FA United 2018
The bad news is FA United has not recovered from its move to Virginia. Attendance in the last two years and this year were 539, 515, and 528, when prior to the move, it was 658. On the other hand, it should not matter. There is some upside to a small con. No wait and no lines for anything and the panel rooms are not overfilled. As in the previous two years, FAU was held at the Hyatt Regency Dulles, a pretty nice hotel in which every room is a suite.
As usual for this con, programming was a bit on the light side, especially on Sunday. However, there were actually more panels of interest to me this year. I noticed there were more games this time, probably because of new gaming staff. There were Bingo and escape rooms. The latter was done as a hand-made RPG-style board game with props. The Jungle John reptile and dinosaur shows were surprisingly entertaining. I had no idea this fellow was based here in Delaware. In between major events, I attended various panels on fursuiting, self-improvement, and other activities, and those actually filled up most of Friday and Saturday.
Furry Olympics, the fursuit games, was refreshingly different this year. They set up gaming stations in each of the four corners of the room to run simultaneously. So after leaving musical chairs, you can do the other four games in any order, bringing your scorecard to each gaming station and then to the final station for tabulation. I placed 4th in musical chairs, won twister, and did so-so in hula hoop, javelin throw, and fuzzball. (simplified variation of bocce) There were some minor problems but I have to say running the games in parallel saves a lot of time, even if it looks chaotic.
Overall impression: FAU is still a small con but I didn't feel like there was too little to see or do. I am pleased that they are continuing to make improvements and introduce new games, shows, and ideas.
As usual for this con, programming was a bit on the light side, especially on Sunday. However, there were actually more panels of interest to me this year. I noticed there were more games this time, probably because of new gaming staff. There were Bingo and escape rooms. The latter was done as a hand-made RPG-style board game with props. The Jungle John reptile and dinosaur shows were surprisingly entertaining. I had no idea this fellow was based here in Delaware. In between major events, I attended various panels on fursuiting, self-improvement, and other activities, and those actually filled up most of Friday and Saturday.
Furry Olympics, the fursuit games, was refreshingly different this year. They set up gaming stations in each of the four corners of the room to run simultaneously. So after leaving musical chairs, you can do the other four games in any order, bringing your scorecard to each gaming station and then to the final station for tabulation. I placed 4th in musical chairs, won twister, and did so-so in hula hoop, javelin throw, and fuzzball. (simplified variation of bocce) There were some minor problems but I have to say running the games in parallel saves a lot of time, even if it looks chaotic.
Overall impression: FAU is still a small con but I didn't feel like there was too little to see or do. I am pleased that they are continuing to make improvements and introduce new games, shows, and ideas.