Who's Yer Con 2017

General GTG Events
#1

Who's interested in running demos at Who's Yer Con 2017

March 31 - April 2

Register at: http://whosyergamers.org/

 

Russ and I are considering creating a slate of Events as well as posting people in the free-play area. GtG have offered possible demo games/promos/prizes (TBD).

 

If you're interested, share which games you would like to demo, whether it's a game you already know how to demo or not, whether or not you have a copy to use, and how many demos of each you'd like to run.

 

For example, for me:

 

  • SotM (5+), know how to demo, have a copy, but would prefer to get some of the expansions to make a complete demo copy rather than use my personal set.
  • Tactics (1-2), know how to demo, have a copy
  • New Bedford (1-2), kinda know how to demo, have a copy
  • Spirit Island (1-2), have played, don't really know how to demo, don't have a copy
  • Fate of the Elder Gods (1-2), have played, don't really know how to demo, don't have a copy
  • Bottom of the Ninth (1-2), have played, don't really know how to demo, have a copy
  • Deck Building (1-2), have played, know how to demo, have enough for six players
  • Traitor Mechanic, (1-2), have not played, have a copy
  • Trick-Taking (1-2), have not played, have a copy
  • Time Management (1-2), have not played, have a copy

 

I wouldn't want to do _ALL_ of the above, and I'm not sure which of the above I'm most interested in.

 

Once we have a better idea of who wants to do what, we can organize who will actually do what, when, and where and then I'll work w/ GtG on possibly getting demo games, promos, prizes.

 

 

 

#2

I'm interested!

I'm not quite sure what your numbers mean, but I'm totally prepared to demo Spirit Island, SotM, and New Bedford. I hope and expect to have the official version of Spirit Island by then, but in any case I have the copy I've been using for playtesting (which I also used at GenCon). I also have Brew Crafters and know how to demo it, altohugh a little less confidently. And I'm also happy to demo all the smaller games.

#3

Looking forward to it!  :grin:

I initially thought Andy’s numbers were how comfortable he was with demoing it (on a scale of 1-5). I finally realized it was how many times he would be willing to demo it.  :slightly_smiling_face:

  • SotM (∞) -- Know how to demo, have a demo copy, (but would like to get a copy of K.N.Y.F.E. for it).
  • Tactics (1-2) -- Know how to demo, have a copy
  • New Bedford (1-2) -- Know how to demo (turns out the instructions I got for demoing it before Gen Con were... flawed, but I think I got them all addressed :confused: ; will want to review rules to make sure), don't have a copy
  • Spirit Island (1-2), have played, kinda know how to demo (suggest reading and using grysqrl's demo instructions if we're going to do this), don't have a copy
  • Bottom of the Ninth (0), have played, don't really know how to demo, don't have a copy
  • Deck Building (0), have played, know how to demo, don't have a copy
 
#4

Need to see how time with kids will work out after my new job kicks in week after next. (Good bye 90-minute commute each way; hello having a life again). Definitely willing to come over Friday night & stay through end of day Saturday if it works out.

  • Sentinels: Own everything currently available; plenty comfortable demoing.
  • Spirit Island: Have pre-ordered, but likely won't own by then. Haven't been able to run full game, not sure how to demo yet.
  • Compounded (1-2 times): Own, Have played about 2x; not positive how to demo but could get it worked out with advance notice.

 

Might consider coming if the kids are with me, but at that point we'll be standard attendees and I won't be available for demoing. (My kids are 11 and 7; not comfortable leaving them unattended on the kids' track. He might be OK; she definitely wouldn't be.)

#5

I would love to come down but at this point it's pretty unlikely! If I did, I'd happily demo New Bedford. My boyfriend and I were playing that nightly for a while; it's such a solid little game.

I also have Tactics wave 2 stuff that I could playtest, which I feel is subtly different to demoing. ;)

#6

Thanks, y'all.

 

What are your thoughts on what we should do? I'm vaguely thinking:

  • Schedule one (or maybe two) event(s) each for Tactics, New Bedford, Spirit Island, Fate of the Elder Gods, Brew Crafters, and Compounded (if Jeff's available).
  • In the free play area, have Sentinels and the smaller games (Bottom of the 9th, Deck Building, Traitor Mechanic, Trick-Taking, Time Management) available and play it by ear as to what to play depending on who's running games and what the players are interested in.

 

How much time should we schedule for each game? I'm thinking 90 minutes for Tactics, New Bedford, and Spirit Island. Maybe 2 hours for Fate of the Elder Gods. No idea for Brew Crafters and Compounded.

 

#7

I can also run demos of Compounded, I did that at GenCon too (and narrowly avoided giving a demo to Jeff there).

Agree on 90 minutes for Spirit Island. That allows for a full introductory game, unlike what we did at GenCon.

Brew Crafters would be 2 hours if we want a full game, I think? At Gen Con we ended up stopping part way through; that was actually fine, since it gave players a good taste of strategies, while recognizing that it's hard to play well on your first game.

I'll look up how long was scheduled for each of those games when I get a chance.

Spirit Island will be the only one of those that will be just released at that point. I'm happy to run as many demos as there is demand for.

