[unofficial weekender] Cons and pros

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

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First time visitor to OTT? Then please introduce yourself in the New Member Thread and look around in the Project System. Then come back and read on…

https://www.beastsofwar.com/forums/topic/introduce-yourselves-new-member-thread/

https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/

Read all of this before you start as it will save you any trouble later.

First thing you must do is make your “pledge”. It can be anything gaming related, big or small, and you don’t even have to finish it. No, in here, happiness is the road. Have fun doing whatever it is, but it is not a race. Accompany your work with pictures or we might think you are do something sinister and just using us for cover.

You are also presented with a few questions. It is to get the conversation started. Try and keep your answers ‘conversational’, no text speak, and certainly no “basically”. This is how we all get to know each other better. While you are here feel free to tell us a story, show a picture, joke, tales of love or woe, or just add your own little bit. This is the whole point…in here it is just us.

If you have never taken part before we may bark and bite, but we also like a cuddle! It is all done in the best possible taste and it is character building. feel free to give as good as you get.

A few other things to note: NO RELIGION & NO POLITICS! Glasgow pub rules are in effect. If you need to make a better point then it is fine, but don’t take the piss. And always keep it civil.

Play plenty of music to go with your work. Loud and through proper speakers. Write us a playlist of things we might not have heard before.

Now, after all of that there is only one ‘real’ rule in here and it cannot be broken: NO DICKS! (Exceptions may be made for little fighting men with little plastic/resin/metal wieners)

And don’t forget the highlights of the weekend: The Weekender on Friday and XLBS on Sunday. And the little show that is the unofficial Hobby Hangout over at twitch.tv

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Questions:

• Single company gaming company conventions (Like Warhammer Fest): Yay or bollocks?
• Do you prefer giant events with a mega amount to do or rather smallish hands on experiences?
• Have you ever *organized* a convention of any scale and would you do it again?

And now back to the show.

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

Good morning to everyone.

My pledge: do something. Maybe varnish my R2-Urbi. Paint some other Mech? Who knows! Coffee will be involved!

Answers:

• I think it’s always better when more companies are involved. It just adds to the flavour of it all. Even if a company like G’Wullu is organizing an event it wouldn’t hurt if they let in 3rd party suppliers for stuff they don’t make (Wet pallets, painting racks, display cases/shelves)
• I like a “so big you can see everything in one day but you need two to ‘play’ everything” size. At least that way you have a fighting chance to find something of interest.
• Yes I did. More then once. Since it was with the club and that relies on “voluntary club member work” it was a nightmare. I don’t think I want to do that again. I would do it if the team doing it would actually be bringing what is needed. Not just “or someone will do it” attitude.

Music! Before I get annoyed again with organizing not working and stuff…..

[danlee 22433xp 1]

This weeks pledge is to paint a lizardman warrior Raging Heroes print. Right now I’ve just done the skin.

 

1. Single company gaming company conventions (Like Warhammer Fest): Yay or bollocks? – I rarely go to either type but I think one with multiple companies would be better.
2. Do you prefer giant events with a mega amount to do or rather smallish hands on experiences? – I’d be happy going to either, and would prefer to mix it up.
3. Have you ever *organized* a convention of any scale and would you do it again? – Nope and not applicable.

[fourtytwoParticipant 12847xp 0]

1. I like convention which are not organized by a company selling products.

2. I’m an introvert – which does not mean I’m shy, but that I cannot tolerate the noise of huge crowds for longer than 2-3 hours without any quiet time for myself in-between. It drives me crazy and sometimes makes me aggressive, unless I have something to immerse myself in, which can help sometimes. For example: I like concerts, but I cannot stand music festivals. So I prefer smaller events, or large events in a location where you have several rooms which divide a large attendance into several much smaller crowds and provides places which are quiet.

3. I have organized tournaments and demo-games at conventions.

 

[pagan8thParticipant 10744xp 0]

No been to ‘single company’ convention, always been Gen Con UK (when that still existed) and UK Games Expo. I’m not devoted to a single game, so multi-game is best for me.

The first UK Games Expo was very small, tiny compared to what it is now. Tiny means there’s not enough to see . I like UK Games Expo as it is now. Big enough that it takes most of the day to see everything, but not so big that you need to spend two days there.

I use it mostly as a shopping trip for new (and old) games, taking a list of things (often lots of impossible to find things) I want to buy.

Never organised an event. I imagine it would be like being GM for a massive gaming group that don’t get on well together and all want different things. Sounds like a GM nightmare. No thanks!

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

@fourtytwo Hamburg Tactica should be the event for you then. Organized by a local club, large enough for many things to happen but most is divided into smaller areas plus you can just take a walk outside for a breather.

I use it mostly as a shopping trip for new (and old) games, taking a list of things (often lots of impossible to find things) I want to buy.

Oh, that is a very good idea. Need to keep that in mind next time I get out @pagan8th

I imagine it would be like being GM for a massive gaming group that don’t get on well together and all want different things

Yes, but no. Depending on how many people are actually willing to help you could just be “the one pulling the strings” or just be responsible for the coffee machine. There is a lot to do and if you have many helping hands you can divide the responsibilities.

It’s a lovely Sunday (it’s lovely because I got fuck all to do at this moment) I’m having a fresh brew and will now be taking on the XLBS.

To the internet!

[blinky465 17027xp 0]

Single company gaming company conventions (Like Warhammer Fest): Yay or bollocks?

Nah. Cobblers. Very few companies have enough content to justify a single-company convention. Plus, I like to see collaboration between suppliers; much of tabletop gaming is a “cottage industry” – and there’s much value to be had when smaller companies work together (on complimentary rather than competing ideas) to produce great content, instead of each trying to become the next GW. So conventions with lots of different things to see are preferable for me.

