Conventions & Other Events
I use to go to sci-fi fandom and gaming conventions as often as possible. If I wasn’t going to a convention as an attendee, I was running parts of or the entire convention. I was a very active participant of fandom at one time. It was one of my many obsessions. As time went on, I invested a lot of passion into it and as passion grew, so did my negative emotions when things did not go well. At the same time, Fandom culture has changed a bunch and I don’t feel like an old Gen Xer belongs in it anymore. Gaming conventions were more my thing and I was involved with many, as a participant or a organizer. I also ran gaming rooms for many sci-fi fandom conventions, and did it successfully for several years.
Gaming Cons
MACE Events – MACE is a gaming Cons that started in 1996 by Justus Productions as ROC 96.5. I have been running game for it since 2000. We started MACE West in 2011 in Hickory and moved to Asheville in 2014. We ran MACE East in Wilmington NC, but not successful enough to continue. The last MACE – JeffCon – was 2022 after Jeff Smith passed away.
Other Gaming Cons
- Origins – I reported on Origins 2013 for The Gamer’s Codex.
- GenCon – I attended GenCon 2008 for Gaming Report.com.
Sci-fi Cons
I worked for – Most Sci-fi cons have gaming, so I participate in both kinds of cons as much as I can.
- ConCarolinas – A general sci-fi Con I helped start and ran for a 11 years at various executive levels (2002 until 2012). From 2013 to 2015, I was not involved with it and someone else ran gaming. In 2016, they asked JustUs Productions to run their gaming again. We came up with an agreement that was mutually beneficial while protecting my interests from their toxicity. Unfortunately, that only lasted 3 years and I was once again out in 2020.
- StellarCon – A general sci-fi Con I ran gaming for from 2000 to 2006.
- ConGregate – I briefly ran gaming at this convention but for various reasons, I stopped.
Sci-fi Fandom has become entirely too toxic for God-fearing, Family-loving people like me with values, honor and integrity. Unfortunately, I can’t see myself returning to that cesspool of hatred, intolerance and extreme left-wing agendas.
Convention Timeline
This is as a complete list as I can remember of all the Cons I have been to. Plus through the years, I’ve been to at least four minor Star Trek conventions called Trek-o-Rama in Charlotte, where I remember seeing Gates McFadden, William Shatner, and Marina Sirtis. Additionally I have organized a few Guild Game Days.
| Name | Tags | Location | Start Date | End Date | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon*Con 1989 | Atlanta, Ga. | 1989.10.06 | 1989.10.08 | First convention ever. Made a lasting impression. | |
| MOC 5 | Greenville, SC | 1990.03.23 | 1990.03.25 | Guild ran a "Prisoner" party that was visited by Steve Jackson. It was quite merry |
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| Dragon*Con 1991 | Atlanta, Ga. | 1991.07.12 | 1991.07.14 | Piers Anthony, Betty Page Look-A-like Contest | |
| GuildCon One 1993 | Charlotte, NC | 1993.04.24 | 1993.04.25 | Helped organize a small gaming Con on UNCC campus called GuildCon. It was pretty cool. | |
| Con-Spiracy 1992 | 1-Day | Durham, NC | 1992.??.?? | 1992.??.?? | Accompanied Ken Richardson, friend and room-mate, as a guest. Ken wrote the RPG Reichstar. |
| MOC 7 | Greenville, SC | 1992.03.26 | 1992.03.29 | Guild ran a ReichStar LARP party in the Party Battles. The Nazi flag definitely hurt our chances of winning. | |
| MOC 8 | Greenville, SC | 1993.04.01 | 1993.04.04 | This ones a blurr. We had too much fun at this one. killed too many brain cells. I remember Meeting Bruce Campbell and Patricia Tallman. I remember most of all Bruce hitting on my girlfriend at the time. | |
| Hexacon 1993 | 1-Day | Greensboro, NC | 1993.11.12 | 1993.11.14 | Got my first taste of the SF3 and Greensboro gaming and convention crowd. It was quite fun and I felt quite welcome. This is where I met Jeff Smith for the first time, although it was brief. |
| MOC 9 | Greenville, SC | 1994.03.24 | 1994.03.27 | This one was killer. The last of the great MOC cons. Spice Williams, Patricia Tallman, David Prowess. | |
| HeroesCon 1995 | 1-Day | Charlotte, NC | 1995.06.?? | 1995.06.?? | Good comic con. |
| MOC 10 | Pine Mountain, Ga. | 1995.07.13 | 1995.07.15 | The Con that was also a summer vacation. Nice try, but low turn out. It was great seeing Bruce Boxleitner, Robert Picardo, Chris Potter, and watching one Guilder, Russel Briggs, play in the all-star softball game. | |
| Dragon*Con 1995 | 1-Day | Atlanta, Ga. | 1995.07.13 | 1995.07.16 | We left MOC 10 to spend the last day at DragonCon. We realized we had missed out. |
| MOC 10A | Charlotte, NC | 1996.02.15 | 1996.02.18 | ROC of Ages "Cyber-Goth" Party and Hope....ahhh...Hope. | |
| ROC of Ages | Charlotte, NC | 1996.05.10 | 1996.05.12 | James "Scotty" Doohan, Larry Niven, and the Hubble Space Scientists. Worked with gaming at this Con, and worked hard. It was my foot-in-the-door for working conventions | |
| Dragon*Con 1996 | Atlanta, Ga. | 1996.06.20 | 1996.06.23 | Star Wars: Men-Behind-The-Mask, Richard Hatch, Kevin J. Anderson and the Star Wars Author Panel, great costumes, and always a great dealers room. | |
| Sci-Fi Carolinas | 1-Day | Fort Mill, SC | 1996.09.20 | 1996.09.22 | Men-Behind-The-Mask, and Richard Hatch again. Guild function. |
| ROC '96.5 | High Point, NC | 1996.11.?? | 1996.11.?? | Guild put on a good Star Wars Larp Party. Quite fun all weekend. | |
| Dragon*Con 1997 | Atlanta, Ga. | 1997.06.26 | 1997.06.29 | Morden from Bab5 (can't remember the actor's name), Clive Barker, John Reys-Davies, great costumes, and the biggest dealers room yet. | |
| MACE 1997 | High Point, NC | 1997.11.07 | 1997.11.09, | Great gaming con, gamed and partied with the Greensboro crowd. Quite a lot of fun. | |
| StellarCon 22 | High Point, NC | 1998.03.20 | 1998.03.22 | Tim Zahn, my Star Wars RPG game, and Winston's PJ. | |
| X-Files Expo | Atlanta, Ga | 1998.03.29 | 1998.03.29 | Nick "Krycek" Lea, Steven "Mr X" Williams, "Skinner", and "Langley, the Lone Gunmen" | |
| Phenomicon '98 | 1 Day | High Point, NC | 1998.06.27 | 1998.06.27 | Jason Carter, Lou Ferrigno, and $tuff. |
| HeroesCon 1998 | GM | Charlotte, NC | 1998.07.03 | 1998.07.05 | Worked the new Gaming area. Ran Cthulhu, and met a few people. It was OK. |
| Dragon*Con 1998 | Atlanta, Ga | 1998.09.03 | 1998.09.06 | Good but not great. A little too crammed together. Peter Jurrasik, Jeff Conaway, and quite a few other B5 stars. Little bit of partying with the Con-Tour crowd, and $tuff again. | |
| MACE 1998 | GM | High Point, NC | 1998.11.13 | 1998.11.15 | Highlander: The Phantom Menace LARParty, Gaming all weekend, Babylon 5 CCG tournament. Fun little Con. |
| StellarCon 23 | GM | High Point, NC | 1999.03.19 | 1999.03.21 | Writer Aaron Allston, Gaming and more gaming. Not much else rememberable about this con. |
| Dragon*Con 1999 | Atlanta, Ga. | 1999.07.01 | 1999.07.04 | Great time had by all, biggest DC ever. Well planned out this time, even if it was crammed together again. Kudos to Con Managers. Costume Contest was the best, B5 stars, partying with everyone there. Had a good time. | |
| FanFaire 1999 | Guest | Greenville, SC | 1999.08.13 | 1999.08.15 | From the FanFaire Program: "4:00 PM Getting an Organization Going Want to start an organization? Want to know where to start? Get some inside tips and pointers from two organization gurus: CJ Taylor, chairman of The Game Society and Ron McClung, veteran and active promoter of the UNCC Science Fiction & Fantasy Guild. " VETERAN?? Am I that old? -Ron- |
| MACE 1999 | GM | High Point, NC | 1999.11.05 | 1999.11.07 | DEAD POKEMON PARTY ROCKED!!! A lot of good gaming too. This is where StellarCon AND MACE came to me and asked to run gaming for both their Cons. I was about to start my odyssey into Convention planning and managing. |
| StellarCon 24 | GM | High Point, NC | 2000.02.18 | 2000.02.20 | I was the Gaming Manager/Coordinator this time. From James Fullbright, StellarCon Co-Manager: "I do think Ron McClung gets the award for Best New Member of ConCom, Ever. Personally, I don't recall seeing anyone step in like that, take on what he took on, fight concom for what he wanted and run things as well as he did!" From Andrew Malone: "Bloody right; he did a fantastic job, and his biggest complaint (that I heard) was that he had too many GMs for the space!" From: Sean Martinez, Roundcon . |
| Dragon*Con 2000 | Atlanta, Ga. | 2000.06.29 | 2000.07.02 | A whole new beginning for me - the first DragonCon I went to with out a certain someone. B5 guests were great. Partying, running into old friends, and spending time with special ones. Great costume contest. | |
| Fanfaire 2000 | Greenville, SC | 2000.08.11 | 2000.08.13 | Not a whole lot can be said about this Con, other than it was the last one and there was good reasons for that. | |
| Trinoc*Con 2000 | 1-Day | Durham, NC | 2000.09.29 | 2000.10.01 | Stopped by on Saturday. Great Con for a first year Con. Really good job. |
| MACE 2000 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2000.10.27 | 2000.10.29 | Worked as Gaming Coordinator. Great show. Much gaming - thanks to me, great costume party (ooooooh Tigress... mmmmm), good auction and sold a ton of stuff too. All my hard work paid off in spades. |
| StellarCon 25 | GC, GM | Greensboro, NC | 2001.03.16 | 2001.03.18 | Worked as Gaming Manager. Great time. Increased Gamer turn out! I heard the parties were great (I'm getting old). Even moderated a panel. Overall, a great success in gaming. |
| MACE 2001 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2001.11.09 | 2001.11.11 | Gaming Coordinator. Great year, despite all that has happened in the country. Introduced a Kids Program for MACE, which turned out to be a relative success. Killer, a lot of Gaming, 5th anniversary, and Winston's Party - always fun. |
| StellarCon 26 | GC, GM | Greensboro, NC | 2002.03.15 | 2002.03.17 | Gaming Coordinator. - A week before my wedding, but what I was able to experience was great! I am very encouraged by SC's growth the past few years and hope to continue to experience that growth as we move to High Point next year. |
