Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The Fifth Annual NOVA Open was a great success!

We're already working on thoughts for 2015, which will be at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, VA, from Thursday September 3 through Sunday September 6, 2015!

E-Mail novaopen@gmail.com if you'd like to be added to our twice-monthly newsletter (reliably on the first and fifteenth of every month, with no e-mail sales or spam).
2015 Registration will go live on Feb 1.










40K GT and Invitational Army Construction Guidelines: http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2014/06/gt-level-organized-play-army.html

FOLLOW THE THREAD AS A WHOLE FOR CONSTANT UPDATES

Dozens of incredible wargaming tournaments and organized play events, including some of the largest and best-known within their game systems worldwide.
Over 32 incredible seminars with beginner-->advanced hobby and fine art seminars, display board and terrain build and take coursework, even learning how to install LED lighting.
Nonstop free lounge talks with industry experts and personalities in the NOCF Charity Lounge, with drink proceeds benefiting worthy international causes.
Premier fine art exhibition for miniature figure painting, including juried competition by vetted and trained judges in the form of the Capital Palette Miniature Art Exhibition and Competition.
Diverse, loaded vendor hall with both boutique specialists and discount hobby vendors.
Demo Alley gaming areas with hands-on gaming opportunities all as part of the basic badge cost.
The Tabletop Olympics, connecting you and your friends across all game systems and hobby interests to compete for glory as the most active and successful group of hobbyists at the con.

Newest Highlights -
40k Narrative has its own Concept Art
Malifaux and Infinity will be attended by the game designers and owners respectively - Infinity will have new release info not available at GenCon even; Malifaux will be co-run by the two guys who designed and wrote the game!


http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2014/01/nova-open-registration-in-just-few-days.html

Registration for the 5th Annual NOVA Open is currently ongoing. All events are well past 50% sold out, and many are much closer. Our hotel room nights are running out, at the incredible $89/night rate offered near the heart of Washington, DC.

Highlights:

Descriptions below for:
SuperNOVA Program
40K GT
40K Narrative
40K Trios
X-Wing
Infinity
Warmachine/Hordes
Malifaux and Blood Bowl
The Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience
Seminars
Capital Palette Independent Figure Art Competition
Free Lounge Talks

Look VERY CAREFULLY AT THE SCHEDULE
Every year I hear people surprised at what else they could have done if only they'd known.
For instance, it's a totally conflict-free schedule experience to participate in the 40K GT, an Infinity Hunger Games activity, a Sunday single-day tournament in a smaller event, The Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience and the 40K Narrative Nightfighter's track event. Look at it carefully - see what all you can get into to make the most of your experience





SuperNOVA Bags
Previously titled the "VIP" Program, we changed the name to better reflect the NOVA "brand" if you will, and also because it didn't seem right to call people VIPs just for buying an up-sold pass ... you're all VIP to us (and cheesy as it sounds, anyone who knows me well will tell you I'm dead serious about that).

So the SuperNOVA Bags are limited to 80 items, and then they're gone. They sell FAST. The purchase of the bag this year includes the cost of your weekend badge (to make things simpler), and also includes as usual a KR MultiCase.

If you're in your first year of the SuperNOVA program, you'll receive a KR BackPack 2 ($82.49 value)
If you're in your second year of the program, you can choose a Kaiser2 or another BackPack 2.
If you're in your third year of the program, you'll for the first time be able to select a Kaiser3 (50% larger than the other two in terms of model capacity)

Once you purchase a SuperNOVA at any point in time, any subsequent NOVA you attend includes (whether you SuperNOVA again or not) a Buy One Get One Free from KR along with your registration materials. It allows you to acquire one KR Card Case with Custom Foam (or core foam or no foam if you really want) free with the purchase of one, basically a 50% off filling your BackPack or Kaiser2 bags. You get one every subsequent year you attend for life.

The bags are also loaded with limited edition and vendor-supplied swag. They include everything from beer steins to special gifts matched to the army you select during check-out, and tons in between. I believe the total net value of the items in the bag and the bag itself typically comes to a couple hundred bucks worth of items.

