(no subject)

[seekingferret]

Philcon was fun? I guess?

I enjoyed running my D&D game, though it was the first 5E experience for all three of my players, and it was nearly the first Roll20 experience for all of them as well, so there was as much teaching as playing. That was fine but hopefully with time we'll all get better at using these tools so we can focus more on the gameplay.

My panel on fanfic and its intersection with creators was good, with smart panelists and good faith disagreement about boundary-drawing.

I also enjoyed watching several other panels on writing and reading.

I was glad as well to get to the memorial for Hugh Casey, who sadly passed away last year after being sick for a few years. Hugh was one of the first people I ever met at Philcon, if not the first, and he was a presence that conversation swirled around whenever he was in a room. It was sad but it was great to hear everyone's memories.


But the problem with Philcon, which I felt more acutely with Philcon than I have with any other virtual convention, was that any time I left a program item I was suddenly back in my apartment and not *at Philcon*. I keenly missed downtime at Philcon- hanging out with freeradical42 and nathanielperson in our hotel room, chatting with people in between games in the gaming suite, parking in the hotel lobby and talking to whoever walked by. I got some of the social experience in the Saturday night zoom parties, but it was a pretty sparse crowd.

I really hope the vaccines work, I really hope they get deployed quickly and safely and effectively, I do not want to have another year of these virtual cons. I miss everyone.

Comments

[raine]

Yeah. Like I spaced attending a virtual con, which is so easy to do because it felt like it required me to go through more hoops (sign into another Discord, launch another player, remember the start time, etc.), which if it had been held locally like it had been previously, I would have driven down, stayed in the hotel, and had enough incentive to not forget, but... here at home, it's way too easy to forget because I'm not physically going anywhere.