This was my first convention, so I wasn’t completely sure, what to expect, and I can’t believe it’s already a week ago it ended. Of course I had researched all I could in advance – which shows to attend, which games I wanted to try (and some play test) and pre booked pickup of some games. I also planned on trying some open gaming on the Thursday before the actual start of the expo; this unfortunately did not work out (both due to being to late at the con and everyone already playing).
Wanting to try everything I also signed up to volunteer a few hours everyday at a booth (Floodgate Games).
I was afraid of the overweight and custom clearance of my suitcase as 2 animals had slipped into it 🙂
Opening times
So the convention was on the 31.05.2019 till 02.06.2019 but on the day before (30.5.2019 there was a press event and some open gaming, where you had to bring your own games). Unfortunately I came to late for the games and I couldn’t find someone to play with, even though I had brought a few games.
On the first 2 days (Friday and Saturday) the trade halls opens at 09:30 and closes at 18:00, on Sunday only till 16:00. Sunday feels so short, especially if you are standing in a booth for some of the hours. Open gaming is at the NEC and the Hilton, with the latter being open later, until 02:00 at night for some days. Unfortunately there is no open gaming on Sunday.
Shows
There are many shows to attend across the 3 days the expo lasts for, so it’s hard to fit everything in especially if you want to browse the exhibits, play games and maybe volunteering. I kept it at 2 shows. And for most shows you had to wait in line for 30-45 minutes; since there is a limit on how many can dfit in
First: Dice Tower top 10 about games that makes you (the speaker’s point of view) feel stupid. What a fun subject, and one you can really relate to. I think every one has tried feeling like you didn’t get a game and how to completely play (or what the point of the game was) or just in general feeling stupid if for example you don’t know the answer to a question.
It was also really great that Tom Vasel took the time to give every single one a handshake when entering the show. After the show you got the possibility to feel like a little school girl and a fan with taking pictures. I’m not usually one that does this, but I respect these guys for their work and it’s fun to have something to remember.
Tom Vasel and I 🙂
Zee Garcia and I 🙂
Next I took the Shut up & Sit down show, and it was not as good as expected, the theme dragged a bit out, but it was even harder to hear and see them. It ended good with some story telling. A bit said they didn’t take the time to get some pictures taken or just saying hello, but I guess not everyone does that.
Play testing
I found the time to play test 2 potential games.
Scrambled Eggs
The first one was a little speed game of rearranging and moving eggs called “Scrambled Eggs”. Simple setup and rules. Move one egg at a time to a new nest and each nest can only hold 3 eggs, to match to pattern. You have 1 minute to do as many as possible. I managed to beat the high score with 9 patterns 😀
The next was a bit longer game and more strategic called “Dwarf” which is a card game, which creates a 3 x 3 grid to take actions on. You are dwarfs trying to gather resources and forge items and with this also comes fighting monsters. The potential of the game was good, but something broke the game, it ended with us not really having good options to do and getting stuck. The shifting of the board setup each turn finally changed our options, so we could proceed. The game therefor took longer than it should have, but we came with a lot of suggestions on how to improve the parts we felt was causing this game to not be as enjoyable as hoped.
Dwarf
Exhibits & demo tables
There is a lot to see, and impossible to try everything, well maybe if you are really lucky with finding empty spaces and not having to work a booth. But your best option is to select and make a list of which to try (at least mentally). The game “Sierra West” was just always booked, but I managed on the last day in my break to get a play of it; and it was a good and fun as I had hoped, so looking forward to it releasing soon.
There are huge versions of many games, and it’s always fun to see the games “explode” it size. Unfortunately I did not try any one them. I saw Tokyo Highway, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, and heard of there being even more.
Open gaming
Unfortunately I had a hard time trying to get to play with strangers, at least the first evening before the event. On Friday I met up with a woman I have met on a Discord channel and we found some guys we where talking with when eating, and we played a smaller game before they had to leave. Saturday I ran into them again alone and we had a great time. At Hilton, where we played there were huge rooms to play in, but the game library was small and only contained games I had not really heard of (most of them) but I imagine the game library at the NEC is better and bigger. We played mostly in the bar area, where others had gotten the same idea. I think maybe next time I will try to pursue the open gaming more and maybe go back to the NEC after eating dinner.
Volunteering
There are so many booths which all require some form of volunteers, and I was lucky to get in touch with Floodgate Games, for 4 hours each day. I didn’t want to use all my time especially since this was my first convention but also the money and time I spend to get here 🙂
I felt kind of like a VIP when I could enter the exhibit halls 45 min. before the others because of my Exhibitor badge 😀 After only, what seems like a second, the first copy of BOSK was sold 🙂 The first day with the 4 hours volunteering went so fast; I just kept explaining BOSK over and over again. Saturday was even worse with people everywhere and we sold out at 12:00 with BOSK, so they could have brought twice as much.
I met some fellow Danes and actually got to explain the game in danish (they filmed me, so waiting for the terrible result), but that is actually quite difficult when you for 2 days straight has talked English and only explaining the game in English.
Hotel
I chose I hotel near by and I’m very glad I did, the hotel was fine but mainly I could walk a few minutes to get to the back entrance of the NEC. I had to pick up my badge from the ones I was volunteering for and after some confusion and a lot of walking we got it settled. When I needed to walk home I found that using the short cut it was very close 🙂 At this hotel there were no official gaming, but it was allowed, so I found people playing in the restaurant and lobby – the last day I was lucky to find someone to play with and had an amazing time. This ended in a bigger round with some social deduction with “Blood on the Clocktower”, which I’m not really that good at, but it was good fun. In the last game I ended up having to play the evil character together with the other woman, who is as bad as liar as me it seemed, but somehow it work; it was like we knew what we were thinking; we got caught in the end, but was very close.
Food Festival/food court – at Hilton
It’s a really great idea to have a big area with different food trucks and with the weather being perfect everyone could sit outside and eat. The lines where long, the food was great and the prices well compared to London I think it was OK, some meals bigger than others. I myself enjoyed a nice burrito, which filled me up quite well.
I met a few people as you would huddle up on the few spaces to sit and eat – I would recommend there being more seating, but I understand the space is limited and it’s just for a few days.
Haul
Not the biggest haul, but then again I had to keep in mind that they fit in the suitcase.
Travel
Flying out I had waited too long, and the KLM flight was too expensive so I had to have a Ryanair, which also meant I had to take the train and underground for 3 hours, so I arrived around 21:00, later than if I had flown in directly, I will learn for next time.
The flight home was a bit stressful as the first plane was delayed leaving me 12 minutes to change in Amsterdam. If you have ever been there, you know how big it is, and of course I had to go from one end to another. Somehow I just made it, but I knew my suitcase did not. Luckily this happened on the way home, so I could live without my stuff (eventhough there were also a few games in there) until the day after.
More pictures:
