Made in SA: ChimaeraconMade in SA: Chimaeracon

Hey SA, get your self ready for an intense weekend of gaming and good times because Chimaeracon is coming up soon. This annual staple of the south Texas gaming scene runs April 9-11, 2010 at the beautiful San Pedro Village Event Center. This year’s con features a space odyssey theme and is raising money for the Challenger Learning Center of San Antonio with the intriguing concept of “Cheat for a Cause”.

Missions Unknown wanted to know the inside scoop behind the con so we put the questions to Chimaeracon’s Publicist Gilder Anne McCarroll.

Missions Unknown: How long has Chimaeracon been around, give us a little history of the event?

Gilder McCarroll: Chimaeracon was founded in 2002 by April Bremner as an event “by gamers for gamers”. It has slowly expanded over the past nine years to include overlapping  fandoms (sci-fi, fantasy, anime, horror, etc) and hobbies (game design, costuming, medieval re-enactment).

Missions Unknown: Who runs Chimaeracon?

Gilder McCarroll: Chimaeracon is planned, organized, and operated by San Antonio-area fan volunteers. They devote their energies and countless hours to the con 12 months a year.

Missions Unknown: What is the origin of the name?

Gilder McCarroll: April chose “chimaera” because the mythical creature, combining traits of a lion, a goat, and a snake or dragon, is frequently used by game designers. To me, it represents the diversity of sci-fi, fantasy, and other literary/media/arts genres.

Missions Unknown: What kind of events can people expect this year?

Gilder McCarroll: Demos, friendly games, and tournaments in various game types:  card-collectible (CCG), board, role-playing (RPG), live-action role-playing (LARP) and electronic (PC and console). For details, please see our extensive event list.

Medieval costumes and boffer combat demos by Amtgard, panels on cosplay, a Saturday evening costume/cosplay contest presented by Mizuumi-Con, the Valve online gaming community, and the “steampunk” media genre.

Missions Unknown: I know some of the folks at Missions Unknown have been guests in previous years, who are your guests this year?

Gilder McCarroll: We’re hosting four San Antonio-based guests this year, author Scott A. Cupp and artist Victor Gabriel Burgos. Our Space Odyssey theme guests are local representatives from the Challenger Learning Center of San Antonio and Teachers in Space.

Missions Unknown: Who is the target audience for the con? Is it primarily aimed at gamers?

Gilder McCarroll: Yes, but we welcome fans of all the fantastic genres:  sci-fi, fantasy, anime, horror, etc. For example, I’m not a gamer; my interests are in literary and media sci-fi. We try to include a little bit of everything, as you’ll see from the event schedule.

Missions Unknown: What’s the newest, hottest thing that folks can see for the first time at Chimaeracon?

Gilder McCarroll: I’m surprised every year! We receive samples of new products from many game manufacturers, thanks to the efforts of our industry coordinator, Al Griego. Al’s also an SJ Games MIB (demonstrator).