On the Ground at AwesomeCon 2025

At the Walter E. Washington Convention Center for DC's ComicCon

Friday, April 4th, 2025

My introduction to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center was coming out of the Mount Vernon Square metro station and seeing doors marked as exit only. I was unsure where to go; however, I did see a large number of people dressed in cosplay so I had figured I was in the right place (on the Metro, I had shared my car with a man dressed as the classic Riddler). Seeing all the nerds in one place gave me hope, and I followed the nerd herd to the main opening of the convention center.

The center is a big, spacious building; the line for convention-goers to enter was winding like a snake through the building. There was a weapons check for cosplayers, which surprised me a bit (I didn’t dress as anyone—I had gotten this assignment from Arturo Serrano only on the Wednesday preceding the convention so I wouldn’t have had the time even if I were inclined to such things). From there, I made my way up the grand staircase of the entire building to the registration hall, where I picked up my badge. It was in this massive exhibit hall, mostly empty—it felt like an aircraft hanger, but all the planes were in the sky, doing who knows what, who knows where.

The registration hall was behind a major open area (called the ‘bridge’ in the official communications as it connected the two major buildings of the convention center) where there was a DJ who played all sorts of music during the event, and where people occasionally danced (although no dance I can do). What was really striking, though, about the bridge was that it was the great public square of the convention, where all the people here bedecked in such exquisite costumes were making their way hither and yon. I remember a guy dressed as the Heavy from Team Fortress 2 who I talked to briefly (I played that game a lot when I was in high school, and I recognized his gun as a Tomislav, which I used when I played Heavy), but I couldn’t work up the nerve to actually ask for his picture. Unfortunately I have no cosplay pictures for you as I am simply too shy to do that with any regularity. But being in that plaza (I can’t really think of a better term) was invigorating, just seeing the hustle and bustle from my kind.

My convention experience was one of panels; the only convention I am a regular at in any meaningful sense is Capclave, which is run by the Washington Science Fiction Association (to whom I pay dues) annually, and which is a very much a speculative literary convention, where there is no cosplay, no actors, no film, only nerds talking about books. As such I didn’t see any of the panels with actors on them, nor play any games. I am here for the books and my writeup, for better or for worse, will reflect that.

My first panel was on history and science in science fiction, with C. K. Westbrook, J. R. Traas, and Avrah C. Baren. This was a fun little panel where the topic was really something of a fig leaf. It wasn’t particularly methodological or rigorous but it allowed the authors to go on about things that interested them, something like a well-written essay collection. I enjoyed it.

My second panel was in the same room, on the Art of Worldbuilding with P. Djèlí Clark (whose work I adore), John Scalzi, R. R. Virdi, Timothy Zahn (whose work I also adore), Fonda Lee, and Seanan McGuire (whose Wayward Children series I adore). They talked about how writers integrate the world into their stories, and how to do that well. The best part, by far, was R. R. Virdi going on a long digression about comparative mythology, which ultimately persuaded me to buy one of his books. We need more interesting tangents about interesting things.

There was a very good panel about black holes, where I learned about all the strange anomalies thereof, and it was staffed by scientists. After that, in the same room, was a panel about investigating a few pages of an old German book from the eighteenth century about South American flora and fauna. It was an interdisciplinary look at this book, from scientific and artistic perspectives.

The final panel I went to that day was entitled Luke Skywalker and the Holy Grail, wherein the two panelists discussed the Arthurian roots of the Star Wars saga. The two of them (whose names I sadly do not remember and are not recorded in the AwesomeCon app) had a presentation that was rather short and the room collectively spent the rest of the time asking about incongruous parallels between the two (they said that the Arthurian equivalent of the Star Wars Holiday Special is The Green Knight and that the Arthurian Gonk Droid is the Holy Hand Grenade).

After that I took the Metro home.

Saturday, April 5th, 2025

I opened my day with the Lightsaber Show put on by the Saber Guild, a DC-area Star Wars reenactment group. The whole thing was essentially a play with a plot concocted to provide an excuse to wave lightsabers around. As such, the plot was a little thin, but it made up for it in both lightsaber-based theatrics and occasional humor (they riffed on the "Come to the Dark Side—We Have Cookies" meme to hysterical effect).

I spent much of the next time in the Dealers' Room, which is a massive exhibition hall in the basement of the convention center which looks like yet another aircraft hangar (is the Air Force planning to use the convention center in the event of civil unrest?). I bought two mock votive candles from Illuminidol, one with Astarion on it and one with Shadow the Hedgehog on it, for my sister and a coworker respectively (my sister was completely baffled by it, which was the intended reaction). There was something about the Dealers' Room that made geekiness feel very material, very plastic, as if it were a thing that you could hold in your hand.

I spent too much money on books in the Dealers' Room, because of course I did (whenever a friend of mine enters my room they are stunned by the number of books in there). I got to talk to Jennifer Povey, whom I have previously met at various iterations of CapClave, and upon hearing that I wrote for Nerds of a Feather, said that she loved our site (hats off to you, my fellow NoaF writers!). I also ran into JC Kang who I had met at DISCON, and whose book Songs of Insurrection is very good, and y’all should read. I also got to see the science demonstration of dry ice, which was spectacular.

