’Net societies meet in Ropecon 2007

Many RPG societies exist in the Internet in form of web rings, forums and IRC channels. Earlier cons have had sfnet.harrastus.pelit.rooli meetings, and other groups have met as well. One such society — both rpg.net forum and #rpgnet channel — met in Ropecon 2007 on Saturday afternoon.

It wasn’t the first time this group – known in an informal fashion as the ”Finnpack” –had met: the first meeting was in Ropecon 2004. This time, however, was exceptional, as it turned out that we had lured several foreigners in as well. Guests from Great Britain, Lithuania and Sweden graced the meeting with their presence.

The meeting was very jovial and various refreshments were enjoyed: from innocent soda to sinful beer and delightful white wine. Various foods were also consumed, and then the gathering made a major discovery.

Notable archaeological find

One of the gathering members returned from the restaurant’s counter with a remarkable find: a fossilized pizza. A major argument broke out regarding the nature of the find: one-third argued for a pizzarang (a device thrown like a boomerang), another third said that it was sharpened originally and needed a new haft to work like an axe, and the last third guessed that the remains of the ancient pizza was a sacred ritual item used in fertility rituals. An inquiry at the check-out resulted the waitress reaquiring the item, and handing an inferior, soft triangle to hungry con-goer. ConText suspects that she may have been in cahoots with the black-dressed pair of men who showed up earlier after our inquiry regarding the nature of floating objects observed earlier on Saturday morning.

”We’re on a mission from ConText”

One of the ways to get into this famous ’con is to wrap up your sleeves and get to work; you can be a troubleshooter, info worker, or some other slave who actually busts his or her ass while lugging tons of stuff from Ropecon’s storage and sets up the place while whips scours their tender hide, and People Above shout orders. (May or may not be exaggerated for effect. I shall find out as I plan to interview these hard-working grunts.)

OR, you can be a lazy bum with an apt description of ”pencil-necked geek” or ”couch-potato”, and become a ConText worker.  You get to sit on your arse and talk bollocks, interview guests of honor and just be plain lazy.

Or is it so? I shall find out, again.

Let me introduce myself, so you know who to blame when your innocent words are plastered all over ConText blog and printings: I’m Heli Kinnunen, Ropecon veteran (12th time already!), but you may have encountered me in the ’net under another nick, such as Lolth, Darkelf or Skiriki.

For several years I’ve worked in GM Info, arranging tables for players and GMs alike, but this time I decided to go ”easy” and hop to write some stuff for ConText — serious and non-serious text alike. Most of my loopy ravings will be in English, a chunk of interviews as well and the rest should be in Finnish. Use the category tags. The tags are your friends, just like the Computer.

Sweet. I shall ambush innocent and unwary ’con goers in a jiffy. I have a camera, tape recorder, and microphone, and I’m not afraid of using them!

*click* Smile! You’re in ConText camera!