After a couple of solid panels on Friday I was ready for the Saturday schedule and really wanted to dig in. There was a lot of great stuff lined up, starting with games.
Help Me Find a Game I Will Enjoy
Are you new to playing board games, card games, or party games? How can you tell if any particular game will be fun for you? Come to this panel to ask experienced gamers what you should try next based on your own likes and dislikes.
Finding a board game you like is partially about the game itself and partially about the people you’re playing with. Both parts matter.
Board games are by their very nature social. The single biggest challenge is finding a group, or a series of groups of people that you really, truly enjoy gaming with. The people are the key to it all.
As for the games themselves, part of that is learning the language of games. What IS a worker placement game vs. a party game vs. a resource management game? What kinds of those things do you enjoy?
How many people do you want the game to handle?
Do friends recommend the game?
Can you find a YouTube video on it (and do you trust that person’s opinion)?
The best part of this panel for me was the crowd participation. That normally isn’t true for me, but having my dear friend and serious game fan John right up front was really special for this one. Myself and the other panelists enjoyed a good discussion about all the things I listed above in my notes and then some. It was a really great start to the day.
Side note – I highly recommend digging up a board game and finding some folks to play.
The second panel of the weekend for me was about maps. I was really into the idea of the panel, but I was unsure of how it would all work out. Here’s the description and what I had prepared.
Mapping the Landscape
Every science fiction and fantasy reader has their favorite book with a map in the forward or appendix. Besides helping audiences keep track of where things are taking place, what roles do maps play in fiction and gaming? How does a creator go about creating a clear memorable map, from both narrative and visual perspectives?
______
Ask yourself if a map is really needed? Being a very visual person, I LOVE maps and building layouts, but does your book / story actually need it?
Look at your map at 3”x4”. If you can’t read it then it is too small to print in a mass market. Consider adding extra maps that show blowups of things you actually want readers to know about.
Cheat. Take a known map and turn it upside down, then relabel everything.
Don’t be afraid of looking for inspiration in the old. There are a number of museums that have digitized their collections of historical maps and have them available for viewing online. This goes for plants and monsters too. The biodiversity heritage library has 150,000 images out there. University of Chicago Press have created a history of cartography collection with downloadable PDFs.
Think about what your map looks like relative to your story. What does a fantasy map look like exactly? What does an urban fantasy map look like by comparison? How will it look when it’s squished down to 3 inches wide by 4 inches tall in a paperback?
How much area are you mapping? 2D or 3d for your map?
The panel itself ranged all over the map (see what I did there LOL). The panelists had a wide variety of backgrounds and it was a really neat discussion. I grabbed a couple of notes of my own, and was surprised (though I probably shouldn’t have been) when discussions ranged into technology and things connected with my day job. Turns out that architecture is essentially building mapping – and that includes site context.
It was a very enjoyable discussion and the folks that attended seemed to be really happy with what we delivered.
I posted my schedule back before I headed to the con, so it would seem only fitting to post notes from each of those panels. I often prepare far more than gets used when it comes to panel information. Sometimes this is a question of not having enough time to shove it all in, sometimes it’s a question of sharing panel time and other times the panel just doesn’t go the way I thought it was going to.
I’m going to load these up one at a time so I can give each panel its own space – and even try to tie together with the virtual space!
My first panel of the Balticon weekend was Rating Books in the Algorithm Age and it was in fact my only virtual panel for the weekend.
Here’s the description and what I had prepared as notes~
Rating Books in the Algorithm Age
Do numeric rating systems such as “X out of 10” lead to a loss of nuance? Can the ubiquitous five-star rating system (as used by Amazon and Goodreads) lead to grade inflation? Is a well-written entertaining work deserving of top ratings, or does it also need to be groundbreaking? When a rating is going to be amalgamated without context, what are a reviewer’s ethical responsibilities?
Yes, any scoring system with limits like x out of 10 has a loss of significance. It’s designed and designated specifically to be ‘shorthand’. Can it help? Sure… to a point.
Grade inflation can (and does happen). Of course I’m going to give my book 5 stars. So’s my mom cause I asked her to (no, she won’t read it). It’s unethical to ‘stuff the ballot box’… or is it? Is campaigning for you book and getting your friends to pump it up and get attention?
Well written and entertaining is completely subjective. I have a particular prize winning work that I LOATHE and I know more than one person that thinks it’s amazing. It’s terrible, but the story of how the story got published caught me more than any rating. It was all about how the friends and family of said book got it out there to my attention.
