TerpCon Fall 2006

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Why have these complaints never been raised to the officers of the terrapin gaming club who run the convention? We keep inviting the members of ENWorld because we believed you were enjoying yourselves. If you were not, why didn't you mention it to us sooner?

Because the ENW crew is not a part of the gaming club, we have raised our complaints here at ENW. It may not have been the most efficient means to do it, but that is the way it has been done in the past.

Moreover, I would never claim that the ENW-crew that attends the Gameday was purposefully excluded. Many of us *started* attending the Gameday when it was not TerpCon, but an ENW Gameday and so it sort of felt like we got pushed aside - that's all. It's just the way things happen when you have a clash of two different (and I hate to use this word) cliques. There's just not a lot of overlap between the Gameclub and ENW so, naturally, you have a divide.

I've had fun in the past and will continue to have fun at the UMD Gameday. You guys do a good job and I'm glad to see you're working hard to make the Gameday an even better experience.

 

[xcsalt130]

What you say makes perfect sense to me. And, I do appriciate your support of our event. However, most of the messages on this thread have not been very supportive. And, while we do appriciate that you have every right to complain on your own boards, but the gaming club was not made aware of these complaints at all. There is no way for us to even try to correct the problems, and they also hit us off guard. Especially the complaints on here about how the Terrapin Gaming Club was purposefully excluding members of ENworld. For example,

Indeed, TerpCon has gotten less and less enjoyable from the standpoint of an ENW-er. The ENW crowd pushed aside (and apparently kicked out of games) - that combined with the increasingly unprofessional tactics of those running the convention (i.e., having the MC/announcer of the raffle winning prizes) has made many ENW-ers feel like the UMD Gaming Club is actually working to make us feel excluded.

I have had the opportunity to play in some wonderful games, yet they've all been run by friends here at ENW because attempting to play with the UMD Gaming Club peoples is simply not worth feeling left out/excluded/pushed aside/actually kicked out.

It makes me sad to see how the ENW-ers are treated at TerpCon. ENW is, after all, the birth-place of the UMD gameday; however, all things shift and change over time. Hopefully TerpCon can do a little shifting and changing to make the ENW crowd feel welcome again.

Essentially, we are trying to set the record strait about the attitudes and opinions of the TGC members and officers. Posts such as this, calling us unprofessional, and accusing us of activly trying to push ENWorld people to the side, are as personal insults to us as people and as an organization. I am sure you can see why many of us are upset about this. Saying the convention wasn't that much fun is one thing, to accuse the members of TGC of causing problems, and not informing TGC of this problem is quite another.

Once again, we at TGC are looking forward to Terpcon, and the attendance of any members of ENWorld that would like to come. We would also like to make a formal request to any members of ENWorld who are dissatasfied with members of TGC to E-Mail terpcon@gmail.com with the specific complaint so that any other problems can be resolved.

 

[The_Universe]

In our defense however, this thread is the first time any of the officers of TGC have heard about these issues. We had no idea that any of you were unhappy with the effort we put in.

That's alright - that's why we just told you. As you'll note, nobody in this thread said "the UMD Gameclub Crew are jerks!" Well, at least not as of the time of the original posts.

We did validly note, however, that there has a been a great deal less outreach from your community to ours since the event became TerpCon, rather than a joint ENworld/UMD event. And that's fine - as noted above, you guys are putting in the legwork, and you should be commended for it! However, in order to make it a more inclusive event in the future, we're hoping, as a community, to get a little/a lot more involved--rather than try to horn in on your action, it was suggested that we might resurrect the ENworld game day as a separate event. Certainly no malice toward you and yours.

In the future, the Terrapin Gaming Club would appriciate if any complaints, questions, or concerns, were first brought up to us at terpcon@gmail.com so that we can try to fix/solve/assist in any way possible.

I think people who frequent an internet messageboard are probably perfecly comfortable raising the issues on that self-same internet messageboard. It's kind of an intrinsic feature of the format.

Xath- You did not even ATTEND the last two conventions. As a fellow TGC member, we tried to include you in the planning and you disappeared from the surface of the world, leaving us in a bind. We haven't heard from you in months. I fail to see how you can logically complain.

I can't and won't speak for Xath, but the changing atmosphere of the event may have made it less desirable for some attendees. It's not like she lives in a bubble that prevents her from hearing about the event, even if she did not attend.

Rodrigo Istalindir- You mentioned two games run by ENWorlders. Where did we exclude you? It seems to me that you never tried to integrate.

Rodrigo's game involved several people from the game club - he wasn't excluding anyone. The simple fact of the matter is that the "exclusion" factor has a lot more to do with who attends the event in the first place, and a lot less to do with who signs up for what games. I know I signed up for Rodrigo's game because it looked like the most fun that could be had in that particular time-slot. I certainly didn't do so out of any attempt to self-segregate.

