My Fall convention season is compressed into two short weeks: Fall-In! in Lancaster, usually followed up my Mepacon immediately thereafter. This year was no exception.
I got my GM badge, found a handy-dandy water station right beside my table, and got set up for my first game of My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria.
I had the distinct pleasure of running the game for an old convention compatriot Nate U, whom I had not seen in close to eleven years. A few things had changed in those years, like his two young daughters who really wanted to play My Little Pony.
With Nate's family and a young twenty-something man who didn't want to be an overt Brony, we powered through the two hour game slot to perfection, dedicating the first half hour to character creation, and the rest for a short game. By 5:55, we had exonerated the PCs from stealing Princess Celestia's toothbrush, stopped magic goblins from stealing her tiara, and kept open a storyline about a changeling named Louis for future use.
After cleaning up, and snagging the must-have item at the Dealer's Hall (MLP: Tokens of Friendship at The Portal's booth) I headed downstairs to the convention opening reception and pasta dinner.
Although Mepacon does a great job supporting local charities, I always understood it that the Friday night dinner charge did benefit the convention directly. The convention is as close to solvent as any con in a downtown Hilton can be, so a few extra bucks towards the general fund is good thing.
After dinner was session #2 of 6. I initially had only a father-daughter team, so I pulled my chair around from the GM screen, sat down next to the little girl, and started working on making the most awesome pony of all time.
Then the bros came. Brandon and Anthony had pre-registered for the event, and showed up a few minutes late, but came in with the greatest attitude. They had needed a game to fill the time slot and ponies sounded intriguing, but almost challenging fun. If all my players came in with that sort of an attitude to each session, every game would be guaranteed A+ awesome.
As the session progressed, it became apparent that the young lady's pony, Harmony was becoming the center of the story, bluntly arguing with the Commander of the Gnoman Legions, and when her abilities were needed to stop a catastrophe, three grown men became wildly animated with each subsequent roll, tossing their own Tokens of Friendship at her in encouragement, and to improve her results. It was epic.
Plus they all laughed at my bad jokes, so I give them props for that.
By 10pm, I was in my car, and bracing against the frigid temperatures on my ride home.
Saturday, I woke up my girls, Maja (8) and Millie (6) and we headed back for a full day family fun. We got there with just enough time to sign the kids in, set-up browse the dealer hall for a few minutes and set up for session three, which only had the girls as players.
The advantage of having the girls play? Character creation that takes 30 minutes for new players takes five for them. The bad news? The combination of a neat freak pony needing to travel down a muddy underground tunnel to save her friend proved too much, and without other ponies to help, the game bogged down.
But as Maja wisely observed, "You have a great place to start your next game."
Finished early, the girls departed for the kid's crafting table where they made turkeys and other holiday-esque items out of jars and cotton balls, jumped over to the coloring table, then jumped back for more crafts.
While they crafted away, I spent some time browsing the dealers' wares, regrouped to a different table (Seriously. I'm running six identical sessions. Why the need to move me from table 19 to 18 to 17 every two sessions?) and prepped for session #4.
In twenty-six and a half years of running games at cons, I have never had any pregame communication between myself and a player, unless that player was a friend and confirming a character they wanted to bring into the game.
While I was hurrying to make it to the con, my Facebook blew up with a mother asking if slots were still available for my 11am session and if I could accommodate more.
Who would I be if I broke a child's heart by telling them they couple play a pony? I'm a monster, but I'm not THAT big a monster.
Session #4 brought a wide range of kids, one adult (who caused gleeful chaos by immediately dumping a bag of pony figures on the table), and the above mentioned Mom, who helped by keeping the younger folks on point as we proceeded. I'll admit it was a bit chaotic, but we saved the day yet again, and we ended with enough time to try the Leveling Up rules. Good stuff. Pony power creep is real!
Lunchtime fell upon us, and we ventured over to the pizza place across the Square and a visit to Comics on the Green.
Session #5 was a intended wash, as it hit immediately during the Kid's LARP. The theme for this con was Ancient Civilizations, and with the number of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian costumes walking around, Maja was in her glory. Millie had to fight back a few moments of "I'm bored," but she powered through and the ring pop treasure was theirs!
Maja and Millie returned only to immediately attack the craft table again with their attempts to make "Flarf" (goo/slime). With them messily engrossed, I was visited by Nate's girls again to play in Session #6.
Each session I had tried to mix real world implications with cartoon tomfoolery, and with my final game I turned that on it's ear. After levelling up their ponies from Friday's game, we set down an odd path full of puppets, poisonous cookies, and some time paradoxes thanks to Doctor Hooves.
My reward for running twelve hours of My Little Pony, besides free admission and a cool con t-shirt? I'm a guy very apt at giving and receiving hugs among my gaming friends, but the 110% effort needed to keep theses kids engaged was quantified by so many of the young players giving me genuine hugs as they thanked me for a great game.
