Gateway 2015 Wrapup

[mook]

Yummy food would be nice, but I think the timing would be a challenge. There's a one-hour break between the first two RPG slots, and a two-hour break between the second two. Between getting the car back, driving there, ordering, waiting, eating, driving back, reparking, getting to the room... too rush-rush for me.

I miss the Subway that even *I* could walk to from the Sheraton. Luckily, I could eat pizza every meal, every day for a week!

[Deleted]

I'll hopefully do a proper write up some time this weekend but just wanted to post a quick thank you to everybody for making my time at Gateway totally unforgettable, I probably had the best weekend of gaming I've had in years. If I'd been going on my own I'd have had a great time but the Happy Jacks community are fucking awesome and elevated the experience to a whole new level. Special shout outs to SirGuido and HyveMynd (who weren't even at the con) for the twitter support when my social anxieties almost got the best of me at the start of the weekend and to tomes for giving me the run down on how everything worked while I was confused and jet lagged (ie most of the weekend).

In terms of con organisation I'd say it was one of the best run that I've been to, sign up sheets were available, all the rooms and tables were clearly labelled and the staff that I interacted with were all extremely helpful. Likewise I thought the 3-4 RPGs per room worked really well, while it got occasionally noisy it wasn't (for the most part) overbearing, cramped or too hot.

The only two things I had issues with were the website (it didn't seem to like my phone too much and kept logging me out, I'll be sending an email to the addresses already posted) and the proliferation of speaker systems in games. While I appreciate how much they can add to a game I found it annoying when music from other games forced us to raise the volume at our own table. This was especially true in the Pacific Rim game where both our GM and the Spirit of 77 game were using speakers and I think if I'd been in the situation of having somebody playing music while I was GMing I'd have gotten extremely annoyed.

Minor complaints in all, thanks again to everybody for a great weekend.

[Stu Venable]

The soundboard thing is a strange development. Not sure what I think about it. Mook ran a game with that in the same room I was GMing in, and it wasn't distracting. There were only a few soundbites that I even noticed, and they weren't at an objectionable volume.

But I can definitely see how that trend could lead to some bad gaming environment is some of the less (ahem) tactful members of our hobby decide to do it.

That could become a problem.

[mook]

Sept 11, 2015 14:06:04 GMT -8 Stu Venable said:

Mook ran a game with that in the same room I was GMing in, and it wasn't distracting. There were only a few soundbites that I even noticed, and they weren't at an objectionable volume.

Nice! I'm very glad to hear that. Can you diiig it?

Sept 11, 2015 14:06:04 GMT -8 Stu Venable said:

But I can definitely see how that trend could lead to some bad gaming environment is some of the less (ahem) tactful members of our hobby decide to do it.

"[burp] Anyone mind if I play loud recordings of my uncle slaughtering hogs on his farm as a background loop for the game? [scratch]"

[plusx2a]

@whodo I am so very glad that you had a great time at Gateway. It's always great to get a fresh perspective from someone who hasn't been attending for years. I tip my hat to all of those who went out of their way to be helpful to other attendees. I think the RPG community at this con is the greatest group of people in this place. But I am biased. If you had any issue with the website, I highly recommend that you contact the e-mails I listed above and let your voice be heard. Please point out the lengths to which you went to attend. It would help the community out in general.

I suspected that the sound enabled games would be an issue. There is very little I can do about that, but tomes and mook go about it the best possible way. They enter their games for early Friday and sometimes Monday on Mook's part. At that time, I can easily give them a room for themselves. Running a sound enabled game in the middle of Saturday can be troublesome since I have to fill ALL my space. I am seriously considering having sound enabled games in the Boardroom, but that is one table each time slot so I have to pick and choose. Don't worry Bill Roper I made a promise to you and I will deliver, but in general I might reserve that room for games where sound is a large part of the adventure. We will see how that works out.

