Convention Recap: Jordancon 2024

Jordancon is behind me now, so let me dish on how it went! This recap will be a little unusual because I wasn't selling or officially guesting. This was the first time I've done a weekend con in quite some time just to hang out, and I have to say...it was refreshing in a lot of ways (though I am ready to dive back into selling again)! So here we go:

Panels

While I wasn't a guest, I was added to the list of attendees that could panel, which led to me being on five panels in total. Here they are, in order:

Let's Design A Game: Moderated by Ryan Szesny (who did an impeccable job), this panel basically reassembled the similar panel from Multiverse 2023. Judy Black, Ris Harp, Bill Bridges, and myself sat around and took a few suggestions from the crowd about what our game could be about. We settled on creating a hack of A Quiet Year based around stopping an apocalyptic event of some sort. Rather than making a map, you build a timeline using a deck of cards. I think its a really neat idea, and while I don't have the space to come up with all it would take to make a full Quiet Year hack, I will be drafting up some general rules and sample questions. So keep an eye out for that to come.

Charity RPG: Insanity. This was insanity, in the best way possible. Judy Black ran the 5e module she created based on the first Bubba the Monster Hunter story, and John Hartness, artist guest of honor Mark Poole, and myself played it. Or destroyed it. It's open to interpretation. Here are just a tiny sliver of highlights:

• Bubba (John) and Howard (Me) running towards each other in order to squish dozens of swarming possum assailants between us. We actually stood and acted this out in slow motion. Who needs jello wrestling, when you have squished possums?

• Puns. So many puns. I peaked when, upon Mark saying he was going to have his monk use a ki point on a possum, I corrected that it was in fact a 'riiiiiiii' point.

• The possum familiar Jenny Sayqua, ran by Judy, who spoke with a valley girl/French accent.

• You know the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro? Imagine that, but a possum. We fought that.

• We also fought Mega-possum, which was basically a Voltron of possums with a gun and a whip cream dispenser.

• Keep in mind the actual module had none of these things in it. Judy is just a pro, and rolled with our madness like a champ.

• Me, despite rolling with disadvantage because I was drunk, managing to hit almost every time.

• Mark rolling so, so, so hilariously bad that he missed as much as I hit, even though he wasn't rolling with disadvantage. But he made it fun.

• People continuously donating money to bring possums back to life as zombies.

Dead Space: Zero Gravity Zombies: A panel about zombies in space, featuring SM Hillman, Bill Bridges, myself, the sci-fi track manager (who's name escapes me now), and moderated by Joe Compton. Because that isn't terrifying (the zombie stuff, not the people. The people were fantastic). I got to let my zombie phobia flag fly, and really enjoyed talking about both representation of zombies in sci-fi media, as well as how they could play out in 'reality.' One fascinating bit that came from this was one of the attendees, while discussing the cyclical nature of zombie popularity, mentioned that they had read an article that links the political party in power to the popularity of vampires vs zombies. I dug up a link here if you are interested.

Design A Game Like A Pro: Moderator Ryan Szesny assembled Judy Black, Sarah Madsen, Bill Bridges, Joe Compton, and myself to talk about the possibilities and pitfalls of publishing an rpg. Judy, Sarah, and Bill are all really big deals, working for everyone from WTOC to White Wolf to creating their own IPs. Just really super impressive people. And Joe, while not a designer, is very much an expert on marketing, contracts, and working with IP. Then there was me...the super indie creative who was definitely the low man on this totem pole! I was sitting on the end and I joked that everything to the right of me was "Designing a Game like a Pro" and I was "Designing a Game like an Amateur." Which really was true. But I liked that I was able to bring a different perspective to the proceedings, for folks who want to go a more indie route.

The Future Is Hilarious: SM Hillman moderating a panel suggested by Sarah J. Sover, and featuring Sarah and myself, this was a romp! While Sean asked some really insightful questions about the nature of comedy and how it related to sci-fi, the bulk of the discussion revolved around just talking about different shows, books, and movies that we loved that scratch that itch.

Bonus, GoIndieNow Live Show: I love getting to be on the recap shows that come live from conventions that GoIndieNow hosts. If you want to watch, here it is: CLICK HERE.

Overall I did most of my panels on the Gaming and Sci-Fi tracks, which were not what sprang to mind when I thought Jordancon. But guys, Sean and Ryan run a pair of amazing tracks, and I am so blessed that they threw me in the mix!

Hanging Loose

Like I mentioned, I didn't have a booth, so other than paneling I got to just wander around and hang out with folks. The Jordancon crowd is made up of many, many of my con family favs, with lots of overlap with events like Multiverse. The real highlight for me though was getting to share a room with my brothers from another mother, Ben Meeks and Joe Compton. It was the first time my con besties got to meet, and we had a great time hanging out. This was also a con where I got to hang out with Sean Hillman a lot, which is rare because he's usually so busy running tracks and such. But we spent a long night talking til the sun was nearly up, alongside our pal Paige, and it was so great.

On a more personal note, without revealing the name involved, I had someone who I really respect essentially tell me 'I've seen how far you've come the past few years. It's been great to watch, and you're really building up something.' When you are in the trenches it can be hard to see that you've made any real progress. And for a hero of mine to tell me that they see me, and that they can tell how much I've grown...damn. It felt good yall.

Anyway I'm not going to list out all the folks I got to spend time with, because I know I would miss someone, plus...it's a lot. A lot, a lot. I will throw out a couple of noticeable hangs:

• Elara Dunn was able to catch me right at the tail end as I was saying my goodbyes. I had been by her booth a couple times and either she hadn't been there (paneling) or was mid sale. But it was awesome to finally get to hang for a brief moment, at her first con where she was on panels! I hate I missed it, but I am so stoked for her!

• Hangs with Sarah and Tim Madsen is always grand. A couple that I can talk at length to about rpgs AND metal? Yes please. Being right next to Ben's table meant I got to dose up pretty heavy. One day I will end up seeing a concert with Tim by god!

• And then right in front of Ben's table was Patrick Dugan, sharing with Sarah Madsen was Sarah Sover, and right behind was Mel Todd? I'm not saying this was the cool kids corner...but I mean... I was sitting there so it probably wasn't lol.

• I have too many amazing artist friends now to be able to vote for them all in the art shows. What a great problem to have!

• Everyone should message Joe Compton and tell him to hurry up and move to central time. I mean, I'd say move to Alabama, but I know that's not gonna happen. A boy can dream however.