Events in 2015 - Latest: IGT 2015 reports

[Holiad]

Myself, I'd consider the presence of new/fairly new players a reason in favour of making sure everyone had to GM at least one game, since these are the players we most want to be encouraging to take part in the GMing and scenario writing aspects of the game.

[Cortez]

GMing for the first time can be very scary for a new player. I remember deciding not to go to one of the first IGTs because I wasn't confident enough in my abilities to GM a game. It took a couple of events before I was confident enough to want to GM games.

[greenstuff_gav]

this is why giving people the option may be an idea; those who'd not go due to fear of their own skill-level but also encourage people to try!

[MarcoSkoll]

An interesting argument, but I'm not sure quite how many new players we might have; We may well find ourselves with just older hands at this one.

Still, three games in a two/three player format does also avert anyone needing to GM twice (regardless of attendance numbers) and given current interest levels, I'd be very surprised if we needed to find more than two people to not GM.

I can see the arguments either way, but I'll have to poke at the scoring and see if I can come up with something that seems fair.

There is a minor problem on that front, because player scores average a little higher than GM scores, but I've run a quick experiment with the available numbers where the player's GM score is simulated as their player score minus the difference between the average player and GM score for the event, and it only really messes with the placings if GMing is the player's strength (but these people probably wouldn't elect to not GM anyway).

~~~~~

Anyway, as a preliminary discussion of dates...

I don't think we'll have too much option to put an event before the WHW reopening (the weekend of the 16-17th May, when they won't be taking bookings anyway), as they've got restricted space and, as much as I would like it to be fairly soon, I think April and early May are relatively short notice, particularly if anyone wants time to get something big and showy prepared.

So late May is a possibility, but we can also aim into June.

Now, I'm definitely unavailable 13th June and I also need to do my best to avoid the 20th, but beyond that, I think I can probably squeeze things in (if possibly with only so much sleep the night before) most other weekends from mid-May to the end of June.

If they'd let us have it, the 23rd May would be quite nice, given it is the first weekend after their big re-opening do (and might therefore be quite an entertaining time to show off).

~~~~~

There's also the possible question of feature tables. We'll probably get a choice of only one, and I don't know exactly what still exists/will still exist after their refit (some of them are currently unavailable), but we can but ask.

If they'd let us use it for Inquisitor, I have looked longingly at Goblin Town when I've been up there.
However, I think Spyral Prime would probably be the safe option - a decent density of Cities of Death terrain, so well scaled, plenty of cover and multiple levels - it was pretty good when we used it last GT.

And, if I dare to dream, I think it might even be possible to arrange the pieces to even allow Leander enough room, in the (admittedly very uncertain) event she were finished by then.

[greenstuff_gav]

if it's opening weekend / afterwards, do we know what the plan is with tables? will they still have showcase tables with less gaming room?

dates-wise i'd like to avoid April and June 13th but pretty much am free for May!

[MarcoSkoll]

What I do know is that opening weekend (16-17th May) won't be possible; it's being ticketed, no gaming tables available.

But given they've been keeping most of the feature tables available during their renovations, I'd be greatly surprised if they won't be available after.

[MarcoSkoll]

Blast. New hurdle. To quote the latest blog post on WHW's site:

Having successfully tested a new way of reserving tables on Wednesdays, from May 19th all of our days will be divided into separate gaming sessions. This allows more gamers to get more battles!

I'll be phoning them about available dates in May and June in the next day or so, but it seems I'll now have to preface with a question about whether we can still book for an entire day. If not, we'll be back to square one on our venue, because a half day event is completely out of the question.

[greenstuff_gav]

shall i start asking around? i suspect Foundry will be ok as they run alot of oldhammer days, i know of two venues in the southwest (W@R at Westfield and BIG in Bristol) but doubt they're an option!

[MarcoSkoll]

Probably a good idea. Even if I'm hoping they will still do full days, it's looking an ever better idea to have a reserve in the wings.

I'd planned on leaving phoning them about dates a little longer, but because of this I'll probably move it up to tomorrow to get an answer ASAP. Hopefully this is just them stopping people unnecessarily booking longer than they need.

[MarcoSkoll]

I had no success in getting through either time when I tried ringing this afternoon.

I'll try again tomorrow morning, but if that doesn't go through, I'll shoot them an email instead.

[MarcoSkoll]

I have now successfully rung WHW.

The gist is that bookings are taken on a case by case basis. The half day format they're bringing in is as mostly I hoped - to stop people booking a table for the whole day and then only turning up at two in the afternoon. If we still want a full day, "the boss" (Nick Bayton, I presume) will have to clear it, but that seemed to be mostly cautious wording on the part of the person I spoke to. He seemed optimistic about it, particularly given how far afield we'd be coming from.

The only thing that seemed a bit uncertain would be booking a feature table for a whole Saturday, but even then, it's not out of the question.

In any case, I'm assured that both the 23rd and 30th of May currently have spaces for a three table booking. (As much as I'd like it to be a larger booking, I think three is as large as it's likely to be without a load of 28mm players also jumping at the idea).

Bookings aren't yet being taken into June, but if those May dates don't take enough people's fancy, then we'll wait a bit and enquire at a later date.

I have however remembered that I am less available in June than I thought. I've got a folk event on the 13th, I may go to an Infinity event or another folk event on the 20th, and the 27th is a concert I'm supposed to help run (and I have already missed it last year because I forgot when it was and booked myself into the aforementioned Infinity event).

In any case, to repeat in case it's got missed amongst my rambling:

IGT* on 23rd or 30th of May? Answers on a postcard, please.
*Possibly with a slight format change, we'll discuss as we go.

[Cortez]

We wouldn't need the feature table for the entire day. We usually only use them for the final battle of a campaign day.

As for the dates I think they're ok for me.

[MarcoSkoll]

For a campaign event, I'd have no qualms about booking it for a half day - but for a GT, any scenario can happen any time of the day, and it'd be nice to give GMs a choice other than just Realm of Battle tables.

If we did move to a three round format (which has its merits*), a half day booking would probably give only one GM a chance to use the feature table.

~~~~~

*I'm guessing that would break down as approximately:

1000-1030: Registration
1030-1230: Round 1
1230-1330: Lunch
1330-1530: Round 2
1530-1730: Round 3
1730-1800: Retire to Bugmans for results calculation and "award" ceremony.

An extra half hour per game would result in a bit less rushing, certainly.

[greenstuff_gav]

i'd rather the 23rd of May but am good with either!

[Van Helser]

Pretty sure either of those dates would work for me. Would prefer if there is some confirmation soon so I can book flights before they get too expensive though.

Ruaridh