Gaming with the Gnomies: Historicon 2021 Has Finally Occurred!

As we are nearing 20 months of pandemic craziness, the idea of an HMGS con in the fall still seemed fleeting. The idea of replacing Fall-In! with the Historicon banner spoke of either a grand return, or a bit of desperation. But that did not mean I wasn't going to go down to King of Prussia and have a go at it.

I got the kids on the bus and drove through a rainstorm to get to KoP.

FACILITY: C- The complex is still stretched out and byzantine, with its meandering passageways. Then was the overwhelming task, even with maps, of interpreting the exactly where my room was games, where the secret passageway to the casino was, and everyone's favorite game, after visiting the Exhibitors and the flea market, which floor gets you back to the Valley tower (answer: Mezzanine, and it's a hard right out of elevators.)

If the contents of this car were in the normal casino parking lot, we wouldn't bat an eye. This weekend, we knew it would be a Wars of Ozz game.

REGISTRATION: A+. Mask firmly affixed, I found registration and took care of everything in the matters of seconds.

The board game library: Very popular this year.

Space Hulk

Flea Market: C : I'm reviewing my notes from the 2011 Historicon for formatting purposes, and the even a decade apart, the same issues are always there. There were some deals and haggling to be had, but too many fellas selling items still in the shrinkwrap with MSRP pricetags for even worse. I picked up a few choice minis, but foolishly didn't clean the one fella out, something I regretted when he didn't have a table Saturday.

Wally's Basement (aka the Flea Market)

EXHIBITORS: C+ Plenty of vendors, lots of variety, but COVID kept some massive old reliables (Old Glory and Brigade) away and definitely took away from my enjoyment of wandering the hall. I did not have a shopping list this year, and my enthusiasm to search through blisters was just not there. And when I did try a little search, I found out some vendors omitted entire lines from their con inventory.

FOOD: B- After HMGS and the convention director given the facility hell for their inflated prices Thursday, Friday and Saturday saw reasonable prices for on-site food. Despite positive reviews, the hot dogs and hamburger didn't look appealing to me, and I made sure to schedule Wawa runs for sandwiches. My on-site food budget focused on soft pretzels and cans of Diet Coke, and at two bucks apiece, that seemed almost too low for a captive audience. I visited four different Wawas over the weekend. Three of them had visible signage stating the per CDC guidelines, the company recommended masks for the customers, regardless of vaccination status. All of the employees were masked up as well. More people in Philly trust Wawa before any politician. That might be a sign.

LODGING: B+ Staying on site seemed better than a decade ago. Hot water, clean sheets, and just the howling winds on Saturday to coerce me to contemplate napping.

Paleo Diet

More Paleo Diet

MASKING: B+ The big bugbear that threatened attendance was the mandatory masking policy. There were only a few reported instances of staff requiring enforcement of some egregious behavior, but most folks kept them on... and we have been more lax as the weekend progressed. I'm not sure if it was the muffling of the masks or the fact that usually obnoxious folks decided not to attend. but the game rooms were at a lower roar, with exceptions.

EVENTS: C+ The mandatory masking creating an exodus of gamemasters meant some larger gaps (like the HAWKS room). But games usually had more space to maneuver. I spent my time in the Juniper room and the biggest grip was the post-dinner roster on Saturday. With empty tables through the site, we had seven rather full popular events turn over on four tables within a very limited window of 3-4 hours. It might have been the only time things felt like Distelfink in it's heyday.

The Joust!

My Friday was a number of games of Paleo Diet (see further below) as well as the Gnome Joust. I couldn't roll worth a damn, and I fell through after one win.

Saturday was set-up shopping, early recruitment, and a massive 20-player gnome game, where everyone, save a six-year girl, seemed to just be happy that gnomes could roam free after a long hiatus.

Rumors and innuendo: I also attended the Membership Meeting on Friday night. Most things are in the reasonable level (money, attendance, etc is all good. Historicon attendance before Saturday walk-ins was over 1,5000) Although we're almost certain to lose Cold Wars next years thanks to vendor issues and Adepticon being a week away from it, Historicon '22 is definitely in Lancaster Convention center, and the leading candidates for Fall-In! 2022 are either KoP, or a surprise bid by the (formerly) HOST.

SWAG: Like I said, there was a perfect storm of the missing vendors, lack of planning, and personal apathy that prevented me from pulling the trigger on some projects. A few packs of Macho Women with Guns minis (the Bob Olley Space Dwarfs are pretty nice), a copy of Ebola Monkey Hunt, and with all else lost, two t-shirts at Registration. Historicon is historically my worst hauls, but this is ridiculous. Of course, my last three gaming items purchased this fall still lay unread in my office, so there might be true theme.