The Best Conventions [Archive] - Wizards Community

The Best Conventions [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Mommy was an Orc
04-24-07, 12:49 PM I might have the ability to soon travel to some regional conventions, probably the U.S or possibly Canada. And I've only currently been to two of them.

Here's my question - if you had to pick your favorite LG regional convention, which one would it be and why?

i.e. Good mods, well-run muster, prepped judges, fun people to play with, decent hotels, interesting interactives, easy access to both fast food and reasonable dining, etc - any conventions have all of those?
Redfist
04-24-07, 01:05 PM The best musters I've seen so far have been in the Bay area (pale) (thanks to Bart as a con organizer).
Mommy was an Orc
04-24-07, 01:15 PM The best musters I've seen so far have been in the Bay area (pale) (thanks to Bart as a con organizer).

Which conventions are those? Bay area works really well for me, too - lots of friends in the area, most of whom are not gamers.
Redfist
04-24-07, 01:18 PM The 2 I went to there last year were Conviction and Theocracy by the Bay. I'm not sure what else they have planned for the rest of the year.
berpo
04-24-07, 01:52 PM Weekend in dyvers is a really great con...

4 days, a lot of mod. great organization.

I travel more than a 1000 mile to get there every years.

Councill Bluff's, Ohio end of may. you can check on warhorn to find the detail.

No i'm not paid to tell you that. lol

Marc
Tusmit
Asaris
04-24-07, 02:47 PM Unless I'm badly mistaken, it's in Council Bluffs, IOWA. And yes, a great con. I went last year, it was my first con, and I had a great time.
kjenks
04-24-07, 03:55 PM I've had pretty good experiences everywhere.

Last year, GenCon was only offering a little bit of LG play, so instead of that, I used my frequent flyer miles to fly up to Souix Falls, South Dakota, for FallsCon. That was a lot of fun and I got a chance to play some regionals outside of my usual Bandit Kingdoms and nearby Yeomanry.

http://www.warhorn.net/fallscon2007/

Almost every year, I drive to Mobile, Alabama, for some Yeomanry action (www.mobicon.org/).

I've also flown off to Geoff (http://www.warhorn.net/confalon/), Verbobonc (Stuffed COWS and Flag Waving COWS, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COWSGamers/), and Pale/Nyrond (http://www.theocracyofthepale.com/news/newsletter/2006-stateofthepale.html).

I've been to a few others here and there, but all of those were fun. I almost always got to play in every slot -- and that's something to write home about.
kenobi65
04-24-07, 04:19 PM I've been to a number of good LG cons here in Illinois, including:

COWS puts on COWS at CodCon (April) and Stuffed COWS (Thanksgiving weekend), both at the College of DuPage, in suburban Chicago.

CIRCA puts on LG events at both FlatCon (October, Bloomington) and Winter War (late January / early February, Champaign). Both are in downstate Illinois, which may be harder for an out-of-stater to get to (both are about a 2-hour drive south of Chicago).

Of those 4, only Winter War is actually at a hotel (a fairly average one, IMO, that could use a bit of a remodel, or at least someone to clean the dang elevators), but all of them have a lot of hotel and food options within a short drive.

I found all of these cons to be well-organized, with excellent judges. I've never had a problem with mustering, or not being able to play in a slot, at any of them. (I'd also add the late, lamented Ides of March convention to the list, with hopes that it returns someday.)

I've yet to make it up to any conventions in Wisconsin, though my friends here speak very highly of them (and it makes me sad, because I'm originally from Wisconsin).
ithardin
04-24-07, 04:32 PM Weekend in Dyvers is a great Con with ALOT of slots and excellent storylines. I know they are just about to close registration. Council Bluffs, Iowa is just a stone's throw from Omaha, Nebraska.

If you are going to GenCon you might consider coming to Indy a day early to play the Verbobonc Pre-GenCon Madness to get all the wonderful Verbobonc storyline you can shake a dead Rhennee at!
Mattastrophic
04-24-07, 05:43 PM I've been to cons in Geoff, Gran March, Keoland, the Duchy of Urnst, and the Pale, and as for organization and running of the convention itself... Bay Area Pale, hands down.

