Today was my long day of running Commodore games and Cosmic Encounter. Had a bit of a hiccup finding my tables and getting set up; I had missed the location of an outlet that was behind the Train gamers' booth, partially because they had run their power over to the Rogue Judges' area and partially because I didn't search hard enough.
After that, though, everything went swimmingly. For M.U.L.E. I had 6 players and an observer in the early session and 7 players and an observer in the afternoon. Everyone seemed to have a good time, even the player who accidentally lost a M.U.L.E. in round 1 and was pretty much out of the game afterwards. I need to work on my instructions a bit. (I think an intro video would be cool.)
Sadly, nobody came to play Oil Barons. I may have to leave it out next year in favor of something like Archon.
CE Thursday was a reasonable success, but only 9 of my 16 players showed up for it. One of them brought his EON set, which was very cool. I played with three other guys on my half-built Mayfair set.
The only blemish on the day was that I was scheduled to play in this year's edition of Paranoia Trek after running all of these events but fell asleep back in the room after getting some dinner. I missed one of my favorite ongoing Gen Con events! :(
New Rule: No gaming after running eight hours, even if it's just board and computer games.
Big thanks to Odie and Brian for helping me haul stuff to and from the con. I think it's time to look into a sturdier folding dolly, though. And more bungees/straps.
Tomorrow: A glimpse of the Dealer's Room, Car Wars, Robo Rally, and perhaps some actual Paranoia...?
Showing posts with label M.U.L.E.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label M.U.L.E.. Show all posts
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Gen Con Indy 2007 Sunday
For the last few years, I've been running a bunch of events: Paranoia, Car Wars tournament, and some board games. Unfortunately, the Car Wars tournament was never very well attended. I planned on replacing the tournament with a single, smaller event and running more board games to compensate, thus still getting enough player-hours to earn back my badge money.
This year, Gen Con LLC changed the rules for how GMs earn their badge and hotel rewards. Rather than using straight player-hours (# of players in an event times the number of hours that event runs), they went to a points system where some events are worth more than others. With the changes, there was no way for me to earn back a badge using the plan I had, so I decided to just scale back and play more games this year. The only thing I kept was my all "board game" Sunday.
Following in the long-time Con of the North tradition, my Sunday started off at 8 AM with Wake Up With Cosmic Encounter. Sadly I didn't finish my custom set, but I had three sets available and another person brought his Eon set. We wound up with 13 players, and it looked like everyone had a good time. I always have mixed feelings about running CE in this way: I have access to multiple sets so I want to open it up to let lots of people play, but then I'm not able to put my full attention as a GM to the various tables. This year I didn't have a second GM (I try to arrange it so that my roommate can help out) and I spent most of my time at one board teaching people who hadn't played before. Hopefully my other players didn't feel put out; the last thing that I want is to be compared to the worst of the Game Base 7 events/GMs.
My 10 AM Dungeonquest players were sent to another table; either I misunderstood where the people at BGHQ wanted me to go or they forgot where they told me to go so I didn't have to move between events. Eventually we met up and a full four players entered the castle. Sir Rohan once again died by falling into the Bottomless Pit, the castle claimed 75% of the people who entered it, and no treasure was taken from the Dragon. Even so, it was a lot of fun.
The same wrong-tables thing happened at Noon: I had two people who found me to play some M.U.L.E., then a group of six (!) came over from where they'd been sent by the HQ to where I'd made a M.U.L.E. sign. This left me in a difficult position, as I had 8 people (2 real tickets) for 4 slots. To the others who came to play, my apologies. (Drop me an email or post here so we can play some next year!)
Once the elimination happened, we got everything hooked up and started to play. In order to allow for 4 players on my emulated Commodore 64, I built "The Hydra". It's an interface between 4 Atari/Commodore joysticks and my computer that I built from an I-PAC VE, some wires, and some 9-pin male sockets. The Hydra worked well, the emulation ran mostly smoothly with only a couple of input hiccups, and they managed to make a colony that survived...barely. (Tents for everyone!)
From there we headed out and now I'm in the Sleep Inn in Rockford, IL, resting up for the final leg of our trip home.
I'm starting to throw around ideas for next year, ideas centering on classic multiplayer games and the same kind of board games I usually run. If I did run a block of classic video games I'd want to work something out with the GenCon folks so I'm in a fixed location and have power. At the very least, I want to make a sign and bring it so that people can find me even if I'm in the "wrong" spot.
