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So here's some dates for the con. Choose the days you cannot make it.

Seriously? I'm the only one who's voted?

devlin1 wrote:Seriously? I'm the only one who's voted?

So far I can make all those dates so there is no need to vote.

Same for me. I should've made an option for that.

One of those April dates might be bad for me, but I'm not sure. So I'm checking in to it. Can't vote 'til I know.

I'm supposed to be excavating the last week in March. Maybe. Unless it gets postponed.

With only eight votes in, it looks like we're looking at either the first or third weekend of April. I vote for the third, just to give me personally more time to prepare something.

March 26-27 is GaryCon in Lake Geneva, WI! Surely you wouldn't schedule Hyphen-Con over such a prestigious event??

I'm in for any of the other weekends. I'd be happy to run an old-school RPG, board game, Star Wars minis, some card games, and perhaps other things.

Also happy to play in someone else's game, depending on what's available!

Well if we end up doing April 2-3 we should name it after the infamous incident with Albert breaking the glass at Winters.

goodmangames wrote:March 26-27 is GaryCon in Lake Geneva, WI! Surely you wouldn't schedule Hyphen-Con over such a prestigious event??

Um... we would, I guess, because none of us are really in a position to go to that thing. There's not a lot of overlap in terms of attendance between GaryCon and Hyphen-Con, I guess you could say.

I'm in for any of the other weekends. I'd be happy to run an old-school RPG, board game, Star Wars minis, some card games, and perhaps other things.

A little DCC demo, perhaps? Still interested in trying that out. Happy to have you in attendance, regardless.

And remember, Sunday's all boardgames, so bring whatchoo got and we'll get a game of it going.

Skyman wrote:Well if we end up doing April 2-3 we should name it after the infamous incident with Albert breaking the glass at Winters.

That was at Andy's, IIRC.

I'm so in for this! I don't know what weekends work for me, I'm checking with the wife to find out. I'll vote as soon as I know.

I have an idea for a D&D 4E game called the Maze of Many, where each player runs a 3 person party that are all multiple-universe versions of each other, and tries to get to the center of the maze, and get the prize, first.

Also, I'll probably be putting up Danger Patrol again, that was a big hit last time.

Would Blood Bowl be okay for a board game? Anyone up for a BB tourney? :)

-Chris

BlanchPrez wrote:Also, I'll probably be putting up Danger Patrol again, that was a big hit last time.

As it happens, I started working up (in all my free time) a D&D-ish hack called Dungeon Patrol, but I don't know if I'd pitch it for Hyphen-Con. (I already plan on pitching Hommlet, my Smallville D&D hack, and really, how many narrative-heavy D&D hacks does one day need?)

Would Blood Bowl be okay for a board game? Anyone up for a BB tourney? :)

I know a guy who would, but I'm not sure he'd come down from Vancouver for it. Seriously, I'm only "not sure" -- there's a very real though slim chance he might. Because he is crazy.

devlin1 wrote:As it happens, I started working up (in all my free time) a D&D-ish hack called Dungeon Patrol, but I don't know if I'd pitch it for Hyphen-Con. (I already plan on pitching Hommlet, my Smallville D&D hack, and really, how many narrative-heavy D&D hacks does one day need?)

Funny, I thought of a fantasy hack for this at one point, too. It would be pretty easy, given the structure of the game.

-Chris

BlanchPrez wrote:Funny, I thought of a fantasy hack for this at one point, too. It would be pretty easy, given the structure of the game.

-Chris

For sure. All you need are eight Types and eight Roles. Types can easily be races/cultures (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Orc, plus Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern human cultures), and AD&D is kind enough to provide us with eight distinct classes for Roles (Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Thief, Assassin, Ranger, Paladin, and Bard). From there it's just a matter of coming up with Talents, Powers, Gear, and Weapons, most of which can be reskinned and re-assigned.

