My Chupacabracon Schedule

This weekend I’m pleased to appear at Chupacabracon at the Norris Conference Center in historic Austin Texas. Organizers have rounded up a veritable constellation of tabletop luminaries, including my boon compadre Kenneth Hite, Feng Shui 2 developer Cam Banks, and Hillfolk contributors Jason Morningstar, Steven S. Long, John Wick and Sean Patrick Fannon.

Find me paneling, signing, podcasting and hobnobbing as follows:

Friday – Effective Networking in the Game Industry 4:30pm-6pm

Friday – Opening Ceremonies 6pm-7pm

Friday – VIP Meet and Greet 7pm-8:30pm

Saturday – Elements of RPG Game Design 9am-10:30am

Saturday – Building Memorable RPG Villains 11am-12:30pm

Saturday – Signing at Dragon’s Lair Books & Comics 1pm-2pm

Saturday – Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff LIVE 7pm-8:30pm

Sunday – VIP Brunch and Bitch 10am-11:30am

Hope to see you there, Austinites! Although your weather forecast is nowhere near as balmy as when I first started looking, it will still be an improvement on what we have here in Toronto.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: The Simpering Bridegroom

In the latest episode of our windswept podcast, Ken and I talk St. John's, spotty attendance, The Castle of Otranto and Ed & Lorraine Warren.

Catching Me at FanExpo Canada 2013

FanExpo Canada rolls out this weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. Its gaming track, thanks to the impossible oddsmanship of coordinator Justin Mohareb, has evolved in a thriving and genuine entity. It’s the week after Gen Con, so I always try to wriggle out of it, only to be drawn back in. This time Justin’s entreaty I could not refuse included his bringing my boon compadre and podcaster-in-crime Kenneth Hite up to join the extravaganza of gaming and genre palaver. So to heck with Nathan Fillion, Zachary Quinto and Stan Lee. Come to see us—along with Chris Perkins, Ed Greenwood, and many more.

I’m not doing the vendor table thing, but you can catch up with me at the following seminar events. I’m more than happy to sign books or chat after events. Don’t be shy about getting my attention in the vast scrum that is FanExpo. I’ll be the one in the groovy shirt.

Date	Time	Event	Room
Sat	3:45 pm	Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff – Live!	705
Sat	6:00 pm	GM MasterClass (with Ed Greenwood, Kenneth Hite, Chris Perkins, Matthew McFarland)	701B
Sun	11:15 am	Writing Adventure Games (with Ed Greenwood, Kenneth Hite & Jonathan Lavallee)	703
Sun	12:30 pm	Advanced Kickstarting (with Jason Anarchy)	713
Sun	3:15 pm	Robin Laws Q&A	703

Gen Con 2013 Gloating and Thanks

Another Gen Con now recedes into the Mountain Dew-scented mists of time. Now in an O’Hare waiting lounge, a familiar mix of euphoria and sleep deprivation dulls my cognition.

The Pelgrane Press decisively smashed previous sales records. I’ll let Simon provide the percentage figures, should his argent reserve permit. Most pertinent to my agenda, Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow posted very satisfying numbers. The companion volume did surprisingly strongly. You expect supplements to sell a fraction of the core book. Here that fraction was much bigger than the norm. Even better, sales picked up on the Sunday, suggesting that people who’d earlier on picked up the core back came back later for the companion.

13th Age and Eternal Lies were no slouches either. Double Tapped, the new goodies book for Night’s Black Agents, sold out, and the core game, buoyed by Ken’s double silver ENnie triumph, all but did so as well.

Gen Con offers a chance to spend time with a large swath of my favorite people, and I cram moments of catching up into my schedule as greedily as I used to trawl the halls for signs of the new hotness. A record number of past and present members of my game group made themselves present, including illustrator Rachel Kahn and illustrator/graphic designer Chris Huth, both immersed in the giant festival of gaming love for the first time. I loved seeing the experience through their bedazzled first-timer eyes.

A couple of big future projects solidified at the show and I look forward to spilling the beans on them in the weeks and months ahead.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by with kind words for my work, including a certain much-lauded podcast. This tight shot of ego gratification now goes into emotional storage to be fed upon until, oh, say, Dragonmeet.