NOVA Open 40K GT
The NOVA Open's 40K GTs is one of the premier 40K events on Earth, and is one of the largest singles GTs out there. With a unique bracketing system that ensures most players wind up facing their peers for most of the weekend, and a huge array of prizes tuned to all different player types, it's consistently one of our highest rated and best attended events. Tickets sold out last year, and have sold faster and faster with each passing year. Don't miss yours!

NOVA Open Narrative Tickets - Warlord and Nightfighter Tracks
The NOVA Open Narrative more than doubled last year, and surveys/interest seem to imply it'll do so again. Further, we've made a portion of the Narrative - the Warlord Track - a full-on GT-level 7-game event, inclusive of 3 day and 4 night games (first game is Thursday at night), as well as social activities and daily "Model UN Styled" planning sessions where the Narrative Warlords directly impact the mission direction and player deployment of the larger open-attended Nightfighter track.

If you're playing in the 40K GT and want to get some awesome games in with really innovative missions and rules battling across LED-lit boutique terrain ... participate in the Nightfighter track, scheduled to allow participation in both.

If you're looking for a full weekend of awesome Narrative gaming participating in a unique universe of the NOVA's creation, fueled by player participation, participate in the Warlords Track. There are only ABOUT THIRTY TWO SPOTS available for the Warlord Track, with only 16 initial offerings per Faction (Virtue or Human). If you want in this, you'd better sign up fast!

40K Trios Team Tournament
In order to make participation less grueling, and also to give Trios players the opportunity to participate in the Narrative events, we've pushed the Trios event to Thursday in entirety - all three rounds will begin and end that day. This innovative Team Tournament is also NO HOLDS BARRED - the singles lists each player will use once over the course of 3 rounds can include ANY units in the game - from Escalation to Forgeworld. This is one of our legacy 40K events, under a management upgrade of veteran NOVA organizer James Watkins plus three-time Trios champion Troy Esposito. They're passionate about bringing an awesome event to start your NOVA Open experience.

X-Wing
The dedicated folks over at A Few Maneuvers are running a HUGE array of X-Wing events all weekend long at the NOVA Open this year, and we're super excited about it (as well as about their excitement). Many of these may sell pretty quick given the rising popularity of the game and the incredible team running the events. We're also working on building MASSIVE X-Wing spacecraft to have "human-sized" X-Wing demos and mini-games. More to come. http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/

Infinity
The NOVA Open introduced a full weekend of day and night Infinity events last year, after kicking the game off well in 2012. Infinity enters its third year at the NOVA under the direction of stellar lead Craig Roberts and a dramatically-upgraded terrain building project. Check out the entire primer and weekend of events at the NOVA Open site (where all primers are located), novaopen.com ... and also keep an eye on Craig's blog - http://certs-tabletop.blogspot.com/

Warmachine/Hordes
Brendon Caulkins spent the past several years constantly building the success of Warmachine and Hordes at the NOVA Open. This year we are proudly a Warmachine Weekend Qualifier, and it looks to be an even better year than ever before, with new open gaming / iron arena and boutique terrain tables being added, and a stronger and more focused array of events arrayed along the schedule.

Malifaux and Blood Bowl
Both of these game systems will be at the NOVA Open this year. Blood Bowl now has evening events, and Malifaux is a full weekend of activities with leadership and presence from the very designers of the game!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience
What does it mean to experience a "successful" GT? This interactive seminar will certainly involve discussion about how best to play the missions and format of the NOVA Open's 40K GT, but it will also include discussion about the best way to leave the NOVA on Sunday feeling like your weekend was exciting and successful regardless of the outcome of your games on the tabletop. Hear from organizers and veteran attendees while observing gaming examples and getting a last minute fire drill on the best way to succeed at the 2014 NOVA Open.

