Having just left Worldcon, we weren't ready to do anything too big. We attended ZonCon, a small startup convention. No pictures, no exciting details. Sorry, it was pretty quiet. However, that changed with our attendance at EveCon '99, January 1-3.
As you can see, as soon as Steve Brinich showed up Friday night with a box of goodies, we doctored the game-schedule board to reflect our favorite topics. 8^) The board was a little light on games at this point, but it filled up darn quick Saturday morning.
I wish this picture (of Kill Dr. Lucky) had come out better. As it was, I reduced the size to make it less painful on the eyes. The players are represented by the little plastic dinosaurs out of Dino Hunt, and Dr. Lucky is a large plastic flashlight with arms and legs. Don't ask.
Now we're cookin' with gas! It's pretty clear that everyone here is
playing OBD all-Cthulhu INWO ("The Disaster Epic"). Clearly visible on
the left is a power structure with Cthulhu and a devastated Place, where
in the middle we can see a stack of Groups, Plots, discarded plots, a Rogue
Boomer, Holy Grail, Earthquake Projector, Boy Sprouts, and other stuff.
Action Tokens? Monopoly houses and playing pieces. Again, don't ask.
EveCon report
I walked into the 'con around noon on Friday, got my photo badge (they caught me at an especially psychotic-looking moment), and moved to check out the game room. I put my bags down down when I discovered that I'd showed up early (almost nothing was happening yet) and started to sort my stuff in preparation for setting up times for games.
One of the dealers walked past handing out cards for when the dealer room was open. This helped set the tone for the convention:
"Welcome to the Den-o-Sin! Featuring leather masks, a variety of floggers, cuffs, collars, toys and more!! We do Custom Leather Work.
Ask about our 'grope the customer' policy!!
(Hot stinky monkey sex has been known to happen.)"
I introduced myself to the Gaming Czars and began to schedule games. When Steve Brinich showed up we redecorated their schedule board with INWO posters. :) Although I wasn't taken up on it to any great degree, I also posted an offer to share any of the games I'd brought with me if people wanted to use them. Turns out I had 16 games with me. Sheesh.
(INWO, INWO-SubGenius, Awful Green Things from Outer Space, Tribes, Dino Hunt, Kill Dr. Lucky, Give me the brain, Bitin' off Hedz, Before I kill you Mister Bond, The very clever pipe game, Parts unknown, Falling, Lunch Money, Once upon a time, Fluxx, and Cosmic Wimpout.)
That evening, my scheduled 'INWO-SubGenius' game was cancelled in favor of doing a One-Medium-Sized Deck game. (We had 5 players, and I wasn't going to turn anyone away.) I used The Disaster Epic, and it went very differently than it had in the past...the two most powerful cards were the Center for Disease Control and Back to the Salt Mines. The CDC kept nuking cards in the uncontrolled area and the guy who owned BttSM kept adding it to every attack on a Place. As players were eliminated, I showered them with bumper stickers, cards, and other goodies. The winner accepted the Polish INWO set, but didn't exactly know what he'd do with 'em...he doesn't read Polish.
After the game, I was approached by one of the gaming czars, who had read my little notice on the schedule board about sharing games, and asked me to come on stage during the opening ceremonies and be introduced. Not a problem. Nothing like a little exposure for me as a MIB/Monkey...
Saturday we did a built-deck INWO demo/game. Not nearly as exciting as the previous day. All the cards were provided by the MIB's in the game, as none of the participants had brought theirs with them. (One was a newbie; we spent some time teaching him the particulars of the game prior to starting.)
After the game I went to the Costume show, and then was nabbed for a gaming-folk-planning session for next year. EveCon is one of three conventions run by these folks (FanTek) and they were looking for support for their July convention (CastleCon) and EveCon next year. I've got contact information for their gaming czars, and we'll set things up for the next one with plenty of time, as opposed to this one... :)
Today (Sunday) things were pretty quiet. We set up a Dino Hunt demo, but when no one approached, we started to play. *Then* we got participants. ;)
Steve Brinich ran an INWO game which he said went very well. I missed it, as I was running a game at the same time.
Overall, this was a very cozy, happy convention. Although I was asked to volunteer 3 or 4 times, I resisted the attacks to Control and avoided any problems along those lines. The convention was very well run and everything seemed to go smoothly. Reps from Decipher, Games Workshop, the folks who make the MIB game, and the folks who make the B5 game were all supposed to be there; the only one who didn't make it was the B5 person...she cancelled because she was concerned about the weather.
The only thing that annoyed me was the fact that we found out *two minutes late* that a guy in the dealer room had neuralyzers for sale at $5 a pop. He'd sold out by the time I got there.
All in all, a good convention. Any questions?
Seth
NE US RD MIB
And don't forget the other 1999 pages...
JohnCon '99
Balticon '99
Castlecon '99
Tad & Craig's Excellent Party
'99
PhilCon '99
