One of the biggest questions I had this year, and honestly every year, was how would Dragon Con 2024 actually feel? Would it be overly crowded? Would we end up waiting in long lines for panels and miss out?
The only way to find out is to go, right?
Friday
In the week leading up to Dragon Con we go through the App and I star literally anything and everything I might have some interest in. Which means 4 or 5 panels might show up in my schedule for a time slot. I do this for a number of reasons.
To coordinate my panel interests with any that Courtney might have earmarked.
To not forget about anything that might get lost in the amazing number of panels Dragon Con puts on.
To have back-up panels available when you realize the line for the one you want is wrapped around the hotel.
To have a back-up panel when you are in the Hilton and the next one you scheduled is in the Westin and it is Sunday and your feet hurt.
Nathan Fillion Panel
This was the one Courtney and I both had marked as the number one panel to see. Aside from how good he is on panels, I don’t think we’d ever seen him solo one. We also knew the line was going to be long. As soon as we reached the backside of the Hyatt, we found the end of the line and crossed our fingers. About 10 minutes before the panel began, the line started moving. By the time we got into the room (about 3 rows from the back), Nathan had already begun talking (annoying).
Once we were seated, he treated us to stories about his career. How he got the speaking roll as Headpool in Deadpool/Wolverine (apparently the key is Ryan Reynolds helping you out and then thinking you did him a favor). How he has a trick knee, so any running you see in the Rookie is not always him. How he would do a Firefly: Captain Malcom show in the Picard style now 20 years later.
The hour went by far too quickly. I could listen to him talk for days.
Smallville Panel
Given the quick turn around (30 minutes after our first panel in the same room), we took a bathroom break and grabbed a snack. Luckily the line wasn’t very long, so we were able to load in and were fairly close to the front. Kristen Kreuk and Eric Johnson were on hand to talk about Smallville among other things. Starting a trend which would be a common occurrance through many of the weekend’s panels, I believe this was each of their first Dragon Cons. They talked about how cool it was to see the cosplay and seemed to be having a good time. We determined Kristen must be a vampire of some sort since she looks exactly the same as she did 20 years ago. Eric told a great story about his time on Vikings when he kept blowing a scene because his sword kept getting stuck in his scabbard.
Saturday
Before I get into Saturday proper, we had a bit of an adventure getting there. Egg again came over to the house to carpool, and we left around 10 AM. My thinking was that since our games don’t start until 1, that will give us time to grab lunch beforehand. While I knew the Parade was going on, I hoped we’d pick a route not to get caught in it.
What I didn’t consider was that the College Football Kickoff game between Clemson and Georgia was at noon (WHY?). This meant the interstate snarled. Once we got off on our exit, it was no better. Then to top it off, the parking deck I chose first didn’t have any empty spaces. Of course, they were letting us in, but after going through 7 or 8 levels we didn’t find anything. We finally had to park much further away than I would have liked. All in all it took us over an hour once we got off the exit before we had parked and exited the vehicle.
Gaming
This was our second year of doing our best to avoid the crazy Saturday crowds and instead just hang out in the Gaming building (Mart 3). There is food to be had there (Chick fil a and Jersey Mikes) and the area where we game has plenty of space so for the most part you are not ontop of each other which is sometimes a problem at Gen Con.
Deadlands (Savage Worlds)
After many, many, many attempts to play the current Deadlands system including that one time at Gen Con when we thought we’d gotten it right and instead it was for the 1st edition version of the game (which felt very complex). I’m a big fan of westerns and weird westerns, and this came at a time when I am knee deep in playing through Red Dead Redemption 2… so I was ready to be a cowboy of some type. With the five players at our table, I felt like we had some good interaction with one another, and the premade characters (from the Kickstarter box set) had some interesting flaws on them that helped inform some interesting roleplaying directions for players.
I chose the Witch to see how the magic system worked. And it didn’t disappoint. While I had some “charm” style spells, I didn’t have a ton of opportunity to use those. The Blaze ability (think Fireball) helped turn the tide (or made it so we didn’t get our asses kicked) when dealing with some Federal officers chasing after the same item we were hired to go collect.
With Savage Worlds I learned I have a red six side (likely stolen from a Risk game many years ago) who loves to “explode” on me (in Savage Worlds when you roll the maximum on a die, you get to reroll it and add the new roll to the previous one). This allow my character to do a ton of damage in one of the shots. And since in Savage Worlds you are supposed to be Big Damn Heroes, it goes a long way to helping you get that feeling.
We ended up destroying the abomination keeping the item in question, and then Lee managed (with his dying breath) to outduel the enemy Gunslinger by drawing the Joker card (which basically let him go first). It was a really cool moment we had joked about earlier in the session (as in – it’s likely not going to happen), and then to have it show up in the biggest moment was awesome.
A great game and one I’d love to play a campaign in.
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Tune in next week for Part 2 where we see Nathan Fillion again, play cowboys, and nearly miss a panel.
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John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.
He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!
Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.
His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com