There is only one complaint I have about the Dealers' Room and it has nothing to do with the vast majority of the dealers therein. It was due to the fact that AwesomeCon felt it acceptable or appropriate to let the United States Marine Corps have a table, and to advertise said table via the convention app. Those of you who have been reading my work on this blog have seen my opinion on the craven people in the American terror state that are eagerly helping the Israelis reduce Gaza to a wasteland, and no fandom organization should be giving them a platform to launder their reputation and possibly recruit (as luck would have it, a writer I follow posted a piece on the Sunday of the convention about why joining the US military in this moment is a bad idea). We have rightly ostracised the Russian state over Ukraine, and we should ostracize the American terror state over Gaza. Letting genocidaires present at an event like this is monstrous, and a complete abrogation of any ideals of tolerance and acceptance that the organization purports to uphold.

Then there was a panel called “SciFi in Real Space: A Talk with an Astronaut and Space Experts,” notably featuring astronaut Leland Melvin. The title didn’t really describe what actually happened as there was little discussion of fiction, but plenty of discussion of life on the International Space Station, which was worth the time. The astronaut mentioned that he could listen to satellite radio in space; I later asked him if the reception for the radio was better in space by virtue of being closer to the satellites, but unfortunately it is sent to Earth and then beamed back up.

After that, I went to the Latin Dancing for Nerds event run by Stephanie Metzger. This was more familiar to me than to many others because social partner dancing in its various forms is my physical hobby; I’m leaps and bounds better at lindy hop than bachata, the offering at this event, but I can hold my own in bachata (even if experienced bachateros see how bouncy my footwork is and say that I’m obviously a lindy hopper). The whole thing was run very well, although doing any sort of dance on carpet is inevitably problematic (I remember, back at DISCON, noticing that all the rooms called ‘ballrooms’ by the hotel were carpeted over, and it made me very sad for a moment).

Next up was a panel on Beast of the East: Urban Legends, Hauntings, & Filming Locations presented by L. R. Staszak, Matt Lolich, Neil A. Cohen, and Matt Blazi—I knew a good bit of these, such as the Bunnyman and the Mothman, but they were so entertaining in their back-and-forth that the whole thing was fun regardless. It also exposed to me how many filming locations are nearby, and the industry around filming locations as tourist traps.

Then there was a panel on Real Life Superheroes: Nonfiction in Graphic Novels presented by Todd DePastino, Bill Maudlin, Maximilian Uriarte, and Wayne Vansant. I wasn’t expecting this panel to be so military-focused but it was interesting all the same, with talk about theory and various interesting historical stories. I also ran into my good friend Sean C. W. Korsgaard, and we ate at the Ben’s Chili Bowl in the convention center for dinner.

Next up was a panel on Haunted DC, hosted by Scott Larson and Kennedy Simpson. Simpson works for the Congressional Cemetery and told a story that can only be described as stranger than fiction. In 2002, the Cemetery got a call from an unknown person who asked “Do you want William Wirt’s head back?” The call subsequently dropped. The Cemetery is the burial place of Mr. Wirt, the Attorney General under presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams and a famed man of letters, and also was the presidential nominee by the Anti-Masonic Party despite the fact that he was a freemason. His head had been stolen from the Cemetery circa 1900 (based on the qualities of the box containing said head) and had ended up in the collection of a skull collector(!!!) in New Jersey who had recently died in 2002; the call was from the executor of his will. After testing that the head was indeed that of Mr. Wirt, it was interred with the rest of him. Simpson said that the working theory among Cemetery staff was that his head was stolen due to his fame as an intellectual meeting the phrenological fad of the turn of the twentieth century, by people who wanted to know what made him tick.

The last of that day was what was billed as a discussion on Moral Ambiguity in Modern Villains but really was one guy talking with the audience on said subject. In fairness, it was an interesting discussion, although it was hobbled by an unwillingness to really get political about it

Sunday, April 6th, 2025

The first panel of the day was one with Zoraida Cordova and Timothy Zahn discussing their work in the new Star Wars expanded universe. It was very interesting popping the hood and seeing what made the two writers tick, having enjoyed both of their works (Zahn follows only Harry Turtledove in being the writer whose works I have read the most of). During the Q&A I hijacked the Star Wars panel to ask if Zahn were planning to do anything with the universe in his Conquerors trilogy, and he said he was working on something which I hope sees the light of day. I later got to talk to him briefly in the dealers’ room and I tried not to fanboy too hard, and inevitably failed.

Then there was the comedy show Multiverse Got Talent! hosted by Steve Katz and with a few other comedians. The jokes were only sometimes nerdy, but were often funny enough that I was entertained. My favorite was Angel Penn, whose shtick is that he is an alternate universe version of Eminem who is Black and an anime fan. It was a very odd combination but it ended up working.

The next panel I went to was called Plot and Pacing, which had Fonda Lee, Seanan McGuire, M. L. Rio, John Scalzi, R. R. Virdi, and P. Djèlí Clark. It started about pacing but went into a wide-ranging discussion of writing processes. The most striking part was when Scalzi said that he did not do drafting, which shocked everyone in the room. He went on to clarify that he does not bother writing second, third, fourth, etc. drafts of his novels, a practice he says is a relic of the age of typewriters when one had to literally retype the entire draft multiple times. With word processors, he tinkers in a single document over an extended period of time, which is a similar amount of revision with less repetition. Once this was explained, the room understood him, and looking back at it, this is how I wrote my academic papers from middle school through my undergraduate degree, so I can’t really fault him for that. It does raise interesting questions about how writing should be taught in a world with ubiquitous word processing software, but I am no pedagogue.

The last event I attended at the convention was a live recording of the Dugongs and Seadragons podcast, which was a rollicking time travel adventure set in Antarctica. I had never attended such an event, nor listened to such a podcast, beforehand, but the experience was engaging with a good dungeon master and an experienced cast.

After that, I went home, found dinner near the metro, and then collapsed for several hours. It messed up my sleep schedule for the ensuing week but it was so much fun it was worth it. I had heard of friends going to AwesomeCon before, being a staple of DC-area geekdom, and this was my first experience. I do not believe it will be the last.

POSTED BY: Alex Wallace, alternate history buff who reads more than is healthy.

Feminist Futures: WisCon and Me

Let me set a scene for you. May 2014, and I have just started getting seriously into SFF in all the wrongest ways. And look, I’d love to go to conventions, have been looking for some around where I live (Western Wisconsin), and hear about WisCon. And it sounds amazing. Small and affordable and lots to see and do. Now let me reiterate, I have very little experience with SFF fandom, am not even on Twitter at this point, and my greatest sources of information on SFF are...well, shall we just say not exactly reliable (I am told repeatedly that WisCon is terrible and makes men feel unsafe).

All of this also means that I wasn’t aware of the crisis at the heart of the WisCon, and one that sort of exploded in and around WisCon 38. It’s a hell of a time to have my first ever convention. But listen. The guest of honors are Hiromi Goto and N.K. Jemisin. I get some of their books ahead of time to prep. I read The Killing Moon. People, that book changes me.

Let me reach back a bit more. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, affluent and sheltered. My reading consisted of almost entirely straight white men. I read the entire Wheel of Time series every time a new book came out. I read the Legends anthology and see no lack in its table of contents. At this point I’m still fairly convinced (despite plenty of evidence to the contrary) that I am your average straight cis dude. That’s about to change.

WisCon is energy. It’s learning. And it doesn’t really hide anything. At that first WisCon I listen while people talk about consent, about race, about queerness, about SFF in ways that I have never encountered before. I listen. I keep listening. I don’t think I talk to a single other person during WisCon 38, except to blushingly thank N.K. Jemisin as she signs my copy of Circlet’s Fantastic Erotica (I told you there was evidence). But still, the experience is transformative. It opens my eyes not just to work within SFF that I had been wholly ignorant of, it also prompts me to introspect and examine myself and start actually working through my feelings and identity. I think I can safely say without WisCon, I would be a very different person.

And at the same time, the convention is dealing with harassment and a huge failure to protect attendees. The convention seems to be stuck at a crossroads of sorts, one where it can refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing and one where it can own up to it and do better. I like to think that it chose the second path. Because as I have returned to WisCon year after year, I have noticed only a better and better convention and conversation, one that in large part checks the 101 at the door and really digs into issues and discussions that I don’t really hear talked about anywhere else. And as the convention has moved forward, louder have been the voices claiming the convention too quick to respond to criticism, too receptive to complaints of harassment. Which seems to indicate to me at least that they’re doing something right.

Historically, WisCon has tried to inhabit the space where feminism and SFF intersect. Through its work to organize the convention and the Tiptree Award, the convention has consistently brought a needed light to issues within SFF that are often overlooked or suppressed. This, even as Wisconsin itself has turned its back on a lot of the liberal ideas that helped to birth the convention, even as much of the country has embraced a politics and rhetoric that are unafraid to call any attempt to foster inclusion intolerant, sexist, and racist (for not catering first and most to white straight cis men, basically). In practice, it has been a bumpy road, but one that I think WisCon is dedicated to seeing through. From its policy changes to its guests of honor to its wide range of programming and events, I continue to see improvements and a genuine desire to build a convention that is welcoming and enriching.

For me, WisCon has been an introduction into so much. And as I’ve attended, I’ve grown and learned. As a reader and writer. As a fan. And as a person. I doubt, in that, I am alone. When I first attended, WisCon was a revelation. It was getting to hear K. Tempest Bradford talk in person, which in turn led me to her Reading Challenge, which then led me to completely rethinking my reading habits. It was getting to hear Hiromi Goto’s guest of honor speech, and being floored by it. It was getting to hear every subsequent guest of honor speech, and be moved to tears, or to action. I’ve met friends, and even made some. I’ve been on programming, and gotten to talk about reviewing, yeah, but also about representation, masculinity, and my love of Garak.

I cannot separate out my personal journey that started at WisCon from how I think of the convention. So if you’re looking for an objective source of information, I’m probably not it. But it’s still the one convention I try to make no matter what. The one convention I would choose to attend each year (which is lucky because it’s just about the only one I can afford). I will not try to deny that for many WisCon has failed them, has hurt them, and I can only hope that the convention has truly learned from its mistakes and failures, and will continue to lead the charge for inclusive feminism in SFF.

For those who want to know more about the convention, check out its website here.

For those who want to know more about the issues with the convention, google is your friend, but there’s plenty of info and links here.

---

POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor (now at-large) to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.

My First Gen Con

96 Hours at the Biggest Gaming Convention

For the last few years, Gen Con has been something both too close and too far away. I've been either too cheap or too broke to attend, even though Indianapolis is (relatively) close to home. I decided to make the trip this year and I had a great time!

The Games

As my first Gen Con, I attended as a fan. I came to play games I don't get to play in my area. Pre-con, I signed up for six games across the four day con, one of The Strange, one of Numenera, and four of The Dark Eye. I knew these would be beginner/introduction type games, but I've owned all of them for a stretch of time and I just wanted a guided experience in playing them.

The Dark Eye - The Dark Eye (TDE) is Germany's version of D&D. It's their most popular RPG and has had one continuous setting that's evolved over its 30+ years. As it was described to me at least twice, it's more Brothers Grimm than Tolkien. Each region of its setting is some form of ancient Europe, from a raiding viking nation, to warring dark age states, to Arabian Nights-esque deserts. In some ways, TDE is more complex than D&D.

