"Can't wait for Fall In!" Topic

Been a long few months in many ways… can't wait for wargames convention! Drinking, eating at the bar, looking at and maybe playing games, walking the dealer hall ten times, taking photos of everything I can and getting them on the blog that night… cannot WAIT for four days without the wife and kids and just hanging out in toy soldier world!:)

I've been trying to register for the past 2-3 weeks but have some account issue…… which they refuse to respond to. Who in the hell am I supposed to deal with!? That answer no emails :(

Von Ted, if you went to the site and filed a "contact us" form, you would have had a reply in less than 24 hours. They are VERY efficient. I know I do not have any from you through events, registrar or CD yet.

Please email me from the website "cd" email. I will get you taken care of immediately.

Who have you tried to talk to/email???
My apologies,
Dan

You found my email, and took care of it. Thank you! :)

Yes I can't wait either! Hope to make it there Friday and Saturday. Pre-registered as usual.

I am really looking forward to gaming and seeing old friends again.

Looking forward to being there too. I'll be dragging the wife or son along however.

Remember to see Santa Moe and WNPGS for the Toys 4 Tots raffles and auction!

Shameless plug by one of Santa Moes grumpy elves.

Will be there, driving down with my wife. My son and his friend will be there Saturday. Brother-In-Law can't make it but it's still pretty good. Can't wait to see my wargaming friends!

Yay! People actually _eager_ to come to Fall-In!
Much fun is to be had by all!

Count me among the eager.

It's been quite some time since my last visit.

I agree. For some reason I am more enthused about Fall-In this year than for a decade. I am going bound and determined to have a riotously good time.

Yay! People actually _eager_ to come to Fall-In!

People are hopeful the improvements to the Host really boost the con and make it a more enjoyable experience. With all the uncertainty the last few years I think we'd all like some stability.

With renovations continuing through January there is still much work to be done. I would expect the carpeting and ceiling tiles throughout the space will be the LAST thing to be replaced. The individual room renovations I've seen look excellent.

TRU

Count me in among the excited. Im in desperate need of down time!

/\

Right there with you, as you know.

Get a renovated room! Maybe give them a call, see if you can sweet talk someone? That is sort of your job anyway, right?:)

I'm always eager for Fall In!.. I think about it all year.. And incessantly bugging you guys about it until I'm blue in the face or until the threats start, whichever comes first.

Luckily we are less than a week a week away so I'll stop bugging you now..

maybe..

Moe

Only a few days more!

Tick…tick….tick….

The fall foliage is somewhat off this year, with greens still predominant but some muted yellows starting to come out; what this week will bring in the colors is still up in the air. Tonight temps in Harrisburg will near freezing, so this may expedite the color changes to the hangers-on.

One of the nice things about Fall-In is the beautiful fall colours in NY state and Pennsylvania. Especially down route #15.

On the downside, the deer are moving.

Yes, work has been crazy. Not ready for my game even still….I will put on a game, have a beer, relax the best I can, I think I am done doing games….just do not have time to "do it right". Better off paying in my case.

2 more meetings, 1 client dinner, then hitting the road tomorrow AM! C'mon vacation, I am beyond ready!!

Bowman didst speak: "On the downside, the deer are moving."
True, quite true.
Folks from outside PA (and to our fellow Keystone Staters as a reminder), please drive carefully at night on highways and on secondary roads. Deer are not good pedestrians, choosing to cross traffic at areas not specifically marked as crosswalks without consideration of the motorists traveling there. Sometimes they stop and arrogantly taunt drivers by standing in the middle of the road. Many public service announcements have been issued, but the deer generally ignore such appeals. And they do not show up in court for tickets for jaywalking. And if you see one deer, look back the way it came for more trying to follow it. Please don't assume they will move out of your way, and deer antlers are quite difficult to remove from upholstery.
Thank you for your attention. We now return to "As the TMP Churns".

Does anyone else feel like a lot of the games being run are using rules you've never heard of (many home rules)?

I'm often keen to try certain rules I see mentioned on TMP, but rarely seem to find them at HMGS cons.

I did notice a bunch of homebrew rules that I'm not really interested in. We're running a whole room of Toofatlardies games if you're interested.

Now that is a rule set I have heard of. I'll look at the schedule to see if any of your games work.

I just find it odd that given the apparent popularity of some rules, I am not seeing them in the PEL. And I'm talking about the more popular periods of Nappy, ACW and WWII.

Historygamer has a point. I and my fellow gaming group usually avoid "home rules" games because there is a greater chance the mechanics are sub par. Sometimes you want to play an established rule-set, for example Crossfire, but just don't find it at the entire convention. Many games played are with rules that are what's popular at the time, like Flames of War. Love to play the occasional Sword and Flame but maybe one or two games at the entire convention. I'm working on hosting a Battlegroup Kursk game that is still pretty rare at the US conventions.

A lot of times I prefer the obscure rules or home rules. I have been in some games with known rules where Joe the rules lawyer is quoting page 16 paragraph 2, subsection A.1.34.d about something.

At least with a set of something lesser known or home rules, that usually isn't going to happen.

I just want to have fun playing games, not worry about every exact punctuation mark in the rule book. I have had well established rulesets that were some of the most boring games I have ever played in but almost every game listed as home rules that I have played in has been fun. For convention games it is less about mechanics than fun. I get enough super reality in real life.

While home brewed rules might be okay (it really is a crap shoot at best), the problems with them at a con are several:

1. Unknown home rules might be less likely to attract gamers to the con. Both the quality of the game (figures, terrain, etc.) and the rules are complete unknowns. A real leap of faith.