Seminars at the NOVA Open
The Seminars at the NOVA have grown in popularity and coverage every year. This will be their best year yet. Courses offered include a full suite of amazing art classes taught by Justin McCoy and Caleb Wissenback. Additionally, Joe Orteza of AdeptiCon fame will be joining us to teach his renowned classes teaching you to Lose Your Fear of Green Stuff. Also of note - the Build Your Own Display Board class introduced successfully and quite popularly last year is being advanced in 2014 - we'll be joined by the 11th Company's Tactical Terrain master, Eric, and Chris Michaels of Powered Play Gaming. They'll combine to teach an amazing build-and-take that brings you from a little bit of pink foam through a fully LED-lit and useable display board to show off your minis all NOVA Open long. Don't miss any of these before they sell out!

Capital Palette Independent Figure Art Competition
The Capital Palette took off in an amazing way in 2013, and it's looking to dramatically expand in 2014 into one of the premier figure art competitions in the country. You can register models on an individual basis, or you can buy a pass that gives you unlimited submissions. To encourage even more participation this year despite the incredible competition, we'll also be giving away some amazing prizes based purely on participation and submission of entries to the exhibition. Show off your best work and sneak some listens in at the display area as people oooh and aaah all weekend long.



http://minimayhem-theblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/nova-open-capital-palette.html

Free Lounge Talks
Last year the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation secured a charitable ABC license and rented out the Presidential Suite atop the Hyatt Regency, with fantastic views of Crystal City and Washington, DC, and hosted special guests, staff and SuperNOVA bag purchasers all weekend long. This year we're opening it up to EVERYONE! Come on up and enjoy discount beverages (100% of the proceeds of which go to the charities supported by the Foundation) while listening in on a variety of talks all weekend long given by game developers, artists, industry experts and more. There'll be a full itinerary of Lounge Talks forthcoming as we get closer to the NOVA proper. Want to hear the developer of your favorite skirmish game talk to you about how he came up with the rules while sipping your favorite beer or whiskey and occasionally glancing at the Washingon Monument out the window? Yup!

Besides all of this, there'll be a TON more activity in the vendor hall, in a new demo row and with a bunch of side activities that add much more "Fun stuff" for the average attendee to do while they're at the NOVA. Already on our list of demo companies, by the way? Dropzone Commander, that's who.

Who is signing up this Saturday? What are you signing up for? We're all a little exhausted, hard at work getting everything as close to perfect as we can ... but we can't WAIT to see everyone at this year's NOVA ... our 5th Anniversary will be our best yet!

Older data

Many of you are getting ready to sign up for AdeptiCon in the flurry of opening-reg activities. I know I am! (40k team and doubles events, here!)
Registration for the NOVA will open on February 1, 2014. The following is a save-the-date and wet-your-whistle for the general public.
If you aren't on the NOVA Open's Newsletter distribution, you can join it by e-mailing novaopen@gmail.com
If you are an interested vendor, sponsor, or company looking to demo its present or kickstarting game system at the NOVA, also e-mail novaopen@gmail.com

The NOVA Open 2014
When: August 28 - 31, 2014 (Thursday - Sunday)
http://novaopen.com (extensive next-year website updates coming later this year)

There's a TON more information forthcoming, and I'll be managing the thread aggressively this year to keep everyone apprised in the main post.

We're making further improvements and revisions to the 40k GT, Invitational, Trios, Narrative and general 40k schedule to address player feedback.
We're deeply developing the offerings and quality of the Infinity, Warmachine/Hordes and other events.
X-Wing is coming to the NOVA.
After a rough year, Fantasy is under new management and will be heavily revised and improved; we've also maintained SE Master's Qual for 2014 Fantasy.
We hit 27 different Seminars last year; these will undergo refinement and expansion, covering a wider range of topics than ever before.
The Vendor Area had its most successful year, and with even more feedback and even more space, we'll be hosting the best NOVA Vendor spot ever in 2014.

Club Wars are coming; friends groups, gaming clubs, game store constituents coming as a group ... all of the above and other related groups of players will be able to register as part of a cross-event team. These teams will earn points based upon both participation and performance in everything from tournaments to seminars, with the top overall club taking home radical prestige and prizes.

