My first real game convention

Until this week-end I had never been to a real boardgame convention. I went to the thing that Doc holds but honestly that feels like a group of friends getting together for games more than a convention... this was a convention. A very small convention, but a real con none the less.

It was odd, there were signs that would say "Players needed" or "Teachers needed" and people would sit there waiting for games to fill up. Trying to get in as much gaming as they could, no one cared who you were, you were just a body to play against. The games are the thing here, not the people. They were there to play games with whomever... for me, that's very odd. I saw fat people, lots of fat people, but I don't know if it was much more than normal.. I saw ass cracks... but no one really smelled. So I suppose I only encountered some of the cliches. It didn't seem to be a super nerdy place. In fact at one point I went out for a smoke and when I came back to the game I had to apologize as I was the only one there who stunk. I think I saw a lot of mis fits though, plenty of awkward people including one guy who just started talking to me out of nowhere, despite his inability to carry on a decent conversation and some how I ended up with his fucking phone number in my phone and I'm pretty sure my card in his goddamn wallet. Now I have to assess if it's worth answering the potential call I'll get from this dude one day... oh well.

Doc Mabuse was there and he played a bunch of games, way more than I did. I saw a guy from work there who loves Euro's playing a super sexy version of TTR (Anniversary), plus a lot of people I know from various game groups around the city. But I didn't play with any of them. I only played with strangers, I was hoping to get a con feel by doing that and I think I kind of did. It was fun, I get the appeal to con's... but I don't know if I'll do it again. Doc's buddies I saw there were probably the most fun I had, he games with some good folks.

What did I play.. not much man, not much.

Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game - this is Plaid Hat's new Zombie survival horror game. It's a lot like Battlestar Galactica but probably a bit better. I really enjoyed it surprisingly enough. Which I didn't expect at all. I had 90 minutes to kill until my schedules game started and this table was open so I just sat down randomly and started playing. The people at this game were great, all my jokes got big laughs.. it was a blast. They were really nice and the guy who explained the game was very clear and not too thorough (I hate overly thorough explanations, once you've played enough games you really don't need it). I was very impressed with this game. I like how it seems like it's co-op but your secret objective allows you to still win... even at the detriment of the other players. Not so much because you're a traitor but more because you have a personal story or character trait that just pushes you in a particular direction. It was filled with narrative and very well thought out. There is zero tactical decisions to make, the board doesn't even matter. It's just for locations really, but the game works.. at least after one play.

Next up was my scheduled game which was Imperial Assault, which I enjoyed but was pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. Surprisingly it took up much less space than I would have thought, that was kind of a nice plus. I was some female bounty hunter type who could move quickly around the board and had a shitty little blaster. We played two maps so I did get some of the feeling of continually that the game apparently excels at. I think that I may have preferred Dead of Winter strangely enough, but either way both were great games. Imperial Assault was a little too predictable because it's design is overly familiar to me.

Then I went home, but not until I had bought a Gold Dragon for D&D Attack Wing as a token of my first convention. I may go again next year, who knows, it wasn't as bad as I thought nor was it as fun as it seems to be for many others. But it was all right. Doc was there when I arrived and there when I left and there when I checked facebook several hours later. I bet he played dozens of games and I'm curious to see what he thought of them when we meet up at work tomorrow.

You may be wondering, why the fuck did I pay money to go to a convention and only play two games and then split... well, my wife is pregnant with our second child and I didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone any longer than I had to. I was going to skip the convention all together but it was organized by a buddy of mine and my wife and I both felt it was a good idea for me to go, plus I really wanted to try Imperial Assault. I'm glad I went. I'm not sure how I'd hold up around a larger full size con though. Huge crowds are not appealing to me and this was well below that.

Flim Flam commented that it was strange how board gaming used to be all about the games but as the years go by it is ALL about the people. If it weren't for the gang of great folks I see and hang with, I would never go tho ConnCon or WBC. The people are what it's all about.

Congrats, JJ! Didn't realize you were having #2. Very cool stuff!

Oh, and I'm glad you had fun at the "Con".