They premuster all their tables! No onsite APL issues, and they even balance the parties for you. If there's a problem with your signup, like late last year when my 12 ended up in a slot with only 3-4s, they let you know in advance. Mods always start on time because everyone knows their table, leaving plenty of time to play the mods themselves.

-Matt
Lomiat
04-24-07, 06:16 PM As much as I want to plug the Triad-run SHL cons, I have to say that the two best cons I've attended so far are Weekend in Dyvers and Conflict in the Vesve.

People have already mentioned Weekend in Dyvers, but Conflict in the Vesve is held each year in LaCrosse, WI, and has been given dual-region status for this year, running both Shield Lands and Highfolk adventures. It's on Warhorn, also, sometime in July, I believe.

The organizers at both events do an excellent job, though I guess the Bay area has got them beat for the pre-muster. Nonetheless, both conventions offer a TON of games, and the organizers have proven quite accomodating for replays, midnight madnesses, and all that crazy stuff.

The toughest choice you'd face as an out-of-region player coming to Conflict is whether you'd want to create a Highfolk character to play in their Devoted story arc or if you'd want to dedicate a character to follow through the Shield Lands' current Shadowdark story arc. Both have been excellent so far.
jhorred
04-24-07, 07:02 PM The 2 I went to there last year were Conviction and Theocracy by the Bay. I'm not sure what else they have planned for the rest of the year.

This weekend it Theocracy by the Bay in Sunnyvale. (RPGA only)
Memorial Day weekend is Kublacon in San Fran. (Not an RPGA only con, but I highly recommend. This year will be my thrid year.)
Palish Convictions is in Tracy in Jul (around the 19th) (RPGA only)

Like Matt said, all premustered and prebalanced as possible. They are all on Warhorn.

Reminds me I need to email Bart....
Nerax
04-24-07, 09:26 PM I have to agree that the Pale is where it is at Con wise. Premuster is so nice!!! As for the major cons in the Bay area:

Convictions (Feb/March)
Theocracy by the Bay (April/May)
KublaCon (Memorial Weekend)
Winter Weekend in the Pale (Early December)

Another good con that I have made it to twice is Crossing Paths, which is a cross-regional between Pale/Nyrond. (October) It take place in Vegas which is nice since you can get really cheap flights and the hotel rate is reasonable.

Everyone hates the Pholtuns but they love their cons! :D
Sieylianna
04-24-07, 09:45 PM The toughest choice you'd face as an out-of-region player coming to Conflict is whether you'd want to create a Highfolk character to play in their Devoted story arc or if you'd want to dedicate a character to follow through the Shield Lands' current Shadowdark story arc. Both have been excellent so far.

It may be difficult to put a table together if you start a highfolk PC for the devoted arc. At Conflagration 2006, most people were in the APL 2 range. I would think they'll be in the APL 6-8 range by Conflict 2007. My devoted PC needs one more module for 3rd, because I gave up playing her a couple of slots to make other tables go.

I'm passing on Gen Con this year, so I'm going to try to make it to Conflict, depending on my job situation.

Ed
Redfist
04-24-07, 09:57 PM Not to toot my own horn, well maybe slightly, but really to once again praise Bart (bay area conventions) I'll restate what I've posted once or twice before in various places.

After going to Bart run premustered cons, I wanted cons that I ran in Phoenix to be just as good. Towards that end, I wrote a program that downloads data from your warhorn site and lets you organize tables. You can then print out pre-muster sheets and share them with your audience before hand, use them as table tracker sheets at the con, etc.

The program is called ConMuster and can be downloaded/discussed/etc. from a yahoo newsgroup of the same name.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ConMuster/

One of these days I'll write documentation for it but for now, your answers should be in the newsgroup either already answered or answered quickly when I see posts.

