Mepacon Spring 2013 Review

The Viscount has returned from Mepacon, and although I always enjoy myself, this was the best one in years.

I have to admit that had reservations about going this time.  Attendance had been dwindling, the dealers always stocked more and more expensive items, and the Old Guard from the Lehigh Valley conventions were essentially gone this time.  No Steve and his Drow game, no Gerry and his beret, no drunk/crazy Larry and him yelling at the RPGA/Organized Play-esqe people, "you are all the ball-lickers!" There were fewer and fewer auction finds and more random yard sale stuff.  Throw in the two and four year-old back home, a beautiful weekend to get the yard work started, and gearing up for a new position at work that Monday added up to plenty of excuses.

But I went anyway.

My apathetic goal was to swing by right before the raffle/auction, see if I had any players for my Toon game, and if not, escape at the start of the evening session for a heaping order of cheese and gravy fries at Chick's Diner in Scranton.  Instead, I got out early, got to the con at the beginning of the afternoon session and hit a wall.

A wall of gamers.

My pictures wouldn't do the main ballroom justice.  After con after con of only four or five tables running games when there were ten slotted, and most of them only half filled, the main room was teeming with gamers, actively starting their games in droves, with a few pick up games organizing in the corners.  Organized Play, which was  in another room, looked like it took a bit of a hit in participation

Organized play had a few empty seats for once

I actually felt a wave of relief that the con had life, then a wave of overwhelming fear.  Oh crap my Toon game, which I only submitted a week before player pre-reg closed, was sold out during pre-reg plus an alternate!

After snagging up my badge,  not finding the familiar faces I was looking for, and a quick perusal of the early auction and dealer tables, I did what any self-respecting geek longing to game would do. I went over to Damon's Restaurant across the parking lot and had a lunch of Guinness and wings.  At Damon's I spoke to my friend Brian on the phone, who was coming up to the con, if only for the auction.

With some time to kill before I decided I would feel up to going back, I spent the next two hours hunting down Adventure Games in Dickson City. It was worth the trip, even if it only amounted to me being able to write a store review post (Coming Soon!)

Upon my return, I perused the games/dealers again, got into a nice, short conversation with perennial Guest of Honor, author CJ Henderson (I only wanted Radio City Knight and it isn't back from the printers), and relaxed in the hotel lobby to go over a few items to throw into the auction, and to remember any of the plots to the Toon episodes. Brian soon showed up and we spent the time up till the raffle/auction just catching up and throwing gaming ideas at each other.

Again, it wasn't the events of the con that made me blah, that was all my fault.  Lots was going on, including 5e demos/playtests, Pathfinder/D&D organized play, Star Wars fighter combat, and a Strek Trek game set up with five or six laptops on a LAN.  Each player was a different crewmember with different responsibilities and it seemed to get a big reception.  I also got to see a game of Mice and Mystics.  Nice figures, solid accessories, still can't justify the cost for more mice minis.

There's always one...

Raffle/Auction -  If one thing was down, it was the variety of stuff in the raffle.  Outside a borderline kids game, I picked up the only cool thing on the table when I won, an OGREthulhu!

The spoils of war... errrr, I mean the raffle

The auction had its pros and cons.  Pro: it was quick and well organized.  Con:  There wasn't much to it.
Pro: The new kids who I complained about last con wised up and were actually pretty cool Con: The economy is getting better and new money players infused some higher bids into the auction.  Paperback books which sets usually have to be bundled together with other sets to sell for a buck were going for five, six, seven, even twelve dollars a set.   I made over $11  on the books I had put in the auction and only spent $3 total... at the last con auction!   Woo, inflation!

The auction, everything starting at a buck and skyrocketing upwards from there.

I got two items from the auction, I personally snagged a copy of Fantasy Wargaming  (small hardcover with dust jacket) for a buck!  Brian had also won a copy of the Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill expansion and gave it me as a birthday present.  Very fitting, since I no longer own a copy of Illuminati, and the expansion is printed entirely in German. I loves me some wacky gifts.

I also snagged up a random college textbook Overthrowing Dead Culture - A Vision to Change the World of College Recruiting for free, and by golly, I'm going to use that for my Illuminati University game this summer.  Fun fun fun!

My new "sourcebook" for Illuminati University

Brian left right after the auction and I dove into my Toon Cthulhu Comes  to Springfield game.  Instead of five players, I expanded to seven and then grabbed another onlooker for eight.  "Homer the Shoggoth" didn't really go anywhere, even if Moe was the lone survivor of the Simpson home suffering from a gas explosion.

Everyone loved the dual-role nature of "Krusty the Kultist"  and more were frightened by the mixture of Apocalypse Now and Lord of the Flies the Flanders kids turned into while battling the "non-believers."  We finally crossed the line that requires this to be an adult only game about five minutes before the session ended.  I do believe everyone had a great time and it was better to end it 50 minutes early than try and botch up a third episode.

At that point I packed up my stuff, and headed down 81.  Mission accomplished.

Next con is November 8-10 back at the Ramada and the theme (ooh a theme) will be pirates.  I'll post up a poll once I narrow my options down.  It will also proudly be Mepacon 25 (or XXV for those of you of Roman persuasion).

I never did get to Chick's.  Maybe in November.