Mepacon 49 Review

As the loyal blog readers know, I didn't attend Fall-In 2025 down in Lancaster  this month, my first autumnal absence in many years.   To make up for it, I applied all my gaming energy to being a mere attendant at Mepacon 49, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

Not to make the folks who run this thing feel old, but MEPAcon (Mid-Eastern Pennsylvania Gaming Convention) started at the turn on the century, trying to focus on gaming in the Lehigh Valley.  That's been a long an circuitous journey moving through the years between Wind Gap, Easton, a trip over the bridge into Phillipsburg, New Jersey, a few spots around the Scranton area and the Poconos, before returning to Bethlehem a few years ago, and finding a spot off the Fogelsville exit this year.  

Friday

I did manage to get down pre-rush hour on Friday.  The Delta by Marriott Hotel is right off I-78 and PA Route 100, within immediate walking distance of a Burger King and a Taco Bell.   I was dreading some ulterior forces working against the con when I couldn't find parking in the first two lots, and the overflow lot at 50% capacity on a Friday afternoon.  

Picking up my pre-reg was  a breeze (no QR code printing yet, but they did print out badges and raffle tickets ahead of time) and I quickly discovered why the parking lot was as full as it was.  

The picture above is a 3pm shot of the main ballroom.  ON A FRIDAY afternoon for a local con!   Definitely a good problem to have.  

The conference/ballroom space was divided to a larger main ball room, a room for all the D&D Organized Play, and a room for minis, other games, and a utilitarian space for the LARPers.    I perused the vendors bordering the main ballroom  and good lured into a party game "Two Rooms and a Boom". 

The players are all secretly part of a red faction or a blue faction and are randomly assigned to two teams.  The objective simple.  Question your fellow teammates, have the leader of the group "exchange hostages" with the other team for a few rounds, and once that continues until the final round, if the "President" (Blue Team) is in the same room as the "Bomber" (Red Team), the red team wins.  If they don't end up like that, the Blue Team wins.    We played five games of that, adding additional complications to the objectives.  It was fun, and I was warmed up for the con.

The "others" in Two Rooms and a Bomb

For my second game, I got into Hairfoot Jousting.  I was a originally excited about the release of this game, but less so as more information came out.  While it was not going to usurp our traditional jousting rules for the HMGS cons, it looked fun enough to give it a shot... and there was a weasel calling my name. 

Hairfoot Jousting

Our two teams of three went after each other with abandon and a complete lack of direction.  The mechanics were pretty simple, but the one thing that took a while for use to adapt to was the almost random movement of the mounts.  Every turn you rolled a d6 for a random movement template, and you must complete your movement unless stopped, so while you might be able to attack multiple foes, you could also hit your teammates or run into the fence.  I do believe that out of my ten hit points, I only took  four points from actually jousting combat.     I reminded me of Car Wars, but with random turning maneuvers, not taking speed into consideration.  It definitely has it's place for a quick convention game.

FASA Leviathan's miniatures game in the flesh!

That night, I had just slated myself for a Battletech game, when my friend Ed, convention director emeritus (He founded the convention), dragged me back into the conference room for his D&D game. 

He had me at "gnome"

I knew I was trapped when he handed bananas to everyone. 

Our little gnome group needed to retrieve an escaped goose, and while they were out there, investigate strange goings on at the community trash heap.  

The goose was rescued, the curse of the trash heap lifted.... and puns filled the air.  

The LARP room

After the game, I drove down to Wawa for a late dinner and drove to Easton to stay over my Mom's.  

Saturday

I woke up early enough to grab dinner at the Palmer Diner (I've been going there for forty years, the only thing that seems to change are the prices...)

Fantasy Treasure Hunt game that was much simpler than even Mordheim.

Honestly, my first concern for Saturday wasn't gaming, but getting my minis in the painting contest and my stuff into the auction.   I'll start my two part-rant about the auction with the huge disclaimer that in regards to the convention history, I'm the old biased guy sitting in the back, complaining how the green the grass was at the auction in years past. 

<History Lesson Time> When Ed and awesome group of friends who started the con, they were essentially taking over the reins of the Bogglecon local one day conventions of the 90s.  That organizer fell ill and couldn't continue... so the Mepacon crew took that model... which included the acution.

The auction originally was a "dollar auction": everything from a beat up module to a box of Magic cards would start at a dollar opening bid.  They've revised a number of concepts over the last 25 years,  like buyout pricing... and minimum opening bids based on a percentage value of said buyouts.  

I'm lucky to have checked out the new rules for this year before I arrived.... and I completely understand where they came from and why they did it

1.   Everyone could have five "guaranteed" items for the auction.  These would be represented by a sticker on the auction slip.
2.  Anyone registering as a VIP, could have 15 items for the auction.  Likewise a mere common registrant could pay $10 to move up to 15 items .
3. Buyouts were still there for all items, so they established "MEPACON Marketplace," next to the tables.  You could place unlimited items in the Marketplace, and if they didn't get bought out, and if the auction crew got through the "guaranteed" items, they would start pulling items for auction from the Marketplace table, subject to time and their whims.

Needless to say, I brought in two bins of stuff, put nothing officially in the auction, and with the limited space, put a half-filled bin of stuff back into the car. 

More on that later....

