Tuesday, April 25, 2023

MAYHEM CONVENTION

 

Gracie--having a rare quiet moment.

Greetings, dear reader.  Before I proceed with the subject of this post, I thought I'd mention that a new addition to the household, Gracie, a four month old puppy, has consumed much time and attention (and required much monitoring).  This, plus a few other bits of life business, have displaced time and energy available for blogging, although I have managed to continue lurking on other blogs (which I have continued to enjoy following,  even if my commenting has been light lately).  The good news is that there has been hobby activity, so there is a backlog of things to report upon--once things settle down into a more "mature" routine. So much for the real world. On to the convention report.

I recently attended a new small regional convention, Mayhem, that was run in Lebanon, New Hampshire April 21-23.  It was both well run and extremely well attended--in short, a success.  Plans for Mayhem '24 have been been announced and received with enthusiasm.  The convention successfully brought together a range gamers, from "alt" to historical, with an emphasis on miniatures, and had something for everyone (and in sufficient amounts to satisfy all). 

The Granite Mountain Ballroom during the first gaming session Friday afternoon, April 21. This was the space where most games were held.

The registration was speedy, offering merchandise as well as badging (above left). Registering for games was done online.  There was complimentary coffee service (above right) on Saturday--just the thing given that the first gaming session kicked off at 0800. 

The scene on Saturday at mid-day.  134 games were on the schedule and there were 250 gamers in attendance. Here in the US, convention games are all of the participation variety.  

Although hardly a Wargames Development Conference of Wargames counterpart, I was struck by the percentage of the games that were innovative modifications of other sets or "home brew" designs.  Here are a few that I noted. Apologies in advance: I didn't embark on a comprehensive logging of games, so what follows in general will be a smattering of what I captured and what I can recall. As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this report...

Above Left: A miniatures version of the GMT Manoevre game. Above Right: Napoleonic Domination, a home brew strategic game. 

A science fiction game using modular cubes for ships (or vehicles?) and a movement system similar to X-wing or other air games. 
A game called "Arena Battles" that used a variety of 4" toy soldiers, ranging from warriors to monsters, pitting them against each other gladiator-fashion. Given that I brought my toy knights to this con, I felt an affinity for their efforts (and we had a nice chat tableside at my game on Saturday evening). 

Far from a "graying of the hobby" scene; this convention crowd had players from all ages, with the majority in the pre-grognard demographic, to my eye.

As I have mentioned, it was an inclusive atmosphere, with a range of games,  many of them being very well presented. Here are a few shots--I didn't focus on recording and reporting while there, so understand that there were many, many more games than I captured images of (sorry, no specifics on these).




I must draw attention to one game in particular....
...a very smart-looking Bloody Big Battles Franco-Prussian War game...
...where they were using the player references that I had produced.  I was standing bye quietly as the game master was going through his explanation of the rules until I opened my big mouth to contribute to a point being made on movement. At which point all eyes turned towards me, not without a tinge of annoyance at the intrusion. To cover for my breach of etiquette, I mentioned that I was the perpetrator of the player reference sheets they all had in hand--couldn't help myself. This led to a bit of a stunned silence as they connected my name tag to the "Ed M" on the reference sheets. I was graciously offered a seat in the game. Needing to get ready to run my own game later, I thanked them and beat a tasteful retreat, leaving the game master to run the game in peace (and removing further temptation: "Get thee behind me, Kibbitzing."). 

Speaking of running games, my fellow club members were well represented among the game masters...
...Phil (standing in the blue vest) ran his Jericho Mills Fire and Fury game
...Michael B ran a Cruel Seas in the Med game...
...Robert (standing at the far end of the table), ran his 8-player Bautzen Napoleonic game twice (using another home grown set of rules, I should add--which have been extensively playtested and proofed by the grognards and die hards in our club)...
...and your humble correspondent debuted his Joust for the Fun of It game using the recently completed teams of big knights (and associated supporting bits). A big shout out goes to fellow club mates and friends AJ (of AJ's Wargaming Blog) who assisted me in running the game and Michael B (who earlier ran the Cruels Seas game) who played to help me out (the game is best played with an even number of players and Michael rounded it out to six). There will be more on the completion of this project in a later post. 

To round out this report, I will add another chapter in the ongoing saga of Hats and the Gamers Who Love Them...
The Trilby: the size of a derby but more Sinatra than Stan Laurel. 
Pith helmet and goggles: a touch of adventure with a minion vibe.
The jaunty blue beret; worn with just the right touch of insouciance.
The dew rag: not just for bad hair days any more.
Pikachu: elevating the baseball cap from the mundane to the picaresque.

Well, that concludes this tour of recent events 'round here. If not enjoyment, I hope it has at least provided a bit of distraction.

Excelsior!

17 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It sure does and Ed garnered a bit of fame with his QRS. I would have enjoyed seeing more of the FPW game.

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    2. Ray and Jonathan: correct on all counts. It wasn't much of a surprise to see my QRS at the BBB table, but the positive recognition was a pleasant surprise (and I will admit gratifying).

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  2. Looks and reads like a great event.

    20 yrs ago, when Lancaster PA didn't seem too far, I would have been tempted.

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    1. The trip would be about Huzzah! plus 3 or 4 hours (depending on the breaks) for you, I'm guessing. Probably not in the cards to make two trips like that in a month (given the timing of the events), but might be an alternate option if Huzzah isn't in the cards some year.

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  3. My move to SW NH was delayed but hope to be make Mayhem next year. Thanks for the report.

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    1. The gaming scene in Northern New England is amazingly robust. Looking forward to bumping into you at one of the regional cons or at a side gaming event.

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  4. Hey Ed!! Glad your absence from the internet was for good reasons. I was just thinking about you the other day actually.
    I think it’s awesome that folks are using the materials you provided. That’s a nice bit validation that we’re not just shouting into the void.
    Let’s hope that guy has a blog so he can write about how he met a gaming celebrity! 😀

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    Replies
    1. Hi Stew, noticed your absence as well (and your most recent update, which I've yet to comment upon). Funny, they also said that they had no idea that they were in the presence of a celebrity--now if only I could start traveling on private jets and all the rest that comes with celebrity.

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  5. Definitely looks like a fun day out. Gracie seems very nice. Has she eaten some of your toys already? ;-)

    Best wishes,
    Jan

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    1. So far, we've been lucky: Gracie has only been eating her dog toys (fingers crossed). I added characters to the game for the convention (if you haven't seen the update, you may want to check out the resource page), and got some excellent suggestions on a few rules tweaks from the players. Look for an update in the near future.

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  6. Very nice report, thanks, Ed. Congratulations on your work being used to enhance the BBB FPW game. Jeff did give you a namecheck on the BBB group: https://groups.io/g/bloodybigbattles/message/9311

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    1. Thanks! I haven't yet gotten to the BBB group, but I'll have to give it a look!

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  7. Sounds like a grand day out, some lovely looking games and Gracie looks sweet!
    Best Iain

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    1. A triple-good day out given that it was the first con I've been to since COVID, the first con game I've run since then, and it was a good con in general. Gracie is a bit of a troublemaker, but she likes to curl up on the pillows (!) with us at night to sleep, so all is forgiven (so long as she is still small enough to fit).

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  8. It’s good to see new conventions appearing …
    There were certainly a lot of interesting games there…including yours of course.
    All participation game shows are not really a thing in the U.K…
    We do however have Hammerhead which is always very popular/busy… so maybe a few more will appear.

    All the best. Aly

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    Replies
    1. The US and UK convention/show models do differ, and have been discussed elsewhere. I hope to some day take a trip and experience a UK show.

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