--Gordon
ithardin
04-25-07, 01:45 AM It may be difficult to put a table together if you start a highfolk PC for the devoted arc. At Conflagration 2006, most people were in the APL 2 range. I would think they'll be in the APL 6-8 range by Conflict 2007. My devoted PC needs one more module for 3rd, because I gave up playing her a couple of slots to make other tables go.

I'm passing on Gen Con this year, so I'm going to try to make it to Conflict, depending on my job situation.

Ed

There is at least one 8th level devoted Highfolk PC. I know about the muster problem because the player of that PC talked me into going to Conflagration so I could help him get to play APL 8 tables :)

From everything I hear Conflict is a great Con and I plan on attending, if only for the stops at the Mars Cheese Castle!
King Kashue
04-25-07, 02:20 AM The best musters I've seen so far have been in the Bay area (pale) (thanks to Bart as a con organizer).

This weekend it Theocracy by the Bay in Sunnyvale. (RPGA only)
Memorial Day weekend is Kublacon in San Fran. (Not an RPGA only con, but I highly recommend. This year will be my thrid year.)
Palish Convictions is in Tracy in Jul (around the 19th) (RPGA only)

Like Matt said, all premustered and prebalanced as possible. They are all on Warhorn.

Reminds me I need to email Bart....

Yep, the Pale cons are great. Cedric is also great as an organizer.

Several amazing judges as well, Joe, Jason, Dave Baker (who may be the best judge I've ever had, every time he's been at the table as either a judge or a player I've had an amazing time)...
CdrcJsn
04-30-07, 09:02 PM Yep, the Pale cons are great. Cedric is also great as an organizer.

Who are you and how much money do I owe you?

;)

Cedric
Lomiat
04-30-07, 09:39 PM Despite how much I already enjoy living and playing in the Shield Lands, I was pleasantly surprised by how well our first convention turned out this year. We just ran Weekend in the Shield Lands this last weekend and had something like 80 players on Saturday when both the new SHL mods premiered, along with the interactive. I was too busy judging tables the entire time to walk around and get the sense of how other tables were enjoying themselves, but all the reports were good.

It's quite rewarding to participate in the region's writing and judging when players consistently compliment the story arc (much credit, there, to the former Triad/Mon-ad -- and now metaregional representative, Dobbs). It's also interesting to see how players respond when they switch from the regional adventures to the cores, and you can see how much less invested they are in the one-off adventures...
MysticRhythms
05-03-07, 06:35 PM I'm biased. All of the Highfolk Cons are great. Many run in Milwaukee but Conflict in the Vesve is especially fun because of the dual-regional nature.

I've also tried the Shadowdark Saga in the Shield Lands and I msut also concur that this storyline is great.

Basically, if you're in the Midwest, you have Shield Lands, Highfolk, Verbobonc, Furyondy and I think two other possible regions to experience all within three hours drive of each other.

And Conflict in the Vesve is very midnight-madness friendly to help people "catch up" on story arcs.
szwanger
05-07-07, 01:22 PM I have been to cons throughout northeast North America (Keoland, Geoff, Veluna, Bissel, Ket, Tusmit). By far, the cons with the best organization and highest-quality DMs were the Toronto-based Ket cons run by the Daggerthorn people. They are outstanding.
RedKnightofKet
05-07-07, 01:29 PM I just came back from Pan Oasis (a border-con with Furyondy and Ket), and I must say the Con was very well organized and the modules were great tie-ins between the two regions. Chris Hoffman always puts on a good show, as do the Daggerthorn people that Szwanger mentioned. Combined, the event was fantastic. I hope to see a lot of those players at Midsummer Oasis in Toronto - a good time will be had by all.
Mommy was an Orc
05-07-07, 05:34 PM If you are going to GenCon you might consider coming to Indy a day early to play the Verbobonc Pre-GenCon Madness to get all the wonderful Verbobonc storyline you can shake a dead Rhennee at!