| ConCarolina 2002 The Prequel | GC, GM, VC | Charlotte, NC | 2002.06.01 | 2002.06.02 | I was roped into being Vice Chair and Gaming Chair for this Con. It turned out to be an awesome success. A lot of fun, a lot of gaming and spent WAAAY too much money. |
| HeroesCon 2002 | 1-Day | Charlotte, NC | 2002.06.14 | 2002.06.16 | Stopped in for a day. It appears that HeroCon is slowly declining in size and quality. |
| Dragon*Con 2002 | Atlanta, Ga. | 2002.08.30 | 2002.09.03 | AWESOME! Yet another new beginning for me - going to DragonCon as a married man and a guy responsible for a child. Thanks to the Star wars LARP guys - Chance Cube - for being so cool. Great events, great Dawn look-a-like, Costumes, and hello to those elevator Voyeurs that got a little show. | |
| MACE 2002 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2002.11.15 | 2002.11.17 | Gaming Coordinator. Stressful but gaming was good. Making big plans for next year. Changes to come. |
| StellarCon 27 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2003.03.14 | 2003.03.16 | Gaming Coordinator again. Gaming went very well. The rest of the Con was subdued but relaxing. |
| ConCarolinas 2003 | GC, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2003.05.30 | 2003.06.01 | Gaming Coordinator & Con Chair. It was a great success, more than we ever planned. I was quite surprised and pleased. But I did discover something - once you are in the lime-light, you make a great target too. Running this Con has put me deeper in the politics of Charlotte gaming than I ever wanted to be, and it doesn't help that one very strong-willed and stubborn person is causing a lot of the problems in Charlotte. This too shall pass. |
| Dragon*Con 2003 | Atlanta, Ga. | 2003.08.29 | 2003.09.01 | Once again, I venture into the mecca of sci-fi fans - that which is known as Dragon*Con. Carolina Con Party - Sunday Night. Awesome PARTY! | |
| mini-mace 2003 | GC, GM | Greensboro, NC | 2003.09.20 | 2003.09.20 | A lot better than expected, but there were a few things left to be desired, like better food, service, etc. Gaming was good, but I have to sometimes keep my ideas to myself (never get the one group to play two games at once) |
| MACE 2003 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2003.11.14 | 2003.11.16 | What can I say? Absolutely outstanding! An absolute TON of gaming. Online pre-registration was the key to getting some of these games played. Awesome! |
| StellarCon 28 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2004.03.19 | 2004.03.21 | This year was somewhat of a disappointment for gaming, although everyone else had fun. Gaming attendance was down due to a silly LARP boycott. |
| ConCarolinas 2004 | GC, GM, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2004.06.04 | 2004.06.06 | Con Chair one more time. It was a reasonably good success. Everyone had fun that I talked too. I tried to make myself a little more out in front when I probably shouldn't have, and we got close to 650 attendees. Gaming was slightly disappointing, but I hope that will change as I adjust. Handing over the Chairmanship to Jonathan. |
| MACE 2004 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2004.11.12 | 2004.11.14 | Gaming Coordinator again. Great fun. What was most notable about this con was a lot of different games were played. Our attendance was down a little, but a much more variety of games were played and most everyone went away fulfilled. |
| mini-mace 2005 | GC, GM | Winston-Salem, NC | 2005.01.08 | 2005.01.08 | Gaming Coordinator - I was shocked at the success of this event. Lots of gaming in an environment that I didn't think would be good. It all turned out really well. |
| StellarCon 29 | GC, GM | Greensboro, NC | 2005.03.11 | 2005.03.13 | Gaming Coordinator - Very happy with the way gaming went at StellarCon. I got more gaming in than I have in a long while. I was quite satisfied with that weekend. |
| ConCarolinas 2005 | GC, GM, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2005.06.03 | 2005.06.05 | Con Chair and Gaming Coordinator (among other things) - Went very well! ConCarolinas is starting to really come into its own. Ken Foree, David Franklin, Kane Hodder all were great (but expensive) All the guests were great on their own levels. I was too close to the inner workings and the little SNAFUs that few saw really bothered me to the point of just about ruining my weekend. I still had fun - ran a game of Farscape that was a blast, and had a lot of fun with the wife and many close friends. |
| Dragon*Con 2005 | Atlanta, GA | 2005.09.02 | 2005.09.5 | AWESOME! Another DragonCon. I really thought we wouldn't pull it off, but we did. Highlights... Disappointed in the dealers room and gaming choices; Firefly guests, Stargate guests, and the "Bare-as-you-dare" costume contest. Overall, had a lot of fun, and it was well worth it. Taylor at 15 months old enjoyed it a lot. She made it even more fun. | |
| MACE 2005 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2005.11.11 | 2005.11.13 | Gaming Coordinator... WAS AWESOME! Best Year for MACE yet. Record breaking year! |
| StellarCon 30 | GC, GM | Greensboro, NC | 2006.02.17 | 2006.02.19 | Gaming Coordinator for the last time. Gaming did not have the turnout we had last year. I was very disappointed in that. But the fan turnout was amazing and got to talk with a lot of friends and promote ConCarolinas a lot. |
