www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuImXBLU0Bw

Art by Larry Elmore

Bettie Page was such a big part of Dragon*Con tradition that legendary artist Larry Elmore created a painting for the show of her as a fantasy warrior-woman. My sister Stacy was one of the models that Larry photographed for this picture. (Obviously she was used for the body, not the face!)

My wife and I rented the biopic The Notorious Bettie Page a couple of years ago. The more I learned about the famous model, the more of a study in contradictions she became. She was, simultaneously, old-fashioned and progressive. Innocent in that she didn’t understand the kinky world she was photographed in—things like fetish outfits or bondage pictures and films—but certainly not ashamed at the same time.

It’s hard to put my mental finger on just why Bettie Page intrigued me (and so many others) … but part of it had to be the sense of mystery. She disappeared from the scene. When I first became interested in her in the 1990s no one had any clue where she had gone, what had happened to her, or even if she were alive or dead. She resurfaced several years ago and was finally able to benefit from her renewed popularity, though she was extremely reluctant to let anyone photograph her face. She said, “I want to be remembered as I was when I was young.”

Though the model Bettie Page gained immortality in her famous photographs and endless artist interpretations, the woman Bettie Page passed away on Thursday, December 11, 2008 at the age of 85. I believe her legacy and her popularity will endure. After all, she was completely unaware in her rising fame in the 80s and 90s. Her photographs speak for themselves, and her personality and energy are well preserved in the best of them.

"Jamie & Felicia" by Lindsay Archer

As a young boy reading Dragon magazine sitting in the kudzu patches of North Georgia (okay, I never actually did that, but it sounds good) I knew that one day I had to go to Gen Con. I had been playing D&D since I was seven years old, running as a DM since age 11, and attending local events since my early teens—including a little show called Dragon*Con that I will blog about at a future date. But Gen Con was my gaming Mecca, all the more ironic because for years it literally was in a Milwaukee building called MECCA. I finally made it up there at the age of nineteen, and my adventures there are lost out on the Internet somewhere. Maybe one day I’ll dig up my old journal post.

Years later, I’m writing as a jaded game professional who has attended Gen Con 15 times. I live right next to Horticultural Hall, the original site of Gen Con here in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Gen Con is now an incredibly stressful time of year, where our most important releases premiere and our sales throw important cash into the coffers. But I manage to have some fun, nonetheless. The following are two of my favorite moments from Gen Con ’08:

PSI Game Night

We setup the booth, and after putting on a fresh shirt and cleaning up as best I could, I headed over to the Westin in order to show off our games to the retailers participating in the Gen Con Trade Day event. We had two tables going, one to demo the Dragon Lairds board game hosted by co-creator Tom Wham, and one for the Demon Hunters RPG in the capable (if tipsy) hands of Cam Banks.

On a normal day, Cam is an enthusiastic Game Master. Give him a few Kamikazes and the odd glass of wine and you get über-Cam, a force to be reckoned with! At one point I walked by and he gestured, wildly, declaring “Okay, this is awesome!” before describing the crazy outcome of the battle scene in which the Demon Hunters were currently embroiled. Tom is game industry legend, and the Dragon Lairds session had lots of good-natured arguing and backstabbing.

With things going good and the free drink tickets all distributed (with only one lonely glass of merlot) for myself, I decided I’d like to try out a game. I sat down at the Playroom Entertainment table and played several turns of Portobello Market—a great German-style game that looks a little like Ticket to Ride but plays quite differently and has some nice variable decisions and strategy that go well with the theme. Even more fun than the game itself was making friends with Elisa and Phi, the former of whom was familiar with some of my work and the latter knows a very close friend of mine here in Lake Geneva.

The game night was a success, even though I ended up ending the game in order to lose catastrophically. But Tom’s and Cam’s tables both went very well. I’m already looking forward to next year!

Screening of The Guild

At Comic-Con I was lucky enough to meet producer, writer, and actress Felicia Day. (She’s apparently also a violinist and a mathematician and fellow displaced southerner.) I was already familiar with The Guild, remembered her from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and had loved her performance in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, But when I met her in person and found that she played D&D I knew that we’d get along just great. For those wondering, yes, she is that adorable in person and is very gracious with her time and extremely appreciative of her fans.

After Comic-Con I told Felicia that I would be happy to bring The Guild to Gen Con with me this year and we could sell it on her behalf from the MWP Booth since she couldn’t be there this year. I also managed to wrangle a late-night screening with the Gen Con film room. Felicia and I deluged the Internet with postings about our plans at Gen Con. Unfortunately, battle plans never survive contact with the enemy.

Thursday night I was running late. (Those who know me well would fake their best “surprise face.” Just ask the aforementioned Elisa!) We rushed over to the Westin to get set up before midnight. I sent Christy and Danielle ahead to scout out our location and let any folks waiting know that The Guild was on its way.

Felicia and friend/co-star/Legend of Neil-creator Sandeep Parikh recorded a great opening message for the Gen Con audience that I had on hand, but she and I were really hoping that we could figure out a way for her to address the audience live. So I rushed into the lobby, hoping to talk Internet connection issues with the hotel staff. After all, I was hosting an event in a meeting room! I knew exactly what to say to whatever unlucky hotel employee awaited behind the front desk. Too bad there was no one there!

I opened up the chat program on my laptop and engaged video chat with Felicia. I wasn’t sure how far the free hotel lobby WiFi would reach, but thought we could give it a try. So I picked up my laptop with her face on fullscreen and walked down the hall toward the film room. People shot me strange looks as I walked by holding the electronic disembodied head of Felicia Day.

We reached the film room! Completely empty. Not even a projector or a passed-out gamer or couple making out. Christy and Danielle explained to me that they couldn’t get a straight answer out of the Gen Con staff in front of the room.

Felicia’s disembodied head looked so disappointed. Not a single fan turned out to see The Guild? I knew better, having talked to folks all day at the con. “Is anyone here for the screening of The Guild?” I shouted down the hallway. Suddenly the dozen or so people milling about the Westin all were heading my way. Turns out they were just as confused as we were!

I set Felicia’s disembodied head down on the table and said, “Why don’t you chat with your fans for a minute? I’m going to go yell at some people.” Then I marched down the hall to the Westin’s Gen Con HQ booth. Turns out that no yelling was necessary. They had moved the room three doors down to the Animé room, and were waiting for us to show up and give them the disc!

I assembled the troops and recovered my MacBook, and together we marched into the Animé room—instantly zapping some big eyed, small mouthed character about to give a tear-filled speech before killing a hundred ninjas with a sickle or whatever was up on the screen. “Who’d like to watch The Guild?” I asked, to the grateful applause of the two dozen or so people who were already in the room.

We were already running way-late, so there was no time to figure out hooking up the projector to my laptop. But I am the master of rolling with life’s punches, so I just walked up to the front of the room and introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Jamie Chambers, a writer and game designer with Margaret Weis Productions. And this is the disembodied head of filmmaker and actress Felicia Day.”

So with Felicia in the palm of my hand (or her digital head, at any rate) we proceeded to do a short intro and Q&A session with a live audience. It was bizarre and fun, and the screening that followed filled with laughter and cheers. I’m pretty sure that a dozen gamer-guys decided to take the “+5 Sexterity” line and use it at the local Indianapolis bars later that night.

Despite everything, we managed to make the screening work. Later that night, I stole WiFi from Steak-n-Shake and logged in to let Felicia know how the screening itself went after she logged off. The e-mail from her read “AWESOME!” in the subject line and she had Twittered about the experience as well. She’d really like to come to Gen Con next year, but she’d almost give it up for the chance for me to carry her disembodied head around the convention in ’09.