RE: 2 Weeks to GenCon Indianapolis

> > I'm in a painting frenzy as GenCon Indianapolis starts 2 weeks
> from today
> > on August 19th and runs through Sunday August 22nd.  I'm
> running some Full
> > Thrust games like usual and I need to complete a few fleets before
they
> > are ready for the table.  I'm not running a FT Tournament this year
> > because participation was going way down while it was a lot of
> work and I
> > needed a break.
>
> Hi, Dean.
>
> How much had the FT tournament dropped off in attendance? It was,
what,
> about 13 or 14 people in 2000? We always had way more individual
people
> playing FT games than we had entering the tournament. I suspect that
it's
> just too hard for some people to devote 8 hours to a tournament on the
> big day of the convention. I now wonder if it wouldn't be better to
> handle it the way the RPG people handle tournaments: hold the
preliminary
> round(s) on earlier days.
>
> Oh, well, maybe it's just not worth having a tournament at something
like
> GenCon, period.

Last year we had 8 players in the tourney.  For the effort I put into
the
tourney, I didn't feel it was worth it.  I do think a tourney could be
done
again in the future, but not until FT 3rd edition is out and there is an
bump in the number of FT players out there.

> > I know The_Beast won't be there this year, but is there anyone else
from
> > the list who will be there?
>
> I won't be there, though we're debating what to do for next year. I'm
> deciding between GenCon and Origins. GenCon would be the obvious
choice
> (it's about an hour closer and is bigger) except that the reports I
heard
> from last year's registration mess _really_ put me off. I'm going to
> decide after I see how it works out this year.

That was just a big network mess.  Why connect the PC's for people to
check
email with all those that are used for registration?  Why no antivirus
software on any of the machines?  Why was there no tech support on site
ready to fix anything?
That problem will not happen again.  It has been reviewed to death and
the
powers who are GenCon are overprepared to combat any network problems
this
year.

> > Of general interest, Mongoose Publishing will be releasing
> their Babylon 5
> > based space combat game "A Call To Arms" at GenCon and will be
selling
> > their convention only (so far) miniature of the Victory class
> Destroyer as
> > seen in 'Crusade'
>
> I heard from one of my RPG players that Mongoose has decided to make
> figures compatible with AoG's large ships. Any idea if they are going
to
> do a Fleet Action scale of ships? I always found AoG's ships to be way
> too big (which is why I ended up selling my collection).

Mongoose likes the look of the full size minis, thus they are using the
old
B5 Wars masters to make their miniatures.  It does save a lot of time
and
scuplting costs.  FA fighters will be used but the FA scale ships are
not in
their plans.  I don't expect to bring out a competing scale.

Dean Gundberg

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dean@star-ranger.com