Mepacon Spring 2012

ViscountEric... Has returned... To Mepacon.

It's been a full year and I've missed the two 10th anniversary galas so it's been too long. This time I added a new dynamic to the equation.

I brought my wife.

My lovely wife Michelle is most certainly NOT a gamer. Sure she has played Fluxx and Apples to Apples, and even figured out the basics of Magic, but she traditionally just rolls her eyes and lets me do my thing.
This time I had her come up with me use her sparingly to carry stuff for my Gnome Wars game, hang out for auction and raffle, grab a bite, and we could pass the hell out in the hotel room without any children to bother us for the first time in three years.

Going to a con with my non-gamer wife creates a whole new experience. She is a self-professed t-shirt whore and even though they are con t-shirts, six years of old Mepacon shirts beckoned to her. Finding out the t-shirts came in child's small and onesies meant Maja , Millie, and our friend's little one Alex, got ones too.

We got to the con at 1pm with just enough time to pick up my badge, unload the car, and set up my game. The problems began to arise. First, there was no GM badge. Second, my event was not even listed on the "muster wall" of events! Third, all senior staff were off site having lunch.

By the time 2pm rolled around, all was resolved, and we got center table in the ball room. The actual Gnome Wars write up will be for another post.

For the con itself, attendance looked to be a little lower than usual, or else I peaked into the Organized Play room every time they were on break. D&D, as expected, was the champion, although there was a Toon game that not only was full, but had three standby players.

From conversing with other players, Dreadfleet seemed to have a good following. There was also a very nice Mordheim city display, although I was unable to view it closely as they had renowned author, perennial Guest of Honor, and salesman extraordinaire CJ Henderson next to them, and that is a dance I only perform when I'm ready.  The second I spotted his table in the ballroom, I warned my wife, yet she did not heed my warnings.

Speaking of dealers, it was pleasant.surprise to see CJ, plus a full row of dealers:  The Portal, some guys who only focus on Fantasy Flight boardgames, and the Keep.  It's the first time I had seen the Keep there, and I was pleasantly surprised by the selection.  In general, though, LOTS of boardgames, and Portal had a full line of 4e and other items at 20% off.

The game wrapped up a half hour early, I snagged up some raffle tickets and an auction card for the famous "everything starts at a buck" auction.  I had brought up a box of stuff out of the garage to sell, but alas, I could not find anything to replace it with!  First off, the buyout prices were way too high.  Second, even when they were, like a complete 1st Edition Battlesystem boxed set with a number of extra photocopied pieces glued to chits for only $3, my practical mind overrode my gamer hoarder mentality by saying,
"when am I going to play with this crap?"

An early breakfast and no lunch caught up to us, and about 2/3 of the way into the raffle, I just handed my tickets and auction  card to my friend Tom and the Mrs.and I headed over to Damon's Grill for dinner.  More thanks to Tom, who gave us a $15.00 off voucher as we left.  An appetizer dinner, a few drinks, and a call to check on the kids later, and we were content with the world.

Even better, Tom didn't use my auction card to buy anything.

Up until 8:45pm, I was stuck with the embarrassing fact that my wife had spent more money at the dealers than I had! Middle of the afternoon, she came to the table with a copy of Family Fluxx and a giant d20!  With the auction over, my wife went into the above-mentioned t-shirt frenzy and I decided to possibly buy something.

The gentleman at The Keep was a nice guy and running a decent promotion: Buy one item at listed price and get a second of equal or lesser value for 50% off.  Even with that I had to suffer through some douchebags "haggling"  with him to get some higher end boardgames for below the distributor's cost, much less the dealer's.   Let's just say that I have their names jotted down and if they ever attempt to jump in one of my con games, I'll kindly ask them to go play something else.  Bragging about online prices will only ostracize you from the land of brick and mortar stores, and I think the fate of that store will not rest on the $2 profit on                a game that cost the dealer 15 times that to purchase at wholesale.

 The Portal, The FFG guy,and The Keep in the Corner

 The Auction/Raffle and the other side of  The Portal

Anywho, the spoils:

• A plush d20 and d10 "for the kids"  I'll throw in another giant d20 my wife purchased.
• Mouseguard: Winter 1152 and Legends of the Guard.  More "mouse books" to tell stories to my daughter Maja.

As I missed the morning session, I did miss the traditional paint and take, so here's a quick snap of some elementals that paint and take coordinator Tom Carpenter was working on:

As we planned this as a "weekend" away, this was the first time I had stayed at the Ramada in Clarks Summit.  Clean rooms, nice staff, sufficient towels, although I have had better Continental breakfasts at generic hotels before.

We did one more swing through the ballroom, dealt with CJ and picked up Central Park Knight, and we headed to an extremely loud Waffle House for breakfast, then some grocery shopping and then to return home to make sure the kiddos didn't burn down the house.

So that's right true believers, I got through a Mepacon without picking up any random RPG tome, rather a pile of t-shirts, some giant dice, two collected comics collections, and a mythos-related novel.  

Mepacon Fall 2012  (Mepacon XXV?) will be November 9-11 at the same location.  If I do go, I have requests to run a old Mepacon favorite:  Burning Plastic.