The first aspect that stuck out the most to me was contested attack rolls. In D&D, and most RPGs, attacks are reduced to a single roll: your die roll modified by a skill bonus/penalty against a target/to-hit number that belongs to your enemy. The defender, more or less, stands there while the attacker takes a swing at them. TDE makes this a little more interactive. The attacker rolls against their own skill. When the attacker fails, it's because they missed. If they succeed, the defender doesn't just stand there. The defender gets to roll a dodge or parry against their own respective skill, which gets more difficult the more you have to do it in a single round. This back and forth can slow combat down even more than in other games, but it feels like it's giving more agency to both players, which high skill attackers having the ability to miss less often by rolling against their own numbers, and defenders get a chance to user their own skill to avoid the attacks. These are important because the penalties for damage are harsh in TDE, with successive life loss increasingly making it more difficult to act. In three game sessions, I don't think we killed anything, but we definitely damaged enemies to the point of retreating. I love this because it sets up a game where enemies can have names and grudges and reappear or redeem themselves, while D&D is largely a monster mash. Not that there's anything wrong with a monster mash.

The other interesting aspect is skill rolls, which require three dice rolls against three of your character's ability scores. That may sound like it's inviting three opportunities for failure, but your skill rating allows you to negate failures. This balancing effect means that you can more often succeed at skill checks in things that you're good at, and your level of success can be quantified because your remaining skill points improve the quality of your success. This also gives built-in narrative reasons reasons for failure. If you succeed on strength and agility during a climbing roll, but fail in courage, you've basically described for yourself how you failed; you're physically capable of climbing that thing, but in that moment you didn't have the heart.

I signed up for four games, but only attended the first three. In those three games, I bullied a serf as a good-looking viking-for-hire at a wedding between rival nations, I lost my temper and charged as fast as my dwarven warrior's legs would carry me at handful of orc slavers, and I deftly picked locks as a high-skill but extremely squishy thief. After three games, I'd seen enough to be thoroughly impressed.

Numenera and The Strange - (some light disclosure: I backed a kickstarter for an updated version of Numenera) I'm combining these because they're the same game system (the Cypher System) for two wildly different settings. Numenera takes place a billion years in the future, where we've lost knowledge of how technology and magic work so they're indistinguishable and wildly dangerous, and The Strange is like The Laundry Files meets Sliders. The Cypher System reduces ability scores to just Might, Speed, and Intellect, abstracts skills, and gives everyone disposable powerful magic items. It's kind of the opposite of TDE, where the GM rolls nothing but sets difficulty of the action, so every roll is unopposed. To affect these rolls, you can spend points out of your ability score pools. The catch is that these same pools count as your life counters, so physical damage drains your might, then your speed, then your intellect, and then you're dead. Since this wasn't an on-going campaign, everyone was pretty loose about using their ability pools, and no one died, but I could see how an on-going game would prompt more conservative play and result in more failed rolls. The settings were both interesting, but I think I enjoyed the octo-post-apocalyptic medieval world of Numenera more than the The Strange's bioengineered sci-fi dimension of Ruk.

Battletech - Hey, wait a minute. I didn't sign up for this! But I did skip on that last TDE session. I tried to get into a game of Dungeon Crawl Classics, but it was full, so I hopped over to the Battletech tables for a refresher on that system. It's still high on the number crunching and wargaming end of the spectrum. But my Jenner outmaneuvered my opponent's Panther and I got up in his face and lit him up like a Christmas tree. His PPC would've hurt if he landed a hit, but he couldn't make it happen. We ran out of time, but I scored it as a victory.

The books I brought from home that went completely unused.

The Exhibitor Hall

Whoa. This was my FLGS except packed full of people. Just games on games on utilikilts on dice on games. It was just an unholy amount of people and stuff in one place. I'm not much of a browser though, so my experience here was checking the map for a vendor I wanted to visit, squeezing through the hordes of people slow walking or browsing until I found them, checking out what they had, and then moving to the next vendor. So I saw a ton of stuff, but I'm allergic to pitches so I didn't stop to play much. I did walk out with my Numenera kickstarter rewards (two massive 400 page tomes), Scum and Villainy (Blades in the Dark in Space), The Sprawl (cyberpunk PbtA), and Vampire: The Masquerade V5.

Cyberpunk and space!

Stray Thoughts

There was a ton of cosplay, but I learned that for every picture in a Best Cosplay album, there's at least 50 okay cosplays that didn't make the cut. Good efforts but sometimes the seams were showing or I could tell what they were going for, sort of.

Here's a real shocker: no one really stank. I squoze through a ton of people in that exhibitor hall, and I wasn't constantly gagging on someone's body odor. Dumb stereotypes of stinky gamers were deeply challenged!

Another shocker: I didn't come home with con crud. Again, extremely close to a lot of people at times but didn't get sick at all!

I stayed at a hotel near the airport and that was a mistake. I'm cheap and those rooms were cheaper than downtown, but they're very isolated from everything (seriously, nearest gas station was a mile away), so everywhere I went was a 15 minute Lyft. I could've saved on Lyfts and spent that money on the hotel room. Lesson learned there.

I'm not going to bother taking any books next time I go. I took a small selection, but I got way more mileage out of my Kindle Fire with Dropbox and my game book PDFs. I made the mistake of picking up my Numenera kickstarter books before I was done for the day and had to carry them around everywhere to the detriment of my back.