#8

It looks like all the events were scheduled for 60 minutes at Gen Con. I think Compounded fits within that time (perhaps with a slightly shortened game). Brew Crafters, New Bedford, Spirit Island, and Tactics definitely run longer. I have less experience with Fate of the Elder Gods.

I looked at the State of GTG post from Paul, and was reminded that Lazer Ryderz and Exoplanets are "in mass production", thus likely to be ready with printed copies by then. Nobody has mentioned those yet. I'm comfortable running demos of Lazer Ryderz. I'll be getting a copy of Exoplanets as well; I haven't actually played it, but could doubtless learn it well enough to run demos.

A look at the updates/comments on the Fate of the Elder Gods Kickstarter doesn't make me optimistic that it will be released by then. (GTG was saying they want to be sure to have it ready for release at Gen Con.) We could do demos off play-testing copies, but it might be better to hold off.

#9

You can absolutely play a New Bedford in an hour, in my experience!

#10

Including teaching? This is one of the games I have less experience in teaching.

#11

Depending on the player count, I'd say yes! I suppose if you're teaching people who have never played a worker placement game it'd be a bit harder, but if they have some modern game literacy you should be fine.

#12

If I remember correctly, the New Bedford demos we did at Gen Con weren't full games, running only 6 turns instead of 12. It was plenty of time to give everyone an idea of how the game works but short enough to ensure it didn't take too long. Those demos generally ran around an hour.

#13

That’s how they played it at PAX when I played a demo. The short game worked really well; got a good handle for the game, and got me to pick it up! :smiley:

#14

There are various natural ways of shortening all of these games, mentioned above. These make a lot of sense for a demo. (For Brew Crafters, I'd play through 2 years rather than 3 years. I think that would fit in an hour.)

The question is what players at Whosyercon are likely to want. Will people be looking for demos or complete games? Maybe we can decide based on who shows up to a particular event. For demos with the shortenings mentioned, 60 minutes generally makes sense, I think.

#15

In general, I envision running full games and being conservative on scheduling -- I'd rather have more time and not use it than run out, both so I don't feel rushed in trying to finish (or cheated in failing to finish) and so there are some built-in breaks between games to rest/recover and find players, if needed.

 

I have no problem running pre-release versions of games that might still change, assuming GtG doesn't have a problem with it and (of course) we can get ahold of a version that looks at least halfway decent.

#16

I have playtesting copies of Spirit Island and Fate of the Elder Gods that I'd be happy to contribute (presuming GtG gives permission). They look fine, except that the glorious sculpts for both games will look much more pedestrian.

#17

Andy, do you have the information you need to start submitting events?

#18

My next step will be to propose a schedule and see if y'all are on board.

 

It would be helpful to know _when_ people want to run games. For instance, I don't really want to run games Fri afternoon or Sunday.

#19

I likely won't be able to be there until after dinner Friday, but should be available the rest of the weekend. 

#20
Fri
       3:30-5           Spirit Island, Dylan            Free space: Andy
 
       7-8:30           New Bedford, Russ               Free space: Dylan
       8:30-10          Fate of the Elder Gods, Andy    Free space: Dylan
 
Sat
       10-11:30         Compounded, Jeff                Free space: Russ
 
       2-3:30           Fate of the Elder Gods, Dylan   Free space: Jeff
       3:30-5           Brew Crafters, Dylan            Free space: Jeff
 
       7-8:30           New Bedford, Andy               Free space: Russ
       8:30-10          Spirit Island, Russ             Free space: Andy
 
Sun
       10-11:30         Tactics, Russ                   Free space: Andy
Above is my proposed schedule.
 
It includes nine timeslots where we would run the larger game. I originally designed it with 15 timeslots and I was tired just thinking about it. I gave each timeslot 90 minutes. That's overkill for many of the games. It's maybe not enough for Brew Crafters, apparently. I've never played Brew Crafters.
 
During each timeslot, I assigned someone to definitely be in the freeplay space, looking for people to play Sentinels or possibly the smaller games. We can always have multiple people in the free space, but I wanted to make sure there was at least one.
 
There are generous breaks at lunch and dinner. I have absolutely no interest in feeling rushed. I think we should have people in the free space during these breaks, too, so the general idea is that the people before and after the break would work out who would cover it.
 
I identified six games as candidates for the timeslot events, and then picked the three I thought were likely to be the most popular to be taught and to be played. Those three (Spirit Island, New Bedford, Fate of the Elder Gods) got two timeslots. The other three (Tactics, Brew Crafters, and Compounded) got one slot.
 
With nine timeslots and, thus, nine games to assign and another nine freeplay spaces to assign, but with Jeff unable to be here Sunday, I divided the 18 timeslots into five for everyone else and three for Jeff. If Jeff can't make, we'll have to rearrange things.
 
I tried to group people's assignments both in time and in location. I tried not to give Dylan anything too early or late, since I think he'll be commuting from Bloomington. 
 
  1. Do you agree with the timeslots chosen (both number of slots and length of slots)?
  2. Do you agree with the distribution of which games got more slots?
  3. Are you happy with the times/games you've been assigned?
 
I've heard rumor that the event space may fill, so I'm keen to decide sooner rather than later what events we're running when and get those submitted.