[Forge Midwest 2008] All things afterwards

[Zach]

My nametag identified me as an Ox from The Mountain Witch. There were other mini-character sheet ones including (I think) Bliss Stage and Don't Rest Your Head.

The short version is that I had a good time. The informality threw me off balance at first, but Saturday was a good day for meeting people and playing games. (I was wearing the brown Risk shirt and played Blazing Rose and Reality Police.)

Madison was an excellent choice for the location, but I'm entirely biased.

[SabreCat]

Huge thanks to everyone involved this weekend!  Due to a number of factors largely my own fault, I didn't get as much gaming in as I'd hoped, but what I did participate in was of fine quality.  Covert Generation (great color, slippery mechanics), In a Wicked Age (Anthology Engine indeed, I want to see it in longer-form play), and two sessions of my own Blazing Rose, with a dash of Mwahahaha! on Friday night.

Thanks especially to Tim for the gentle but insistent nudges that kept me from missing a couple of great opportunities, such as my conversations with Emily and gaming with Ron et al.  I'm looking forward to the next opportunity for such things!

[Tim C Koppang]

I had a blast, and would call the convention a success. Aside from playing Hero's Banner, Best Friends, Universalis, and Mountain Witch, I managed to snap a few pictures. There are more to come, but for now, feel free to browse these.

[williamhessian]

Tim, those are some great pictures. You've got a great eye for photography. The 030 picture is amazing.

Great work.

I have a few, less impressive, pictures on my Forge Midwest live journal entry: http://williamhessian.livejournal.com/1009.html

Tim i also stole one of your photos of Kelsey and myself with credit given, but I still wanted to ask permission to have stolen it.

[coffeestain]

I'm absolutely biased, since I'm a Madison native, but I thought the con was fantastic.  The Best Western was great with the already mentioned exceptions of 1) keeping us in water and 2) cleaning the room between days.

I have mixed feelings regarding the informality of the con.  I gamed pretty much non stop and didn't have any problems finding games or being involved, but it's hard to say in retrospect how much of that was the result of serendipity, my being more forceful, my knowing more people, or some combination of those factors in comparison to the first Forge Midwest (I skipped the second, stupidly).  I can see how someone new to this particular convention and the structure thereof could feel lost and ignored.  Conversely, I felt a lot of freedom with the lack of scheduling and I appreciated that casual, though still intense, fun.

The sales table wasn't a feature for me.  I suppose that for it to be a feature, it would have to include some demoing and such.  Simply having the games on display isn't enough for me, as a consumer.

As far as gaming, things were wonderful.  I was able to play some Blood & Bronze, My Life with Master, Dogs in the Vineyard, In a Wicked Age, Dust Devils, & The Mountain Witch.  I touched base with some old friends (Justice & Julie, I'm looking at you specifically) and played some great games with fantastic people I've never really talked with (Dave, Ron, Tim, Jae, Nick, Jason, Tobias, Nat, Jerry and others).  I can't wait until next year.

Regards,
Daniel

[jerry]

This was the first event of this kind I've ever been to; I'm glad I went. Every game I played was one I'd never played before. Every person I met was someone I'd never met before. Every missed opportunity just meant room for the next opportunity. On Sunday, after getting up after everyone else had already started games, I ended up able to observe Spione up to the first flashpoint, and then had a great time in Edward's Blazing Rose.

Apparently I missed the opportunity to play Don't Rest Your Head (one of the two games I'd really hoped to try), but I was either playing 44 or sleeping (or possibly telling my only middle east joke upstairs). The game of 44 was especially satisfying because I got my usual l'esprit d'escalier inspiration about ten seconds *before* my turn came to speak my epilogue, and was able to use one of robot control's Secrets to narrate a cool ending with one of my bonds.

The venue was good; the rooms were perfect for after-game socializing. All it really needs is more hours in the day.

Not having ever gamed at any other convention, the informality was everything I'd want: low pressure, high opportunity.

Dave, I did like using a new name tag every day, mainly because they were all so cool.

