Upcoming Conventions

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What cons are you looking forward to in 2018 or 2019?

GaryCon
7
41%
Game Hole Con
1
6%
GenCon
0
No votes
North Texas Origins
1
6%
Origins
2
12%
Other (please provide in comments)
6
35%
 
Total votes: 17

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T1Hound
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Upcoming Conventions

Post by T1Hound »

Hi - there's a lot of upcoming conventions coming up. Where will you be or plan on being?

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Buttmonkey
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Buttmonkey »

I voted for Gary Con, but would love to attend Game Hole and North Texas. Sadly, I don't have either the time or the $$ to attend more than one OSR con each year.
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Captain_K »

Those of you near Cleveland OH, Please consider Cleveland Concoction. I think I can get us some special considerations there. Would love to have CnC games going constantly.
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by DMMike »

I voted North Texas, but will also be going to FenCon in Dallas (September) as well as East TX Rose ComiCon in Tyler (October). I'll be there to pimp Victorious, C&C, and generally push RPGs to the masses. Oh, and I'm a guest at all 3. Which helps the $$$, though its mostly just the entry fee. ;)

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by maximus »

Hoping to make it to GaryCon

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Captain_K »

How does one sign up now for a mega game at Gary Con... I want in with all you! I'll even run one too!
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Buttmonkey »

Captain_K wrote:How does one sign up now for a mega game at Gary Con... I want in with all you! I'll even run one too!
You can't do anything now. In a few months, the organizers will solicit events from GMs. Players will be able to sign up for games probably in early January. The only "mega" C&C game typically on the event schedule is Steve's. Almost all other C&C events are slotted for 6 or 8 players.
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Ancalagon »

Definitely GaryCon. 8-)
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Omote »

MARcon in Columbus Ohio.
GaryCon in Lake Geneva, WI.

I want to attend GameHole Con but I have an awful time getting those dates off, plus the hotels sell out too quickly.

I would like Origins to become my new GenCon (I'm retired from GenCon for a while), but not enough OSR stuff to play in there and again, hotels are sold out too fast.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by T1Hound »

Ancalagon wrote:Definitely GaryCon. 8-)
I think GaryCon is the place to be.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by T1Hound »

Omote wrote:MARcon in Columbus Ohio.
GaryCon in Lake Geneva, WI.

I want to attend GameHole Con but I have an awful time getting those dates off, plus the hotels sell out too quickly.

I would like Origins to become my new GenCon (I'm retired from GenCon for a while), but not enough OSR stuff to play in there and again, hotels are sold out too fast.

~O
Maybe next year, I will make the trek to Origins. I was there in 97 and 2002. I hear it's gotten better. Back then, it felt more like a wargaming convention and not RPG. Then again, I think 96/97 was when TSR started to flounder.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Omote »

Origins is alright. It certainly has had it's ups and downs, and was pretty damn good in the early 2000s. But a lot of Origin's thunder was stolen by GenCon. Now that GenCon is a mighty behemoth that some gamers are looking to get away from (like me), Origins seems to be on the upswing for the past 3 years or so. Indeed, there was a lot of wargaming there, and still is. I still think Origins needs a wider selection of RPGs other than current D&D, ShadowRun, and other popular tournament games... definitely more OSR and fringe/eclectic RPGs are needed.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by serleran »

I might be able to attend RocCon in September. Usually go there as a present for my wife. And its more local than any of the big ones.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Captain_K »

Well if Gary Con is the event, lets make sure we keep all the keep date public and at our finger tips.. I'm new to all this CON stuff, so help me be ready to run a game and get in on games too.
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by bulletmeat »

We got DragonFlight coming up here in Aug for WA. The only con I have time to game at usually.
And people watch. :D
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Buttmonkey »

Captain_K wrote:Well if Gary Con is the event, lets make sure we keep all the keep date public and at our finger tips.. I'm new to all this CON stuff, so help me be ready to run a game and get in on games too.
Badges for Gary Con XI go on sale July 27th. The con is scheduled for March 7-10, 2019. If they stick to their typical schedule, they will begin soliciting events from GMs sometime in the fall with event preregistration sometime in January. The organizers do a much better job of updating people on what is going on using social media rather than their own website, so it is a good idea to join the Gary Con Facebook groups.

