Gamer's Reunion 2009
Gamer's Reunion is a small local convention held in Rochester, MN. This was its second year. As with all startups, it's difficult to predict if this is going to be a long-running convention that takes off, a convention that struggles year after year, or a convention that doesn't make it past the five year mark. Still, like all startups, the best time to join is early. So, with this in mind, I packed the car the night before and went over the weekend plans.
Both myself and the ever-trusty MarkIV had to work that Friday until mid-afternoon. After my shift I drove from Hopkins to Minneapolis, changed clothes, collected MarkIV, filled up the gas tank, and then hit the road.
We made good time and arrived at the Hilton Doubletree Hotel, tossed our bags into the room, and drove the two blocks north to the Con site: the Rochester Senior Center, aka "the Castle." And yes, the building did sorta look like a brick castle. We set up the booth and were all set by 8pm or so. The crowd looked light, so we decided to call it a lost day and went out for some food. And then drinking.
Nice rack setup-idea, courtesy of MarkIV.
Sadly, Rochester doesn't have much of a nightlife for two guys who are used to Minneapolis. We hit up 4 places, some of them twice, but weren't able to find a place that really spoke to us. Ah well.
Saturday had a lower turnout than I was hoping for, and sales for the weekend definately showed it. On the whole, numbers were notibly down from last year. This was mirrored by attendance at Gen Con Indy, so I guess it shouldn't be a big surprise. We worked throughout the day, talked with people, and, during the quiet times, worked on designing game things.
Oh wargamers! We have some nice role-playing games for you!
The first thing we hammered on was an existing idea I had for running larger-scale combats using the standard Factions game mechanics. It uses a platoon scale, and runs on 30 second generalized rounds. The idea here is to have a system that makes the encounter a dramatic extened test with individual characters able to do interesting things to affect the course of the fight, but for the overall system to remain dramatic, instead of tactical.
MarkIV, trying to rope in another customer.
The second thing we worked on was creating a tactical, rules-light/medium spaceship combat game. My main inspiration for this was Car Wars, but putting it into spaaaaace. Completely made up universe, somewhere between Steampunk and Rocketpunk. A 2-D map, simplified rules for acceleration and turning, and ship building/modification rules. Like Car Wars, the only purpose of the game is to build ships and blow each other up. Simple. Easy. Fun.
Booth to the right of us.
We wrapped things up on Sunday around 4pm, broke down the booth, and headed north.
On the whole, it was a fun enough time. I didn't make any money as a company, but exposure doesn't hurt. Frankly, I will have to think about whether or not I'll return for next year, though. As it goes.
-a-
Both myself and the ever-trusty MarkIV had to work that Friday until mid-afternoon. After my shift I drove from Hopkins to Minneapolis, changed clothes, collected MarkIV, filled up the gas tank, and then hit the road.
We made good time and arrived at the Hilton Doubletree Hotel, tossed our bags into the room, and drove the two blocks north to the Con site: the Rochester Senior Center, aka "the Castle." And yes, the building did sorta look like a brick castle. We set up the booth and were all set by 8pm or so. The crowd looked light, so we decided to call it a lost day and went out for some food. And then drinking.
Nice rack setup-idea, courtesy of MarkIV.
Sadly, Rochester doesn't have much of a nightlife for two guys who are used to Minneapolis. We hit up 4 places, some of them twice, but weren't able to find a place that really spoke to us. Ah well.
Saturday had a lower turnout than I was hoping for, and sales for the weekend definately showed it. On the whole, numbers were notibly down from last year. This was mirrored by attendance at Gen Con Indy, so I guess it shouldn't be a big surprise. We worked throughout the day, talked with people, and, during the quiet times, worked on designing game things.
Oh wargamers! We have some nice role-playing games for you!
The first thing we hammered on was an existing idea I had for running larger-scale combats using the standard Factions game mechanics. It uses a platoon scale, and runs on 30 second generalized rounds. The idea here is to have a system that makes the encounter a dramatic extened test with individual characters able to do interesting things to affect the course of the fight, but for the overall system to remain dramatic, instead of tactical.
MarkIV, trying to rope in another customer.
The second thing we worked on was creating a tactical, rules-light/medium spaceship combat game. My main inspiration for this was Car Wars, but putting it into spaaaaace. Completely made up universe, somewhere between Steampunk and Rocketpunk. A 2-D map, simplified rules for acceleration and turning, and ship building/modification rules. Like Car Wars, the only purpose of the game is to build ships and blow each other up. Simple. Easy. Fun.
Booth to the right of us.
We wrapped things up on Sunday around 4pm, broke down the booth, and headed north.
On the whole, it was a fun enough time. I didn't make any money as a company, but exposure doesn't hurt. Frankly, I will have to think about whether or not I'll return for next year, though. As it goes.
-a-