Thanks to Allan for posting the info about the "overflow" attendees at the con. We want to stress that anyone gaming will NOT be asked to leave under any circumstances. Only people milling around who aren't playing in a game at the time will be asked to leave the room if there is any trouble with the fire marshall. The only issue is that the room is by fire code only allowed to have 50 people inside at once; however, there is a large breakfast area (20 tables or so) next door that is perfect for sitting and hanging out. It IS a small town (right between Dallas and Fort Worth), and the fire/police departments literally drive around with nothing to do, it's not out of the question a fire marshall could see the cars in the parking lot, and stroll in to count heads just because nothing is burning down that night....
(BTW, OT, this is the same town a year ago that had a ballot measure defeated for funding their own "SWAT" team just in case one of their three buildings over two stories tall got taken over by terrorists....
)Beyond that the hotel staff has been very helpful and is thrillled to have us there. They have been very receptive to what we need (they said yesterday they would make sure the vending machines were full the weekend of the Con!) and are going to bend over backwards to make us happy. Remember if you make a reservation there to ask for the special rate; we toured the hotel again yesterday and it's BRAND NEW (opened in December) so it's as nice a La Quinta as you've ever seen, with microwaves, fridges, and flat panel TVs in every room. The point is that they are willing to work with us in every aspect so if the convention numbers start creeping higher, they have said we can expand into the breakfast area or even an extra suite.
This all comes about because we completely underestimated (shame on us) the interest a mini con like this would have even among our own niche group of gamers. My famous quote was that I thought we would have 15 people max...even Doug never thought we would get over 40....and we have 59 registered as of this morning! Quite a successful referendum on the popularlity of old school gaming. Next year (we are already making plans) if everything goes as we plan we are counting on getting a bigger venue, with more events, and making it more like a "real" con. It all depended on the success of this year and our expectations have already been exceeded.
As was said, we were able to get the all-star cast of DMs because of two reasons; #1, We asked, and paid their way; #2; LGGC was cancelled. With LGGC being out of the picture, we hope to fill a niche for old school gamers, and we have HUGE plans for the future in that regard. With only Garycon having the same sort of lineup and gaming goodness , and you guys in the NE getting all the fun all the time, maybe we can fill the niche for old school Southern gamers who can't get up to Wisconsin very easily.....
And as for an all-star cast, we now have Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask, Rob Kuntz, Jon Hershberger, and Allen Grohe running events; other special guests include Paul Jaquays and Jason Braun; and among our attendees are Dennis Sustare (creator of the Druid Class) and Lance Hawvermale (author of many novels and gaming items). Speaking of attendees, I won't give out all their handles but many of the people here and at Dragonsfoot and The Acaeum make up our groups. If you play in an event there you'll probably know half the guys around you from online forums....!
Anyway check out the website, I haven't even talked about all the freebies and raffle items we are giving out, or the tour of Reaper Minis Sunday morning, or the fact the hotel is a one minute walk away from Texas Land and Cattle Steakhouse (mmmm, steak) or a million other things. Just remember that while most cons make you pick through the program to find the 1-2 old school games you would like to play, the NTRPG Con is ONLY those events, so you can't go wrong no matter which game you are in!
Mike B.