Historically, gold and higher level badges sell out quickly. They never run out of silver badges. The advantage to the premium badges are a swag bag and increased access to featured events. Gold badges get twice as many featured events as silver badges. The super expensive badges (e.g., platinum) get even more. There is always the possibility the organizers will change this structure for Gary Con XI, so my advice as follows may turn out to be a little outdated. But, assuming things operate like usual, the question a newbie needs to ask herself is how important are the featured events. The swag bag is swell, but probably shouldn't be the driving force behind the decision to purchase a premium badge. In the early days of Gary Con where total attendance was only a few hundred gamers, everyone had a realistic chance to play in events run by the TSR old guard. A gold badge plus some good tactics for using the old registration software would result in he ability to get into just about any event you wanted and a strong chance of getting into multiple VIP games of your choice. Even with a silver badge you had a strong chance of getting into most of the VIP events, especially if you knew some solid registration tactics. That is no longer the case. Gary Con gets over a thousand gamers now, but the number of TSR old guard GMs has not increased. Competition for the most-desired events is fierce. If you want to play in an event run by one of the legends, your only chances are a premium badge or showing up at game time and the GM letting you play despite not having preregistered. The old registration tricks don't work with the new registration software. Even a gold badge is not a guarantee of getting into the featured events of your choice. So, how much money do you want to spend for the possibility of getting into a VIP event?

I've been fortunate in that I attended Gary Con in the early years and had the opportunity to play with just about all of the old guard TSR guys. Some of the events were great and others were just awful. My take away is you have just as good of a chance of playing in a great event signing up for non featured events as you do playing with the VIPs. Some of the VIPs just aren't good GMs (at least at this point in their lives). You couldn't pay me to play in a game run by one of the most famous/desired guys again. Another factor is some of the VIPs take on very large tables of gamers (not talking about Steve here -- he runs a game with an insane number of players and it's a whole other animal) so as to accommodate as many players as possible. How much participation are you likely to have in a game with 10 players? Sure, you can say you played with GM X, but did you really have that much fun when you only got to take an action maybe every 40 minutes? That's an evaluation everyone has to make for themselves. Personally, I try not to play in any RPG events with more than 6 players.

For me, a silver badge is generally the best option. However, there is a caveat. Last year, the organizers did a terrible job of identifying what events should be featured. They basically flagged any events by popular GMs to be featured events. This allowed them to have enough featured events to cover all of the featured event tickets they sold. The net result was a lot of featured events weren't picked and many folks ended up with unused featured event tickets. Way too many events were designated as featured. Only a relatively small selection of the events truly deserved to be featured based on the demand for those events. A lot of good GMs ended up with no one or few players signing up for the featured events because either (1) the people who wanted to play with them prioritized other featured events and ran out of tickets or (2) the people with left over featured event tickets weren't interested in their events. I think some good events ended up being canceled because no one who wanted to play in the event could register for the event. The unfortunate GMs were popular, but not uber-popular like Luke Gygax or Jim Ward. I don't know if this will still be a problem for Gary Con XI. There was a lot of discussion on the Gary Con forums about the problem, but the organizers have not said what, if anything, they intend to do to alleviate it for next year. If they don't make any changes to the method they handle featured events, it might be a good idea to purchase a gold badge so you have better access to events run by popular GMs even though your chances of getting into a celebrity D&D game are still pretty much non-existent. My guess is they will wait until pre-registration has been completed, then open up the unfilled seats in featured events to everyone for a second round of pre-registration (or give additional featured event tickets to everyone). This solution sucks, in my opinion, because by then everyone has filled their schedules. To use the new access to featured events, they will need to bail on events they have already signed up for. That stinks for the non-featured GMs who might see their players vanish. The odds of gamers coming through and scooping up those newly available seats after two rounds of pre-registration are pretty damn low. Basically, this approach screws GMs all over the place. This is what they did this year and the con survived marvelously, so feel free to call me Chicken Little.