The Universe- You validated my above point. If you guys don't sign up for games that TGC members run and only let ENWorlders join your games, all of the organizers' efforts to combine the two groups falls flat on its face.

That's not the case at all. As you suggested to Cthulhu's Librarian, I would propose that you *ahem* "get your facts straight." TGC members have been a part of every game I have ever run at your illustrious event - I like to imagine that they had fun, too. My actual assertion was that all the Enworlders at the game day played in my game, which was true. The fact that there weren't enough of them to fill an entire game should give you an idea of how much attendance from our community has fallen.

Queen Dopplepopolis- I had TWO tickets. One was given at entrance (just like everyone) and I bought the other. I could have donated to the club, but decided to see what would happen. I can't see how that's unprofesisonal, but we have created a solution. Andrew Beard has offered to run the raffle this time since he has too much stuff already and would not be competing.

It's not how many tickets you have. Hell, I've donated in the past so I could get more tickets. It's the fact that you're drawing from the hat, and you're a contestant. It's a fairly obvious conflict of interest. Nevertheless, I don't think we're asserting that you were cheating (I certainly saw NO evidence of that). It's just a little off-putting.

 

[grahamdrew]

Suit yourself. It seems to work quite well for other gamedays I have attended, without many problems. But if it doesn't work for you, that's fine. I was just giving the opinion of someone who had a poor experience, and offered a different method that I have seen work for a significant period of time. But I don't run TerpCon, you do. Sorry for offering an alternate method. But you might want to look at how other gamedays operate there regestration systems, and see if there is an alternate method that you can adapt to your needs, that can accomodate both reserved and open slots.

OK, I'm done pissing.

It's not a bad idea, it's just led to issues in the past I care not to repeat. Unfortunatly the thread from last simester seems to have been nuked (something about a server crash?) but I end up posting a number of WTF emails in an effort to figure out what was going on. It took a few days, but at the end of it we swore up and down we were never going to use reserved slots as "hidden slots" again, as the GM never communicated to his players that they shouldn't sign up for the game on the warhorn site (and we didn't know anyhting was wrong until the last minutes, since the GM never gave us a list of the people who were in the reserved slots).

The entire thing left a very bad taste in my mouth that was brought up again when you mentioned it. It's not your fault, and I didn't mean to jump down your throat for suggesting it. I just wanted to express how opposed I am to the idea, given what happened last year.

That aside, we really do want to hear constructive criticism about previous years. None of the TGC leadership (or TerpCon support staff) is regularly active on ENworld, however. If you want to get in contact with us email is really the best way (terpcon@gmail.com). If you have suggestions or have an issue you'd like us to address, we'll get on it. I can't say we'll definitly use your suggestion (as in the above case, where previous experince has taught us some very painful lessons), but we do want to make TerpCon the best event we possibly can.

Please, if you have an issue let us know. We can't respond to things we don't know about, and in the meantime things have a way of getting out of hand ( A GM is an and messes with the signup system -> Rich gets kicked out of a game -> Rich got kicked out of a game by a UMDed -> UMDers are kicking ENworlders out of games!). Talking about the issues and then not telling us isn't going to improve much, though.

I don't really like to use ENworlder and UMDer terms. I don't want to be split down the middle. From the TGC staff's perspective, we're just trying to set up a convention. UMD students come to it, TGC members come to it, ENworld members come to it, and people who live nearby come to it (we'll taken anybody's money at the door ). I'll be brutally honest about this though (this isn't going to win me any friends, but I think it needs to be said); the TGC staff doesn't really see this as an ENworld gameday. Don't get me wrong, we love having you. We love having everybody; personally the best part of gaming for me is getting to meet and play with new people. None of the TGC staff are really affiliated with ENworld, though, any more than we're affiliated with RPG.net, Dragon's Landing, Other Realms, or any of the other places we advertise for TerpCon. None of us had ever been to any of the previous ENworld gamedays, and (for me at least, I can't speak for anybody else) this is the first I've heard of them.

TerpCon is an open event. We welcome everybody if you're a TGC member, an ENworld member, both, or neither. Please look at it from our perspective for a second; if we give anyone preferential treatment we're slighting someone else. If you'd like to form an ENworld contingent we'd love to have you. Asking us to do signups on ENworld makes it a lot harder for everone else to sign up, though.

I think that's pretty much my piece. I'm sorry if I offended anyone, I'm just calling it like I see it.

Andrew Beard

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I don't really like to use ENworlder and UMDer terms. I don't want to be split down the middle. From the TGC staff's perspective, we're just trying to set up a convention. UMD students come to it, TGC members come to it, ENworld members come to it, and people who live nearby come to it (we'll taken anybody's money at the door ). I'll be brutally honest about this though (this isn't going to win me any friends, but I think it needs to be said); the TGC staff doesn't really see this as an ENworld gameday. Don't get me wrong, we love having you. We love having everybody; personally the best part of gaming for me is getting to meet and play with new people. None of the TGC staff are really affiliated with ENworld, though, any more than we're affiliated with RPG.net, Dragon's Landing, Other Realms, or any of the other places we advertise for TerpCon. None of us had ever been to any of the previous ENworld gamedays, and (for me at least, I can't speak for anybody else) this is the first I've heard of them.

