Hammercon 2009 - Oh What a Day.

If you didn't hear, there was a convention in Hamilton this past weekend. It was called Hammercon and if there is any justice in the world, then it will be going again next year. It was the standard for any new con that would like to start up.

I got there around 8:45 in the morning and your experience with the front desk is usually a good indicator of how the convention is going to go. If they're all running around stressing out, and putting that stress on their guests, then you know that there's a good chance that things are going to go poorly. If they're all calm, and collected and everything is where it should be then it's probably going to go well. Everyone was calm, and everything was where it should be.

The first game I ran went well. There were only 2 people in the game, but it was a lot of fun. They managed to try to think their way out of every single situation, and they had a good time doing it. That was always worth the effort.

The next game I ran was a kind of ongoing game of Suitors. Like what normally happens with the game, when I run a demo for it there's a good chance that people buy it. Sold five copies there, which was refreshing because I only bought five of them. It always refreshes my ideas on the game when I run it at cons. People buy it and that makes me feel a little better.

The rest of the time I spent hanging out with the guests, and con goers and organizers. We did a couple of panels, one of them on pitching and the other on house rules. To be fair, I'm not caring much about house rules so I didn't talk much on that one. My philosophy is that you bought the book, do with it as you will. It's why I don't give much in the way of support on the stuff that's in the book because as Robin said, "When you ask a designer they're usually working on something else and so will more than likely just make something up on the spot rather than look at what was there and tell you."

My one suggestion for the con would be to stagger the blocks of time. That way there might be a little bit more in the way of circulation and a little bit more happening in the board game area. This is a slight recommendation, I think everything was wonderful the way it was.

Hopefully they'll be doing it again next year. I recommend that everyone go next year for a good time.

Check it out at hammercon.ca for all the stuff that you missed out on.