Posts Tagged ‘total confusion convention 2024’

Total Confusion Day 4 Wrapping Up and Lessons Learned

Posted: February 26, 2024 by datechguy in fun, gaming, special events
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After a trip to St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Westborough for mass and a quick drive through breakfast I got to total con around 9 AM which was my latest start of the day.

The Kids games library Locker

It was very clear that this was the last day of the convention. The huge miniature tables were not surrounded by players and although there was plenty of game action going on the number of folks in the open play room wasn’t what it was Saturday.

There were however things happening. Right next to me a person by the name of James who was setting up for a tournament of the game Dimension.

After unsuccessfully pitching Dynasty baseball to a few folks I decided to try to hit vendors that I missed. The first I spoke to was Christopher of Polygon3D Printing who had some incredible dice rollers

When the interview was over I was shown another interesting feature of these items that was so interesting it warranted another video

Next I talked to Dave of Bloody Scotsman Games who had developed his own game and system.

This business of people developing their own systems independent of a large company is a rather cool circumstance made possible by technological and even financial advances. It makes you wonder how many potential games never made it 30 years ago.

Speaking of 30 years ago I had a chance to talk to David “Diesel” LaForce an artist who was with TSR in the early days of Gygax. I recognized his work from the old players handbook etc from the days of my youth.

And after him I talked to a much younger artist and writer Julie Boglisch who was promoting both her books and her art.

But the thing that really made my heart go pitter-patter came from a vendor called Arcadian Chain.

That chain Doctor Who scarf was one of the coolest things I saw.

I retired to the gaming room and after pitching Dynasty a bit more and helping a new online league member with his team I waited to see if anyone had an interest in the old Avalon History of the World. To my surprise nobody did although I suspect if I had set it up Saturday the response would have been different.

So I spent the rest of the day uploading these videos (the upload speeds at the hotel were awesome) and did a little writing while playing 1830 on my laptop.

I should mention there was a very large contingent of people playing various train games and 18xx variants in the place. Perhaps next year I’ll bring my pristine copy of the old Avalon Hill 1830 game. Next year I’ll likely do some interview of the train guys as it’s one thing I totally forgot about.

I ended up leaving around 4 pm and shot this video in closing:

So here is my advice to anyone considering total confusion in the future:

  1. If you want to run a game register the event. You’d be surprised at how many people might like your game but are taken by another.
  2. If there is a game you REALLY want to play, make sure you get tickets (yeah some games have open seats but you can’t miss if you’re reserved.
  3. Have a plan: The scheduled meal breaks means that you have specific times when you are free, if you know places to eat etc you’ll be covered. Plus a plan gives you direction in terms of what and where for games to play.
  4. Visuals, Visuals Visuals: One of the things that hurt me for Dynasty is there was no park visuals. I’ll make sure I have them next year.
  5. Take advantage of the bandwidth: the upload speeds at the hotel are awesome so do your uploading there.
  6. If you want Quigley’s cakes buy them early. They really sold out fast.
NO CUPCAKES FOR YOU TILL PINTASTIC!

Above all have fun, because that’s what gaming is all about.

Day Three Total Confusion Convention 2024, Games, Developers, Vendors and zzz’s

Posted: February 25, 2024 by datechguy in fun, gaming, special events
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On Day Three of Total Con I decided to shift my focus to the vendors and some of games being played. Started with a group about to play a miniatures game call Trilaterum.

I didn’t realize at the time that they were also a vendor selling miniatures and accessories to the game.

Next I talked to a fellow named Caleb who was about to start running a boardgame called Mosiac

There seemed to be an awful lot of grand march of Civilization games in the place, at least to me.

From there I spoke to Christopher White of Creatorpult whose 3D printer seemed to be constantly running every time I passed by his area.

The concept of being able to do this would be almost beyond the imagination of those who attended the first few Totalcons.

I then spoke to one of the playtesters of a RPG called Fae which had a rather interesting concept of being an RPG where you play the monsters.

It certainly had one of the coolest characters which is why I led with the image.

There were vendors who had gone completely old school like the folks at Arkensword Press who were doing their first Total Con as vendors.

Vendors who were selling and testing their own games were a common sight at Total like Jim Fitzpatrick whose game is Mission to Planet Hexx.

As I mentioned there is a different vibe from Pintastic and one of the difference was that by Saturday the director of the event Steven Parenteau had some time for me when he didn’t at the start.

I was actually surprised that the only sign of pintastic was Dave dropping off some cards promoting it, but there was one familiar face and taste that had been at Pintastic:

Quigley’s cakes have been at Total Con for a decade and they did in fact sell out of their entire inventory by the end of this night which means that on Sunday they’ll have chance to actually game. (Don’t worry if you want the cupcakes they’ll be back for Pintastic in April

Of course there are other side business like the Fabric Treasury that makes accessories for gamers:

You might have noticed that while I am, as always excited to interview people I was starting to seem a tad slower, the early mornings had been getting to me and despite a more reasonable 5 hours of sleep over a friend’s apartment that morning I was dragging having completely forgotten to eat. A trip to Linguini’s for lunch filled me up and I returned to my spot in the free play room where the continual Blackbeard game was set up by 3:30 or so.

I plugged in the laptop and the battery of the camera to recharge but apparently I needed recharging more because it was a little after 4:30 when I sat down and seemed to nod off and when I looked again it was nearly 6. I literally crashed right in the chair in front of the game and was out at least 60-90 minutes as the gaming went on around me.

