This post was originally published in Watch The Skies January 2022
Welcome To Earth
The Beauty You Expect
I’ve done this before, and I’m doing it again here. We’re about to have an out of genre experience. The show I’m going to recommend this month is not animated, it is not a science fiction spectacular and is not a block buster with mountains of promotion behind it. It has all the action, beauty and fascinating story lines of one of your favorite genre pieces though. It’s from National Geographic and Disney and is available on Disney+ right now. What is it? Welcome to Earth.
Welcome to Earth is a journey. There are 6 episodes that follow Will Smith around the planet on various adventures. Having Will Smith there allows for an excellent window into the amazing, vibrant and often terrifying world we all inhabit. The diverse scientists that allow him along for the trip give fantastic information on the places on our own home world that we know so very little about. From tops of volcanoes to the bottom of the ocean (the journey with marine biologist Diva Amon is very cool) we get a glimpse of just how much we don’t know about the place we live.
It would be easy to justify this one as science fiction related, but I really don’t think we need to. The photography and cinematography are amazing. The pictures are exactly as amazing as you have come to expect from the folks at National Geographic. In fact, words don’t do it justice. You should be watching Welcome to Earth.
A starting point. I need some kind of warm up. Sitting and staring into a blank page is a genuine challenge – and one that will be overcome. Writing can be developed, just like any other ‘muscle’ so we’re stretching, then digging into a workout.
From time to time I check out a website called “Post Secret”. The idea of the project, if you’re not familiar with it, is that people write a secret on a post card and send it in to an address. This secret is then shared anonymously for others to see. Some are silly. Some are angry. Many, many secrets make connections and help other people see that they are not alone. I suspect my own life would be significantly different than it is today if something like this had been available when I was a kid.
I have spoken to friends and shared before that when I was in my pre- and early teens I was really into Dungeons & Dragons (I still am!). I started playing and gathering all things D&D very early on. This was also the time of the Satanic Panic. Other kids in my neighborhood were told not to associate with me because I played this game. Some kids didn’t get rules that applied to that degree, but their parents removed any and all chance of them owning anything related to D&D. The quote from one mom was, “We understand this is a game of imagination that only needs a paper and pencil. We know we can’t stop that, but we refuse to support it.”
That’s extremely rough when it’s aimed at somebody just developing social skills. Your friend group, likely already limited based on choices that didn’t necessarily fit the social norm of the time, being bent, battered and reduced because a swath of the adults in your life give you “we refuse to support it” as the answer to you wanting to play a game and be social.
I saw this postcard on the Post Secret site:
The person that sent it in is a little younger than I am, but likely caught the back end of that same panic. It also shows (to me) the deep, far reaching social nature of this game. The reason it endures. Fantastical, imaginative and connection creating. When you find ‘your people’ and they join the amazing journey into a place that doesn’t exist anywhere except your mind it is a powerful thing.
For many, many years I refused to share my passion about D&D. I’m not a professional author (clearly) and not a professional artist (witness my art) but I have played this game, and others like it, for the vast majority of my life. Having had all my early attempts to connect with others about it met with reactionary, panic based push back I was not interested in reaching out to get smacked down or insulted. It became habit.
Putting this out here in writing (again) I think is part of my process of getting past that. Yes, given the massive success and mainstream knowledge / understanding of D&D these days it doesn’t seem like a huge leap, but it feels that way to me. I am used to push back, insults, and demeaning nicknames. I’m not over that, but I’m working on it. I’m certainly not intimidated by any individual these days. Also, I know, intellectually, that people are aware of what I do and what I am interested in among my friends. I have recently started extending that awareness out to others, including people I am associated with professionally. I am still attempting to maintain a clear demarcation between work life and personal life (as my lovely wife likes to say, ‘don’t shit where you eat’) but I am not longer hiding things like the YouTube videos or the Twitch stream from them either.
I am who I am. I am passionate about my hobbies and enjoy sharing them. I love this stuff. Maybe not as much as sex, but this ‘secret’ was out there and did what it was supposed to do… it made a connection.
