Looney Labs Rabbits Mailing list Archive

[Rabbits] [Event] COSCon XVIII by Patrick Rockhill

  • FromSuperFRED <superfred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateTue, 16 May 2006 15:43:08 -0400
This is an auto-generated report from SuperFRED regarding an event that Patrick Rockhill has submitted.
http://rabbits.looneylabs.com/?RabbitUserID=SwiftFox

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Title: COSCon XVIII
Location: Butler, PA
Date: March 10-12, 2006

Sheri and I made arrangements back in January of this year to run two four hour blocks of Looney Labs game demos from 9am until 1pm on Saturday and Sunday mornings of the convention.  We learned, from running demo?s at this convention in 2005, that the majority of the game demos we ran were within this time slot.  The reason being was that the majority of the games which were the draw for this gaming convention started from 2pm on into the wee hours of the morning.

On Saturday morning we arrived at the con about 30 minutes before our 9am start time and were directed to set up at one of the free tables near the food stash and lunch counter.  So we laid out the tie dye, set out the games and filled out a couple signs to advertise our demos in between the sign up sheets for the Miniatures and RPG games.  Our friend and fellow rabbit Elliott Evans met us at the con and helped us out with the game demos. 

Right off the bat we had folks saunter over, sit down and want to try the new Fluxx variant, EcoFluxx.  We burned through two games of Eco and then pulled out Just Desserts.  After a game of that we all learned a new Looney game using the Ice House pieces called Tree House.   

As soon as the Dealer?s room opened, I took a couple of our demo signs with me and looked around to see who was offering up Looney Lab?s games at their tables.  Two of the venders had the games so I left a sign with each of them so they could let their patrons know we were there and running demos, and I took a few of their business cards so we could give them to folks looking to buy the games they played with us.

People came and went until about 11am when a married couple came over specifically seeking us out.  They were in search of new games to play with their children and the friends they had come to the con with had very high things to say about the quality of our games.

We started them off with Family Fluxx and played two games of that, then we taught Tree House again because they were most curious about the colored pyramids.  The husband came back after our second game of Tree House proudly displaying his new deck of Family Fluxx.  

We followed that up by playing a game of Nano-Fictionary and then Just Desserts.   These folks were interested in playing all the games we had at the table after just experiencing Family Fluxx and Tree House.  Before we knew it, it was 1PM and time to wrap up the demos so the next game could take over our venue. 

We promised the husband and wife players and their friends that we?d be back to do it all over again Sunday from 9am to 1pm.

Sunday morning was more of the same.  We found a free table, set out he tie dye and donned our lab coats and like Saturday morning, we were playing games with folks right off the bat.   The married couple came back and brought a few of the friends they were at the convention with.  They wanted to try a few of the games they hadn?t played on Saturday.  After playing two rounds of Aquarius, they went to the dealers room and bought a copy of that.  

We?re not sure if they stopped to buy a stash of Ice House pieces before the dealers room closed, but they were certainly leaning that way if just to play Tree House.  
Sheri and I gave them the Ice House 7 packet to take with them.

They stayed with us almost the whole four hours, joining in as we taught others how to play Fluxx, or Nano, or Tree House or Just Desserts.  The only card game we didn?t play out of all the ones we brought was Chrononauts.    The game lasts longer than most folks are willing to spend.

All in all, the lessons learned at COSCon 2005 helped us to focus our efforts at times when we?d have the best chance to reach the most people.  We?re already planning for SIBCon which takes place the weekend before Halloween.  The four hour blocks of Looney Lab Demos worked out very well and we?ll be augmenting the Looney demos, with a registered game of Uber-Chrononauts.   If we can get a plush or cardboard box 6?x6?x6? to use as a die, we may do also host Tree House in October with the giant pyramids.   


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