Just wanted to do an official recap to MidsouthCon 27.
Day 1
Took half a day off Friday and headed up around 2:00. Got there and checked in by 3:30. My first scheduled game of the night wasn’t Battlestar Galactica until something like 7:00, so we grabbed a couple of hand games and went to the Con Suite to check it out.
With the Premium Sticker (Always recommended for MSC) I grabbed a Killians and sat down with some more of the Oxford Contingent and played a few games of ‘No Thanks’ while we were killing time and reading through the Program Book. Had maybe another beer or two, and went back to the Boardgame Room to set up for Battlestar.
The Boardgame Room was kind of nice this year. It was a narrow but deep room, which allowed for two roomy rows of tables. Found my table, setup Battlestar Galactica and got ready to play. There were no new players at my game, so we got to jump right in and play (Always Nice). I ended up being a human, and despite it looking good early on, we ended up losing on Fuel. The funniest thing about this game was the number of people that came by asking us why we were playing BSG while the Series Finale was going on?
After BSG, I found some Dinner, and started lining people up for Werewolf. I love Werewolf, and will play it for the rest of my life. It has become very popular at Midsouthcon, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why they won’t schedule us our own room for it. Two rooms, that are quiet and close to each other are perfect. Even if it’s one big room. But I don’t think people that don’t play understand how loud the game can get. So, plugging two games into one small room just doesn’t make anyone happy.
Past years were almost perfect. Usually there was a large ballroom with a high ceiling that we would sit on two ends of. This worked well, because the high ceiling kept noise down, but you could see the other game going on as well, so you knew when there was a new one starting up.
Anyway, we made due with what we had the first night. We found a quiet room, albeit a little bit small. And we had two circles going at one time for some of it. I ended up running games until about 4:00 am. I did try to sit down and play two games. But I was lynched D1 in one of the games, and I was taken out by the vigilante on D1 in the other.
Day 2
I had to wake up around 9:00 in the morning after going to bed. I was running Age of Steam at 10:00 am and I’m not allowed to miss, (or I get in lots of trouble), so, after Shower, etc. I was down there about 15 minutes prior. To a nearly empty room. There were a few, but mainly I sat in the front of the room chatting with some of the Memphis Strategy Board Game Club Regulars (MSBGC). Nobody wanted to play Age of Steam that early in the morning, and there were about five of us, so I ran up to the room to grab Red November. When I got back, I started pulling it out, and one of the players said, “I thought we were playing Age of Steam”. Since he was the only one that wanted to play, and two player Age of Steam wasn’t really on anybody’s want to play list, it kind of killed the game, and a group spurted off to play Through the Ages.
I decided to take the time to instead clean up a little, get something to eat in the Con Suite, etc. By the time I got back, I had brought Manoeuvre, and got in a couple of quick games of this one. I love this game more and more, but I am coming to the realization that I really suck at it.
After Manoeuvre, I had promised to play Ticket to Ride with KF and MD. So we set that one up and played a quick game of that one. I always hope to make new gamers, and will never begrudge teaching someone a game I know that they have a good chance of liking.
After Ticket to Ride and some incidentals (I think I snuck a game of Race for the Galaxy in). I had to set up for my next scheduled game of the day, which was Last Night on Earth. I started setting it up, but didn’t really have any takers, until I persuaded a group near me trying to get a munchkin game in to try it out.
Now, I’m not a Zombie game Fan. Hardly watch the movies etc. But Last Night on Earth is fun. We played with KF’s copy which is all painted and has a model truck in it, which kind of made the game a little bit. All the players enjoyed. Even though the humans were killed so close to finishing their goal.
Put up the game, grabbed something to eat in the Con Suite, and went back to the Con. I had promised KF that I would play less games and experience more of the Con this year. I decided I would give the Masquerade a shot, and we went to secure seats for that.
I had an enjoyable time, there were some great costumes (Some of which I have pictures of) and the ‘Halftime Entertainment’ was awesome. There was a “Mad Scientist” (Magician, but he called his tricks science) I can’t remember his web site, something about global world domination .com or something. And there was also The Great Luke Ski. A parody song artist who sings Sci Fi remixes of lots of songs. Thought both of them were fun, and enjoyed it enough that I bought two of his CD’s the next day in the dealer room. If you’ve never heard him before. I’d recommend starting out with Grease Wars and Battlestar Rhapsody. Spock Star is also great, and can be picked up for free here (for a limited time).
After the Masquerade, went back to the Board Game Room and ran Werewolf until 6:00 am. Actually ran it until about 5:30, then proceeded to play one game, which I finally got to live past D1 in and played a nice part in helping the village win. Had to give it up at this point, and went to bed.
Of note, I lost my werewolf cards. They were playing with them when I left. But I didn’t get them back the next day. I’m not terribly upset, we were using my old Lupus in Tabula cards which was a frankendeck that had been through a lot in 5 years or so. I have a deck of Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition but I had not brought it. This was fine except when the little 19 year old girl complained when she came to my circle to play in my game after the other circle had given up and she complained about using the crappy cards (The other game was running with Ultimate WW: Ultimate Edition). Umm, Listen Little Girl. I was playing Werewolf when you were in diapers (probably an exaggeration) and these cards have been through 5 or 6 MSC’s and a dozen or so other Con’s. But I digress…
Day 3
Had to wake up to Check out by 11:00, just barely made it. Packed the car, Got a Shower, and Checked out. Went to ConSuite to get some Breakfast, then headed to Boardgame Room.
Here is where I discovered I had wanted to play Amyitis at 9:00 am Sunday morning. (What was I thinking?!?). Completely had forgotten about it. Ended up playing a game of Red November (finally) and I liked it. Going to have to bring that one out a bit more at home.
After Red November, played a game of Amyitis (Also loved it). Our group has had a copy for a while, but we’ve been unable to break it out. The rules are not so well written on that one. But it’s a pretty simple game when you break it down.
Conclusion
After that, I headed home. Another great year. Hotel had its quirks, and there were some restrictions that I didn’t agree with. Heck, all of the Memphis Cons have some restrictions I don’t necessarily agree with, but I can get on board with them since they do so many other things right.
I did take a few pictures. I’ve uploaded those to the fileserver and I will attach the directory here. Some of these are mine, a couple of them I snagged from other friends that took photos to get you a general idea of the convention. Since my camera (Val’s Camera) ran out of battery halfway through I was relegated to using my Video Camera and extracting stills for most of my stuff.
Here’s a link to the Gallery:
written by Chris
\\ tags: Age of Steam, Amyitis, Battlestar Galactica, Beer, Killians, Last Night on Earth, Lupus in Tabula, MidsouthCon, MSBGC, Munchkin, No Thanks, Pictures, rant, Red November, The Great Luke Ski, Through the Ages, Ticket to Ride, Ultimate Werewolf, werewolf
Sarah’s getting pretty close though. A couple more years now and she’ll be ready!!!