Ubercon Aftermath!

Despite pre-convention ominious portent, Ubercon was an uber-blast! Worries that (a) our events were only publically posted the day that player registration closed (two days before the con) and (b) our events were not included in the on-site program, had me concerned that this con was going to be disastrous for us; if no one knew we were going to be there, would there be any players for our games?!? Merrily, the answer was "yes"; if you build it, they will come... It wasn't all "phantom all-stars to cornfield baseball diamond" magic for us; players just didn't materialize out of thin air. Pre-game and post-game, Jason (The Professor) was in full scouting mode for extra players and betwixt-game stragglers to fill in the ranks of the Arks.

We had four games on the sched: one on Friday night and three on Saturday. The Friday night game, Tomb of Horrors, had six players (2 noobs and 4 prior Uber players). This game was so enjoyable that we all agreed to continue the game into the Saturday morning time slot. During this transition, we lost one player but picked up two, bringing the player count to seven. The Saturday afternoon slot, Minotaur Meat!, had a solitary player, but then three players from Tomb of Horrors returned for even more WEGS-ing. This four-player game gave The Professor and El Willy some much needed respite from the prior seven person game. It also gave these players more WEGS action! The day concluded with From Dusk Til Dead, another seven-player game (4 returnees and 3 noobs). All in all, the games were a great mix of new players and experienced Wegshogs. We sold a couple of WEGS 101 sets and a bunch of skill decks.

We played... We sold... We conquered... Actually, the players were the conquerers. We got our butts kicked pretty bad in each game. The dice gods were not favoring our side of the table this time 'round!

Ubercon and Us...

Spent Friday night and Saturday at Ubercon, the "home" con of the mighty, mighty Wegshogs! Considered our home con because (a) it's in our backyard (not literally, just in NJ) and (b) was the con that we officially unveiled WEGS at many a-many year ago. That was in October 2005 (or Ubercon VI), a scant three years ago. We've hit every Ubercon NJ since. Despite this consistancy, I can't say we have a rabid following at Ubercon; we always have strong carry-over from the prior attendance (so folks that played at the last con generally show up to play some more at the next), but there's a big drop-off two cons out. I attribute this to the normal turnover from attendees. I just don't see the same players from two/three years ago at the cons. Ubercon has a tendency to jump around a bit in its location and scheduling; sometimes they've held a fall and a winter con, sometimes they've moved it out to the Great Lakes, and they seem to jump to new hotels every other con. Still, it's a persistant little con with a great home feel. It's small enough to feel like a high school graduating class; you could get to know everybody. That's a good-sized con for our merry WEGS-ish endeavors. (Aftermath notes will follow in next post!)

In Store Demo: Brothers Grim, NY

On GenCon Sunday, a guy named Gil came up to the booth and introduced himself as one of the owners of Brothers Grim Games and Collectibles on Long Island, NY. He had heard about WEGS from the local NJ/NY cons and was interested in having me demo in his store. I actually heard about the store, too, from one of the Jersey Hogs who frequented their booth at Dexcon (and who told them they need to stock WEGS). Thanks, Jason! As fate would have it, I had a wedding to attend on Long Island this month and so coordinated the demo for the day after. I arrived and set-up on a huge game table in the front of the store. The store had many game tables, there was a-plenty of space to play (huge asset to the store). The back of the store was jammed with Yu-Gi-Oh players from the time I got there until I left. The game tables around me were jammed with miniature guys painting their armies and getting ready for a huge throw-down tournament in a couple of weeks. It was great to see a store jammed with gamers all day long, and to hear the banter of a bunch of folks who all are part of the store's energy. As for the demo... I ran one demo that lasted about three hours. Had a total of five players who kicked the butt of everything I threw at 'em. There was nothing I could do to get them on the run! It was hard to show them the system had some bite to it, as they all handily dispatched everything that came their way. I had a great time - just frustrating for the guy who created the game!!! Arrggghh! As I left, I promised to return with more minions...

Con on the Cob Aftermath!

Games, Art, Freaks and Fun! That's how the con is billed on the COTC website, and it had plenty of each (me adding to the freak factor). GameWick Games set our banner up in the corner of the large gaming hall and then hunkered down for some WEGS-ing. The gaming hall was a big hotel banquet room that had about 20 tables set up for rpgs, boardgames, cards, etc. Relatively small, but tabletop gaming is not the primary purpose of the con; there's a whole music, movie, art blend, too. A very eclectic little con.

We had scheduled two demo slots and three full length games (5 events total). We had players for both demos, but only one game ran (Friday night's Dwarf Walks Into A Bar) . When no one showed for one of the games, I hung around the table a bit and managed to round up some players for another demo. Actually, the players rounded themselves up: a lady who played a demo at Origins saw me standing there, asked if I was doing anything and then summoned a couple of friends to see what WEGS was all about. Sad to say, we only sold a single book; but on the bright side, that's one more book sold at this con than we did last year (this being the first year we've attended)... The Cob is a good con to geek-out at, especially for local gamers. There's a good chance we'd do it again next year.

Got Hot?

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the cucina... A bounty of hot peppers from the gardens of El Willy. Assortment of habaneros, cayenne, peanut chiles, hinkelhatz (chicken hearts) and Czech black (which are actually red). This is what I do when I'm not rolling bones. Speaking of which, the fall con season begins. Three cons on the hit list: Con on the Cob (Akron), Ubercon (NJ) and MACE (North Carolina).