The only real disappointment was non-gaming-related. If anyone knows any good places to browse through records in Madison, let me know.

Three pictures that could have turned out better: http://www.godsmonsters.com/?ART=192

Jerry

[tylure]

I was at both of the Chicago area Forge Midwests and had decided, regardless of where it was held this year, I was going to stay at the hotel, so I was already expecting hotel costs.  The drive from Westmont to the other locations was at least 45 minutes (over an hour during rush hour), so I felt like I was missing something by heading home to sleep.  And parking at the second location was problematic if you weren't staying at the hotel.  I had a great time at both, and figured I'd go wherever it was this year as long as the distance wasn't so great that I had to fly (mostly for vacation time off from work reasons than anything). 

So I guess I'm saying I'm fine with the Madison location.  The drive from the Western Suburbs isn't bad (though I don't mind driving long distances anyway, so maybe I'm not the best judge of that) and the location itself was close to food (it was nice to be able to walk, even if the weather didn't cooperate) and the interstate.  The rooms were spacious and comfortable.  Breakfast was better than most hotel breakfasts.  I agree with the water and trash situation, but it seems that should be an easy fix.

And I had a great time at the convention itself.  I got to play Mwahahaha!, Dirty Secrets, Amazing Adventures (in the exciting, action-packed second half), Reality Cops, The Mountain Witch and Handy (I think I'm missing something from the list...)  I don't mind the informal setup myself.  On those occasions when I was without a game, I watched some games (Best Friends, Don't Rest Your Head and Dust Devils, all of which I'd like to try), which to me is about as entertaining as playing the game itself, especially if I've never played it.  It also gave me the opportunity to meet new people, which is cool.  I rather like the size of the convention as I can actually catch up with people I haven't seen in ages (as opposed to something like GenCon, where I ran into someone I went to high school with the first day I was there last year and never saw him again as we were playing totally different games all weekend) (Daniel in particular since it'd been a couple of years). I wasn't expecting gaming right off when I arrived on Friday.  Next year, I'll have to leave work a bit earlier so I don't miss out on the extra fun.

I think using the white board as advertisement for games for sale is a good idea, and maybe there can be some indicator that the creator is willing to run the game they created if enough people are interested.  Deciding on a time to set up a table and posting that on the board would be cool, too.  Might also be a good place to list things people want to playtest.

Thanks to those involved in the planning and organizing, as well as anyone who contributed stuff (Dave brought name tags and his big pile o' games, Ron hosted people in his room in the evening for game chat, Jae brought food (I know I ate a lot of those peanuts), game creators with stuff to playtest and/or sell, people who gave up their spot (or at least offered to) in a game because someone who had never played it before wanted in, people who contributed stuff I didn't actually see and people in general who were willing to strike up random conversation with total strangers).  There were a lot of great, fun, creative, considertate people among the attendees.

I took some pictures but haven't gone through them since I got home (it's been crazy here).  I doubt I've got anything that will top Tim's, though.

Anyway, it was good to see everyone again.  I'm looking forward to next year!

Juli

[GamerChick]

I weigh in belatedly to say that I also had a fanTAStic time!  One of these times, Ron, I will corner you into running Sorcerer for me!  In the meantime, drinking excellent beer (thanks for the pointer to the mega-grocery-liquor-store, Tim) and talking for hours will do. 

I didn't play as much as I wanted to, but that was as much my own doing as anything - I mysteriously crashed and burned on Saturday evening, but I really needed the quiet time/rest.

It's a heck of a long drive (the Garmin GPS is awesome, but it doesn't know about the Curse of the Ryan, and we spent 2 hours creeping across Chicago on the Ryan.  Which always happens to me if I drive on the Ryan, any time of night or day), but well worth it, and I had good company.  Who knew there was an indie gamer darned nearly next door?

I'll be back next year!

My photos are at http://picasaweb.google.com/Jaegamer/ForgeMidwest2008, and I will get around to captioning them eventually.  In the meantime, though, please feel free to email me or caption them yourself.

Jae