| mini-mace 2006 | GC, GM | Winston-Salem, NC | 2006.04.01 | 2006.04.01 | Gaming Coordinator. This continues to be a very cool event even though its in a strange place. It's weird to game in a public place like this (Golden Coral). |
| ConCarolinas 2006 | GC, GM, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2006.06.02 | 2006.06.04, | Con Chair one last time. Great Success! Tony Amedola, SG LARP and just a fun weekend. |
| HeroesCon 2006 | 1-Day | Charlotte, NC | 2006.06.30 | 2006.07.02 | Stopped by to get JMS's autograph. |
| MACE 2006 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2006.11.10 | 2006.11.12 | AWESOME!! 10th anniversary of MACE (counting ROC 96.5)! SG LARP (despite late players), both my games made. MANY other games made. About 450 people. Good friends and fun times. I even stay sober the entire weekend. Thanks to my lovely wife for her patience, love and support this year. Of course, I was the Gaming Coordinator again. |
| mini-mace 2007 | GC, GM | Golden Corral, Winston-Salem, NC | 2007.01.27 | 2007.01.27 | Gaming Coordinator. This went way better than anyone every thought it would. This event continues to have life. I ran Arkham Horror with the expansion (and we WON!) and A&A Battle of the Bulge. Very good gaming day. My only complaint was that I turned out to be the ONLY non-RPGA RPG game master and I wasn't really up for running. The rest cancelled. I just want to MORE RPG GMs. |
| StellarCon 31 | Guest | High Point, NC | 2007.03.09 | 2007.03.11 | I was the Fan Guest of Honor. Oh boy! Three people had to say no before they got to me, but I still had fun. Call of Cthulhu Game, ConCarolinas party, hanging with Davey and Rich. Sorry my wife was not feeling well... being pregnant and all. |
| ConCarolinas 2007 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2007.06.01 | 2007.06.03 | I finally was able to shed most of the Con Chair role and just do gaming. I also helped with Guest services. I ACTUALLY HAD FUN and was not grumpy. This con simply gets better and better. We are finally coming into our own. Thanks to Tony for taking some of the weight off my shoulders. |
| Trinoc*Con 2007 | 1-Day | Raleigh, NC | 2007.08.03 | 2007.08.05 | Went for the day. Saw George R R Martin and sometimes it's better off not meeting the author and just reading the books. Trinoc*con is a con in decline and it is very sad to see. Gaming was all but non-existent. NO 'A Game of Thrones' at a con with George RR Martin. The only panels that actually got a decent about of people were the George panels. Attendance was very sad. I will not be attending this con ever again. |
| Dragon*Con 2007 | Atlanta, Ga | 2007.08.31 | 2007.09.03 | Bound for Atlanta one more time. In the parade with all the rest of the SG group. It was awesome. I really am beginning to feel like D*C has outgrown the three hotels it is in and needs to move to a convention center of some kind. Claudia Black was very cool to see (and pregnant again!). All the rest of the SG group was awesome to see. What can be said other than AWESOME again. Always an incredible time. (2023 update: This turned out to be my last DragonCon. It has priced our families completely and I think they did it on purpose) |
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| MACE 2007 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2007.11.16 | 2007.11.18 | Gaming Coordinator again. Biggest and most diverse schedule ever! See my report in my Blog, but it was the best year ever. Stargate RPG and LARP, lots of other gaming, and the auction was fun. |
| mini-mace 2008 | GC, GM | Golden Corral | 2008.01.26 | 2008.01.26 | Good way to kick off the year. Good game day, once again! |
| StellarCon 32/Deep South Con 46 | GM | High Point, NC | 2008.03.14 | 2008.03.16 | Hanging out at the fandom tables, chatting with friends, game did not make, and the DeepSouthCon party! We got the DSC bid!! CC2010 is Deep South Con 48!! We got Deep South Con! Whoo Hoo!! |
| ConCarolinas 2008 | GC, GM, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2008.05.30 | 2008.06.01 | The con itself was GREAT! It was a blast for everyone. Biggest ever! Broke records all over the place. Programming was constantly busy. The fans turned out big time. Gamers did too, mostly on the non-RPGA side. For me personally, it was pretty good but I would have done a few things differently. The SG LARP went OK but not as good as I had hoped. My table top was good and I had fun playing a new board game. |
| GenCon 2008 | GM | Indianapolis, IN | 2008.08.13 | 2008.08.17 | My first trip. Played some games, ran some games and bought some games. Worked as Press for GamingReport.com, interviewed people and demo'ed a lot of games. It was absolutely a blast. I would go back in a heartbeat. Expensive, though. Indy is a great city! |
| mini-mace 2008 II: The Second Helping | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2008.09.20 | 2008.09.20 | Had fun. Played 3 games, 2 of them were for the first time. Battlestar Galactica Board game, Shadows over Camelot, and Race for the Galaxy. |