When I do reviews for the things I read, I state up front if I got the work for free (pretty sure there are rules about this, but I genuinely don’t know them). I will say things in the very first line of the review like, “OF course it gets 5 stars… it’s mine after all”.
I have taken a long time to recognize and understand what I like about stories, and have started to apply that knowledge to how I talk about the books I really like. If you like something I like, and that continues to happen, then maybe you can trust my opinion about a book. I have one friend (Molly) who knows that if I love a book, she’ll hate it. Our tastes tend to be diametrically opposed. She knows this and takes all of my reviews with that thought in mind.
How you feel about the author can (should it?) effect how you review a book. I know a number of authors. I recommend the work of my friends.
Will I recommend a book, no matter how good, after I met the guy and he was a total dick to me? NO.
Will I recommend a book, no matter my political feelings about an author, if that guy was SUPER nice to me? That’s way more complicated.
This past Memorial Day weekend I was lucky enough to go back to being a panelist at a live, in person science fiction convention. I was and am very happy to be able to get back to that sort of thing. I’ve missed it. At this point, with so much time passing between the event and the actual writing of my post(s) I suspect there will be details that are hazy and that will make the summaries shorter than they may have once been.
The con took place May 27 – 30, 2022 at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace hotel. Right in the middle of Inner Harbor. The location was (and continues to be) something of a sore spot for many people. The hotel itself is expensive. Parking is generally expensive as well, but the con made arrangements for a deal with the parking company and that worked out really well. I was able to save a fair amount of money compared to past years by setting up my parking in advance. The area itself, the places around the con seem to be struggling. All but a very few businesses in the area are gone. The restaurant choices were thin and did not lend themselves to quick con based meals. All the other shops, including the shopping mall previously below the convention are are simply closed and gone. The absolute lack of options was one of the most challenging aspects of attending. The room, the amenities and the rest of the hotel related things were pretty standard.
Checking in this year was the smoothest it’s been in a long time. There was one minor blip, but in general worked and I was in and out of the registration area very quickly. The set up / arrangement of the convention spaces was very similar to years past, with the notable exception of splitting the dealer’s room into two different spaces. This worked for me, though it’s questionable what the vendors themselves thought of the arrangement.
One of the bigger changes as an ‘in person’ panelist was the addition / continuation of virtual panels. I’d brought my own laptop along and set it up in my hotel room. This turned out to be a good thing. There was mention of a space being available on site for folks to participate in the virtual panels, but from what I witnessed of that it was less than successful. Running all the tech for all the panels AND having a place for a panelist to just drop in and use ‘extra’ equipment didn’t seem to go well at all. I don’t think any mention of availability should have been made for the panelists and I think the panelists should have been far more prepared than the ones I witnessed were. Thankfully, my connection went off without a hitch and I got to participate in a virtual panel to go along with my in person sessions.
The pandemic made a lot of other things feel slightly different or out of sync with what I have become used to over the years. Attendees were there, and wearing masks as was the rule. They were generally friendly and happy to see others in person, but the numbers seemed down. I understand the hesitation of many, so this wasn’t entirely unexpected but I hope it’s not a sign of the death of in person cons (and that death has been rumored for many, many years of course). The other aspect of this con for me was a profound shift in who of my friend group were there. My family didn’t attend. People I always went to dinner with didn’t attend. People I’d sit and share a drink with or bump into between panels weren’t there. Even things I did get to do with friends seemed muted and worn. Yes, I went to dinner. Yes, there were games and chatting and all of it seemed… slightly surreal. I was adrift and on my own and that is certainly not my convention experience in the past.
It was a good con for me. I did a bunch of panels, ran a workshop and bought a handful of things from wonderful creators. I also managed to (mostly) avoid con drama. I say mostly, and that deserves an explanation, but also that deserves its own post. All in all, it was good to be back. I hope and look forward to doing it all again next year.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a Balticon. Too long in fact. I miss doing the live convention thing. This year will still be weird, and masks are still required, but it will be good to try to get back to doing the things we all love.
This is my schedule, as long as nothing changes between here and there:
Start Time Duration Room Name Session ID Title
Fri 4:00 PM 1 Hr Virtual Panel Room 1 379 Rating Books in the Algorithm Age
Fri 5:30 PM 1 Hr Guilford 887 Mapping the Landscape
Sat 10:00 AM 1 Hr James 411 Help Me Find a Game I Will Enjoy
Sat 11:30 AM 1 Hr James 416 You Can Start GMing Now: Tips for First-Time Gms
Sat 4:00 PM 1 Hr Club Lounge 381 What Should I Read Next?
