GenCon 50

Greetings Warriors and Scribes.

I just got back from the best 4 days of gaming on a significant year. GenCon 50 was amazing. As seen above, the gamers took over Colts stadium for the week. This was in addition to the entire Indiana Convention Center and rooms at adjoining hotels.  I did spend some time helping Nathan Marchand with his table but I also played games and cosplayed. I had many great experiences but here are some of the cream of the crop for you.

Sagrada:

This game is lots of fun. I played 2 rounds of it. Rolling and assigning dice to build stained glass windows with limited options that must be chosen carefully to manipulate the dice. This was a lot of fun and it is not a long game.

Warehouse 13:

This was the biggest excitement for me in terms of gaming this weekend. I loved the SYFY show and this game is a faithful exploration of the world. It has a traitor element that is engineered with a similar feel to Battlestar Galactica, which is very fitting to the show. Sitting and talking with the designers was very fun and they are definitely fans of the show. One guy playing with us has not seen the show but he loved the game. This was a major high point of the convention.

This is a semi cooperative game. Each play through is a season and each round is an episode. Through the game you will find clues to figure out what item is causing issues and work to gather the needed tech, intuition,  etc. to stop the situation. However, someone else is also seeking the items to use against your team and one member is secretly working for them. There is a cooperative version for 2 players.

Watch for this to hit Kickstarter!

Buy the Rights:

This is a fun party game where the players are all pitching the movie ideas for the money to make them. Each round a different person will be the "producer" with 20 million dollars to shell out to the other players. Winner is the person with the most money at the end. You will lay out four cards: Genre, Hero, Descriptor of the hero, and the plot. You can elaborate as much as you want to get the attention of the producer and have some fun.

Christian Gamers Guild Events:

The Christianity and Gaming Panel went well. This was a question driven panel that discussed things like planning game nights for churches, how to handle magic and other "dark" things found in gaming, etc.

The Church Service was great. Tom Vasel preached about slowing down for resting and for time with God. We had a full worship band with drums, electric and acoustic guitar and some a great list of songs. This is always a highlight of GenCon for me and this year did not disappoint.

Cosplay

I cosplayed as a Blue Lantern on Friday and Martian Manhunter for half of Saturday (before I went to a Heroscape tournament). Unfortunately the only Lantern related cosplayers I saw were on different days than when I was a blue lantern.

My Experience at Midwest Media Expo.

Greetings Scholars and Warriors!

This weekend I had the privilege of attending the Midwest Media Expo in Dearborn, MI. This was held a hotel that was recently renamed the Royal Edward Village. This put us close to a mall, which was nice as it meant restaurants were easily available, although I had a rather frustrated stomach so it wasn't much of a food weekend for me.

Gaming!

Overall, it was a good con. They had both a table top gaming room and a video game room and the gaming kept going pretty well. The video game room had a mix of arcade set ups (mostly dance and music related) and consoles which mostly had Smash Brothers playing. I did not see any shooters at all. The table-top room had 3 different groups providing opportunities, including the games library that is found at both Gen Con and Grand Con. There was a secondary table top area upstairs with a couple of miniature game demos and some RPGs.

Yes, that dinosaur is a cosplay, not a prop. He had fun with this.

Cosplay was a significant part of this con. It was fairly varied and a lot of fun. Lots of Rey and Kylo Ren. It even went outside where I found a Jurassic Park jeep driving around with a dinosaur in it.

There was a dealers hall in an L shape so I didn't get a good pic of it, but I did get one of half the dealer hall. The artist alley was in another room and fairly nice. Both had a lot of anime related items but there was also some leather work and comics related items. The on thing missing was prose books. They also had a "main events" room, a room with some community groups like other cons and cosplay groups, and 8 panel rooms.

Nerd Chapel was there in an official capacity. We held a Sunday morning service with 5 people in attendance. I shared a message about coming to Christ from a place of penitence and experiencing the "Word of God made flesh" in this. Indiana Jones was part of this message. Our request for a booth had been turned down but I think it was still a successful weekend.