Thanks to the Hillfolk contributors who took part in our two mass signings, in all their chaotic, ink-stained glory.

And thanks to Hillfolk backers who picked up their copies at the show. As you may have heard, shipping costs have spiked horrifyingly since our campaign in the fall, so by grabbing your books in Indy you helped the project yet again.

Now time to rest…oh, wait. Tomorrow is programming day for the Toronto International Film Festival. And then Ken arrives on my doorstep Friday so we can descend as a dynamic dyad on FanExpo Canada.

I might catch some rest in October, I guess…

Gen Con Day Two: Read to the Bottom for the Giant Dangling Hint

If you ever get a chance to attend a Q&A-format panel moderated by Jack Graham of Posthuman Studios, take it. He works the room like a nerdgeist standup comic, softening up questioners by asking them where they’re from and then hitting them with a leftfield question. Do Oklahomans add more tornado threats to their games? Would you sooner be Mork or Mindy? The gauntlet thus having been run, he hands the foam Talking Axe to the participant, who then throws his query to the panel.

Here it was a question for the Campaign Doctors on how to address particular ongoing problems in one’s game. As they often do at Gen Con, the basic “what do I do about this one guy in my group” query took on unusual permutations—how not to stump players when you distribute narrative control, or how to run for an outwardly detached 14 year old. Amanda Valentine provided sage advice, seizing high ground as the voice of reason. Luke Crane served up delightful iconoclasm, particularly when hilariously informing one group of Burning Wheelers that they were playing his game wrong. Comically heightened apoplexy abounded. And of course I said the Things I Always Say.

Speaking of which, the later GUMSHOE panel with Kenneth Hite, Simon Rogers and your quasi-humble correspondent started with the basics and zoomed out to masterclass detail in the second half. As far as I can tell I succeeded in recording it, and we’ll be mining the choicer bits as a recycled audio segment on an upcoming instalment of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff.

Then I got to do the Bob Hope thing, showing up to deliver a cameo appearance in Jeff Tidball’s intensive RPG design workshop. If you are thinking of jumping into the field and see him doing this at a future show, block out that chunk of time and get ready for an invaluable crash course. I dropped some choice design science, told a few jokes, and swanned out again. Next time I’ll have to have “Thanks for the Memories” loaded on my smartphone as I stroll in.

Last night saw Ken once more dipped in silver glory as he clutched two such medals, honoring Night’s Black Agents for Best Writing and Best Game. He has become so accustomed to such feting that the later uptick in his overweeningness was barely perceptible.

Or perhaps John Kovalic, back at Gen Con for the first time in nine years to promote his fab new party game ROFL, noticed it more acutely than the rest of us.

Oh, and somewhere in there I had a very fruitful meeting concerning the Battlechimp Potemkin. Make of that what you will.

Gen Con Day One: The Best Kind of Dwindling

Yesterday at the Pelgrane booth, fat stacks of Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow dwindled satisfyingly throughout the day. Once refreshed, they dwindled again. We had both sales and plenty of Kickstarter backer pickups. The day also dished up a lesson in the nonmonetary rewards of Kickstarter. I could see how much awareness the campaign had created for DramaSystem in that I had to do very little cold pitching of the basic concept; because people swung by already knew what it was. In fact I was able to talk to people who have already played it, because the backers have had a fully functioning copy of the rules since October. So the project gives off the glow of newness while also being something that people know enough about to get excited.

Thanks to all the contributors who took part in the Hillfolk signing event. I look forward to the next one with a fresh crop of signers at 11 AM on Sunday.

This is not to imply that the other many new cool things at the Pelgrane booth were not also briskly dwindling their own stacks away. It is particularly fun, as Ken pointed out, to hand someone a copy of Eternal Lies and watch the recipient’s arm abruptly drop with its unexpected heft.

I already have what my wife very sweetly refers to as my sexy convention voice, which is to say that the vocal apparatus is already showing the strain. You know what that means-- it's seminar day!

At 1 pm, it’s the Campaign Doctors Panel with Jack Graham, Luke Crane & Amanda Valentine at the Crowne Plaza Ballroom A/B, thrown by the good singularitans at Posthuman Studios.

