"Pre-convention Disasters" Topic

It never fails!

Every time I plan on doing something special at a convention something comes up that upsets the apple cart.

This year I needed to finish 6 Nieuport 28's before Enfilade and was right on track to get them done -- then . . .

My wife's drip irrigation hanging gardens of Babylon came crashing down when the water was left on too long. What a muddy mess!

I got stranded at the mall while my wife made a 'quick trip' (left at 4 p.m. -- returned at 8 p.m. – cell phone turned off -- I was ready to call a cab) -- you don't even want to hear all the excuses.

Then there was the decal problem, the one set of strutts that just won't line up, the warped wing (old models are just great -- don't buy them no matter how bad you want that particular plane -- you are just buying trouble).

Then my wife brings home a new cat, which the resident cat didn't much care for. New cat turns up missing and hours are spent searching for missing cat -- which is still missing -- amen.

Frankly these events are nothing special -- about par for the course on my end.

What's your story?

mjc

I was putting on a game at a convention, and ALMOST forgot one side.
I was getting in my car, and had a life saving brain flash.

I showed up for a game at a local con (a not-Star-Wars) a few years back. When the GM brought up the box for to distribute troops he discovered his box labeled "Game Day" contained not Star Wars figures but Candyland, Monopoly and Chutes and Ladders!

Oh boy; sounds like your wife is a passive-aggressive type who really doesn't like her husband having fun at conventions and comes up with a lot of imaginative "accidents" to prevent it.

Had all the minis, terrain, etc. packed up.

Almost forgot the turn templates, and the dice.

That would not have been good!

The mountains for my NWF game were in the back of a friend's car (mine was too small). They decided to linger over the breakfast buffet and show up an hour later. I was all set to put empty boxes on the table to represent the mountains.

The venue for our convention got sold and scheduled for renovations 6 months before the show. Frantic last minute rescheduling and trying to let everyone know about the change in date and venue!

Heading to Fall In 2 years ago. Not just running a couple of games, but we planned to turn it into a real vacation. Reserved a suite for the whole week. We were taking the horses and stabling them at the Artillery Ridge Campground. We were really looking forward to riding the battlefield every morning and playing tourist in the afternoons. Got laid off 2 weeks before the con.

Was walking out the door and pumped up for the 5 hour drive and the 3 days of wargaming and my wife pulls a "I need ya so don't go!" So without arguing I didn't go and we watched MST3K all weekend on the couch. Gotta keep those priorities in the right place.

Brian

My co-GM had a death in the family the night before leaving for the con. I was already at the convention, having gone up a day early. He called me first thing in the morning , but was already in East Bongolesia (or possibly Illinois) via a 5AM red-eye, so there was no thought of hauling ass to his place to get the 50% of the game he was supplying. I briefly toyed with what to do with an all Union force, some nice rural cabins and relatively treeless terrain boards when I decided it just wasn't meant to be. Sometimes life just happens.

A friend of mine had the box full of figures on the seat next to him on the bus to the convention for the game we were putting on. The bus stopped suddenly and the box went flying. Very sad results!
We had to manage without his figures for the game.

Some years back a friend, who knew I had a large ACW Confederate collection, asked if he could use them for his convention game. Sure! No problem! I was going as well so hauled all my nicely done 25mm brigades along with me, trundled the boxes up to his game table, and saw that he was putting on a 15mm game…..

How he didn't realize that I played with 25's is still a mystery :)

Usually my disasters happen at home when I'm away at conventions and involve things like the hot water heater bursting, one of the cat's dying, or similar. Fortunately, I have an understanding wife and good neighbors that will sweat pipes and bury bodies for me while I'm away…

I had my game all setup and found out all the tape measures were in the car my wife just left in;-)

Goldwyrm: I could use some of your friends about now… the pipes are fine, but there's a few holes need digging around here…

Not a con, but a vacation: came back from a Thanksgiving holiday on Sunday evening, having left the duplex apartment on Wednesday afternoon. Everything is wet. Seems that at some point Wednesday night, the hot water heater's bottom gave out. It was noticed on Friday morning when the water began to seep through the adjoining wall into the other apartment. We had about 4 to 6 inches of water throughout the apartment. Maintenance entered the apartment, fixed the hot water heater, and put everything off the carpet on small blocks, or on furniture, then put in drying fans.

