Down Down to OrcCon town...

So here I am back from my trip to OrcCon 2014 in Los Angeles. Getting there was an adventure in itself. I was trying to avoid the I-405 freeway traffic and found myself smack down the Hollywood area traffic instead. My grand plan of being there early became a mad dash to find parking, which was non-existent, except of course for the valet. So parking became a premium.albeit convenient.

OrcCon moved to a new venue which is the Hilton Hotel in LAX. There were some expected confusion in finding rooms and locations from what we've been used to. But it is obviously more spacious than the previous convention venue which everyone appreciated. I expect the next Memorial event  (aka Gamex)  to run smoother.

All the three meccg events we ran went well. For an out-of-print game it was well attended. There were eight players for the two Saturday events and nine players that mustered for the Sunday event.

A couple of months before the convention, I was thinking that we will have more than 10 players for meccg. But as it got down to less than two weeks I was telling myself to be content with six bodies. We had six players a year ago so that will be just fine. So seeing eight to nine players to our meccg table was really sweet. All nine attendees to the meccg events were also present at last September's Strategicon convention aka Gateway.  

The two Saturday events (challenge decks and constructed) went past our allotted  time by an hour each. Each event had three rounds. We took a break in between for some dinner. We ended the event around 10:30 maybe even closer to 11pm. I was tired but happy. My two teens had a little more energy left and wanted to roam the convention before going to bed.

The next day we all came back  with one more player to add to our ranks. We were doing the Dragon Hoard Scenario. We were excited but the added rules and the previous days happening kinda took its toll. I had to extend the the first round until everyone got used to the scenario. Although the second round was smoother we still took longer than the regular one hour and 20 minutes allotted for each round. By the time we finished the we had already used up more than four hours. We decided to end the event.

After the Dragon Hoard Scenario. Some stayed and played pick up games. Others stayed to discuss the game. We also talked about our excitement and interest to attend the planned MECCG: Worlds in San Francisco this summer! In any case I believe its safe to assume we all had a blast! And everyone was willing to comeback for memorial weekend.

There were some attendees who came by and asked about meccg. There were some who were surprised to see us play meccg. Hopefully we can have them join us next time.We are planning on doing Middle Earth: Arda Rules next convention. Its a variant (multi-player and no more deck building, with a common deck pool) to hopefully help introduce people who are interested but may not have the time to learn the game using challenge decks.

I want to say thanks to August, for bringing food and drinks for all during the Sunday event, so generous. Also, as one who plays meccg would know, the rules are complex, so I was glad that Gene and Larry who came all the way from the SF bay area joined us again and lent their deep knowledge of the game rules to all. They were reminding and clarifying the rules for everyone. I really appreciated them being there. Thanks to all that attended!

I hope to see everyone back and hopefully more. See you all next time!

Strategicon is a group that sponsors three conventions each year in the Los Angeles area: OrcCon for President's day weekend; Gamex for the Memorial weekend; and Gateway for the Labor Day weekend.