Branded by Dice
I attended a convention recently. I now find myself somewhat ostracized by my coworkers.
A normal convention, possibly attended through work, wouldn't have that sort of effect. This, however, was a special case. This was GenCon Indy 2005, a gaming convention. I took personal time from work, paid for a trip down to Detroit, and took a 5 hour road-trip to and from the convention in Indianapolis to ... play some games.
uberGeek, they've taken to calling me. Quietly, I beam with pride.
GenCon was only half the reason for the trip. I've attended small, local conventions here in the Maritimes and have always had good luck with them. GenCon is perhaps the largest in the world, and I thought it would be great to witness the spectacle of it all. Maybe even meet some of the industry names face-to-face, and chat about things of mutual interest: the philosophy of gaming, immersive and collaborative storytelling, the role of myth and prophecy and art and music in world-building.
The other half was meeting the Falconmoor crew.
While living in Texas - and withering from a lack of a good, creative outlet - I stumbled across the Falconmoor campaign website. My interested was piqued in a random adventure summary by the characterization of Zhenalinde, an attractive, intelligent, highly-educated and self-confident woman... who was also an indentured slave. The juxtaposition of opposites intrigued me, and I eventually began reading the chronicles of their campaign from its beginnings. We exchanged email, became friends, and the convention was my first chance to get down to Detroit and meet everyone in person.
(I've since learned that Zhenalinde draws much of her character concept from an adaption of Phedre no Delaunay from Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series, which are an interesting read, but subject of a post for another time.)
The convention was both horrendously bad and quite a lot of fun. We had horrific luck finding a good game, but Mark, Matt and I got along quite well (except for the snoring, which was never proven) and we laughed continuously throughout the whole ordeal. Mark posted a detailed photo journal of our exploits at the Falconmoor campaign website. I'll probably feel the need to augment it with a few additional stories over time, but he's done a great job captioning. A funny man who should write more.
So I returned from Indianapolis and Detroit, with a few more scars and a little less vacation time accrued. To earn the dubious honour of being mildly shunned by my coworkers.
It's all good, though. My doctor says I don't get enough ostracize.
A normal convention, possibly attended through work, wouldn't have that sort of effect. This, however, was a special case. This was GenCon Indy 2005, a gaming convention. I took personal time from work, paid for a trip down to Detroit, and took a 5 hour road-trip to and from the convention in Indianapolis to ... play some games.
uberGeek, they've taken to calling me. Quietly, I beam with pride.
GenCon was only half the reason for the trip. I've attended small, local conventions here in the Maritimes and have always had good luck with them. GenCon is perhaps the largest in the world, and I thought it would be great to witness the spectacle of it all. Maybe even meet some of the industry names face-to-face, and chat about things of mutual interest: the philosophy of gaming, immersive and collaborative storytelling, the role of myth and prophecy and art and music in world-building.
The other half was meeting the Falconmoor crew.
While living in Texas - and withering from a lack of a good, creative outlet - I stumbled across the Falconmoor campaign website. My interested was piqued in a random adventure summary by the characterization of Zhenalinde, an attractive, intelligent, highly-educated and self-confident woman... who was also an indentured slave. The juxtaposition of opposites intrigued me, and I eventually began reading the chronicles of their campaign from its beginnings. We exchanged email, became friends, and the convention was my first chance to get down to Detroit and meet everyone in person.
(I've since learned that Zhenalinde draws much of her character concept from an adaption of Phedre no Delaunay from Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series, which are an interesting read, but subject of a post for another time.)
The convention was both horrendously bad and quite a lot of fun. We had horrific luck finding a good game, but Mark, Matt and I got along quite well (except for the snoring, which was never proven) and we laughed continuously throughout the whole ordeal. Mark posted a detailed photo journal of our exploits at the Falconmoor campaign website. I'll probably feel the need to augment it with a few additional stories over time, but he's done a great job captioning. A funny man who should write more.
So I returned from Indianapolis and Detroit, with a few more scars and a little less vacation time accrued. To earn the dubious honour of being mildly shunned by my coworkers.
It's all good, though. My doctor says I don't get enough ostracize.
posted by Stephen Saunders at 8:30 AM
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