I'm going to try and keep this short because it's all so weird, nonsensical, and kind of pointless.
Ok, after Gary Con's decision to go full-mask this year I withdrew my attendance while seeking to run games at TSR Con happening at the exact same time.
I tried my best to ignore the feud between Justin LaNasa and several OSR folks so I could simply focus on a gaming convention without a face diaper. For those curious, I explain how ruinous masks are at a gaming convention here.
Anyway, I noticed that a dozen or more of my posts on Tenkar's Facebook group had a suspicious spam comment directly below. Those replies were identical - doxxing Tenkar from some fake name / account. When asking about it, several people strongly suggested Justin LaNasa behind it.
I asked LaNasa about it in a FB direct message, hoped it wasn't him, but if it was, telling him that kind of thing accomplishes nothing, and that I really don't want to be caught up in the middle of anything.
LaNasa asked if I still wanted to run games at TSR Con because apparently there were many people who could fill my spot if I was going to back out. I said, I wasn't backing out, just wanted to stay out of the drama. He seemed cool with that.
A day or two later, LaNasa messages me out of the blue saying that he re-read what I had written to him and thought I'd be better off not getting involved with TSR Con due to my friendship and/or allegiances to other OSR folks, such as Erik Tenkar, who nu-TSR seems to be at war with.
I said that I can make my own decisions, but if he doesn't want me there that's fine, just say so. LaNasa said it would be best if I came back for the next TSR Con in 2023. "Ok, sounds good" I said. He gave me the thumbs up, and that was that.
Officially, I'm no longer running anything, nor appearing, at TSR Con this March... or probably ever. I mean, who does that? It's all so tiresome and a waste of energy. In the time it took from the first announcement of TSR Con to a couple days ago, I wrote the majority of a new book - Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shadows. One that will certainly go down in the history books of fantasy roleplaying games! Specifically, I spent my free time creating the Cremza'amirikza'am "sexcrawl" megadungeon... something which no one has ever seen before.
So, what is the greatest living Game Master going to do now? Well, the mask mandates are being lifted everywhere because Democrats have seen the polling numbers and realize how screwed they are in November. Perhaps I'll run Cha'alt at one or more friendly local game stores next month? I don't know. Suggestions?
VS
p.s. One place where you won't have to worry about such unnecessary distractions is VENGER CON this July in Madison, WI.
p.p.s. I'm open to interviews if anyone wants to do a back-and-forth email Q&A for their blog. Podcasts and such will have to wait since I already have those time commitments filled for the foreseeable future.
