Conventions » Troll in the Corner

Suddenly… PAX East!

Board and Card Games, Conventions, Movies and TV, Role Playing Games, Table Top No Responses »

Apr 092012

I wasn’t planning on attending PAX East this year, honest. But sometimes things happen and you just have to suck it up and go to a huge gaming convention.

It was Thursday evening that I got a surprise email from one of the Dead Gentlemen, a tale of woe and loss in and around the Boston area. Where there were supposed to be two to man a booth at PAX East, there was now only one. They offered a pass for Saturday in exchange for working the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment booth. I happily accepted, and with the help of my saint-like wife, rearranged my schedule to be there. I stopped in at the booth right at 10am, walked around PAX East with Scott for a while, and then became the worlds worst “booth babe” from 1 to 4pm.

It was quite an experience! I handed out hundreds of little cardboard bits with ZOE’s website and shows printed on them. Much cooler than that though, I got to hang out with Clancy Bundy & Jade Warpenburg who’s web series Transolar Galactica is now under the ZOE banner. They were cool guys, and the show is funny, biting, sci-fi madness at its best. I did spend a bit of my time covertly watching the first hour of Transolar Galactica while at the booth – you should certainly check it out!

After my stint at the ZOE booth, it was off to meet up with some of my tabletop friends, and play a couple of rounds of Cutthroat Caverns, one of my favorite backstabby type games. Then it was back home.

I ran into a bunch of folks I hadn’t met in person, which was fun and I ran into a bunch of folks I’ve come to know from the local convention scene, which was also fun! I got a chance to talk with the creator of the Miskatonic School for Girls game for a bit which was great! I also talked the folks at the newly formed Game Salute, folks who have an interesting new model for board game development.

All in all it was a great time! If I didn’t catch you this time, look for me next year (I’m thinking of getting an indie booth of some sort).

Popularity: 1%

Holy Crap I’m going to be at PAX East on Saturday with the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment booth!

Board and Card Games, Conventions, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Apr 062012

It looks like I’ll be attending PAX East after all. This Saturday at 11am until 5 or 6 in the evening, you can find me at the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment booth, #1014 in the corner of PAX East, just by Rockstar Games and Chessex.

I’ll be helping my ZOE (and Dead Gentlemen) friends out with their booth supporting JourneyQuest, Gamers: Dorkness Rising and all of their other amazing projects! ZOE will have their DVDs available at the booth! If you haven’t sat down and watched Gamers: Dorkness Rising or JourneyQuest and you read this site, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

Please stop by and say hello if you’ll be at PAX East on Saturday. I’d love to meet you, chat a bit and perhaps give away a few of my gaming PDFs. Alas I ran out of print inventory at Total Confusion and haven’t had a chance to get more in.

Popularity: 1%

Painting 15mm Renedra Tents

Conventions, Table Top No Responses »

Mar 262012

At Havoc I picked up a package of Renedra tents in 15mm from the Hobby Bunker stall. They’re perfect for my Seaward March, one day American Civil War, campaign that I am running on the 31st. Cort owns a lot of 15mm ACW figures and terrain. But, it’d be nice to have some tents in the event that they’re needed.

Below are pictures of the tents as they got painted.

The tents were cleaned up using a modeling knife and files to remove any flash and irregularities. Then they were primed with Chaos Black paint. When that dried they were basecoated with Khemri Brown from the Games Workshop line of foundation paints. At this point I waited, again, for the paint to dry. When the tents were ready, I dipped them into Army Painter Quickshade Strong Tone. The quickshade instantly shades and seals the model. The quickshade takes 24 hours to fully harden.

The next day I examined the tents. They were ready for highlights. Kommando Khaki was drybrushed onto each tent with the raised areas, and edges, being the primary focus. This was followed with a more severe drybrushing of Bleached Bone. Finally, each tent was hit with a light drybrush of Tallarn Flesh.

Popularity: 1%

Total Confusion XXVI – My favorite convention

Argyle & Crew, Conventions, Reviews, Role Playing Games 1 Response »

Mar 212012

Total Confusion bills itself as “New England’s largest gaming convention”. I’m here to tell you that they don’t lie, in fact, they’re keeping the truth under wraps. They’re not just the largest, they’re the best.

