Quantum Xen

I returned to an old haunt after a few years away this weekend. For years I attended Norwescon with my RPG gaming buddies. For those unfamiliar with Norwescon, just think of the fringe extreme of typical, Seattle Fandom packed into one hotel for an entire weekend. If you can’t, check out last years collections of the con Flickr site for visuals.

I was so eager to return to this convention I forgot one crucial thing; a Con is best visited with friends.  I mean, you are bound to run into people you know.  Hell, in Seattle it seems you are bound to run into someone you know if attendance is at least three digits.  As a result, even though I did re-connect with old faces, I spent alot of the weekend alone.

I attended full days on Friday and Saturday.  Realistically, they were the only days I could get free.  I had intended on shooting many pictures and making blog posts, but unlike ECCC, I had no comfortable place to setup.  I think next year access to a room or an office may be needed.  Also, I need a proper camera to make the effort worth it. I got away with using my iPad camera at ECCC, but the halls of the DoubleTree Hotel are poorly lit even on Sunny days.  Many professional photogs carried heavy duty flashes during the day.

So, instead I filled my time with attending discussion panels.  In the past, I focused on writer’s panels, but this year is was all about the current state of Role-Play Gaming that caught my interest.  Here are the names of the RPG panels I attended:

•  The Influence of Tabletop Games on Video Games
• Ask the Gamemasters
• Building a Better Campaign Setting
• The Past, Present and Future of RPGs*
• Fluffy vs. Crunchy: FIGHT! **

* Was scheduled as “The Future of Dungeons & Dragons” with a prestigious Wizards of the Coast panel line-up, but was cancelled at the last minute.

** Turned out to be everything I wanted out of a Panel.  More on that shortly.

One of the highlights of my weekend was being introduced to Jonathan Tweet.  I didn’t know it until this weekend, but I’ve been a fan of a few things he worked on, Namely D&D 3rd Ed and Ars Magica.  Turns out he has a new project coming out called 13th Age and by his own description I will be looking for this game on release!  Anyway, I found him very polite and pleasant to speak with.  It really helps to have a friend who knows a bunch of the Game Designer community (thanks, Jeff!)

But the biggest highlight can only be recounted in a post I made to my Gaming Group:

 . . . Best panel of the night was entitled Fluffy vs. Crunchy: FIGHT! I did nerd out a little as I watched both Jonathan and Monte (Cook) take opposing sides, except they had to make it their own. While Monte initially poo-poo’s the “illegitimate dichotomy” of the match-up, he eventually chose a side once Jonathan re-jiggered the debate as “FluffyCrunchy vs. CrunchyFluffy”, or as I like to think of it “Flunchy vs. Cruffy”. As I said in my Facebook status, there was no clear winner and yet it was made entirely of Win.

I only have one regret for the weekend and that was I did not attempt to do a live Podcast.  I had all the gear I needed with me, but the closest I got was to set it all up and show it off to a friend.  It was a small load out: my iPad, a Camera Connector Kit and my Snowball Mic. It works great, but since I did not have any topics or guests lined up I had no motivation.  There was one point, after sharing the setup, that I probably _could_ have had a couple minutes with Jonathan Tweet, but I only realized that in hindsight.

So now that it is all over I’m thinking about the potential of onsite podcasting again.  I think it could be done in a very interesting way.  My initial thoughts are short-short form (like 5 minutes short) and with a focus on the Content Producers, Game Designers and Publishing Houses.  At the very least, I’d learn a TON about what goes into Game making.

Did you attend Norwescon?  Leave a comment and share a tale!