A Belated Bronycon Post · 3:09am Jul 18th, 2016
Thursday was a travel and logistics day, when I flew into Baltimore, hit registration, and got checked in at the hotel. Travel reading for the weekend was mainly Jo Walton’s The Just City, which I’ve not yet finished, but have been enjoying so far.
Friday began with me significantly oversleeping, but fortunately there wasn’t that much I was interested in early that day. It is too bad I missed the comics panel, though.
After reaching the little food court just below the con’s main floor and picking up some pizza for lunch, I happened to run into Hinds, whom I was rooming with and fortunately had no problems checking in and getting into the room while I was asleep, while looking for a table and we ate and chatted a bit until the Crossovers panel (Wanderer D panel count: 1). At the end, we had a quick chance to say hi to Somber, and I made my way to the Brony Book/Brony Psychology panel. Nothing too surprising came out of it in terms of content, but I hadn’t expected that work on fandoms was pretty much nonexistent before them. I’ll probably buy the book when it comes out.
Then came some time in Quills and Sofas while waiting for the Congress of the Black Hats, during which I talked a bit with Admiral Biscuit and I believe Nyronus by the Letters to Princess Celestia station. It was fun, and if the reading event was recorded I may at some point see if anything written there was read; the reaction to “Do you like me? Yes [] No []” in particular could be cute.
After dinner a good chunk of the people in Q&S attended the Advanced Writing panel, which was my favorite panel of the weekend. Skywriter’s point about how character flaws should drive and be integrated with the plot struck me as the kind of thing that’s intuitive in hindsight, but I’m not sure I’d ever thought about in those terms before. Pascoite’s advice on gimmick stories was good, but mostly covered ground tread in his guest post at OMPR last week. Bad Horse’s segment was almost a condensed survey on some of the ideas developed on his blog over the last few years, and in that respect was both very interesting and the least complete of the panelists’ presentations. I wish there had been more time to develop both it and Captain Chryssalid’s response on the historical accuracy of the claims during the Q&A, perhaps even a full dialogue; if there ever was more at some point during the weekend, I’m afraid I missed it. Braedel’s portion was devoted to the pieces he believes make up a story—character, setting, plot, theme, and tone—and the idea that audience engagement can be best maintained and word count best used when each passage handles more than one at once. For example, action scenes can be handled as problems that characters need to solve, illuminating character abilities and how they think, rather than just a sequence of actions that happen; or, when hitting the “boring parts” of a story (think the walking scenes in LOTR), focusing on character interaction or incorporating smaller stories within. Due to time running short, Wanderer D’s (Wanderer D panel count: 2) portion distilled down to how if the characters don’t care about what’s going on, the readers won’t either, and the importance of filtering perspective and plot through the characters involved in a story.
The part of the Sad/Dark Fic panel that most stood out to me was Bad Horse’s comparison between the stories of King Arthur and Charlemagne, how plots interact with theme, and why Arthur’s story is more interesting than Charlemagne’s. Roughly, the ingredients of the two are almost identical, but Camelot falls because a state based on purity cannot be upheld for long by imperfect humans for so long, whereas Charlemagne’s empire fell because he split it among his three sons: bad things happening because people make stupid decisions just isn’t as compelling.
The Comedy panel (Wanderer D count: 3) was fun, but to my mind didn’t have much that was especially concrete or that lent itself to summary. I suppose the takeaway (apart from, I suppose, a general warning against too sudden, too intense tonal shifts) was that comedy is generally not easy, even good comedy will frequently have large numbers of people who don’t find it funny, and it’s probably a good idea to ask some people if they thought what you wrote was funny.
A break at Quills & Sofas brought some time to check out some of the results of an unexpected gift: an old manual typewriter left on one of the tables, which throughout the day people had been playing with. There were some fun stories there, story prompts, and people just having fun. Much was just silly, but especially with people there to laugh over them together, it was a good time. I may post pictures of the FIMFic blog-allowed examples from Friday at some point over the next couple of days.
I went to the Hall of Chaos at 12:30, to find that the roast of con chair Josh Dean had run over by a half hour, and continued for another quarter. I wish I could have been in two places at once during the time that had been scheduled, and the version of me at the roast had been drinking; what I saw was pretty funny, but what with it being the end, would have profited from the context of all that came before (and some alcohol in my veins). And so, it was some twenty minutes late that the Head to Headcanon comedy contest (Wanderer D count: 4) moderated by Pen Stroke and some guy in the audience in a banana costume. That was wacky and fun, and the high point might have come when Wanderer D won and got to turn the tables around and ask a headcanon question of Pen Stroke: what would the offspring of Nyx and Blackjack look like? And so I found that Pen Stroke may subscribe to Lysenkoism—well, she wouldn’t have legs, Blackjack lost all hers, right? :p (He was apparently just guessing, not knowing anything about PH beyond vague secondhand impressions, apart from the color scheme.) —and that the kid would look be black in some parts, white in others, like a zebra but not exactly striped. He knew how to work with these things.