Demo Alley is coming; the NOVA is hard at work with plans to reach out to the massive number of tabletop and board game creators out there to bring company-supported and high-quality demo gaming to the NOVA, along with initiatives such as a board game room and a number of other activities to expand dramatically on what an attendee can do and get involved in just by showing up.

Weekend Badges are being eliminated as an additional purchase; you'll be able to purchase an All Access Pass if all you want to do is attend the NOVA, but otherwise prices are being dropped wherever possible and overall simplified into a single purchase for MOST major all-weekend initiatives and events (don't worry, there'll be ways to purchase ala carte for those who want to combo things, and avoid overpaying).

The SuperNOVA program (formerly VIP) will be returning bigger and better than ever.

The Charity Foundation Lounge (Formerly VIP/SuperNOVA Lounge) will be open to everyone in 2014, with awesome views of Washington DC and great snack/beverage offerings at low prices all in support of the three charities involved with the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation (Doctors Without Borders, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Fisher House Foundation).

The Capital Palette juried miniature figure art exhibition will be returning in full force, with improved logistics and expectations of an even more amazing turn-out of miniatures. Our hundreds of entries in 2013 saw some of the finest figures the country has to offer on display, and we've worked hard in a hurry to improve on the offering and tweak things that could use improvement.

There's WAY too much to cover as of yet, but this is going to be the biggest must-attend NOVA yet, and we're excited to celebrate our five-year anniversary with all of you. We also thank everyone out there now - from the internet pundits to the dedicated attendees, every little critique and compliment has been critical to seeing us where we are now, and helping us know where we want to go.

We'll be working on a special thank you award AT the NOVA for all those attendees who've been all five of our first years, as well; you know who you are, we know who you are, and you can expect something special come August 2014.

As a teaser for those who enjoy a less hardcore form of 40k, from our Narrative co-leads:

In 2013 forty stalwart commanders met on the field of battle to fight for the fate of Earth…
This year the battle gets bigger!

“In 2014, the Nova Open is proud to announce a massive expansion of the popular Narrative Campaign. Building on the past two years, the Narrative will still offer four night games with all the highs, the lows, the wacky missions, covert objectives, and opportunities for fame and infamy you’ve come to know and love. The night games are designed to provide a flexible, casual gaming experience for those players who want to spend their days exploring DC, taking seminars, or even smashing heads in the GT.

However, for the truly dedicated, the NOVA Narrative is introducing the opportunity to join the elite War Council for a full-scale weekend long campaign experience to rival the GT! As a member of the War Council, players will have the opportunity to battle in additional games during the day that influence the missions and special rules of the night games. They will also take command to determine the terrain being fought over each night and dole out secret bonuses to their teammates. These players will not only directly impact how the battle for Earth and the solar system plays out, but will also have a very unique opportunity to shape the evolution of the Narrative story and Virtue and Pax character development.

Based on player feedback, the Narrative Staff is making minor changes to ensure players are matched against other players of similar skill level. The first two years of the Narrative had the Faction Commanders manually matching players, but in 2014 all the night game pairings will be done by Win-Path with Torrent of Fire. Additionally, Faction assignments will no-longer be codex based, and instead players will have the chance to register for their preferred faction or be assigned randomly. Not only does this limit the chances of one Faction getting an abundance of extremely strong codices (cough, Eldar, Tau, and Chaos, cough), but it also provides a way to take Faction alignments to the next level.

The Narrative Staff is hard at work developing a set of Nova Narrative Codex supplements. Each 40K codex will have the option of a Human or Virtue supplement that reflects the background and fighting style of an aspect of both the Virtue and the Human factions. These completely optional supplements will provide interested players with the ability to create novel versions of their favorite armies with unique special rules and altered Force Org Charts. Want to play only Death Company Blood Angels to represent the Virtue driven insane by the war for Earth… and still have a chance to win? We are working on it! Do you want to play a Chaos Space Marines army that has improved morale rules to represent the grizzled survivors of Humanity? Now’s your chance!

The Narrative Staff is extremely excited about how the event is maturing and expanding in 2014, and we think it offers a gaming experience unlike any other in the 40K convention/tournament realm. You do not want to miss it!”