A final point: Whatever your approach to featured events and VIP games, don't get worked up if you can't get into a dream event you set your eyes on. The reality is you probably aren't going to get into it unless you have serious wealth to throw at your badge purchase. Gary Con is great regardless of what events you get into. A couple years ago, I intentionally didn't pre-register for any events. I walked up to every game I played in and had a great time. A positive attitude is infinitely more important than how many featured event tickets you get. If you want to have a great con, do this:

1. Talk to the people you are playing with. Make some friends even if you have to push through natural shyness.

2. Say hi when you see those people throughout the con.

3. Repeat next year and get to know the players in your events.

4. Say hi when you see the people you met last year and this year.

Pretty soon, you will have developed a network of con friends. The best part of Gary Con is getting to see these people every year. You will always have dead time between events. This can be a lonely time your first year. The more you push yourself to make friends, the quicker this dead time ends up being filled with socializing with people who like games as much as you do. At this point, I try to only sign up for one (or maybe two) event(s) per day so that I can mingle with the other attendees. If I have dead time, I wander through the exhibitors hall or read gaming material. I didn't have much time for that in 2018 and I'm not someone who bonds quickly with people in large crowd settings. A little effort to socialize pays huge dividends.
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Buttmonkey »

Oh, one more last point: If playing with the TSR old guard is intensely important to you, go to North Texas RPG con. They have the same VIPs as Gary Con, but far fewer badges are sold. Your chances of getting into that precious VIP event are much better at North Texas. 5-10 years ago, Gary Con provided similar access to the old guard, but not anymore (and that's okay).
tylermo wrote:Your efforts are greatly appreciated, Buttmonkey. Can't believe I said that with a straight face.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by DMMike »

Buttmonkey wrote:Oh, one more last point: If playing with the TSR old guard is intensely important to you, go to North Texas RPG con. They have the same VIPs as Gary Con, but far fewer badges are sold. Your chances of getting into that precious VIP event are much better at North Texas. 5-10 years ago, Gary Con provided similar access to the old guard, but not anymore (and that's okay).
Agreed. Its not a knock on either con, they just have different views towards holding conventions. GaryCon is apparently looking to become the OSR GenCon, and that's cool if you like large cons. NTXRPGC is intentionally capped at 500 because the owners (Doug Ray and Mike Badalato want to keep that 'small gaming' vibe so you're free to just walk up to a VIP and say "Hi" without long lines. Though I will say the regular auction is something I don't bother attending as I simply don't have the thousands of $$$ to put in for products. Well, I do but I can't bring myself to pay them for old RPG stuff, no matter the current value! ;)

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by T1Hound »

Buttmonkey wrote:Oh, one more last point: If playing with the TSR old guard is intensely important to you, go to North Texas RPG con. They have the same VIPs as Gary Con, but far fewer badges are sold. Your chances of getting into that precious VIP event are much better at North Texas. 5-10 years ago, Gary Con provided similar access to the old guard, but not anymore (and that's okay).
I played with some of the old guard. Honestly, it was cool but I wasn't in as much awe as I thought I would be. Actually I was ready to walk out of the one.
I would still love to get into a game with Frank Mentzer. That's the goal for me.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by T1Hound »

Buttmonkey wrote:For me, a silver badge is generally the best option.
I will be playing and GMing more therefore I think I will be good with a Silver.
Buttmonkey wrote:If you want to have a great con, do this:
1. Talk to the people you are playing with. Make some friends even if you have to push through natural shyness.
2. Say hi when you see those people throughout the con.
3. Repeat next year and get to know the players in your events.
4. Say hi when you see the people you met last year and this year.

Pretty soon, you will have developed a network of con friends. The best part of Gary Con is getting to see these people every year. You will always have dead time between events. This can be a lonely time your first year. The more you push yourself to make friends, the quicker this dead time ends up being filled with socializing with people who like games as much as you do. At this point, I try to only sign up for one (or maybe two) event(s) per day so that I can mingle with the other attendees. If I have dead time, I wander through the exhibitors hall or read gaming material. I didn't have much time for that in 2018 and I'm not someone who bonds quickly with people in large crowd settings. A little effort to socialize pays huge dividends.
This is great advice. I wish I learned / appreciated it more 15-20 years ago.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by finarvyn »

I've only been to GaryCon once and I really loved it, and am hoping to attend again one of these years.

There is a small gaming con called "Opportunity Attacks" in Naparville IL this July. Mostly 5E D&D, I think, but it's local so I'm planning on supporting the thing.

GenCon is also fun, but I'm a teacher and our school is starting earlier and earlier so the Real World is messing with my GenCon schedule somewhat.
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Omote »

If you are in the Ohio area, there is a good little (about 700 attendees) gaming convention called Con-On-The-Cob (Richfield OH).
http://cononthecob.com/
November 8-11, 2018.

