Surviving Adepticon 2013

I'm back from Adepticon and wanted to get a quick post out into the wilds of the internet while things are still filtering through my head. I intend to get some more detailed discussion up soon, so this will be just a brain-dump so readers know I'm still alive. To be fair, I intended to get regular game reports up as well this year and have failed at that pretty spectacularly!!!

So, high level of Adepticon. I helped TO a number of events that seem to have been very successful. Nilus and I pulled off a great Cake Event, Malifaux Team Tournament, and Story Encounter. I also got to play in four rounds of the Masters (Tied for 5th place) and 1 round of the Avatars (knocked out round 1 due to clumsy mistakes). I would say that on the organization and tournament front, that makes an incredibly successful weekend! I want to give a huge thank you to my opponents (Ryan Hummel, Steve Babcock, Doug LeSavoy, David Barnickle, and James Kroesh) for five really fun games.

I got to play in 2 games outside of tournaments against opponents I have wanted to face in person but not had the chance. Greg who has worked with me at past Adepticons and Gencon was a fantastic gremlin opponent, although things did not go his way. Old Man Mike of Malifools fame was also a fantastic opponent, again with Rasputina falling to a Misaki God Hand. Fun games and Fantastic opponents.

As for the con itself, while it was still an amazing weekend of gaming, this year was a little less enjoyable than years past. Mack Martin brought a dark shadow over the con for me, which I am sure he is pleased with. As the new head developer for Wyrd, he and I had one very contentious conversation, then I got to hear about and field questions of his backbiting all weekend. I will say that it is incredibly disappointing to see this behavior in a company representative. It's expected to some extent from general gamers, but company representatives are often held to a higher standard. Apparently my less than positive opinions on upcoming moves within Wyrd has made me "The Enemy you know" for some Wyrd employees. That was disappointing. Going beyond that, an unexpected stretch of no sleep for over 34 hours ended with me passing out and missing Poker and Board Game night, which I look forward to every year. I have come to the realization I am older than I think and cannot hang with 30+ hour marathons of no sleep any more. I need to carve out sleeping time at future con's to make sure I get in everything I want to do.

News of where Wyrd is going with Malifaux were all over Adepticon this year, with the company representative sharing the plans with anyone who would listen. This is exciting on one hand, as the news is out there. On the other hand, my own NDA keeps me from sharing anything until those other sources share what they heard. I am really looking forward to The Joey Berry (You Tube), Wargamers Consortium, Screaming Heretics Podcast, and Eternal Warriors podcast sharing their interviews!  I was also pleased to hear that one of the dedicated Malifaux podcasts (Through the Breach) was actually granted the privilege of getting some of that Malifaux news as well. I am excited to hear what news was let into the wild as those sources get back from Adepticon and publish!

Overall the best part of the weekend was connecting with friends who I only really get to see a couple times a year. I know it seems like a trite comment, but that really makes these conventions the best. To anyone who I hung out with over the weekend, played games with, or just passed in the hall and chatted with for a while, thank you! You are the people who make Adepticon great for me.

More will be coming (I hope) about individual thoughts and aspects of Adepticon over the next few days/weeks. I have to admit, I am already looking forward to Adepticon 2013.