Saturday began with “Cutie Marks and Branding: Social/Mythological Identity Creation Among Friends,” which focused on some sociological aspects of the show and fandom. It mainly stuck with gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity issues, and about a third was devoted to “Brotherhood Social” and the reaction it received. It was an interesting panel, and offered a perspective on things different from how I normally look at the world, so I’m happy I went. During the Q&A, two audience members’ input stood out. The first was someone talking about being an atheist, part of which was expressing uncertainty if there were any others in the room of probably near or over a hundred; there were of course many, including at least one of the panelists. That there are places where it’s unusual for there to be open atheists, and in noticeable numbers, is something I was intellectually aware of, but didn’t exactly feel as immediate until he brought it up. The other was someone raising those who have closely and significantly dealt with suicide (attempts, completed, ideation, for themselves or among friends and family) as another minority represented within the fandom, and which has received treatment through the community in ways it wouldn’t from the show itself, highlighting Somber’s discussion in particular.
I spent the rest of the afternoon in Quills & Sofas, first joining in an impromptu circle of people discussing Fallout Equestria, which after a bit went off to find Somber. Then he came in (he’d heard that it was happening and hoped he could be there) and we talked a while before everyone who had been looking for him realized they’d missed him and came back. And so, for a couple hours, there was the unscheduled Somber panel—he talked, answered questions, and was the center of a dubiously-desired group hug that I ended up being pulled into as well. It was a good time.
After he left, I capitulated and went back to my hotel room to pick up a long-sleeve shirt and my suitcoat, brought with the Gala in mind, because it was the only heavy clothing I had and Quills & Sofas was freezing. When I came back, I found some people who didn’t look occupied and asked if I could sit with them. Thus began a long conversation with Solobrony, starting out with historical perspective on Bad Horse’s part of the Advanced Writing panel and views on propaganda, Plato’s Republic, how it related, and the distinctions between how it was intended to apply to governing principles and the maintenance of justice within an individual’s soul. We moved on to aspects of our own lives and his writing (I just started working through his and Prane’s “Iqquelverse,” which from what I’ve seen so far is excellent). Soge joined us, and after a while Solo left, but we kept at it a while. After dinner, I went back to the typewriter area for more con-fic fun, and in came Your Antagonist in his wonderful Zecora costume. We talked a bit about it, some of his writing and blogs (one of which seems to have been lost to the ages in the mature content blog post purge, not even showing up in the wayback machine), and how people don’t really respect cosplayers’ space or privacy, despite convention rules. In any case, he’s a great guy, and it turns out I’m “[his] kind of person.” After he left, I jumped in on a game of Twilight Sparkle’s Secret Shipfic Folder. As always, it was fun, but I can see why it suggests capping it at six players: I thought nine was too many. I regret now never making time to pick up Boiler’s new expansion sets, but hopefully they’ll be available online at some point.
Obviously the only thing to beat a shipping game is a shipping panel, and that’s just what was next on my agenda! The chemistry on the panel was some of the best all weekend, and it was characterized by more flow and discussion between the panelists than was the norm. All very fun, but I did leave with the unfortunate knowledge that the Rarijack bug is all too widely held among premiere romance writers. At least Bookplayer’s on the right side. :p Captain Chryssalid once again made an impression, this time through his highly utilitarian view of romance as a story component, as well as the significant problem for intra–Mane Six shipping that has grown up over time—why is the change happening now, after so much time? Oh, and there was a shout-out to one of my favorite blog posts on FIMFiction, Chuckfinley’s “Alien Shipping Syndrome.”
Upon my return to Quills & Sofas, I was pulled into the most unexpected event of the weekend: Solobrony’s impromptu self-defense lesson. There were probably about ten of us involved in all, with some (like me) near complete novices, some a few years out of practice, and some deeply and presently practicing. The diversity of approaches was striking, with some based on movement and positioning, others on the importance of being able to take and recover from a hit before hitting right back, and another on getting in close and hitting as many times as possible as fast as possible. Talk of grabs, resistance, foot placement and balance, all very new to me, but engaging, and something worth exploring more going forward: I’m currently seeing if I can fit a class in in the fall. The group being told by con security to tone it down after some on-the-ground sparring looked too much like a real fight had to be the icing on the cake for the night.
Sunday was unsurprisingly light, being a short day without much scheduled. The Good Dialog/Bad Dialog panel was up first, and I originally thought that Somber and Wanderer D were going to be panelists because the three on stage talked of waiting for them to get there. Turns out that wasn’t the case (Wanderer D count: teased but not incremented). Anyway, what stands out most in my memory of the panel was how to write a drawl: it should be as easy to say as possible, never being clipped or choppy. Plenty of discussion on speech tagging as well—it’s too bad that InquisitorM wasn’t there, because I’m sure he would have had a lot to contribute.
