Nuke-Con LIVES!

After weeks of feeling adrift in seas of uncertainty, the sun broke through and I can see clearly now. Nuke-Con 2020 is going ahead, but in an online format. Just an hour ago, the con coordinator posted the following announcement: 

Good morning, Fellow Gamers.

I have to announce today that Nuke-Con has decided not to hold a face-to-face convention in October 2020.

We also decided that we can’t let our 30th Annual Convention disappear with just a whimper, so we’re shifting gears to an online convention. It’ll be the same weekend you’ve been planning for: October 2, 3, and 4, 2020. We’re still working out details, but in the meantime we invite all GMs to talk with us about how to shift your game to one of the many available online platforms.

You can reach Erik Luken, Game Registration, at gmreg@nuke-con.com.

You can reach Josh Stortz for membership questions at reg@nuke-con.com.

You can reach Speedy Coveny to talk about pre-paid booths at vendors@nuke-con.com.

You can reach me for general questions and comments at main@nuke-con.com.

You can also send a message to https://www.facebook.com/nukecon/inbox/.

We’ll post updates as we finalize details.

Like you, we’ve been hoping for the best but planning for the worst. The staff talked about better spacing around tables, limiting the number of people at a given table, masks, and disinfectant. We discussed the financial impact to the organization, how much we’ll miss seeing our friends, and what the Nuke-Con community might think of us whichever decision we made. In the end, we decided that we can’t, in good conscience, open an arena for possible – maybe even likely – transmission of disease.

Thank you all for understanding.

Norajane McIntyre
Aka the GodMom
Nuke-Con 2020 Convention Coordinator

So there it is, and to quote Droopy Dog, "I'm happy."

"You know what, folks? I'm happy."

I know there are some folks who aren't happy with this situation, but it can't be helped. We're already seeing spikes in COVID-19 case numbers now that restrictions are being lifted in various states. While those spikes alone don't constitute a second wave of the virus, we can't let them grow to that stage. I'm so very glad that Nuke-Con isn't going away and that with hope there will be a Nuke-Con and a vaccine in 2021.

All that being said, keep an eye on this spot for more info on my convention events. I may also be running games at Gamehole Con's virtual convention in November if the stars align right.

In the Beginning...

"The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

― Douglas Adams, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

I have just spent the better part of my Thursday overnight shift breathing life into a series bible for Project Frying Pan. If there's one thing I have learned thus far in the process, it's this: Creating a universe from scratch is a lot of hard work, even if it's been percolating in the back of your brain for over a year. The sheer act of organizing, clarifying, defining, and just plain expressing it is daunting, exhilarating, and exhausting all at the same time. I have drawn upon my favorite aspects of various authors' universes as well as some of my own unpublished writing to find interesting bits to add.

No worries! I'm not dead yet!

While I will be taking a brief rest from the Project Frying Pan creative process this weekend, it is far from over. While the series bible (Did I forget to mention Project Frying Pan is the first in a series?) stands at an ephemeral eight pages in length, there is more to come and more to develop. The Frying Pan-verse (there will be a better name for it, I promise you), is in its infancy not only in the present, but also in its past and future.

Research will continue apace as I delve into the worlds of astronomy and con artistry. Project Frying Pan may be a science fiction book, but it's still got to have some basis in reality, after all. Of course, that's just a small part of the bigger picture. Historical research as well as some further reading in the genre is needed as well, all of which I look forward to.

Another part of the process is going to be resolving how to set parameters for the development of characters, technology, and all that other fun stuff. Being a tabletop gamer, I've got what I consider a number of useful tools at my disposal for defining things. The big decision is what system (and edition) to use. No system is perfect and part of my brain is itching to pair Project Frying Pan with another ongoing project on this blog.

What's ironic is that this fits Douglas Adams' opening quote to "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" perfectly. I have no doubt that someone, somewhere is now foaming at the mouth, fingers feverishly poking at their keyboard in an effort to "educate" me on how "wrong" I am to use an RPG as a tool to define my characters and the universe they live in. In fact, that subsection of my aspiring authorial peers is doubtlessly a speck compared to the massive hipster horde pounding away at their keyboards about how whatever system I choose is wrong and how my use of tropes and aspects of other authors' universes is so "derivative" and "unimaginative".

As a writer, I readily acknowledge that there's nothing new under the sun - it's just a matter of what you do with it. That's where the real challenge lies. While I look forward to that challenge, I realize that failure is a possibility, and at the same time, it's a learning experience. No plan survives first contact with reality, let alone "the enemy". A slight change has already been made to one character and I'm sure more changes will be made to Project Frying Pan before all is said and done. The main thing to remember above all is this: "Don't panic!"