GameCon 2010
So, I spent a day at GameCon 2010. It's a small game convention held in Aberdeen, MD. Website to be found here.
Got there around 10 am, a little later than I wanted, but I got going later than I wanted. (stupid body and it's need for sleep). Not knowing what to expect, I only brought Chez Goth, & Chez Cthulhu with me. The first thing I noticed was a lack of people. I mean, there were two people at the reg table (both very nice and quick to process me) and one or two other people up and about, but that was about it. Even the dealers room wasn't open. I learned later that the One World by Night (OWbN) LARP had gone until the wee hours of the morning, and that people were likely sleeping it off. So, I sat down to peruse the contents of my "goodie bag" that I got because I pre-reg'd and to see what was on the schedule.
Now, I know I usually go through the contents of the goodie bag and list them. Thing is, I didn't record everything at the time. Yeah, I know, bad me. What I do remember is:
Looking at the schedule, I didn't see a lot of "scheduled" events. Each day, the same AD&D 3.5ed game was being run several times, and there were some demos for a few minis games. Looking things over quickly, I determined that I wanted to try Monsterpocalypse, then get into the 3 pm AD&D game.
About that time, the dealers room opened up. There were 5 dealers there. I looked at the stuff from Canton Games and the T shirt vendor (who had shirts to fit me), before heading over to the table of author CJ Henderson. Spent a little time talking with him, and looked over his titles. Ended up buying a couple titles from him, including "The Phantom Chronicles" and "Brooklyn Knight".
Amusing anecdote: When it came time to pay for the books, Mr. Henderson told me the total for the books, and asked how much I wanted to give him for them. When I quoted full price back at him, he was slightly confused and taken aback. Hey, I'm in a position in life where I can afford to support authors this way; if it means they keep writing good stuff, I'm all for giving them full price.
Ash Fire Style was a jewelry vendor there as well; ended up buying a Christmas present from them. Finally, there was Simply Fun Games, although nothing there caught my eye. Ended up getting a few Buffy CCG decks from Canton games for mousecat0, the Wicked Munchkin Bag & Die, and the Dragon Age RPG from Green Ronin Publishing. Almost bought Green Arrow and Power Girl figures. But didn't. The "Cool stuff collector" in me was outvoted by the "Responsible-we-don't-have-room-for-this-crap" me.
Anyway, having done my part to contribute to the local economy, I went over to one of the game rooms to see what was going on. Not much of a selection in their game library; I have a greater quantity of games (and selection) in my closet, let alone the bins. Ended up in a demo of Malifaux, a minis game which, to quote their website, is "based in an alternate Earth, Malifaux uses gothic, steampunk, victorian horror with a dose of the wild west to inject fun and depth into the magical lawlessness of a world rife with monsters, necropunks, manmachine hybrids, gunslingers, and power-hungry politicos." Not a bad game. Uses a hand of cards to determine the outcome of actions (instead of dice). Unfortunately for them, I find it unlikely that I will buy any as I have neither the time to paint minis nor the space to store them (see earlier comment regarding figures). It was a bit of an unbalanced scenario, but I nearly pulled off a win by taking out 2 of his three minis befor he got both of mine.
Once that wrapped up, and having time to kill before the Monsterpocalypse demo, I sat down with a gent who was starting a game of A Touch of Evil by Flying Frog Productions. I had tried to play this at Brunswick Games Day, but the group found itself stymied by unclear rules and rulebooks. I'm hoping to sit in on a demo of this at Origins this year to find out what we were doing wrong. Unfortunately, I had to abandon the game before we even got started as the D&D game was trying to start early.
Ah, the D&D game. Now, due to the way things worked out, I was given the choice of one of two characters. I have no idea what one of them was, because the other was a Dwarven Monk/Drunken Master (5/10). I could have had *all* of the characters in front of me, and I'd have taken that one. Especially since his primary weapon was an Unbreakable, Keen, Ever-full (Dwarven Ale), Icy Burst tankard +3.
