CONTINUUM V EVENT ENCOURAGES TREKKIE CREATIVITY

Writer Donald G. Phillips of Poplar Bluff says those attending the Continuum V convention this weekend have the creativity to produce future science-fiction novels including "Star Trek."

The convention at the Holiday Inn attracted more than 150 sci-fi enthusiasts on its opening day Friday.

Phillips spoke during a writer's panel, one of the convention activities that stressed imagination. "There is a new wave of 'Star Trek' novels among us, among these fans," he said.

Phillips, author of "Battletech's Star Lord," said a communal effort to get creative juices flowing is present in the imagination of many convention participants.

A member of the U.S. Air Force for 30 years, a Vietnam veteran and a former employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Phillips said writing novels such as "Star Lord" was refreshing.

"You are looking at a man who has spent his whole life finding a way to kill Russians," he said.

Phillips said it isn't necessary to be a well-known author to continue writing the "Star Trek" series. "The most successful 'Star Trek' series scripts were not written by Gene Rondenberry."

He said writing a sci-fi novel is time consuming but worthwhile.

"Writing a novel will take a slug out of your life," Phillips said. "But if you can write a novel that will take Bosnia and all the problems of the world away for one hour and take me into another world, it is worth it."

Carbondale, Ill., writer Catherine Keene said imagination and creativity are essential when participating in role-playing games.

Games are a prominent part of the Continuum convention.

Keene, who writes and runs role-playing games, also helps run games at conventions. She said role-playing games are games in which players are given assigned characters with a definite personality.

The most popular of these games is the controversial Dungeons and Dragons. Those games may take six hours or more to play.

Keene said the game master (the person running the game) gives the character a situation and the character in turn tells the game master how he would react to the situation.

"It is like play acting and story telling," she said. "We go back and forth between what to do. We don't get serious about it; it's just fun."

Keene, who plays the games twice or more a week, said role playing is a social activity.

"Those of us who play don't go to bars, hang out and drink," she said. "This is our way of being social with a bunch of people."

She said those who play the game must think. "We challenge each other, out-think and out-wit our opponents."

Other games played at the convention will include miniature games.

Lisa Nadler of Carbondale said she runs Man-O-War games workshops using miniature figures and role-playing strategies.20The figures, which are 25 mm tall, are played without a game board. They historically began as a method for planning military war strategies.

Nadler said she just likes to play the games for fun.

"It is a lot cheaper than playing pool and drinking every week," she said.

Nadler said ideas for role-playing games are everywhere.

"They even made a role-playing game from the movie 'Men in Black,'" she said.

Continuum will continue today and will feature actor Peter Jurasik from the "Babylon 5" series.