2. If you like the rules, other than asking for a copy, you might be out of luck ever gaming it again. Maybe that GM comes back, maybe you never see them again. Further, home rules are often short on actual written rules and long on GM interpretation/knowledge.

3. The lack of a lot of of the more popular and published rules means that people can't try them out if they aren't there (see #1), or play in their favorite rules. While you might get a rules lawyer, I also find that you are often guaranteed to get the expert on that period/genre that is going to tell you what's wrong with the rules, how the game isn't realistic, etc. No accounting for "that guy" at your game, no matter if they are published rules or not.

4. Home brewed rules do little to promote the hobby. If they aren't readily available, and known, they are one and done sort of thing. Honestly, I rarely play in games at HMGS cons as I do have trouble finding rules I've heard of, let alone have played before.

So look at the current offering. How many Johnny Reb II and III games, Fire and Fury (both brigade and regimental), Shako, Napoleon's Battles, Battlefront, Command Decision, Bolt Action, Age of Reason, Battle Group, Black Powder, etc., do you see in the PEL? One here, one there.

Considering the popularity of some of the rule sets out there, and the number of games offered, it just surprises me that I'm not seeing more of them at con. And its not just FI, I see it all the HMGS cons.

There has been lot of discussion about attendance, but I have to wonder if this lack of the more commercial/popularly known rules has anything to do with attendance, or the lack thereof?

To your points:

1) Are you trying to state that people will shy away from the con because there are too many home brew games in the PEL? I make my travel plans a year in advance, long before the PEL comes out. I'm also not sure that choice of rules has anything to do with the presentation of the game in question. All unknown games are leaps of faith.

2) Agreed. I find it more likely that GMs are using old favourite rules that are long OOP than home brewed rules.

3) Agreed

4) As for promoting the hobby, both Otto and Duke Seifried do a lot for this hobby and play their own rules exclusively.

Bit of a derail here. Well off to the second part of my trip to Lancaster..

Although I might look for certain rule sets at con games, I am more interested in the Period of the game. I am always interested finding how other gamers handle a certain period game even if they are using obscure or home rules. So even though a rule set has drawn me to a particular game, I would not 100% rule out a game based on the rule set. I guess I am very flexible in that regard.

It is an unknown how many people pass on going to HMGS (or any) cons if they don't see any rules they'd like to try, or know.

I agree that many/most games are a leap of faith, but at least if you have heard of the rules you might be more inclined to sign up and go.

Since HMGS compiles no data on the games offered, it has no idea if the games are full, empty, set up for an hour and leave, etc.

Not seeing too many out of print rules in the PEL.

Duke's and Ottos' games are a known quantity to most who attend. While the rules may be home brewed, the game is not an unknown.

Understood WarWizard. I'm just saying that I looked over the PEL for some specific and well known rule systems and found few (1 or 2 at best) or none at all. I find that rather odd given how many games are put on at the con.

And yes, I can't wait for Fall In either. :-)

Don't forget to play

F: 164:13 Make Way For Sheridan
Friday, 1:00:00 PM, 4 hrs, Players: 10
GM: Marvin Veeder
Sponsor: None, Prize: None
Period: American Civil War, Scale: 28mm, Rules: Crucible of War

They are rules we wrote with a satisfaction guarantee!

Quoth historygamer: "Duke's and Ottos' games are a known quantity to most who attend. While the rules may be home brewed, the game is not an unknown."

As unique as this might sound, I find myself in agreement with historygamer. If I am perusing the PEL, I look for the Gamemaster as well as the period/subject. I have always had a blast at games hosted by Howard Whitehouse, the Flying Wasileskis, the H.A.W.K.s, and Santa Moe.

I won't be there, but I'll see you all at COLD WARS 18.

First Fall IN! I missed, but I have a good reason.

BTW, the guidebook is published and can be downloaded now, in case you didn't notice.

Walt

Hmmm….

I'm running a game at Fall in, using a well known rule set. I'm also booked in for two games and, for the life of me, can't remember the rules being used in either.

The last game I played at Historicon was an OOP rule set. It was a lot of fun!

There are some great rules that don't make for good convention games. But that is best discussed in its own topic.

One thing I just noticed is that there is some almost overlap of games this year in timeframes. One game is scheduled to go until 5pm and the game I am running is supposed to start at 6pm on the same table.

I know we used to get an hour for each person, for setup and breakdown. Has this changed? Saw same sort of schedule on some other tables also. Didn't check them all. Could be problematic for some GMs.

pvi99th: At all three of the games in which I played, the gamers helped the GM collect and help pack up the table after the game was over, which took perhaps 20 minutes in each case. While I can see the crunch on the incoming GM, it was nice to see gamers helping out with the scut-work. It's also a nice "thank you" to the GM who did all the baseline behind the scenes work to get the game to the table. I heartily encourage this as a given behavior for gamers, especially in a convention setting.

My concern is that some people have such large games and pack things is specific ways, that they could take an hour or more to pack up even with help.

I heard people talking last name night about a mixup because of the timing. Not sure exactly what the issue was though.

The people on my table, prior to my game, weren't there so it didn't impact me but just like to avoid having issues. I had a person last year at Fall In who wanted to practically fight me for the table I was assigned to. Someone took his table so he took mine and refused to move. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone around to help out because it was at night.

I GM only homebrew. I will not spend two of four hours arguing with a jagoff who can not understand game flow.