[Deptheads] Open Gaming

[t.aldrich at comcast.net]

Yes, we do need open gaming space, to a point, but E-F is a bit excessive.

San Jose may have a new purpose this con, but it isn't going to be the new miniatures home. A more realistic plan would be to make it the open gaming room, but there are other ideas for the space too. I'm just saying that would be a more realistic suggestion.

We have no space that is free 24hrs a day, or even 9am to 9pm that I'm aware of. Even the Penthouse, which was underutilized parts of this con, was not free all the time.

If we want a dedicated space for open gaming it would be easier to set aside, if we better utilized the Penthouse. With the elevators as they are, it's a hard sell to almost any event. Self contained and lengthy or complex setup events have a chance, such as the Broadside Bash or LARPs. But the people have to want or be willing to be isolated from the rest of the con. The point is, we need to get more of these type of events and put them up there. Failing that, we need to move more events up there in general.

As for my opinion/personal account of open gaming, at every con I've been to (not just Strategicon), I believe I have ended up in the open gaming area at some point because there was nothing of interest scheduled to play. Pretty much every Strategicon I attended (with exception of the last couple of years, not needed to, or couldn't be bothered), at some point I would go to open gaming to look for something to do, because there was nothing scheduled of interest. And each subsequent Strategicon, the number of people available to play and games of interest to me dwindled, yet the number of people active in the room didn't seem to drop. So, I feel I've seen both sides of this. The fact that people like me don't need to go to an open gaming area to try and scrounge up a game is good. That those who prefer to do pickup games haven't got a spot is a problem.

Tanya

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Patrick Havert" <patrickhavert at sbcglobal.net>
> Folks,
> 
> We need a dedicated Open Gaming space.
> 
> Denys, can RPG/Larps go without the Penthouse this next con?
> 
> Jose/Robyn, could you split and have some events in San Jose(The Fish Bowl), and 
> some in the Penthouse?
> 
> This would allow us to make that space in Ballrooms E-F Open Gaming.  We could 
> keep the wall at 2/3 Open so it is easy to access, and could even run some of 
> the open gaming events/demos in there.
> 
> Think about it.
> 
> -Patrick