Over 5-8 years or so, this convention's games have gone more towards the Pathfinders, 5E, current Shadowrun, tournament style RPGs. But this used to be an old-school gaming convention focusing on classic versions of D&D and Call of Cthulhu. This year, and years going forward, Con on the Cob is trying to get the old school gaming crowd back. For example, this year they have THAC0 Thursdays in which they are focusing on OSR, and classic RPGs. Of course they'll be doing this the whole weekend, but needed a fancy name for Thursday's festivities. From a recent talk by the event organizers, they are making a real push to get back the classic CoC, D&D, and OSR retroclone players. I know a handful of us from these forums have been to Con on the Cob, particularly when C&C played a much bigger role in the gaming events there. There was even a concerted effort to make Con on the Cob the TROLLCON EAST convention. But alas, that never came to be.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by finarvyn »

Omote wrote:If you are in the Ohio area, there is a good little (about 700 attendees) gaming convention called Con-On-The-Cob (Richfield OH).
http://cononthecob.com/
November 8-11, 2018.
I've heard great things about this convention, but it comes at the wrong time of year for me to make the trip. I hadn't realized that they had been drifting away from OSR stuff, and it's great to hear that they are trying to shift their focus back.
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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Buttmonkey »

T1Hound wrote:I would still love to get into a game with Frank Mentzer. That's the goal for me.
If you really want to play with Frank, I suggest you attend Xenocon. They brought Frank in as the guest of honor a few years ago and he keeps coming back. It's a smaller con and very much focused on Pathfinder, 5E, and board games. However, Frank runs OSR stuff. Getting into a game with Frank at Xenocon is easy.
tylermo wrote:Your efforts are greatly appreciated, Buttmonkey. Can't believe I said that with a straight face.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Buttmonkey »

Gary Con has pushed the starting day for badge sales back one day to July 28, 2018. This puts it on a Saturday which should be better for anyone looking to purchase a premium badge. Who wanted to burn a day of vacation in order to be free to compete to purchase a premium badge on a week day?
tylermo wrote:Your efforts are greatly appreciated, Buttmonkey. Can't believe I said that with a straight face.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by T1Hound »

Buttmonkey wrote:
T1Hound wrote:I would still love to get into a game with Frank Mentzer. That's the goal for me.
If you really want to play with Frank, I suggest you attend Xenocon. They brought Frank in as the guest of honor a few years ago and he keeps coming back. It's a smaller con and very much focused on Pathfinder, 5E, and board games. However, Frank runs OSR stuff. Getting into a game with Frank at Xenocon is easy.
I hope to at GameHole or GaryCon.
If not I will need to check this out!

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by T1Hound »

bulletmeat wrote:We got DragonFlight coming up here in Aug for WA. The only con I have time to game at usually.
And people watch. :D
Is this an old con?

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by T1Hound »

Should we make a separate thread for GaryCon gaming?

Do we want to try for something really cool?

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Buttmonkey »

T1Hound wrote:
Buttmonkey wrote:
T1Hound wrote:I would still love to get into a game with Frank Mentzer. That's the goal for me.
If you really want to play with Frank, I suggest you attend Xenocon. They brought Frank in as the guest of honor a few years ago and he keeps coming back. It's a smaller con and very much focused on Pathfinder, 5E, and board games. However, Frank runs OSR stuff. Getting into a game with Frank at Xenocon is easy.
I hope to at GameHole or GaryCon.
If not I will need to check this out!
To be fair, I think Xenocon kind of sucks. It's in my back yard, so it's accessible, and Frank comes, so there's that, but the content otherwise is not what I'm looking for. My area just does not turn out for OSR games and they aren't offered at Xenocon except for whatever Frank is running. If you come, I suggest it either be just for a chance to play with Frank or because you are into Pathfinder or 5E (or some other event on the schedule that doesn't appeal to me, but may appeal to you).
tylermo wrote:Your efforts are greatly appreciated, Buttmonkey. Can't believe I said that with a straight face.

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Re: Upcoming Conventions

Post by Joen Nordis »

I want to attend GameHole Con but I have an awful time getting those dates off, plus the hotels sell out too quickly.

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