I was lucky enough to attend my third TotalCon just a few weeks ago. I was in attendance at TotalCon 1 as a gangly teenager with a few dice and a mechanical pencil. Last year I was invited as an industry guest to TotalCon 25, a role I repeated again this year. It’s by far my favorite convention to attend and I would highly recommend it if you’re anywhere in the area. Now let me tell you what happened during the con, including some tidbits from behind the scenes and some thoughts on just why this is the most fun gaming I have all year.

The largest?

It’s a fact – Total Confusion is the largest gaming convention in New England. That is, it’s not a fan convention, it’s not a mix of computer and table top games, it’s not dedicated to any one table top system. It’s simply four days of pure gaming goodness. In 2010, there were (counting by badge) 600 attendees. In 2011, 800. This year, TotalCon broke 1000 attendees, all there with the sole purpose of gaming, gaming, gaming.

From Thursday to Sunday you can get your fill of board games, RPGs, wargames and just about anything else you’d like in the tabletop arena. It’s all contained within one hotel (the Holiday Inn at Mansfield, MA) which means you’ve got everything you need under one roof.

Shamelessly stolen from TotalCon's facebook page

I love this about TotalCon. PAX East has it’s moments, as I’m entirely sure other extremely large conventions do. At TotalCon you have enough people to ensure that there’s always an open game or a pickup game happening when you need it. Enough to keep everything busy and exciting and new. Yet you have a chance to run into people throughout the weekend and say hello. After a day or two nearly everyone is a familiar face. This is a friendly place where everyone is in attendance for exactly the same reason and that lends a distinct, pleasant atmosphere to the con you don’t get at the bigger gatherings.

Popularity: 1%

TotalCon 26 in 3,273 Words

Board and Card Games, Conventions, Reviews, Table Top No Responses »

Mar 012012

Picture courtesy of Adrian B...yes, that's me looking fat over at the left and wearing the blue shirt.

TotalCon. Where do I begin? Okay, I’m going to sum up the entire con in a single word. You might think that is difficult to do. But, here goes. AMAZING!

TotalCon 26 was the most fun I’ve had at TotalCon. If you’re unfamiliar with Total Confusion, then you’re missing out. Briefly, it is the longest-running, small, roleplaying game and board game focused con in southeastern Massachusetts. For the past 26 years it has brought gamers together to meet industry guests, have fun, and interact with one another.

At first glance it may not seem that a RPG-focused con has anything to do with wargaming. Normally, RPGs don’t cross into the realm of wargaming. The con includes more than RPGs and board game. There’s a growing miniatures area, trivia events, panels, and this year they featured live performances of Dr. Horrible’s Sing- A-long Blog, REPO! The Genetic Opera, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Buffy.

Popularity: 1%

Total Confusion – a quick look

Argyle & Crew, Board and Card Games, Conventions, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Feb 272012

Last weekend found me at Total Confusion XXVI, at which I had an amazing time! I’ll be writing up a full overview of the convention in the next few days. For now, let just say that Argyle & Crew went off very well!

We had seven kids making Soppets and then completing a quick scavenger hunt, in which a number of them won copies of the game. The kids had a great time and I owe special thanks to Wayne at Sages of RPG for helping and photographing!

I was able to play a number of games I hadn’t played yet, all of which I’ll be reviewing here at the site. There were meetings to be had, and a great indie publishing get together with stories from RPG legend Tim Kask that I’m sure none of us will ever erase from our minds. Ever.

I got to sit down with the folks from Wiz Kids Games as well and finally learned how to play Quarriors. I enjoyed it so much, I dragged my wife to the demo and now she’s into it as well. Finally, when I got home from TotalCon, 3 days of gaming just wasn’t enough. I taught my almost 9 year old to play, assisted by my 6 year old who was in charge of dice rolling and bag shaking.

More from Total Confusion in the next week.

Popularity: 1%

Katsucon 2012

Comics, Conventions, Movies and TV No Responses »

Feb 272012

My White Mage Cosplay

This month I had the great pleasure to attend Katuscon 2012 in Washington D.C. It was my first time there and I was pleasantly delighted with it. Not as huge as some of the more popular conventions it had comfortably sized crowds.