All that writing, and I didn’t even pull a muscle. Time to keep going. Maybe I’ll write up some adventures for the campaign I’m running…
My Saturday panels at Philcon were up and down in my mind and I headed into the first one with some trepidation. The last one I headed into with confidence.
First up was The Harry Potter Kids Have Grown Up
There was some email communication about this panel before we got to the con. There were a lot of very qualified folks set up to speak on the topic. An elementary school librarian, an author of HP related articles, leader of fan clubs and quite a few other bits and pieces. My particular qualifications were simply the work that I had done as the head of children’s programs as con staff at a number of other conventions. All the information I had to bring was basically anecdotal. One of the parts that worried me most was the expression of a particular viewpoint relating the the author of the HP series and her stance as it relates to the gay and specifically the trans community. Based on the email I was worried that this panel was going to devolve into a bash session of the author and a feel good agreement circle to be sure everyone was saying the right things in order to fit in. It weighed on me not because I want to defend the author or to cause strife with any part of any community, but because I’ve been to panels expecting one thing only to get a bash session and went away disappointed. I do not want to have folks walk away from panels I’m on disappointed.
To the moderator’s great credit, she felt the same way about panels. She made it a point to hit on all the things listed in the panel description in the program book and asked questions of the panelists to dig into each of them. It was a great relief to me. Once I knew we weren’t going off the rails, it was far easier to enjoy what everyone had to say.
As to my thought on the panel topic itself ~ it’s impossible to deny the impact that Harry Potter has had on culture. Not just publishing or film, but also crafts, conventions and even sports.
At somewhere past the 20 year mark for the Harry Potter phenomenon, the kids who were 9 or 10 when they dove into the wizarding world are now old enough to be having families of their own. There were dozens if not hundreds of kids at our conventions back in 2017 and 2018 that wanted to be a wizard and compete for the house trophy. Reading was, if not cool, accepted for the sake of consuming these stories. Comparisons between the book and the film were a staple of any chat. Kids had (and have) a thing that can be theirs. It no longer has the intensity of when the books were first coming out, but each child that gets to read them now still gets the chance to enter that world for the first time. That is an important change, and one I’m glad to see.
Tied together with that chance at new worlds is the backlash crowd. There are always those that will push back against anything popular, but adding wizards and magic spells to the mix brings a special kind of push back. I have discussed in various forms before how I lived through the Satanic Panic back when Dungeons & Dragons was being called a devil’s tool. What we didn’t have back then, at least not to any significant degree was any kind of alternate. One of the other important impacts that the HP books have had, and the kids that have grown up now give us is that alternate. They learned from the previous panics and didn’t allow social stigma to stop them. They supported each other. They had (and continue to have) a different kind of magic from the lands of the role playing game. Magic inhabits books and games and movies now in all sorts of new ways. WE all continue to benefit from this huge push by the kids of this generation.
The panel also went into how many of these so called HP kids have started to move into creative fields. They are writers, film makers, creators. Twenty more years from now it will still be something that people of that generation will be able to bond over, much the same way Gen X folks relate to Star Wars. The panel all seemed to agree there was a great degree of hope in this.
I will admit I had a couple of other things I wanted to delve deeper on, but the panelists on this one were very into the topic. I sat back and let folks with much deeper connections really take the lead. It was busy, informative and made the 50 minutes of the panel just flash past. The topic of the author’s current stance on certain issues did come up, but it was truly handled really well. It’s a simple claim, and one that makes sense. IF you feel you need to remove anything HP from your life based on what the creator has said recently, it is entirely up to you and no one can or should judge you for that. IF you want to ignore the creator, that is entirely fair as well. At a certain point the creation no longer belongs to the creator ~ so if these stories meant something deep to you, keep that and enjoy what you have. Nobody should be able to take away meaningful experiences from you.
It was a good thing I had some time between all that and the Architecture in World Building panel.
My day job is as a project designer for a major architecture and engineering firm. Architecture is my profession, so talking about it would be easy… right?
As it turns out I got to share this panel with the guest of honor for the convention. She was a delight to chat with and I’m really glad I could bring a few insights to the panel. The moderator was going at around a hundred miles per hour, but I made an effort to keep all the folks involved on the panel. I don’t know if I succeeded, but I was just as interested in hearing what the other panelists had to say as anything else.
