Southern Exposure - Exposure over sales

[Kat Miller]

I was somewhat dissapointed by the turnout for this Convention, it seemed there weren't as many people at Southern this year.  Half of the schedualled games folded, and the sales while good for WGP were not good for anyone else.

Still we half of our games did go off.  More people were introduced to games like Capes, PTA, MLwM and Burning Wheel.  I ran WPG to a full table on a friday morning, Mike ran it to a full table on Saturday. 

I think our efforts made a difference in exposing new games to the area.

I know Mike and I'll go back again next year, but I'd have a hard time suggesting this Con to Designers hoping to make sales.   

-kat

[Michael S. Miller]

I'd definitely agree with your assessment. I was selfishly happy because I parked my butt at the gaming table the whole time. But I feel for Tony.

My own memoir of the con is available on my LiveJournal

[TonyLB]

But I feel for Tony.

That's because you don't love the booth the way I do.  I was where I wanted to be.  It sounds like folks had a lot of fun in the RPG room.  Yay!  But at the booth there were people for whom the concept of (say) a mechanical Duel of Wits was a vista on a whole new world.  No matter how small or unmoneyed the convention, I always get a contact high off of peoples first moment of wonderstruck revelation.

[LordSmerf]

For what it's worth, I know you guys got some exposure.  We had a guy (Michael, I think) drop by the <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indie-netgaming">Indie Netgaming IRC channel the other night who said, and I quote, "I was just introduced to indie games and it's the most fun I've had roleplaying in years."  Now, he didn't specifically say it had happened at Southern Exposure, but he did mention that he got to play both Capes with Tony and With Great Power with Michael.  So, yeah, it definitely wasn't a total loss even if sales weren't as good as might have been hoped.

Thomas

[Andrew Morris]

I too was somewhat dissappointed by the turnout, both in general attendance and Forge members. On the positive side, I got to play Capes, which is always fun. Unfortunately, only one new player was exposed to the game. I had two slots scheduled, and at the first one, no one showed. About 20 minutes after the slot was scheduled to begin, a player at another game got up and asked if anyone else was showing. I told him I didn't know, and he asked if Capes worked as a two-player game. I said you need three or more to get real dynamism, but I'd certainly run it for one. He declined and returned to his other game. No one else showed up.

This was my first time running a game at a convention, so I was a bit disturbed by the lack of attendees. From what I learned by watching other GMs, though, it's not that uncommon, so I didn't take it to heart -- a good lesson learned. Heck, if Scott Lesher running Sorcerer has no players show up, I don't feel so bad.

For the second scheduled Capes game, the same player returned, but this time I'd roped my girlfriend into playing so that we'd have at least three players. It's not like I really had too do much to convince her, she's in my current Capes game and enjoys it. We got going slowly, but built up speed. Tony dropped in to play, and brought his trademark energy and enthusiasm. Another gamer dropped in to observe, and (when I had a free moment) I enthused about the game, while Tony acted like Joe-average-gamer instead of the designer. I don't think our observer ever realized who Tony was, which was somewhat amusing to me.

All told, I had fun, and if even one other person got enjoyment out of it, I achieved my goals. Plus I got to hang out with the cool Forge folks -- always an enjoyable way to pass time.

[Andrew Morris]

We had a guy (Michael, I think)

Hmm...Michael was the name of the player in my Capes game, so it could be the same guy. I don't know if he's the same one, though -- it's not exactly an uncommon name.

[Nathan P.]

Well, I really wish I could have made it. But due to act of God, it wasn't meant to be - while en route, I got rearended in a merge lane and my car was totaled. Not fishing for sympathy (shit happens) but...yeh. I really wish I had been able to meet everyone! Oh well. Next time!

[Luke]

I've done small con venues before and they are pretty decisive, either you're the center of attention and you're having a great time, or it's dead. Southern Exposure was one of the latter. We gave it a good effort, but it was ultimately disappointing. And I don't know if it was an attendance issue. It seemed to me that there were enough folks wandering about to make a good small con. But I felt there was a disconnect with the con organizers -- they set it up and ran it as if it were a mid-tier con (600+): registration desk, event wall, many gaming rooms, dealer's room. The events were all dispersed across a fairly big area and the rooms were largely empty so there was no energy to tap, no place to make a show of it. All in all, it makes me appreciate the game days that we run here in NYC.

-L