My GameHole Con Guest and Streaming Schedule

Heya, Halloween weekend is just a few weeks away! I’m so pleased to share with you my schedule for GameHole Con. It’s packed this year, so be sure to say hello! I’m super excited about this year’s convention, and I’ll be posting updates as I get my Extra Life page sorted. This is only the second? Third? Time I’ve streamed for roleplay, so hopefully you’ll have a great experience watching us play.

Thursday, October 31st

Noon in Waubesa: Drawing Narrative Skills into 5E

2:00 p.m. in Mendota 2-119: Legendlore Demo – Into the Realm (2 hours)

6:00 p.m. in Monona: Gilding Light Streaming Game for Extra Life with Satine Phoenix DM (2 hours)

Friday, November 1st

10:00 a.m. in Waubesa: What’s Up with 5E and Onyx Path?

1:00 p.m. in Waubesa: Introduction to DMs Guild

3:00 p.m. in Mendota 2 – 126: Legendlore Demo – Into the Realm (2 hours)

6:00 p.m. in Monona: DnD Live with Mike Mearls DM (4 hours)

Saturday, Saturday November 2nd

2:00 p.m. in Waubesa: Worldbuilding 101

Mark Your Calendar for GameHoleCon 2017

GameHoleCon 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin

I am pleased to announce that I will be a guest for this year’s Gamehole Con, which takes place November 2nd through November 5th at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Gamehole Con is the largest tabletop gaming convention in the upper Midwest. Tabletop gamers from around the country gather each November in Madison, WI for this carnival of gaming. The convention features role-playing games, board games, fantasy and historical miniature gaming, and collectible card games. If you are a tabletop gaming fan, do not miss Gamehole Con!”

I’ll have more announcements about the show in the coming months. I hope you consider joining us at the show!

[Guest Post] Melanie R. Meadors on Playing In Someone Else’s Sandbox

When Marc Tassin invited me to write a story for the anthology he and John Helfers were editing, Champions of Aetaltis, I was over the moon. I had always wanted to work on an RPG tie-in project, and since this had a sword and sorcery type setting, it seemed right up my alley. Some of the first fantasy novels I read as a teen were Dungeons and Dragons tie-ins, and I’ve enjoyed the Pathfinder Tales books from Paizo as well. It didn’t take me much thought at all to agree to work on this project with two editors I admired.

When I got the setting guide to the world of Aetaltis, where the stories of the anthology were to be set, I started reading it with glee. I couldn’t wait to get started, and I was sure inspiration for a story would hit me as I pored over the pages. There were two hundred pages, to be precise, with details about races and classes of characters, facts and maps about the settings, and everything I ever wanted to know about the history and gods of the world. But when it came time to actually write the story, aside from having a little struggle coming up with the proper “champion” (and you can read more about my struggle with that here) I became really worried. There was so much stuff in the world guide, so much of it was already estab-lished. What if I completely screwed something up?

Thankfully, I’m not a shy person and went straight to Marc with my fears. Not that I asked him to hold my hand or anything, but I pitched my story idea to him as specifically as I could, and asked him to please verify that the world stuff that was involved with my story seemed accurate. I told him straight out, “Hey, I’m new at this shared world stuff. I just need your OK that I’m going in the right direction.” Sure enough, I was fine. I wrote the story and submitted it to him by the deadline.

Then things started to get really cool.

I hadn’t thought much beyond needing to get my story written and then taking care of edits when they arrived. To me, my characters existed in Aetaltis, and there were creatures and mention of other places in the story, but that was it. It was self-contained in my mind. But of course, to the world developer, this one story was a piece to a much bigger puzzle. My story’s characters and the events in it would become the stuff of leg-end in Aetlatis. And possibly most awesome of all was finding connections between stories in the anthology, things that were completely unplanned but just coincided. Two stories, for example, that had a staff in them. When Marc emailed me one day and asked if I could fiddle with the description of a device in my story to make it match one in another story, which would actually be a legendary weapon, I realized for the first time just how cool writing in a shared world really was. My story was more than just a story, it would become a bit of the mythos of the world. People could read my story and create a game out of it, just like the Aetaltis role playing game world was the basis for my fiction story.

The same goes for pretty much any tie-in. When you write a story based in the world of a video game, RPG, or movie franchise, your story becomes part of that world’s cultural literacy. Something small in the world might have inspired your story, but something small in your story might inspire someone to write another story, or game, or even movie. Your work becomes part of something bigger than it would have been if it was just a stand-alone tale.

A simple story becomes legend.

The World of Aetaltis, a new classic heroic fantasy RPG setting for use with Fifth Edition, is now on Kickstarter. Books, accessories, maps, & more for your 5E roleplaying game!

About the Author

Melanie R. Meadors is the author of fantasy and science fiction stories where heroes don’t always carry swords and knights in shining armor often lose to nerds who study their weaknesses. She’s been known to befriend wandering garden gnomes, do battle with metal-eating squirrels, and has been called a superhero on more than one occasion. Her work has been published in Circle Magazine, The Wheel, and Prick of the Spindle, and she was a finalist in the 2014 Jim Baen Memorial Science Fiction Contest. Melanie is also a freelance author publicist and publicity/marketing coordinator for both Ragnarok Publications and Mechanical Muse. She blogs regularly for GeekMom and The Once and Future Podcast. Her short story “A Whole-Hearted Halfling” is in the anthology Champions of Aetaltis, available on Amazon.

Henry Lien on Positive Representation

In the wake of Orlando’s tragedy, I’m terrified that we will forget there is something writers can do. Here, Henry Lien expresses his intent much better than I ever could.

Here’s something I can do in the aftermath of Orlando. I’m a children’s author. I’m also a gay person of color. I’m always going to include LGBT characters and people of color in my books. I’m going to ally myself with enlightened gatekeepers like my agent at ICM Tina Dubois Wexler and my editor at Razorbill/Penguin Random House Tiffany Liao, who support me in this. I’m going to work even harder and push myself to write the best books I possibly can in order to get my work to the widest audience possible. I will remain visible to people who want me to be invisible and who rage because history is rightfully leaving them behind. YOU CAN’T STOP THE FUTURE, YOU CAN ONLY DECIDE IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE PART OF IT.

Love,

Henry

Reposted with permission.

GenCon Industry Insider Featured Presenter

GenCon 2016

Today, I’m happy to share with you that I’ll be returning to GenCon: Indianapolis to speak on panels. I will be a GenCon Industry Insider, participating in a track of panels to share industry insights with attendees, along with several other storied individuals including Emily Care Boss, Eddy Webb, Kenneth Hite, and several others announced via the website. Huzzah!

Congrats to all of the announced speakers. I can’t wait to see you at GenCon 2016! Heck, I may even wear a suit this time around…IF the weather holds up, that is.

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Looking for Monica’s books and games that are still in print? Visit Monica Valentinelli on Amazon’s Author Central or a bookstore near you.

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