There was essentially no D&D. Wizards of the Coast wasn't there. Some other people were running D&D games, but it was very surprising to me that the biggest RPG in America wasn't at the biggest gaming convention in the world.

"Includes PDF" is a decisive feature!

Next Time?

Will I go back? Almost definitely. Maybe not yearly, but I had a lot of fun and I'd love to go again. Next time, I'd like to explore more panels and opportunities to learn, but I'm definitely still going to play some games, new and familiar. And maybe take some pictures next time.

***

POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

Emerald City Comic Con

It is undisputed scientific fact that Seattle is the greatest city in the world, and home to the greatest Comic Con in the world, and least in my very scientific study of only having attended ECCC. OK, so perhaps there is some dispute. Nevertheless! Attend ECCC I did, and I wanted to give you my highlights.

On Thursday, I actually went up to the Funko store in Everett to grab some exclusive for our very own Mister Newhouse-Bailey, my brother in silly toy collecting, as well as for my friend who runs Collect it Here, a collectibles shop which I will blatantly plug now. This was really exciting, because I hadn't actually been to the Funko shop yet.

This is not where I got in the line

But seriously, the shop is an event unto itself.

A photographer I am not. there is a reason I write.

Saturday and Sunday I spent at the con, and I'm just going to sort of-apologize for not taking many pictures. As you can see up above, it's not my greatest skill in life, it was crowded as hell, and there are lots of outlets with very expensive cameras and professional photographers that took loads of pictures, if you want visuals.

Saturday was my day to mostly wander around (even once I got inside the con, since I ended up parking, I am pretty sure, further away from the convention center than I actually live). The cosplay was - as per usual - amazing (my own cosplay consisted of "doing my hair slightly different and wearing my jacket that everyone says looks like Wolverine anyway". No, you don't get a picture.). There are some great roundups of the cosplay on io9 and SyFy wire. The highlight of the cosplay, for me, was a spot-on Last Jedi Leia, which, how do you even put that on without sobbing? My goodness.

Also receiving votes: pink-bonnetted Mal, tiny Rey & Kylo,and anyone who wore a costume that didn't cover a lot, because it was really cold.

Sunday was more geared towards art, games and shopping. Artist Alley featured its usual assortment of people far, far more talented that I, so that was annoying.

If you like impossibly adorable stuff, check out Little Brigade. I mean, seriously. 

I'm only human. Take my money.

On the less cute side of things, Mike Manomivibul caught my eye with some really clever, almost-surreal work.

Outstanding in my eyes was Geoff Pascual's watercolors. There is just something about this style I adore. - and the images online (like most art) really don't do them justice. 

(not appearing at the con, but you should also check out Megan Levens)

If anyone wants to buy me a set of Norse Foundry dice, I will love you forever. PROMISE.

Which actually segues nicely into the part I've been avoiding, which is that I spent most of the day Sunday just playing board games. Which was super fun, but not exactly riveting to read a description of me trying to remember how to play Arkham Horror since I haven't played it in years. On a related note, Arkham Horror game night, my place. Who's in?

In all seriousness, we've moved so far beyond Comic Cons being about comics. If that's your thing, there are a million booths with (what I presume are) awesome comics. I'm not super into comics, and I could have spent a week playing games with random people and spending far too much money on toys and art, and there still would be more to do. 

ECCC has done a great job of running an organized, clean and (hopefully) safe and inclusive con (I'm a white guy, so I can only speak to this so much).

 

-DESR

Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories (which should be on YOUR summer reading list). You can read his other ramblings and musings on a variety of topics (mostly writing) on his blog. When not holed up in his office tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore.

WisCon: My Home Con

So WisCon 40 is done and gone. And over a week late I'm finally getting around to find my thoughts on it. My thoughts on everything that's happened and everything I was lucky enough to hear and participate in. WisCon, since I started going three years ago, has been, well, the one con I go to each year. Money and work mean that I just can't get too far away from where I live and WisCon...WisCon makes me really happy to live in this state. And this was a big one. Three Guests of Honor, including Sofia Samatar, Nalo Hopkinson, and Justine Larbalestier. Plus just regular awesome people in attendance like K. Tempest Bradford, Mark Oshiro, & many more. For the 40th anniversary of the con people pulled out all the stops.

This was also my first year on programming. I got to be on two panels right away on Friday, at both of which I got to feel completely outclassed by the rest of the panelists. The first, on The Art of the Book Review, kicked off the con for me, and featured a great discussion about the nature of book reviews and their changing role in the fan and publishing landscape. And okay, yet, I apparently have some not-incredibly-popular opinions when it comes to spoilers and negative reviews and comparing works to other works, but it was still a very respectful panel and it was a great way to get started.

My second panel was a bit more...well, it was a lot more fun with a lot more swearing. The Baby Writer panel featured writers with five or fewer pro sales and was addressing that particular place in a writer's trajectory (which for many lasts a lot longer than for others). But it was a great, cathartic experience to talk about the struggles of starting out and facing...a bit of an uphill battle when it comes to getting work out and accepted at pro markets and dealing with managing expectations, pushing back against negativity demons, and trying to focus on both the business and the craft of writing. Really, this was the panel that revitalized me a bit, that got me excited to keep going and writing. Or maybe that was the con as a whole. I always leave WisCon feeling equal parts inspired and intimidated, but it's an amazing experience, like cramming some sort of college course into a single weekend.