Oh, did I have fun with this.
Adding to the fun was the fact that one of the other characters was a minotaur, who owed a life-debt to another of the party. And while the minotaur could understand common, he couldn't speak it. Fortunately, the ranger could both speak and understand minotaur.
Right. We had a Wookie.
I'll not go into many of the details of the adventure, as they are best done by me in person, in character, and with the proper bad "Drunken Scot" accent. However, I do have a few gentle reminders for alla youse who are gonna run games at conventions:
After the game, I went to dinner at Applebees with a few of the players. By the time we got back, the OWbN LARP had started up again, and I'd say 80%+ of the attendees were involved. As I remarked on Twitter that night, you know the the Vampire/OWbN LARP has started because someone in front of the hotel has busted out the clove cigarettes. This led to my only real complaint: Once the LARP started, there was little to do if you weren't part of it. The only room that was available for the non-LARPers was the smallest, non ventilated room. As a result, it quickly got hot and stuffy. I left around 8 pm.
So, overall, not bad. This is, I believe, their second year, and it seems to revolve heavily around the LARPs. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if they're going to advertise themselves as a gaming convention, they could benefit from some expansion of the Board & Card gaming. Certainly, it'll help put butts in seats.
Should they hold it next year, I think I'll go in my official SJG MIB capacity. Dunno if I will stay at the hotel or not. Also don't know if anyone else from the family would go. Guess I'll have to wait and see.
Got there around 10 am, a little later than I wanted, but I got going later than I wanted. (stupid body and it's need for sleep). Not knowing what to expect, I only brought Chez Goth, & Chez Cthulhu with me. The first thing I noticed was a lack of people. I mean, there were two people at the reg table (both very nice and quick to process me) and one or two other people up and about, but that was about it. Even the dealers room wasn't open. I learned later that the One World by Night (OWbN) LARP had gone until the wee hours of the morning, and that people were likely sleeping it off. So, I sat down to peruse the contents of my "goodie bag" that I got because I pre-reg'd and to see what was on the schedule.
Now, I know I usually go through the contents of the goodie bag and list them. Thing is, I didn't record everything at the time. Yeah, I know, bad me. What I do remember is:
- Pack of Buffy CCG cards
- two plastic bags with Star Wars CCG cards in them
- Pack of LoTR CCG cards
- Sherlock Holmes promo T-shirt
- Catalogs for Out of the Box Games and another company I don't remember :-(
- A pen (which was great because I had forgotten to grab a writing instrument)
- Various ads for FedEx
- Copies of NinjaBurger and the Live Action version of Kobolds Ate My Baby
Looking at the schedule, I didn't see a lot of "scheduled" events. Each day, the same AD&D 3.5ed game was being run several times, and there were some demos for a few minis games. Looking things over quickly, I determined that I wanted to try Monsterpocalypse, then get into the 3 pm AD&D game.
About that time, the dealers room opened up. There were 5 dealers there. I looked at the stuff from Canton Games and the T shirt vendor (who had shirts to fit me), before heading over to the table of author CJ Henderson. Spent a little time talking with him, and looked over his titles. Ended up buying a couple titles from him, including "The Phantom Chronicles" and "Brooklyn Knight".
Amusing anecdote: When it came time to pay for the books, Mr. Henderson told me the total for the books, and asked how much I wanted to give him for them. When I quoted full price back at him, he was slightly confused and taken aback. Hey, I'm in a position in life where I can afford to support authors this way; if it means they keep writing good stuff, I'm all for giving them full price.
Ash Fire Style was a jewelry vendor there as well; ended up buying a Christmas present from them. Finally, there was Simply Fun Games, although nothing there caught my eye. Ended up getting a few Buffy CCG decks from Canton games for mousecat0, the Wicked Munchkin Bag & Die, and the Dragon Age RPG from Green Ronin Publishing. Almost bought Green Arrow and Power Girl figures. But didn't. The "Cool stuff collector" in me was outvoted by the "Responsible-we-don't-have-room-for-this-crap" me.