The October '04 gameday, AKA 'TerpCon I' was originated by Old One on these boards, organized and substantially funded by ENWorlders, and 'co-branded' as an ENWord/TGC Gameday. Xath provided the UMd connection when we were looking for a venue. The second was organized by Xath (at least around here), making it at least nominally an ENWorld gathering as well.

 

[Piratecat]

Thanks for deciding not to turn this thread into an argument-fest, since airing dirty laundry in public is seldom a good idea. I'm fine with this thread staying open if people don't get defensive (on both parts), the conversation stays constructive, and if it helps resolve some issues that were leading to people feeling resentful and not having fun.

Thanks!

 

[D'karr]

In total, I've attended 3 Terpcons, including the initial one. I've gamed at tables with ENWorlders (Rich, Matt Cutter, BobotheHobo, etc.) and I've gamed at tables with TGC members (Beard, Carla, etc.) I even gamed at tables with some of the RPGA crew that are neither ENWorlders or TGC members (Joe & Jon Tom, etc.)

I've never felt left out or ostracized. At the last Gameday I spent 5 additional dollars on tickets and won a "crapload" of stuff during the raffle. Maybe my experience has been different than most at ENWorld, maybe it has been typical. All I know is that I've had a fantastic time at each and everyone of these Gamedays.

I'm sad to see that we ENWorlders are planning on possibly running a separate event. It saddens me because that means that I'll either miss Terpcon or the ENWorld Gameday as I probably won't be able to attend both. That also means that I won't get to game with some of those people that I've come to enjoy gaming with.

Most of the guys with the current TGC organizing staff might not even be part of the original group that organized the first ENWorld Gameday/Terpcon I. Most of them are probably not regular members of ENWorld. So very truthfully they might have not been aware of any complaints on our part.

Personally, I'd prefer to have both events happening together. There is nothing preventing ENWorld games from occuring at Terpcon. We could still organize games here and then report them to the TGC for inclusion on the Warhorn site.

I can understand why the TGC uses Warhorn, they are trying to figure out total numbers so they can plan accordingly. It might not be the easiest site for ENWorld to use for organizing but it can be used for registering.

I hope that this can be resolved satisfactorily for ME.... LOL

 

[xcsalt130]

The October '04 gameday, AKA 'TerpCon I' was originated by Old One on these boards, organized and substantially funded by ENWorlders, and 'co-branded' as an ENWord/TGC Gameday. Xath provided the UMd connection when we were looking for a venue. The second was organized by Xath (at least around here), making it at least nominally an ENWorld gathering as well.

Maybe I need to get my facts strait, but this is the first I'm hearing of sponsoring of Terpcon 1 by ENWorlders. As far as my records and memory show, the funding for Terpcon 1 was completely done by us. The only reason I'm bringing it up is to add it to the records I have. If it is the case that ENWorld helped to fund the event, then we certainly appriciate it.

Matthew Saltzman

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Maybe I need to get my facts strait, but this is the first I'm hearing of sponsoring of Terpcon 1 by ENWorlders. As far as my records and memory show, the funding for Terpcon 1 was completely done by us. The only reason I'm bringing it up is to add it to the records I have. If it is the case that ENWorld helped to fund the event, then we certainly appriciate it.

Matthew Saltzman

UMd ended up being the venue after we'd starting organizing, so there wasn't time (or at least that was my understanding) to go through your typical funding process, and ENWorld and TGC split the costs. TGC got involved because of Xath, who had the necessary contacts there to get us the room.

Old One would have better numbers, but I kicked in $100 towards the room rental, plus paid for four-color posters and table-cards. I know Old One kicked in at least as much as I did, and there were a couple other donations (and maybe more that I didn't hear about).

 

[xcsalt130]

UMd ended up being the venue after we'd starting organizing, so there wasn't time (or at least that was my understanding) to go through your typical funding process, and ENWorld and TGC split the costs. TGC got involved because of Xath, who had the necessary contacts there to get us the room.

Old One would have better numbers, but I kicked in $100 towards the room rental, plus paid for four-color posters and table-cards. I know Old One kicked in at least as much as I did, and there were a couple other donations (and maybe more that I didn't hear about).

Fair enough. I'll check my records again, and I'll put the fact that ENWorld contributed into them. If anyone else has accurate numbers that they or others contributed, I would appriciate it so that I can accurately mark them in our records. Before I took over this position in fall 05, I'm not sure this sort of record keeping was enforced. In fall 04, I was the assistant treasurer being trained to take over the position in 05. Thank you for your help.