Sun 11:30 AM 1 Hr James 965 Finding Your People
Sun 4:00 PM 1 Hr Private Dining Room 943 GMing for Beginners: The Workshop
I would have to consider it the negligent misuse of understatement to say that our current global pandemic has changed many things. Everyone has been asked to significantly change our way of living. How we work, how we connect with each other and certainly how we gather… and that is to say that we DO NOT GATHER. We don’t know a lot about the virus that is raging across the world and killing people by the thousands. We do know that if we keep our distance from each other, things slow down.
Everything has slowed down. Meetings take longer to arrange. Work hits unexpected delays. Time off takes on a whole new dimension – if you’re lucky enough to still have a job and still be working.
Part of the slowing down, part of the social distance needed involves not getting together. Conventions that many of my friends and collegues depend on are simply not happening this year. They are not able to gather so many people in a single place. The risk is too great.
Going to conventions – particularly science fiction / fandom cons – are a major part of my life. I have been going to or working as part of the staff of cons for somewhere around the past 27 years. I genuinely don’t remember a year when I haven’t been off to Richmond or Boston or Pittsburgh or Baltimore for a convention. Sometimes a big con, sometimes a small con – always going to see friends and talk about my favorite things. This is part of my life. It is part of my family’s life. My daughter doesn’t know anything else. In her mind this is simply what people of like minds do – they get together to enjoy their favorite things.
I’m not going to any conventions this year. None.
That is at least the plan as it stands right now. Most cons have “shut it down” and declared they will return in 2021. Some are making the effort to push ahead with the program parts they had lined up and are creating methods for holding virtual cons. I am amazed at how quickly some of these fan run, volunteer organizations have turned around the parts they need in order to make something like this work. I applaud them. It’s fantastic to see that they’re doing what they need to in order to survive. I wonder how many of them will. I just don’t see myself doing a virtual con. It feels too much like work at this point.
I understand the value of meeting virtually. I am, on average, attending between 5 and 10 virtual meetings every week now. I have adjusted my computer settings, arranged my working spaces differently along with changing and upgrading some of my hardware… and it’s still not the same. Gathering with friends in the same physical location matters. A hug, a handshake or even a simple hand on the shoulder are very important. Yes, there are down sides to meeting in person. There is expense. It’s time consuming. Scheduling is a challenge. Meeting with your friends is great, dealing with everyone else… not as much. Even with all the challenges (and occasionally the terrible smells) I hope to see the very best of them return for live and in person events. They are what recharge my batteries. It’s how I level up my creativity.
For the first time in decades I will be home on Memorial Day weekend. My family will be having a small gathering to celebrate my sister’s birthday. That’s it. That’s the entire schedule. There are no festivals going on, there are no events other than on the computer. We’ll see how it all goes. It is an odd feeling to know I won’t be part of something so dear to me. Hopefully it will come back around. Until then I’ll have to navigate my way around “the new normal”.
As I wrote the post title I was struck
by the number. The 53rd convention from BSFS. I know I’m
the “new guy” to many, having only really started at Balticon 27
but this convention has always seemed like my ‘home con’ if that
could even be such a thing (that’s 26 years for those that don’t want
to ‘math’). I’m not joking about the ‘new guy’ thing either. I know
at least one person that has gone to every Balticon. Part of my
recounting of number of visits to the convention stems from how many
people I didn’t see there this year. I came up with a dozen folks off
the top of my head that, through various circumstances or choices,
simply didn’t make it to the con this year. It felt oddly empty.
Logically it wasn’t, but it felt that way.
I will say that I was very impressed
with the con team this year. Registration *always* has problems with
my wife and daughter. I don’t know why – but the mistress of
registration remembered me and it was much smoother this year than in
years past. The con added a ribbon option this year for people that
wanted to have a clear definition of what pronoun they prefer. I
think this was an excellent option for those that were interested in
having one or felt they needed it. While I did not use one myself
(moving rapidly toward the land of the dinosaur) I did find it useful
from time to time. Thankfully I didn’t see anyone abusing it. The art
show was bigger than I’ve seen it in some time. There was a lot of
great work on display there – and I ended up coming home with two
new pieces. Programming was very strong. They got information out
early, had the schedule posted ahead of their normal time and were
quite active at the con itself… more on that in a minute.