Now, other people have written much more intelligently about WisCon and it's history and "the way it's been going." Go read this piece by K. Tempest Bradford. I have less experience with this because this WisCon has always been more my WisCon. Having only gone the last three years, I've seen some shift but haven't experienced how it was before. What I know is that I've loved WisCon and each years just keeps getting better. As much as I am a complete social idiot when it comes to saying hi to people, I've felt welcome at WisCon and really look forward to going back. But there is a discussion going on about who is welcome and if there was a theme this year that I could pick out it's probably one that revolves around the idea of Nice.

There were a few excellent panels about the pitfalls of Nice. The #KeepYANice and Other Tools of Oppression was a great discussion of that, where how people talk about nice and who is expected to be nice was dissected and examined. Many other panels came back to this as well, looking at things like code switching and the intersections of race and class and how Niceness is something that is often used to mean "the right kind of Nice" which is the Nice expected of people who are being punched from above. And there were calls both to resist the pressure to be Nice and there were also calls to shift the conversation away from Nice as an attack and more toward using Nice to celebrate real, human kindness. The proposed Lemonade Award was the culmination of that, put forward by GoH Nalo Hopkinson. It's an interesting idea and I'm excited to see where it might go.

In the end, WisCon remains a great place to go and to talk but, for me, mostly to listen. To bask in the voices of so many amazing people and writers and learn something. And also buy a lot of books. But year after year it continues to provide excellent panels and discussions and speakers and just all the good. If you're in the Wisconsin area around Memorial Day, definitely stop in. Say hi. See you next year, WisCon!

--
POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.

A Taste of WisCon

Image blatantly stolen from their website (sorry...)

Memorial Day weekend in Wisconsin can often mean many things. Most years, it means a return of spring, of the snow (hopefully) being gone after about six months of winter. It means renewal and finally stepping outside without all the armor the cold forces on us. It's fitting then, that it also means a return of WisCon, a convention that is, at its core, about provided space for people passionate about science fiction and feminism to meet and talk without the need for all the armor that is sometimes required for simply existing as a fan of speculative fiction.

Perhaps I don't have the best basis for comparison, as WisCon has been the only convention (aside from a Wizard World Chicago which was much different) I've attended. But it was amazing seeing many of the writers whose stories I have read and admired and while I did not have the courage to approach any to say hi they were there and I was there and that was enough in many ways. Living in Wisconsin, though, means that this convention is close enough and just the right kind of thing to get me out of my hermitage to engage with real, living, breathing people.

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the location first. Madison is a nicely sized city, and for those staying away from the convention hotels (I stayed with friends), the convention site is pretty easy to get to. Just be sure to park in the structure closest to the Concourse (the one with the $5 daily max, because otherwise parking adds up fast). On Saturday there's the Farmer's Market on the Square, less than a block from the convention, and anyone who has never had fresh (and I mean squeaky) cheese curds should be sure to check that out. Normally it's too early in the year to get too much in the way of produce, but it's always a fun walk to see what's for sale. There's tons of places to eat and drink just in general, from very fancy restaurants to more laid back bars. Plus there's the Bar in the Concourse itself, which featured a special drink menu for the Con (combining my great loves of stories and booze!).

And the puns! Oh, the puns!

There are also some bookstores that you should not miss whenever you are in Madison. The first is A Room of One's Own which is awesome and carries books new and used with a special eye for diverse books. They also always have a table in the vendor room as well, but making the trip down to the brick and mortar store is a must. I wish I had a bookstore like this in my city, but as that is not the case I settle for buying lots of books there when I'm in town. Just a few blocks away is another amazing bookstore, Rainbow Books. It's a queer-centric bookstore with its own cat! The selection of fiction isn't as robust as elsewhere but it has tons of nonfiction and has a large zine selection and did I mention the adorable cat? Because yeah, it's an amazing store.

But the Con! There were so many things to see and do. The panels were, by and large, both provocative and entertaining. Things don't really get going too much until Friday, but once things got going they really got going. That first night had both Misandry, Reverse Racism, and Other Imaginary Creatures and Death to Love Triangles. Imaginary Creatures was probably the most fun I had in a panel this year, the panelists really hitting their stride and engaging with the ideas in a powerful and hilarious manner. Death to Love Triangles, meanwhile, featured Guest of Honor Alaya Dawn Johnson and others speaking about how to subvert the "standard" tropes that continually pop up in YA and beyond.

Saturday had Sex Positive SFF and The Future of Gender: Beyond the Binary, as well as The Mixtape, an examination of science fiction in music that made me think about how science fiction can be interpreted in music even when the lyrics of a song are not explicitly speculative. Really, anyone looking to get a great reading list or music list has only to sit in on some of these panels to hear a dozen titles thrown out of works that manage to capture some aspect the panel discusses. For me it meant walking away with a great many new books and albums in my mental to-read queue. Saturday also featured a full slew of parties, but as I am not much of a party-person, I opted for dinner out with friends and some lively discussion.

Sunday was a very full day, with the morning featuring Towards More Realistic Fictional Diasporas, a great discussion on integrating immigration and diasporas into spec fiction in a way that is sensitive to those real-world populations actually displaced and scattered. And, of course, Sunday had the…fascinating panel Elim Garak's Weird Cardassian Penis, a discussion on alien genitalia, which was everything it sounds like and more. As Garak is my favorite DS9 character, it was a must-attend, and I did not leave disappointed.

