Pagerunner

Yeah green Arcanum.

Yes, @Steeldancer got three hours of the signing line and a half hour of public Q&A. Hasn't been processed in Arcanum, yet.

Turns out there was a recorder yesterday. @MangoMongo, you may wanna head over and take a listen to your audio; there was a bit of background noise, so you may be able to make out some parts that were difficult to hear. WoBs are going to be coming up here as they get transcribed: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/475-fanx-2021/ Anyone who wants to help transcribe, you can keep up to date with all new audio as it gets added here: https://wob.coppermind.net/todo/

Here's the Arcanum event for this year's FanX. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/475-fanx-2021/ Anyone who gets audio can upload it there, anyone who gets WoBs can add them directly to the event, and if anyone sees any reports on Reddit you can feel free to add them to the event as well (or tag me in the comments, u/Pagerunner17, and I'll make sure it gets in).

Oh, man, now to see if I can edit my original post's Wit-isms to actually work... EDIT: Through much trial, I think I got them both working. But not without some help from the good old internet: https://wordmaker.info/result.php This format works really well in Stormlight, with the symmetry. I'm gonna have to try to work it into a Livestream question or a book personalization question...

Brandon's latest YouTube update has his FanX schedule: Thursday 6:00 PM, "Writing a Successful Series in Science Fiction and Fantasy." Location: 250A 7:00 PM, Signing. Location: Booth 1518. Friday 1:00 PM, "Writers of the Future: Learn How to Engage Readers." Location: 355B. 3:00 PM, "Intentionally Blank; The Brandon and Dan Podcast." Location: 250A. 6:00 PM, Signing. Location: Booth 1518. Saturday 4:00 PM, "Brandon Sanderson Spotlight Panel." Location: 250A. 5:00 PM, Signing. Location: Booth 1518. Signing lines would be good to drop a recorder down, if anybody has them. I expect Brandon's team will be recording the Spotlight panel, but it wouldn't hurt to have that recorded as well off a phone in the room, since Dragonsteel usually takes a little bit to get their recordings up.

In Brandon's latest livestream, he clued us in that Wit's doing more than alliteration in his conversation with Jasnah: So I went and collected what he said in that passage: I didn't look up any other passages he may have used this in; I don't think it's a full-fledged form of poetry, just some awkward constraints he placed on himself. Anyone else can feel free to look for alliteration in his other Stormlight passages, which would be an obvious clue. But how else has he constrained himself? The word to look at will be "Indeedy," where he had to make up a new word to fit whatever pattern this was. At first, I thought it was that he had to fit a certain number of syllables. But I couldn't see a pattern; they go 2-1-2, 1-1-1, 2-1-2, 2-1-1-4-1 (for the one with five words, which I'll dig into more later), 6-2-3, and 1-1-3 (on poised, ploy, paranoid; which is the one he snuck past Jasnah). I looked for symmetry, addition, multiplication, and couldn't see any pattern to number of syllables. Which then pointed me at letters. The first and the last word of his triads also end with the same letter. Soulless/slumbers, rat/rust, seasons/stories, stress/sounds (I think "somehow" and "said" are just Wit intentionally muddling the water with extra s-words"), inappropriately/indeedy (which was why he needed to add the extra "y"), and poised/paranoid. EDIT: With the additional clarifications added below, I had to revise the post title, since it didn't actually. I'd definitely be derelict to be in denial of its difficulty.

Probably for the best. From the Code of Conduct:

Great job digging that up! Looks like only 150 people will be able to get in the traditional "signing line," selected randomly through a lottery. (Edit: 150 tickets, 2 people per ticket, so up to 300.) There were, like, 2000 people at the last release party, so those odds aren't too good. It might be better to book a last-minute trip to FanX, for those whose goal is to meet Brandon.

Signing line tickets available at Booth 1518.

In the past, he's done multiple signings over the course of the weekend, and you are allowed to bring your own books to get signed. Depending on the venue, there's often a limit on how many you can get signed at one time, but if you have a lot you can usually wait until the end of a line and get a bunch done after everyone else has gone through.

Well, this event is less than a month away; is anybody going to be going who could drop a recorder or a phone on Brandon's signing table? No details yet on the website as to when exactly it would be, though.

I think it's a good idea to keep this one; there are a few WoBs it hasn't been applied to. (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/201-words-of-radiance-los-angeles-signing/#e4441 and https://wob.coppermind.net/events/361-skyward-pre-release-ama/#e11415). It's often been conflated with the hide-and-survive Shard despite the WoR tour WoB, and though I happen to agree with that view, I don't believe it has officially been confirmed.

