[Boston] Arisia! Games! (Updated blurbs 12/21/03)

[Umbran]

Hey, folks!

Arisia, one of New England's largest science fiction conventions, will be held January 16th - 18th, 2004, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.

I happen to know the gent in charge of organizing tabletop RPGs at the con, and he's looking for GMs. If you are seriously interested in running your favorite one-shot at the con, you can post in this thread or drop me a PM, and I can get you in touch with him. I'm not privy to the exact policy at the moment, but I think if you spend enough hours running games, you earn yourself a free convention membership.

Also, there will be two theatre-style Live Action Role Playing Games during the convention:
---------------

Friday evening will be Celebration - A Rite of Passage, set in a High School prom that's... a little different. You can follow the link to the game's website and registration/application form.

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Saturday afternoon will have Naptime!
The first day of school - daunting for some, fantastically exciting for
others. Here's your chance to regress and be a little kid again, for a few
hours or so. Make new friends, and find out what this 'kindergarten' thing
is all about.

This LARP is light on plot, and heavy on roleplaying & fun - you're 5- and
6-year-olds, after all. Characters will be provided.

---------------

For the Live-combat junkies, one of the local NERO groups will be running demonstrations during the convention, though the hotel facilities don't allow us to offer up a full NERO-style game.

So, go! Register for Arisia! Play games! Enjoy the many convention offerings! It's a hoot!

 

[Umbran]

Hm. Back to page 3 within 30 hours. Not good. Well, one *bump* just so people have a better chance to see it...

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I'm not privy to the exact policy at the moment, but I think if you spend enough hours running games, you earn yourself a free convention membership.

OK, this isn't an anti arisia rant, cause I like the con, its fun and all. But last year I signed up to run aproximately 12 - 16 hours of tabletop games, and was told that I'd be 'comped'. I received no notice to the contrary until I showed up the day of the con and stood in a very long line to be told "um... there's a note on your card, you need to go to that line" and after another line be told "uh... the (con chair?) didn't aprove your comping. You need to pay to get in..." It was NOT the fault of the person running the games, and there was a workaround where I could hang only in the gaming room, but it was a quite embittering expereince... to the point that I haven't really checked on arisia this year, in spite of LOVING to run one shots. (I like to play in them too, but lately if I go to a con I'm lucky to have enough time to run the games I want to, much less play...)

So my question is, does your friend know about what happened last year (I wasn't the only one it happened to)? And has he gotten assurances that he can make this offer in good faith this year?

Some cons don't comp at all, and thats their business, but you have to know when you are planning things...

Kahuna burger

 

[Piratecat]

I've had good fun when I've gone to Arisia. It's a great general con.

 

[KenM]

well, between what Kahuna Burger said in his post, and the fact when I click on the Arisia link at the top, I get a dead link, sounds like a great con.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

well, between what Kahuna Burger said in his post, and the fact when I click on the Arisia link at the top, I get a dead link, sounds like a great con.

umbram put an extra A in... silly wabbit. it should be arisia.com I think...

I'm not a he...

But more to the point, I have nothing against the con, there were certainly things I was interested in doing... my only issue was to make sure that last years problems had been corrected, because if umbrams friend doesn't even know that there were problems last years, its hard to take the same promise in good faith again.

Kahuna burger

 

[Piratecat]

Link fixed!

 

[Balsamic Dragon]

Hey there! Arisia gaming is being run by a good friend of mine this year, Jason Schneiderman. He has worked mightily with the Arisia folks to resolve some of the gaming issues the con has had in the past, and has stated officially that gamemasters _will_ be comped. They are being treated as event runners instead of panelists, so they will be comped for this year rather than being given a free pass for next year.

I'm going to be running a few games at Arisia, including D&D and Star Wars. It should be lots of fun!

Balsamic Dragon

PS: thanks for fixing the link PC!

 

[Umbran]

So my question is, does your friend know about what happened last year (I wasn't the only one it happened to)? And has he gotten assurances that he can make this offer in good faith this year?

Well, that must have been really annoying.

It is possible that your case was an isolated incident or miscommunication, rather than a procedural or policy problem that needs fixing. In a con run by an all-volunteer staff, an occasional problem is pretty much inevitable. The gent running gaming this time didn't do it last year, so I doubt he'd be aware of an isolated incident. But I can make him aware of it.

If it was a common problem for many GMs last year, or it was a matter of policy, I'm pretty sure he'd know about it, and will have taken steps tio correct teh problem. He's pretty good people, if you know what I mean.

 

[KenM]

I went to the site, but the only gaming listed is that LARP thing mentioned in the starting thread. When will they put what they will be having for gaming on the site?