Gen Con (Online) 2021

For obvious reasons, I’m not going to be attending Gen Con in person this year; I’ll be doing the online variant instead.

Last year they did an online version because there could be no in-person convention, this year they’re doing both, though the in-person one is reduced in number of people, number of events, and indeed hours of the day. ( they’re closing at midnight to allow for proper cleaning time; normally that sort of happens around the events? )
For last year, I just stayed in my flat/apartment, because there really wasn’t any other option, but this year the travel restrictions are fewer, so I’m heading up to Edinburgh, to stay a few nights in a surprisingly affordable apartment hotel I know there, and to, as it were, get my nerd on.
And also be somewhere other than this place.

Here’s what the schedule looks like when you’re not in the EDT zone; There are some late nights in there, but the hotel has a TV visible from the bed, so as long as it also has an accessible HDMI port, I can merrily fall asleep to the seminar of my choice.
It’s what happened last time.

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Most of these are seminar events.
I decided not to try to play in any RPGs; Those are hard enough to play online at the best of times, at least for me, so when you add in ‘a group of random strangers’ and ‘significant time zone difference’, it just makes it a non-starter for me.
On the plus side, I don’t have to feel guilty about falling asleep if that’s what happens, or simply wandering away if the event isn’t holding my attention, and the convention part is costing me nothing but my time. Unlike the hotel and the train up and back, which is costing actual money.

My selection criteria for this are pretty much “does that sound interesting?” and “what the hell is that?”.

• “The Aliens are Invading, and my Dad’s Going to Miss the School Talent Show!” attracted my attention with the title, and locked it in with the phrase “Squid on the Mantelpiece”
• “Playing with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Board Gamers” is of personal interest anyway, but the fact that it’s an event presented in sign & interpreted in voice sealed the deal, because I’ve never done a thing like that
• “Integrating Consent Culture into RPG’s and LARPing” is there because, to be blunt, that shit’s important and I don’t know enough about it
  ( I’ve seen the X-Card used once in a game, and that was in a ‘can we please not?’ way because the particular piece of imagery had come up in three games in a row for that player and they were just plain getting creeped out by it )

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Mysterium: The RPG
Join Meghan Caves and a cast of fantastic irregulars as they solve a mystery. Based off the Mysterium board game and using Savage Worlds RPG rules!

How to be a RPG Publisher!
Join Adriel Wilson and Brian Petkash from DriveThruRPG and DriveThruCards with a few publisher friends as they discuss tips, tricks, and how to get started on getting your game out to the public!

Live Art Creation Streaming With Amy L. Ashbaugh
Watch Amy L. Ashbaugh create art live! Amy is a fine artist and illustrator based out of Atlanta, Georgia. Her vision is a representation of the fantastic from literature, folklore, and imagination.

How to Host a Drop-In RPG Meetup
One-Shot Saturday is a weekly RPG meetup in Hong Kong that has run for several years. In this panel, we’ll talk about how we organize games, the problems we’ve encountered and how we solved them.

Low-to-No Cost Self-Publishing
Tips and tricks for self-publishing without breaking the bank.

No Prep GMing: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Random Tables
Advice and ideas on how to cut down gamemaster prep time. 

Swords, Spies & Shoggoths: The Pelgrane Press Panel
Join Simon Rogers, Cat Tobin and others from the Pelgrane team for a behind-the-scenes look at what the award-winning UK publisher’s been up to this year, and what they’ve planned for the coming year.

Producing Livestreamed RPG Actual Plays
Join Dom Zook, executive producer at long-running channel Saving Throw Show to learn what it takes to assemble and run a livestreamed RPG session!

Shadowrun: Takedown
The crew at Six Sides of Gaming, sponsored by Catalyst Game Labs and Lynnvander Studios are bringing you a Shadowrun Sixth World campaign live!

Dice Making for Community Building and Artistic Expression
Join Dr. Rowena Winkler as she facilitates a discussion with Erika Boltz of Mercury Dice about the supportive nature of the dice making community. In particular, Erika will describe her experiences entering a space that allows dice makers to grow not only as artists, but also as people. They will then chat about their latest partnership to create dice as a means of helping women find their unique voice.

Playing with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Board Gamers
We’ll take an in-depth look at: – What makes a game accessible – What makes a game NOT accessible – Why accessibility is sometimes a “spectrum” – Accessibility best practices for board game designers – How to play with Deaf, hard of hearing and late-deafened board gamers and how to navigate social and language barriers – Board game suggestions for successful game nights – What it means to have an truly “inclusive” board game group.
This event will be presented in American Sign Language by Deaf native signers and voice interpreted.

The Aliens are Invading, and my Dad’s Going to Miss the School Talent Show!
The Turkey City Lexicon identified “Squid on the Mantelpiece” as the “mismatch between the conventional dramatic proprieties and SF’s extreme, grotesque, or visionary” elements. How do you balance the more everyday and mundane aspects of a story– often the ones that make characters worth reading about– with alien invasions, world-changing technology, and city-levelling giant cephalopods? This panel of authors discusses.

From Novel to Module
The challenge of converting a novel into a module tips and tricks from Stephen B. Pearl author of Horn of the Kraken and coauthor of Dead Mans Blade and The Horn of the Kraken Adventure modules.

DIY 101: How to Self Publish
You want to make your own game? We’ll talk you through the basics of planning, crowd-funding, advertising, and fulfillment. Avoid the common pitfalls and make your dreams come true!

Integrating Consent Culture into RPG’s and LARPing
Come learn how to practice consent with other roleplayers, how to create consent-focused environments as a GM, how to accommodate nervous players, & how to set boundaries as a new RP gamer!

Things You Can’t Avoid in TTRPGs
A seminar covering major topics in TTRPGs from Class/Alignment systems, GM-Player hierarchies, and why races matter in tabletop rpgs (and the two games that did it best).