[GenCon Oz 2008] continued (split)

[Andrew Smith]

Thanks for the praise, Nathan.  It was invigorating to be part of it.

I also want to add the names of the folks who attended the game designers round table: Scott (muddlepud), Louise, Lon, Michael (Vulpinoid, and not to forget his plus one who patiently waited for us to finish our ramblings! - I'm sorry that I didn't get your name in my notes), Danica and Craig (who both came all the way from Perth for the con).  Thanks for your active contributions.  I think this was a valuable session and we should do it again next year.

[Vulpinoid]

I've gotta agree, GenCon Oz was a great experience.

I ran a total of fifty-four people through my system in several sessions (ranging from 5 to 8 players per session), their backgrounds stretched from history buffs who tried to pick apart continuity errors, through to those who tried to dismantle the games approach to quantum physics. From "Fed-with-a-spoon" D&D players through to a team with almost 60 years of Theatresports improvisational mayhem between the six of them.

I had players who enjoyed the game so much that they desperately wanted to play again, and a final session where a representative of a local retailer sat in on the session based on feedback she had heard from other participants.

Every session taught me something valuable about the game, and virtually every players gave me some insight about how it could be refined and improved through their play or through feedback once the game had been completed.

One of my biggest regrets is that I didn't get the chance to participate in some of the other indy games on offer.

We've already started to make plans for next year, as well as making plans to tour the Eighth Sea across the conventions all up and down Australia's eastern seaboard for the next year or so.

I've just come off a 1000km single day drive home, and I'm still hyped up on guarana at this stage...so I hope my enthusiasm for the past week is from the adrenaline and enjoyment of the con, and not the energy drinks in my veins.

V

[Peril Planet]

Of course it's a high on Gen Con!  Today was the first time I could write down anything logical about the Space Rat games I ran - it has taken four days to come down from that buzz.  It sounds like things went really, really well for the Eigth Sea.  Way to go!

I was really happy with the reception of Space Rat.  While I didn't run anywhere near as many games as you did, I did come away feeling very pleased that it held up to the play of strangers as it did with the other groups I have run for.  And I really had a blast - after my last game on Friday night I was on such a rush I went on to game until 2.30am!  I even managed to get Space Rat noticed enough to sell it to people that weren't even at Gen Con! 

My only real dissappointment of the entire con (I have two actually) were (a) not playing Eigth Sea (shame on me!) and (b) missing the Sunday afternonn game design seminar.  That will teach me for booking flights so far ahead!  I think that we have really tapped something important, as far as Australian gaming and cons go, and look forward to building on this in future years.

[muddlepud]

Finally back from my trip to Queensland.

GenCon Oz - Fantastic! The event worked better than expected. It was my initial intent to just run some games, I guess, for people who had and had not played the particular ones I was interested in running. What surprised me though, because I didn't even think about it, was that some players were introduced to new ways of gaming and new ideas in playing and storytelling. So on top of having fun in the session - that's totally a win.

Thanks to Nathan and Andrew for being involved and all the work and effort that went in to the menu design and running the games. Special thanks to Lon and Louise who backed us up with other games on offer. My brain is swimming with ideas for next year, but we'll need a bigger team, because the potential is both exciting and daunting!

I didn't get a chance to play Eighth Sea or Space Rat which was a shame - only managed to fill in for a session of Cold City when I had nothing else to do.

The Statistics
So we had the Indie Games Explosion running on the Friday and Saturday. There were 3 sessions per day, with 3 GMs available at each session.

Out of 90 potential spots for players - we had 70 spots filled, with some repeat players, and others asking about spots after the first day (and if there was anything going on the Sunday, which there was not sadly).

A good number of players introduced to new games and new ideas in gaming.

At least one player per one of my sessions run asking where they could find the game (I could only point them to our menu and respective websites).

From the 5 sessions I ran, I managed to run Primetime Adventures x2, Dust Devils x1, With Great Power x1 and Cold City x1. Wish I had a chance to run Hero's Banner too since I'm eager to get into some more of that. My back up GMs, Lon and Louise ran a session of Cold City and Primetime Adventures respectively.

Mention of the Indie Games by a player in a seminar towards the end of the con about their experience.

Looking Into The Future
From the discussion we had, we're looking to expand the number of sessions, GM numbers and games available for next year.

We had the idea to look at a team of about 10 GMs.

So far, I've had offers from 3 GMs to be involved and 1 Minion (a non GM who can help do desk admin and all that).