Dragonfight 2007

[Spence]

OK it is nearly here, August 10th - 12th, 2007.

I thought I would bring up the idea of having a Hero gathering during Dragonflight. A basic meet and greet to put names with faces. Currently there are 21 people listed in the "Puget Sound Hero Gamers Roll Call" thread and with some of them still searching for a game (especially down south) this would be a great time to let them all meet up.

What do you think?

[Brother Dom]

The wife unit and I will be there. we go almosr every year.

[Michael Hopcroft]

I would love to come up from Portland, but have no idea how I can work it either financially or physically. Any sort of long-distance travel these days causes my back to scream bloody murder, plus I don't have a room or anything.

[ngross]

I may be able to show up. Everything is up in the air right now. Our little one's due date is tomorrow, so we are on baby watch. Hence the pensive mood. :)

It is our first one. I know that you are never fully prepared when you first become a parent, but I think that I am as ready as I can be. And prepared for the loss of sleep.... :)

[Spence]

Time to pull this back up to the top. Who all will be there and do we plan on having a Hero get together over lunch or something?

[The Monster]

I'll be there - but I don't have time for lunch!
Let's see, I'm running events Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, and SUnday morning (plus private game Saturday morning). This is ridiculous (admittedly, when I sent the events in, I didn't know about the private game). The only free slots I'll have is Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. I dunno when I'll arrive Friday, and by Sunday I'll be even worse a drooling idiot than I normally am.
But I'd be happy to say Hi any time during that weekend!

[Spence]

I'll be there - but I don't have time for lunch!
Let's see, I'm running events Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, and SUnday morning (plus private game Saturday morning). This is ridiculous (admittedly, when I sent the events in, I didn't know about the private game). The only free slots I'll have is Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. I dunno when I'll arrive Friday, and by Sunday I'll be even worse a drooling idiot than I normally am.
But I'd be happy to say Hi any time during that weekend!

I have been trying to register for the Sunday Pulp game but they still haven't turned it on. 10 days out???? It was the actual reason I preregistered way back.

[CorPse]

I'm afraid I'm in post-wedding getting my life back together mode!

Let me know how everything turns out... and if there's going to be a place outside of the convention proper where there's going to be a group meal, please let me know and I'll do my best to be there.

[Spence]

I'm afraid I'm in post-wedding getting my life back together mode!

Let me know how everything turns out... and if there's going to be a place outside of the convention proper where there's going to be a group meal, please let me know and I'll do my best to be there.

I'd really like to have a Hero get together/lunch/dinner, but getting Gamers to agree on anything is like herding cats.....:eek:

[ngross]

I am actually backing out of Dragonflight this year. The little one has been keeping both my and my wife really busy. I could not in good conscious abandon my wife for the weekend. I thought about hitting only one or two games. But, I also have family visiting. So, see you all next year (I hope).

Norm.

[CorPse]

I'd really like to have a Hero get together/lunch/dinner, but getting Gamers to agree on anything is like herding cats.....:eek:

I hear that :D

[CorPse]

So, how did the Con go?

[Spence]

The Con was actually a lot of fun. I really like them using this venue rather than the old UW one.

The only thing I thought was really odd was on Sunday the first gaming session started at the same time the Dealer room opened. It meant I had to cancel my Sunday game, Monsters Pulp Hero. I know one of the dealers and had left my RPG bag and stuff at their booth Sat night and they locked the Dealer Room before my last Sat game ended.

But lets see what did go right ;)

I mostly played in wargames,

Kursk! a Flames of War game. It was fun. The system is a bit abstract for me, and WW2 land isn't my fav gaming period. But FoW turns out to be a good game. Great as an intro to wargaming, and still good for faster play games where you don't have hours to fight it out.

Legends of the Galactic Heroes using Starmada rules. The first time I have used Starmada rules. The rules were at their simplest form, but their were 60+ ships on the board. I showed up late and Larry let me have two of his squadrons, 6 and 5 ships.

A Space 1889 Skirmish game using Sword and the Flame(?) rules. This was a blast. All I can say is :celebrate I had a company of Martian Sepoys and a company of Naval Infantry, that both got wacked.

I got nailed and destroyed in all of the games but I had some fun and got to sample some good systems.

I was really bummed about missing the Pulp Hero game. But I will probably pick up the Starmada rules.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Does anyone have the dates for Dragonflight 2008 yet? It' been too bleeping long since I've been to a good game convention.

[Spence]

Does anyone have the dates for Dragonflight 2008 yet? It' been too bleeping long since I've been to a good game convention.

When I get home I dig them up. I am pretty sure they are in the pamphlet. They were pre-reg'ing next years con at a discount during '07.

[Spence]

Does anyone have the dates for Dragonflight 2008 yet? It' been too bleeping long since I've been to a good game convention.

Doesn't Portland have a con in the near future?

[CorPse]

The only thing I thought was really odd was on Sunday the first gaming session started at the same time the Dealer room opened. It meant I had to cancel my Sunday game, Monsters Pulp Hero. I know one of the dealers and had left my RPG bag and stuff at their booth Sat night and they locked the Dealer Room before my last Sat game ended.


Sorry you missed out on that crunchy Hero goodness, but it sounds like you had a good time.

[CorPse]

Doesn't Portland have a con in the near future?

Yeah, I think GameStorm is coming up in March?