| MACE 2008 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2008.11.07 | 2008.11.9 | |
| ConCarolinas 2009 | GC, GM, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2009.05.29 | 2009.05.31 | ConCarolinas 2009 was incredible. I worked my butt off but it paid off. The whole con staff worked hard. I have never put so much into a con. 1000+ in attendance. Gaming was great. Katherine Kurtz, Doc Travis, Anthony Forrest, Brandon Stacy, and Charles Root all were great guests and really pulled them in. Incredible]! The best ever! AWESOME! |
| mini-mace 2009 | GC, GM | Winston-Salem, NC | 2009.01.31 | 2009.01.31 | Good gaming and good food. Played Battlestar Galactica and True20 Zombie game. |
| MACE 2009 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2009.11.06 | 2009.11.08, | Absolutely AWESOME! 500 people, gaming non-stop and big kudos from some pros and other people that said in any areas we were better than origins. Fantastic time Best year ever! |
| mini-mace 2010 | GC, GM | Winston-Salem, NC | 2010.01.23 | 2010.01.23 | Went pretty well considering we had no major tournament. 55 or so people playing board games all over the place. I marshalled two but next time, I am playing. |
| ConCarolinas 2010 / DeepSouthCon 48 | GC, GM, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2010.06.04 | 2010.06.06 | Largest CC and DSC ever. 1350 people, roughly, but many of them were one day passes on Fri or Sat, so it did not feel crowded. Awesome moments at the Phoenix/Rebel Awards, Jerry Pournelle's speech, the massive auction, Church Service and meeting Mr. Kely McClung. I think I can call this the pinnacle of my fandom career. Richard Hatch, and Claudia Christian, were also there. The best DSC ever! |
| MACE 2010 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2010.11.12 | 2010.11.14 | One of the best yet. About the same attendance as last year, but it still seemed more crowded. Used the restaurant as open board gaming for the first time. HUGE hit. SCARAB guys helped out and were great! |
| mini-mace 2011 | GC, GM | Winston-Salem, NC | 2011.01.29 | 2011.01.29 | Largest mini-mace ever! 83 people! Played lots of Zombie stuff. |
| SCARAB 2011 | Columbia SC | 2011.01.14 | 2011.01.16 | Pretty cool first time con. Great Staff, lots of potential! | |
| MACE West 2011 | GC, GM | Hickory, NC | 2011.03.25 | 2011.03.27 | MACE cornhole aka MACEhole. Tried out my new ticket system with reasonable success. 130 people, which is not bad for a first year. Good time and good grassroots gaming. |
| ConCarolinas 2011 | GC, GM, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2011.06.03 | 2011.06.05 | Another MACEhole cornhole tournament, great guests - John Billingsley and his wife Bonita Friederick, David Lawrence (Heroes) and Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary). 1335 people during a very bad economic year. Great guests, great concom, great turn out, great con! Not bad. |
| MACE 2011 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2011.11.11 | 2011.11.13 | Final MACE in High Point, goodbye Best Western. Good numbers and had a great time! Ran Zombie State and d6 Adventure game that was a blast (literally). I was disappointed that the Cornhole tournament did not happen. |
| SCARAB 2012 | Columbia, SC | 2012.01.13 | 2012.01.16 | I had a really good time at a small con. . Played Savage Worlds, Posthumous Z, and Dungeon Twister. All AWESOME games! | |
| mini-mace 2012 | GC, GM | Winston-Salem, NC | 2012.01.28 | 2012.01.28 | Modest turnout in a down economy, 45 people, counts as an average year. Played Battleship Galaxies, and Mansions of Madness. |
| MACE West 2012 | GC, GM | Hickory, NC | 2012.03.29 | 2012.0401 | Had a great time. Did a lot of gaming! Played Talisman, Fortress America, and Call of Cthulhu! Real proud how this con is evolving. |
| ConCarolinas 2012
| GC, GM, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2012.06.01 | 2012.06.03 | A lot went right and a lot went wrong. Controlled chaos. Adapting to other people's poor planning and disappointing volunteer help. Biggest CC yet - 1400+ people. We are quickly growing out of this hotel. This was my last CC. My wife and I resigned from the committee and I have revoked any and all support I gave them. I will have nothing to do with this convention from now on. I see it as a very toxic environment and a place I do not want my family to be at. As far as I am concerned, this marked the beginning of the death of my fandom, thus the skull and crossbones. [sqlvar]select CONCAT("",RonRateTitle,": (", DATE_FORMAT(created, "%M %d %Y"), ") ", RonRateComments ) FROM wp_tblronratelist where RonRateID=285;[/sqlvar] |
| HeroesCon 2012 | 1 Day | Charlotte, NC | 2012.06.22 | 2012.06.24 | Took my two oldest to the con for the first time, for an afternoon. Just wondered about and took pics with costumes. |
| MACE 2012 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2012.11.02 | 2012.11.04 | AWESOME! Best MACE ever! Lots of gaming! Lots of fun! The move to Charlotte was a success! |