I had no winners for the raffle, the girls' dominance in the coloring contest may have officially ended with another no-win, and by then my wife had come to pick them up early.
The Auction: With a few gaps in my schedule, I was able to check out the games auction as it grew. Not much in particular stuck out to me, and in most cases, the items either had no buy-in price to tempt me, or a price way too close to retail.
To make matters a bit more confusing, the traditional "Everything starts at a buck" auction added a giant caveat: If an item had a buyout price listed, and it did not sell by the time the auction started, the bidding for it would start at half the buyout price.
Now, I understand that nobody is going to win a copy of Arkham Horror for $2, so it only makes sense if the Buyout is $30, then $15 start might skip the lower bid levels that are simply procedural. The problem arose with many of the marginal items that should have had "Somebody might want this for $10. If they don't get the buyout starting at a buck is cool." on the auction slips. Certain items barely survived these inflated levels, but many items were sent back to the main table without a bid, to be returned to their owners, rather than recycled into the gaming community at large. I did see and increase on bids for certain items, but not more than what the unsold buyouts would have fetched if they had started at a buck and stopped at $3 or $4, rather than start a $5 or $10.
The key auction item that I wanted to bid on was the H.R. Pufnstuf boardgame. Despite my best efforts to silence the crowd with a whopping $5 bid, it eventually sold for $8. Not bad for a game that's a bad, a spinner, and 34 cards. Otherwise, I bid on little, and won nothing.
Swag: Besides the Tokens of Friendship, I bought a new set of red metal dice from Dice Dungeons, and cannibalized a stack of gaming books at the auction. I pulled out a d20 module, a copy of Adventures Unlimited magazine with a plethora of cool scenarios, and a copy of a Jovian Chronicles books still in the shrinkwrap, and threw the rest back into the auction. Since I was leaving before the auction was cashing out, I simply told them to donate paltry couple of bucks to charity.
Site: The Hilton is very nice, and outside of paying for parking, very convenient. Of course, they are doing some remodeling which took away the closest bathrooms to the main ballroom. I didn't see any plans as to why they walled off such a large section of the facility, but I'm sure there's a profit-driven reason.
Overview: The convention itself is still growing, and despite some tight confines in the main ballroom, there's still room for more games through he rented space. I'm not suggesting organized play give way to the masses, but a decade ago, the situation was reversed. The demographics of the attendees are getting more diverse with more women, more families, and more people not representative of the graying neckbeard population. The gentleman with the "Run D&D" shirt I posted above? I noticed his shirt first. Years ago, I may have noticed him as the lone African-American attendee in a sea of Caucasians. We're getting more diverse, and since we're all here to game and have a good time, nobody's really noticing or caring too much about it. For the weekend, we're game dorks first.
Except for Pathfinder players. They're pure evil.
(Just kidding)
The next Mepacon will be April 27-29, 2018 back at the Hilton and the theme will be "Heroes and Villains." Guess I'm looking up kid-friendly super-hero systems, or perhaps the ponies will look good in spandex.
The kids are already working on costumes.
After a fairly miserable week with issues at work and home, I desperately escaped my office at 2:45 Friday afternoon to make a few errands through the bitter weather and get to Scranton before my first event.
I got my GM badge, found a handy-dandy water station right beside my table, and got set up for my first game of My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria.
 |
| Game One of MLP |
With Nate's family and a young twenty-something man who didn't want to be an overt Brony, we powered through the two hour game slot to perfection, dedicating the first half hour to character creation, and the rest for a short game. By 5:55, we had exonerated the PCs from stealing Princess Celestia's toothbrush, stopped magic goblins from stealing her tiara, and kept open a storyline about a changeling named Louis for future use.
 |
| The Dealer's Row, leading into the main RPG/Boardgame Ballroom |
Although Mepacon does a great job supporting local charities, I always understood it that the Friday night dinner charge did benefit the convention directly. The convention is as close to solvent as any con in a downtown Hilton can be, so a few extra bucks towards the general fund is good thing.
After dinner was session #2 of 6. I initially had only a father-daughter team, so I pulled my chair around from the GM screen, sat down next to the little girl, and started working on making the most awesome pony of all time.
Then the bros came. Brandon and Anthony had pre-registered for the event, and showed up a few minutes late, but came in with the greatest attitude. They had needed a game to fill the time slot and ponies sounded intriguing, but almost challenging fun. If all my players came in with that sort of an attitude to each session, every game would be guaranteed A+ awesome.
As the session progressed, it became apparent that the young lady's pony, Harmony was becoming the center of the story, bluntly arguing with the Commander of the Gnoman Legions, and when her abilities were needed to stop a catastrophe, three grown men became wildly animated with each subsequent roll, tossing their own Tokens of Friendship at her in encouragement, and to improve her results. It was epic.