I'll be going to that. Have to see if I can get one of my 2s to at least 3rd - otherwise they're my option for APL 4.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mommy was an Orc 04-24-07, 12:49 PM	I might have the ability to soon travel to some regional conventions, probably the U.S or possibly Canada. And I've only currently been to two of them. Here's my question - if you had to pick your favorite LG regional convention, which one would it be and why? i.e. Good mods, well-run muster, prepped judges, fun people to play with, decent hotels, interesting interactives, easy access to both fast food and reasonable dining, etc - any conventions have all of those?
Redfist 04-24-07, 01:05 PM	The best musters I've seen so far have been in the Bay area (pale) (thanks to Bart as a con organizer).
Mommy was an Orc 04-24-07, 01:15 PM	The best musters I've seen so far have been in the Bay area (pale) (thanks to Bart as a con organizer). Which conventions are those? Bay area works really well for me, too - lots of friends in the area, most of whom are not gamers.
Redfist 04-24-07, 01:18 PM	The 2 I went to there last year were Conviction and Theocracy by the Bay. I'm not sure what else they have planned for the rest of the year.
berpo 04-24-07, 01:52 PM	Weekend in dyvers is a really great con... 4 days, a lot of mod. great organization. I travel more than a 1000 mile to get there every years. Councill Bluff's, Ohio end of may. you can check on warhorn to find the detail. No i'm not paid to tell you that. lol Marc Tusmit
Asaris 04-24-07, 02:47 PM	Unless I'm badly mistaken, it's in Council Bluffs, IOWA. And yes, a great con. I went last year, it was my first con, and I had a great time.
kjenks 04-24-07, 03:55 PM	I've had pretty good experiences everywhere. Last year, GenCon was only offering a little bit of LG play, so instead of that, I used my frequent flyer miles to fly up to Souix Falls, South Dakota, for FallsCon. That was a lot of fun and I got a chance to play some regionals outside of my usual Bandit Kingdoms and nearby Yeomanry. http://www.warhorn.net/fallscon2007/ Almost every year, I drive to Mobile, Alabama, for some Yeomanry action (www.mobicon.org/). I've also flown off to Geoff (http://www.warhorn.net/confalon/), Verbobonc (Stuffed COWS and Flag Waving COWS, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COWSGamers/), and Pale/Nyrond (http://www.theocracyofthepale.com/news/newsletter/2006-stateofthepale.html). I've been to a few others here and there, but all of those were fun. I almost always got to play in every slot -- and that's something to write home about.
kenobi65 04-24-07, 04:19 PM	I've been to a number of good LG cons here in Illinois, including: COWS puts on COWS at CodCon (April) and Stuffed COWS (Thanksgiving weekend), both at the College of DuPage, in suburban Chicago. CIRCA puts on LG events at both FlatCon (October, Bloomington) and Winter War (late January / early February, Champaign). Both are in downstate Illinois, which may be harder for an out-of-stater to get to (both are about a 2-hour drive south of Chicago). Of those 4, only Winter War is actually at a hotel (a fairly average one, IMO, that could use a bit of a remodel, or at least someone to clean the dang elevators), but all of them have a lot of hotel and food options within a short drive. I found all of these cons to be well-organized, with excellent judges. I've never had a problem with mustering, or not being able to play in a slot, at any of them. (I'd also add the late, lamented Ides of March convention to the list, with hopes that it returns someday.) I've yet to make it up to any conventions in Wisconsin, though my friends here speak very highly of them (and it makes me sad, because I'm originally from Wisconsin).
ithardin 04-24-07, 04:32 PM	Weekend in Dyvers is a great Con with ALOT of slots and excellent storylines. I know they are just about to close registration. Council Bluffs, Iowa is just a stone's throw from Omaha, Nebraska. If you are going to GenCon you might consider coming to Indy a day early to play the Verbobonc Pre-GenCon Madness to get all the wonderful Verbobonc storyline you can shake a dead Rhennee at!
