My Trip home meant three extra games joined me for Day 2 of the Total Confusion convention in Marlborough. I took along Age of Renaissance, one of my old favorites, Groo because it’s quick, dirty and fun and a copy of the original Avalon Hill History of the World as I had mentioned in passing that I had two and a friend had inquired about buying one of them.
After a slight detour due to forgetting my wallet (fortunately discovered at the nearest Dunkin rather than after hitting the highway I got to Total con by 6:30 and found myself surprised. Having survived many an all night game I expected to find at least one crew with some kind of game, either board or a Role Playing Game (or RPG as they’re known) to still be in progress surrounded by beers and or chips but I went from one corner of the place to another and the only games that could be even slightly considered in progress where the two I had left set up ready to continue.
Now this might be due to it being the Thursday to Friday period rather than the Friday/Saturday period (I’ll check this morning when I get there) but I was still surprised. But slowly the gamers filed in after breakfast and the various games set up and the games were on.
As you might expect the crowd was much larger and more vendors turned up to tempt players with games, accessories and items of interest. I noticed a fair amount of families with younger children all playing various games most of which I didn’t recognize but the real scenes in the open play room where the huge elaborate setups for various games or giant boards, stuff that isn’t practical at the house.
It became very clear that many of these setups were labors of love and thus one of the joys of being there, but there was a second joy you saw a lot of, less elaborate but no less significant, the joy of teaching a game you enjoy to a new crowd and seeing them take the same joy in a game that you’ve had in years. That teaching element is a vital part of the main area. and I found myself sharing that joy as well with what I brought
I had several wandering players join into my Blackbeard and had three different leaders over the course of the day before a young man managed to take a huge treasure, upgrade to a squared rigger and get to 100 points to win outright. Alas the same interest was not in Source of the Nile, I did however have more luck with Dynasty baseball teaching a fellow how to play and recruiting him into my 1972 league taking the Reds.
It was near this time that it hit me that while I had some good shot and interviews from my own area (open board gaming) I had done very little with either the RPG crowd or the miniatures crowd that was located in between. This was part of the “Army of Niches” aspect of the event that I mentioned yesterday. Not wanting to miss that perspective I headed over the final room where RPG’s took place intending to start filming there and go down the all peeking into each to give an account of the incredible variety of RPG’s in progress.
Much to my surprise I was greeted by a fellow who asked me not to film in that room out of respect for the privacy of the players. It’s the type of thing that I might have expected to hear a quarter century ago when gaming wasn’t as mainstream but I was shocked to hear it in 2024. Either way people were there to enjoy themselves and that trumps video so I shot and gave the perspective from outside the room instead:
I had more luck in the miniatures painting area where a woman named Carol was painting with great detail some figures. She was kind enough to interrupt her work for a long interview.
You can find her work online here but I also should note that her artistry is not limited to items of small stature as evidenced by the large model ship behind me which was also an example of her work.
Alas the lack of sleep was starting to get to me and after some cheese pizza from Linguini’s (Friday in Lent you know) I was already thinking of crashing when I ended up as part of demoing the online version of the baseball game in the 4 pm tournament whose games were tight and kept the adrenaline pumping through the victory. But by this time I was pretty much spent so after packing up my games and setting up Blackbeard for a new session (leaving word that people were welcome to play it while I was gone) I prepared to head for my friend’s house in Westborough just 12 minutes away when I was intercepted by one of my Blackbeard players Kevin (2nd place) who insisted I meet and interview the gamemaster of the RPG they were running.
Bill was an affable fellow who was there with his grandchildren and they had one of the clubrooms put aside for their event and the interview frankly was golden.
When I think of role playing games I always think of my college crowd playing D & D and come from it from that angle. I didn’t realize how limited a view this was until talking with Bill.
Yes this is role playing but the forethought and preparation for this scenario was incredible. The aspects of writing, engineering and even specific props and costume for the particular scenario were stunning. This gave me a real understanding of what a convention like this can mean to those on the Role Playing side of the gamers aside. In theory one and practice one can play a RPG anywhere as the primary ingredient is imagination and there are plenty of people at Total Con doing just that.
But the kind of elaborate setup with months of preparation and props made and controlling the aspect to give the player the experience of being where they’re pretending to be. It’s in all practical sense, a theatre production and thus art generated by people with imagination willing to put in the time and effort to entertain a group of total strangers simply for the sheer joy of it.
If that’s not worth the price of admission to Total Confusion I’d like to know what is.
Here are a few quick clips before I go. More tomorrow.
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