Glad you made it! 
Hopefully I wonât wake you up when I get inâŚ
Currently in phili right now. For PAX obviously. Otherwise I would go post in a thread titled in Philadelphia for no reason.
Day 1: Setup day. Russ made it early this morning. Turns out he can get from the airport to the hotel faster than I can get from the hotel room to the lobby. Philadelphia is a proper city, for better or worse --- crowded, tall buildings, lots of shops downtown, lots of traffic. We walked just a couple of blocks to the convention center, checked out the wonderful Reading Terminal Market, picked up some things at CVS, and made our way back to the convention center to meet up with Craig, get badges, say hello to other GtG folks and Sidekicks, and start helping out.
There had been drama the day before with the initial setup. There's always some contention with union employees and rules about doing the setup. GtG staff want to jump right in and get everything set up, but union rules require union employees to do various things. Philadelphia has four different unions working the convention center and I guess ... well I didn't follow the details but I guess relations with some of them and GtG weren't perfect.
But it's all been sorted out now. I did things like setting up games in the GtG room, cleaning the display cases, and hanging lanyards. It was a fairly low key day, at least for me. All I had to do was some grunt work. Others have a lot more responsibility, so I imagine it wasn't quite as care free. Had a fun, if somewhat frenetic trip to Reading Terminal for lunch. Found a really good dim sum place for dinner. Had a tasty if expensive set of drinks and late night food at another restaurant.
In the evening Citizens showed up to get badges and t-shirts and to practice games. The Envoy program is lending about five people to GtG to run games. I don't know a lot about this program yet, but it seems to be a way for people to volunteer to run games, possibly in exchange for some sort of product or other credit. I helped teach some people Spirit Island and sat in on an Exoplanets explanation. I need to get a reminder about how Lazer Ryderz plays, too. Adam, Paul, Christopher, and Nolan were playing some sort of demo at one of the tables. My guess is it was a pitch from a game designer. Having the room open late meant that more than a few people wandering around came in to see what was going on. We were happy to talk to them about the games and try to get them excited to come back during the show itself to try them out.
We're going to be running full sessions of the games in the room and demos in the booth. Have to be careful, then, to set up things a little differently in each place. Spirit Island, for instance, will be using the power progression in the booth, but not in the room. Russ and I are middle management for the room, with Jodie having overall responsibility. The room will be open from 9:30 (or maybe 10? Well, probably whenever it's properly staffed) to something like 10pm. Or, I suppose, whenever we're able to keep it going -- we'll see if that's earlier or later. That appears to be one of the big benefits of the side room. We can keep running games long after the exhibit hall closes. This convention being brand new, GtG doesn't know as much about what to expect, so a lot of the plans are more up in the air/figure it out as things progress.
A friend has asked me to check on whether an expansion for a game they like is available, so at some point I'll need to get to the Stronghold Games' booth, but aside from that I don't have any agenda besides helping GtG. For my own sanity, though, I'll need to take some breaks and check out what's going on elsewhere. The scope of the convention is maybe a quarter or third the size of GenCon. There's plenty of booths and it's a lot bigger than what I remember the board game parts of PAX from 2012/2013 being, but it's sort of cute-sized compared to what's at GenCon. Still, considering BGG.con is the same weekend, there's a LOT of vendors here. PAX Unplugged doesn't seem to have ticketed events like GenCon does, so all the games we run in the side room will be first come, first served and at whatever time people happen to show up. There are six tables in the room -- round tables, annoyingly -- with Spirit Island, Lazer Ryderz, Fate of the Elder Gods, OblivAeon, and SotM RPG at five of them, and then the sixth alternately being used for Exoplanets and Sleepy Hollow.
Alright, that's all the time I've got for a brain dump. Gotta go get ready for today.
Almost forgot! I got a chance to observe Christopher and Adam playing OblivAeon. Adam's apparently only played OblivAeon a few times. I didn't see the whole game, and, indeed, I think they may have had to stop playing before they finished. From what I'd seen things were going poorly for the heroes. Adam and Christopher were each playing two heroes, and they each had at least one incap. In the first round I think all the heroes took more than ten points of damage and a couple of them may have been reduced to single digits that quickly. Och, I wish I'd payed closer attention, but I was only half following what was going on in their game.
Day 2: Russ and I are Sidekicks for the GtG room (as opposed to the booth), so that's pretty much all I saw of the convention. I gather there were various tournaments, panels, and performers around the conventions, but I know little of what it's really like.
With the hall not open yet when the room opened, we had a bunch of people. Soon after ten the room had quieted down as most people headed to the dealer hall. The six tables were almost always fully in use, with a few people occassionally waiting to play a game or buying something. Our volunteers are great! Everyone is willing to pitch in and help out where needed. We have a group of five volunteers from the Envoy program who showed up the shift before theirs to make sure they learned some of the games they didn't yet know, and many volunteers showed up early or stayed late. Our thanks to Maggie, Carlo, Sam, Codie, Ryan, Dan, Doug, Adam, Joe, and Travis who helped out in the room. If I am leaving anyone out, I am so, so sorry.
PAX Unplugged has 'Enforcers' volunteers who work for PAX and are there to help out the various vendors and organizers with whatever came up. Our enforcers were always available, coming by several times to check in and see if we needed anything. After a while I started to fear they were getting bored and wondered if I could come up with something for them to do, but they assured me that wasn't necessary.
Christopher led off the SotM RPG sessions and that was the only table that we were taking reservations for. They filled up so fast that GtG figured out how to run some more so they could open up some more slots. We've snuck in a seventh table for tomorrow.
The room is set up with tables in most of it, starting from the front, with a counter in the back center and right made up of road cases with sheets over them and a GtG logo, plus a display case with merch in the back left, with Mr. Chompses on top. Behind the display case there's a small table and a few chairs so GtG can hold meetings with customers/collaboraters.
We saw a few costumers! NightMist, Baron Blade, and Citizen Dawn. And, perhaps most impressive, someone (one of our Citizens?) had a tatoo of the Sentinel Comics logo on his inner bicep. He took a picture with Adam and Christopher, who were pretty stoked.
Jodie and Ray were working the register. Mara and Paul and Christopher and Adam were all in and out. I saw Chris Kirkman and Darrel Louder plus Nicole and Anthony (Lazer Ryderz). Russ was running Spirit Island for a while and I was running OblivAeon for a bit, but usually we were greeting people and telling them about the games. Lots of people wondered in just kind of wondering what the room was about. Most of the PAX rooms have a schedule and or description on them, but the GtG room is different. There's a huge banner in the hallway, but no real description of what's going on inside.
I heard that sales in the exhibit hall, both fot GtG and generally have been modest, but steady. I hear PAX Unplugged has 12,000 attendees, a fifth the size of GenCon, but it's also physically smaller. Still, it's a lower density (not that that's hard -- GenCon is often a _CRUSH_), though it can still have its bottlenecks.
The Reading Terminal is right next door. Although SUPER crowded, it's got an awesome variety of food in a cool farmers market atmosphere. I ducked over there for a reasonably quick Indiana lunch. Russ said he was able to get in and out in 7 minutes.
I'd arranged dinner with my sister-in-law about a mile away, so ducked out of a lot of the evening, but came back around 9pm to see the room winding down. When most other people headed home around 10 I ended up with some time to kill before meeting some other folks at 11 and wandered the halls a bit. Not a lot going on at that point. I hear PAX Unplugged closes the convention at midnight, unlike GenCon which is 24 hours. I poked my nose in a few areas where some gaming I didn't know much about was occurring, and ended up in a free play area with old school board games. Me and a stranger played Master Mind! He wasn't able to guess my four peg code in 12 guess, ending up with one Red and three Whites.
... anyway, it was a good day, if long and tiring. Time to get some sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow.
So, I was super bummed when I heard that the Sentinels RPG was filled up for the entire weekend. It was at the top of my list of things that I was excited for but I was under the impression that there'd be sign ups for each day, each morning so I guess I missed out. Is there any chance that with that additional table, there are slots available again?
Sounds like things are going well there, that's good! :D
I can't recall how far it is from the convention center (it's been at least 10 years since I was there for an ACS meeting), but I remember really liking the pub-meal I had at a place called Eulogy. If you're lucky, you can even snag an actual coffin for a table.
Noted: Written on day 3 but I didn't have Internet access because the hotel changed the code, so references to 'today' may seem a bit odd below ...
Day 3: The Longest Day
I'm not sure there was an advertised gathering of costumed heroes, but we got a sizable collection of them today. Great stuff. Always lots of fun to see people dressed as Sentinels characters.
I didn't hear any word about how sales went today. The SotM starter kit is sold out. Nothing else is, I think.
We were busy all day on every table in the room. I hear the same was true or close to true in the booth. We added a seventh table and had two, sometimes three SotM RPG sessions running simultaneously in the room, plus some 20 minute intros running sometimes in the booth.
The Envoy team were in the room for the morning and the evening shifts giving us plenty of people to run games so we could send some Citizens over to the booth, but in the afternoon we were scrambling a bit. I ran a few Fate games, and an attendee dressed as Baron Blade took an impromptu OblivAeon game (and got all the punches on his punchcard he wanted as partial thank you).
I didn't actually properly learn Lazer Ryderz until late in the evening tonight. I'd played in two GenCons ago, but hadn't refreshed myself on the rules. I'm really thankful for the sessions running Spirit Island and Fate of the Elder Gods at Whos Yer Con. Without those I would have been nearly useless in helping to run games.
