Fencon Report

This past weekend, my wife and I went to Fencon IV. Overall, we had a great time. We had friends stay in our room with us. Things that stuck in my mind:

1. The military in science fiction and fantasy panel. The panel participants consisted of Toni Weisskopf, M. T. Reiten, William Ledbetter, and Steve Perry as moderator. I anjoyed the interplay and the talk of where military science fiction was headed.

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2. The 100 years of Robert Heinlein panel (Connie Willis, Mary Gearhart-Gray, Lee Martindale, Beverly A. Hale, and Brad Sinor) – Let’s leave it at the panelists and I have very different tastes as far as Heinlein’s work goes.

3. Baen Books Traveling Road Show – This was fun. The slide show focused on the art for the book covers. My wife got a copy of Vorpal Blade. I also got a picture of the infamous Baen freebie, the Red Rocket:

4. Gaming – The classic version of Battletech has recently been (re)released. They have actually done some cleaning up of the rules. Though, the price of the books are a bit expensive. Also, Ironwind Metals is releasing the Battletech minis (new and old). They apparently bought the molds and equipment from Ral Partha. I tried out Mechwarrior. I was not impressed. It took almost as long as a regular Battletech game and much less satisfying. I played a game of Pirates. I enjoyed it and won a nice boxed set. However, from the description of the tournament games, I’m only going to be playing in friendly games.

I wish I had been able to take more pictures, especially of the Costume Cabaret. However, I have a severe problem with crowds and the room was packed beyond standing room only 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start. I said forget it. Also, I occasionally got caught up in the concerts and forgot to take pictures.