QC Game Fest 2017: Post-convention reportNow that the dust has settled somewhat and I've gotten a decent-ish amount of sleep, I wanted to report on a fantastic weekend of gaming.
We got everything ready on Friday night, and we had loads of volunteers who came in to help haul everything into the building. The Davenport River Center was a great improvement over last year's venue, and we've apparently already booked it again for next year. We had lots more elbow room, and even a couple of conference rooms for seminars. I helped get stuff inside the building, and then prepped the Grindhouse for its Saturday morning run. By the time I had that finished, everything was pretty much done. Everyone went to get food, and after eating I wound up at the
Analog Arcade Bar half a block away. I bumped into other con staffers, and an old gamer friend who'd just moved back to the area. We caught up over beers and classic arcade games.
Saturday: I rolled in leisurely at 9:00 (since my prep was done the night before), and got things set up. The defending Grindhouse champion from Gamicon earlier this year helped me haul everything inside, and as I got things ready the players began to gather. The 13th run of the Grindhouse Arena was just as fun as always. It was extra special this time though, as my son finally got to play for his first time in the event. He loved it.
During the Grindhouse run I'm pretty busy, but I know there were a bunch of C-Teamers hosting a podcasting seminar at the same time. I did get to say quick hellos to everybody, but was just too damn swamped to stop and visit at all.
After wrapping up the Grindhouse (for the first time ever, there was a tie. We had to have a roll-off to determine the Grand Champion!) I snarfed down a quick supper before running my Dread: Terror in Paradise game. As usual, Dread was both fun and deadly. This run was actually my deadliest ever - only one of the PCs survived to the very end of the game, but was still able to pull off the win.
After that, I crawled back to my car and went home to get a bit of sleep before doing it again in the morning. I think I finally got to bed around 1AM.
Sunday: My son and I were up and out the door early. We stopped to pick up my niece (this was her first convention ever), and the three of us spent the day having all kinds of fun. UTM Jr. got in on a really cool-looking Escape the Death Star game, while my convention-noob niece and I hopped into some Play to Win games. We didn't actually win any, but still had a good time.
Hoyuk is fun, and
Resistance was so much fun that I immediately went over to one of the vendor booths and picked up my own copy.
Sunday afternoon I ran Fuzzy Heroes again, and had a good turnout. I think there were about eight players total, including my kinfolk kids, and everybody had a great time with the stuffed animals vs. action figures war game. By the time that was done I was pretty much wiped out, and we loaded up all the toys and headed for home.
I had every bit as much fun as I'd hoped for this weekend. I got to introduce my son and niece to the Grindhouse, I won a copy of Twilight Imperium in the JDRF charity raffle (!!!), and I got to help put on a fantastic local gaming convention.
Attendance was up. The inaugural 2016 con had 240 attendees, and this year we were up to 340. I'm so damn proud to be part of the team who made this happen.
I think we're gonna do this again next year.