We actually had nine demos going at once in the room at one point -- one on each table, plus I was using a nook at the front of the room to demo standard SotM and Chris Kirkman had claimed part of the counter in the back to show Sleepy Hollow.
Fate of the Elder Gods seemed to be a big hit with everyone I saw play it. Spirit Island and Lazer Ryderz continued to be nearly universally not just liked, but loved. People seemed to really like OblivAeon, too, despite the long play times.
Oh! Excited to share this. That demo of standard SotM we played? We lost! It was Haka, Ra, and Fanatic vs. Blade in Insula Primalis. My teammates enjoyed pushing their luck (like letting the Volcano burn everyone), so we were focusing on hitting Blade rather than worrying about HP. Fanatic was getting ready to use Wrathful Retribution to win the game when a Primordial Plant Life knocked her out. Even so, Ra and Haka got Blade down to mid single digits and nearly had the game won when Blade pulled out Consider the Price of Victory and took them both down. Despite that the players were very excited to get the game. And they hadn't even come over to the room. In a rare moment of a game not being full of players, I'd gone out into the hall to try to flag down passerbys to fill the game. By the time I'd encouraged this couple to come into the game, the game only had one spot, but I showed them around and encouraged them to at least try SotM. Reminds me of the olden times when we SotM was new. I get the sense that there's still a large market of attendees who could be tapped for SotM.
It's been interesting searching for the right way to interact with people who wander into the room. It's often people who are just curious what's going on in the room because unlike the rest of PAX, there's no signage explaining it. Unlike GenCon, where lots of companies have siderooms, GtG seems to be the only ones who have a sideroom.. Jodie explained that it was easiest to just reuse the GenCon setup so they asked PAX for the same size booth and a side room, but most other exhibitors seemed to have settled for a smaller presence. That means not only that GtG is the biggest booth at the show, but has this side room that doesn't fit the rest of the PAX signage.
ANYWAY, I evolved my approach to focus more on striking up a rapport with people rather than diving right in to see what questions about the game they had. Their first question, really, was what is this room for? Usually a bit of chatting about what they're wearing or how the rest of the con has been going was enough to get them comfortable and interested in what might be happening in the room. Then a little bit of description of the games could feel them out about which one they might be more interested in than others. Unfortunately, with full games going, there was rarely a chance for them to sit down and actually play a game, so the majority of these people probably just left the room and never came back, but a lot were interested enough to check in later and look for open spots.
Reading Terminal was even more packed on the weekend than during the week. I gave up at lunch time and walked a third of a mile to an inexpensive, highly rated Indian restaurant. I snuck in at 5:45, right before closing, and was the second to last person to get food at a Mexican place. Man, that Mexican food may have been the worst I've ever been served. It was cold.
I passed on some invitations to go socialize after the room closed in order to go to the Unpub room and meet up with Peter Hayward, who invited me to join him in a playtest of another designer's game and to playtest one of his games. Both were great experiences. Hearing these knowledgeable designers providing feedback about the games was a great lesson in and of itself. Peter's game (I failed to catch the name!) felt finished or close to it to me. He mentioned a Kickstarter coming up fairly early next year. He asked three of us to play the game with no instructions from him -- just learning it from the rules. We had no trouble and it didn't take an excessive amount of time (though it wasn't super fast to learn, either, as I read through all of the three pages of rules at a slow pace.
I've also enjoyed running into a few other people I know. It's been a bit annoying that I don't have enough time to go hang out with them each a whole bunch, but on the other hand I've really enjoyed being a part of the GtG crew. I've stopped bothering to correct people who assume I work for GtG unless it seems critical to what they're asking me. If someone asks, "When will you be shipping/doing/Kickstarting X", I just tell them what I do or don't know w/out bothering to first say that I'm not actually a GtG employee. I mean, what does it really matter if I am or not? I'm representing GtG and I either can or can't help with what they've asked. Still feels a little weird, but I think that's the right call.
Fun convention. Spent to much on die, but not as much as Jodie it seems. Dressed up as NightMist. And talk to the leader of the Pittsburg cosplay group so doing Sentinels comic stuff. Had a wonder full conversation with thier leader an Argent Adept (I am bad at real name) and the Baron Blade.
It was great meeting the GTG crew. Played spirit island with Jodie, Laser riderz with SaRae, and watch Christopher run an SC RPG game.
For swag I got Christopher, Adam, and Paul to sign the Starter kit of the RPG, and Adam sign my NightMist cards. So happy.
Wish I played other games but demo game slot fill fast so I watchedgames I was interested being played.
It was great to meet other forums mates. I think I just connected Areson9 a face. Sorry didnât put two and two together. Hi, and I donât think I cought your name. Being a Citizen and teaching other was a good way to spend the con.
Ran 3 demos of the RPG. Enjoyed each one and so did they players. If Greater than Games wants me to run demos let me know I would Gladly do it.