I basically want to turn every New School, narrativist indie game into a dungeon crawl to see if it'd work. Some are easier than others.

devlin1 wrote:I basically want to turn every New School, narrativist indie game into a dungeon crawl to see if it'd work. Some are easier than others.

This is funny! Kind of the opposite of why those games are made in the first place.

-Chris

BlanchPrez wrote:This is funny! Kind of the opposite of why those games are made in the first place.

That's the joke! And yet, many of them aren't antithetical to dungeon crawling -- they just make the game about something other than killing things and taking their stuff. Using Smallville gives you a game where the emphasis is on how the PCs feel about one another and why they do the things they do (instead of how). The monsters are mostly represented by the abstract Trouble Pool, while the PCs' relationships are highly detailed.

But with Danger Patrol it's all still about adventure -- it just prioritizes story logic over "physics" logic. Then it's all about a fun dice mechanic and risk/reward system.

One of these days I want to do a Houses of the Blooded dungeon crawl, since John Wick more or less wrote it as a reaction to dungeon crawls.

So what's the final date for Hyphen Con? Inquiring minds want to know!

Well... ordinarily I'd say we should start another poll to decide between the first and third weekends of April, but since it's March in a few days, picking the first weekend in April would leave very little time to sort out the logistics, so I'm going to suggest we go with the third weekend (the 16th and 17th).

We still need to hear from a couple people (namely Les Freres Blanchard), but at this point I don't think April 2nd is really a practical option.

(Of course, if Mord can't make it, all bets are off, because he's providing the venue.)

What do people think about that?

Isn't Kingdom Con the same weekend (April 16-17)?

Not that it's an issue if Hyphen Con uses Kingdom Con as a venue...

http://www.kingdom-con.com/

Ugh. That's a problem -- not in the sense of losing people to Kingdom-Con, but because Chris is supposed to be helping out with it, and we don't want to interfere with that.

"I suppose we could make Hyphen-Con the RPG component of Kingdom-Con this year," he said, tentatively, knowing full well it would likely mean the end of some Hyphen-Con traditions, such as the pot luck [s]and the orgies[/s].

Forgot about Kingdom-con until Mord mentioned it on his Facebook so I just voted

cczernia wrote:Forgot about Kingdom-con until Mord mentioned it on his Facebook so I just voted

Chris, what about folding Hyphen-Con into Kingdom-Con this year? I'm afraid it looks like our only practical option if we want to do this in April. Otherwise, we can push it back to June (avoiding Origins weekend...), but after that all Hell breaks loose -- between Comic-Con, GenCon, and Gateway, that's three solid months of con-going. Hyph in June would make it four.

devlin1 wrote:Chris, what about folding Hyphen-Con into Kingdom-Con this year? I'm afraid it looks like our only practical option if we want to do this in April. Otherwise, we can push it back to June (avoiding Origins weekend...), but after that all Hell breaks loose -- between Comic-Con, GenCon, and Gateway, that's three solid months of con-going. Hyph in June would make it four.

I really don't understand what this means. We could just run rpgs for KC but how does that make it unique to Hyphen-con. Let me know what you are thinking.

Another idea might be to fully support Kingdom-con and move Hyphen-con to the fall/winter (after Gateway, before Orccon) when gaming stuff dries up.

cczernia wrote:I really don't understand what this means. We could just run rpgs for KC but how does that make it unique to Hyphen-con. Let me know what you are thinking.

I'm thinking we do our thing at/as part of Kingdom-Con -- "fully supporting" it, as it were -- because it's looking like our only April option.

My concern about that is that we don't have control over someone else's convention. We'd have to, like, start games on time and so forth. We'd potentially be playing with whoever happens to show up that day instead of our usual hand-picked team of gamers. We'd have to register our games through them instead of doing our usual faux-democracy thing. Plus we'd have to go to wherever they're holding Kingdom-Con, which means extra expenses and hassle.

Another idea might be to fully support Kingdom-con and move Hyphen-con to the fall/winter (after Gateway, before Orccon) when gaming stuff dries up.