The FanX site doesn't have anything yet. (And from what I recall from prior years, the website might not be that promptly updated.) I haven't seen anything from Brandon's social media, either, but that will probably the best place to keep an eye out. https://fanxsaltlake.com/guests/brandon-sanderson/

All right, here's the story. Brandon's signing started on Friday (and was gonna run about 2 hours), and then Isaac had a panel showing off some White Sand art that started a little after. So nearly all the Sharders went to Isaac's panel, while I stayed behind and kept an eye on the recorders. And wouldn't you know it, the panel was really popular, and since there was another Brandon signing on Saturday, the line was pretty much empty. So people would come right up and get their books signed, no waiting, and when no ody was there, I was sliding in with a quick question or two. Whenever someone else showed up to get books signed, I got out of their way, which was why I got in a lot of pretty quick questions this year, but no really long ones. And while I'd step away, I'd go flex about it in the Discord chat. And jof, green with envy, DM'd me a question to ask, which I was gracious enough to do for him. So, then the Saturday signing comes around, and there are, like, a half dozen of us hanging around this time. But the line never died down like it had on Friday. It got real close; there's be, like, one or two people left, and all the other Sharders would get real excited, but then a new group of people would come up and get in line. We did get a couple more over the day, but not a lot. Of course, I made sure to antagonize the others as much as possible. "Oh no, more people coming? Isn't that a shame." If there were such a thing as sarcasmspren, I would have my Shardplate from the Order of Buttheads.

Funny story about that. I asked this on @Jofwu's behalf because he had something better to do than hang around at Brandon's signing table to ask questions. So he should be the one to comment.

Good weekend, all said and done. First things first, Brandon read the prologue to The Lost Metal: Not a huge Wayne fan, so I didn't find the chapter all that exciting. But as I was working on transcribing it, I remembered the recent Lost Metal Outline reveal. I couldn't help but notice that Wayne's Ma's story had three parts, and some of the descriptions of Jak felt a little more like Wax. So I'm wondering if that's some foreshadowing for the structure of the rest of the book. But let's get back to the beginning. On Friday, Isaac had the first signing, and I got him to personalize all of my Arcanum Unbounded star chart prints. I asked him to put a snarky Nazh comment on each one, complaining about every planet. He said they are non-canon, of course. Here's what he wrote and said for each: And then, during Brandon's signing right afterwards, I got him to add a new planet to my constellations print: He drew in the dot, and then wrote "Here there be Aethers!" He said he did not have a name he could canonized there, though. Isaac took a picture of the chart afterwards, so I believe this will be the canon location on future star charts. So I now have a very nice set of personalized cosmere space-stuff to go up on my office wall. I got in more questions in the signing line, and the line was actually pretty empty for a while (thanks to an art panel that Isaac was doing at the same time), so I got to slip in a few extras. They'll all be transcribed eventually, but here's the gist for now And those were all the questions I got in. I got a good haul on the opening day, so I let off the gas for Saturday. Brandon and Isaac each had another signing, and then in the evening Brandon scheduled a last-minute reading and Q&A. Everything there got recorded. (My recorder unfortunately ran out of batteries during the Q&A portion, but a lot of other people got it. It was great seeing everyone again who I saw again, and meeting everyone I wasn't seeing again. Until next time!

FAQ's been updated with how to find Brandon: Which doesn't seem quite right, since Isaac's Saturday signing appears to be double-booked with the Team Sanderson panel. But maybe he's not gonna be on it this year.

JordanCon schedule is up. I made an easily digestible version at the bottom of the post. It's certainly more sparse than last time I was there (in 2018, where each track had a full slate of programming in every timeslot), and there's nothing on there officially that Brandon's scheduled for. So maybe we'll see some more additions to this; I'd be very surprised if a RAFOlympics doesn't manage to sneak in there, oh, say Saturday at 5:30. I'll have my recorder, for sure. None of the panels look all that enticing to me, so I'm probably going to set up shop in the game hall for a good chunk of it. I'm planning on bring House War and its expansion, Call to Adventure: Stormlight, and the Mistborn RPG and all the fancy new dice that Crafty put out last year (metal and acryllic). I've got an idea for an RPG adventure; maybe I'll spread it across three days.

Not a ton to add, but we did recently get a new WoB that lines up pretty well with what I've been saying about avatars as a manifestation of a Shard: And we also got a little bit more about the Nightwatcher in Rhythm of War, about how she was created specifically by Cultivation differently than spren are created, and she had her personality specifically guided and influenced: So I haven't seen anything in recent revelations to contradict my theories. Cultivation made Nightwatcher with a specific persona in mind; for many other avatars, the Shard could use a cheat-sheat of an existing individual like Patji or Trell.