In line to get some coffee and breakfast, I found Distaff Pope was right behind me. He’d printed up copies of a fanfic, “Thorny Words” (not (yet?) on FIMFiction) and left them around Quills & Sofas. I’d started it the day before, but didn’t finish it since when conversations started, they seemed more important. He was kind enough to hand me a copy, and I read it over breakfast. I hope it makes it here at some point.
The OC panel (Wanderer D count: 5) was the last I went to for the weekend. Once again, Captain Chryssalid showed his utilitarian side, stressing that they exist to further the plot and interact with other characters, and that if at all possible, it’s best to use an existing character rather than create one. But most importantly, with longer works, you can gauge audience reaction and direct more attention to characters (including OCs) that readers like, and let those who get negative reactions fall to the wayside to the extent the plot and other characters allow.
At this point, I went over to the U.S.S. Constellation for Bad Horse’s not-hijacking. The ship itself was an interesting museum piece, but my enjoyment went up a lot when I ran into other people from the group midway through (I’d gone on the ship around 2:15 or 2:20, thinking they’d already entered; it seems instead I’d arrived before anyone else from the con), who were able to relate it and the Torsk to other things, and liven up the time with conversation generally.
Things wrapped up at Quills & Sofas, where I got to witness the author photo (featuring GM Berrow!) and say hi to Pascoite (who’d passed on to Solo that I’d done the OMPR review of In a Tavern, Down By the River (which Solo had edited) last year) and Horizon, and a last goodbye to Solo and Somber after the Quills & Sofas cleanup.
And so that was about the end, leaving just picking up my luggage and heading to the airport, where, after the back-scatter X-ray did its thing, I was told "We'll need to pat down your back. And your hair--" breaking for a confused and skeptical expression from me "--You know what, your hair's fine." In my time waiting for my flight, I started My Little Economy: Economics is Science (which used to be its own story but I guess is now absorbed into Twilight Sparkle, Unicorn Economist) which I’ve meant to get to for a long time. In retrospect, there are some things about it that make me glad I never got to it until now, after a year of the stuff. So that was something of a high point on the way out, and then more Just City on the plane.
All in all, Bronycon was a great experience, though very different from last year’s Everfree Northwest, the only other con I’ve been to so far. But I’m already hoping that things work out so I can make it again next August.
Just wish that the con booklet were 8.5” x 11” like Everfree’s: now I’ll need to buy a 6.5” x 10.25” frame.
Hm. Yes, I do regret not going to the Cutie Marks and Branding panel; from your description here, it was more interesting than the description in the con materials made it sound to me. Ah well. I hope they hold it again next year (and I'm able to attend, of course).
I'm also hoping that Quills and Sofas will be more comfortable; you seem to have gotten into a lot there.
Glad again you had a good time, though. :)
Boiler's packs are awesome, though I sense power creep in Steelhooves' and Rampage's powers. (I can't get over the art for Rampage though, oh my god c.c)
4099349 Afraid I don't remember what their powers were,
and last I checked they aren't available online yet. But it seems like a difficult point with new cards for the game is that since most cards' effects are pretty basic, it's hard to do anything new that isn't going to be stronger than what already existed.Well, it looks like Rampage's is only super powerful if you have the goods to play and discard her in the same turn. Otherwise, she's just more swingy in that she's beneficial to whoever's turn it is. Can't make out Steelhooves's.
Actually, I think I already have those (or are there a new Rampage as well as Steelhooves?). It looks like the new ones involve maybe a Goal or Ship with Steelhooves and Applejack; probably a Ship with Velvet Remedy (heart background and syringe); ghoul-Ditzy Doo; something with Lion and Mouse; Watcher Spike; Pip and Homage; Dealer; Xanthe; Priest(!); Scotch; Pip; Red Eye; and Question Zecora. Don't know what any but the last do though. Any take on how those look?
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Steelhooves has basically the same power, but as I recall, he goes back to the hand of the person who played him. Or maybe it is the same power and it's just worded differently, which would make it confusing. <.<
I don't remember much about the others, but the two packs together do add a decent amount. (Already, I can tell that plenty of people are keen on putting certain characters into the game without adding any ships or, especially, goals. I mean, as it is, FoE and PH add the Ghoul keyword and nothing is really done with that.)
4099524
That's too bad. On the plus side, at least since everything is handled in separate decks, it's not like increasing the Character/Ship ratio would actually change the gameplay apart from the abilities. But since the draw is in large part the flavor, only focusing on one deck does seem like a bit of a waste.
I should have thanked you for attending all my panels! I promise I won't do as many next year! I'm hoping some other authors, editors and reviewers step up to it!
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I hope you find the people you need! I guess it isn't necessarily so for everyone, but appearing on that many strikes me as probably making for a very tiring schedule.