And the panels were only part of the fun. The convention was also full of readings by many talented writers. Alaya Dawn Johnson had a hilarious reading of a gay zombie romance(ish) story that was great and I also attended a reading of Comics Against the Gender Binary as well as a Mythical Creatures reading featuring Nino Cipri, David J. Schwartz, and others. I also count the Guest of Honor speeches as a reading of sorts. Kim Stanley Robinson spoke about climate change, politics, and economics while Alaya Dawn Johnson stunned with a song and an impassioned speech on the importance of diverse books and the power of stories. The convention would have been worth the price of admission with that speech alone, and it was the highlight of the weekend for me.

Not that things were over. There were a few more things to do on Monday, including a panel on food in world building and the Sign Out where I may have gotten a number of things signed. It was amazing getting to talk (even very briefly) with the writers there and to have something to take home to treasure (besides the invaluable experience and reading recommendations).

I might have a book problem...

So yes, in short, WisCon was amazing! It really is something that gets me incredibly excited for stories, for reading and writing and reviewing. If you haven't, definitely consider giving next year's (big whomping anniversary year) WisCon a go. Guests of honor will be Sofia Samatar, Justine Larbalestier, and Nalo Hopkinson! If you go, you just might see me there...

POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.

I Survived Gen Con 2013

For the first time in my life I was able to attend Gen Con in Indianapolis this past weekend and had an absolute blast.  The four day gaming mecca took over the Indianapolis Convention Center and area hotels with rooms and rooms of RPGs, tabletop gaming, mammoth games, and exclusives that had a record crowd of 49,058.  What really sold this convention to me was the fact that I spent 3 days playing board games and having an absolute blast.  Gen Con caters to gamers of all types from video gamers, role players, board gamers, and more.  Due to the fact that it had me playing board games for three straight days it may be my favorite convention.

I won my very own Space Penguin!

Winner of Gen Con:
King of Tokyo - From my perspective, which is limited to board games, King of Tokyo generated tons of positive buzz through the convention.  Iello Games was giving out King of Tokyo promotional cards at its booth which fans lined up for before the doors opened and hourly tournaments in the gaming hall for a chance to win the new character Space Penguin.  The lines for a chance to win a Space Penguin were consistent throughout the convention and when I was successful in winning mine some of my fellow competitors had been trying for days to get their hands on this exclusive.  By Saturday Iello Games had sold out of both King of Tokyo and its expansion.  Iello Games also debuted two games that caught my eye in Three Little Pigs and Zombie '15.

Best Game I Played:

Dead Panic - Fireside Games debuted Dead Panic, a follow-up to the great co-op game Castle Panic.  At first glance it looked like a rehash of a great game with a different theme.  On closer inspection, and with the help of a booth staffer, I learned that Dead Panic was drastically different than Castle Panic.  While zombies spawned in a similar fashion to the baddies in Castle Panic, the rest of the game mechanics were new and offered real depth.  Each player takes the role of survivor chased into a cabin.  Searching in the cabin gains you tools you will need to survive until you can find three radio parts, assemble them, and call for a rescue van.  The action was intense, the game was well balanced, and my only regret is they sold out of the few copies on hand quick.  I cannot wait to play this game again and it has been haunting me since I played it.

Other Good Games:

Walk the Plank was great family fun

Walk the Plank -  This family based game from Mayday Games is a hoot.  Players are in control of three pirates and are attempting to push, pull and charge other pirates off the plank to their doom.  You lay down your three action cards and resolve them one at a time.  Sometimes you actions pan out as you plan, but other times you are the cause of your own demise.  Fast, simple, and fun.

Dungeon Roll - I mentioned this in my preview and was quite impressed with its Gen Con showing.  Dungeon Roll's booth featured about 10 demos that seemed to be in constant motion.  I enjoyed a demo and enjoyed the press your luck dungeon crawl.  The greater risk, the greater the reward.

Square Shooters - Chimera Hobby Shop did its research and patented a layout that allows you to roll hands for rummy, poker blackjack and more.  The 54 sides of dice include 2 jokers and a full set of cards.  The initial set comes with a variety of games, poker chips and is quite fun.  The possibility of games you can play with a deck of cards on dice is endless.  To top things off Chimera Hobby Shop is holding a contest with a $2,000 purse and publication for a fan that can come up with a game related to the dice.  For more information check out www.squareshooters.com.  I played a couple of quick games with my son and they were an instant success.

Munchkin Pathfinder -  I had the pleasure of playing Munckin Pathfinder at the Steve Jackson Games booth and it was an absolute blast.  In addition to a class, player have a faction card that give them additional powers and levels up.  Munchkin Pathfinder includes a board to keep track of player leveling and is similar to other Munchkin titles.

Bears - A fast paced dice game from Fireside Games, Bears puts you at a campground in the woods that finds itself under attack from bears.  A very Stephen Colbert game.  Your actions, depending on your roll, are run away, sleep through the attack, or shoot the bears.  The action doesn't slow down and your decisions hinge on whether the camp survives the attack or is mauled by bears.  A fun family game that is quick, fun, and strategic.

Chupacabra Dice - This game coming out soon from Steve Jackson, pits your chupacabra against your opponents chickens, goats, and bulls.  Another light hearted game in which you steal your opponents dice.  The chupacabra may be fierce, but the farm animals have strength in numbers.  This game is sure to be a hit like its brethren Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice.

The Big Game:

I was part of a World Record!

Gen Con wouldn't be complete without big events and I was fortunate to partake in the biggest event of the convention.  Mayfair Games was successful in its attempt to set a world record for the most number of people playing a game of Settlers of Catan at the same time.  922 people huddled into a room in the JW Marriott Hotel and played a single game of Catan with a single victor.  While it may have taken longer than expected to get started on the attempt, it was quite enjoyable and I finished with a top 15 out of 922 in longest road.  The good people at Guinness were on hand and the record was confirmed.