There were some cool questions from the audience too. We all tried to put books and learning path type things out there for the folks asking the questions. I recommended a couple of titles I was familiar with and put a few points forward that seemed to be well taken. Here are a few of those:
Everyone interacts with the built environment in some way. Even if you never step inside a designed structure, that is likely a conscious choice.
No matter what level of training you have (or don’t) you will likely have an opinion on some aspect of the built environment. IF you’re going to hold an opinion, have something to back it up with. Yes, aesthetics is something you can back it up with but the views on that vary as widely as people’s favorite color.
Buildings go DEEP into societies. Deep to the point where I can show you the combination of a rectangle and a triangle and you’ll recognize what I mean. IF you’re considering the architecture in the world building for you story don’t forget to consider what impact it has on the kids.
Rectangle and Triangle – but you know what it is.
Is what you’re creating believable? Not everyone will have a background in how a building (or a city) will actually function. Can you make what you’re showing believable to the second step? This is something another author passed to me once. IF you only push your creative thought to the first thing somebody can look up, they may question your world. IF you can get past that to the second step… that is you’ve thought logically to the part a reasonable person might have a question about, that will make most people think, “Huh.” and then keep reading. Give enough thought that what you’re creating doesn’t push past a readers willing suspension of disbelief.
Lastly, architecture gives your world depth. It gives detail. It gives a sense of place. That will show through to your readers even if you never get to give out all the pages and pages of research you did to come up with all that. It’s vital to consider the place where your characters are in more than just a “oh, that’s the background…” kind of way.
And those were the panels for my Philcon this year. I was really happy with how they all went. I could have, and frankly wanted to, keep talking on the subjects for hours more. I think that’s a sign of a good convention. I can’t wait to do it again.
I left out the discussion panels from my overall convention review earlier. I think the discussions had and the topics covered deserve attention of their own. I had four panels this year, two in the gaming track, one in the writing track and one in the fandom track. Two on Friday and two on Saturday made for an even pace, despite being scheduled against dinner and the masquerade. I always try to get ahead of the topics and do my homework on panel topics. I spend a fair amount of time planning and writing up notes. Hopefully I’ll get a few of those things out here with this post.
My first two panels on Friday were both on the gaming track.
Up first – Setting the Scene: Ambiance for Gms.
I’ve had panels run by the moderator of this panel before. I think Andy and I work well together for the purposes of con panels. The audience was small. This is typical for a Friday night at a con, but it was exaggerated this year I think. We covered a fair amount of ground and I got one or two laughs. All in all I think it went well. I’m not going to dive deep into the things we talked about ~ if you want to hear me delve deep on this subject you can check out the video I did with Jon on this exact topic. It was an easy prep and easy to talk about panel for me.
The second panel up was Writing Branching Narratives for Game Play.
This panel was more of a challenge for me. While I have notes, indexes, files, outlines and plans for all my writing projects, when it comes to gaming I tend to do much more flying by the seat of my pants. Thankfully Andy was running this panel as well, and we were joined by a very creative gamer and designer named Joan. Our audience was slightly larger and the folks attending seemed into what we were saying. Both Andy and Joan had excellent points and we agreed on a number of items. Here are a few things from my notes:
Running any kind of role playing game is a challenge. It’s not easy to stay ahead of a group of clever and engaged players. You are a story teller, but you are not THE story teller. As the GM you guide the narrative, but you don’t control everything. The players and how they view the world are crucial to making a game succeed. Players must have agency. If they feel like you’re forcing them or bending their actions just to meet your story needs they will rebel. At best they will try to break your story, at worst they will leave to go to other games where they have more input. Allowing certain parts of your game to morph and change based on others is part of making an RPG really work.
Players must also understand that allowing them narrative freedom does NOT mean they are free of consequences. Sure, the first level warrior can seek out the dragon and throw down a challenge. That is part of allowing that freedom. There will be consequences to that action – likely swift and severe. It’s also important to keep a list of places, contacts and how the players and NPCs interact. So long as you have a few clear notes about who people are, the world takes on depth and a more realistic feel. NPCs will remember how the party treated them. As the players grow in power they will also grow in reputation… so how do they want to be seen? Are they heroic or are they the villains of the piece?
