2013 - 04/2013 Meeting
Page Created: 11/11/12. Last Updated: 04/03/13
MICHAEL TRESCA
Michael Tresca is a game designer and a writer of fiction and non fiction. His writings include humorous fantasy, commentary on aspects of popular culture and reviews. Although he maintains a website, he is more active on Google+ and other areas of social media.
Official Site: http://michael.tresca.net/
On the Web:
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116588270100226619038#116588270100226619038/posts
Facebook (Dredspace): https://www.facebook.com/dredspace
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/talien79/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dreadspace
BOOKS:
Awfully Familiar
The Well of Stars
The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games.
ROLE PLAYING GAMES:
Alien Invasion
All the King's Men
Combat Missions
The Complete Guide to Werewolves
Blood & Blades: The Profiler's Guide to Slashers
Blood & Brains: The Zombie Hunter's Guide
Blood & Spooks: The Ghost Hunter's Guide
The Dancing Hut
Etherscope: The Great Metropolis
Frost & Fur: The Explorer's Guide to the Frozen Lands
Iron Kingdoms Character Guide
Iron Kingdoms World Guide
Mercenaries: Born of Blood
Modern Mercenary Manual
Quest for Power
Relics
Scrollworks Present: Characters & Locations
Tsar Rising
Meeting Date: April 13, 2013.
Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 25.
Meeting Program: Talk by Fantasy Author / Game Expert & Author.
Newsletter Account
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2013 Philip J De Parto:
Michael Tresca spoke at the General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County on Saturday, April 13, 2013. Mr Tresca is the author of the fantasy novels AWFULLY FAMILIAR and THE WELL OF SOULS, as well as the non-fiction book, THE EVOLUTION OF FANTASY ROLE PLAYING GAMES. He has designed and/or written for over a dozen fantasy games and blogs about fantasy games and other matters at examiner.com.
Our guest was a sickly child. The product of a "mad scientist" inventor father and a historical fantasy fan mother, he was always ill with something. He was heavily medicated in his early school years, listing sleep as his favorite pass time in second grade. When he was taken off his medications in third grade, people realized that "he has a brain!" Young Michael was soon embroiled in classes for the gifted. Mr Tresca realized he wanted to be a writer when he won a contest for an essay on "Why I Love America." Actually, he wanted to be a writer and a robot maker, but didn't realize that making robots required being good at mathematics.
Our speaker discovered the world of on-line gaming while in high school. It became his chief interest. He learned to write code in order to do retro M.U.D.D.s (he later met his wife playing on-line). This lead to a Masters in Engineering and eventual employment as a technical recruiter for General Electric.
His Masters Thesis was a bout the effects of anonymity in gaming and social media, "The Impact of Anonymity on Disinhibititve Behavior through Computer-Mediated Communication," which translates to "People are jerks when you can't see them." The paper was posted on-line and was linked to by a popular in-line comic. Our speaker became an instant authority on the subject, interviewed by journalists and cited in studies.
The discussion segued into fantasy gaming. Our speaker said that polyhederal dice go back at least as far as classical Greece. Michael spoke about how TSR, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons, went broke by following an incorrect business model and was bought by Wizards of the Coast, who basically used an open source strategy of making their money from core rule book sales and allowing anyone to create modules. There was also mention of how fans of the current game, Pathfinder, denied its connections to D & D until the creators of the game declared that, "yeah, it's basically Dungeons & Dragons."
We then got onto the subject of breaking into the world of publishing.
Mr Tresca stated that there are three ways to get published, and that he has employed all three. The first is to become a recognized expert on some issue and to develop a following. This opens the doors to thee world of publishing.
The second is to network. You get to know he field, the players, and what problems require solutions. You discover opportunities early in the process and place yourself near the from of the line.
The third is to come a master of the cold pitch. He deliberately attended a World Fantasy Convention because some agents had stated that they would listen to pitch proposals. He saw a table by McFarland Publishing with a sign stating, "Pitch us your book idea." So he outlined the idea for what became THE EVOLUTION OF FANTASY ROLE PLAYING GAMES.