[Deptheads] Missing Board Games, and what to do about it

[Dean Taylor]

Mike's hit the head on the nail.  Board Games no longer allows 'TBD' games
- before we will schedule a game, a GM must step up to run it.  We are
happy to consider game suggestions, and we know some games are popular and
traditional, but if no one will run it (and we do inquire among our lists
of known GMs), it will not appear.

I believe much of the issue here is the desire to win dealer dollars - the
GM is not allowed to claim dealer dollars from his own game.  As a result,
everyone wants to play the game, but no one wants to take responsibility
for running it, even when the duties of GM are minimal (as they often are
for board games).

Possible ways around this:

- Talk to the company.  If they're willing to send reps to GM their games,
everyone wins - more visibility for the company and the game, more feedback
for game designers, more gaming opportunities for players, more games for
our schedule!
- Share the pain.  If several people want to play in Steve Jackson games,
for example, each of them can agree to run a different one.  Remember, 8
hours of running games gets you in free.  That still leaves you with 44
hours to earn dealer dollars.  Do your share, and everyone can benefit.

And don't forget about open gaming.  I saw at least three open games of
WizWar at Gateway (if I weren't on duty, I'd have jumped in on one of
them).  A game doesn't have to be scheduled to play it - if you don't care
about dealer dollars, at least...

-Dean

On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 11:47 AM, mike fryer <darkbeerdrinker at gmail.com>wrote:

> I think the issue is that no one stepped up to run these games. If you
> think a game should be run, run it. I wanted Seafarers and Cities and
> Knights to be run, so I ran them. I realize that in the past, BG was done
> so that the games were posted and then GMs were found to run those games.
> Having GMs choose the games they run may mean some games don't run in the
> short term, but in the long term, I think it will allow BG to run better.
> Also I think GMs running the games they care about is a good thing.
>
> Mike Fryer
>
>
> You missed a great game of Robo Rally, and I am not just saying that
> because I won it.
>
> On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 11:31 AM, Nekojin <nekojin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I was somewhat dismayed looking at the conbook this last time, and seeing
>> only a very few tournaments that I had any interest in playing in. Many of
>> the classic games that I tend to think of as convention perennials were
>> just missing. Most of the Steve Jackson games weren't represented -
>> Munchkin was well-represented (5 events), but there were no SPANC, Frag, or
>> Chez Geek; no Munchkin Quest, Greed Quest, or Strange Synergy; and no
>> Illuminati of any stripe. What happened?!?!
>>
>> I was going to complain about there not being a Robo Rally tournament,
>> but I see that actually happened on Friday, so I just missed it.
>>
>> But most egregiously, there wasn't a Wiz War tournament. This is the one
>> that prompted me to write this letter in the first place. Wasn't Wiz War
>> one of our highlight games just last convention - Gamex, in May? How can
>> that be missing just one convention later?
>>
>> I know that SJG and the MIBs control the SJG games, so a request for them
>> to feature a wider range of SJG games would be appreciated (and/or a
>> request for more MIBs in the Los Angeles area - I know Martin Padilla works
>> his butt off at our conventions!). As for the rest - I'd like to request
>> that at least one tournament each for Robo Rally and Wiz War be added to
>> the Orccon Saturday/Sunday calendar. I really want to play these, and
>> compete for dealer dollars/prizes, but if there's no other way to get them
>> on the calendar, I'll run them myself.
>>
>> --
>> "Would you like another drink, sir?" asked the bartender.
>> "I think not," replied Descartes, and promptly vanished.
>>
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>>
>
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