Checking station....
Pro's/Con's from last year's table-top room
Mon, 08/25/2008 - 12:47 — Will
So, I figure it's a good idea to get some opinions on what worked and what didn't to be ready for next time.
Last year, I staffed most of the really late overnight shifts. While there, here's what I got.
Things that worked:
- Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots
- I have in my possession, and will certainly make a return, maybe even make a tournament this year???
- Magic the Gathering
- Lots of interest. Draft was poorly planned, but worked out.
- Settlers of Catan Tournament
- Loads of fun. Perhaps try expansions in this years Tournament?
Things that didn't go as well:
- D&D 3.5
- This turned into the PC slaughtering each other rather quickly. Not sure how to make this work without that happening
- Apples to Apples Jr.
- We made it work pretty hilariously, but really need the non Jr. Version
- Warhammer 40k
- There was nothing planned for this, but there ended up being a lot of interest. It would probably be worth planning some type of tournament for this year.
Suggestion
Any chance we could get some Monopoly, Burning Wheel, Dune, or some cards (as in playing cards for standard card games)?
I am on www.tgwtg.com now
Settlers
Having Settlers again would be great and I would love to see some expansions. The only problem with those, though, is that they tend to up game time by a huge margin. If people take their time to really think during, say, Cities and Knights, the games can take 4 hours, which doesn't work well in tournament format, especially if it's a little haphazard like last year.
The only way I could see that working is with a little extra planning and a few more playing sets than we had last time. Alternatively, there could be something like making the early games all basic board, and then whoever makes it to the final game plays with expansions.
We did have lots of playing
We did have lots of playing cards for standard card games... but I think they got used maybe once.
If I still have a Monopoly set I'll bring it... I don't remember if we had one there last year.
Use the base set to weed out
Use the base set to weed out the lesser players then move to the bigger games to see who really has more skill. I like the idea.
D&D 3.5 This turned into the
D&D 3.5
This turned into the PC slaughtering each other rather quickly. Not sure how to make this work without that happening
How was it being organized/run this past convention? Using something like pre-written adventures or modules from an RPGA campaign and enforcing a "don't be an ass" rule would probably be enough.
It might make sense to do
It might make sense to do some kind of pre-setup online before Magfest, because while setting up characters is half the fun, it's somewhat time consuming and if I were to participate I wouldn't want to spend my entire weekend on it.
For this year, it might make
For this year, it might make sense to just reserve a few 4E Living Forgotten Realms modules and bring some fastplay characters for anyone who doesn't have a character. I can provide fastplays if necessary. That would add some pre-convention organization overhead (having RPGA cards) and possibly invite version debates, but would probably be easiest on the staff.
Just wanted to say, I was
Just wanted to say, I was involved in last years Warhammer 40k dealings. It was very fun and although it was not scheduled, there was a good turnout and I would like to continue seeing a turnout. I would be interested in getting with someone to organize something.
Tabletop room
I'm local and would happily bring down/run any number of games. Agricola, Puerto Rico, DOminion, Fury of Dracula, DUNE (although mine is a printed homebrew set), Race of the Galaxy, etc.
Is there generally a group that looks for tabletop RPGs? I'd love to play InSpecters, Dogs in the Vineyard, MouseGuard, DRYH or the like.
--andrew
--andrew
Fury of Dracula
I'm always up for Fury of Dracula. I'm almost always up for Race for the Galaxy. If you're bringing yours, Andrew, I don't need to bring mine, right? (But I'm local, too, so no worries.)
BG loadout
I'm local in Falls Church, so will be driving in every day. I'll look for you in the TT room on the 1st, and we can try to settle what's being brought when.
--andrew
Tabletop Content
I had never previous been to a magfest before but I have to say the tabletop room was probably one of my favorite places to relax and hang out when my eyes were about to burn out from too much gaming. In either case I'll provide a list of games which I plan to bring below.
Monopoly Debit Card Edition (No need to worry about trust here, heh).
Lunch Money
Flux
2 Magic and 2 Warcraft Decks (after seeing the 'raid' last year felt it need to build an 'ok' Warcraft deck).
Quelf (probably have to be played in the hall-way or some open area).
Manacala
Munchkin (the original up to expansion 3)
My only inquiry is, will it be alright to leave my stuff in the tabletop room or should I bring it along with me periodically as I'm leaving/entering the area. Definitely look forward to having less cluster this time around with the seperate tournament room :).
TT Saftey
MAG organizers will tell you that they can't beheld liable for any material left in any festival space.
I took sizable game piles to the first two years of PAX, and at Kubla/Dundra Con. In all those situation, I've been comfortable leaving my games in the room (often being played by a group) for hours at a time. As long I was able to swing through every few hours, I would rather just leave the stuff in one place.
That said, I always packed up my stuff and took it back to my room when I was done for the night, or handed a specific game off to someone I trusted in the room.
My impression is that MAGfest will work much the same way.
By the way, I have two starters of WoW cards that I bought and never played. Is it worth bringing those down to try and play in a Raid?
--andrew
RE:TT Saftey
I attended Magfest last year but only brought a couple games (Flux and Munchkin) and it seemed like there was almost always a staffer in the room (I believe one of them was extreme exhausted at one point and his sinuses caught up with him but did an excellent job keeping an eye on the room). Probably wouldn't be a big deal if I left my stuff there I can follow-up with staff upon arriving (aka tomorrow).
The WoW card stuff was fairly improvised. Last year there was a individual who was actaully a judge for official wow tournaments brought a couple raid sets (MC and Ony I believe) along with 7 decks (5 raid sets and 2 pvp sets). I'm unsure if he'll be there this year but after watching portion of the raid last year (took about 6 hours for them to finish, full MC clear) it was well worth the watch and looked pretty fun. If its worth bringing two starter decks for a raid I'm not sure but if you have extra room to carry them I would imagine it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring them along.