Big points stay the same. There are a lot of things I do actually write down for my games. These are the larger events that will happen in the world. These things will happen even if the players don’t get there to see them. Sometimes the players will create change that moves or adjusts these points, but this list of things will happen – and if the players are off side questing, so be it. IF the players fail a mission or ignore a clear path of clues you’ve set for them, how will they get the news about what happened when they didn’t meet the goal? Will it change how they act moving forward? This is another small thing that helps to give a world depth and makes the players wonder what’s just around the next corner.
What if there’s supposed to be a monster around the next corner, and they go the other way? Compartmentalizing certain encounters can be a great way to keep things exciting. Andy called this the quantum ogre. The ogre exists in every time line, at various locations until he is observed. Once observed, the monster becomes real and interacts with the player. This is particularly helpful in keeping things exciting and keeping the GM from pulling out hair in frustration. IF the location makes sense, grab your monster up from where the players missed him before and drop him into the new place.
Know your players. Gaming is an intensely social activity. You get to know the people you’re gaming with and the sort of quirks each of you have. Give them the same thing with your world. Give them an organization to struggle against. Give them secrets to track down. It’s more than simple missions, it’s how they feel when they start to learn what’s going on and you start to learn what sort of bread crumbs you can lay out in order to get them to follow along. One of my favorite recent gaming moments came from a long time player. She’s played in my home brew campaign world for years. She knows certain aspects of the world quite well. During this game session she encountered one of the secret cults I have planted throughout the game world, the Crimson Crescent. The moment she figured out it was them she said, “I hate the Crimson Crescent! Those guys suck!”. If you’re laying out parts of your narrative for the players to see, they will get to know the parts just as well as you do. That sort of reaction is what you really hope for – you know you’ve got their attention, now give them the rest of the boss monster fight you’ve got ready because they’ll be all in.
Lastly, world building. This should really be firstly and lastly, but it’s last up in the order for this discussion. The more you know about your world, the easier it is to give out the little details that hook the players. Yes, there’s a need for improv and flexibility, but that will flow far easier with a solid knowledge of what’s out there. Do you need to name everyone in every village? No, of course not. Do you need to write down the ones that become people of interest? You bet. Use a baby naming book (or website) to help give your names a consistent feel. Learn what makes an area tick. Who lives there and why.
Those are the little things that add together with all the other little things to create a the sort of game that players really buy into and the tweaks that will keep them coming back for more.
That’s it for the first two panels of the weekend for me. I’ll post up the last two panels soon.
The weekend before Thanksgiving 2021 I headed out and did something I’d done dozens of times before, but not at all since the pandemic. I went and attended a science fiction convention in person. I was excited to see the convention was actually going to happen. I understood the rules going in… prove that you had your vaccination AND wear your mask properly the entire time you’re attending. It’s a private event, you know the rules. I was also excited to see those rules in place. It was wonderful feeling to be headed out again.
The con itself was… small. I suppose this was an expected thing given the pandemic and the number of people that don’t want to deal with the chance of catching something. The sense I got was of a con that was even smaller than that. Small enough that I fear for the future. It was also a very gray convention. I know that I am a contributing factor to this, but it just felt… old. There are other cons out there that are making an effort to keep up with the times. Panels are changing, recordings are being made and an online presence is being maintained. I don’t know what it would have taken to have a multi-platform con, but that really felt like it could have been attainable this year with such a small gathering – and it wasn’t. There were the motions of ‘the way it was’ but somehow it felt hollow.
The hotel felt empty, old and more than a little shabby. Peeling wall coverings, worn furniture, foggy windows and wheezing air handlers. Nobody cleaned my room while I was there. The door lock access card needed to be reset 3 times despite all my efforts to keep the magnetic key far from anything else on my person. The door didn’t close properly, and required attention more than once. The bar was closed early and the ability to just… gather and chat felt far more limited than it should have. The place felt as old as the con.
