaster" presented by John Adamus.  There was a terrible accident in Budapest. Two trains collided, a tragedy of epic proportions, killing hundreds. Lost in the twisted wreckage though were some precious cargo - a suitcase full of diamonds en route to the Queen of England, and the launch codes for a portable nuclear device. A team of agents has been dispatched to recover at least one, and it's up to the team to prioritize. Will it be the diamonds or the nuke? 
Sunday, 10:00AM - 11:59AM

Okay, I know the schedule on the website says until 2pm, but since I have not yet mastered quantum physics (Note that I go from Night's Black Agents to the Writing Workshop, back-to-back), I can't be in two places at once, I'm shortening this game. Also, this is more a playtest of some new mechanics I'm checking out, but I'll explain all that on Sunday.

Other places I'll be this weekend:
L040: The Dresden Files; "Dog Days" by Phoenix Outlaw Productions. The New York supernatural scene has been rocked by territory disputes, wars, and battles in the last few years. A great warlord, Raoul Ortega, has fallen and now his people are trying to put the pieces back together. Rising in the ranks? The werewolf and wereform population. Years ago there was nearly a were-form revolution and some believe it might be time yet again for people to be afraid of the tooth and claw. When the sun comes up, who will rule the streets? "Dog Days" is a live-action roleplay event set in the Dresden Files universe run by Phoenix Outlaw Productions. This event will also be the playtest of a brand new adaptation of a LARP adaptation of the popular FATE system. New players encouraged; previous players of the New York Dresdenverse games most welcome! 
Saturday, 8:00PM - 12:00AM

Shameless confession - I co-wrote the plot and mechanics. I'll be on hand to make sure things work, and/or fix them on the fly.

I'll be popping in on my other friends/clients/projects too (Project Ninja Panda Taco, Revelations, the Fate Core games, etc).

Also, I'll be tweeting the hell out of things. You are following me on Twitter, right?

Hope to see you there, would love to meet you and say hello.

GenCon Schedule

This is the first year I'll be attending GenCon. For years, it was an event that seemed to happen a world away that I'd never have the means or the reason to actually attend - it was more about wishing and opining for "one day" to come so that some future version of me would be there.

Well, I guess the future is now, because in 19 days (at least according to the countdown timer on the website as I write this post) I'll be there. So let's go through my schedule, day by day.

Wednesday

The Diana Jones Awards - I'm going to this. I don't know what it is or how this works, but apparently this not a black-tie sort of event.

Thursday

Okay, before I get into the schedule, I have to throw a flag on the play. I was NOT pleased with the seminar selection for Writing. I'm a little biased, sure, as seminars about writing are one of my sources of income, but I was really disappointed in both the segmentation of the process (one whole panel about plot, one whole panel on characters), as well as this weird assumption I've seen crop up lately that you're either a total rookie when it comes to writing or you're currently cranking out your thirtieth novel.

There does exist a middle of the road, and there is a better way to do things - which is why Thursday is going to be John's Bootleg Seminar Day. Bootleg because it's not an official thing you sign up for, and it'll be very much like the informal seminars I give at DexCon, Dreamation and Metatopia (in other words, awesome). While I still have to sort out the details (like time and place), you can get in the loop on this by following me on Twitter, and sending me an email.

There's also the GenCon Social. Admittedly, I haven't really been paying attention when Jenn has been talking about this, but it sounds kinda like you put gamers and food in a room and then they hang out. Usually I just call that "work". Or "what I do at conventions". It'll be cool either way.

Friday

[SEM1238034 Editing and Indie Games] I edit indie games. And any chance I can hang out with other editors, it's nice.

[SEM1238035 12 for '12: Writing A Dozen Novels In A Year] Because...c'mon, it's Matt Forbeck. Also, I promised him I'd go.

[SEM1237839 The Inner-Demons And the Tribe: Dealing with Depression As A Gamer]  I am a gamer with depression. A panel like this sounds actually helpful, especially with the treatment I'm going through now.

[SEM1238038 Freelancing In The Game Industry] Because I freelance in the game industry. For other thoughts about freelancing, you should track down Brian Engard's podcasts on Jennisodes and Dice Food Lodging. And then you should follow him on Twitter and tell him his voice may or may not sound annoying. You know, if you have nothing else to do. Or just want to make his Twitter follower number rise so his OCD kicks in. (I am a weird friend.)

Friday night is also when the ENnies are awarded. I'm going, because I voted for stuff, and because my way awesome friends are nominated.

Saturday

[SEM1238042 Doing Kickstarter Right] Because Kickstarter is a thing I use, something that my clients use and crowd-funding should be talked about often.

[SEM1234371 Investigative RPGs and the GUMSHOE System] This is basically my chance to hear Ken and Robin pick on Simon in person. Also, GUMSHOE is awesome, and I promised Ken earlier this month I'd be there.
* Also, I bought Beth Lewis a cupcake.

[SEM1238046 Getting the Most Out Of Working With Editors] Because I'm an editor, and people should come meet me so that they can see editors aren't the boogeyman of publishing anything.


My apologies for not knowing when these awards things are happening - I'm a little too fussy about time and have elected to just let the people around me prod me about them. I have enough things in my head at the moment, so I'm trusting other people to get me to where I need to be, whenever I need to be there.

There's a LOT of downtime in this schedule, and I plan on making frequent ventures out to whatever Halls and Game Areas there are. So if you're coming to GenCon and want to say hello, please do so.

Enjoy your weekend.