Not what you want to come home to late in the evening with a small child after having driven for about six hours.

I am hoping that my first attempt at running a game at a convention will go relatively smoothly at Historicon.

Well the Nieuports may not be finished but they are lookin good. Hope they survive the trip!

mjc

Mike,

My worst stories always has to do with forgetting something of vital importance. Thankfully Enfilade is only about 40 minutes from my house, so if it is disaster-inducing enough I can run home for it. As we speak, I'm assembling all my paraphernalia for my games. Makin' a list, checkin' it twice.

The only truly terrible thing that happened was in the last year we held the convention at the Fife Best Western. My cedar shake roof was being replaced and on Friday the roofers had not covered where they were working and a serious storm hit soaking everything in my house. I was supposed to be at the hotel to open up on Saturday morning, but instead I was trying to save my ceilings.
K.

The worst thing that's happened to me is forgetting the rulebook for a game I was running. Luckily I was familiar enough with those rules to run the game from memory, so it worked out.

In all the years of running games, I've only had two major near disasters. First was when I got caught in a hurricane and my car flooded right after doing a playtest for a con game. One box of plano trays was swamped, hundred of figures dismounted, labels came off, flags destroyed, bases had to be trashed (they were bass wood). Fortunately it was not the troops I needed for the game, those plano trays were dry. Second was a Channel Dash airplane game. Was setting up the game when I realized I didn't have the targets! Made a very quick trip to the flea market to buy some stand ins (good thing it was open). I don't think anyone noticed or cared that the "German" ships were really a couple of British cruisers and an American battleship.

How to make Hanomag Stew.

Pack all your WWII 1/35 scale minis into a station wagon.
Drive from Kansas City to Dallas for an HMGS convention.
Let your friend's wife help unpack the convention boxes.

Whenever any of our club members breaks something now we ask derisively, "are you trying to make hanomag stew."

After she dropped a box containing 6 German Hanomag, you couldnt tell one from the other. My friend spent frantic moments with super glue as players were signing up at our table to play.

Planned on going to Nashcon in 2007,but a bout of vertigo stopped that.Rob

Worst case of pre-con disaster was at a Southeast show a few years ago. Only three weeks before the convention, a 'bridezilla' had to have the ballroom which was reserved for the convention. The girl badgered her father so bad that he was willing to pay double the rent price AND pay the cancellation fees for the hotel to to the con staff to replace the convention and have the wedding reception.

Personally my worst pre-convention situations have all been heath related. Back in 2002 or 3 I had a stroeke the day before I was to go Nashcon. A few years later I had a small heart attack the Tuesday before I was to leave to attend Hurricon in Florida. This year , I had open heart surgery right before the Jacksonville Rapier show and a week before Bayou Wars in N.O. Sadly I had to miss both of those.

My only real disaster was several years back. Had reservations and was all set to go to Historicon and was actually scheduled to put on a game. When the Monday before I get a call from the Hospital in my old home town. I had put in a resume a couple of weeks before for a directors position and had actually done a phone interview, and then heard nothing back. I assumed they had checked my off the list and were not interested and I was free to go to Historicon.

No they wanted me to fly up that Thursday, the first day of Historicon, and do an interview. Hmmm Historicon or job interview. Needless to say I fly up to Michigan and did the job interview. I was less then impressed with the place and the job, too many problems with the docs and the techs. After 20 years in the military I had better things to do then fix personal problems that any competent manager should be able to handle. You know things are bad when during the interview they ask you if you have any problems about firing people. Wished I had gone to Historicon instead and rolled some dice.