Mattastrophic 04-24-07, 05:43 PM	I've been to cons in Geoff, Gran March, Keoland, the Duchy of Urnst, and the Pale, and as for organization and running of the convention itself... Bay Area Pale, hands down. They premuster all their tables! No onsite APL issues, and they even balance the parties for you. If there's a problem with your signup, like late last year when my 12 ended up in a slot with only 3-4s, they let you know in advance. Mods always start on time because everyone knows their table, leaving plenty of time to play the mods themselves. -Matt
Lomiat 04-24-07, 06:16 PM	As much as I want to plug the Triad-run SHL cons, I have to say that the two best cons I've attended so far are Weekend in Dyvers and Conflict in the Vesve. People have already mentioned Weekend in Dyvers, but Conflict in the Vesve is held each year in LaCrosse, WI, and has been given dual-region status for this year, running both Shield Lands and Highfolk adventures. It's on Warhorn, also, sometime in July, I believe. The organizers at both events do an excellent job, though I guess the Bay area has got them beat for the pre-muster. Nonetheless, both conventions offer a TON of games, and the organizers have proven quite accomodating for replays, midnight madnesses, and all that crazy stuff. The toughest choice you'd face as an out-of-region player coming to Conflict is whether you'd want to create a Highfolk character to play in their Devoted story arc or if you'd want to dedicate a character to follow through the Shield Lands' current Shadowdark story arc. Both have been excellent so far.
jhorred 04-24-07, 07:02 PM	The 2 I went to there last year were Conviction and Theocracy by the Bay. I'm not sure what else they have planned for the rest of the year. This weekend it Theocracy by the Bay in Sunnyvale. (RPGA only) Memorial Day weekend is Kublacon in San Fran. (Not an RPGA only con, but I highly recommend. This year will be my thrid year.) Palish Convictions is in Tracy in Jul (around the 19th) (RPGA only) Like Matt said, all premustered and prebalanced as possible. They are all on Warhorn. Reminds me I need to email Bart....
Nerax 04-24-07, 09:26 PM	I have to agree that the Pale is where it is at Con wise. Premuster is so nice!!! As for the major cons in the Bay area: Convictions (Feb/March) Theocracy by the Bay (April/May) KublaCon (Memorial Weekend) Winter Weekend in the Pale (Early December) Another good con that I have made it to twice is Crossing Paths, which is a cross-regional between Pale/Nyrond. (October) It take place in Vegas which is nice since you can get really cheap flights and the hotel rate is reasonable. Everyone hates the Pholtuns but they love their cons! :D
Sieylianna 04-24-07, 09:45 PM	The toughest choice you'd face as an out-of-region player coming to Conflict is whether you'd want to create a Highfolk character to play in their Devoted story arc or if you'd want to dedicate a character to follow through the Shield Lands' current Shadowdark story arc. Both have been excellent so far. It may be difficult to put a table together if you start a highfolk PC for the devoted arc. At Conflagration 2006, most people were in the APL 2 range. I would think they'll be in the APL 6-8 range by Conflict 2007. My devoted PC needs one more module for 3rd, because I gave up playing her a couple of slots to make other tables go. I'm passing on Gen Con this year, so I'm going to try to make it to Conflict, depending on my job situation. Ed
Redfist 04-24-07, 09:57 PM	Not to toot my own horn, well maybe slightly, but really to once again praise Bart (bay area conventions) I'll restate what I've posted once or twice before in various places. After going to Bart run premustered cons, I wanted cons that I ran in Phoenix to be just as good. Towards that end, I wrote a program that downloads data from your warhorn site and lets you organize tables. You can then print out pre-muster sheets and share them with your audience before hand, use them as table tracker sheets at the con, etc. The program is called ConMuster and can be downloaded/discussed/etc. from a yahoo newsgroup of the same name. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ConMuster/ One of these days I'll write documentation for it but for now, your answers should be in the newsgroup either already answered or answered quickly when I see posts. --Gordon