The Narrative is one of our big new initiatives at the NOVA; who says only GTs can be big, awesome, involving, well-attended and totally immersive events?

Volunteers!
Are you interested in getting awesome experience, relevant-to-resume background material, making awesome friends, learning tons of skills (Ranging from terrain building to tactics, or really whatever floats your boat in the "I want to get better at my hobby" department) and having a blast while doing it all (plus possibly inhaling too much pink foam smoke)? The NOVA is always in need of volunteers, and we go out of our way to provide as much return for those volunteers as possible (something we've learned to get better and better at as time goes on). Even the terrain days could always use a hand, and they're a collaborative and exciting time (plus there's beer!) ...
http://vimeo.com/65480539

ill be there once again for my 5th year ! as well as celebrating my 50th birthday.

Oh Snap! I think I would much rather play narrative games all day than get my face beat in in the GT and be banished to the XENOS room.

Sounds fun!

5 years for me as well. looking forward to this event as always and also looking forward to volunteering this year!!

nkelsch wrote:
...than get my face beat in in the GT and be banished to the XENOS room.

Aren't these two things mutually exclusive? As Xenos seem to be the ones doing the face beatings, these days

It has changed, hasn't it haha

Narrative registration EARLY will be important this year; spots in the Human or Virtue factions are first-come first-serve, and will restrict your ability to use Human or Virtue themed supplements for each codex.

These supplements also represent our own outlook in the "way" to do Comp, if you're going to do it, providing alternate build options that increase variety without nullfying armies people already own. Call it positive and/or optional comp. For Narrative purposes, they are Virtue and Human supplements for each Codex.

Example:

All Dark Angels
- All Dark Angel “Infantry” or “Jump Infantry” models in Power Armor gain the “Relentless” USR
- Any Dark Angel model that does not move in the Movement Phase gains Twin-Linked on all of its ranged weapons until the start of its next Movement Phase
- Blacksword Missiles are resolved at S8 against enemy models with the Skimmer, Flyer and Flying Monstrous Creature special rules

Virtue - Aspect of Implacability
- All Terminator Armored Models without the “Independent Character” special rule are Scoring
- All “Deathwing” Terminator, Knight and Land Raider Models may select any options from their Unit Entries at no points cost

Humanity - Aspect of the Van
- All Models on Space Marine Bikes without the “Independent Character” special rule are Scoring
- All Models on Space Marine Bikes may re-roll the dice to determine arrival from Reserves, and gain the “Acute Senses” special rule

"We're deeply developing the offerings and quality of the Infinity, Warmachine/Hordes and other events. "

This has me interested. The normal Warmachine tournaments get boring after awhile, hopefully you guys come up with something interesting.

Early note ... check out the newsletter that just came out. If you are interested in the NOVA Open and aren't on the Newsletter distribution, e-mail novaopen@gmail.com and ask to be added (it goes out on the 1st and 15th of every month).

Worth highlighting:

Tabletop Olympics
This year, the NOVA is advancing a goal of integrating the disparate ways of enjoying our hobby by giving friends, clubs, local area gaming groups and the like the opportunity to attend the NOVA in a cohesive and linked way. Do you have a Fantasy playing friend or hobbyist interested in seminars while you're a 40k player? Attend as part of a linked group (easily done via registration in advance or on-site) and collect points based upon participation and accomplishment in anything possible at the NOVA.

Awards and prizes will be given out based upon participation, and based upon different size ranges of groups (so you smaller groups of friends can compete just as well as massive clubs), while the overall best performing group will earn immortality on an annual Stanley Cup styled trophy.

More information on this forthcoming, but there's never been a better time to convince those friends of yours to join you in a trek to our Nation's Capital for an incredible weekend full of gaming, hobbying, socializing and fun.

Demo Alley
Are you a producer or representative of an up-and-coming or well-established wargame looking to get your foot in one of the East Coats's biggest tabletop wargaming cons? We're inviting gaming companies worldwide to find an affordable and highly visible way into the NOVA to show off the best and brightest aspects of their games. Inquire with novaopen@gmail.com for more information. Attendees will be able to participate in any and all demos as part and parcel of their all weekend pass (as well as vendors, open gaming and more).