Plus they all laughed at my bad jokes, so I give them props for that.
 |
| Brandon and Anthony with their ponies (cause taking pictures of young kids and putting them on the internet, even with their parent's permission, is asking for trouble nowadays.) |
Saturday, I woke up my girls, Maja (8) and Millie (6) and we headed back for a full day family fun. We got there with just enough time to sign the kids in, set-up browse the dealer hall for a few minutes and set up for session three, which only had the girls as players.
 |
| A bad shot of the ballroom, this is about as empty as it got through Friday and Saturday. |
 |
| Session #3, Ponies Under the Shadow of the Empire |
Finished early, the girls departed for the kid's crafting table where they made turkeys and other holiday-esque items out of jars and cotton balls, jumped over to the coloring table, then jumped back for more crafts.
 |
| Far less potentially hazardous than it looks. |
In twenty-six and a half years of running games at cons, I have never had any pregame communication between myself and a player, unless that player was a friend and confirming a character they wanted to bring into the game.
While I was hurrying to make it to the con, my Facebook blew up with a mother asking if slots were still available for my 11am session and if I could accommodate more.
Who would I be if I broke a child's heart by telling them they couple play a pony? I'm a monster, but I'm not THAT big a monster.
 |
| Me howling at the moon during session #4 |
 |
| I was going to compliment the man on his Run DMC shirt, then I caught a second glance. |
 |
| The children's section is in the Upside Down. |
Maja grabbed an Archie, Millie snagged an invisible ink activity book, and I filled in my 60's run of Blackhawk with their 75% off sale.
 |
| Three tough women who always persist....nevertheless |
 |
| Artemis |
Each session I had tried to mix real world implications with cartoon tomfoolery, and with my final game I turned that on it's ear. After levelling up their ponies from Friday's game, we set down an odd path full of puppets, poisonous cookies, and some time paradoxes thanks to Doctor Hooves.
My reward for running twelve hours of My Little Pony, besides free admission and a cool con t-shirt? I'm a guy very apt at giving and receiving hugs among my gaming friends, but the 110% effort needed to keep theses kids engaged was quantified by so many of the young players giving me genuine hugs as they thanked me for a great game.
I had no winners for the raffle, the girls' dominance in the coloring contest may have officially ended with another no-win, and by then my wife had come to pick them up early.
The Auction: With a few gaps in my schedule, I was able to check out the games auction as it grew. Not much in particular stuck out to me, and in most cases, the items either had no buy-in price to tempt me, or a price way too close to retail.
To make matters a bit more confusing, the traditional "Everything starts at a buck" auction added a giant caveat: If an item had a buyout price listed, and it did not sell by the time the auction started, the bidding for it would start at half the buyout price.
Now, I understand that nobody is going to win a copy of Arkham Horror for $2, so it only makes sense if the Buyout is $30, then $15 start might skip the lower bid levels that are simply procedural. The problem arose with many of the marginal items that should have had "Somebody might want this for $10. If they don't get the buyout starting at a buck is cool." on the auction slips. Certain items barely survived these inflated levels, but many items were sent back to the main table without a bid, to be returned to their owners, rather than recycled into the gaming community at large. I did see and increase on bids for certain items, but not more than what the unsold buyouts would have fetched if they had started at a buck and stopped at $3 or $4, rather than start a $5 or $10.
The key auction item that I wanted to bid on was the H.R. Pufnstuf boardgame. Despite my best efforts to silence the crowd with a whopping $5 bid, it eventually sold for $8. Not bad for a game that's a bad, a spinner, and 34 cards. Otherwise, I bid on little, and won nothing.
Site: The Hilton is very nice, and outside of paying for parking, very convenient. Of course, they are doing some remodeling which took away the closest bathrooms to the main ballroom. I didn't see any plans as to why they walled off such a large section of the facility, but I'm sure there's a profit-driven reason.
Overview: The convention itself is still growing, and despite some tight confines in the main ballroom, there's still room for more games through he rented space. I'm not suggesting organized play give way to the masses, but a decade ago, the situation was reversed. The demographics of the attendees are getting more diverse with more women, more families, and more people not representative of the graying neckbeard population. The gentleman with the "Run D&D" shirt I posted above? I noticed his shirt first. Years ago, I may have noticed him as the lone African-American attendee in a sea of Caucasians. We're getting more diverse, and since we're all here to game and have a good time, nobody's really noticing or caring too much about it. For the weekend, we're game dorks first.
Except for Pathfinder players. They're pure evil.
(Just kidding)
The next Mepacon will be April 27-29, 2018 back at the Hilton and the theme will be "Heroes and Villains." Guess I'm looking up kid-friendly super-hero systems, or perhaps the ponies will look good in spandex.
The kids are already working on costumes.
And a big shout-out to all the ponies who made the weekend a success:
- Strawberry Grapes
- Amanda Hugginkiss
- Rainbow Dash Jr.
- Silver Flank
- Harmony
- Silas
- Black Wing
- Shoq
- Earth Heart
- Mint Puff
- The King
- Musical Melody
- Cleft
- Cinnamon Bunn
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