2014 Feedback

[Hymn]

Now that ReaperCon (my first!) is over, I'd love to know what people thought about it, especially versus other years. I know I had a blast! Bring on the good, the bad, and the ugly.

[MissMelons]

I was going to do a new persons perspective review when we got home. Currently driving through Louisiana.

[Hymn]

Great...I was planning to do the same here. Looking forward to your perspective!

[groovyedwin]

Friendly, friendly, laid back, laid back, and an experience one must experience.

[RouterMike]

I really wish there were forum ID's printed up with names and icons. I met a ton of forum people and had a great time. Unfortunately, I'm bad with names, and it's really tough for me trying to remember all the folks I met when trying to match two names, a face and forum image for each person.

 

I'd like to friend everyone I met, but I'm a little challenged here.

[MonkeySloth]

Suggested age on the classes would be nice. Had one that was a lecture with two young girls. The older one clearly wanted to be there and seamed interested (probably somewhere between the age of 12-14) but her younger sister clearly didn't as was quite bored.

 

I'm going to echo the lighting in the classrooms and add that there really needs to be a light setup for the mini display area which was somehow worse then the classes despite being more open.

[SloppyPainter]

The extra space for gaming and painting was great but the classrooms were weak. Although more square footage they seemed just as cramped as at the factory. In addition, at times it was unreasonably noisy in the classroom area. Of course lighting was horrid but it's not reasonable to expect anything short of an artist's facility to have the kind of lighting we like. Ottlites FTW.

 

All of my classes were great, all of the artists were great, I especially enjoyed getting to hear Victoria Lamb's take on lighting and diorama composition. I was in the same class that MonkeySloth was in with the two youngish girls and agree that an age limit would have been helpful. By the last class of the day I was having a hard time sitting still and staying focused, you can guess what it was like for a nine or so year old girl.

 

As in the past things felt a bit disorganized - the contest entry procedures published in the con guide were different than the actual procedures (reference to colored entry forms), there was great disparity between what the rules said and the advice given by the team accepting entries vis a vis differences between entering in open vs. painters section, and none of the rules said anything about a diorama section. It only referred to open, painters, and ordinance. And the whole guide could have used a spellcheck but that's just me being picky. This may be something that's well known to veterans but as a newb I was surprised since the published rules seemed very well thought out and communicated. I'm guessing they are just outdated.

 

I definitely missed having name tags, too.

 

Great people, great fun, but things have gotten large enough that I think it's time for the Reaper team to button up some of details a little more securely. Nonetheless, the con is still an outstanding value for the money and the hard work put in by all was much appreciated.

[Anachronite]

this was my first and I had a blast!

 

I did Miss out on some pathfinder gaming because of how the schedule was for the banquet on Saturday with the end of the game that day. Would have liked to see some later evening gaming for the Pathfinder Society. Would have loved to start a game after the banquet and played till late night!

 

The classroom noise was a small issue, but the classes and the instructors were still great!

 

Bring on Reapercon 2015!

[Hymn]

Good discussion points, all.

 

I want to reiterate that I loved my first Con and will be back next year. I want to enjoy it even more next year, so know that my comments are made out of love with the intention of giving useful feedback. That aid, my few bits of feedback are:

 

1) Game tables need clearer labeling. I missed 3 of my scheduled games because I had no idea where they'd be and didn't see indicators on the tables anywhere. I was lucky enough to jump into other games so I had tons of fun, but I felt bad not honoring my commitment due to confusion.

 

2) I echo the classroom feedback of the thread. Space and lighting need to be ramped up, though slots seemed to work well. The new system of booking one class and moving to the back of the line at the door was definitely smart. Nearly all the instructors were great, especially Victoria Lamb (please bring her back!) and her OSL class.

 

3) Name tags tied to the forum (again, echoed). I was lucky enough to remeber about 7 names, but I'm definitely missing a good 20 people with whom I'd like to connect.

 

4) Reaperbucks pooling made the auction nuts. I had a blast bidding, but with so many groups pooling resources I had no chance at an item even after maxing out my schedule. It's impossible to police and it seemed that pooling was even encouraged, so there nothing will likely change here. Still, it was still lots of fun as I said.

 

5) Panels were so-so. I attended a couple panels in hopes of really digging in on certain subjects, but I found that they weren't well organized and didn't go in any more depth than your typical conversation around the gaming table. It was still pleasant, but I felt that my time would have been better used on just about anything else.

 

6) More beginner classes. I understand that many people might find these useless and instructors may not want to teach beginner level classes, but this would be a nice addition for enthuisasts who have only been painting for a short time.

 

7) The welcome BBQ was incredible. It was a great ice breaker that really got me amped up for the start of the Con. This was probably my favorite social event.