I don't know how practical the winter season really is, what with the holidays. Schedules are harder to organize and it isn't always as easy for people to free up a weekend. (I know it's harder for me in November/December/January than it is -- usually -- in the spring.) "Gaming stuff dries up" during those months for a reason.

devlin1 wrote:I'm thinking we do our thing at/as part of Kingdom-Con -- "fully supporting" it, as it were -- because it's looking like our only April option.

My concern about that is that we don't have control over someone else's convention. We'd have to, like, start games on time and so forth. We'd potentially be playing with whoever happens to show up that day instead of our usual hand-picked team of gamers. We'd have to register our games through them instead of doing our usual faux-democracy thing. Plus we'd have to go to wherever they're holding Kingdom-Con, which means extra expenses and hassle.

I was planning on doing this anyway. I don't see how this is different from if we just ran games at Kingdom-con. The way I see it is we can do both. Run and play games and Kingdom-con and have Hyph on another date.

cczernia wrote:I was planning on doing this anyway. I don't see how this is different from if we just ran games at Kingdom-con. The way I see it is we can do both. Run and play games and Kingdom-con and have Hyph on another date.

Well, if that's what we as a loose association of gamer-types are going to do, then we have to get on that toot suite, because I'm totally out of the loop on Kingdom-Con.

What's involved with Kingdom-Con? Where is it? Will there be room for us? Not as another 25-30 people, but in terms of a dedicated space for RPGs? Has provision already been made for that?

I still question whether my calendar can handle another convention weekend later in the year (I really do think June's the best bet for Hyphen-Con, if it isn't in the spring), but that's another problem for another time, at this point. I can't be the only one with that concern.

And if I have to choose between Kingdom-Con in April or Hyphen-Con in June (?), I'll wait for June. I wasn't planning on going to Kingdom-Con anyway. The trouble is, right now we don't even know if Hyphen-Con would happen at all later this year, and it's my favorite con of the year, so... that troubles me.

devlin1 wrote: it would likely mean the end of some Hyphen-Con traditions, such as the pot luck [s]and the orgies[/s].

Dangit! I knew I left too early Saturday night!

As much as I would love to make deviled eggs for everyone again, if the choices are 1st or 3rd week, I vote 3rd week along side Kingdom-con because I already have birthday plans for the 1st wekend.

If we wait much longer on that poll, we may end up with a complete tie.

FWIW, Nerdly Beach Party VIII is Friday, April 15th through Sunday, April 17th 2011

Anarchangel wrote:FWIW, Nerdly Beach Party VIII is Friday, April 15th through Sunday, April 17th 2011

I stay away from that. Too much pressure. But it does mean we'd lose the whole LA indie gamer cool-kid contingent, which would be a bummer.

I'm not for merging The Hyph with Kingdom-Con. If it weren't for the fact that Chris is volunteering for it, I wouldn't even care that it's on the same weekend. They've got virtually NO RPG's (except for what Chris has volunteered to run). I definitely want The Hyph to stay its own event.

As far as dates go, I'm OK for all the dates on the poll. However, I'm guessing we should extend the poll to get more date options. Either that or pick a date and people either can make it or not make it.

Incidentally, the first weekend of April isn't that big of a deal logistically speaking. All I have to do is confirm the venue (namely my work place), which is a 95% lock anyway. We still have to put up our game poll and give that a few weeks. But there's enough time for that. In fact, let's do that now.

Okay, so since the first and third weekends are tied in terms of attendance problems, and the third weekend conflicts with both Kingdom-Con and Nerdly Beach Party, are we just going to call it the first weekend and get on with it already? I mean, I know you started that other thread, but there's no date on it.

Because man, if it's in four or five weeks, getting on it is what we need to do.

I'm calling it for the first weekend in April (Sat the 2nd and Sun the 3rd). Barring the venue not being available, that's the date. Let's get on with this thing.

Venue confirmed, BTW.

Hooray!