I got to spend some time talking and praying with Jon from Portal Games. He is a fellow Christian who loves games and is on the worship team at his church. Right now they are kickstarting "Zephyr: Winds of Change". Go check it out!   

Games I played: Sheriff of Nottingham, Fortune and Glory, Dominion and Commissioned. I did not cosplay this con.

Nerd Chapel at Alma Con 2016

Greetings Scholars and Warriors!

I am excited to announce that Nerd Chapel will be attending a new (for us) con this February. We will be at Alma Con at Alma College in Alma, MI. Yes, that was a little repetitive. They must really like the name, "Alma".

We'll have a booth in the artist/vending area and we'll be planning a Sunday morning service for the con as well! The message will be connecting Cosplay with Paul's discussion of putting on the "New Self" in Ephesians 4.

Also, my co-author for 42:Discovering Faith Through Fandom, Mr. Nathan Marchand, will be hanging out at our booth that weekend.

I'll be cosplaying on Sunday as Obi-Wan Kenobi and on Saturday I'm gonna have my Martian Manhunter cosplay for at least part of the day. Hopefully by then I'll have the red eyes going.

Please stop by and say "hi". Keep tuned to the Nerd Chapel FB page for more info.

GR Comic Con 2015

Greetings Warriors and Scholars.

This last weekend I spent the full weekend at Grand Rapids Comic Con. Nerd Chapel did not have any events or a table there as they are not comfortable having a religious group on site but I still went as me to hang out and cosplay and go to panels.


It was a good time. I got to hang out with some friends from different places and even met up with an FFCer I had not met before. (If you are not familiar with Fans for Christ, look them up on Facebook). I had been to GRCC before but only for one day. This was my first time seeing it for the full effect of it.

I was not impressed with the gaming room. I did enjoy the one game they had demoing in it, but I was not impressed with their options for games to check out and play. There were some good games but for a weekend long event they had very few games there. I know, that isn't the strong suit of this con, but if you are going to do something, make it worth doing!

My favorite moment was meeting Tony Amendola. You might recognize him as Master Bra'tak from Stargate SG-1 or as Gipetto in Once Upon a Time. It was exciting to talk with him and attend his panel. I first went to see him Friday and his helper noticed my Christian Gamers Guild shirt. I shared with them a little of what I do and also told them about my book. They were very supportive; to the point where I gave him a copy of it the next day.

Cosplay was very prevalent at this con and there was some amazing stuff.  Here is a taste of it:

Learning from Characters

What characters do you respect? If you were to do a character study for any character in fiction, who would you choose? I'm not talking about learning about the character, but someone you honestly think has something worth while to teach to whoever will listen. Someone who might be a mentor but sets an example.


We do this all the time, you know. What do you think Cosplay is? You pick a character you respect, right? Or at least someone you think you can enjoy. Here are a few characters I respect:

Found at dailymail.co.uk

Obi-Wan Kenobi:
Let's get the obvious one out first. Many of you have seen me cosplay as him. He is responsible, looks after the needs of others, and normally is not afraid to ask for help when he needs it.

Found at en.memory-alpha.wikia.com

 Commander Riker:
Riker is referred to as 'number 1" for many reasons. He is smart, resourceful and most of all loyal. He cares so much for both the Enterprise and Captain Picard as well as Counselor Troi. He stays with the ship long after he could have a command of his own and he doesn't give up on his friends. Ever.

Found at stargate-sg1-solutions.com

Daniel Jackson:
Daniel starts out pretty green. Sneezing around other planets and not very useful in a fight. But he strives for peace. He always seeks the best of the people he meets. Yes, sometimes he gets in trouble for it, but his hatred for slavery and his desire to see people cooperate together has a great effect on SG-1 and he does eventually learn how to fight for others instead of just arguing for them.

