Gamicon blog

[atomtan]

Friday...
I woke up at 7am Friday morning after only a few hours of sleep to get my son ready for school. I work until the wee hours of the morning and I was struck with the realization that due to my game schedule I wouldn't have time for a nap. Anxiety began to set in.
After taking care of my fatherly duties, I double checked my bags and hit the road for the two hour drive to Iowa City.
The drive was uneventful.
I grabbed some lunch at Arby's, where my wife called me during her lunch break so she could remind me how much of a dork I am.

I hit Gamicon's venue, the Iowa Memorial Union, with a couple hours to spare before my first event. It was too early for me to check in to the hotel, so I just wandered around to check out the locations of food, caffeine, and bathrooms. To my relief, I didn't have to leave the Union for any of the essentials. So, it was time to get my badge and find my table.

I found my table in the Sunporch just off of the main con area. I set up my stuff, and mentally prepared for the first group to arrive (aka had a quick smoke). Before I get into the actual gameplay, I should probably explain the game's format. I registered my event as a marathon, so I would run the entire convention at the same table. Player's could come and go as they pleased, as long as there was an open chair, since there were many opportunities within the adventures to bring in new characters.

It didn't take long for people to start rolling in. While the Pathfinder Society groups were still setting up their maps and minis I had my first group rolling their 0-level characters. This was their first taste of Dungeon Crawl Classics, and they were already laughing and joking about their meek characters. "Cheese dip? Really?" And away we went to kill some beastmen in The Sailors of the Starless Sea.

Unfortunately, the group was unable to make it through due to losing some of their number to the hands of other characters which lead to them quickly becoming chum for the sea creatures. I was worried that this experience would leave a sour taste in their mouths, but they expressed how much fun they had, and thanked me. Others looked through the book, interested in introducing the game to their own groups.

After cleaning up the carnage...placing characters into my graveyard folder to be used as pre-gens later, putting dice and minis back in their proper piles, and setting out fresh character sheets...a new group was strolling over. I looked at the time, and realized that I had completely breezed through my nap time and I wasn't feeling the least bit sleepy, although hunger was beginning to set in. When they sat down I explained that I would be right back because I needed some food, and I handed them the book and the character creation instructions.

I was gone shortly, and upon returning saw that a couple more people had joined in. They had to take chairs from other tables (shhhhhhh...that's our little secret). Again, they enjoyed the character creation process, and immediately understood the tone of the game. I ran them through an adventure I had written. They made it halfway through the adventure, thought they had fulfilled the objectives and quickly ran back to town. I explained that there was plenty of dungeon they left unexplored and that we had time if they wanted to go back. It seemed they had learned DCC's first lesson, learn when to run away. We joked about their reluctance to go back, and started talking about gaming in general.

We helped eachother out with world design suggestions, and systems that may be more appropriate for the types of games they'd like to run and/or play. To me, this is the heart of the reason of why I go to cons. I knew I didn't have time to start up another adventure, so we just sat and bs'd until midnight. I was more than satisfied with the first day of the con, and happy to be able to get some sleep.

Saturday...
I woke up at 6am so I could be ready to start playing at 8am. I made some coffee and got my shower going. Great, no hot water, everyone else must be taking their showers now. The sink is spitting out hot water though, I guess that'll do. Ugh. I drank my cup of coffee and headed to the continental breakfast area for a bagel, orange juice, yogurt, and a refill of coffee.

Upon returning to my table I saw that there was a group ready to go with sheets printed out from the Purple Sorcerer site...awesome! We quickly dove into Sailors of the Starless Sea. When they ventured into the courtyard they were reluctant to explore any of the evil looking areas, but eventually decided they needed to do something. Characters were lost in each area, but they were happy to find some eager adventurers in the tower to make up for those they had lost. In the end, they met the same fate as the previous group, but this time they were a lot closer to defeating the encounter. They were on the right track, but then decided that their solutions were not the right things to do. Unfortunately, they couldn't hang around after the game because the big Magic: The Gathering tournament was about to start. I saw that there were a number of tournaments about to begin, and saw this as my chance to take a proper shower.

I returned to the room and again it was just cold water. When I was turning off the water I noticed that hot water was coming out of the tub faucet. *cringe* I guess a bath is better than nothing. Satisfied by my current level of cleanliness, I returned to the table to find another group just sitting down.

We created our party of 0-levels and I ran them through my written adventure. They were just killing time until it was their turn to play their Magic matches. We got a couple hours in before they had to take off, but again, everyone had a great time.

Tournaments finally ended, and my table began to fill up again and players were making characters. A volunteer came over to us and said that the Pathfinder Society was going to need my table. I showed him the sheet on the table that said the table was reserved for my game and we were just about to begin. He apologized and said we had five minutes to clear our stuff. I didn't argue anymore since he was with the con, and they had done a great job accommodating everyone so far.

I apologized to the players, and handed out the rest of the bookmarks, pencils, and badge tags, and walked back to the room with my tail between my legs.

On Sunday, I repeated my morning routine, only to find that my table was still Pathfinder property. Feeling defeated, along with news of a snowstorm (which amounted to nothing), I decided it would be best to hit the road before both storms got out of hand. Like DCC teaches us, know when to run away.

There is a bigger story behind my conflict with the PFS, but it isn't appropriate to post here. The gist of it is, I agree with organized play, but I usually don't like the way it's approached. Some of the local GM's know how I feel, and may have felt like I was sabotaging their games. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

[atomtan]

I should probably add that I love going to these cons because it shows me that this long-time hobby of mine will never die out. Gamicon had a record attendance this year.
I'm interested in learning more about GaryCon, so if anyone wants to post something about their experiences there I'll be eager to read them.
I'm still on the fence about hitting Fear the Con. We have some taxes to pay, and we're planning a trip to Yellowstone.

[mythfish]

Gamicon was a tiny little thing when I lived in Iowa. Glad to know it's all grown up!

Thanks for the report, it sounds like people had fun even if things didn't actually last all weekend.

[GnomeBoy]

Weird that anyone could 'commandeer' your table, of all things! Unused chairs, maaaayybeeee, in a pinch, but your table??? That would never happen at any of the cons I'm familiar with -- if you've got an assigned space and time, the convention is obligated to provide you with a table and chairs for your players and yourself. What would be the point, otherwise? "Yeah, you can come play, but we can't be sure you'll have anywhere to sit but the floor and maybe no table, either."

Weird.

[atomtan]

The Iowa venture-captain, or whatever the title is for state head-honcho, for the Pathfinder Society lives in Iowa City, so I'm sure he has some pull with the folks running the con. I'm not faulting anyone who was working the convention, since the argument could be made that PFS brings in a fair amount of players who just come to play Pathfinder.
There has just been some uncomfortable moments between myself and local area PFS GM's since last year. I used to run PFS games at local game shops, and was asked if I would help run at a smaller con. I refused, and explained that PFS just doesn't fit my play-style when I'm at a con, due to its "sit down and shut up" nature. You're given 4 hours to play through an adventure, which works at game stores, but when I'm at cons I like to engage with my players and get to know them.
And what was happening at Gamicon, which I was getting dirty looks for, was that a number of their players were getting frustrated because they felt their problems were not getting the attention they felt they needed and they ended up playing at my table...or worse, asking me to solve their problems since I'm still a PFS judge.

It just kinda took me back to that place where I'd get spitwads thrown at me while I'm just trying to play D&D with my friends in study hall.

But, again, I'd definitely like to stress that Gamicon as a whole was a great experience. No matter what game you enjoy, you could most likely find someone either running it already or willing to run it for you. Some new games were being demo'd to drum up contributions for their Kickstarters. A lot of really cool things for sale, and a number of nostalgic books. Hell, there was an entire room devoted to video games...old and new. And the thing that really warmed my heart was the variety of people, ages 8 to 80, gathered in one place to have fun.