Tag Archives: Philcon

Philcon 2023

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This is one of those posts where I put it here, on my site so that when anyone questions it I can say definitively that I own it.

The weekend before Thanksgiving I headed to Cherry Hill (yes, the Philadelphia con is in NJ) for the annual science fiction convention put on by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. I’ve gone to Philcon for many years, and have been invited to be on panels for many years as well. This convention is the home of a couple of the most legendary convention stories, including defend the pizza, and Yes – I realize that was 9 years ago.

Blame to me. I glanced at the convention requirements, but I did NOT read them as thoroughly as I should have. I see this now, I saw it then. It still didn’t make me at all happy. You see, the convention, as a private organization, can make any requirements it sees fit for entry into their event. They did. They required a Covid vaccination update that fell within certain parameters. IF you were just vaccinated back in ’22, that wasn’t good enough. You’d need a PCR negative test if you didn’t have a booster dated this year (basically).

They’re not wrong. *I* am the danger vector. Since the CDC declared an end to the public health emergency back in May, and even before then, I have been traveling for work. I’ve been from Georgia to Oregon. In 0 of the places I’ve been since May has anyone asked for proof of vaccination, let alone very specific versions of the vaccine. I haven’t even seen a mask in months. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out there trying to catch anything, I just haven’t given things much more thought than basic precautions. I even still keep my CDC card with me. Proof of vax, even if I don’t really need it anymore. Except now I did, and it wasn’t good enough.

Imagine my shock when the convention staff told me I wasn’t allowed in.

I’d booked a hotel, I’d made the drive, I’d set up things for the panels I was going to speak on and even ordered (and pre-paid for) a t-shirt for the first time in years. Nope, you’ll have to go away.

Once I got past my initial shock, I was actually angry at this rule. Again, not their fault I didn’t know, and I know that. I was as much stunned they made the rule more than anything. It was excessive, at least to my way of thinking. I shared my opinion with a friend and he suggested I just go to the local pharmacy and get tested. Excellent plan.

I drove to a local Walgreens and headed to the pharmacy counter. The worker there kindly explained that a PCR test required lab work and there was no way I was getting that at this hour on a Friday night. I looked around, trying to figure out what to do with my rapidly building level of frustration. As I looked around, I realized there was almost nobody in the store. I looked back at the girl behind the desk and said, “What are you doing right now?” She was taken aback so I added, “You’ve got boosters, right? I want one.”

So, 15 minutes later I had a shot in the arm and a newly signed and dated entry on my CDC vaccination card. I drove back to the hotel, parked the car and headed back to the check in desk. I plunked the card down on the desk and asked for my entry badge. The very same person who refused me before glanced at the card, saw the date that ended with ’23, smiled and welcomed me.

That’s the part that really bothered me later. It was the same person that felt it was so important to turn me away previously. It looked like I met their rules, so they were happy and welcoming. The part I’m glad she missed was that I had literally been gone for about a half an hour and still didn’t meet the requirements for entry. You see, those shots technically require a 2 week time period to become effective… and the rules said that too. A shot in the arm that day didn’t actually help anyone in the immediate time frame. They could have just as easily turned me away again…

I’m glad they didn’t. Laying out the money for the trip was a doable thing, but not for absolutely no return and no access to what I came there for. What it did was cement in my mind that this convention wants to never change, and if that means dying then so be it. In my personal experience over the past decade the attendance, the panel variety, the guest list and many other aspects have been dwindling. This year I was shocked at the lack of people. I’ve said the crowd was thinning before, but I saw so few people there I didn’t believe the attendance was more than about 200. It was dismal. The panel list was smaller, the guest list was smaller and the principle speaker wasn’t able to attend (last minute illness). Part of me can’t help but wonder if the policy had a bigger hand in that dip in attendees than just the rumors I heard. Yes, I know of at least 2 guests that said they weren’t coming back based on the rule. If I know of two, how many more were there? How many attendees just didn’t bother? What was there to draw them in?

The hotel hasn’t changed in all that time either. Admittedly, they’re working on remodeling the place, but I think this photo was symbolic of my weekend.

Worn, broken and barely hanging on. That’s it. That’s what I got from the weekend and even after waiting a week to get past the immediacy of my feelings, the impression has not improved. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

My panels, and my fellow panelists, were good. There were never more than ten people in any panel I was on (or that I attended), but the people that were there still held some enthusiasm. I was able to connect with a couple of con attendees, so that was great. I got to see my friends and may have even weaseled my way into a couple of short story anthologies for next year.

Still owning the fact that it was my screw up in not practicing what I preach and failing to read the fine print, this year just left a bad aftertaste. This wasn’t a good con. I had witnessed struggles in an indirect way with this con before, but I went with the benefit of the doubt. I wasn’t there in person to witness the challenges, so I could just try to keep things going. Not so much anymore. I’m glad I made the connections I did. I’m glad I saw my friends again, but I’m going to have to wait until next year rolls around to decide if I’m actually going to attend Philcon again. Ever.

Philcon 2021 – Part 3

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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.

Philcon 2021 – Part 2

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A few notes~

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.

Philcon 2021 – Part 1

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A smaller ‘haul’ than some years…

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!

Flower Scouts!
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.

Part 2 – The Panels – coming soon!

Live and In Person!

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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.

A full report to follow!

Philcon 2019

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This was originally published in Watch The Skies November 2019 issue.

Philcon

I am always happy to be asked to be a participant at the convention put on by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. I was given a couple of different panels to be part of and I stepped out and took on my own panel for the first time ever. It’s very easy after years of participation to become jaded and treat an event like this as work, so it was nice to shake things up a little.

Attendance this year felt light. I had the opportunity to chat with a few vendors I know and they seemed to get the same feeling. Even the book launch party wasn’t as crowded as an event like that normally is. That being said, the majority of people I spoke to had an excellent weekend. There were some that had a less than stellar experience. Putting the conventions rules and posted policies to the test is never the way you want to spend a con weekend. I was sad to see this happen, but it was something that only effected me in a tangentially.

Programs had a couple of little hiccups. IF I hadn’t loaded up the schedule app on my phone I wouldn’t have found out about the change in my schedule. Given the number of panelists, requests, rules and topics I’m a bit surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often. Speaks well of the program staff I think. I was able to get it sorted out easily – no real fuss. I got to talk about introducing people to board games, introducing people to urban fantasy, methods for finding new authors along with a solo panel. That’s right, me and only me! My first ever solo panel Rosie or the Roomba was well attended – despite being scheduled at ten in the morning on Sunday. I had the room to myself as nothing was scheduled ahead of me and I was thankful for the extra set up time. Bringing my own multi-media presentation was a bit of a challenge, but the technology end worked out very cleanly and neatly. I got a number of insightful questions and some very sharp consideration from the folks that attended the panel. I consider it a success and will likely attempt to do the panel again for another convention.

One of my favorite parts of this year was a young artist displaying in the art show. This young person wanted interaction and posted a hand made sign up with his art to say so. I’m not an Instagram person, but if you are you should head over and check out the work of @eanr’sart over there. I know at least one of this artist’s pictures was snapped up and taken home. I suspect a taste of success will continue to bring this artist back.


As always it was wonderful to see various members of my ‘convention’ family that I don’t get to spend enough time with. It was a fast weekend. I was on the way home again almost before I realized it. As always I hope to be invited back again next year. You should consider signing up and heading to the con too. That, after all, is how we’re going to keep science fiction conventions rolling far into the future.