GenCon-50yr Anniversary - SEL at Writer Symposium

Summarizing my first GenCon, and I picked a good one. It was the 50th Anniversary! >80,000 attendees over ~5days (though I only had Saturday to explore). In short, I'll be back next year and will spend more time. Three posts cover my experience:

1.  First Impressions 
2.  Tabletop Gaming
3.  Writer's Symposium  <<< You are Here

Writers Symposium

• I got to meet fellow Heroika:Dragon Eaters & Pirates In Hell author Jack William Finley!
• Steve Drew (Reddit Fantasy moderator) moderated all three seminars I attended:

1. SEM17121201 Business of Writing: Hybrid Publishing—Covering All the Bases: From self-pub to large press, they discussed building sustainable writing careers. With Steve Drew, Gail Z. Martin, Linda Robertson, Matt Forbeck.  
2. SEM17121231 Writer's Craft: Drawing from Mythology:  Great topic including an author/editor I follow, Howard Andrew Jones. He introduced me to Black Gate in 2010, so I was thrilled to get him to sign the 2011 Spring edition in which he is featured. He was most passionate about clarifying the loss of character synergy in Star Trek renewals. Cripes, I just saw that artist Donato Giancola was at Gencon (he did the coverart for Black Gate Magazine's last print issue (#15 2011 spring)..ie the one in this image). Gen Con was so big, I never got to the Artist alley; Long live Black Gate! 
3. SEM17121205 Writer's Craft: The Art of Adding Details: How do you add details that enrich your story without going too far and overwhelming the reader? Featuring Steve Drew, Leigh Perry, Mary Robinette Kowal, Kelly McCullough & Richard Lee Byers.

GenCon-50yr Anniversary - SEL's First Impressions

Summarizing my first GenCon, and I picked a good one. It was the 50th Anniversary! >80,000 attendees over ~5days (though I only had Saturday to explore). In short, I'll be back next year and will spend more time. Three posts cover my experience:

1. SEL's First Impressions  <<< You are Here
2. Tabletop Gaming
3. Writer's Symposium

Some  First Impressions

• 80,000 fellow "nerds" congregate to play game
• Somehow several hotels, an entire convention center, and an entire stadium are filled with events... and it is all family friendly. Strollers and kids abound.
• Lots of cosplay
• The Exhibit Hall is incredible.  
• Play Areas: people are playing board games everywhere! Miniatures, Magic, Catan, you name it.  Crazy.
• I got to fist-bump a Dark Souls statue
• Lot's of big game designers and authors here. Cripes...is that Margaret Weis chilling in front of me?  
• If you Kickstart games like I do, you'll want to come here. 
• Never had a chance to even visit the authors/artist alley, the stadium event, etc.
• One day is not enough
• Next year, I'll stay longer

GenCon-50yr Anniversary - SEL's Tabletop Gaming

Summarizing my first GenCon, and I picked a good one. It was the 50th Anniversary! >80,000 attendees over ~5days (though I only had Saturday to explore). In short, I'll be back next year and will spend more time. Three posts cover my experience:

1.  First Impressions
2. Tabletop Gaming <<< You are Here
3. Writer's Symposium

TableTop Gaming

• Ritual - Playtesting: I started the day with 2hrs of play-testing  Ritual, a card game for 3+ players in which each person is a necromancer trying to build their villages (of people to harvest for sorcery) while sabotaging the other players' villages. to be Kickstarted soon. The goal was to fine tune the rule book.  The game is fun and easy to play, and can "ruin friendships!" 
• Deep Madness: A fan of CMON's Zombicide, I was lured into backing Diemension Game's cooperative dungeon crawler (not CMON, but is reminiscent, this game being a cooperative crawl with Mythos culture/creatures). Got to meet designer Roger Ho in person. Diemension plan to kickstart Dawn of Madness (aka Celestial?) within a year, which will be another horror miniature game....this time with a progression of character transformation.
• STOP THIEF: A fan of the ~1979 original, I had to back this renewed version on Kickstarter. It is due in the mail any time, and stopping by Restoration games enabled me to pick up an extra thief (apparently made in Garay Gygax's honor). Rob Daviau & Justin Jacobson of Restoration Games had a presentation/seminar (conflicting with the Writer's Symposium), but my brother filled in the audience.