When I came to I was a tad refreshed and even more importantly the Wars of Ozz table was being reset for a new group meaning that the gamemaster was free for an interview:

It turned out the fellow from my home town a year ahead of me in High School which was cool.

But the most intriguing interview of the day was my final one with Jeff Johnston whose games were very different than most of the elaborate setups in the place as all of his games were designed to be played in 15 minutes and made for the youngest of children.

That was it for interview. I spent the rest of the night running Avalon Hill’s Blackbeard for a group of players and finally teaching Groo to the group when Blackbeard ended. I didn’t end up back at the apartment till 1 AM.

I’m going to mention one thing in passing. There was a miniatures game that I thought was simply incredible and brought a huge smile to my face. The gamemaster had no time to talk early in the day but I swung by as he was packing up. He was very enthused about the game he had made but for reasons that people who attended Totalcon and played or saw his game will understand we decided that it was prudent to give the interview a miss and skip even the still photos of it.

Fortunately there were other games with cool images that were not a problem from the Star Wars universe.

To Cthulhu boardgames.

There is one more day of Total Con to see. Looking forward to seeing it.

Day 2 Total Con Marlborough Mass Less Totally Confused about the Role to Play and the Art

Posted: February 24, 2024 by datechguy in fun, gaming, online gaming, special events
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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.

https://rumble.com/v4fcohu-quick-clips-from-total-confusion-2024-day-two.html

And Now Some Total Confusion Total Con 2024 That is. Day 1

Posted: February 23, 2024 by datechguy in fun, gaming, special events
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In a story 30 years in the making friends friends finally got me to the Total Confusion Gaming Convention 2024. Here’s the story in video so far:

Yes the venue is the same as Pintastic 2023, in fact Dave Marson was there putting out some cards promoting Pintastic 2024.

Here’s a few pre-setup images

Including the open gamming room (same area as the free play room at Pintastic.

One of the rather cool things is their library of games, old and new, that can be borrowed for play.

Those shots are all before the gaming began, once things got rolling the place really filled up, here is a shot of the same room in the evening.

Of course this is just the straight board gamming area which is my interest, the rooms on the other side of the hotel which were the club rooms were for assorted role playing games and the end room which was the tourney room for Pintastic is for D&D.

The real stars of the place are the people some who were there to work.

And many many others who thanks to that hard work where there to play, here are a few: Michael

That foyer area where I talked to Michael was where the band played at Pintastic was full of gaming tables, many of them games I’ve not heard of. It’s sobering to think that the games I brought were 33 (Blackbeard) & 46 (Source of the Nile) years old. (I also had a brand new copy of Dynasty Baseball but I digress)

What was rather interesting about talking to Leanne…

…was that she was the exception to the rule in that her husband didn’t really talk on camera but she did, usually it’s the other way around.

I talked to Patrick just before the start of the Advanced Civilization game

of all the events there that was the one I most wanted to play in but I didn’t sign up because I figured I’d never make it there in time, but I got out of work early the night before and ended up waking up by 5 AM so I was there ready to play but alas the open seat that I had been told existed did not as the person who reserved a spot that wasn’t there turned up at the last minute.

On the bright side by 3 pm the game was still going strong (Civ takes 8-9 hours one of the best games ever but BOY it’s long).

There are two things that you must realize about total confusion that took me off guard. The first was the lack of noise. Being used to Pintastic the sound of the various Pinball machines are always around you, with Total Con that simply doesn’t exist.

But the 2nd is more subtle. With a pinball convention it doesn’t matter what room you enter or what the theme of a particular pinball machine is, all pinball players might stop to play it for a second which makes it a group unified. It is the complete opposite here. Again you have a group of people who are all gamers and in that sense similar Here there is pretty much an army of people but each in a particular niche to play a particular game or a particular type of roleplaying game, or miniatures games.

There were a few who brought games to introduce people to them, one game that I had such an interest in myself was being played right behind me called John Company, all about the East India Company which had a huge influence on the world’s history. Chris was kind enough to give me an overview:

Of all the games I saw there on day one it was the one I was most tempted to just try but it was late in the day and I was going home for the night.

At least on day one there weren’t a lot of people just wandering to find a game of any type, but I did meet a podcaster A. Lewanika Miller who turned out to be one of the most interesting people I met that day.

After the camera was off we started talking cooking in general and Italian cooking in particular which is a passion of his and would have made a good interview in itself but my battery was low and I forgot my spare.

You can find his podcast here.

I’m typing this at 3:30 AM having woke up at a bit after 3 getting 3 1/2 hours sleep. I’ll likely leave for the Hotel before 4. I’m going to bring a couple of old Avalon Hill games to join Blackbeard and Source, namely History of the World (of which I found an extra copy in the house with the original cover art not the one in that image) and Age of Renaissance one of the best games there is.

I’m also doing something original with both Blackbeard and Source. Both games are still set up and are considered “in progress” so any person who walks by can choose to just “jump in” and play the question being. Can they beat the scores of the people who have played thus far or manage an outright win?

Today I’ll be sleeping over a friend’s house who is a 15 min drive from the hotel so I might stay late and/or do more. There seemed to be very little interested in the Dynasty game from the day 1 crowd, perhaps some sports gamers will be there for day 2. It will be a tad more complicated being a Friday in Lent in terms of dining (no grilled chicken Caesar) but it won’t be boring. I’m actually rather curious how many if any all night games are going on and might leave at 4 AM in order to find out.