With apologies for the multi-list posting. This one goes everywhere!

== Rogue Panel Program: A-Kon 20, S. John Ross

Okay, folks, the time is nigh for A-Kon in Dallas. Come on out to game, talk
about game writing and publishing, GMing, whatever smacks your buzzer! Plus, you
know, anime and stuff! My panel workload is pretty light this year (all the
gaming guests are on the same panels, but hey, it's an anime con) so I've been
preparing the following "off the grid" gatherings to fill gaps between planned
events ... Catch me at the con, and we can form rogue groups of attendees to
duck into hotel rooms or gather at unused tables in the gaming area, etc, and
really get some convening in:

* The Gospel of Cliché: Fans of Risus and Encounter Critical and Uresia know how
much I love a good cliché, but fans of any of my work will notice the importance
of cliché to everything I do. But hey, aren't clichés supposed to be a bad
thing, a lazy thing? Not if you know their one true secret ... In this group,
we'll gather to discuss the difference between "cliché as content" and "cliché
as language," and how to get the most of it when GMing or designing.

* Fantasy Mappery: Bring your laptop, loaded up with some incarnation of
Photoshop and/or Illustrator (you don't need the latest version; I don't keep
that current, either!) and we'll jam on making some fantasy maps together. This
won't just be "S. John passes on some tips," it'll be a full-on communal
exchange of ideas, methods, design philosophies and flat-out fun. Find out why I
call Photoshop my favorite computer game.

* The Price of Freedom: I've worked just about every angle in RPG publishing:
I've freelanced for most of the major houses, I've ridden a desk on staff, I've
been part of an experimental telecommuting writing pool, and I was one of the
very first independent commercial RPG publishers (the second, to be exact, after
pioneer Eric Hotz). This panel is all about why independence kicks the most ass,
but with a focus on the hard realities: just because you haven't got a budget
doesn't mean your RPG masterpiece happens for free. Find out what it really
costs to put something on a blank page (at any scale of RPG publishing), and how
these costs - and the ethical concerns that plague every level of RPG publishing
- will relate to realistic pricing, promotion, and choice of sales outlets.

* Random-Table Round Table: I'm really in the mood to make a huge random table
(partly because Uresia 2nd already has some in it and I've been grooving on
those, partially because Jeff Rients recently spiked my random-table Kool-Aid).
Are YOU really in the mood to help out? This will be a communal exercise in the
purely ridiculous and the surprisingly useful, where we celebrate one of the
most sacred of gaming rituals: rolling stuff up. What we'll end up with, we
can't say until the dice bounce ... new mutations for Encounter Critical? Random
Skyfall relics for Uresia? Random smack-talk for Pokethulhu? Maybe all of the
above, if we get going.

* You Are My Density: I've done a lot of general purpose writing workshops over
the years, but this time around I want to do a very focused one, on how to lean
up your game writing and dramatically increase its conceptual density. I've got
a basic: one finished page should pack as much gameable material as FOUR
finished pages produced to the usual industry standard. Sometimes I even pull it
off! In this gathering, we'll not just talk about how, we'll put it into
practice and discuss each other's work. Bring some kind of writing material -
whether pen and paper or some kind of gizmo.

Note also that these are just gatherings I've actually given some thought and/or
preparation to. Feel free to bend my ear or pick what's left of my brain on any
topic we might enjoy together ... or just pounce on me and demand I run a game
(I do those too, of course!) Or, if you REALLY want to be a pal, pounce on me
and demand that I PLAY in a game; 'cause it's nice if I get to relax a bit now
and then, too :) Either way, hope to see you there. Also, now is the time to ask
me those questions that I avoid online by saying "ask me at a con sometime!"
This is the con, and this is the time. A starter question for you: "Hey S. John,
is it really true that in a very important way, Encounter Critical was born
right here at A-Kon the LAST time you were here?" And my answer begins with
"Actually, in TWO very important ways ..." and maybe I'll tell you both,
depending on whether one of the reasons is nearby listening in ...

http://a-kon.com/



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn