The Great Con Game
I've been to a lot of cons. For those of you who haven't, I'm talking about conventions. No, not those things where businessmen get drunk and do silly things once a year. I'm talking about science fiction and/or game conventions. Where fans get together to talk about SF/Fantasy, play games, meet authors and celebrities, and in general socialize for a weekend away from the trivialities and hassles of regular life.

These are fun events, and if you haven't gone to one, I recommend you give it a try. Even for someone like me, who goes more in a business capacity than anything else, it's fun.

Take for example, this last weekend, when I went to V-Con in Vancouver. A small-to-medium sized con, V-Con had science fiction and fantasy writers in attendance, gaming, a video room, a talent show, a dance, and more. Pretty cool.

Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, and I were all there, and had our first public discussion since the release of 3rd Edition, if you can believe it. And former D&D brand manager Ryan Dancey was there to boot. In this seminar, we discussed the development of the game, and answered questions -- you know the kind: "If you could do it all over, what would you do differently?" and "What's your favorite part of Third Edition?" and so on. It was fun, and I hope informative and entertaining for those who attended. (In case you're curious, my answers are: "I would like to redo a number of the spells, like haste, harm, and blade barrier" and "I like the way everything flows together into a cohesive whole in a way that previous editions didn't.")

One of the great things about conventions for me is getting to meet people who play roleplaying games. It's good to hear directly from people who enjoy the games and products. Face to face. Email and message boards are nice, but personal interaction is better. And speaking of message boards, getting to meet people who are a part of the community here at montecook.com, like Greymist, Chartam, and Rweston, is always cool. It's nice to put a face and a real personality to a screen name. (It helps that all three of those guys are about as nice as they come.) Sue and I even got to play against Greymist and his partner in a Lego Junkyard Wars game. We both had to make a platform that would hold a great deal of weight while floating on water. It was fun (we tied, by the way -- both our rafts sank at 200 grams).

One interesting experience I had while talking to these guys was that we all had shared experiences. I don't mean just roleplaying games. I mean specific adventure experiences. We're all D&D players, but five years ago, we would have each played in different campaign settings, and would have all had experiences with different products. Last Saturday, however, we were able to all chat about the Moathouse in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. That's pretty fun. It harkens back to earlier days, when everyone had played through Tomb of Horrors or Keep on the Borderlands. I consider that a good thing.

Here are some pictures from V-Con....

Sue and I with artist Toren Atkinson (left)	From left: Me and Jonathan and Skip
The 3rd Edition panel	Joseph Wu's origami display at the art show
Demon astride a nightmare	This was one of many great hallway discussions at V-Con. Here some D&D fans and I discuss our various experiences with Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.
Origami artist Joseph Wu, a message board friend	Joseph's latest origami work: the Pactlord Enforcers from The Banewarrens

Sue and I will be attending a few conventions next year. Specifically, I-Con in New York and MarCon in Ohio, as well as Gen Con, of course. I hope to see you there!