UBCon Was Fucking Impressive
April 22, 2005
First, a reader who bought the "Sad Choo-Choo in Snow" art
back in 2003 is auctioning
it off on eBay. I'm not affiliated with this auction - I get
nothing from it - but she asked if I was okay with it, and since she
owns it, I'm not going to tell her she can't sell it off if she needs
to. So, if you want a drawing I did poking fun at Megatokyo, here's
your chance. Incidentally on my OWN auctions - I'm still a little
behind on sending them out. The last ones go out today, with a little
something extra added.
Because I love you.
Secondly, don't forget I'll be a guest at CAPE in Dallas on May 7th.
Then I'll also be at Akon - ALSO in
Dallas, June 3rd through 5th, with J. Grant and Mel Hynes of Two Lumps and Josh L. of Girly. Tomorrow, I'll be at Dartmouth in
New Hampshire for their Dartcon event (apparently it occurs once a
trimesters). It goes on at the Alpha Theta house. I'll be there until
9:30. Yeah, it's last minute - but in fairness, I didn't know the thing
was happening until Wednesday, or that I was going until yesterday.
I'll just be hanging around... probably laughing at you when you lose
your card games.
Hilarity will be had, probably.
Also, Girl Genius is now an
online comic - with a nice little archive. Go read it. It's stunning.
Seriously, if S*P amuses you, Girl Genius can't help but inspire awe.
After all, it's done well.
So... anyway, I was at UBCon in
Buffalo last weekend. Holy shit, do this kids have it together. I
was REALLY impressed. Not a single rude staff member (and I'm used to
rude staff members at cons). Not only did they fulfill their agreed
upon obligations, they went above and beyond. They were nice to my
girlfriend, who'd come with me to help run things (she administers my
shots, changes my water dish and calms me when people make sudden
movements). You'd think, "be polite to the guest's significant other"
is a given, but I know a lot of people, and have a few personal
experiences, that prove it isn't (incidentally, Dexcon was pretty cool
in this area, too - in fact, Dexcon's a nice con also run by cool people
and a pixie named Kate).
I have to admit, I was hesitant about going to another con at a college.
Most play the, "we're inviting you as a guest and want free
promotion/advertisement on your site, but we're a college and we really
can't afford to help you get here beyond giving you a table" card (an
example being Genericon 2004 - and not only did I later find out damn
near every other guest DID get some form of reimbursement or had costs
covered, I didn't even get my fucking table so I spent a few hundred
bucks essentially promoting them and was offered no way to recoup
expenses. Real classy. I did meet some cool people - including this
really nifty lady who actually worked for, and still does, the con
itself. Yeah, Eris, I'm talkin' about you - but as much fun as meeting
new people is, and I'm glad I met 'em all, it doesn't help cover the
utilities or food bill). There were no little "surprises," like, "Oh,
you have to pay for your girlfriend to come into the con and help you
run your table - didn't anyone tell you?" No staff member addressed any
problems with, "Why should I help you? You're lucky we invited you.
You're no Pete Abrams." (Yes, that's a quote from a con.)
It was just... nice. Really nice.
I'm still confused. They were all really cool. We actually kinda hated
leaving.
The games seemed to go well. No one tried to punch me in the face
(although one guy had justification). I ran an S*P toned "Dungeons
& Dragons" game and a Toon parody of White Wolf's "Time of
Judgment" or whatever. The puns still haunt my dreams. This one guy,
Eric - okay, here's the back story, and it's not going to make too much
sense if you don't have some knowledge of White Wolf's games. Sorry. I
tried to make this thing goofy as it was. One girl was playing a Gamoo
- a.k.a. the werecow. Another player, Beth, was a mage who was a member
of the Accostic Brotherhood. Well, Eric played a Pun-ter, those who
hunt the paranormal with word play.
... Holy Jesus, he was pulling things out like I never expected. I've
run this scenario before, and the person who gets stuck with the Pun-ter
always looks horrified at the thought of talking in rhyme or twisting
phrases. This guy must do it for a living. Probably involved in
politics.
The D&D game was delightfully violent. Not as much wordplay
(thankfully) but there was an intestinal shower of monk bits over a
tower wall. Thanks to my friend, Jason Carr, who helped me make the
characters. That thing would have never started up otherwise.
So thanks. Thanks to everyone who came out to UBCon - or, hell, anyone
who's come to a con and said, "hi." And... uh... that's it. I'm going
to the post office now to mail the last of the eBay auctions (remember -
I'm not doing the Sad Choo-Choo one). Later, kids. -R