X-Wing
The massively popular game X-Wing tabletop game is coming to the NOVA Open in tournament format, with a full weekend of events this year. The events are being run by the crew of the massively popular X-Wing site "A Few Maneuvers," and they're incredibly excited to bring this popular and rapidly growing game to the NOVA Open for 2014.

Since we've been talking about trying to bring Malifaux back, a relevant post:

http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2013/12/beer-pretzels-and-drunken-gremlin.html

Would you be interested in attending Malifaux events at the NOVA?

MVBrandt wrote:
Since we've been talking about trying to bring Malifaux back, a relevant post:

http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2013/12/beer-pretzels-and-drunken-gremlin.html

Would you be interested in attending Malifaux events at the NOVA?

Maybe

40K - We've been getting the question. We aren't moving on any rules changes or formal ban lists or anything until Dataslatecember is over and Tyranids release.

If we do move at all thereafter, it will be with a very large group of GTs and not just as a one-off GT, so that players can tweak to rules that won't change as soon as they go to another event. We'll also use the fairly massive distribution of our newsletter for polling/survey support, and are paying close attention to the community as a whole right now (including other various surveys like cent/reece) as people knee jerk and subsequently start to more deeply analyze the various December releases (ourselves included on both reaction types :-P ).

If you aren't part of our newsletter and/or want to be involved in the survey when it happens (post nids so we aren't being pointlessly hasty), email novaopen@gmail.com.

Updates of Interest:

MALIFAUX We're working hard to bring Malifaux to the NOVA 2014; if we can, we'll actually likely have one of the game's lead designers running the tournament!

NEW 40K MISSIONS AND MISSION BALANCE The Forty K Invitational and GT missions will pull at least some missions from the Independent GT Mission Catalog being built and revised by a global community of TOs and Players, and being playtested by the community at large. Check out the Asymmetrical Missions thread here on Dakka to participate (and there should be similar information about it many other places!).

FOOOOOD AND DEMOS Our Winter Interns are hard at work building proposals and pursuing leads to bring a series of 5 different and awesome Food Truck Vendors to the NOVA, who'll park just outside the Hyatt all weekend long, offering a much wider and more diverse of affordable and immediately available food to all attendees. Further, they're working to contact the many gaming companies out there we've yet to showcase at the NOVA and invite them to attend and demo their latest and greatest with gaming company personnel and studio minis and the works.

TASTY BEVERAGES AND SPECIAL GUEST TALKS FOR CHARITY The NOVA Open Charitable Foundation established a sell/taste ABC license with the State of Virginia last year to sell affordable high-craft cocktail and craft-beer (plus the low brow stuff!) all weekend long in the Hyatt's Presidential Suite overlooking Washington, DC. It was only open to VIP badges and special guests in 2013, but will be open to ALL convention goers in 2014! We'll also be having special guests, speakers and more giving informal talks and lectures in the Pres Suite all weekend. Proceeds go to one of the charities supported to by the NOCF.

If you're a game creator looking to get the name of your system out there more, let us know!

The January 15 Newsletter will include event primers, information and teasers for all events.

IT will also include a key survey with a 40K target to inquire about everything from mission to design to rules/supplements inclusion, both for the GT/Invitational and for the Narrative. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN 40K EVENTS AT THE NOVA, PLEASE PARTICIPATE IN THIS SURVEY WHEN IT GOES OUT!

The Narrative event has been formally named for this year:

NOVA Narrative 2014 - Descension. It covers the descent into madness and vengeance of Humanity following the intentional crashing of the Virtue mothership into the Earth's crust at the climax of 2013's events, as well as the descent into despair and insanity of the Virtue survivors holding on throughout the Solar System and Earth's wastelands.

There are two trracks to Descension
Warlord - Model UN type planning / strategic sessions, 1 game during each day Friday/Saturday/Sunday, and 1 game each night Thursday/Friday/Saturday nights, plus a final "night" round on Sunday AM. The Warlord tickets will comprise the Narrative War Council, and are strictly ticket limited to 16 participants per Faction, first come first serve.