[Michael Hopcroft]

Yeah, I think GameStorm is coming up in March?

Yes, but it has always been much, much friendlier to board and Eurogames than to RPGs. In fact, they usually end up with venues where roleplaying is virtually impossible (all game events in three or four big, loud rooms).

[CorPse]

Yes, but it has always been much, much friendlier to board and Eurogames than to RPGs. In fact, they usually end up with venues where roleplaying is virtually impossible (all game events in three or four big, loud rooms).

I think a notable exception might have been when they had Steve Long as a guest of honor. Made the trip up from LA, when I was still living down there.

I've been to several regional cons and most of the big ones. I'm afraid the loud room with lots of tables is almost standard. I've yet to be to an event in or around Seattle, other than a very small one, but even that had many games in one room.

[Spence]

I think a notable exception might have been when they had Steve Long as a guest of honor. Made the trip up from LA, when I was still living down there.

I've been to several regional cons and most of the big ones. I'm afraid the loud room with lots of tables is almost standard. I've yet to be to an event in or around Seattle, other than a very small one, but even that had many games in one room.

I think that is the standard. I also think it is because a con venue isn't aimed enhancing the individual game, but rather at showcasing as many systems/games as possible.

In fact that was why I stopped going to Dragonflight when it was at the UW. Each game was scattered and hidden away in individual rooms rendering the entire "con concept" useless. For me anyway. While I did play in a full set of games, the high point was getting to see all the other games in play.

[CorPse]

In fact that was why I stopped going to Dragonflight when it was at the UW. Each game was scattered and hidden away in individual rooms rendering the entire "con concept" useless. For me anyway. While I did play in a full set of games, the high point was getting to see all the other games in play.

And on my side of the fence I like it when each game has its own space. (Like the way that the Strategicon conventions are handled in LA.) It leaves a lot more room for subtlety in game play and everyone can actually hear the GM!

But I'm an RP junkie and really like to focus on the game at hand.

[Spence]

And on my side of the fence I like it when each game has its own space. (Like the way that the Strategicon conventions are handled in LA.) It leaves a lot more room for subtlety in game play and everyone can actually hear the GM!

But I'm an RP junkie and really like to focus on the game at hand.

Nothing wrong with that in anybodies book

DF2007 wasn't bad though. They avoided the mega rooms thing where you have 15-20 games trying to happen in the same box. DF2007 placed their RPG tables through a series of rooms and nooks so that the most in one room was six tables. They were far enough apart and the games scheduled in a way that I never noticed bedlam or the need for anyone to strain to hear or need to shout. Of course I only observed the RPG's this time around. Hopefully someone who RPG'd at DF will pipe up with a first hand account/review.

For me it was perfect. I could wander around a relatively small area and see several different games. It was quite enough I could stand back so as to not interupt the games in anyway and still hear what was going on.

Kind of as much of the best of both worlds as can be done.

[CorPse]

Sounds nice...

Hopefully my life won't be so nuts next summer and I'll be able to attend!

[Spence]

Does anyone have the dates for Dragonflight 2008 yet? It' been too bleeping long since I've been to a good game convention.


When I get home I dig them up. I am pretty sure they are in the pamphlet. They were pre-reg'ing next years con at a discount during '07.

I looked through the con pamphlets and there are no dates listed. The Website hasn't been updated either.

Sorry :(

[The Monster]

I actually enjoyed Dragonflight more than I expected. Through a series of circumstances, I ended up running events every time slot from Friday evening (7PM) through Sunday afternoon (2PM) (except for midnight, and I got too old to do midnight several years ago).
My one public Hero event - Depths of Evil, Pulp Hero - on Sunday morning turned out to have two young kids as players, and trned into more a laugh-out-loud comedy than a real adventure. It was actually a nice shift, and help recharge a bit after a long weekend of running. I though I'd be dead & insane by Sunday afternoon, but came out of it reasonably intact, for a con weekend.

As far as physical arrangements, I kind of miss the dorm rooms at the old *Seattle University* (not UW) location - while they were kind of isolated, it was really nice to be able to have one's own separate space for a game, especially RPGs which can get rambunctious. I saw some GMs get creative with creating their own atmosphere, since they knew they'd have dorm room to work with (the best was the Twin Peaks game which had coffee and cherry pie and a VCR playing tapes of the show).
I'm OK with the current arrangement, though - the medium-sized rooms with 4-6 tables were OK for the most part. One session I ended up with some rather overloud D&D players next table, which was annoying, and I would have liked to have had one table removed from the room in general, due to noise level. But it does seem to be the general rule for conventions that RPGs get shoved together in a few larger rooms, so one does what one can. If I could make one change to the room, I would have made it a high ceiling, to give the noise somewhere to go besides across to other tables.

The big rooms I've run at Game Storm worked well enough; occasional noise issues, but nothing insurmountable. And it is nice to be able to wander through and watch/listen to games you're not in.

AFAIK, dates are not set for DF2008. The next significant con I'm aware of in this area is GameStorm. There's a small game day coming up (November?), which last year was at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park.

[Karmakaze]

I show 8/8-10/2008. (It's not on my upcoming.org list because I don't have a confirmed location yet)


AFAIK, dates are not set for DF2008. The next significant con I'm aware of in this area is GameStorm. There's a small game day coming up (November?), which last year was at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park.

I have something called Foolscap (http://www.foolscapcon.org/) in September...