GenCon 2013 & The 4th RPPR Fan Meet-Up

[Tadanori Oyama]

Hey guys, it's time to bring up GenCon again! Badge registration and hotel reservation is coming up at the end of the month (the 27th and 29th respectively). If you want one of the close by hotels make sure you get online and do your reservations fairly earily that day because they tend to go pretty quick. You'll need your badge code to get into the GenCon Housing Block and get the discounted hotel rate too.

For those wanting to run their own games, early event registration is Janurary 11th through Feburary 8th. You'll want to get your events in during that gap if possible since people who do that get better spots (in general) and are guaranteed to be given time and a space in the book (not a sure thing if you throw in later).

Secondly, we need to consider what to do with the RPPR Fan Meet-Up. For those who made it last year, you probably remember it was a bit of a mess. We had way more people than we'd had previously, so many we had to change locations. Farthermore, it wasn't possible to handle such a huge group in one game easily.

So, I suggest for this year we plan a tournament. If we have Base Raiders, we use that. We do two or three groups of players with Ross running one and volunteers running the others. The last standing and/or winner (depending on if we do deathmatches or goal based events) moves onto the final round, run by Ross, to determin the true champion.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Internet bile?

[Marik]

As this will be my first Gencon I have no suggestions.

I haven't seen any action on this thread. Is a meetup still in the works?

Marik

[Cthuluzord]

I'm probably going to be there this year. As it is only my second time, I don't know where would be large enough to accommodate everyone. I have no schedule either, so fuck if I know for times.

As far as games to play, I say everyone brings a case of cheap beer and we play DrunkQuest until only one is left standing. I may be alone in advocating for that though 

[AmishNinja]

As far as games to play, I say everyone brings a case of cheap beer and we play DrunkQuest until only one is left standing. I may be alone in advocating for that though 

Are you talking about DrinkingQuest? I just looked it up and it sounds like the mightiest fusion of bro and gamer. Alternatively, it's a beer & pretzels game that emphasizes the beer. That said, I'm probably in.

[Marik]

There's always the legendary drunkass party.

Check it out on the gencon events.

[Tadanori Oyama]

If we continue to scale up like we have than I'm guessing we'll have about twelve people at the meet up which is way more than a single normal table top game can accommodate. So Caleb's idea might have some merit.

The only real 'staff' at RPPR is Ross so it really falls on what he wants to do.

We, as the fans, could always self organize. That would actually be more in line with other media forms: organize an event which the stars attend (or don't). With RPPR it's always been the other way around with Ross setting the time, location, and event. However I don't think there are yet enough of us to make that leap from a small group event to a large event. Eventually it would be cool to turn the thing into a celebration of the podcast and the crew as a group.


Thursday nights have gone well. I believe that would avoid all of the stuff with ArcDream's events. Meeting at the Embassy Suites is something of a tradition but our group is getting a little big for that. We had a lot of luck finding mostly empty halls at the Hyatt, plenty of space there but we can't pre-plan it, we just have to find an empty one.

How about meeting at the bar in the Hyatt? It's small (easy to find each other) and the Hyatt itself is directly connected to the convention hall through the parking facility (instead of across a street or through a series of tunnels like Embassy). Once we've got everyone we can go upstairs and find an open room.

[Cthuluzord]

Would anyone object to use carrying around cases of Busch? Cuz DrunkQuest requires, like, A LOT of beer.

I can bring the cards if we do that. Hopefully the expansion (90 Proof Seas) will be done by then.

[Tadanori Oyama]

I can bring beer but I don't drink myself (and there's always Tom...). Does the game need a sober ref or anything?

Also, we might have to find another location: I'm sure the Hyatt and the other places with bars (or worse, without bars) have some sort of rule about alcohol consumption, especially outside alcohol.

[AmishNinja]

Busch?! Son, I'm from Wisconsin. If this thing is going to happen, then I'm going to make sure we use actual decent beer.

[Cthuluzord]

Well, we don't have to drink. That's just the only game that I have that can accommodate 12 people and still be fun. And I'll drink anything.

So if we're going high class, Stag?

[Tim]

When I drink cheap beer I am more of an Rainier man myself.

I am pro imbibing and can go low brow or high brow. Sadly I would also assume that the various convention spaces are going to frown on BYOB so it might be a non starter although we can certainly try. In the public/gaming spaces I think they are going to quickly cut off on 12 people pounding tall boys and shouting (I assume their will be shouting). Maybe GenCon is different than I think but I have to believe a giant horde of drunk gamers roaming the halls is on the top 5 nightmare scenarios for any one in hospitality. I would normally say we should find a local brewpub but I fear any place is going to be swarmed with convention geeks all wanting tables for 10+ people so that seems like a long shot.

As a side bar not sure if anyone has a deep knowledge of Indianapolis but looking for recommendations for restaurants and watering holes? My wife will be coming with me so I am going to need to take her out to a nice dinner and be a good husband each night so I then be a terrible husband during the day and play some games and generally ignore her. I have heard good things about two places, Libertine and Black Market, but any other options are welcome.

[Tadanori Oyama]

How about something tournament style? We could do randomly created Dirty World games using the random generator, count people off by number lottery, and have the "winner" advance to a championship round and have a winner.

Or do something round robin so that everyone has a chance to meet each other?

[BeyondSandrock]

Since I'm not running any official games this year, I'd be happy to run a couple of games during the meetup (or after hours during the evenings).  I have two COC scenarios I've recently written and I'd be happy to run my last MAOCT scenarios for anybody who was unable to play them last year.

[Marik]

I'm up for anything gaming/event wise. I'm mostly curious about when this will take place. I have a lot of events scheduled but I may be ok with skipping out on a registered event or two depending.

Marik

[Tadanori Oyama]

We've generally done the meet up at 5 or 6pm on Thursday depending on Ross's schedule with ArcDream or panels.