Shared World Design Camp
OR The NoPro Road Goes South
Q. What do Troy Denning, John Wick, Douglas Niles, and Harley Stroh have in common?*
A). Not a damn thing.
B). All but one are brilliant creators in the world of fiction and game design.
C). We’re all being put up in Spartanburg, South Carolina for a week this summer, to teach a classes on shared world design.
D). B & C.
Jeremy Jones of Wofford College is putting together an incredibly cool summer camp for high school students interested in shared world design. The students will study history, biology, religions, and physics during the day, and attend design seminars in the evenings. All for the sole purpose of writing, designing and illustrating their own shared worlds by the end of the week.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Jeremy deserves an award.
I have the great privilege of being one of the teachers, joining such luminaries as .... Douglas Freakin’ Niles.
This is the part where I roll to disbelieve. Douglas Niles. The Douglas Niles. And John Wick? A mere 5 years ago I was saving every post-graduate penny to buy his Legend of the Five Rings rpg books.
Fortunately, I’m not going alone. I called in artillery support from Jeremy “Topo Rex” Simmons, the signature cartographer for the DCC line and co-designer of the Wicked Fantasy Factory adventures. This will also give us the chance to spend some down time together --- Simmons is one of those folks that I keep meaning to see at GenCon, but never manage to spend time with.
I’m still not sure that I’m worthy of the honor (after all, this is still Harley we’re talking about here) but I’m going to do my best to ensure that they get their money’s worth.
Plus, it just sounds like a lot of fun.
So. Give Jeremy Jones a Deathy shout-out, swing by Spartanburg in late July, and say a prayer for me.
//H
*Answer upside down on the bottom of your computer.
13 comments:
Wow, awesome. My only question is this: do I have to be a high school student to participate?
Yay for Jeremy!
He might yet manage to wrangle me along for the ride (not that it would be unwillingly!)--I had a conflict that weekend. But if it clears up . . . well, that's a longshot, but it's possible.
Glad to hear you're going, H! Yet another reason for me to envy your awesomeness. :)
Cheers
Question: Who is Harley Stroh?
Answer: A guy that is way too humble for his own damn good.
Heya Harley! It was great meeting you at GTS! Nice Blog! Now I get to stalk you... Kudos for getting on that teaching team gig thingy! Nothing like warping the minds of the young up close and personal like! :)
Harley -- thanks for the kind words!
Dieter -- you do need to be a high school student, sort of. We're taking students from rising (will be in the fall of 08) 8th through rising 12th.
But the readings in the afternoon and at night are open to the public. Also, there are some murmurings about doing some workshops for older-than-teenage-students. (I almost wrote "adult" workshops, but that is something else altogether, isn't it?)
Erik -- I have been working on sabotaging your conflict. It is slow-going, but I am persistant.
J
Pulling the hexes, eh Jeremy?
Well, we'll see.
But no worries--Harley's worth ten of me. :)
Cheers
Congrats H. Sounds like a crazy opportunity.
J
creepy. i was driving through spartanburg just last week. true story. i got up at the crack of dawn to go to the fry's down in atlanta - 6 and a half hours away. daddy needed his fix of resistors and crazy electriconocial crap you see. so i'm driving driving driving driving driving driving driving and i finallly get down to frys and there's this totally creepy guy there who is pulling the astronaut ice cream out of my cart and making outstanding claims like in space you can just add water to it to make it real ice cream (nice try jerkapotomus - there's not water in space). so after three hours i turn back and start driving back and i drive and drive and drive and drive and hit krystal burger in spartanburg. see, krystal is the white castle of the south, so if you see one, you have to stop. in the drive thru i ask for 'a couple of sliders', which everyone knows are those little tiny burgers because they slide right down. well, everyone short of the lady working the drive thru that day, as she says they don't have any of those. bah! so while she went off to get her doctorate in burgerology, i talked 'em into giving me a couple of the "small krystal burgers in the shape of polygon with four equal sides, four right angles, and parallel opposing sides". yay! euclidean geometry saves the day again!
but yeah, if you have time off, you should totally say so and i'll cruise down and buy you some sliders.
Sweet....Can't wait to see the Saurus, "'cause White Krystal Sliders only come in one size."
//H
I've put in a ticket to our IT help desk because my computer didn't have the answer on it's underside. Until then, I'm going with "C" as my answer. Too cool, H. I luv teaching, and am quite envious. Will you have a syllabus available for all us non-teenagers who wanted to attend? ;)
I've put in a ticket to our IT help desk because my computer didn't have the answer on it's underside.
:) :) :)
//H
Congratulations, Harley! It sounds like it will be a blast. I'd say that someone who works with numerous writers, keeping a clear idea of how everything goes together, is more than qualified to teach on shared worlds. I just wish my kid was in South Carolina so I could get him in on it!
Awesome! I am working the camp as a Resident Assistant and as a Student Teacher. Can't wait to you!
Ben
Ben,
Can't wait to meet you! Also, if you and Jeremy have any Goodman Games DCCs you've been lusting after, let me know and I'll be sure to pack them for trip.
//H
Post a Comment