Anyway, having done my part to contribute to the local economy, I went over to one of the game rooms to see what was going on. Not much of a selection in their game library; I have a greater quantity of games (and selection) in my closet, let alone the bins. Ended up in a demo of Malifaux, a minis game which, to quote their website, is "based in an alternate Earth, Malifaux uses gothic, steampunk, victorian horror with a dose of the wild west to inject fun and depth into the magical lawlessness of a world rife with monsters, necropunks, manmachine hybrids, gunslingers, and power-hungry politicos." Not a bad game. Uses a hand of cards to determine the outcome of actions (instead of dice). Unfortunately for them, I find it unlikely that I will buy any as I have neither the time to paint minis nor the space to store them (see earlier comment regarding figures). It was a bit of an unbalanced scenario, but I nearly pulled off a win by taking out 2 of his three minis befor he got both of mine.
Once that wrapped up, and having time to kill before the Monsterpocalypse demo, I sat down with a gent who was starting a game of A Touch of Evil by Flying Frog Productions. I had tried to play this at Brunswick Games Day, but the group found itself stymied by unclear rules and rulebooks. I'm hoping to sit in on a demo of this at Origins this year to find out what we were doing wrong. Unfortunately, I had to abandon the game before we even got started as the D&D game was trying to start early.
Ah, the D&D game. Now, due to the way things worked out, I was given the choice of one of two characters. I have no idea what one of them was, because the other was a Dwarven Monk/Drunken Master (5/10). I could have had *all* of the characters in front of me, and I'd have taken that one. Especially since his primary weapon was an Unbreakable, Keen, Ever-full (Dwarven Ale), Icy Burst tankard +3.
Oh, did I have fun with this.
Adding to the fun was the fact that one of the other characters was a minotaur, who owed a life-debt to another of the party. And while the minotaur could understand common, he couldn't speak it. Fortunately, the ranger could both speak and understand minotaur.
Right. We had a Wookie.
I'll not go into many of the details of the adventure, as they are best done by me in person, in character, and with the proper bad "Drunken Scot" accent. However, I do have a few gentle reminders for alla youse who are gonna run games at conventions:
- If you're going to use classes from game supplements, please have the supplement available for the player to refer to. I own the supplement that has the Drunken Master prestige class in it; the last time I read it was well over a year ago. I don't remember all the things he could do.
- Know the material. Highlight stuff. Use post-it notes. Whatever. Don't leave players hanging for several minutes when asked a question. And I'm not talking about wierd esoteric stuff, like what metal was used in the construction of the cat constructs. I'm talking about things like "Are there any markings on the bodies of the cat constructs".
- Prepare for the big combat: Inevitably, there is the climactic encounter, and it almost always involves multiple intelligent enemies with an array of powers. If you have to deal with, say, a fallen archon, a pit fiend, and a half Duergar/half red dragon, you probably ought to list out the first few attacks of each, just to give yourself an idea of what they're gonna try to do.
After the game, I went to dinner at Applebees with a few of the players. By the time we got back, the OWbN LARP had started up again, and I'd say 80%+ of the attendees were involved. As I remarked on Twitter that night, you know the the Vampire/OWbN LARP has started because someone in front of the hotel has busted out the clove cigarettes. This led to my only real complaint: Once the LARP started, there was little to do if you weren't part of it. The only room that was available for the non-LARPers was the smallest, non ventilated room. As a result, it quickly got hot and stuffy. I left around 8 pm.
So, overall, not bad. This is, I believe, their second year, and it seems to revolve heavily around the LARPs. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if they're going to advertise themselves as a gaming convention, they could benefit from some expansion of the Board & Card gaming. Certainly, it'll help put butts in seats.
Should they hold it next year, I think I'll go in my official SJG MIB capacity. Dunno if I will stay at the hotel or not. Also don't know if anyone else from the family would go. Guess I'll have to wait and see.