Saturday Cont.
Traveller
The only thing I knew about Traveller was that it is a scifi game, and it is old. I remember seeing ads for it in old Dragon Magazines. According to our GM (a wonderful fellow from Melbourne, Australia), it has been around since the mid-70s. This was extremely interesting to think about as the game unfolded. Technologies we take for granted in our daily lives were not considered when they developed the game. So you end up with some weird things like “Pony Express” information exchange. There is no send an email or whatever. Information is hand delivered.
Just an interesting look back at how those developers looked to what the future might look like. And makes me want to go down the rabbit hole to see what other things might have been developed (or not developed).
The game itself was one of the very few I’ve ever played in at a convention where there was nearly no combat (technically we fired on a ship near the end and destroyed it, but that it was it for the entire 4 hours). The GM stressed early on the system was brutal. In addition, we only had 2 fighters with us. Given that I was playing the Scientist role, I knew I wanted to avoid combat at all costs anyway.
Funny enough, in most of these gaming sessions, when you play a scientist type you do so knowing you are going to be rubbish at anything combat related. Your hope is that you get a couple of moments to shine in between fights, but mostly know it’s going to go a certain way. But because we didn’t have those fights and because we needed to have the Scientist investigate a bunch of things – I was the rock star of the group, and probably rolled the dice more times than just about anything else (which I wasn’t expecting – it was a nice change of pace).
Overall it was a cool session and while I’m not sure I’ll likely be able to play it again outside of a convention (since none of my playgroup has any experience with it), I’m glad to have had a little trip into history via the future.
Afterward we grabbed a bite (way too late) and then got home some time after 12:30.
Sunday
Seth Green and Nathan Fillion Panel
It said something about Robot Chicken in the panel title, but there might have been one Robot Chicken question 45 minutes into the panel. Of course, it had to do with a Firefly style episode in the same vein as Star Wars or the Walking Dead. You can imagine this idea went over really well with the crowd.
This was Seth Green’s first Dragon Con, and he seemed to be having a lot of fun. Randomly (though appreciated) someone asked him about his role on Can’t Buy Me Love, which is one of those things I always forget until I’m rewatching the movie. He also told someone on the phone (who was named Meg Griffen apparently) a “heartfelt message” in Chris’s voice. And even had a story about when he was on Buffy making the director uncomfortable because he was only had a sock covering his privates (for those who may not know, he played the werewolf Oz on the show, so when he woke from transforming he was often… without clothing).
The two of them apparently vacation together and were a great pair to have on a panel together.
Resident Alien
Maybe this is the bit which causes Courtney to actually watch the show (to be fair, I think she’s probably watched 10 or so episodes over my shoulder, but is only half paying attention)? I always love when the actors are asked what their “nerd” thing is. Many times you get answers which are ok. Maybe they say Star Wars or Star Trek, and you know they like them, but probably not in the same way many of the people in the crowd do. But then there are those moments when their posture changes and their voice gets a little faster/higher, and you just know “oh, this is their THING”.
Alan Tudyk apparently is really into yard sticks (yes the measuring kind) (no it wasn’t a joke). Alice Wetterlund loves Star Trek. Sara Tomko talked about meeting her first fan who cosplayed as her. And Meredith Garretson mentioned a book series (which I sadly didn’t catch the author), but she came back to it a couple of times.
See they are just like us! 🙂
Agents of Shield
Probably the cutest moment from the convention was when Brett Dalton’s daughter (maybe 10ish) asked him a question after standing in line. He made sure we all gave her applause enough to “embarrass her”, which we did. Having him and Cobie Smulders on the panel created an interesting balance as he was on the show for however many seasons while she was on there a handful of times but has all the MCU movies under her belt. Which meant their experiences were wildly different and created some interesting conversations.
You could tell that both of them really enjoyed working on the show/movies, and are always down for even more if the time allowed.
LitRPG Writers Panel
Weirdly, the only panel I almost didn’t make it in was this one. There was one seat left (which left Courtney outside the room, but this wasn’t really her thing anyway). I’m interested in LitRPG, this whole genre which is probably only a decade or so old. I have a short story which is morphing into something more that I feel like fits right into that heading. So I figured I’d sit in and see what some of today’s writers had to say.
Overall, I learned a few things. It definitely feels like they all (though to differing degrees) put a fair amount of thought into the game system the characters are playing. It also seems like the indy publishing plan of writing in series, releasing a lot of books overall (though many tried to stick to trilogies), and maybe even the use of spreadsheets to keep track of everything. Dakota Krout also reinforced that idea what we see in the finished product started years before. And the core of the game may have started even before that.
I need to check out a few of the novels to get a better feel (I’ve only read two, maybe three LitRPG books at this point). but it feels like a very interesting path to have available.
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Once that was done, we grabbed food, and then did the slow drive home with a little of the post-con blues to keep us company. Overall, another great time, and I’m kind of thinking we may try to dip our toes into the hotel craziness if our luck can hold. The 40 minute drive downtown and back home wasn’t bad, but there were a couple of things we likely would have done if we were staying downtown.
Hope everyone else had a great time. See you next year!
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John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.
He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!
Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.
His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com
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