Castle Con

by on January 29, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Castle Con was easily the best run first-year general gaming convention I’ve attended. They sent around 700 gamers through the weekend, which is an amazing number. And the staff handled all the crazy that happened without alerting the gamers. I know they had some crazy. They told me a couple things. And I know there was a lot more. There had to be. Every first-year convention has the crazy. The things that happen that nobody expected. They handled it all. They did it so well that I never saw it. Granted, I saw on Friday that they were going to have an issue on Saturday and talked to them about it. As busy as we were Friday, there weren’t enough tables and chairs for everybody who would come on Saturday. They got more tables and chairs. Whether they’d come to the same conclusion or not, I can’t say. But they reorganized the open gaming area and fit more space to play on. And we filled it up. They did good. I look forward to being part of the next Castle Con, and I hope more of you come to it.

 Comment 

Castle Con

by on January 28, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Castle Con had some 700 people show up, which is an amazing number. Especially for a first year con. I’m frankly amazed.

I ran approximately two-dozen of them through demos, and had another dozen watching. Most of the watchers were parents who grew up playing BattleTech and were letting me give their kids their first shot at playing it. Around a dozen of those who played at my table were kids. None of them had played BattleTech before. Of the adults, it was half and half between those who had played BattleTech before and those that had not.

Now Castle Con was created by a board gaming group, so the attendees trended towards that distribution. The kids and half of the adults had no concept of what BattleTech’s movement system was. They played like board games, or like Alpha Strike, simply measuring the distance between start and end and going there. The idea that they had to expend movement points to turn, could only walk forward or back, and that movement points used was not equal to hexes moved was an alien concept to them. And converting only the second number, and not the first, to the TMM was equally alien.

Obviously, I’m going to have to brainstorm a better way to teach the movement system. I am ten years plus out of practice on that. But I find it very interesting that such a large number of my demo players simply had no concept of the idea. Some of them groked it after repeated explanations. Others did not. It was something I had to actively teach and keep on them about it or they would forget it.

It was the single largest hangup people had about learning the game, and I find that very interesting.

 Comment 

BattleTech Demos

by on January 27, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I ran a BattleTech Classic and BattleTech Alpha Strike demo this weekend at a local convention. I’ve been doing Alpha Strike demos for years now, and was possibly the first Demo Agent to start demoing it under its original name back when I was a Demo Agent. It really is a quicker and easier way to play BattleTech. As I said back then, “this is the future of BattleTech.” And the movement and TMM mechanics are one of the big reasons for this. This weekend was the first time I’ve demoed Classic in years. It’s been over a decade since I’ve taught new gamers on Classic, and it was the movement and TMM that confused the gamers more than anything else. The idea that MP allowed you to move, but what counted for movement was actual hexes traveled, that you then converted to TMM was the single biggest hangup new gamers had. Over and over again. Many, many new gamers. It was the single biggest mindjob they had. Obviously I’m going to have to come up with a new way to explain since it was such a recurring issue. It is just an interesting take to take away from a convention. While many of us may consider Alpha Strike’s movement and TMM mechanics too simple and too abstract, I’m now firmly in the camp of considering them to be far superior mechanics when it comes to introducing new players to the game. And we HAVE to consider introducing new players to the game if the game is going to survive.

 Comment 

Castle Con

by on January 26, 2025 at 7:18 pm
Posted In: Diaries

Castle Con is over. I planned to post that i was at the con and ready to take players again, but the players were there and ready. I lost track of how many people i ran through demos od BattleTech and Alpha Strike. Literally lost track. On the plus side, both demo kits came home with all their dice and other pieces. Two demo kits spent threed days at a con and came back complete. And I was giving demos to both experienced gamers and to kids. Sometimes kids of experienced gamers who saw someone doing demos of a game they fell in love with as a kid and wanted their kid to experience it. It was a good three days and I am tired. Castle Con is over, the people did an amazing job running it, and I look forward to the next one.

 Comment 

Castle Con

by on January 25, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I am running BattleTech demos at Castle Con in Rochester Minnesota today and tomorrow. I am running BattleTech grinder and Alpha Strike and BattleTech Encounters demos. Come on over today or tomorrow if you are interested.

 Comment