All in all, Everfree Northwest was kind of a mixed bag for me. How I felt about it really changed from hour to hour.
During the times where I was watching a panel and hanging out with bronies, I was having the time of my life. During the times where I was bored, put off by humongous lines and my inability to obtain autographs and merchandise due to being poor, I was absolutely miserable.
Overall, pretty great. Lots of room for improvement. Since this was my first con ever, I've learned a lot about going to these things. But who knows? Maybe, 12 months from now, I'll have enough clout to be a part of a panel or event of my own. We'll have to wait and see.
You think that is bad, I have to keep my hand over every single player during diplomatic meetings. Although sometimes I'm not much better myself. Let's just say we really should avoid anything to do with Ioun now....Should not have insulted his intellect.
Dash has a point. As foolish as it seems to attack a dragon like that, they were pretty much out of options. Makes me wonder what the GM had in mind -- let them all grind their way to a comparable level?
Okay, sure, but it's not much better to impetuously charge your enemy. It didn't work so well at Waterloo, for example, or against Mongol invasion.
It didn't work out so well for Dash either. At best, it brought the fight to Fluttershy, which would have counted for more if that was the plan all along.
It was intended to let the GM do the stuff he planned for Nightmare Moon, which was supposed to take a while. Either they were supposed to grind, or at least go on a long quest for a MacGuffin.
"Roll for Initiative, Jerkwad!" is now my all-time favorite battle cry. EVER. That is truely awesome and I must steal it for the game I'm in. :D
So yeah, sometimes (not often) the players *TRY* a non-combative approach to a problem. Problem is, none of them ever think about their lack of social skills to try such a thing and it usually devolves into combat.
I'm right there with ya. I like to load up on some charisma based skill, but alot of times I won't come up with a good way to use it before the swords are drawn.
I will admit I've wanted to do this a fair few times. Talking was getting nobody anywhere so I just wanted to walk up to our enemy and clop him upside the head and drag his dock to the dungeon (and maybe a therapist) before things got worse or he escaped.
5 Bits on "Starscream tries to shoot Rainbow dash with rockets but RD dodges and Dragon-Boy eats a face full of explosive damage."
Maybe I've been watching too much wrestling, but when you have a special commentator with a past grudge against one of the fighters, they ALWAYS get involved.
Hey, I'll have you know that boredom can be alleviated without a single shot fired... I mean without a single cap popped... Without spending a dime. Yeah, that's it. Not a dime.
Oh boy...If I had a dollar for every time a group warrior or fighter just said screw it and attacked...I've died more times to someone just going all Leroy.
Case in point, was working to get out of trouble with a dragon, whom the GM was playing as rather polite, group fighter got bored...attacked, we all died...fighter bitched that it wasn't fair he died...we banned him for a month. Didn't do him any good, idiot just kept thinking with his weapon and not his brain.
I was once in an Oriental style D&D game where the party wizard was the one charging forth, with his dagger. We named him "Stabby McWizard" as his kill ratio of dagger vs. spell was... well actually he NEVER killed anyone with a spell yet.
So many years back I was the late arrival to a campaign that had been running for quite a while. The party had started at fifth level, and by the time I joined they were sixteenth, which incidentally led to me creating one of my favorite characters by the simple expedient of needing to come up with a reason why someone would still be adventuring at that point without a quest.
Anyway. Our games took place at one of two locations, switching every week. One of those two locations was the home of the couple that played in the game. The wife played an archer, and was in fact one of the most bloodthirsty members of our party, albeit in an understated way. One evening when we were playing at their house, a prolonged bout of diplomacy had occurred with an NPC while she was cooking dinner. Fifteen minutes in she peeks her head in from the kitchen and asks, "So is this in-character dithering or out-of-character dithering?"
There's a pause as everyone looks to one another, then someone says, "In-character, I guess"
At which she looks at the GM and says, "Okay, I shoot the guy in the head."
Rainbow Dash, don't! It's a Trap!
Speaking of which, I know how Admiral Ackbar shouts that in Ep. 6, but Leia does it twice, and FAR more convincingly in Ep. 5 in cloud city.
/ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4bd3O4SVIY
And this isn't related to RPs so much as it's related to cons, but sorry to hear you had ups and downs instead of just ups, Newbie. Cons can definitely be a mixed bag sometimes.
I went to one anime convention called Mechacon last year, and I had an experience kind of like yours - only it wasn't that I didn't have enough to do - it was just that I had too much to do. I'd volunteered to GM two demo sessions and a tournament for a game called Monsterpocalypse - and that ate up so much of my time, I was physically drained afterwards.
I guess the moral of the story is that it's cool to volunteer your time, but be careful you don't overdo it.
-And on another note I can't imagine going to a con that didn't have gaming of some kind (RP, tabletop, etc).
I wouldn't know what to do!