As best I can tell you hit critical mass at about fifteen people. At that size you have all the gamers you need to get plays in of games you really want to play. More is fine, but at some point additional people add little or no additional value. When it gets to "convention" size there's additional overhead that serves the host's needs instead of the gamer's needs, and you start losing ground.

What remains in the smaller setting is to have copies of the games you want to play available, and for the money you save on entry fees, hotel rooms and eats you can go out and buy them in advance.

I think for me personally it is going to be "gatherings" rather than conventions from here on out. I'll spend about $150 total on our upcoming May event and get 2 days and 3 nights of uninterrupted gaming in with a group of guys that I'm comfortable with, with no additional unnecessary claptrap wrapped around it.

S.

Gamer stench is generally not a problem on the first day of a long gaming convention. Day three is usually the worst, even if the convention is four days long like GenCon. By day three, a gamer might justify skipping a couple of days of personal hygiene, but with hotel checkout on day four and a trip back to civilization on the same day, a gamer is likely to finally bathe again on that fourth day.

Essen's Spiel convention is the only one that pulls off going there just for the games. It was fun and people were nice. Every North American convention is only good if you go for the people. Meaning, you meet up with friends, organize get togethers ahead of time and game together. It's way better that way. Just walking into these things trying to play games is not a fun experience, based on the years I did it non=stop between 2002 and 2005.

Sagrilarus wrote: I think for me personally it is going to be "gatherings" rather than conventions from here on out. I'll spend about $150 total on our upcoming May event and get 2 days and 3 nights of uninterrupted gaming in with a group of guys that I'm comfortable with, with no additional unnecessary claptrap wrapped around it.

I tried this idea for the first time year. After twenty years of going to conventions, and five years of running one, I though it was time to try something completely different. We rented out a set of suites at a hotel roughly in between everyone and showed up Friday night to hang out waiting for everyone and played some small games. Saturday was spent playing Pocket Ogre at breakfast, TI3 in the morning, Half played Defenders of the Realm for the afternoon,Half played Nexus Ops and Formula De, and a rousing full game of BSG at night. While I will still go to conventions to play some games, ie Diplomacy, I will gladly convert my habit of multiple cons a year to one and several weekends like this. Total cost per person was sub $100, excluding travel.

We're in a vacation house off-season. $100 per person covers the rent plus all the food for the entire weekend and we eat large. Everyone volunteers in the kitchen and with 20 in attendance helping at one meal is sufficient to cover your share. People bring beer and liquor on their own dime. The location is about two hours from home so I'm using about half a tank of gas round trip.

I'll tell you what -- the guy that owns the place didn't believe us when we told him what we were using the place for. He showed up midway through to open the pool for the summer, and when he saw us he took photos! He couldn't believe 20 adult males were gathering without being up to no good.

S.

Black Barney wrote:

Essen's Spiel convention is the only one that pulls off going there just for the games. It was fun and people were nice. Every North American convention is only good if you go for the people. Meaning, you meet up with friends, organize get togethers ahead of time and game together. It's way better that way. Just walking into these things trying to play games is not a fun experience, based on the years I did it non=stop between 2002 and 2005.

For gaming at a convention, the CABS Board Room at Origins is pretty good. I'll grant you that just walking in solo isn't as much fun as gaming with friends, but their collection is pretty extensive, and there's enough folks roaming the hall that you can fill a game relatively quickly. Origins isn't nearly as nice as GenCon, but it isn't a horrible experience.

That is awesome Sag. I am supremely jealous.

A bunch of Plaid Hatters (and really, ex-Heroscapers.com'ers) do that Sag thing - rent out a big cabin and do the shared responsibility thing. It works out really well when you have friends rather than random folks.

fastbilly1 wrote: That is awesome Sag. I am supremely jealous.

This is not that hard to pull off. Figure out how many you have that you can depend on to come and find a place that holds that many. Our first was six people. Figure out what you can budget and make sure you have contingency money in case there's a no-show or two. You're more or less done at that point save for buying the food. Everyone brings a bucket of games (or two -- I guestimated we had 300 games last year though some were duplicates).

Off-season is magic. We go to the beach in early May when all the places are empty. One month later the price for the long weekend triples, a couple of weeks after that you can't rent weekends at all, only weeks.

S.