Conventions

Star Wars Wednesday - MidAmeriCon II Worldcon 74

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It's not every year that the world's most prestigious literary science fiction convention comes to town, so Worldcon was definitely not an event to miss. Then I found out there was a gaming area, so I knew I had to try and participate. Then they announced they were having a Star Wars Day, and I definitely wanted to be involved in some capacity. I went in for pretty much the full Worldcon experience, buying a membership early on and getting in on the Hugo award voting process. 

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Star Wars Wednesday - KCCC Rolling into MidAmericCon II / Worldcon

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Kansas City Comic Con last weekend, and now MidAmeriCon II / 74th Worldcon starts today. Same venue, but two very different events. I'm excited to see how Worldcon compares, though some differences are already apparent. With three conventions in three weeks (and two world class), it's definitely been the busiest con season I've had for a while. It definitely helps having two of them in town, and even better that both had good Star Wars connections. 

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Star Wars Wednesday - Gen Con 2016

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Star Wars Wednesday - Gen Con 2016

Last week brought another successful Gen Con, with around 60,000 gamers packing the convention center and surrounding hotels in downtown Indianapolis. The dealer hall expanded yet again, and the show extended all the way into Lucas Oil Stadium. Despite some early concerns, I got through without straining an Achilles tendon, though I did cut down on the walking some. Fantasy Flight Games that several major Star Wars boardgame and card game announcements. My product Age of Rebellion Forged in Battle was released at the show, and should be available in stores soon if not already.

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MidAmeriCon II / Worldcon 74 - Panel & Games

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This year, the 74th annual World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) is being held in Kansas City as MidAmeriCon II, August 17-21, 2016. Among the events, such as the noted Hugo awards, is Star Wars Day. The original MidAmeriCon hosted Worldcon in 1976, and featured a promotional panel of an upcoming sci-fi movie called Star Wars. Mark Hamill, Charles Lippincott and producer Gary Kurtz attended. This year's convention is welcoming back Lippincott and Kurtz for a return visit, along with novelist Alan Dean Foster.

There will be a number of other events for Star Wars Day. I will be part of the Star Wars Tie In panel, discussing novels, games, and other elements beyond the movies. Stephen Saffel (past Del Rey editorial director for the Essential Guides, etc.) will be the moderator, and the other panelists are Kevin J Anderson (Jedi Academy Trilogy, etc.), Rebecca Moesta (Young Jedi Knights series), and William Dietz (Dark Forces trilogy).

I will also be running Star Wars RPG games and demos. The demos will feature the just-released Star Wars the Force Awakens Beginner Game RPG. The full 4-hour games will feature the main RPG lines. I am also running one session of Dungeons & Dragons (5e).

My full schedule is here.

Sign up for games ahead of time on Warhorn. My events are not yet listed, but hopefully will appear soon. My games are listed on my full schedule (link above).

Star Wars Wednesday - Shows and Cons

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Time flies when you're too busy and traveling too much to post. Also, you know your flights are going to have some issues when your ultimate destination's airport evacuates for a tornado warning. No serious issue in the end, just some inconvenience. Among the items taking up time was one of many summer cons I'll be attending in some fashion...and it had a new Star Wars guest...

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Star Wars Wednesday - GamerNation Con 2016

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This past weekend brought GamerNation Con 2016, hosted in Dallas, Texas by d20 radio and the Order66 podcast. I had a good time last year and found a way to get a bit of time to return this year. The con is relatively small, but has a very dedicated Star Wars RPG fan base, and it hosts a wide variety of board games, RPGs, and...lip sync battle. GamerNation clearly extends well beyond the US and some attendees come from around the world - Germany, Australia, Scotland, Canada, Norway, and probably others I'm overlooking at the moment. It was fun to see those who returned from last year, plus those who I've met elsewhere, like GenCon or Star Wars Celebration. The guests of honor were Rodney Thompson (formerly of Wizards of the Coast, Star Wars Saga Edition and D&D 5e fame, now with Bungie working on Destiny) and Christopher West (Maps of Mastery).