Final Turn:
I sure hope my first year at Gen Con is not my last.  I found the experience of playing game for four days to be extremely enjoyable.  What I appreciated with Gen Con is how hands on it is.  You are experiencing the convention, not merely attending it.  Plus, whether you are an RPG player, a tabletop gamer, a casual gamer, or just a curious individual, there will be something that will cater to your needs.  While I thoroughly enjoy the other conventions I attend each year, there is something unique to the level of interactivity and community that will bring me back to Gen Con in 2014 and hopefully beyond.

Tales from a Board Gaming Convention: Geekway to the West

This past weekend I had the pleasure to attend Geekway to the West, a board gaming convention in St. Louis.  These past few years I have found myself attending more and more conventions, but I have yet to attend a gaming specific convention.  A couple of my friends tweeted about attending Geekway and I decided that sounded like a fun idea.  I must say that I am very happy I gave it a go.

I made the three hour drive from my home to St. Louis on Friday and arrived at the convention 5 hours before my friends would make an appearance and did not no a single soul at the convention.  I nervously picked up my badge and was given the basic info on how to check out games, win prizes, various tournaments that were taking place, and a schedule of events.

After cruising the library of over 800 titles to select from, I decided to cruise the main ballroom to find a flag for a group of gamers looking for additional players.  Oddly enough the first group I joined was playing a homemade game (although very well made).  They informed me that other players had sat down only to leave, but I was intrigued.  It was a board game in which you laid down tiles, creating a different board in each play, collected various items to solve a cure (or be cursed), and either solve the curse or kill the remaining players.  The game was actually quite fun and it was very educational to see the process that went into creating a homemade board game that you hope to one day publish.  The couple who made the game were very nice and we all had a nice time playing the game.

The zombies won quite easily

After playing other games with groups my friends finally arrived and following that evening's raffle, we sat down to play Last Night on Earth.  As newbies to the game we brought a "Players Wanted" flag with us to see if anyone wanted to join us as we played as either zombies or humans on the last night on earth.  Since we had not played the game we decided to play with the beginners rules to get the basics of the game.  Lucky for us one of the Geekway volunteers, Tim, joined us and was able to run the game with the advance rules.  The game was loads of fun and felt like a B movie.  

The rest of the weekend was filled with similar experiences.  It struck me at one point in the convention that I had not seen one person look or sound upset.  In gaming at home and with friends (or especially with my 5-year old son) I am used to someone being upset at losing or when someone plays a card or takes an action that adversely affects another player.  The magic of this gaming convention was that we were all amongst friends, we were all playing games, and we were all having fun.  Add to the fact that Miniature Market gave away free gifts for attending, had games on sale 4 for $20, and allowed Geekway attendees to shop directly from their warehouse, we were in board gaming heaven.  Geekway featured card games, dexterity games, kids games, strategy games, card games, dice games, role playing games, and more. 

After spending over 24 hours over a three day period playing board games I can only look back and smile and rank the top 5 games I played over the weekend.

1. Zombicide - We were only able to play 2 games of Zombicide due to its popularity at the convention. Zombicide is a game in which you assume the role of a survivor attempting to survive the zombie apocalypse.  What I enjoy about Zombicide is how the game increases its intensity as the game progresses.   As soon as one player in your group levels up, each zombie spawn is more terrifying, and each objective harder to obtain.  We were unsuccessful in our Zombicide attempt, but had an absolute blast attempting it.

2. Flash Point - As someone with a very competitive wife, I am always on the lookout for cooperative games.  Flash Point is a cooperative game in which you assume the role of a fire fighter attempting to keep a fire at bay and rescue survivors.  The fire can get out of hand quick so it is imperative that you work well with your team in order to be successful.  Tim once again joined us for this game and I am happy to report that we were able to save all seven victims before the structure collapsed.

3. Space Alert - In what was the most unique game I played over the weekend, Space Alert is a real-time, cooperative game in which you assume the role of a crewman of a spaceship stranded in an asteroid field.  As a team you work together through a series of rounds as dictated by a CD that takes you through a 10 minute senario.  During these frantic 10 minutes, the players all play their actions face down and communicate to one another what steps they are taking.  Whether you are giggling the mouse to keep the computer from falling asleep to firing lasers at a target you hope is in range, you won't know if you were successful until you resolve everything upon completion of the CD.   Despite not quite saving our spaceship, this was an intriguing game that I hope to pick up soon.

Gearbox for Formula D

4. Formula D - With time to kill prior to the Saturday night raffle I was allowed to make our game selection.  Despite being a proud owner of the game, I encouraged my friends to join me for a round of Formula D and we were all quite pleased.  Formula D is a car racing game in which you attempt to navigate a course and take the checkered flag.  With each gear you shift you role a different die, you are required to slow down and make numerous stops in turns, and each character has a unique ability that will hopefully allow you to win.  Despite overshooting some turns and taking damage to my tires, I was able to secure the checkered flag and take home victory!

This was all that was left standing,
but that is enough.

5. Castle Panic - My final choice for top games of the weekend is a castle defense, cooperative game that leaves you and your group trying to defend your towers from an oncoming attack of goblins, orcs and more!  Utilizing cards and the luck of the die, each player attempts to slow the various minions that seek to destroy all six of your castle towers.  Unsuccessful in our first attempt, our second attempt was barely successful.  What I loved about Castle Panic is that it is a game I can imagine playing with either my son or my friends who are serious gamers.  It was fun, quick, and easy to play.