| SCARAB 2013 | Columbia, SC | 2013.01.18 | 2013.01.21 | Fun con where Jeff and I go to play. Did a little gaming but also talked a lot of con shop talk with the SCARAB, Stormcon and Gnomecon folks. With the big RoundCon announcement, it kind of put us in the middle of it all. Great people like Matt C. and 4DS, the great guys of Stormcon, and of course SCARAB. | |
| Mysticon 2013 | Roanoke, Va | 2013.02.22 | 2013.02.24 | First time at a Virginia con, and it was fun. They are all not that much different up there. Good con, a little crowded bit only because they had Peter Davidson (Dr. Who, 5th Doctor), Orson Scott Card, and Larry Elmore. Incredible line up. | |
| MACE West 2013 | GC, GM | Hickory, NC | 2013.04.05 | 2013.04.07 | Great con, once again. Ran Call of Cthulhu and bought Zombicide and Spartacus. Highlight was playing Spartacus. But it has struggling. Virtually no growth in 3 years. We need 50+ more people and we would be fine. |
| Origins 2013 | Columbus, OH | 2013.06.12 | 2013.06.16 | Great Fortress America game. Great Game of Thrones game. Vendor hall was awesome. Working The Gamer's Codex for the first time. | |
| HeroesCon 2013 | 1-Day | Charlotte, NC | 2013.06.07 | 2013.06.09 | Took my son and did about the same thing as last year - wandered about, took some pics. I am glad they opened it up again to a larger space. |
| StormCon 2013 | GM | Summerville, SC | 2013.07.12 | 2013.07.14 | Great weekend of gaming with some great people. Great Games! My CoC and GoT were awesome! |
| RoundCon 2013 | GC, GM | Columbia, SC | 2013.08.02 | 2013.08.04 | JustUs was asked to do gaming at this con. It has been a con I have been wanting to go to but always had trouble finding the time. Perhaps if I had gone sooner, gaming could have been salvaged quicker. Now I have a up-hill battle to recover gaming after some serious damage done by silly regional politics. Overall, it was a good experience. I spent most of the weekend proving what JustUs can do for gaming and networking with those that can help do it better. It was a exhausting weekend for me because of the schmoozing but I am very hopeful for a better year next year. This year, Saturday impressed me the most. We did look busy despite the lack of games I had on the schedule. It was a good weekend and I came up very satisfied with the result. Review |
| Charticon 2013 | 1 Day | Charlotte, NC | 2013.08.09 | 2013.08.11 | Stopped by for a day. A small Transformers con convention. I attended for about an hour (yes, I paid a full day to be there for an hour). I wanted to support locals cons while at the same time bond with my son. He had a great time. It has a lot of potential for those that are transformers fans. It is a niche market in fandom so I am not sure how far it is going to go, but if the movies continue to do well, maybe it can ride that surge. |
| MACE 2013 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2013.11.15 | 2013.11.17 | Blew the doors out! New record of attendance and I was very proud of how smooth the con ran. [Full Review |
| mini-mace 2014 | GC, GM | Kernersville, NC | 2014.01.25 | 2014.01.25 | New venue, great location. Played one game of Spartacus (probably not the best game to play in a church) and had to leave. Had a great time. |
| MACE West 2014 | GC, GM | Asheville, NC | 2014.03.21 | 2014.03.23 | Incredible Weekend up in Asheville. Tons of gaming and had a blast. Asheville folks were incredibly welcoming [Full Review |
| RavenCon 2014 | GM | Richmond, Va | 2014.04.25 | 2014.04.27 | Good literary con with a little gaming. Well organized on the sci-fi side, just wished they had that kind of quality on the gaming side. This con is on the verge of having a decent gaming track but needs more coordination and preregistration for everything. [Review] [Follow Up |
| StormCon 2014 | GM | Charleston, SC | 2014.06.20 | 2014.06.22 | Great gaming con, great atmosphere and great energy. Ran Savage Worlds Achtung! Cthulhu and played in a variety of other games. |
| ConGregate 2014 | GM | Winston-Salem, NC | 2014.07.11 | 2014.07.13 | Good start. Gaming was thin but we are building a good foundation. Saw a ton of old faces I had not seen in a while and met a few new ones. The fandom side wnt really well and that can only mean good things for the con. Great job. |
| MACE 2014 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2014.11.07 | 2014.11.09 | Brought back Con Killer, played a lot of D&D 5 and also Achtung Cthulhu! Attendance continues to go up! |
| mini-mace 2015 | GC, GM | Kernersville, NC | 2015.01.24 | 2015.01.24 | Second time at the Church venue. Played one round of Eldritch Horror and one game of Shadows over Camelot. Good times. |
| MACE West 2015 | GC, GM | Asheville, NC | 2015.03.20 | 2015.03.22 | Incredible Weekend up in Asheville, once again. Tons of gaming and had a blast. We are already outgrowing some of our space. Incredible. On the flip side, personally it was a very difficult weekend with a death in the family, missing the Pinewood Derby my son did so well at, and my general emotional state as a result of all that. Said some things I regret. 3 years, and I still can't get over the betrayal. |
| Club MACE 2015 | GM | Nassau, The Grand Turks and Half Moon Key. | 2015.06.20 | 2015.06.27 | Not really a con but a cruise with con people. We did game some but it was more a vacation for my wife and I. We had a blast! |
