I haven’t put an entry in here for so long that MT has removed all my other entries — too old. So here’s the Halloween update.
I’m leaving for Portland tomorrow for Amber Con North West (ACNW). The con runs 3.5 days, and while I participate in a con or gameday almost every month, this will be my first AmberCon. I’m fairly excited.
Fairly.
Jackie has been wondering why I haven’t been more psyched. Here’s a few reasons why most people might get excited and why I’m not.
– I’m going to be staying with Jon. This should be fun. Should. I haven’t seen Jon in 5 years, however, so who knows. Maybe it’ll be awkward as hell. On the right hand, I’m really glad not to be shelling out another couple hundred bucks on a hotel room, on the left, I sort of feel as though I’m missing out on some of the ambiance of the con by not rooming where everyone else is. The coordinator is local to Portland, and even she is staying out there.
– I’m going to be going to Con. Big Deal. I go to Cons all the time. I GM weekly, and when I’m not running something, I’m thinking about running something, so I don’t fit the profile for the typical Amber Gamer — most of these guys are not in regular games, and this con is one of thier big chances to hang out with people who share thier interests, and like the same game they do — ADRPG is a fringe community within a Fringe community, as such… not a big following. In Denver, with the active RPGA membership, Cons are monthy, normal, dare-I-say boring events. At least boring in the fact that they are happening. So I’m not psyched just because of the con.
– Meeting new people. That’s great, unless I don’t gel with the group of people out there. Might happen, might not. I’m not short of friends, and unlike some, I don’t think that adding to the list is something one needs to work on day in and day out for your whole likfe. I’m comfortable with my current list of friends, and I’m not counting on AmberCon to help me out in this regard.
– Get to Travel. BFD. I do that all the time. It’s not exciting, it’s just work. Ditto staying in a strange bed, eating strange food, in a strange town — all these are things that I associate with work, not play.
All that said, I am excited as much as possible, and I’m sure I’ll be even more psyched once I get there and start meeting people and playing. Here’s my schedule:
Arrive Portland, 2:40pm PCT, Thursday.
Reception — Thursday, 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Slot 1 — Thursday, 7 p.m. – midnight (Castle of Crossed Destinies)
Slot 2 — Friday, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Christmas in Amber)
Slot 3 — Friday, 2 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (All Cats Are Kings (Meera is using Swift to run this!))
Slot 4 — Friday, 8 p.m. – midnight (A Comfy Nights Stay at the Happy Crossroads Inn)
Saturday: nothing going on until…
Slot 6 — Saturday, 7 p.m. – midnight (Skeletons in the Closet)
Slot 7 — Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (eXcessive Force: The Tentacle Files — this is supposed to end at around 2pm instead — I need to make a character up for this one, still)
Depart Portland, 6:30am (!!) PCT, Monday
These are the times when Jackie is glad to have the 85 lbs. Great Dane/Lab roaming the house. I’ve seen him pick out intruders… it’s imposing.
The main slot on Saturday was going to be where I would run a game, but I signed up late, so I didn’t get enough people signed up, so I’m open. There’s a guy I know in Portland who wanted to get together for lunch, but other than that, I’ve got nothing going on (other than needing to write some stuff for NaNoWriMo.)
The Sunday slot usually breaks up and ends up dissolving into a socialization event at the Inn’s bar — I’m down with that, since my flight doesn’t leave til the next day.