Nightfighter - The Nightfighters are tactical commanders who will be battling it out during the evenings and Sunday AM only, in line with past Narrative events. Nightfighters will be able to participate in the 40K GT or any other system's daytime events (or, alternately, daytime seminars) alongside their Narrative games.

Finally, Narrative players will be able to choose to activate optional supplements for their respective codices that introduce more Humanity/Virtue-thematic ways to play the codex, and help improve the playability of some less-commonly-seen build types from each respective Codex. These are fairly simple and straightforward, and do not preclude or obviate the freedom to play with your Codex in its base / GW-released format.

Finally, we're formalizing the addition of Malifaux and Blood Bowl to this year's schedule of events.

Please e-mail novaopen@gmail.com if you want to be added to the Newsletter. We do not sell e-mail addresses, and we send 2 content-rich newsletters per month.

At what point will you be making the decision about restrictions, etc? Having the primer will be nice but depending on what's allowable and what's not allowable may sway me to go bring my rats and play fantasy instead

The Primers should have more formalized rules.

Right now the Narrative is leaning more wide open, the Trios is totally wide open, and the GT/Invitational will likely be no Esca/Strong, but TBD still. Look for the Jan 15 Newsletter.

What changes will be implemented to make sure what happened with the Fantasy side of NOVA does not hapen again?

BLOOD BOWL?!?!?!?!!?

Grix wrote:
What changes will be implemented to make sure what happened with the Fantasy side of NOVA does not hapen again?

Substantial ones. There's substantial frank conversation about the subject on the Warhammer Forums and I'd rather not rehash it in full detail here. Long story short, we pursued a new lead fully committed to properly attending every single lead meeting, have installed much stronger oversight to ensure the details are covered and the requirements are met toward delivering the kind of experience our attendees in most events have come to expect and have refocused our responsibility on the Executive Board here. The Warhammer Fantasy event will be and is intended to be something that can develop into just as marquee an experience as our 40K and other system events every year. I think this will take a little bit of rebuilding - primarily in terms of the confidence of potential attendees from a Fantasy perspective - but it's something we're fully committed to. Fantasy's been a part of the NOVA since its inception, and we'll make sure it continues to grow and sees genuine improvement over the many issues on the ground this year. Some of it also lies directly with me - I was overwhelmed with responsibilities and should have better scheduled my own jobs such that I had time to get to the Fantasy hall more often, and thus been able to better identify the balls that were dropped and were being dropped. Ultimately it lies with the Board to make sure things are done correctly, and we're taking that responsibility for Fantasy very seriously in 2014.

We've also gained the benefit of extensive post-NOVA conversations with the members of the Fantasy Masters committee, and are following their many useful recommendations, especially on point since several attended the 2013 event!

Thanks for the question, btw; if you want more details about the intricacies of what happened and what we'll be doing to fix it, please feel free to e-mail mvbrandt@gmail

krootman wrote:BLOOD BOWL

Yeah we're bringing Blood Bowl to NOVA! This is especially close to my heart, since running a Northern Virginia Blood Bowl league was what got me into running events of any sort way back in the day ... and thus was something of my "gateway drug" into what is now the NOVA Open

MVBrandt wrote:
40K - We've been getting the question. We aren't moving on any rules changes or formal ban lists or anything until Dataslatecember is over and Tyranids release.

I.

I am eagerly awaiting the outcome of this and what happens going forward.

Food trucks will be brilliant. Can't wait for my second year whether it's playing 40k or not.

DarthDiggler wrote:

MVBrandt wrote:
40K - We've been getting the question. We aren't moving on any rules changes or formal ban lists or anything until Dataslatecember is over and Tyranids release.

I.

I am eagerly awaiting the outcome of this and what happens going forward.