This year, Gen Con LLC changed the rules for how GMs earn their badge and hotel rewards. Rather than using straight player-hours (# of players in an event times the number of hours that event runs), they went to a points system where some events are worth more than others. With the changes, there was no way for me to earn back a badge using the plan I had, so I decided to just scale back and play more games this year. The only thing I kept was my all "board game" Sunday.
Following in the long-time Con of the North tradition, my Sunday started off at 8 AM with Wake Up With Cosmic Encounter. Sadly I didn't finish my custom set, but I had three sets available and another person brought his Eon set. We wound up with 13 players, and it looked like everyone had a good time. I always have mixed feelings about running CE in this way: I have access to multiple sets so I want to open it up to let lots of people play, but then I'm not able to put my full attention as a GM to the various tables. This year I didn't have a second GM (I try to arrange it so that my roommate can help out) and I spent most of my time at one board teaching people who hadn't played before. Hopefully my other players didn't feel put out; the last thing that I want is to be compared to the worst of the Game Base 7 events/GMs.
My 10 AM Dungeonquest players were sent to another table; either I misunderstood where the people at BGHQ wanted me to go or they forgot where they told me to go so I didn't have to move between events. Eventually we met up and a full four players entered the castle. Sir Rohan once again died by falling into the Bottomless Pit, the castle claimed 75% of the people who entered it, and no treasure was taken from the Dragon. Even so, it was a lot of fun.
The same wrong-tables thing happened at Noon: I had two people who found me to play some M.U.L.E., then a group of six (!) came over from where they'd been sent by the HQ to where I'd made a M.U.L.E. sign. This left me in a difficult position, as I had 8 people (2 real tickets) for 4 slots. To the others who came to play, my apologies. (Drop me an email or post here so we can play some next year!)
Once the elimination happened, we got everything hooked up and started to play. In order to allow for 4 players on my emulated Commodore 64, I built "The Hydra". It's an interface between 4 Atari/Commodore joysticks and my computer that I built from an I-PAC VE, some wires, and some 9-pin male sockets. The Hydra worked well, the emulation ran mostly smoothly with only a couple of input hiccups, and they managed to make a colony that survived...barely. (Tents for everyone!)
From there we headed out and now I'm in the Sleep Inn in Rockford, IL, resting up for the final leg of our trip home.
I'm starting to throw around ideas for next year, ideas centering on classic multiplayer games and the same kind of board games I usually run. If I did run a block of classic video games I'd want to work something out with the GenCon folks so I'm in a fixed location and have power. At the very least, I want to make a sign and bring it so that people can find me even if I'm in the "wrong" spot.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Gen Con Indy 2007 Thursday
Paranoia Trek: The Evil Fleet guys are awesome. Play games with them. And I'm not just saying that because my portrayal of Wrinkl-Y-HED (Worf) tied for second best roleplaying with the pair playing Touch-Y-FLY. :)
Otherwise I spent some cash in the Dealer's Hall and Auction Store and did some more testing for Sunday's M.U.L.E. game.
I once again feel sad for those stuck in the registration line, as this year they ran it outside and down the block in the heat and humidity. Prereg, folks! It's good for you!
Tomorrow: Hackmaster Wurld Championship attempt #4. Go team prefab!
Otherwise I spent some cash in the Dealer's Hall and Auction Store and did some more testing for Sunday's M.U.L.E. game.
I once again feel sad for those stuck in the registration line, as this year they ran it outside and down the block in the heat and humidity. Prereg, folks! It's good for you!
Tomorrow: Hackmaster Wurld Championship attempt #4. Go team prefab!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Off to Gen Con Indy 2007!
Yup, I'm about to head out to GenCon Indy. I've packed up three CE sets (2 Mayfairs and an Avalon Hill), two DungeonQuest sets, my laptop with M.U.L.E. in the Commodore emulator, the main book for the games in which I'll be playing, and a bunch of other stuff.
Unfortunately, I still haven't finished my custom CE set. My summer job with Honeywell and work on the Con of the North website have eaten all of the free time I'd planned to use on these projects. However, I did get the four joystick interface complete. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work well with the laptop.
See you in Indianapolis!
Unfortunately, I still haven't finished my custom CE set. My summer job with Honeywell and work on the Con of the North website have eaten all of the free time I'd planned to use on these projects. However, I did get the four joystick interface complete. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work well with the laptop.
See you in Indianapolis!
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