Day Two: Underway

Today is one of the big days for panels.  It is now 3pm, and I've been in panels pretty much solidly since 10:00 this morning.

My first panel of the day was "One-on-One Combat for Writers" - it was a very informal panel, where the experts broke into groups and writers could ask them to demonstrate something. There were armored-fighting experts, unarmed experts, martial artists, firearms people, and all manner of other experts there.

It was a good panel, but was not the sort of panel where you expect to take notes.  The best part for me was the question, "What keywords would you recommend we Google later to learn more."

Fiore. German longsword. Italian longsword. Half-Swording.

The next panel was "Universal Rules of the Fight" - it was some rules of thumb for combat. Not as useful from a writerly or gaming perspective as I'd hoped, but I still got some good notes that I can probably translate mechanically into a game with some effort.

The next panel was Worldbuilding 101.  I've been to several hundred worldbuilding panels at various conventions over the years, and they have never been bad.  Well, not quite right. The only times they were bad were those times the moderator was unwilling to cut people off when necessary.

It was a good panel, I got some good notes.

The next panel for me was a "Game Design Workshop" that ... wasn't really a workshop. I managed to get a page of notes, but they're really thin notes that are things I pretty much knew anyhow. Not a complete bomb, but not a full success for me, either.

I followed that with "Believable Magic," which is - much like Worldbuilding 101 - a panel I've been to dozens of times. The difference is that the magic panels have been so very hit-or-miss over the years. This one was good.

I'm triple-booked in the Guidebook app for my 4:00 panel. And I don't know if I'll be attending any of them, to be honest. I'm starting to feel a bit peopled-out.

We'll see.