Found at uthmag.com

Hiro Nakamura:
Hiro is amazing. My favorite character by far from "Heroes." He has so much fun with his nerdiness as he teleports around space and time. He wants so badly to be a hero and nothing will stop him from stepping out to protect others.

You know who else I respect...Paul the Apostle. Yes, this guy did some bad things. He supported the death and imprisonment of many Christians. Then God decided to change Him. In all his wrongdoing, he wanted nothing more than to be a servant of the Most High God. Jesus, knowing this, brought Him into the fold of his flock to protect, to teach, and to take the message of the cross beyond any place the others would take it. In 1 Corinthians 11 we are challenged to follow Paul AS HE FOLLOWS CHRIST. This sounds rather arrogant, right? "Hey, do what I do!" But, you know what that means, right? That where Paul fell short, where he failed Christ, we should not follow him there. He didn't say to follow him in everything. Just in the places where he sought to follow Jesus example.

There are some people around you that you can learn from. They are not perfect and that is okay. You don't have to learn everything from them. But, in the parts of life where they set an example of Christ, follow that. Listen to the lessons of those pieces of their lifestyles.

Cosplay Photo Contest

Greetings Scholars and Warriors.

Today I get to announce a Cosplay Contest! Yes, there is a prize.

No, the winner will not be determined by fighting over a lightsaber.


This is a cosplay photo contest. So here is the deal. Send a message to the Nerd Chapel Facebook Page with your cosplay photo. Friends must enter separately with different photos. The deadline for this is Thursday, August 27 at midnight.

Here are a few details to consider:

I will combine the pictures into a photo album on the Nerd Chapel FB page that will be up for 1 week. At the end of that week, at a time announced at the posting of the album, the picture with the most likes will win. That person will get a new copy of "42:Discovering Faith through Fandom" shipped to them.

The only "likes" counted will be the ones in the album on the actual page. Likes that only hit the shared copies but not the actual album copy will not be counted. Swimsuits inspired by characters will not be counted except where it is shown that the character has dressed that way.

Please photo shop your name into the upper left hand corner of your photo. Yes, fanpage name is fully acceptable as long as you send the message from that page. This is both to make communication with the winner quicker and it will give the cosplayer proper recognition. 

Cosplaying and Worship

In the last post we considered that Jesus has far more to offer us than we realize. A woman at the well found this out in meeting Him. Now we conclude our look though John 4.

As the woman realizes there is a lot more to this man, she begins to wonder why this Jewish man would come to her little town. "You Jews say we should worship in Jerusalem but our ancestors worshiped on this mountain." Now, this is kind of like board gamers asking "Should we go to Gen Con or Essen?" For others it might be like "Should we go to Dragon Con or Wizard World?" Jesus takes this deeper than a location. 

"...believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is coming and we must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:21-24

This idea of Spirit and Truth is a big one. This means the worship will go beyond sincere to something "corresponding to the nature of its object." (Vincent's Word Studies) The Bible tells us many things about God. He is love. He upholds justice. He hates sin but gives mercy. In order to worship Him, you have to seek after God just like you learn about a character you are cosplaying. 

When you cosplay, you choose a character you love. A character you enjoy reading, watching. Often it is one you find to be a great example of a value that means something to you. Then begins the process of creating or ordering a costume that fits the character. In worship, we see the nature and the values of God and we uplift them. This happens in song, lifestyle, conversation. We tend to only focus on the singing part of worship. But when we vocalize something of the nature of God, whether in private or in a conversation, we are worshiping Him. As a cosplayer you will try to pose and act like the character, but in worship we seek to live a lifestyle that reflects Christ.

So to worship, you need to get to know Him. This is why worship leaders often start with a scripture. As we learn Who God is and reflect on that, worship becomes more meaningful.
 
This weekend (Sept. 19-21, 2014) is GRAND CON! Nerd Chapel is excited to provide a Sunday morning worship experience for those attending the convention at 9am. Come and join us as we discuss "Terraforming the Heart" and as we worship the God we are continuing to learn about.