Venue

Held at the GayLord National Resort and Convention Center right in the National Harbor, Maryland. This giant hotel and convention center sported plush interiors just ripe for amazing cosplay photography. The rooms are expensive but large and comfortable. Lots of elevators and escalators for exhausted con-goer’s tired tootsies. There was plenty of parking at a very reasonable price and the National Harbor food options ranging from quick and cheap to expensive elegance.

Cosplay

Like most anime conventions this one boasted of some amazing outfits. From last minutes home-brewed concoctions (like mine) to competitors for the World Cosplay Summit. The lovely venue and perfect sunny weather provided excellent opportunities for photographs and cinematography. For a good time just Google Katuson 2012 for some beautiful videos and photos.

Artist Alley

My favorite room was filled with upstart artists selling paintings, jewelry, clothing, and more. Several artist were available for commissions. My favorite item was a D1: A simple clay Mobius strip with a one painted on it. No matter how you flipped it you always knew what you’d get!

Merchant Room

So many awesome things! Mostly Anime and Japanese products but several booths had dice and game books. Rare DVDs and video games were to be found alongside mini figures and plushies. Clothing styles spanned the range of Gothic Lolita, cyberpunk and steampunk. And so many giant robot toys!

Game Room

This large space was host to several large tables set up with different consoles and games. Atari, Sega, Playstation 3, Wii, Kinect and more. Several large arcade games were set up in the back for good old nostalgia gaming. Several competitions were held throughout the con and gaming went far into the night. One featured retro video games which, when I was a kid, were just called video games. The Magic the Gathering tables were always filled with players.Sadly there were no empty tables for tabletop gaming. I had carried my dice around all weekend hoping for a quickie but alas it didn’t happen.

Conclusion

Like most conventions you get out of it what you put in. The higher profile panels had long lines, you had to walk a ways to get fed or pay for an expensive one. Chasing down someone to take their picture can get old. But being surrounded by lovely people having fun is always a delightful experience. I try to enter conventions with little expectation of how they’ll be and I’m always delightfully surprised by what I find. That way I’m never disappointed by panels I miss or friends I won’t meet up with. Most important rule: Enjoy yourself!

Pirate Deadpool

Sailor Venus Courtesy of Caitlyn Jones

Popularity: 2%

Jonathan WILL be at TotalCon 26

Conventions, Table Top No Responses »

Feb 222012

Yours truly, a few pounds heavier, wearing a Huzzah Con shirt

No, I didn’t steal this from Ben Gerber who posted Total Confusion XXVI – if you’re going to be there, come say hello! But, if I did happen to steal it, and I’m not saying I did, let’s just remember that adage about great minds stealing instead of borrowing. That’s all I’m saying on the topic.

Now that I’ve made it clear that this TotalCon 26 posting was inspired by yours’ truly, let’s get to the meat and potatoes. This weekend is TotalCon 26. I’m attending and am also running a game, with Adrian B. and Cort N., on Saturday. If you are going to the con, I’d love to meet you. You’ve probably tired of me saying that my favorite part of podcasting and blogging is communicating with you guys. BUT, that happens to be true.

In the hope of making your lives a little easier I am including my theoretical schedule. I’d love to meet you and chat. On Saturday I’ll be wearing my Wargaming Recon t-shirt. Friday’s wardrobe is still up for debate but may be my Like t-shirt (where the I is replaced with a lightsaber) or my Battleground Games t-shirt (black with the store logo).
If you want to meet up, I’m willing to play just about anything or just hang out. Send me an e-mail to JREINHART@GMAIL.COM, try Twitter, or Facebook. If you got my cell # give that a go or text me. Did I mention how much I love my iPhone?

Friday
1pm The Last Voyage of the Yamato (War at Sea minis event run by Dan Eustace)
5ishpm Food, Meet up with people (Ben Gerber I’m looking at you), kill time until 6pm event
6pm War Stories from the Con (run by Peter “Blix” Bryant)

Saturday
1ishpm Arrive, check out Vendor room, Lunch, Setup for event
3pm Daybreak at Hangman’s Creek (Black Powder event I’m running with Adrian B. and Cort N. THERE’S ROOM FOR YOU TO JOIN!)
7pm My game ends, Dinner, meet up with people, drinks
Late PM Go home

Popularity: 1%

Total Confusion XXVI – if you’re going to be there, come say hello!