Then at 3, it’s that perennial fave, the GUMSHOE and Investigative Roleplaying Panel with Kenneth Hite and Simon Rogers, also in the Crowne Plaza Ballroom A/B. We will attempt to capture audio for later recycling on the podcast.

Most of the rest of the day I will endeavour to be at the Pelgrane booth. That’s booth 101, free ice cream for the kiddies (ice cream and cones not included.)

Time to Hit That Gen Con Floor

It was a delight to behold the obvious joy that Diana Jones award winner Wil Wheaton exuded as he accepted his mysterious Perspex pyramid for Tabletop. In his speech, after lofting the trophy above his head in happy triumph, he talked about gaming as the refuge that got him through his early, lonely awkward stage. In other words, he told the same gaming origin story many of the thousands of people gathered here at Gen Con this weekend could easily echo.

It may be the unexpectedly moderate weather, it may be that I have some new posse members to introduce to their colleagues, but whatever it was I can’t say I’ve enjoyed a Diana Jones party more. The sense of reunion that comes from seeing the gang together in one place washes away months of self-imposed stress and nonsense.

But that was last night and at least one shot of tequila ago. Now I steel myself for the glories of the exhibit hall. I have been told that Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow have in fact manifested in physical form but have yet to run my paternal fingers across their hardcover surfaces. After a year heavily dominated by the process of making these, I could not be more stoked to finally see them reaching you, the gaming  public. If you’re a backer picking up the show I will feel an extra frisson of satisfaction to see them move from the booth table to your capacious bags o’ loot. I will be haunting the Pelgrane booth (101) pretty much through the day today.We have one of our two mega signings this afternoon at 3 PM so if you can swing by for that we have Sharpies ready and waiting to personalize those pages.

Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow are but a fraction of the bounty that you can grab at the Pelgrane booth. The Esoterrorists second edition is here. 13th Age is here. Eternal Lies is here, which I didn't even know to expect! And I have it on good authority that there might be other game products at other booths.

Now if you'll excuse me I have a date with some piles of books…

Finding Me at Gen Con 2013

Once again it’s the time of year when hobby game designers start posts by telling you it’s that time of year. Gen Con is right around the corner, luring us in with the scent of fresh polyhedrals and keeping us there with the glow of community and creative renewal.

My big focus this year, barring catastrophic tinkering by the print gods, will be on the arrival of Hillfolk and its companion, Blood in the Snow. I had this largely designed by Gen Con 11, was plotting initial Kickstarter moves at Gen Con 12, and now look forward to see it finally realized as a physical object. Backers have been playing the game for a while, based first on their preview editions and then with the finished PDF. But there’s nothing like a tangible item to infuse one with a sense of completion. Swing by the Pelgrane Press booth to pick it up, at its new upsized digs: #101, across from the Paizo booth.

Also at the show, the GUMSHOE game that started it all, bigger and more unremitting than before—The Esoterrorists 2nd Edition! I am stoked to see that hit the trade table, too.

When not otherwise booked I’ll mostly be haunting the Pelgrane booth. I’m there to chat, so don’t be shy. I’m happy to sign any of my books for you, not just Pelgrane stuff.

To catch me in a more structured circumstance, join me for any of the following events:

Thurs	3-4 pm	Hillfolk Signing #1, with Jennifer Brozek, Paula Dempsey, Steve Dempsey, Dave Gross, Rob Heinsoo, Ryan Macklin, Michelle Nephew, Jeff Richard, Rob Wieland & illustrator Rachel A. Kahn	Pelgrane booth
Fri	1-2 pm	Campaign Doctors Panel with Jack Graham, Luke Crane & Amanda Valentine. (Posthuman Studios)	Crowne Plaza Ballroom A/B
Fri	3-4 pm	GUMSHOE and Investigative Roleplaying Panel with Kenneth Hite & Simon Rogers. (Pelgrane Press)	Crowne Plaza Ballroom A/B
Sat	Noon-1 pm	Table to Page: Narrative Gaming Panel with Corey Reid, Gareth Skarka, Emily Care Boss & Kirin Robinson (Scratch Factory)	Crowne Plaza Victoria Station, C / D.
Sun	11 am-Noon	Hillfolk Signing #2, with Keith Baker, Emily Care Boss, Steven S. Long, TS Luikart, Andy Peregrine, Wade Rockett & Pedro Ziviani,	Pelgrane Booth

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Ghost-Kissed Pilsner

In the latest episode of our curry wurst of a podcast, Ken and I Talk Hannover Spielt, John Kovalic, the brothers Tsarnaev, and Paschal Beverly Randolph.