</ History Lesson Time>

I was greatly pleased to see the miniature painting paint and take was back and better than ever.  Run by Brad Frable, and sponsored by Reaper, it was well-organized and a relaxing spot.  I actually finished two gnomes of mine that were close to completion, finishing a free Reaper frig and starting a second won later in the day.  

Quigley's Cakes

One of the cool things amongst all the vendors was a number of small press game manufacturers not only selling and doing demos of their games, but others playtesting their games that hadn't been produced yet!    I did get to play a fun little card and token game "Devil's Bargain"   I did well with getting enough points, but the other players owned my soul in some capacity.  

Dinner was on site, sitting at the hotel bar.  Certainly not dirt cheap, but I spent less there Saturday night for a beer and a brew than at a local brew pub Sunday night for a burger and a soda.  

The Bar... mere feet away from the ballrooms.  Beer and food were good.

These folks are part of the "Who's Who" of Mepacon

The Main Event:  Six o'clock, the convention shuts down...  chairs all turn to the corner of the ballroom and the announcements are made, miniatures winners declared, and the auction begins. 

I did not win any mini prizes: that usually goes to Father/Son duo who always but in great work.  

<Auction Rant>  Another fun fact about the olden days of Mepacon: I was the auctioneer for the first couple cons.   I felt like I was having an aneurysm burst when the first item of the auction was a miscellaneous oversized board game that I probably ignored on my review of solicitations over the year."

" 'xxxxxx' the boardgame, opening bid, $36...."

*Crickets* 

It looked like the opening bid was 75% of buyout, rounded down...  Seven of the first ten items were like this and did not reach a bid... luckily the pricing and bidding improved the further they progressed.  

I first observed this back in Mepacon 43, but the glut of auction items are now board games of various shapes and sizes... has reached overabundance in the auction.    And whereas bidding in previous years were almost insane (more than retail for in-stock items that were sitting on vendor's tables discounted),  this year there were only wild pricing for a few out of print, Kickstarter exclusive, or charity items.  

My good news: all but three items were bought out in the marketplace, and I was okay bringing those three home. 

</Auction Rant>

Gnome sighting at the auction!

I chilled afterwards.  My buddy Wooly and his wife Jenny planned on showing up Sunday, and arrived at their hotel early, so I convinced him to come over, check out the site, and have a beer, before I drove him back and headed to my Mom's one more time. 

Sunday

Apparently everyone in Easton at 8am was grabbing coffee at Dunkin', so a quick stop to the empty drive-thru at the McDonald's across the street and I was on the road, Warren Zevon blaring from the stereo.  

I was shocked just how busy the main ballroom was for a Sunday morning.    There's a reason why Mepacon is getting folks paying $30 for a one-day pass, while HMGS people gripe that there's nothing going on... and it's technically free.

Sunday was packed until 3...

But for me, it was Battletech Sunday.  

It was a decade since I last played B'Tech, and over thirty since I played it at a con, but with Wooly and Jenny in from Johnstown just for Sunday it was a requirement.    As a bonus, our friend Droz, who runs stuff for Catalyst, was acting in a civilian, casual player mode.  

It was glorious.

It was there "Get to  Da Choppa" campaign event.... the player team trying to get a convoy of trucks to the drop ship on the other side of the table.  In the end, no one died, no Mech on our side was scrapped, and all the trucks made it.   By the grace of God, my tiny Commando suffered a whopping FOUR points of damage, while others right next to me were missing arms and partial torsos.  Even better I have credits and xp for their one going campaign, if I choose to return.  

"Old Man Wooly" and Droz ponder the final turns.

We capped off the weekend with a trip to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse, with special appearances by our friends Scott and Nate.  I did realize late that we did have a quorum to restart the Hackmaster campaign, but alas, I was stuck in the middle of the curved booth and couldn't get my dice.  It was a great time by all.  

The Hotel:  The Delta by Marriott really was a great site, nothing was spread out, and the bar/food was great and reasonable.   After years of trying to grow this con, after years of planning and changes, they finally cracked over 400 attendees.   Of course, this brings up the biggest concern: Scalability.  

They've over 400, but there's no way they can fit 500, so early registration was emphasized during the "Main Event".... and there's really no reasonable place to move into gradually.  It's a good problem to have, and an even better reason to set up my events for Mepacon 50.

Events:   Fair and plentiful.  Most D&D was in the organized play room,  and the boardgames still dominated the main portion of the ballroom.  Catalyst had their own little wing for Battletech, and a lot of support.

The Swag:   The biggest purchase at the con were a bunch of 3-D printed fantasy animal figures from Solar Forge Miniatures, and a potential order from some sci-fi figures to expand Death Planet Iota.  I also snagged a copy of the softcover Mutant Crawl Classics for ten bucks! 

I didn't grab anything during the auction, but I did grab some great items cheap... sometimes "free to a good home" during the Marketplace buyouts:  A copy of the Ghostbusters International boxed set, some miscellaneous terrain pieces, a copy of 3-D chess from 1979, and the Star Wars (West End) Mos Eisley miniature set, still in the shrinkwrap!  Since I need half of those figures for new paintjobs, they'll definitely hit the queue after the holidays. 

Mepacon 50: A Golden Jubilee, will be back at the Delta, April 17-19, 2026.  More posts to follow, but I'm thinking a "best of" series of RPGs, with Maja running some gnome or sci-fi Fistful of Lead, so she can jump into the LARP.

From the conference room:  "Horizontal Jenga" or "Bob's First Day at the Crucifix Factory wasn't gong so well..."