It Bodes OR Adventures in Discworld: Notes on Discworld events in North America and other Pratchett related news.
Eric P. is a Geordie, and more to the point, a steam-rail hobbyist: he's a bigwig at the Railway Museum...We're in the bar towards the end of the Tempe con, drinking with Terry, and he suddenly turns to Eric and asks "Did you ever have to piss in a headlight", and they were off for about 20 minutes about carbide lamps and their odder elder relatives.Oh, to be a fly on that glass....
Discussion Boards for NADWConNeed Some Costume Ideas?Visit our collection of photos and videos from the last NADWCon.
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| Isn't she lovely? This very Ogg-ish Easter Witch is from a Swedish postcard dated 1911. The cat is a bit more refined than our Greebo and I doubt that Nanny Ogg would be carrying tea (?) but she does look like someone who enjoys a good party. We'd better go before she sings The Hedgehog Song. For more on the folklore of the Swedish Easter Witch, go here. Also, The Sexy Witch blog shows vintage Easter Witch postcards from the 40's on. (The Sexy Witch blog has R rated, adult content - Do not read that one at work!) |
Nanny Sutra
Sex, Food & Discworld
Who doesn’t love a double entendre? ("Bartender, make mine a triple!") Our panel* will include some of the most scandalous minds on the Discworld.**
* Hands-on workshop available through the Seamstress Guild by appointment only.
**consisting of those who are 18 at heart, with at least 32 years of experience, n’cest passe?***
*** That’s foreign for “been there, done that”
There are only two worlds – your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. these worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power; provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters.
- The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman, 1990.
“Imagine an almost instantaneous communication system that would allow people and governments all over the world to send and receive messages about politics, war, illness, and family events. The government has tried and failed to control it, and its revolutionary nature is trumpeted loudly by its backers. The Internet? Nope, the humble telegraph fit this bill way back in the 1800s. “
- from The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage.
Sir Terry (has) PCA (a form of Alzheimer's Disease that first affects motor skill memory). He now finds it difficult to perform motor tasks such as signing...At this time it is still possible that Sir Terry will be capable of signing books at the con, and we are discussing this with him now; but if by the time of the convention he is not able to actually sign books, please be assured that we will do our best to ensure that a nice substitute for that will be provided.
We hope you understand that concessions must be made for Sir Terry's health and condition, and that accommodating our guests as well as our attendees is very important to us.
Thanks!
Emily, Guest Liaison and Convention Advisor, NADWCon2011
"Crivens! Whut aboot us, ye daftie?"
Ever want to run Ankh-Morpork? You’ve got the chance now!See you there,
We are delighted to announce that a prototype of the exciting new Discworld game, Ankh-Morpork, will be available for preview and demonstration at NADWCon2011. Please read on for a message from Martin Wallace of Treefrog Games.
...
Just over a year ago one of my gaming friends suggested Discworld as a possible subject for a board game. This September, that idea will become reality for the gaming public. In the space of a year I have read 99 percent of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, come up with a hopefully decent game, and made a whole bunch of new friends.
The game is set in Ankh-Morpork, which needs no introduction. The background story is that Lord Vetinari has vanished, with no explanation. There is now a power vacuum to be filled, and your aim is to oblige. You will be randomly assigned a secret personality at the beginning of the game, which will tell you what you need to do to win. If you are one of the three lords (Selichii, de Worde, Rust) then you want to take control of a certain number of areas. If you are Dragon King of Arms then you want to cause trouble. If you are Chrysoprase then you want to make money. You could be Lord Vetinari and secretly back in the city, which means you want to get your minions in a certain number of areas. Finally, you could be Vimes and aim to maintain the status quo, i.e. don’t let any other bugger win. The fact that you do not know what other players are aiming to do creates the right amount of paranoia.
The game is built around a deck of cards, which are mostly well known characters from the books. You play a card, do what it says on it, then refill your hand back to five cards. The cards allow you to place minions on the board (the people who will do your dirty work), remove other minions (with assassins) build buildings, earn money, and lots of other stuff. The actions on the cards are tailored to fit the character of the personality they represent, thus CMOT Dibbler may or may not make a profit, the Fire Brigade will not burn your house down for a reasonable sum of money, and Detritus will put a halt to trouble in a forthright manner. The characters you have to be careful about playing are the wizards, as when you do you also have to draw a random event card. There are no ‘good’ random events. The game ends either when a player achieves their victory conditions or the deck of cards runs out (when Vimes will win if he is in play).
This project is the largest one I have ever undertaken, and without the help of an amazing team of people it would still be just an idea. The kind people at the Discworld Emporium (Bernard and Isobel Pearson, Ian Mitchell, and Reb Voyce) have been instrumental in making sure the artwork is spot on. Ian spent over 300 hours producing an incredibly detailed map of the city. To help with the many card illustrations (one hundred and thirty two unique cards) I managed to convince my regular artist, Peter Dennis, to help out. He has kept up an amazing work rate and turned out some absolutely stunning images (which have passed the Sir Terry Pratchett seal of approval). Finally, Paul Kidby has kindly allowed the use of his artwork on the box cover. My own humble contribution to this project has been to do my best to treat the characters created by Sir Terry in as respectful a manner as possible. I wanted to design a game that captured the feel of the city, rather than paste the theme onto a Monopoly variant. Sometime later this year I will find out if I succeeded in this endeavour.
Registration page for NADWCon.
"We're planning a Cripple Mr Onion Tournament on Sunday with smaller practice events on previous days.Would you like to help run some games? Contact Neil Miller, the Volunteer Director at
Discussions are underway for a possible Thud tournament as well."
Got ideas?Thanks for the vote of confidence, folks.
(Insert name of Yours Truly here), of the Seamstress Guild and the Seamstress Guild Party from NADWCon2009, is now hard at work formulating a fun and exciting program of convention events for all to enjoy. As she develops this schedule, she would be happy to hear from any folks who would be interested in putting on or helping to run Discworldian events for convention attendees.
If you are interested in helping with programs, or have a programming idea that you think might be fun to add to the schedule, please contact Denise at programming@nadwcon.org. When contacting Denise, please include your name, preferred contact information, any programming ideas or what help you might like to give, and any skills, background, or experience that might fit you for the role for which you are volunteering (including if you helped out in some manner during the 2009 convention). Our convention is made better by the involvement of our many enthusiastic attendees, and we would love to hear from you if you'd like to get involved!