The people need to know what really happened here. Was it Indian food or Mexican food?
Pax Unpluged was a lot of fun! Got a chance to play a lot of great games including Lazer Ryderz, Fate of the Elder Gods, and New Bedford. Bought a copy of Lazer Ryderz and looking forward to working that into future gamenight rotations. Also, got to learn the rules of Sentinels RPG and picked up the starter kit for a friend.
Really enjoyed seeing all the great Sentinels Comics costumes people had made!
Hey Dandolo, Wish I could have said Hi to you in person. It would have been nice to meet a fellow playtester and finally settle who likes La Comodora the best.
Hope you enjoyed the RPG.
Ironicly, I walked right by you at one point and commented to my friend how great your costume was, if I had known it was you would have introduced myself. I get the feeling I probably saw a bunch of folks from these forums without placing names and faces to usernames.
Hah. I gave up on Reading Terminal at lunch and walked over to a great Indian place. At dinner, though, I got in just 15 minutes before the place closed, so got in line at the first place that wasn't ridiculously long, the Mexican place. All the other ingredients were fresh and good. Don't know why they gave me cold chicken.
Were you working in the side room? Are you Carlo? Ryan? Codie?
Day 4: Had to leave early. Jodie is so sweet and made me feel almost not bad about not sticking around to help with clean up.
The side room was very busy. There was a minor lull when we went a while without every single table being full, but it was mostly packed and people were really excited to play a lot of the games, camping out for Spirit Island in particular, but also Fate of the Elder Gods and OblivAeon. They would have done the same for Lazer Ryders, but the games didn't run as long, so it wasn't as hard to get into one. The RPG was the big draw.
Just about everyone playing every game seemed to really like them. One of the best parts about working the con is seeing all the enthusiasm for the games. Even Exoplanets, clearly the least popular of the games, was a decent draw. I remember talking to one person who was really stoked after playing, eager to buy the game.
I believe the only product to sell out were the RPG starter kit and the Spirit Island promo spirits. I was a bit surprised that Spirit Island didn't sell out. I think GtGs brought 200 copies of it and about 40% were sold on the first day. Since I left about 3.5 hours before the con finished, perhaps there was a rush at the end.
NOTE: As amusing as it might be to take someone up on their offer to hole punch the brim of their cap, the hole punch can't handle it and is at risk of getting messed up. Watch out for that.
We were a bit shorthanded in the morning, so it was a bit stressful bouncing around trying to get players up to speed enough on a game so they could play it themselves. Extra appreciation to Carlo, Ryan, and Codie for juggling between helping at one table while getting ready to run the RPG at another table. We did a fair amount of tapping out as people who knew one game a lot better than another would go help a group, while another volunteer covered their previous table. I want to thank all the volunteers again. It was really great to be working with people who were so clearly dedicated to helping others have a good time, who were always willing to pitch in and help out.
The OblivAeon table kicked off a game at 10:30 that ended up seeing a string of players come and go as people had to leave for other events. After three hours they were still working through the second page, so we asked them to bring it to a close so some other people could try playing from the beginning. I think OblivAeon games really will finish in 2-2.5 hours when an experienced group who've played OblivAeon before and aren't afraid of taking a few risks tackle it, but when you're learning it, if you're risk averse, if too many things are done by committe, and in a somewhat distracting setting, that game can seriously bog down. But what do I know. I managed to lose to Baron Blade yesterday.
Final Thoughts: I should have taken a bit of time to go around and see the rest of the convention. I didn't bother because I've been to lots of conventions and so I've got a pretty good idea of what's out there, but I do feel a bit wistful that I didn't really see what PAX Unplugged is like for my own eyes. I got really tired of smelling the urine on 12th street. The best part of these cons are the people -- seeing and making friends, and getting to teach games that I like to people who light up as they learn them. In the end, nothing beats teaching SotM for me, still. I had a chance to teach the core game to a few different people and it was very comforting. It's frankly a little weird to spend my vacation time as a temporary worker, but it definitely has its perks.
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Greater Than Games and their volunteers. I was at the con all 3 days and frequented the side room to try out Oblivaeon, the RPG and several other games. The staff and volunteers were all friendly and helpful. All the games were fun and I was able to score a starter kit for the rpg! It was a great time! Thanks to all that made it possible!
Hopefully I will see some more of you from the greater Philly/PA area once we start assembling a group for the rpg.
Carlo
For past conferences, I brought name tags so that all of us folks helping out GTG could identify both our real names and our forum handles â in addition to the folks we're demoing for being able to know our names. I didn't this time for lack of space in my bag. 
I wish I'd brought themâŚ
Yeah, no amount of Jodie's awesomeness will make me not feel bad about us having to leave earlyâŚ
Ah! So THAT'S what happened to it⌠