Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
So a lot of you know that I have a Patreon. If you didn't, uh... you do now? I originally launched it for my comics, but it kind of transitioned to being mostly focused on my Witchcraft podcast years ago -- because that's where I had extra content I could give folks -- but it's overall just for "me" in general.
Anyways.
My goal for the last year has been to increase the "value" for Patreon patrons, with all paid tiers getting access to a copy of Super Awesome Action Heroes, and the five dollar and ten dollar tiers getting access to my novels (at different times -- the five dollar tier patrons get them on a year delay).
For a while I had been doing Patreon exclusive "vlogs," but those didn't last just because I literally ran out of things to say in them. I mean, I'm boring. The only eventful stuff in my life is the eventful stuff happening to all of us right now. Back in April, I think I came up with something fun that I've now done two months in a row.
And that's record reaction videos to episodes of The Pagan Invasion.
You see, for the April episode of BS-Free Witchcraft I did an episode on the structure of Satanic Panic propaganda, and used the first episode of 1991's The Pagan Invasion as the example to illustrate my points. For that episode I needed to, obviously, rewatch that first episode for research.
Rather than just watch it in private though, I recorded my rewatch as a commentary and reaction video and posted it as a Patreon exclusive video. And even though the podcast has moved on from the topic, folks asked me to react to episode two... so I did that last week. I fully intend to review the whole series on my Patreon now, and each one of my videos ends up being like two hours long. I don't know if I'll get a chance to do one every month, but I plan to get through the whole series.
Honestly I'm not sure why I didn't think of doing something like this before.
So yeah, we're doing fun stuff there. Oh, also, before I forget to say something -- July is the annual Q&A episode of BS-Free Witchcraft, and I need listener questions. If you have something you want me to respond to on the show, just send it in via the show's contact form by July 11th 2025.
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I like room parties, myself. I’ve run one room party, and it was the most fun I had during that con (the rest of it was kinda “meh”). It’s a chance to just chill with people, chat a bit, and maybe play video games or watch movies.
This is more of a “Wisconsin Con” issue — none of the hotels hosting cons are really conducive to room parties (a few are outright hostile) so the parties that do happen tend to be sort of lame (which is why things like con hosted raves now go pretty late to pick up the slack). Con sponsored parties don’t do a lot to promote events at these cons, and so (from a promotions perspective) are a waste of funds if Ambassador tables are available.
Room parties in the Twin Cities are a totally different situation, and ain’t no party floor like the MarsCon party floor.
Room parties were Awesome and then as the years gone by they started to disappoint. So yea the Ambassador tables are more practical and you can shut them down.
I meant to say shut then down at night
Personally, I’ve always been concerned when we haven’t had a room party.
Although, and I think others may agree with me, a lot of us like using said rooms for ‘sleep’ more than ‘party times’ anyway. I’m not a huge fan of the party block, unless I’m in a really good mood, which means Drunken Schneider stories follow.
Wow, room parties being expected, let alone run by conventions, really must be a regional thing. My area doesn’t allow room parties (at least at major and/or decent conventions), as per hotel policies.
Room parties run by other cons and clubs are pretty normal in Wisconsin and Minnesota. But these are the same places that didn’t start exchanging ambassador tables until five or six years ago, so running a party was the easiest way to cross promote for a long time
Varies by convention, too. Locally you see everything from “party floor” where anybody throwing an open party takes a room on that floor, prearranged with the hotel, to no open parties at all. Sometimes using the same hotel (though of course not at the same time).
I staff a couple of cons on the east coast, and I’ve never heard of any con out here doing a room party. I always find it odd when you mention them in the comic.
I never realized this was a regional thing. Around here, at least half the parties (if not more so) are being run by visiting cons. This is boggling my mind that this doesn’t happen other places.
What cons on the east coast? I am a participant at about 8 of them on the east coast (most in the northeast)and they all have room parties. I have been to a few others outside that area and they all have room parties too. It would be weird to me to be at a hotel con and NOT have room parties.
Calling fan tables ‘ambassador’ tables is whats weird to me