I attended Conpulsion again this year as a guest, sitting in on a panel led by James Wallis about bringing the classic RPG Dragion Warriors to a new generation of roleplayers.
As always, it was a fun, little con. I enjoy it, as it's full of old friends, and I always make some new ones every year. Yes, it may be sedate and small, but it's also friendly and familiar, which is a plus. Oh, and it's held just 2 miles from my house, which is a big bonus.
The panel was... well... put it this way: I was a touch surplus to requirement. It comprised of James Wallis, Jon Hodgson, Andy Hepworth, and I. James led, and was his charming, witty self, full of amusing anecdotes and interesting little stories. He knew everyone involved with the game both in its previous interation and the current one, and had a great deal to say. Jon had led the artwork in all of the current books for the game, and had painted every cover, so he had a fair chunk to add as well. I, however, had precious little to contribute. I'd drawn a bunch of maps (but few were in print yet), and drawn a few pictures (which, again, weren't in print yet), and hadn't been involved with anyone barring James. All I had to add was that I loved the game as a kid; that, yes, it was similar in tone to WFRP, but similar in rules to early iterations of D&D (which were an obvious influence); that, yes, I enjoyed the work; and that also, yes, I had worked on WFRP a fair bit. In short: not much to add. Mostly, I nodded a lot at James being witty. However, if I had it bad, poor Andy Hepworth had it worse: he only had one picture in print so far and had never played the game as a kid. Indeed, he knew comparitively little about Dragon Warriors. He'd simply drawn some pictures for it, and kinda digged the grubby feel for the game. He had even less to say than me. Still, all that aside, it was a fun little panel, and it was good to speak to other fans of the game, albeit it briefly. Indeed, it was fun being the non-talkative one for a change, as I'm normally the one gabbing away incessantly.
Other than that, I bought some dice (my kids love dice too much; I lose many), chatted to friends, and borrowed a copy of the Mouse Guard RPG (which is lovely). From the chats, I think I've come to the opinion that I should attend as a guest artist next year and lay out my work for others to browse. I've never bothered in the past as, largely, I've been too lazy. But I love chatting to peeps, and there was interest from several parties to buy prints of my work, so it may be worth my while. After all, it's not like I'll have far to travel, is it?
Lindsay also popped up for a while with the kids; they wandered about being cute and getting attention, which is what kids do best. James was charming to them, and Josie told me that she though he was a nice man. Lori was too busy running into things and dropping her bear, Bis (named by Josie when she was 1), and generally getting underfoot, to care too much that people were talking to her. Given there was little for them to do, they left early.
When I went home to check on them, Lindsay was a bit ill (probably the con-food lunch she'd had), so I quickly returned to the con to grab a cheque from James, had some sausage and mash with him and Gar (Gareth Hanrahan -- a chap that's written more books for Mongoose than I can list -- unfortunately for him, James and I spoke about our kids a lot), then regrettably went home, missing another of James's talks (something about roleplaying's crimes against the Glorious Revolution), and, annoyingly, the charity auction. At least I'd contributed a little something to that by annotating a Dragon Warriors book with the rest of its creative team; I wonder how much it went for?
Anyway, fun con, and I'm looking forward to the next one.
Current Mood: barely awake
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arrived today. Looking good! Unfortunately, a credit for my art is missing, which annoyed me more than it really should have. Not only did I write for the book, and do the maps, but I did a bunch of piccies, as well; but no credit for that. Never mind, huh?