-And that's why I'd be afraid to go to a Brony Convention. No gaming.
Here's a thought though. Maybe next time you go to a Brony con, you can run a Pony Tales game or something? That might be pretty cool.
Sometimes cons are like that, mixed all around. You might want to try the local furry con (Rainfurrest) there will probably be a lot of bronies there as well.
Ahhh, your first con. I'll explain some things, then. There will ALWAYS be humongous lines. And if you want to get near the front, you have to be quite early.
Budgeting is your second rule of cons. If you want cash for anything, you save up and budget. And then you over budget. Leave a good nest egg for unforeseen issues. Better to have that extra ten bucks or something you didn't see coming, than to be broke and screwed.
A convention survival guide I once read said, "Learn to love the lines." I'd amend that to, "If you must stand in a line, find ways to make use of it."
Modern electronics make that easier, but books and sketchpads are also handy. You're also surrounded by a captive audience, if you're the sort that can work it to good effect. You might also find it a useful place to do nothing for awhile, which can be worth remembering when you're feeling overtaxed.
Traditional sf conventions actively avoid lines. If there's a line more than four people long, people worry. Anime conventions actively solicit lines. If there's a line less than four people long, people worry.
You know, it has to be said. Your framing is spectacular. For example, I love the way you extended the three attempts into one big cell. In the episode, it pans. I also love how you managed to find the perfect frame for Rainbow's expression in the penultimate panel. Love it, love it, love it!
Actually it's not impossible. Assuming RD lives up to the name, RD can lead the dragon either so far away it can't get back, or into some trap. [Of course, it is not unknown for that trap to not fully work...]
I'm still kind of curious to how it'd be from the dragons perspective. This dragon is Way out of their CR range and the proper likeness would be to compare them to four large and annoying flies buzzing around in the room while he is attempting to sleep.
Mood swings aren’t unusual at a convention. Fatigue, hunger, overstimulation, good and bad incidents, all can combine to create some pretty extreme emotional feedback. Pacing oneself, even if it means missing things, generally will improve the experience overall. (I went to my first science-fiction convention, heavens to Celestia, thirty-one years ago. I feel old.)
Long lines, especially if they’re endemic, often are an indication of misplanning or inadequate venue—and possibly both. Inexperience may account for some of that; I’ve noticed that new fandoms often tend to reinvent the wheel rather than consult older fandoms who have solved similar problems long since. (And it all goes back to the first World Science-Fiction Convention in 1939.)
I’d love to get to a pony-con myself, but there don’t seem to be any within a few hundred miles of the Bay Area, and I have no budget for traveling. I’m not sure how long the window is—to be honest, I expect few if any of them will be around five years from now. The stopwatch starts the moment the last episode finishes airing.
Huh. Come to think of it, my first convention was also 31 years ago, when I won a membership for Halcon IV. My only recollections of the event were a tour of the art room and the fact that your membership included a seat in a limited number of the movies shown.
(My selections were Battle Beyond the Stars, Wizards, and the original Phantom of the Opera. I also saw Them! because Watership Down had to be taken off the program.)
Oh, good. I see they're still running it. Hmm... two hundred attendees seemed so much bigger back then.
(Gist of it was, remember you're there to have fun [prioritize accordingly], make sure you can always hang out with friends as a fallback plan, plan for things like pickup games and random socialization and work to make both of these happen, remember the "1/2/6 rule", and have fun.)
Eat regularly. Real food, not just Pocky. Bring some good basic stuff with you, like apples. Sometimes restaurants are expensive or not close by. Get a reasonable amount of rest. Avoid booze. Bring first aid basics (asprin, cough drops, etc) It's not fun to hunt a pharmacy in a strange town.
It's not "avoid booze." It's "avoid lots of booze, and especially bad booze."
What you want are the parties where they offer you premium stuff in small quantities, and you can actually move without inadvertently committing assault.
"...whatever it is the bard does."
Hehehe, as well as being a funny line in itself, it is even funnier because I recently read almost exactly the same line in the form of
(TF2 Soldier:) "We will lure the robots to this house of lies, and we will destroy them with our very real weapons and whatever it is the Scout does!"
And since of course common headcannon dictates that Rainbow Dash = Scout...
I got to remember that the next time someone tries to use diplomacy on dragons.
Bea Arthur will forever live on in all of us.
Dragon: "I don' t take kindly to spies."
The dwarf in our party: "That's okay. We're not spies, we're just gathering information."
...yeah, we were lucky to have survived that fight.
After that, every time the party had to talk to anyone, somebody was put in charge of keeping the dwarf's mouth shut.
BEST.
LINE.
EVER.
It didn't work out so well for Dash either. At best, it brought the fight to Fluttershy, which would have counted for more if that was the plan all along.
So yeah, sometimes (not often) the players *TRY* a non-combative approach to a problem. Problem is, none of them ever think about their lack of social skills to try such a thing and it usually devolves into combat.