[tomes]

Here's my summary stuff from the con (enjoy or no):

• Friday: www.supernovembergames.com/tomes-of-tomes/2015/9/7/gateway-2015-friday
• Saturday: www.supernovembergames.com/tomes-of-tomes/2015/9/8/gateway-2015-saturday
• Sunday/Monday: www.supernovembergames.com/tomes-of-tomes/2015/9/9/gateway-2015-sunday-and-monday

[mook]

Awesome wrap-up, Tomes! Looks like you had a blast.

I haven't done a con wrap-up yet, but I did post on "The Warriors" game particularly:

The Warriors - Complete Package (all the notes, maps, characters, etc., no commentary)
Creating the Game, Part 1 (walkthrough from initial idea to the finished docs above)
Creating the Game, Part 2

[tomes]

Sept 12, 2015 12:50:27 GMT -8 mook said:

Awesome wrap-up, Tomes! Looks like you had a blast.

I haven't done a con wrap-up yet, but I did post on "The Warriors" game particularly:

The Warriors - Complete Package (all the notes, maps, characters, etc., no commentary)
Creating the Game, Part 1 (walkthrough from initial idea to the finished docs above)
Creating the Game, Part 2

That was awesome! Love the step-by-step. To get in the mood I put the Warriors theme song in the background before reading the blog. Love that you broke it all down. Inspires me to do the same with my games.

[tomes]

plusx2a: OK, so I just registered today for BigBadCon that's in October, and they're website is so simple and clean. But, the coolest thing was that they used a staged registration.

Today registration opened at noon, however you were only allowed to register for 2 games. In a week, they'll let you register for more.

I really like that idea. This gives everyone a chance to get good games, and spreads the love around.

[plusx2a]

That sounds awesome tomes I will pass that on.

[Bill Roper]

Sept 11, 2015 16:53:47 GMT -8 plusx2a said:

I am seriously considering having sound enabled games in the Boardroom, but that is one table each time slot so I have to pick and choose. Don't worry Bill Roper I made a promise to you and I will deliver, but in general I might reserve that room for games where sound is a large part of the adventure. We will see how that works out.

I would cede my board room slot for it being able to be filled with sound-enabled games (such as Spirit of 77) as it helps us all.

[plusx2a]

For the greater good.

We will see how it pans out Bill Roper. As long as you are somewhat flexible on your scheduling I am pretty sure we can do both.

[D.T. Pints]

What about running games in actual rooms ? Are there rooms available with more meeting space ? It just seems that once you get all the weirdos in one hotel who cares where the actual game gets played ? I am utterly impressed with @whodo's pilgrimage to the west coast...5446 miles...vs 2345 miles for me...and would love to have a game with music (sound board) but wouldn't want to distract. What's the experience of the others ?

[radzap]

Running games in actual rooms has been done in the past...they're usually suuuuper sekrit invite only games. They're run with the caveat that if you make too much noise, hotel management will crash down on you. I suppose you could run games in a room during the day...buy doesn't that take all the naughtiness out of it?

[mook]

I've played a few (scheduled) games in private rooms, but it's usually been of the "Meet at the table as normal, notice the room is way too loud/foul/whatever, have the GM offer to play in their room/swear they're not a serial killer, everyone packs up and makes the trek to the room" variety.

It's certainly doable (they definitely rent bigger rooms with a small sitting area and a couch), but my main issues are:

1) It often feels awkward if I don't know at least one other person in the group.

2) It cuts an extra 5-10 minutes or even more out of the actual game while things are settled.

3) As GM, I've thought about just reserving a bigger room and running my games in it, which sounds perfect, except... it usually takes me about 20 minutes at a table to set up pre-game, and another 20 minutes (at least!) to pack up after (yeah, I know -- at this point, I accept it about myself ). So, I would basically need to know where the game was taking place before the scheduled start time, which isn't really possible without just having the players show up at the expected table and dictate "Hey, we're moving," which is crap. Alternatively, I could just choose to run my games off the official schedule, but that has its own host of problems.

I think the only way it would work for me is if I could somehow schedule my game at the Strategicon site but have the location set to my room, but even if that were possible, I don't know my room number until Friday when I show up, and I imagine a lot of players would balk at that.