Registration is up. There are 119 available as of right now (12:17 eastern) before they hit their cap of 500 attendees. https://www.jordancon.org/product/three-day-membership-2021/ Edit: 99 left as of 12:29. Edit: 88 left as of 12:47. Edit: 77 left as of 01:35. I promise, I'm not trying to get all these doubles; I'm just refreshing at what are apparently the perfect times. Edit: 66 left as of 03:37. The bizarre coincidence continues. Edit: 53 left as of 10:40. The curse has been broken! (Close one, though.)

Registrations for scrubs like me open up on noon eastern on the 29th (so next Saturday). I don't see on the website how many are remaining, so I'm planning on playing the old F5 game. Last time I went, we didn't do anything formal, but those of us from the Shard were basically going to the same panels, and then we all kind of hung out in the game hall or the lobby. I'm planning to bring Mistborn: House War and Call to Adventure: Stormlight, and maybe some RPG books so I have an excuse to bring along the fancy new metal dice, so you'll probably be able to find me with the board games, at least.

Brandon talked about the poll results today. Medium was the winner, around 30%; Legacy and RPG were both around 20%; and Light and Heavy filled out the bottom. Next step, they'll look at both a Medium game and an RPG (so as not to saturate the market). If an RPG comes out before Book Five, I wonder how it'll deal with Tension...

On Brandon's website, he's looking for feedback for what kind of board game his team should investigate potentially designing for a Stormlight tie-in. The five options are: Rules-Light, Rules-Medium, Rules-Heavy, Legacy, or RPG. (There is no sixth option. I'm sure the poll will bear that out, and we will see 100% as the total for those five options.) https://www.brandonsanderson.com/wax-wayne-update-stormlight-archive-game-question/ Some of my favorite board games are rules-light board games. But I don't think any of those would make a good tie-in; the ones I like are things like Resistance, where there's a simple rules framework that relies upon social interaction for the nuance. There's really nowhere in rules that simple to fit a Stormlight theme; might as well just make Stormlight Monopoly or a Roshar Ticket to Ride map. (Although, honestly, the latter wouldn't be all that bad.) There has been a glut recently of what I would call rules-light card games, like Unstable Unicorns or Exploding Kittens, that I don't really enjoy all that much. They're focused on having some sort of theme, but there's not enough meat to the game; draw off the top, make the obvious moves, and hope nobody else draws something good. Uno with a gimmick. Some of my favorite board games are rules-medium board games. In fact, my favorite two games, Dominion and Small World, would be in this category. What makes them so good is the expansions for them; the base game has a lot of room for design space, and an extended production lifetime for the game lets the designers explore every possible cranny of what that game could do. But most of the licensed games I've seen and enjoyed (including House War) get maybe one expansion, maybe none, which really limits the replayability and potential of rules-medium games. I'd be a huge fan of Stormlight expansions to some already-existing games, like Stormlight Call To Adventure. (Small World may be reaching the end of its lifecycle, but it's already had some licensed tie-ins.) Some of my favorite board games are rules-heavy board games. Cosmere Space Age Twilight Imperium would be where it's at, man. But here's where I think a Stormlight game would have the most room to maximize its potential, both in rules and flavor. (And this was what I voted for.) Several Shattered Plains board games have been rolling around behind the scenes, but none of them have apparently panned out. That really seems like the most viable option, either something homegrown, or something that draws heavily from another game (like Star Wars: Rebellion draws from Twilight Imperium). These are the games where you see things like victory condition cards, which could fit in book events (ones that did happen, and ones that were averted) in a similar style to Call to Adventure, if you wanted a full-Roshar war game. I haven't actually played any legacy games. But you want to have a real game first, and then tweak it into a legacy version. So don't start there. And RPG, it's always a good bet, and I think that Crafty could fit decent Stormlight rules into there. The thing I like least about their system is the micromanaging of metal reserves; but I think the rest of the system is pretty neat, and I've toyed with making Star Wars rules out of it. (Since my RPG group only plays Star Wars systems.) Not to get too nitty-gritty into the details, but I think there's room to treat Powers like Resources, which I think would fit pretty well with Stormlight. Instead of having to actually track your character's Stormlight reserves, you'd just get temporarily worse at using yours powers after doing impressive feats with them. So I'd be down to see Crafty come out with a Stormlight core rulebook. (Although I have found their expansion books to be very fluffy, almost no new rules in them.) What do the rest of you think?

Watch there be only one ticket available, and they make you and me do a WoB-off for it.