GenCon 2007 - Experience of a newbie Con goer

[Joachim]

I guess I can understand where you are coming from. Some of the encounter resolution does not necessarily make sense, and players experienced with the Open have an advantage as they/we know to be on the lookout for anything that looks fishy. But, it should be noted that for the past 3 years (including the 2007 version) the Open modules have been written by Wizards' R&D group, and I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Mmu, I totally understand your feelings. I don't think any of us are trying to say you were not playing tactically smart, or that you're wrong about that trap door exit. But we do find the open to be a whole lot of fun -- very tense, very exciting, very challenging, for all of its different flavor and challenges from other varieties of D&D.

I'll second that the prizes are great -- our team's prizes (third place) are the 4th edition core books (by mail, when they're printed) and also to be playtesters. Second place got what we got as well as an armload of books and the massive blue dragon mini.

Success in the open takes a whole lot of things -- thinking tactically about each encounter and the session as a whole, careful resource management (which does NOT mean saving everything -- resources spent well early are as important as resources saved), and a whole lot of luck. Sportsmanship is a factor in the scoring (I imagine this is code for "did the judge like the players" ). But our teams have always felt that we were advancing in large part thanks to some excellent good luck on top of everything else. As a player, I've learned to love the blur 20% miss chance -- fairly often our enemies seem to miss right when we needed them to. In our second round, Howl defeated one of the Brass Guardians single handedly while trying to hold it off, and Galadan kept two occupied while most of the rest escaped. The same sort of luck helped us make it to the finals last year. So, Lucky is truly better than being good.

Still, winning three years isn't luck, it's diabolical. Seriously.

I do hope you'll give it another try next year, now that you know what you're going in to. But I totally get where you're coming from, and totally understand why you might not want to get near it again.

-rg

 

[Joachim]

Still, winning three years isn't luck, it's diabolical. Seriously.

It's hard for me to read irony over a messageboard...are you suggesting that we just quit?

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Sorry, I was just kidding around with the "diabolical" thing. But the idea that its more than luck is sincere. You guys must be VERY good at all aspects of the Open. My 'Dallas cowboys of the Open' crack was sincere if a bit tongue in cheek.

I wish it were possible to review the tapes and see what you guys did.

And, when I suggest that you quit it's also a joke -- I don't expect you to quit any more than the Dallas Cowboys are going to quit just because my beloved Buffalo Bills manage to lose to them in new and exiting ways every year.

So, honestly, I respect you guys, and I'm frankly jazzed that you replied to my posts, and you mostly agreed with what I was saying about the open.

Besides, if you quit, I won't have the chance to try to beat you guys next year. (and, probably lose in new and exciting ways, no doubt).

-john

 

[Joachim]

Ok...just making sure. And thanks for the kind words, we as a group are frankly humbled by our current win streak (and to be honest, it's really not three in a row as we won in 2004, placed 2nd in '05, and then 1st in '06-'07). While we would be disappointed if we didn't advance, we all know that it's not a given as we barely made it out of the preliminary round last year (we were actually alternates) and then barely made it out of the semi's this year (we were the 10th ranked team out of the 10 slotted to advance).

All that matters is if you can put together a strong final round, and we have been lucky (not to overuse the word) to be able to do that.

-Richard

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Just don't be surprised if some inexplicably hot booth babes turn up to get drunk with you Saturday night next year. I'm not above hiring extra help.

-john

 

[JollyDoc]

Just don't be surprised if some inexplicably hot booth babes turn up to get drunk with you Saturday night next year. I'm not above hiring extra help.

-john

Can you get us those Conan girls??? Maybe dazzle them with tales of our celebrity???

 

[Radiating Gnome]

We'll see what I can afford. You may have to settle for the Order of the Stick girls. Kinda skinny, but cheap dates.

-j