"HISTORICON thanks and gripes" Topic

A great time was had at Historicon this year. Hell, a great time is had every year. Thanks to everyone who helped put on the event and to all of the GMs for risking your toys around us.

I was there all four days. Friday I had my two boys with me as I do every year. It constantly impresses me how kind and generous people are to the kids who attend these events.

Two gentlemen in particular in the flea market were very kind and gave my kids some very impressive destroyers and battleships at bargain prices, even going so far as to trade a ship for a Clix style Battlemech. That made the convention for my little guys.

And then through out the rest of the Con when the boys weren't with me I had a LOT of people asking where they were. Nice to see that as a community people are trying to encourage children to attend and then trying to look out for them.

All the games I played in were great. Another little kid had fun killing me in my first game of Star Trek (David rolls well). Pete's Siege of Vienna was chaotic, loud, and a blast. I even won a prize!

Conan on Friday was good and the set-up was awesome.

Saturday's Wild West game with the I-95 gamers was a blast. I had way more fun getting killed than I should have.

Now for some small gripes. I pre-registered for four days, one each of the days. Out of those 4, only one actually happened. The Sunday game got moved to a time when I had another game. The Saturday morning game just never happened; the GM didn't show. The Thursday game got moved to Saturday afternoon. Luckily I was open at that time.

Maybe it was just bad luck. Never had that much shuffling in the past. It lead to missed opportunities and missed games.

Fun was had! Thanks. Now, I have lot of new loot to paint up.

I've had one of the games I preregistered for disappear at a con for various reasons but never more than one.

Like all attendees at the cons, GMs are only volunteers. As a long time GM, I can assure you that often times the players who registered don't show up either. Soooo….

As a GM I've only had to cancel a game I was going to run at Historicon once and that was due to logistical factors as the group I was riding up with became too large and my stuff was just not going to fit. So it came down to not going to con or not running my game. It was not a hard choice and I contacted the convention to let them know.

The other time I had to cancel a game was for last year's Millennium Con and that was due to the alternator in my car going kaput the week prior to the convention. The money that would have paid for gas, hotel, etc went instead to getting my car fixed. Life happens and as historygamer stated we are volunteers. Considering that I have been game mastering for over twenty years and those are the only two times I've had to cancel a game I am running I would say I have a pretty good record.

When I managed events for Historicon (six year sample) cancellations ran about 5%. Imagine every GM having to roll a d20 in the week or two before the con – the 1s have to bail.

The reasons varied. No GM ever wanted to cancel.

Duncan Adams