It was an adventure to get to the
hotel. The interstate we take to get there was shut down and all
traffic diverted off to side roads. We managed to avoid the worst of
the traffic, but it sent us off into the wilderness for a while. A
longer ride there than normal.
I started the weekend off with 3 panels
on Friday night. I felt like the panels were decent and that I
contributed without being super awkward or out of place. Writing
military campaigns was my weakest of the day. Genre in the age of
binge watching was decent, but uneven. Bad movie adaptations could
have been better (I’m not a fan of throwing it to the audience right
away). On the upside I was told one of my statements / arguments
actually inspired a panel for next year.
Saturday brought all kinds of weird
with it. At loose ends with no panels for the entire day I could do
as I pleased. I took some time to wander the con and check things
out. I got to spend a lot of time in the art show. I checked out the
vendor tables. I got to sit and chat with my friend Jay and get
started on an upcoming project (totally a secret for right now).
While we were sitting and working, Jay needed to go and be on a
panel. I decided I would be supportive and headed to the panel with
him.
I’m not going to recount all the
details here, but that particular panel was not good. Jay told me I
was ‘not contractually obligated’ to stay, but I felt as if I was
abandoning him to a terrible fate. It devolved so quickly that I
bailed out after about 15-20 minutes. Apparently my fears were not
unfounded. I was told it got worse after I left.
This is the part where I explain how
the programming team was active during the convention. I was
approached later in the day by the head of programming (after being
pointed out by the con safety team and flagged down). I gave my view
of the events of the panel. The head of the convention was called
over. I was asked to recount my view of things again. The problematic
individual was subsequently pulled from all panels for the remainder
of the weekend. I’m not going to call that person out. I was a
witness and not directly involved with the event in question. I gave
my view on matters and that was enough for the incident in question.
I’m certain there were lots of hurt feelings over the whole thing. I
hope the person in question gives the whole thing some thought and
uses it as a learning experience rather than fuel for some kind of
grudge.
Quick tips from my point of view about
convention panels:
1: Being the moderator of a panel does NOT
mean you’re the primary speaker
2: The audience is there for ALL the
panelists generally, and sometimes for ONE in particular – and that
might not be you
3: There are panelists that know more
than you and people that have different experiences than you – let
them speak ( please note that the gender of said individual plays no
part in that statement)
4: Stay as focused as you can
(difficult, I know) on the actual topic of the panel and the stated
level of expertise it’s aimed at
5: Panelists are volunteering their
time. Being angry at them, talking them down, demanding they defer to
the moderator is generally the path to a really bad experience
That list is not all inclusive, but
relevant to the past weekend.
Saturday night featured a riot in the
streets of Baltimore – in front of the convention hotel. No, I’m
not joking. Thankfully I was able to avoid any issues with that, but
a handful of other con goers were not so fortunate. To my knowledge,
everyone came out the other side OK and relatively unscathed.
My Sunday at the con featured two more
panels. I got to talk about traumatizing your characters in your
writing (and why you don’t necessarily need to) AND I got to talk
about the future of energy. The trauma panel was really interesting
and I’m glad I got to be part of it. It was really well moderated and
the discussion was far ranging with many different opinions and story
telling tidbits.
The future of energy panel was an up
and down thing for me. I’m going to do a separate write up for the
actual content from my point of view because it was far more
interesting than I initially thought it might be. I’m also going to
see if I can use some of the notes from my fellow panelist Jim. He
had some great points and information. I hope the audience enjoyed
the panel as much as I did.
There was also shopping, chatting with
friends that were there, games in the game room and a fantastic
dinner out with amazing ice cream immediately following.
I had a nice, relaxing weekend. The
convention itself felt a little like things might be shifting or
changing, but that’s something to think about for next year. This was
a really good con.
I have tried to give myself a little time to get past the immediate reaction and allow for more thought. The problem with that is news of a convention gets stale rather quickly. I’ve been going to Balticon for a while, but not as long as quite a few folks. In fact I had a conversation with a man this past weekend who has attended all 50 of the conventions so far. It’s an impressive number.