My Hannover Spielt! Events Schedule

Are you in the Hannover area and waffling over your possible attendance at this weekend’s Hannover Spielt! gaming convention? (If you keep reading, you’ll see what I just did there.) Surely a peek at my events schedule, as excerpted from the program book, will tip you over into attending.

Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering 

Saturday 11:00 

This is a seminar no GM should miss: Our Guest of Honor Robin D. Laws introduces us to the techniques and principles of his celebrated guidebook Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering. Afterwards you will be able to ask Robin for invaluable advice how to solve your unique or everyday GM hassles. The book Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering will be available at the Pegasus booth. 

Hillfolk Seminar

Saturday 14:00 

Robin D. Laws presents his newest creation: Hillfolk - A game of Iron Age drama. With its innovative DramaSystem Engine it might become a new milestone for our hobby. This unique system allows players, with a little help from the GM, to include not only procedural action into the gameplay, like fighting enemies and investigate mysteries, but also dramatic scenes where characters have to confront their internal obstacles and seek emotional reward from people they deeply care about for good or bad, like other players. The result is a dialogue-driven game without a lot of of boring flailing about and arguing over what to do next.

A Bier with Robin
Saturday 20:00
Late but not long ago Robin D. Laws discovered his fondness for beer. Shame on us if we would miss this great opportunity to familiarize Robin with the most valued treasure of our Vaterland: Bier. Mind you Robin will have to pick and sample as many brands as he needs to find a favorite. Of course we will take care of the rest. Apart from that you have the chance to chat with Robin in a casual atmosphere about everything you or rather he feels like. We would bet on games and movies.

Waffles with Robin & John
Sunday 11:00
Our Guests of Honor and fast friends Robin D. Laws and John Kovalic invite you to a breakfast brunch. While we make fresh waffles they will waffle about the hobby gaming industry, their Kickstarter projects, the state of the gaming hobby and the part roleplaying games played to help making gaming an universal, popular and ever present, almost inescapable cultural phenomenon. Do not forget to bring your curiosity and your Hspielt!20-mugs for free coffee.

Story by Accident?
Sunday 14:00
If you are familiar with the work of Robin D. Laws you can not help but recognize his interest in the narrative structure of films and games. Even before his analysis of film classics to find clues and elements for storytelling in games, published as Hamlet’s Hit Points, he was looking for ways to make the byproduct story an integral part of the gaming experience. He succeeds in designing rules and game elements that enable even gamers and gamemasters without strong storytelling skills to experiences fascinating games stories. A seminar that no enlightened roleplayer should miss.
 

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Yes, folks, beer and waffles and John Kovalic too. I shall struggle manfully (personfully?) to meet the rigors of the above agenda.

Hannover Spielt!

Attention, Germans and germophiles: I’ll be doing the guest thing at Hannover Spielt!, on April 20th and 21st. Check the site for venue, admissions and other details. I’m very happy to return to this cozy and welcoming event and looking forward to seeing more of the city this time around. Adding to the excitement will be the presence of the Muskrat Lord himself, John Kovalic. Along with the usual chat and panels, I’ll be running a game of Hillfolk as a convention fundraiser, so start hoarding your Euros in a context where they’re still worth something. The last time I was in Germany I had not yet been converted to the ways of beer, so some might say I have never really been there at all. I know you’ll be pleased, German gamers, to see me rectify that grievous omission against your national heritage.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Live from Dragonmeet 2012

Before a live Dragonmeet audience, Ken and I, ably assisted by Pelgrane Press publisher Simon Rogers, talk digital tools, dino-riding samurai, and crowdfunded exhumations.

Gen Con Wrap

As usual the day after Gen Con, my brain is mushy and my creative spirits lifted. Thanks to everyone who attended a seminar, asked for a signature, posed questions, or shared responses to my many and various projects. Without an audience this work would not exist. This show serves as a joyous and emotionally overwhelming confrontation with that fact.

