MACE West 2011 Report

Overall, I feel that MACE West 2011 was a success. There was very little one could complain about other than the weather. With about 130 people, we were a little short from what we hoped to get but not too short to kill the idea for next year. The concept has potential and so I ams ure we will continue with it next year.

I really liked the location once I got to know it. The access to outside gave us a great palce to play cornhole and has more potential for more outdoor events like boffer LARPs, etc. When I first visited the site, I was concerned about how tight it was and mhow much we really could fit in there. But the GM turn out was actually perfect for the space we had. In fact, we would have fit a little more.

Like I said, turn out was pretty good. I took the time to test out my new ticket system for registration. I was reasonably happy with the test although it was not as true a test as I wished it to be. I am very concerned that ConCarolinas will really test it out and it will fail. I will need staff, bottom line. I might be able to recruit from my GM pool, but I gotta start now. Of course, SCARAB is offering as well. There were a few kinks that I have to work out. List of proglrams I had are:

• More staff, because I was not at the table at specific times.
• The GMs need a way to see how many people signed up for the game, especially the RPGA.

I am going to integrate a new field into the database and on to the reports – Needs a ticket. Some events do not need a ticket.

Most sessions and tables were full and many pick up games where played asw well. The game libarray was utilized considerably. Key things about that. It needs to be out and visible. At ConCarolinas, I’ll have ot come up with a place to put it.

I played Dust the board game, but could not stay awake enough to learn and run Dust Tactics. But I got my second wind up and played Cosmic Encounters. Both were fun. Played a lot of Zombie dice, Talisman with the kids, and watched a Mansions of Madness game. That’s a cool game!

I was very disappointed htat no one signed up for my Fading Suns True20 game though, after all the work I put into it. I hope to run that sometime here.

One comment I heard about MACE West stuck with me. Someone said “It was good grass roots gaming” and in the same breath, the implied that MACE (big MACE) is not. That bugged me. Why? I would ask. because there was more role playing than anything else? That bugs me because that just shows how people can be tunnel visioned and stuck in their own little world. No disrespect to the person who said it, mind you, but I really feel that MACE is also grass roots gaming … just more a variety of it. Been to GenCon lately? MACE West also has the potential of groeing to another MACE, so what then? Anyway, that hit a bone for me and I felt like something needed to be said.