ithardin 04-25-07, 01:45 AM	It may be difficult to put a table together if you start a highfolk PC for the devoted arc. At Conflagration 2006, most people were in the APL 2 range. I would think they'll be in the APL 6-8 range by Conflict 2007. My devoted PC needs one more module for 3rd, because I gave up playing her a couple of slots to make other tables go. I'm passing on Gen Con this year, so I'm going to try to make it to Conflict, depending on my job situation. Ed There is at least one 8th level devoted Highfolk PC. I know about the muster problem because the player of that PC talked me into going to Conflagration so I could help him get to play APL 8 tables :) From everything I hear Conflict is a great Con and I plan on attending, if only for the stops at the Mars Cheese Castle!
King Kashue 04-25-07, 02:20 AM	The best musters I've seen so far have been in the Bay area (pale) (thanks to Bart as a con organizer). This weekend it Theocracy by the Bay in Sunnyvale. (RPGA only) Memorial Day weekend is Kublacon in San Fran. (Not an RPGA only con, but I highly recommend. This year will be my thrid year.) Palish Convictions is in Tracy in Jul (around the 19th) (RPGA only) Like Matt said, all premustered and prebalanced as possible. They are all on Warhorn. Reminds me I need to email Bart.... Yep, the Pale cons are great. Cedric is also great as an organizer. Several amazing judges as well, Joe, Jason, Dave Baker (who may be the best judge I've ever had, every time he's been at the table as either a judge or a player I've had an amazing time)...
CdrcJsn 04-30-07, 09:02 PM	Yep, the Pale cons are great. Cedric is also great as an organizer. Who are you and how much money do I owe you? ;) Cedric
Lomiat 04-30-07, 09:39 PM	Despite how much I already enjoy living and playing in the Shield Lands, I was pleasantly surprised by how well our first convention turned out this year. We just ran Weekend in the Shield Lands this last weekend and had something like 80 players on Saturday when both the new SHL mods premiered, along with the interactive. I was too busy judging tables the entire time to walk around and get the sense of how other tables were enjoying themselves, but all the reports were good. It's quite rewarding to participate in the region's writing and judging when players consistently compliment the story arc (much credit, there, to the former Triad/Mon-ad -- and now metaregional representative, Dobbs). It's also interesting to see how players respond when they switch from the regional adventures to the cores, and you can see how much less invested they are in the one-off adventures...
MysticRhythms 05-03-07, 06:35 PM	I'm biased. All of the Highfolk Cons are great. Many run in Milwaukee but Conflict in the Vesve is especially fun because of the dual-regional nature. I've also tried the Shadowdark Saga in the Shield Lands and I msut also concur that this storyline is great. Basically, if you're in the Midwest, you have Shield Lands, Highfolk, Verbobonc, Furyondy and I think two other possible regions to experience all within three hours drive of each other. And Conflict in the Vesve is very midnight-madness friendly to help people "catch up" on story arcs.
szwanger 05-07-07, 01:22 PM	I have been to cons throughout northeast North America (Keoland, Geoff, Veluna, Bissel, Ket, Tusmit). By far, the cons with the best organization and highest-quality DMs were the Toronto-based Ket cons run by the Daggerthorn people. They are outstanding.
RedKnightofKet 05-07-07, 01:29 PM	I just came back from Pan Oasis (a border-con with Furyondy and Ket), and I must say the Con was very well organized and the modules were great tie-ins between the two regions. Chris Hoffman always puts on a good show, as do the Daggerthorn people that Szwanger mentioned. Combined, the event was fantastic. I hope to see a lot of those players at Midsummer Oasis in Toronto - a good time will be had by all.
Mommy was an Orc 05-07-07, 05:34 PM	If you are going to GenCon you might consider coming to Indy a day early to play the Verbobonc Pre-GenCon Madness to get all the wonderful Verbobonc storyline you can shake a dead Rhennee at! I'll be going to that. Have to see if I can get one of my 2s to at least 3rd - otherwise they're my option for APL 4.