Mepacon 45 - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

 In a world dominated by two girls playing AAU basketball most weekends in the spring and in the fall, local cons for Dad are the first to suffer.  

I had managed to attend the last Fall Mepacon, now in its new location at the SureStay (by Best Western) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and it was a hoot, but Millie's tournament deep in Central Jersey that weekend, plus Maja's volleyball games Friday night seemed to nix things.  But I had an Ace up my sleeve.   As I didn't want to fork over hundreds for a hotel room at Jersey prices, and dearest Mom still lives halfway between me and the tournament (and only 10 minutes from the con), I would use my good children credit and sleep there both nights.  Millie's games were 8am and 2pm on Saturday, so that nixed that, but I had a hastily hatched plan. 

After Maja's game, I took the turnpike down and flew down to check out the site.  While I don't recommend this for your own local con, and definitely not the big ones, I hung out in the public hallways and just ran into people, some of whom I haven't seen in 20 years!

God we all got old.  Thankfully only half of us got fat. 

The one big change starting this spring was that the convention got the use of the main ballroom, which added a LOT of square footage. 

Fun ViscountEric Flash Fact:  Twenty-three years ago, that ballroom was supposed to be host to my wedding reception to the first woman I was engaged to.  That didn't transpire, but I swear it was bigger back then.

Needless to say, it was packed Friday night.

To take advantage of the con to reconnect to some folks face-to-face for few minutes unmolested, I simply went over to registration and handed them a donation for the charities of their choice, and I headed to Easton to grab some rest before a 5:30am wake-up.  

As I reported in my usual AAU post, I discovered the times of Millie's late game changed from 2pm to 10am, so I slowly figured out if I'd have the energy to come back and enjoy the con as a proper paying member. 

Spoiler: I did. 

Before I jumped in the car on Saturday morning to drive back from Jersey, I spied a few Facebook posts highlighting the massive auction.  

This picture is just what was left when I got there.  I heard the buyouts were hot and frenzied.  

It also continues to confirm my other analysis that we are heading towards contraction in the boardgame industry... but not quite yet.  More on that later.  

Honestly, I paid for my time, ran into some old-timers to the con scene, some other old friends, some people I graduated high school with in 1992, podcasters, soon-to-be-published authors, and a whole host of good people, all the while stalking through the auction tables for deals, like we had in the days of yore. 

Those were few and far between.  

The high points for me on Saturday were all during the auction.  I'll be honest, the Mepacon "starting at a buck" auction that I ran 23 years ago has transformed into something wholly different. Buyouts were required for items to go to auction (minimum $10), and the starting bid was either 2/3 or 3/4 of that.  And while there were some cheap bastards back in the day (I was one of them), people were spending crazy money on used games, largely sight-unseen.    Halfway through the auctions, we confirming on gaming retail internet sites that folks were bidding three or four dollars above the MSRP for games that were still in print and some retailers had on clearance.  I haven't been the demographic for a lot of things for a long time, but stupid money was being spent that I'd rather see go to charity, the vendors, or just buying more stuff. 

First was just an enjoyable time sitting in the back of the room during the auction, cracking jokes with two gamers and Ken Newquist from the Lair of Secrets Podcast, mostly regarding the three plush owlbears the one dude bought with part of a well-earned bonus.  The owlbears were part of the Metal Weave Baby Bestiary, and at $35 apiece, seemed to be the most reasonably priced items during a stretch of the auction.  Just a lot of jokes regarding spaying and neutering, a fantasy version of The Price is Right, and a lot of "For only 3 electrum a day, less than a mug of fine dwarven ale, you can sponsor a baby owlbear so it won't be used as filler xp for a low-level party" jokes.

Second was the appearance by "EricFromNJ" as he is known as a frequent emailer on the Happy Jack RPG Podcast.  We've been friends for nearly 30 years, we haven't been face-to-face in nearly twenty years.  And he brough his youngest son for roleplaying and Battletech.  It was a grand old time. 

Site: The SureStay is a fine site for the con, and there's still some more room to grow.  However, it may not stay trued to it's name for long.  Rumors of a potential sale of the hotel grew a murmur that the Convention Director, Katie, tried to quell with basically, "We're staying here until some definitive news changes that, and if and when that happens, we'll work like hell to find an acceptable site."  Not everyone was completely happy with that, but it went over better than most HMGS announcements go, so they have a much more loyal fanbase.  

Food:   With the expansion of the grand ballroom, they served traditional con food (hot dogs/hamburgers/fries/drinks/snacks at incredibly reasonable prices.  They also seemed to staff the restaurant and bar with a handshake agreement of "if you people keep coming in to order food/drinks, we'll stay open."  Most people seemed satisfied.

Events:  A healthy dose of D&D, other fantasy, a TON of board/card games, and even a full slate of Catalyst-sponsored Battletech events. 

"Ashe Winnebago" himself, my friend Droz, deciphering a Solaris map.

 

Dealers:  A full slate of vendors, with a waiting list.  The Portal is a major sponsor and is the largest gaming retailer, but they always provide the "fun" vendors with the custom crafts, statues,  or gaming adjacent stuff.  The only purchase I made was from Quigley's Cakes, "The Cupcake Ladies", who were double-booked and sent a third emissary to sell their wares.

Swag: I didn't actually buy anything during the auction.  Heck, I didn't even use my awesome bidder card (42 did not answer all my questions regarding the auction, much less the universe).  I picked up a few items from the pre-Auction buyout and two from the leftover buyouts for the items that didn't sell, or didn't even make to auction.  

• A complete set of all five KODT Hack! decks... for a buck!
• The In Pursuit of Par golf boardgame from 1986.  This one is screaming an two-hour timeslot at the next Mepacon (more on that later).  It is a simply brilliant concept of three double sided erasable boards representing 18 holes, measuring sticks for woods, irons, and putting, plus "modern" 80's polyhedrals.
• Afrika Korps - The Avalon Hill Classic it was charity so I paid around retail mostly to round off the price I paid for...
• Wooden Ships and Iron Men so I could pay exact change.

Soo.... Mepacon 46 is right in the middle of AAU season, April 19-21, 2024, hopefully back in Bethlehem.   If, by some miracle it's not an AAU weekend, it's also happens to be my 50th birthday on Saturday.

And with a vague theme like this: 

It's obvious a ViscountEric Birthday Extravaganza as a sub-con is in order, a "This is Your Gaming Life," as you would, with all the hits: 

1. The first convention game I ever ran (Talislanta, The Crystle Dungeon, circa 1991)
2. My favorite convention game in the 90's (GURPS: IOU - Scavenger Hunt, perhaps converted to RISUS)
3. My Little Pony
4. Lost City Reverse Dungeon
5. Perhaps a Legions of Steel game or two? 
6. Attack of the Atomic Reptile Bikini Women... in 3-D!  Never a convention game, but fills a two hour slot.

Or perhaps I can finally run my ultimate idea for classsic Car Wars:  GenCon Food Truck Road Rally.

Heck I could do Gnomes and Gnomish Space Marines, the possibilities are endless if the schedules agree.