Maybe I should be louder about my intentions.
Taking all bets, guys. taking all bets!
*Rakes in a googel bits*
Maybe I've been watching too much wrestling, but when you have a special commentator with a past grudge against one of the fighters, they ALWAYS get involved.
5 bits on "Smaug cries like a little b-bunny."
Magic... moments... but you gotta pay...
I must remember to whistle that tune continuously while running "Kill the Wizard".
RAINBOOOOOOOW DAAAASH!"
C'mon, someone had to say it.
http://cheezburger.com/5272980736
(image link: http://chzbronies.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-brony-at-least-rainbow-dash-has-chicken.jpg)
Case in point, was working to get out of trouble with a dragon, whom the GM was playing as rather polite, group fighter got bored...attacked, we all died...fighter bitched that it wasn't fair he died...we banned him for a month. Didn't do him any good, idiot just kept thinking with his weapon and not his brain.
Anyway. Our games took place at one of two locations, switching every week. One of those two locations was the home of the couple that played in the game. The wife played an archer, and was in fact one of the most bloodthirsty members of our party, albeit in an understated way. One evening when we were playing at their house, a prolonged bout of diplomacy had occurred with an NPC while she was cooking dinner. Fifteen minutes in she peeks her head in from the kitchen and asks, "So is this in-character dithering or out-of-character dithering?"
There's a pause as everyone looks to one another, then someone says, "In-character, I guess"
At which she looks at the GM and says, "Okay, I shoot the guy in the head."
Speaking of which, I know how Admiral Ackbar shouts that in Ep. 6, but Leia does it twice, and FAR more convincingly in Ep. 5 in cloud city.
/ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4bd3O4SVIY
"Did you see us fighting?"
"No..."
"TRAP!"
I went to one anime convention called Mechacon last year, and I had an experience kind of like yours - only it wasn't that I didn't have enough to do - it was just that I had too much to do. I'd volunteered to GM two demo sessions and a tournament for a game called Monsterpocalypse - and that ate up so much of my time, I was physically drained afterwards.
I guess the moral of the story is that it's cool to volunteer your time, but be careful you don't overdo it.
-And on another note I can't imagine going to a con that didn't have gaming of some kind (RP, tabletop, etc).
I wouldn't know what to do!
-And that's why I'd be afraid to go to a Brony Convention. No gaming.
Here's a thought though. Maybe next time you go to a Brony con, you can run a Pony Tales game or something? That might be pretty cool.
Budgeting is your second rule of cons. If you want cash for anything, you save up and budget. And then you over budget. Leave a good nest egg for unforeseen issues. Better to have that extra ten bucks or something you didn't see coming, than to be broke and screwed.
Modern electronics make that easier, but books and sketchpads are also handy. You're also surrounded by a captive audience, if you're the sort that can work it to good effect. You might also find it a useful place to do nothing for awhile, which can be worth remembering when you're feeling overtaxed.
I know which cons I prefer.
Thank you, Newbiespud.
Don't worry guys. RD can take this guy ALL BY HERSELF.
Long lines, especially if they’re endemic, often are an indication of misplanning or inadequate venue—and possibly both. Inexperience may account for some of that; I’ve noticed that new fandoms often tend to reinvent the wheel rather than consult older fandoms who have solved similar problems long since. (And it all goes back to the first World Science-Fiction Convention in 1939.)
I’d love to get to a pony-con myself, but there don’t seem to be any within a few hundred miles of the Bay Area, and I have no budget for traveling. I’m not sure how long the window is—to be honest, I expect few if any of them will be around five years from now. The stopwatch starts the moment the last episode finishes airing.
(My selections were Battle Beyond the Stars, Wizards, and the original Phantom of the Opera. I also saw Them! because Watership Down had to be taken off the program.)
Oh, good. I see they're still running it. Hmm... two hundred attendees seemed so much bigger back then.
Hit the 1000 word limit on submission.
Clicked the "back" link it gave me, but no text.
...So full of hate...
(Gist of it was, remember you're there to have fun [prioritize accordingly], make sure you can always hang out with friends as a fallback plan, plan for things like pickup games and random socialization and work to make both of these happen, remember the "1/2/6 rule", and have fun.)
Did she just commit one of the classic blunders by forgetting, "When the DM smiles, it is already too late?"
What you want are the parties where they offer you premium stuff in small quantities, and you can actually move without inadvertently committing assault.
Hehehe, as well as being a funny line in itself, it is even funnier because I recently read almost exactly the same line in the form of
(TF2 Soldier:) "We will lure the robots to this house of lies, and we will destroy them with our very real weapons and whatever it is the Scout does!"
And since of course common headcannon dictates that Rainbow Dash = Scout...
You should run a My Little Pony RPG session at the game room next time.