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Star Wars Wednesday - A Big Map Game

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Last weekend's Midwest GameFest was a success. The new venue and setup worked well, and though there are always things to improve upon, it went very well. I kept very busy, as I was slated to do something every slot. It didn't always happen - they had the D&D Adventurers League tables covered so I didn't end up running AL. That wasn't a bad thing, though, since I was still putting aspects of my other games together. I'd been derailed by work, a freelance deadline, and the Royals great playoff run. I ran a session of Numenera, a couple of Savage Worlds The Last Parsec, and a couple of different Star Wars RPG adventures. I also participated in a couple of panels and wrapped up with an Aethercon panel on Sunday. More on that later. For the Star Wars RPG games, though, I tried a few new ideas...
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Star Wars Wednesday - Game On

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OK, so I'm writing this during Game 2 of the World Series, so it will be brief. How so? I started to do this after the 1st inning. It's now the start of the fifth and here we are still at the intro. After Jason Fry's visit a few weeks ago, it has turned out that its the Royals vs Mets, so both of our twitter feeds have more than a little baseball right now. The Royals won last night in an epic 14 inning game. The Mets are up at the moment by one run. Beyond these games, it has been a week for Star Wars gaming as well. 
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Midwest GameFest - Event Signup

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Midwest GameFest opened its event registration to Kickstarter backers, and should be open to all in the near future. I'll be running Star Wars, Savage Worlds The Last Parsec, D&D Adventurers League, and Numenera. The D&D AL events aren't posted yet. There will also be panels on Saturday afternoon.

Events will continue to be posted until the con, so check back for more or to see if space has opened up on a full event.

Aethercon IV - One Small Step: Giants in Space panel

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AetherCon is a free online game convention, complete with games and panels. I've been invited to participate in a panel called One Small Step: Giants of Space. My fellow panelists are Katrina Ostlander of Fantasy Flight Games (and one of the developers I've worked with) and Jason Walters of IndiePress Revolution and Hero Games. d20 Radio's GM Chris is the moderator. 

AetherCon happens to fall the same weekend as Midwest GameFest, so this panel will be my only chance to join in this time around. 

 

You can find more information about participating on the Aethercon site, but here's a brief rundown:


AetherCon is a free to attend, free to partake, non-profit initiative. Thoughout the weekend there will be a plethora of tabletop RPGs on offer for all to play in. Among those will be three, three part tournaments taking place over the three days of the event with final tables to be played on Sunday. 

All games will be run on the free, browser-based virtual table top Roll20. This program will allow GMs and players alike to simply click on a link and enter the playing area as opposed to needing to download and install the software to participate.

In addition to the collection of independent RPG playing opportunities and those run by RPG publishers, there will also be Q&As and themed panels as well as speedpainting duels using the free, browser based conferencing program Anymeeting. 

Midwest GameFest 2015

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I'll be a guest at the new Midwest GameFest in November in Overland Park, KS (Kansas City metro area). I'll be running games, of course. My schedule is yet to be determined, but it will include Star Wars RPGs, The Last Parsec (Savage Worlds), and likely a couple of others depending on a few other factors, mostly time. D&D and Numenera are high on the list. 

There is an ongoing kickstarter with a few days left for those interested in getting a bit of a deal on pricing and swag. There are still stretch goals to meet. 

 

Star Wars Wednesday - KCCC and Star Wars Day at the K

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This past weekend wrapped up the busiest and most condensed span of conventions I've ever dealt with. It was fun, but hectic. Kantcon followed by GenCon followed by Kansas City Comic Con and wrapping up with Star Wars Day at the K (Kaufman Stadium, home to the Royals MLB team).  I ran three different Star Wars RPG adventures in seven sessions, The Last Parsec twice, and D&D 5e twice (plus one non-convention session). 
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Star Wars Wednesday - Convention Season 1995...2015

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The summer convention season is in full swing now. At this point, everyone has heard the San Diego Comic Con news and its fantastic secret Star Wars concert. I caught the panel and more online, while working on my own events for several upcoming conventions. It was fun, catching the great behind the scenes reel from the con, followed up by a random retweet that unexpectedly served up a (presumably) bootleg periscope feed of the concert itself. I actually missed a fair amount but managed to catch the fireworks finale in all of its wobbly grainy phone-camera streaming video glory. So on with the shows....
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