Or to put it another way, my current ear worm is the chorus to "Dream Weaver." And I think I like it.

On Sunday, the Pelgrane booth sold out of its pre-release copies of The New Hero and Shotguns v. Cthulhu.

The New Tales of the Yellow Sign sold most of its limited hardcover print run. Remaining copies will go to DragonCon courtesy of Adventure Retail, or to Atomic Overmind world headquarters, where they may be made available via mail order. The main softcover run releases next month.

Now I get to go home and decompress. Oh wait, no, tomorrow's TIFF program book day and the weekend's FanExpo. Belay that. Pass the espresso drum, nurse!

Finding Me at Gen Con

Is it just me, or does it feels like Gen Con ‘11 happened only a few months ago? Nonetheless, my calendar reliably tells me that the great tribal gathering happens next week.

My new releases for the show take on a distinctly fictional cast this year. Print gods willing, you’ll be able to grab:

Blood of the City, my Pathfinder Tales novel of urban mystery, political machination, and family intrigue. At the Paizo booth.

The limited edition hardcover of my short fiction collection New Tales of the Yellow Sign, serving up weird new takes on the weird mythos of Robert W. Chambers. Seek it in the Atomic Overmind section of the Green Ronin booth.

Advance print copies of The New Hero, The New Hero Volume 2, and Shotguns v. Cthulhu, the first three Stone Skin Press anthologies, which I edited, will be at the Pelgrane Press both. If you missed the Kickstarter campaign, allow them to entice you into the notoriously seductive Pelgrane 4 for 3 deal. There you may also avail yourself of the chance to pick up The Birds: There Goes My Day Job, which came out earlier this year but makes a perfect convention impulse buy.

Even more important than the consumer frenzy I hope to whip you into is the chance to say hi, whether to catch up or meet up for the first time. Catch me at any of the following scheduled events:

Thurs	3-4 pm	Writer’s Symposium Advanced Plotting Seminar	ICC-245
Fri	Noon – 1 pm	Pathfinder Tales Fiction Panel	Crowne Victoria C/D
Fri	1:30 – 2:30 pm	Pathfinder Tales signing	Paizo booth
Fri	6 – 7 pm	Tome Show Podcast	Crowne Victoria C/D
Sat	Noon – 1 pm	Don’t Read This Book signing	IPR booth
Sat	3 – 4 pm	GUMSHOE / Investigative Roleplaying panel	Crowne Pennyslvania Stn

During exhibit hall hours, when I’m not off in a meeting or desperately scarfing down a slice of convention center pizza, I’ll be manning my post at the Pelgrane Press booth. Please don’t be shy about coming up to chat. It’s what I’m there for!

Continuum 2012

LEICESTER, UK -- Events like Continuum, which began its life as a biennial convention twenty years ago, are supposed to reinforce the thesis of a hobby slowly aging out and losing steam. Tell that to the 26% of its 250 attendees who were new to the show this time out. Longtime stalwarts of the English gaming scene showed up in force, to once again affirm their love for Glorantha, Cthulhu, Pendragon and all expressions of the Chaosium diaspora. But the sign-up sheets offered a broad assortment of other tabletop RPGs, as freeforms unfolded several buildings down, and board games dotted the dining hall. This with a separate board game convention going on across the street, putting competitive pressure on the University of Leicester's curiously curtailed beer supply.

Among my three panels were the classic state of the hobby gaming industry chin-wag, which now has a brand new topic to bat around: Kickstarter and its implications. In the game design panel we talked about identifying the experience you want to create for the gamer, and how to build up from there so that every element of the rules set brings abut that experience. And in a general “Ask Robin” session I provided the origin stories of Feng Shui and Rune, traced the way editions of D&D have historically drawn in other developments from roleplaying design, and posited various possible shapes the RPG core rule book might take in a world of ubiquitous tablet computing.

Speaking of technology's bleeding edge, Greg Stafford beamed in from California via Google Hangout. Though a bum connection introduced frustrating pauses, he revealed to Pendragon fans the deep contents of a product pipeline, including a Charlemagne campaign book. He explained how his recent adventures as a horseman have granted him new insight into the Arthurian cycle, and spoke of his four decades of work on Glorantha as tracing his development from youthful naivete to maturer understanding. When he got to the historicity of Arthur, Oliver Dickinson was on hand to volley back at him in tart, affectionate counterpoint.