All of this could have added up to a miserable experience. It didn’t. A number of friends gathered and got to spend time talking about, showing off and selling various aspects of the things we all love. Yes, the dealer room was still there and so was the art show. There was live music. The folks that attended made the con special. I still had the opportunity to chat with amazing creators. I got to chat with the music guest of honor about butterflies painted on overalls. I got to talk art show set up with an artist that only recently moved to the area. I went to dinner with friends, laughed and generally had a fantastic time.
The dealers room was less full this year. Some folks couldn’t be there. Some folks retired or simply went out of business during the pandemic. I was grateful to see those that were there. I met some fantastic creators and did my level best to support them (yes, I blew out the budget). I suggest you head out and support these creators too. I picked up an eye, you should check them out you might like what you see. I also grabbed a 3d art piece as a gift, along with a very geek oriented gift for somebody this year. One of my favorite conversations was with the guys running Questbourne. A place that does more than just sell you an *.stl file and hopes you can print it. I plan to be picking up more from them in the very near future.
One of my favorite parts was seeing the premier issue of a new magazine from Fortress Publishing. Mendie The Post Apocalyptic Flower Scout issue one was on the table and ready to get out there. My story “Peach Pirates” is in this issue, along with some small humor bits tucked in other places. It’s a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to seeing more issues. You should definitely check it out!
Issue #1 out now!
The convention and the hotel had a lot of issues that could have made for a weekend worthy of complaint. It was the opposite. The staff – both convention and hotel – seemed to have everything in hand and things ran quite smoothly. Any time there was a line, it moved quickly. Nobody seemed to have unresolved issues, and that’s probably far better than many would expect for a return to a live convention. People were friendly. People were interested in the panels. There was laughter and fun and a generally good time. I had a great weekend and I’m already looking forward to next year.
This post was originally published in Watch The Skies November 2021 edition.
Maya and the Three
Cabra Kan
From the Netflix description: A spirited princess with the heart of a warrior embarks on a mission to fulfill an ancient prophecy and save humanity from the wrath of vengeful gods.
I have always enjoyed stories of the magical and fantastic. Swords, sorcery, prophecies and epic battles get my attention every time. This new cartoon series Maya and the Three checks all those boxes. The art is beautiful. The story has excellent pace even with short episodes. There are deep emotions, epic battles and moments of true humor. I had no intention of doing the classic Netflix binge, and then sat there and devoured the whole series.
One of the best parts of this show is the reality of the characters. There are indiscretions (read – cheating on your spouse), emotional confrontations, and genuine repercussions from all the fighting and battles. Nobody comes out of this story unscathed. Without giving away specifics, not everyone makes it to the end of the series.
To paraphrase one particular character, “There’s a word for folks that always do heroic things…”
“Heroes?”
“Dead.”
Netflix lists this show as a children’s cartoon, but I believe this is definitely aimed at a middle year student level. That is not to say this traditional coming of age story can’t be watched by adults. It indeed should be watched by adults. In fact, my hope is that enough people watch it to keep the studio in a mindset where they will produce more and more stories like this. You should be watching Maya and the Three.
That’s right ~ for the first time in what seems like forever, I’m headed to a science fiction convention live and in person. Philcon is being held the weekend of November 19-21 this year, and they’re doing it in person. Thankfully, I still make the list of people they’ll tolerate as a guest.
PHILCON!
They have strict rules in place about vaccination and mask wearing, but they are not actually any different than where I work. I’m glad they’re serious about keeping their participants safe. They certainly don’t seem to be holding non-attendance against anyone that would normally be there either. It will definitely be an interesting journey.
While I’m there, my schedule so far includes 4 panels:
Start Time Duration Room Name Title Fri 7:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 2 Setting the Scene: Ambience for GMs Fri 9:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 2 Writing Branching Narratives for Game Play Sat 1:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 2 The Harry Potter Kids Have Grown Up Sat 7:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 2 Architecture in Worldbuilding
I’m very interested to hear what other things will be going on and hopefully reconnect with a number of friends while attending. I’m also looking forward to digging back into the writing business. I’ve allowed my writing to sit idle for far too long a time.