Argyle & Crew, Board and Card Games, Conventions, Role Playing Games 2 Responses »

Feb 222012

It’s late February and another Total Confusion is almost upon us! I am once again attending as an industry guest, although I admit I’ll be spending as much time as possible playing, hanging out and generally connecting with people who love gaming just as much as I do.

I have to say that last year was the most fun I’ve had at a convention in years. TotalCon is big enough to always find something to do or someone to chat with, yet small enough that you’re constantly bumping into friends and acquaintances and don’t feel crowd fatigue (PAX East, I’m looking at you).

Last year I ran several Pathfinder games of Aruneus, did the Talisman thing and also participated in a bunch of great games and panels. This year I’ll be doing a bit with some sock puppets and Talisman (details below) and I’ll also be covering the convention for the site. Expect a full report next week!

If you’re looking for me there, well this is what I look like as of this morning.

You can expect a little bit more ‘dark circle’ under the eye, and a slight bit more of ‘burning with the light of a thousand RPGs’ in the eyes themselves.

If you’re going to be there, please feel free to come on over and chat for a bit. If you’re interested in meeting up, I’m always game for a good breakfast/lunch/dinner/beer/pick up game/dangling from the inside balcony over the player tables by our hands. Just hit me up on Twitter, or Google+ or email me!

Now – my tentative schedule for the convention.

Friday

Arrive somewhere between 1pm and 4pm, hang out, grab some dinner, find some people.

7pm – Cube of Death!

11pm – Win Cube of Death! – go to bed.

Saturday

8am – 10am – breakfast, check out the vendor rooms, stroll about looking pleased with myself.

10am – 12pm – Argyle & Crew event for young players. We’ll be making Soppets and conducting a scavenger hunt! This event is currently full, but stop by and if I have any extra socks you may be able to join in the fun.

12pm – 9pm – a few meals, playing in various games, looking to do a few pick up games.

9pm – 11pm – Talisman! I’m ‘running’ a session of my favorite board game. This event is full.

11pm(ish) to early in the morning – Drinking Woodchuck with friends.

Sunday

10am – Gaming

12pm – 1pm hanging around a bit and then off to pick up my daughters!

Popularity: 1%

10 Things Every Gamer Should Bring With Them To a Gaming Con

Conventions, Dungeons & Dragons, Table Top, Technology 6 Responses »

Feb 092012

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/samchurchill/

1) Dice. No true gamer leaves their precious D6s and D20s at home. You’d be amazed what you can MacGyver with those polyhedrons.

2) Zombie Dice. This quick and fun group game will help you to idle away the hours, as it were, waiting in line to meet Wil Wheaton, the crew from Blizzard, and the fine folks from Wizards of the Coast. You don’t really want to strike up a conversation with those nearby…do you?

3) Picture Taking Device. Yeah, this could be called a camera but let’s get real. Many people have smart devices such as iPhones, Droid phones, and tablet computers (we’ll come back to that one). Those devices can take pictures. Bring one of those or a camera to record the exact moment your jaw dropped from meeting Frank Mentzer.

4) Snacks. No gamer can exist without food. We may be used to the local pizza shop and Chinese food restaurant. At a con we may not have those luxuries so it is best to bring a small snack with you. Something like trail mix or mixed nuts works best. That is healthy and gives you sufficient protein to keep you energized.

Popularity: 3%

Older Entries

Suddenly… PAX East!

Holy Crap I’m going to be at PAX East on Saturday with the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment booth!

Painting 15mm Renedra Tents

Total Confusion XXVI – My favorite convention

The largest?

TotalCon 26 in 3,273 Words

Total Confusion – a quick look

Katsucon 2012

Jonathan WILL be at TotalCon 26

Total Confusion XXVI – if you’re going to be there, come say hello!

10 Things Every Gamer Should Bring With Them To a Gaming Con

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