in which nathan fillion sweeps anne wheaton off her feet

Posted on By Wil

When I finished one of my photo ops in Ottawa, Nathan Fillion was doing one of his in the photo area next to mine. Anne was with me, and I know that she loves him as much as I do, so I grabbed her hand and ran with her into Nathan’s line.

I walked over to Nathan, and said to him, so Anne couldn’t hear, “Would you literally sweep her off her feet?” He laughed and said he would. Then he turned to me and said, “And you stand here, and look sad.”

So I did and this happened:

That's my guy holding my gal!
That’s my guy holding my gal!

My internal dialog at this moment is: “I wish Nathan Fillion would sweep me off my feet.”

Nathan Fillion is as kind and funny and charming and friendly as you think he would be. We’ve sort of become friends, and that makes me so happy; he’s really good people.

the sky above the port

Posted on By Will Hindmarch

This guest post is brought to you by Will Hindmarch, writer and designer of such titles as the one he’s about to tell you about…

A-N-N

You were the best. Underground, cyberpunk street samurai, burglars and breakers, agents of a mysterious spymaster with half a name, zero history, and a plan. He made the missions and you carried them out. You were the go-to crew for high-stakes break-ins, dangerous ops, and impossible escapes. You fought the megacorps, the tyrants, the killers—all for the sake of making a better future, of beating the Technocrats at their own game of shaping tomorrow. You always won, never quit, lived in the now. 

Until, eleven years ago, he disappeared…

Now he’s back—back in trouble—and it’s up to you to save him and maybe, along the way, change the world.

—

Today is the day. Today I debut Always/Never/Now, an all-in-one RPG adventure of futuristic cyberpunk action and intrigue. It’s 100+ pages in PDF format and available at DriveThruRPG right now for the somewhat remarkable price of FREE.

Additional posts and thoughts on A/N/N can be found at always-never-now.tumblr.com.

A/N/N is developed from adventures and characters my friends and I played years ago — and then brought out of retirement for one more mission in 2011. I retrofitted the adventure I wrote for that reunion and playtested it at conventions like Gen Con, Origins, and PAX until it was sharp enough to share. Then I invited artists Steven Sanders, Noah Bradley, and Craig S Grant to make it more handsome.

And today, at last, it’s ready for you to play.

If you find that you dig A/N/N and you’d like to thank me with dollars, please click the donate button on my website.

—Will Hindmarch

they make comments

Posted on By Wil

My friend Mikey is a brilliant writer, one of the kindest humans I’ve ever known, the Lord of Chili, the voice of Scooter, and just an amazing person. My life is better because he is in it, and I want teleporters right now so I can see him every day, since we live in different states.

Mikey also has MS, which is a real bitch of a thing to have. He never complains about it, and doesn’t even talk about it unless I bring it up, but it’s something he deals with.

Yesterday, Mikey made the mistake of looking at some YouTube comments, and got to feel the full-throated cruelty of the Internet Dickwagon Society. Some of these really brave and clever individuals attacked Mikey for having MS, and were just completely horrible human beings. I sincerely hope that they’re just clueless teenagers who haven’t fully developed their empathy yet, and don’t fully understand how cruel and hurtful they were. I hope that, someday, they will grow up and realize how cruel and hurtful they were, and make an effort to apologize and make amends.

So yesterday, when Mikey was getting attacked and hurt by strangers who would, in all likelihood never speak out loud the words they typed on their keyboards, a bunch of us who love him rallied to his side, and supported him. People like Felicia Day, Veronica Belmont, Max Temkin, Anthony Carboni and I reminded Mikey how much we love him, how incredible he is, and how worthless the Internet Hate Machine actually is.

But it was our friend Joel Watson who put into a few simple words the very best way to consider the value of Internet Dickwagons who are shitty to creative people online:

For those of you who can’t see the embed above:

you make games and comics and books. they make comments.This is an important thing to keep in mind, for all creative people in the universe: the very act of creating is courageous. Making art requires empathy and a willingness to be vulnerable and naked before the world. Doing these things on the Internet means you’re exposing yourself to the very best and the very worst our species has to offer. Just remember, when someone is being a terrible monstrous awful cruel human being: you made a thing, and they made a comment.

I know you’ll end up reading this, Mikey: I love you. Team Wheaton loves you. You’re amazing, and since I’m cooler than those Internet Dickwagons, you have to listen to me and not them.

being a nerd is not about what you love; it’s about how you love it.

Posted on By Wil

My weekend at Calgary Expo was just amazing. I didn’t think it could possibly get better than last year, when I got to spend a lot of time with my family from TNG for the first time in decades, but I was wrong. This was one of the most amazing weekends I have ever had at a convention, ever.

I’m still processing things like getting to meet Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey, finding out that they’re lovely people, and then being invited by them — twice — to join them for drinks. I’m still working out the reality that I kind of know Nathan Fillion, and when we see each other, we do things like this.

On Saturday, someone asked me during my panel to sum up my life in five words. I thought about it for a minute and replied: “I hope I never wake up.” (I hyphenated wake-up, even though it’s not technically correct. Don’t tell Andrew.)

So also during my panel, I was asked by a young woman to explain to her newborn daughter, Violet, why it was awesome to be a nerd. As it turns out, I’ve been having that conversation with my sons for their entire lives, so I spoke from the heart and told her.

I’m very lucky in that every now and then, I get to say something and people will listen to me. It’s an incredible gift from the great elder gods that I treasure, and respect, so I do my best to honour it when I get to use it. This video went pseudoviral yesterday while I was traveling home, so I suppose you could say that I got to be Dad of the Internet for a little bit, which is kind of neat.

This morning, reader LN sent me a link to this image, because it has Wesley Crusher holding his Sparks McGee hat. That alone would delight me, but the fact that the image goes so well with my talk on Saturday supports my belief that there really are no coincidences in this version of the timeline.

You'll Be Safe Here, by *dryponder at DevianART
You’ll Be Safe Here, by *dryponder at DevianART

I always tell people that conventions are so wonderful, because you’ll be surrounded by people who love the same things you love, the way you love them. But that’s not entirely correct. You’re also surrounded by people who love things you don’t even know about, but you love your respective things in the same way, so you get to love your thing enthusiastically, completely, unironically, without fear of judgement.

In other words, you’ll be safe there, and I’m so grateful that I get to be part of that.