| ConGregate 2015 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2015.07.10 | 2015.07.12 | It was nice to return to the old hotel. Good experience, over all. gaming was a little slow but I hope it will grow. Got to play I Spy, Battle for Oz, Dead of Winter. |
| MACE 2015 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2015.11.13 | 2015.11.15 | Another big year. Took OGRe to the next level and allowed people to register onsite through it. Ran Fortress America and played some Savage Worlds. |
| MACE East 2016 | GC, GM | Wilmington, NC | 2016.01.08 | 2016.01.10 | Ran Savage Worlds and Call of Cthulhu 7. Had a blast, although turn out was light. One and done convention in Wilmington. The hotel was too expensive. We may look elsewhere. |
| MACE West 2016 | GC, GM | Asheville, NC | 2016.03.18 | 2016.03.20 | Ran Call of Cthulhu 7e, The Last Parsec and Battle for Oz. Fun had by all. Best year yet! |
| ConCarolinas 2016 | GC, GM | Concord, NC | 2016.06.03 | 2016.06.05 | This marks my return to something I said I would never support again. At least not for free. And that is what I am doing. I return because they are paying me. Rebuilding gaming after 3 years with somebody else. Ran Call of Cthulhu, Fortress America, Cosmic Encounters and played two games of Cthulhu Wars. I had fun! |
| ConGregate 2016 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2016.07.15 | 2016.07.17 | Unfortunately, every year I do this convention, I am more and more disappointed in the turn out for gaming. I am definitely doing something wrong here. |
| MACE 2016 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2016.11.11 | 2016.11.13 | Great 20th Anniversary Celebration. Ran 4 games and had a great time. |
| mini-mace 2017 | GC, GM | Kernersville, NC | 2017.01.28 | 2017.01.28 | Ran 2 games, had a great turn out. Largest ever. |
| MACE West 2017 | GC, GM | Asheville, NC | 2017.03.24 | 2017.03.26 | Ran Savage Worlds, and a couple of board games. Very satisfying weekend of gaming. |
| ConCarolinas 2017 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2017.06.02 | 2017.06.04 | Gaming Coordinator through JustUs Productions. In part because of smaller space, but also in part because of our hard work, gaming was really full and a success. Had a great time, although I am not sure the fandom side did because I all heard were complaints from those guests. |
| ConGregate 2017 / DeepSouthCon 55 | GC, GM | High Point, NC | 2017.07.14 | 2017.07.16 | |
| MACE 2017 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2017.11.10 | 2017.11.12 | 21st annual and it was a lot of fun. had to make room for the Dolphins on Sunday (Monday night game with the Panthers) which cased stress. There were a lot of ups and a few downs. We were down in attendance but after 21 years, you can't always go up. It'was awesome meeting DM Scotty! |
| MACE West 2018 | GC, GM | Asheville, NC | 2018.03.09 | 2018.03.11 | Awesome as always. DM Scotty and his game! Awesome! Then DM Scotty with family in my game! Even more awesome! |
| ConCarolinas 2018 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2018.06.01 | 2018.06.03 | Flash Gordon session. Had a blast. Lots of Fireworks and in the end, chicken came home to roost. |
| MACE 2018 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2018.11.09 | 2018.11.09 | Thursday night Flash Gordon with the Crafters. All the Crafting! Awesome!
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| MACE West 2019 | GC, GM | Asheville, NC | 2019.03.01 | 2019.03.03 | More DM Scotty, Miniature Mash Up Dave, and awesome games. |
| ConCarolinas 2019 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2019.05.31 | 2019.06.02 | Flash Gordon, Call of Cthulhu and a lot of fun. The old CC seemed to come back. And I won the Rebel and the Rubble award, as a thank you for all my hard work (and mistakes) in the past. |
| MACE 2019 | GC, GM | Charlotte, NC | 2019.11.08 | 2019.11.10 | Thursday night Call of Cthulhu with the Crafters, Savage Reich Star series 2, part 1 and 2 both went well. Best year ever! |
| mini-mace 2020 | GC, GM | Kernersville, NC | 2020.01.25 | 2017.01.28 | Ran two Call of Cthulhu - one in World War II session and one on the moon. Quite fun. |
| MACE West 2020 | GC, GM | Asheville, NC | 2020.02.28 | 2020.03.01 | DM Scotty's game Thursday night and Reich Star series 2, part 2 and 3. Part three went down a very surprising road but fun. Went to bed after 3 am each night. Too old for this. |
| MACE 2020* | GC | Charlotte, NC | 2020.11.13 | 2020.11.15 | COVID Version of MACE. I organized it but did not attend. NOt a ton of people showed but those that did apparently had fun. |
| MACE 2021 | GC,GM | Charlotte, NC | 2021.11.12 | 2021.11.14 | Incredible! It felt so good to be back. It's like 2020 didn't happen. Well, almost. Crafting contest - won Best Story. Alien RPG and Savage Reich Star. All great games. |
| MACE West 2022 | GC,GM | Asheville, NC | 2022.03.11 | 2022.03.13 | It's over. The final one. Had a good time. Maybe a new group will take over the time slot but MACE and MACE West in name are over. RIP Jeff Smith.
