Ms. Magnolia Goes To MidSouthCon

This past weekend, I went to MidSouthCon, the most premiere fandom convention that's a short drive from where I live. This is sorta just a stream of thought thing where I chronicle my experiences, because I played a lot of games and some of them were really interesting. 

Part 1: Chaos

From the perspective of trying to run an event and interface with the con on that side, things were chaotic. According to scuttlebutt, the staff had to switch event management systems three weeks before the convention and accepted panel submissions up to a week before. This meant that the con program wasn't accurate, especially for panels, and not everything available made it from the website to the Wall of Events people could actually see, because asking people to scan a QR code is a pain in the ass.

So some events just got eaten, from my game of Monster of the Week to two of a friend's panels, and I ended up having to talk to staff to get my ticket refund. I can't speak for those who were just playing stuff but apparently it was easier for them.

Part 2: Friday

• While I was waiting for my own game to run, I caught part of a panel on improv and gaming. It was nice hanging out with tabletop people and hearing their thoughts.
• Ran Monster of the Week. Scraggy the Mundane, Vilma the Spooky, and Margaret Sr. the Expert stopped a draugr from robbing its own estate sale. It was light and silly, but I think it worked and folks had a good time.
• Hung out with my friend whose panels got eaten, learning about their time in the tabletop industry and stuff. It was really cool but also her game design panel and Trans Fan Experience panel deserved more attendees than just me.
• Afterwards, I got roped into playing Blood on the Clocktower, a more compact but more extra version of Werewolf. I ended up being the main bad guy, and almost won until my ally inexplicably stabbed me in the back. It was a great time.

Part Three: Saturday

• Played Mission Accomplished, an Archer-esque game about super spies talking to HR after a successful mission. The whole structure of it was great, with everyone trying to dodge blame and throw each other under the bus. The structure of writing comments about your coworkers is so good. I can't recommend this game enough. 
• Caught part of a panel on queerness in gaming, where I learned that apparently Scar from the Lion King is a bottom. 
• Legend of the Five Rings (Fantasy Flight), specifically the starter kit. I'm a slut for the Genesys engine, and L5R is no exception. Instead of having stats and skills, it has Skill+Ring(approach), with the Ring being the amount of dice you keep, and the Strife and Honor system does a decent job of putting you into the mindset of someone who lives in the hyper restrictive culture of Rokugan. Its probably my favorite permutation of that whole system. Where I bounced off was the metaplot and the adventure himself. About half the guys at the table knew a lot about the setting, which I kinda didn't give a toss about. The adventure itself was largely structured as a samurai exam, where large amounts of time were given to the exploits of NPCs who will probably be relevant in the next season of the card game. I'll always have a soft spot for my guy who kept pushing himself until he burst into tears though.
• Played Vampire: The Masquerade, 5th Edition. After some…significant delays, we had a fairly facial adventure of trying to escape the Second Inquisition in Memphis. The whole thing felt a little slapdash and trying to guess what the Storyteller wanted the solution to be, but riffing with the other players was fun, and I liked playing my PC, a Ventrue tech CEO who was Embraced for causing the Teapot Dome Scandal.
• Played Werewolf (the social game). I got eliminated early, but something I never really noticed before now is how well it works as a spectator sport. It's fun seeing people try to figure out stuff that you already know, yanno?
• The Literary Underworld is an artist's collective that put out a free bar (tips and buying their stuff is encouraged and appreciated) and I spent a chunk of time there Saturday night. I bought Dreadmire by Elizabeth Donald, described to me as “DnD party in a haunted bayou” which sounds like my shit. I also had a shot of Malort, which is the most vile thing I've ever put in my mouth. It tasted like soap and regret.

Part Four: Sunday

• I got my copy of Scurvy Buggers signed! For those who don't know, Scurvy Buggers is a game about the messy lives of gay pirates, and I cannot recommend it enough. 
• Caught part of a panel on puppetry, during which I learned some stuff about making puppets, though I had to leave before the puppet-making component. A resource the panelist recommended was Puppet Nerd, a channel and site whose operator tragically passed away earlier this month. So if you wanna learn more, I'd recommend checking there.
• My girlfriend was here the last day of the con, and we played Smash Bros. I think I'm a Byleth main now. 

Part Five: Just Call Me A Faggot

This is the part where things get uncomfortable, and content-warning adjacent. 

So, I live in the South, and there are very few spaces where I feel safe and comfy being openly queer, and with my job schedule I can't really go to a lot of them. Even in those spaces, stuff can range from the well-meaning liberal fuckup to “Goddamnit.” (Shoutout to my local board game bar for occupying both ends of the spectrum.)

MidSouthCon is…if you're trans, and planning on going, prepare for shit to suck, because it is a lot of middle-aged cis people. While registering, I was running into some issues and was called “He” and “They”. When I corrected “She,” the gent at registration in the wizard hat said “I don't care” in a casually dismissive tone. During the Werewolf game, I and a friend got repeatedly misgendered by the moderator and some of our fellow players (part of the reason Blood on the Clocktower was so much better is it was a lot more queer friendly as a group). My experience was just permeated with the experience of being called a dude, and, ya know, shit sucks. Like…I'm wearing a motherfucking skirt.

That might have just been me spending more time in the tabletop space, though. The panels I attended were super queer friendly, and the dealer hall was packed to the brim with gay people (or at the very least people selling pride merch, but in the Year of Our Lord 2025 I'll take cynical rainbow capitalism). It just sucks that I have this massive stone around the question “Do I want to come next year?”