 

8) As someone who is relatively new to playing Warlord, it would have been nice to have a station dedicated to teaching quick start rules as a refresher. So many of the tabled games were R.A.G.E. based that I think a small little 15 minute review would have generated more interest. I know I would have been more inclined to run my own impromptu games had I been given a quick chance to play through a demo or just get a refresher. This is definitely not Reaper's responsibility, though, so it's more of a pipe dream for me.

 

9) I was surprised by the general lack of late night gaming. Perhaps I missed it since I'm not part of a long standing group of friends or an old visible forum poster, but I would've liked to make my way into such a group. Come to think of it, I wasn't able to find a group going out for non-Con drinks or food either (though I even tried to start interest myself). People were perfectly friendly at the Con, but I found that some groups were locked outside of the Con. It's no knock to those people as I'm sure they just wanted to spend the time with old buddies, but it was definitely difficult to break down thsoe established barriers.

 

10) The vendors were good, applicable to the Con, and generally didn't pressure you to buy. I would be glad to see each of them again.

 

Thank again, Reaper, for a great Con! 2015 here we come.

[cutebutpsycho]

First, my feedback:

 

Names are a must for the future.

 

Some smaller buck lower demand auction items would have been great.  Things like a set of the Wild West Wizard of Oz figs, a Bones LTPK, a $20 online gift certificate to reapermini.com.  It felt like prices at the auction were very high for the amount of work it took to earn reaperbucks.  My husband and I spent the weekend gaming and taking classes (he was in at least an RPG a day and I took 3 classes), we had banquet tickets, we preregistered for our badges-so I thought we had quite a good little chunk of reaperbucks.  Had I not been part of one of the pools, I'd not have been able to acquire anything (and I've thrown in to the pool for years-I haven't acquired any items from the auction since 2011 when my now husband got a Pathfinder book for a ridiculously low amount because folks were still waiting on big items).  It would have been lovely to see a larger quantity of 'small' items for more folks to take something home.  It felt like this was a shorter auction with less to win than in years past.  Though I do have to say the items up for auction were amazing.

 

I'd like to see more done with the theme.  I know there were factions and Joseph Wolf put together a bunch of games based on that, but that's the only time you'd have known from anything other than decor and costuming that there was a theme to the con.  The first year there were factions was fun-you chose one, you earned points for it, and there was a competition between the factions at the end.  With the awesome sticky badges hanging from the tags, you could have easily declared your faction and been able to earn an extra badge if your faction won.

 

the good:  I LOVED it being at the hotel!  Plenty of space to sit up and chat without keeping the poor reaper folks with keys out way past bed time, food options in the vicinity, a place to store my stuff in the hotel room.  All absolute bonuses that added to the con

 

Staff, volunteers, and VIPs were friendly as always

 

 

And now to address one of the OPs concerns:

I did not eat at the hotel with the exception of one breakfast.  I was absolutely one of the folks going out for meals, almost always with a group.  If my group seemed exclusive and unwelcoming, I sincerely apologize.  While it's true that I have known many of the people I eat out with for as many as 9 years, some of them I just met this past weekend.  We LOVE having new folks join us and, as long as there's a spot in a car, we're even happy to provide the transportation.  This year I had black hair with a BRIGHT pink streak, next year who knows....but please, approach me and ask what we're doing and when we're doing it.  I make it a point to spend time with the folks I chat with throughout the year (vejlin, Shakandara, Qwyksilver, Krztoff especially but others as well) we have NO objections to new people joining us.  Many times we only had a limited time to eat and couldn't dilly dally collecting folks so I am truly sorry if that came across as us being exclusionary.  Shakandara had to run the Warlord tourney single handed due to circumstances beyond anyone's control and, while we could HELP, he really needed to be there at the start and end of each round.  That left us 2 hours at best to snag a bite. 

[Hymn]

Oh, no need to apologize! I'm certainly not bitter and I totally understand. I'm local, so transportation is no issue...I think this was just a case of asking the wrong people what they were doing! I'll be EVEN MORE aggressive with my non-Con hangout solicitations next year. Please don't feel bad.

 

P.S. I definitely remember you - you're the Seattle gal!

Edited April 28, 2014 by Hymn

[cutebutpsycho]

I am the Seattle gal!  I'm also a little loud and boisterous.  And next year pretty please just shove yourself into our group.  The more you do that the more we like it, just ask Dilvish..... ;)

 

You can tell I'm loud and boisterous cause when ReaperRon couldn't get peoples attention to start the auction WHILE USING THE MICROPHONE I stood up and, sans microphone said "EVERYBODY LOOK AT ME!!  NOW LOOK AT RON!!" and it worked.....

[MiniCannuck]

A great idea for a thread Hymn.