Ooohs interspersed with aaahs at the Moon Design seminar, as co-honcho Jeff Richard showed off gorgeous art and phone book-thick manuscripts for the long-awaited Guide to Glorantha book and a Sartar-set Orlanthi campaign. The profoundest gasps were elicited by a slideshow of maps for the former, which place every detail of Greg's originals, from elevations to the nimbus of the storm god's influence, all underpinned by a five-mile hex map. This act of cartography, executed by Colin Driver, can only be described as heroic, right down to its individually placed tree symbols. The map is not only stunning as a work-in-progress, but lays the groundwork for a zoomable 3D version! Moon Design's current surge lends this starry-eyed prospect an air of downright plausibility. On a more prosaic note, Jeff laid out his move to a hybrid business model, in which the company continues to makes its nut with direct sales to the hard core, but then opens a later release window, in which Cubicle Seven pushes the books out to retail stores. We also learned which nation of Glorantha embodies the death of sixties idealism, how the current team finally nailed mysticism as a path fun player characters can follow, and the geographical parallels between the Lunar and American heartlands.

The Hillfolk game reached a groove quickly and kept on rolling. Unusually for a one-shot run, it did not evolve into a battle over the chieftainship, but instead pitted a great raider's effort to start a war with a neighboring clan against the chief counselor's scheme to ally with them against foreign enemies. Our hot-headed warrior hero faced surprise comeuppance as a disregarded female hero of the clan laid a public thrashing on him, instigated by his prospective bride, a proud champion of the rival Hard Heads.

This time around I set aside the rule that steers a one-shot run to a definitive conclusion, instead concluding by saying, “And this would be the first episode of your Hillfolk series.” Ultimately I think this is the way to go with Hillfolk demos, since it is tuned for longer-term play than many narrative-oriented games. No one seemed particularly disturbed by the open-endedness, which gives a better look at DramaSystem in the mode it's tuned for. When run at cons outside the demo context, the final escalation rules probably remain the way to go. Or maybe closure is overrated in general, and players are happy to be left envisioning more.

As always when privileged to take part in an intense moment of community, I leave Continuum exhausted and grateful. Thanks to organizer Darran Simms, games organizer Keary Birch and panel poobah Colin Driver, along with the rest of the Continuum team. Their system of just-in-time organization makes for a loose and calmly run event.

The Vanguard Couldn’t Be Us, Could It?

LONDON -- In the company of the estimable James Wallis, at the beautiful St. Bride’s library, I attended an event called Publish! New Players, New Innovations. Although  the name does sound a little buzzwordy, I've been to other panels and seminars about the future of publishing dominated by doom and gloom, so it was encouraging to be promised an evening looking forward to fresh possibilities. It turned out that most of the presenters were hopeful because what they were doing was not publishing. They’re mostly making apps. I was heartened to see a literary writer among the panelists fielding questions during the event’s second half. Litfic authors in general have been slow to embrace the opportunities inherent in the great Internet shake-up. Kate Pullinger, a transplanted British Columbian and winner of Canada's prestigious Governor-General's Award (it's our Pulitzer) sees her new media writing grow its audience month after month, long after a novel would be done its sale cycle. She deplored the way creative writing workshop culture encourages writers to cast themselves back to the beginning of the 20th century.

One thing that is going to have to leave the literary arsenal is preciousness, which can't survive the level of engagement required by social media. Hey, if Margaret Atwood can go to the San Diego comic con and get her picture taken with Klingons, it means the great persona shift is on.

As is often the case at these events I was reminded just how far ahead of the curve our crazy little corner the publishing industry is. From adjusting to piracy to community building to crowdfunding to hardcopy/ebook bundling, the stuff we consider part of our day-to-day practice reads to conventional publishing as a bizarre transmission from an alternate future. We may be a bunch of spunky kids with a barn and some costumes putting on a show but we're figuring out things for ourselves and making it happen. The future of publishing may well be the small press and we’ve got the new economics of that well corralled. Maybe the real money in hobby gaming is in learning its lessons and then teaching them to others as a bunch of fancy consultants.