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| JeffCon, The Final MACE | GM, GC, CC | Charlotte, NC | 2022.11.11 | 2022.11.13 | And that is it. The MACE Series of Cons is over. #forjeff. An amazing ending to his legacy. I had some struggles but I got through it. I think he would be proud of it overall. |
| Mythic Con West 2023 | GM, GC | Asheville, NC | 2023.03.10 | 2023.03.12 | Very different convention for me. Very relaxing and two great games!! |
| Mythic Con West 2024 | GM, Staff | Asheville, NC | 2024.03.01 | 2024.03.03 | Great weekend, 3 games - Savage SF, Savage BS, and Savage 80s |
| RenFest ConQuest 2024 | Staff | Concord/Huntersville, NC | 2024.10.12 | 2024.10.13 | This was a unique opportunity for me to bring everyone together, mends some fences and rebuild bridges, giving everyone a chance to get exposure at one of the biggest fandom friendly events in the area - RenFest. I got GMs from several difference sources including my own son and scheduled a total of 20 games for the weekend, all of which went well. It was amazing! |
| Mythic Con 2024 | GM | Charlotte, NC | 2024.11.08 | 2024.11.10 | I did a ton of work on the schedule, coached them through a major miniature game event, as well as scrambled to fit in another special event last minute. This was also the year I planned the Renfest game event. I still got it! I ran 3 games and all were full and were great!! |
Awards
- 2019 Rebel Award Winner – In 2019, at ConCarolinas 2019/DeepSouthCon 57, Jeff Smith (JustUs Productions) and I were jointly given the Rebel Award. The Rebel Award is a lifetime achievement award for a science fiction fan who has done a great deal for Southern Fandom. They gave it to Jeff Smith (JustUs Productions) and myself. Between me and Jeff, we have been involved with almost 100 cons, not all gaming MACE events. Many of them were in fact fandom events, although those giving us the award probably did not know that. I suppose they saw the body of work that they knew of, between the both of us and gave it to us.
- 2019 Rubble Award Winner – The Rubble award is given to the person who has done the most *to* southern fandom in the past year. This is intended to be less an honor and more of a ribbing but good-natured. The Rubble is not an officially-sponsored award and some cons don’t even do it. I didn’t when I was 2010 con chair. According to the staff who I talked to later, I got that because it’s my fault for bringing a certain person that nearly bankrupted the con, into the committee in the first place.
Additionally, I have won:
- MACE 2021 Best Story Craft in the Dollarstore Crafting Contest
Fandom & Gaming Community
The UNCC Guild- I help get the Guild to where it is today, but I didn’t help “start” it. The Guild is now over 15 years old and holds gaming of all kinds every Friday, Saturday and Sunday on UNCC campus. I also help start the John D Reavis Hammer of Thor Scholarship fund that awards a Guild student $1000 for tuition each year.
Through the years, I was involved with other fledgling clubs include a gaming club in Gastonia, a sci-fi and gaming club in Winthrop, as well as several online groups, meetups and meeting lists. By now, they are too numerous to mention. But over the years, I tried to use my passion for sci-fi and gaming to grow the community where I could. I can’t say I was solely responsible, but I would like to take some of the credit for state of Charlotte fandom is now – in addition to the long running HeroesCon (which I had nothing to do with), we now have 1 major sci-fi con, a few anime cons, as well as a college sci-fi club and a community sci-fi club that continue to thrive. While I may not be totally responsible for this, I am somewhere in that foundation because when I got here, sci-fi and gaming fandom was dead in Charlotte.
Getting too old for this
Unfortunately, like everything in life, things grow old and stale. And sometimes mold and mildew, disease and pestilence spoils the beauty of things. Fandom as well as the gaming community have grown to be a cesspool of anger and hate at a time when this country has grown more and more divided. I hate that it has gotten to this as I used gaming and fandom to escape such things. Instead the bullies and generally ugly people have come to something I have put so much time into.
Since 2012, I have focused strongly on gaming conventions and gaming at sci-fi cons. I have no desire to be involved with organizing fandom events anymore. Since 2020, that which infested fandom has now reached gaming, much to my disappointment. I had hopes that it would stay out of our little corner of fandom but I was wrong. My time organizing for conventions is constantly evolving. I have yet to find a real reason to stop but at some point I know I will have to.
In 2022, my best friend Jeff – my team mate in all the MACE events – passed away. It has broken me. It has affected not only my passion for conventions but also gaming. I miss you brother. I am trying to do more writing and stay involved with gaming in that way but it’s a struggle. I am slowly handing over my skills to others – Mythic Con – so I can move on from Conventions.