For me, it was an impressive convention celebrating the 50th anniversary, but probably one of the worst for me personally. That makes it sound worse than it really was. Perhaps it was the level of expectation going in? I’ve got that sort of thing going with books and movies, maybe it was the same thing for the convention. If I go into a movie or a book with crazy high expectations – those expectations are almost never met so it feels like a disappointment, even it the work in question was actually quite good. IF I go with low expectations and get something crappy, I’m good. My expectations were met. If I go with low expectations and get something excellent… you get the picture. I’ve seen a number of folks on social media and other blogs say they had “wonderful”, “awesome” and “fantastic” conventions. My reaction wasn’t as positive.
I have had a lot of great cons over the years. I’ve really loved being a participant and not just an attendee at conventions. Balticon is the one that I consider my “home convention” and is the one I always give preference to. This year had real issues for me. Some of those things were directly related to the convention, some of them were all about me and some of them were outside the realm of things the con could control (and it’s not fair to blame them for those). I was also somebody that friends brought issues to (they know I’ve joined BSFS), presumably so that word would travel with somebody. That made it a struggle. When you’re the staunch defender, what happens when you don’t want to defend anymore? I got really, really tired of trying to help and defend things that I didn’t find defensible.
The hotel was new this year. That was important – the space was needed for a record number of guests. It also made for lots of people not knowing where anything was, long lines at the elevators, confusion about parking and frustration over added expense. Some of that was just the unavoidable nature of change. Some of that was trying to settle in to a new location. Some of that was people not communicating well and having their expectations not met. I could have worked with all that. I expected it.
I know some of the people involved and I know the intent was good. Programming was an unmitigated disaster from my point of view. Double booked rooms, double booked panelists, changes, deletions and random additions that weren’t communicated well just made a hash of things for me. I’m going to emphasize that again – for me. I am the D list person here and I understand that I’m not going to get priority or even a lot of attention. I got nothing for programming. Nothing. When I asked about this the response was a very snappy “well what do you want?” I want these things figured out before Saturday morning of a convention that starts on Friday for starters – and a little less attitude to go with the response. I get the stress. I work cons too. Snapping at me isn’t going to help anyone. It will in fact hurt the process and cause responses that aren’t necessarily deserved. I just stopped trying to fix it right then. There’s nothing I could do that would have made the situation better and anything I said in anger would not help. I stopped defending. I stopped volunteering to help. I walked away and just did my own thing the rest of the weekend.
I was not the only one in a situation like this. For me – a total ‘D’ lister – it’s not such a big deal. I’m sure I’ll get over it. I’ve already received an invitation to another convention asking me about my thoughts for programming. I’m going to hope for better, or at least in advance, there. The problem is I’ve heard from other people that should be the backbone of the convention – the folks you want to return again and again because they’ve got a solid following and some excellent knowledge to share – that they won’t be back. They reached their saturation point with the frustration and problems and have decided to just walk away as well. I was actually saddened by this. Conventions are where I get to hang out with these folks. Some I might not see otherwise. Most of all, I’m concerned for the next convention, and the next one after that. There was, rightfully, a lot of attention paid to the big names that were there, all the big names that were brought back. Those folks got a lot of attention and drew a lot of convention goers, but at what expense? I fear the damage done. Perhaps I just haven’t gone through this from the participant side of the fence before.
I don’t want this to to turn into some kind of doom and gloom sort of thing. There were a lot of fun things that did happen at the convention. There were great times, laughs and fun mixed with the frustration. I was super glad to have helped out with the Liar’s Panel again this year. I was one of the runners that dashed around the audience collecting up the donations for charity. There’s actually a photo and a little more detail over at Mark’s Journal. Raising a few hundred bucks for charity is a great thing and the panelists were really funny.
I also watched the Mr. Poor Choices III comedy show. I howled. It was fun and funny. The show was totally stolen (from my vantage point) by the sign language interpreters. How do you sign “the nut mangler gym shorts” exactly? Their expressions were wonderful. I went and thanked them after the show. It was great fun.
I got to connect with a lot of folks this past weekend. I think that was really what made it all survivable for me. I had dinner with folks I don’t get to see often enough, drinks with others that I was thrilled to sit and chat with and even a teeny amount of time in the game room (even though I can’t hang with the Power Grid guys and totally forgot my t-shirt – sorry John, I’ll get it right eventually).
I expect with time that I’ll gloss over 50 and other Balticons will be better for me. I really want some of the folks I talked to this past weekend to make some good connections. I’m hopeful that some of the connecting I did over the weekend will lead to future projects. I’m also hopeful that folks that said they were done would be persuaded to return. I am hopeful, and if I work hard and am lucky enough maybe I’ll be one of the folks brought back by special invitation for number 75.