After that, a pub was repaired to, where there was talk of movie remakes, ancient messages from the dawn of the Internet, and the horrors of British real estate transactions.

The Lime Green Menace

LONDON —  I've added a few days to the front of my journey to the Continuum convention in beautiful Leicester to hang out at the Pelgrane's nest in London. Olympians are already arriving in the city by the Thames, so I expected crazy delays and ratcheted security at Heathrow. Instead it was the usual breeze. Later I hear that fear of Olympic craziness has deterred visitors, so much so that ticket sales to other London events like theater and the opera have dropped dramatically. My favorite feature of the coming festivities is an ad campaign on the tube admonishing locals to cheerily compensate for the wave of inconveniences to come.

I joined Head Pelgrane Simon Rogers for a lunch in celebration of the company's epic 10 ENnie nominations, with contributors to nominated projects Beth K. Lewis, Steve Dempsey and Paula Dempsey modestly basking in the fruits of their labors.

Then Simon, Steve and I hove off to soak in some visual research for Dreamhounds of Paris, heading to the surrealist section of the Tate Modern's standing collection. Dali's lobster telephone was in storage, perhaps to make room for a Hirst exhibit, but we did see suitably inspirational canvases by de Chirico, Ernst, Man Ray and others.

Having escaped a heatwave back home, I was relieved to stroll through a cool drizzle to the John Soane Museum. This famed apogee of the imperial collecting era fills a house to mammoth concept drawings from the architect who gathered all this stuff, along with decorative pieces and artifacts from Egypt, Greece, Rome, China and probably others. Upstairs are the paintings by Canaletto, Watteau, Turner and Hogarth; downstairs is the crumbling alabaster sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I.

As entertaining as Soane's vast accumulation of stuff was a drama witnessed as we waited in the queue to get in. Workmen were in the process of sticking a lime green tribute to the city governments Olympic tie-in greenery initiative on the high-end sidewalk slabs right outside the museum. A pinstriped museum official leapt to his mobile phone to argue down the functionary on the other end of the line without ever once quite saying the word hideous. (It was implied in his emphasis on the lime in lime green.) Finally aesthetic logic won out over political self-promotion, and the Soane, now under renovation and promoting the Olympics with its own cross-promoting exhibit, was spared. Workmen rolled up the offending banner and drove away.

Olympian/Cyclopean

When seen as concept drawings or CGI animations, Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots of the upcoming London Olympics, look merely bizarre. As if they, like the 2012 logo, sprang from an advertising agency in-joke run disastrously out of hand. Or perhaps resulted from a concerted effort to create the most peculiar and unrelatable mascots in sports history. However, now that they're all over the city of London in plush toy form, their Lovecraftian heritage becomes all too apparent. I mean, one of them has a head full of tentacles, for Hastur's sake!

Over the course of Dragonmeet, Ken, Simon, Steve Dempsey and I strove to pin down their exact rugose branch of the Cthulhoid family tree. Finally, over tagine and rosé, we worked it out. Wenlock and Mandeville can only be an advance delegation of the insane flautists who orbit around Azathoth, reflecting back on him in atonal, aural form his limitless madness. In other words, I think we'd better check the alignment of the stars for ominous coincidence with the date of next summer's opening or closing ceremonies. I wasn't placing any credence in this whole Mayan end date business, until I saw at bin full of these fuzzy horrors by the exit to Foyle's bookshop.

Beer Knowledge Me (London Edition)

As previously and thrillingly recounted in these blog pages, I recently underwent a hopsy conversion on the road to somewhere or other and now find myself a liker of beer.

As likewise announced, this weekend I will once again be jetting to the reserved yet splendid embrace of London, England, for the Dragonmeet convention and related Pelgrane summitry.

A visit to the Pelgrane’s nest largely concerns itself with the free flow of wine, a tradition with which one would be a fool to tamper. But let’s say, for the sake of hypotheticality, that I at some point wind up in a pub. You also, by remarkable coincidence, happen to be in this fine establishment and are either an English enjoyer of beers or an enjoyer of English beers.

If I’m having what you’re having, what am I having?