Star Wars is a cultural phenomenon. It has become part of the culture of media. The first film hit screens more than forty years ago. Lately the franchise has come under new ownership. These new owners have pushed forward with many, many new works in the universe of Star Wars. There’s a lot out there, even for fans. I have considered myself a fan for a very long time. I was exactly the right age when the first movie hit theaters. I scrambled to get action figures and play sets as a kid and spent seemingly endless hours pushing my imagination out to all the various places in the Star Wars universe. The movies are deeply entrenched in my personal nostalgia along with all the entwined media. I can effectively say that I’ve ‘always’ been a fan.
I’m also a fan that just doesn’t want or need to devour the seemingly unending supply of hot off the presses Star Wars stuff. Maybe I’ve outgrown certain aspects of the story telling. Maybe the abundance of available material has taken the shine off the whole thing. I could just be tired of seeing the same old thing. This ennui is at the very root of this recommendation.
Star Wars, only done as anime. Imagine taking a team of amazing story tellers and artists from an anime studio and saying, “Go – play in our universe. Make something great”. That is precisely what they’ve done. Now streaming on Disney+ (because I think they own everything?) Star Wars Visions gives us seven all original stories in the same galaxy, using the same background and the same legendary ‘Force’. The stories vary in style, but never lack in beauty. The art is amazing. The stories are fresh. The look of it all is straight up anime. They’re short, so you can sneak them in between other things, or you can easily binge them. I would suggest one at a time, to give each the attention it should have. I think this may even be a way to draw new fans in; fans that might not have given a tired old franchise a chance otherwise. You should be watching Visions.
This was originally published in the Watch The Skies fanzine, September 2021 issue.
What If…
When I’ve worked on my recommendations for this little column each month I’ve tried to find things that are bent toward the (potential) interests of this group, but also slightly off the beaten path. These things might not be your preference, but should certainly be worthy of consideration. I’ve tried not to go for the obvious, splashy things out there.
This month is a break in that trend. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is pervasive in pop culture. The series of movies and shows that have the common, unifying thread of a group of comic book super heroes has been with us for a solid decade now. The story lines, the characters, the massive tent pole films that seep into all the nooks and crannies of the genre are familiar. Perhaps they are familiar to the point of apathy. The MCU could be running the very serious risk of over saturation with the sheer number of films and shows it’s dumping forth for mass consumption. The omnipresent super hero genre has kept me away, until now.
The house of mouse has an animated show based around the stories of these well known super heroes called “What If…” that gets directly to the heart of the science fiction and fantasy genre. The title of the show is the very essence of what makes SF/F great. The best stories always ask that question. What if? Can we go back and change things? How would that have worked out if one tiny thing changed (butterfly effect anyone)? It’s a terrific mental exercise. The MCU has now combined that concept with stunning artwork to make a series of short animations. These stories give us the characters we’ve come to know viewed in very different lights. Asking the simple question “What if…” and following through with things like having the Ravagers pick up T’Challa rather than Peter Quill or having a serial killer remove Avengers before they start their journey to being a hero.
Yes, viewing these episodes does actually work out better if you’ve seen and / or are familiar with the films that have been put out in the long series from Marvel. The stories are short (averaging about a half hour each) and only give us glimpses of what might have been. It’s those glimpses that make it work. The animation is at exactly the level you’d expect from a world leader. There’s a lot of great stuff in there. This series is definitely one you should be watching.
The Dungeons and Dragons movie has wrapped up filming. Now I suspect they’re moving on to the ‘zillions of special effects bits that need to be created in order to make a world of fantasy come to life. Got the news from this article: https://gizmodo.com/the-dungeons-and-dragons-film-has-wrapped-production-1847535005 I’ve written about this before, but I think the author of this article sums up my fears in a single phrase,
“…but with the caliber of people involved, maybe this one will turn out to be watchable.”
Why is it so difficult to make a fantasy story on film that is both a good story and NOT some variation of King Arthur (there are at least 15 variations / versions I can come up with)? There’s so much good material out there. Let’s hope for a real fantasy boom. Think Avengers quality. I’d love to see so much more variety. Give me a wizard that is NOT Gandalf or Merlin. Please.