Do you prefer giant events with a mega amount to do or rather smallish hands on experiences?

I think @pagan8th makes a great point – you want there to be enough variety that you feel like you’ve had a day out (or a good few hours at least). Since you’ve got to organise getting to the event (often a good few hours away) it’s got to feel “worth it” (travelling three hours or more to spend 20 minutes wandering around a one-company new product launch just doesn’t seem like it’s worth the hassle). Lots of different companies and plenty of variety, please. But not so much I’ve got to find somewhere to stay overnight and spread it over two days. It’s a fine, fine balance!

Have you ever *organized* a convention of any scale and would you do it again?

Many years ago, I was involved with setting up the first MakerFaire in Brighton (one of the first in the country at the time) and I was involved in subsequent ones for a few years. It was brilliant fun. But a *lot* of hard work, and most of it thankless. It was the community of people behind it that made it special. I’m not sure I would (do it again) unless I was sure it was a good team working together. More recently I’ve helped put together a few music festivals. All pretty low key. Those were less fun (but that was mostly because I would rather someone else organise them so I could be on the stage playing!) but still enjoyable in a weird kind of way.

Enjoy your XLBS @sundancer – I’m off to brainstorm a new game idea.
I was super-excited about Demon Ship but have really gone off the boil now. It followed an idea I had after watching a DungeonCraft video a few years ago

His suggestion is that rather than build a massive dungeon on the tabletop, or mess about with loads of terrain and walls and clutter, to be more “1960s Batman” and just dress a single game board with a few pieces (watch the video, he explains it really well) and have the players move from location to location.
This “room based” approach has stuck with my for a while, particularly since it also reflects how some of my favourite computer games, like Atic Atak and Head over Heels worked – a large map is broken down into distinct rooms, which the player must move through. But how to make a tabletop game more like a ZX Spectrum classic from nearly forty years ago?

I thought that DemonShip had cracked this conundrum.
Since its launch, there was very little to go off, except some photos of the board layout and a generic description of a “room based game”. But even that was enough to get me excited. Except on the day of its “launch” it turns out it wasn’t really a launch after all – more like a pre-launch get-the-money-in-to-spend-getting-the-thing-finished kind of launch. Which I’m not interested in; I wanted to see some rules (which, btw, I’m more than willing to pay for – I’m just not keen on stumping up £39 and getting absolutely in return other than a promise of delivery in a month or so).

Then the other day I saw this playthrough between the game designer and “Witty”.

And it looked ok. There were a few things I wasn’t sure about (mainly because I still hadn’t seen the rules and had little idea of what was going on). But it also felt like a lot was left to chance and dice rolls, more than player decision. And given it’s a solo-play game against an AI, it seems like the player being able to influence the outcome of the game is pretty important – otherwise you may as well toss a coin twenty times, count the heads and decide if you’ve won or not!

And then I saw this video.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1785186479

Where the game designer basically asks if he’s made a truly terrible game or not. And his attitude seems to be “I’ve no idea. It might be great. Or it could be crap. If you die, try again with better dice rolls”.

And suddenly all my enthusiasm for Demon Ship evaporated completely.
An in almost inverse proportion, my enthusiasm for making my own room-by-room solo-play explore-a-thon (that’s a word) went through the roof.

So now I’m back to trying to make my own tabletop game.
And my bank holiday weekend (or what’s left of it now) will mostly involve large amounts of squared paper, felt-tipped pens and an assortment of dice and cards. I feel like I’m twelve years old again!

[torros 23808xp 1]

Baccus manage to run a successful single scale/size convention but other companies are involved

[pagan8thParticipant 10744xp 0]

Saw this video yesterday. Ignoring the green screen and live streaming aspects…

Really like the idea of the turnable with interchangable terrain discs.

I have a lazy susan on my dining table…

 

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

I feel like I’m twelve years old again!

@blinky465 until the moment you get up to get a drink or something and your whole body is just frozen in position 😉 A shame about Demon Ship.

@pagan8th I’m pretty sure I’ve seen BlackMagicCraft do a similar thing some time ago. And of course I can’t find the video to safe my life. But I know I’ve seen it!

Now for some video watching and then… maybe some painting.

[blinky465 17027xp 1]

@sundancer – like this one?

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

Oh man, @pagan8th forget what I said (mostly). The video from @blinky465 really rang a bell. I’m almost 100% certain that BMC had referenced that old video from Dungeon Craft when he did his version.

So the point remains: Lazy Susan terrain tables are not new XD

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

@blinky465 yarp! That’s the one. The video link is even in his description.

[blinky465 17027xp 0]

@pagan8th – I quite like Jazza. I think. I still can’t decide if I like TableTopTime or not – there’s some good stuff on there, and some of the ideas are pretty strong, but Jazza comes across as a bit of a knob sometimes. He’s certainly more self-effacing than he used to be, but sometimes it just feels a bit too contrived. That said, he is a fantastic artist, and has shown off some incredible projects.

I just wish he’d give credit to the people he’s “inspired by” (cough, ripped off ideas from).

This “immersive D&D table” is just one example: he presents the entire video as if the lazy susan idea is his and his alone, and he’s responsible for coming up with it – when people have been doing it for years before him (the DungeonCraft video is over four years old!). That said, his mixing tech with tabletop looks interesting (although it *does* look like it gets in the way quite a bit).

[pagan8thParticipant 10744xp 1]

I saw a video… I shared it… just thought it looked like a good idea…

Stealing other people ideas and not giving them credit is never good…

I’m currently only using my lazy susan to dispense salt, pepper, vinegar and other condiments 🙂

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