Well, everyone, thank you for joining me for this inaugural miniseries of blog posts recounting my experiences at this year's Metatopia. \u00a0For this final (and much shorter) installment, I thought I'd collect and summarize the other posts, and wrap up with a few additional thoughts and highlights that weren't in the first parts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Stuff I Didn't Cover Before And last, but in no way least, big ups\u00a0to Raul's Empanadas Town: delicious, walking distance from the hotel, inexpensive, filling, and open late -- everything a hungry con-goer\u00a0wants. \u00a0Not only was its greatness reflected in the number of times that Tabitha and I showed up there ourselves, but also in the number of times we showed up there and it was full of people sitting at tables eating empanadas and talking about some tricky card mechanic that they were trying to iron out. \u00a0Metatopia not only creates a unique and wonderful world inside it, but all around it.<\/p>\n Stuff I\u00a0Didn't See or Do<\/strong> Had I more time, stamina, or clones, I would have sat in on at least a few panels. \u00a0I think I would have also tried for at least one thing that was powered by the Apocalypse. \u00a0I'm also sad that I didn't sit in on anything by Quinn Murphy. \u00a0I didn't get a chance to check out the Ars Magica GUMSHOE<\/em> stuff, but I'm sure\u00a0that<\/em> isn't going to be a quiet development.\u00a0There were also many (many!) people of whom I am an admirer that I knew were in attendance but\u00a0that I didn't get a chance to meet. \u00a0Which is perfectly fine; I feel like this is the kind of con where designers can really get some good stuff done, so I don't want to take up people's time with nonsense. \u00a0Plus I hope there will be more chances to come. \u00a0And in general, this list of \"regrets\" are nothing like complaints. \u00a0If anything, it's to highlight just how packed Metatopia is with interesting stuff. \u00a0I had a great time in the events I had, and I'm already looking forward to next year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, everyone, thank you for joining me for this inaugural miniseries of blog posts recounting my experiences at this year's Metatopia. \u00a0For this final (and much shorter) installment, I thought I'd collect and summarize the other posts, and wrap up … Continue reading
\n<\/a><\/strong>In which I cover the games and people that I already knew I wanted to see when I pre-registered for the convention:\u00a0Epiphany<\/em> by James D'Amato and Kat Murphy and\u00a0Project: Dark<\/em> by Will Hindmarch.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>In which I cover two different games by the same designer:\u00a0Medias Res<\/em> and\u00a0Terra Incognita<\/em> by Vivian Abraham.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>In which I cover Starjump Chronicles<\/i> by Dev\u00a0Purkayastha,\u00a0Writer's Block<\/em> by Aaron Trammell, and\u00a0Novapunk<\/em> by Shane Harsch.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>There were some other highlights that didn't involve playtesting, but which still bear noting. \u00a0Firstly, it was very nice that I was able to attend the convention with my girlfriend, Tabitha, and we even got the chance to attend a couple slots together, which was pretty fun. \u00a0I also got to meet another person high up on my admiration list: Kenneth Hite. \u00a0Again, it was one of those weird situations where the voice is so much a part of my life via podcasts, but the actual person is brand new. \u00a0It was a thrill to jump the guy in the lobby\u00a0and shake his hand. \u00a0I'm also 99% sure that at some point I shared an elevator with Cam Banks, but he was in conversation, so I didn't interrupt to weird him out. \u00a0I'm sure, too, that I passed all sorts of people in the hallway that I would have been really excited to talk to if I had known their faces. \u00a0This is the effect of following people's books, articles, and online text.<\/p>\n
\nThe nature of the convention (and any convention, really) is that I'll never be able to schedule everything I want. \u00a0Leaving aside even the quantum laws that I can't be in two places at once, even the ordinary concerns of logistics and biology prevent me from scheduling everything I want -- and sometimes even prevent me from attending what I scheduled, which is always a bummer. \u00a0I scratched on two slots,\u00a0Champion of the Realm<\/em> and\u00a0SBURBia<\/em>, which of course I'm not proud of, but which was sadly unavoidable. \u00a0I ended up seeing a grand total of zero panels, which I'm not\u00a0that<\/em> upset about, since on this particular occasion, I came to play, but I know I missed out on a lot of interesting discussions and probably extra fun. \u00a0So it goes. \u00a0I was also highly RPG-focused for this trip, only having one slot for a board\/card game (perhaps two, if you count\u00a0Medias Res<\/em> as well as\u00a0Writer's Block<\/em>), and no slots for LARP.<\/p>\n