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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6220141" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 344: June 2006part 3/6Gen con indy 2006 previews: You know, I noticed the decline of wargaming, books, computer games, reviews, humour, fiction, the forum and coverage of other RPG's in the magazine pretty much straight away when they happened. I'm surprised that I didn't notice just how much less they've talked about the various conventions since 1998. Before then, every year would have both articles and editorials promoting them and then describing what they were like afterwards. Afterwards, they've been sporadic at best. Another casualty of WotC being more self-centred than TSR. Well, at least they've got a fairly substantial one this year, and aren't just talking about what they're doing at it. And things have changed quite a bit since last time as well. Anime continues to grow in popularity everywhere else in the world, with multiple companies involved in subs and dubs. Meanwhile the internet and cheaper recording devices democratise media, meaning there are more independent musicians and filmmakers than ever before. (which also means more filks, unfortunately, but what are you gonna do) There's still tons of new releases, tournament games, and minis stuff, including the rather amusing sounding competitive speed painting. If you want to get in as a vendor rather than just a tourist, you have more opportunities than ever to make your mark. I suppose the really tricky thing these days is finding a market for whatever you create, given how much of the competition is free. Still, a few days meeting people face-to-face will probably make you more useful connections than months of internet spamming so go, have fun. It will be worthwhile in the long-term.  Fiction: The return of Gord by Gary Gygax & K. R. Bourgoine. Oh Gord, not again. Didn't he kinda destroy the world already? Oh well, I guess there's always room for prequels and interquels, just as with the Heroes of the Lance. And indeed, while it hints at his larger adventures in a way that you could probably use to place this in the chronology of the novels, it's a fairly basic heist plot set at ground-level in Greyhawk City. Gord sees a particularly impressive bit of treasure that he simply HAS to have, and the rest of the story details the trials and tribulations he goes through in hunting for it. Unsurprisingly, he was set up in the first place by a devious manipulator, and equally unsurprisingly, he manages to beat them anyway, and come out with a modest profit, but not the huge one he was hoping for, thus leaving him free to blow it all and be poor again for any more instalments. So yeah, all these years, and he's still deeply in thrall to Fafhrd and the Mouser, only as he's just one person, he doesn't have anyone to play off to set up really good banter. And that is why he'll always be second-rate. I'm afraid that even after all these years, I'm not particularly inclined to give Gary a pass for producing bad fiction, especially as I'm not even sure how much of this was actually written by him. And wouldn't it just be pathetic if he was relying on ghost-writers and still producing sub-par material.</blockquote>

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