 

I will definitely participate with my thoughts when I get home and can type on something more than my tablet.

 

I hope you had a great time and get a chance to know you better through the forum and future conventions.

[chefevild]

 As my second Reapercon I will add the following:

 

 

 -Transitioning the con from factory to hotel was well done overall.

 

 -Classes and classrooms. 

The rooms themselves could have been a little bigger. Considering everyone had at least one bag or box or more it made it somewhat of a hassle for teachers especially to traverse around the tables, in my opinion. Noise was not an issue for me. Lighting was poor in some areas. Climate control was wonky on day one but it seemed to improve as the con went on. Variety of classes was good. Every teacher I had was well prepared, engaging, pleasant and did a great job. Overall I was very satisfied.

 

 -Games.

Yes the tables themselves would have benefited greatly by having some kind of sign or number to make it easy for players to find their events.

 

 -Hotel.

Every interaction I had with hotel staff was good. Though it seemed at one point they ran out of coffee?! My lifeblood.

 

 -Miscellaneous.

I think it would be a good idea to place a giant dry erase board somewhere in the public area and have it be the 'social media' for the con attendees. I'm thinking back to the days at Gen Con where you would go in the elevator and there would be a piece of paper taped to the wall that said something like "D&D 3.5 4th level, room 237 11pm 6 spots first come first serve". Con goers could write things on it like "going to CVS at 4pm, room for 2, meet in lobby", "Open gaming 11pm, Call of Cthulhu, lobby, 3 spots", "forum meetNgreet, bar across the street, 10pm", "looking for ride to airport sunday after auction call room 438", "paint trade, table 5, noon", "reminder, mini exchange Saturday 11am in open area by the doors", etc etc. Erase the board at the start of each day. I would suppose because of the nature of it that Reaper couldn't do this and it would have to be on a con goer to take ownership of it and moderate it, if it could be allowed at all.

 

 -Auction.

Really can anyone complain about it? Reaper doesn't owe us anything and they don't have to do it at all. That being said, if Reaper were to ask me what they can do to make the auction better I would say: More stuff, the number of auctioned items seemed down from last year. It's a feel good for anyone to walk away with at least something. I would also say to have most of the items to be auctioned on display by day 2, the auction table to me seemed bare for the majority of the con and most of the items were being brought in after the auction started. No one had a gauge of what was being auctioned or the number of items in the auction and when it was announced that there were only 4 items left I looked around and saw a number of similarly confused faces. I would also suggest incorporating the tv monitors in future auctions. Of course I am not taking into consideration that this was the first year at a new location and there will be some wrinkles, taking my first statement into consideration Reaper could take the auction away completely and we would have no grounds for complaint.

 

 -Meet and Greet

Well done. I wouldn't change anything.

 

 -Banquets.

I went to both and they were great. You got so much stuff it was a no brainer to go and you got food on top of that. It was a great way to meet new people. The only suggestion I would make would be to incorporate a microphone for the announcements.

[Shakandara]

4) Reaperbucks pooling made the auction nuts. I had a blast bidding, but with so many groups pooling resources I had no chance at an item even after maxing out my schedule. It's impossible to police and it seemed that pooling was even encouraged, so there nothing will likely change here. Still, it was still lots of fun as I said.

 

<snip>

 

8) As someone who is relatively new to playing Warlord, it would have been nice to have a station dedicated to teaching quick start rules as a refresher. So many of the tabled games were R.A.G.E. based that I think a small little 15 minute review would have generated more interest. I know I would have been more inclined to run my own impromptu games had I been given a quick chance to play through a demo or just get a refresher. This is definitely not Reaper's responsibility, though, so it's more of a pipe dream for me.

 

I'd like to address these two specifically.

 

Regarding the auction, there were at least 21 items in the auction that went for less than 1000 Reaperbucks. I know that I personally had nearly 500 just from pre-registration, and I didn't attend a single class, rpg, etc. I think it is fair to say that 1000 Reaperbucks wasn't particularly difficult to earn, and while that wasn't going to get you Nethyrmaul, DDS2, or the paint set, there were a significant number of "low dollar" items available for bidding. It is understandable that it can be a little frustrating to see the bigger items go for so much, but that also requires a lot of people to sacrifice their Reaperbucks entirely for someone else to get the payoff. There are plenty of years when I've taken home nothing from the auction so that someone else could get the cool toy instead, but I got my turn too. Hopefully, you'll get something your next visit.

 

Regarding teaching/demoing Warlord, I am in complete agreement. This is actually something that is on my list to discuss with Reaper post-con, with an eye towards next year. Hopefully, the ideas I have will be welcomed and be a step in providing a better environment for aspiring and inexperienced players to learn Warlord better and become more involved in the game.

 

~v

Edited April 28, 2014 by Shakandara