Will be a survey going out with newsletter on Wednesday. If you aren't signed up for newsletter, email novaopen@gmail.com

MVBrandt wrote:

DarthDiggler wrote:

MVBrandt wrote:
40K - We've been getting the question. We aren't moving on any rules changes or formal ban lists or anything until Dataslatecember is over and Tyranids release.

I.

I am eagerly awaiting the outcome of this and what happens going forward.

Will be a survey going out with newsletter on Wednesday. If you aren't signed up for newsletter, email novaopen@gmail.com

What is your personal opinion on the new bugs?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

krootman wrote:BLOOD BOWL

Yeah we're bringing Blood Bowl to NOVA! This is especially close to my heart, since running a Northern Virginia Blood Bowl league was what got me into running events of any sort way back in the day ... and thus was something of my "gateway drug" into what is now the NOVA Open

ALL:

Newsletter today includes a pretty important survey on 40K. Please fill it out to help better inform us how you feel about the direction of the game and its many supplemental or additional rules.

Registration goes live in only a couple weeks now, on February 1. Keep in mind the SuperNOVA (formerly VIP) bags sold out extremely fast last year, as did many seminars, the 40K GT, etc. Don't miss out on what you want!

The schedule will be live with this newsletter; check it out carefully!

SuperNOVA registrants - keep in mind you receive a KR Multicase Backpack 2 with your first ever registration, worth more than the cost of the SuperNOVA registration alone, plus tons of custom swag and limited edition items and minis and other things, plus some cool perks at the con proper. You also get a lifetime once annual buy-one-get-one-free for KR Custom Foam-filled (or not) card cases, the fundamental building block of their system.

IF you were a SuperNOVA last year, this year you'll be able to either get another BackPack2, or a Kaiser 2.

If you've been a SuperNOVA in both of the first 2 years of the program, you'll be able this year to select a Kaiser 3 instead (or another BackPack2 or Kaiser 2).

We're getting seriously warmed-up / excited over here!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Survey/Newsletter is out - please read and respond (with a big thanks!).

Chancetragedy wrote:
Food trucks will be brilliant. Can't wait for my second year whether it's playing 40k or not.

Heresy! Hope to see you there buddy! Lemme know what your lodging arrangements will be. Might have a few friends coming up for this year and might be getting a few rooms.

Lots of responses to the Survey so far, we're around 100.

Some interesting results, and not a very noticeable difference in preferences between Narrative players and GT players.

Please continue to respond ... if you are subscribed to our newsletter, check your gmail promotions tab, the survey is in the newsletter.

If you weren't subscribed to our newsletter and would like to participate, e-mail mvbrandt@gmail

If you want to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail novaopen@gmail

The food trucks are an exciting new add ... we've got several we're in negotiations with right now about the menus and what-not they'll offer ... one of them specializes in CUPCAKES

Glocknall wrote:

Chancetragedy wrote:
Food trucks will be brilliant. Can't wait for my second year whether it's playing 40k or not.

Heresy! Hope to see you there buddy! Lemme know what your lodging arrangements will be. Might have a few friends coming up for this year and might be getting a few rooms.

Hmm party central?!? I'm hoping to bring a chap or 2 down myself can't wait! I'll let you know once I'm all reg'd up.

For those that inquired ...

We've gotten very heavy Survey response, and the rough figures are pointing in the directions that follow. Full details will come once we've given more time for the straggling few to respond.

For most subjects (I'll highlight where the questions differed), we asked about each of the following and gave respondents 5 choices to pick the best of:
1) I would NOT likely attend if the subject were allowed
2) I would likely attend either way, but prefer the subject be banned
3) I don't care
4) I would likely attend either way, but prefer the subject be allowed
5) I would NOT likely attend if the subject were banned

Long story short - FW 40K approved is up in the air. People like Dataslates. People REALLY don't like Formations, Stronghold and Escalation. Also, Narrative theme gamers don't feel all that differently from GT players, though they are generally less willing to base their fundamental decision to attend on the rules used, and they are more often neutral.


Escalation
In both the Narrative and the GT, players are heavily opposed to Escalation. Missing %'s = Neutral / don't care votes.

GT - 80% against Escalation, 16% in favor; the odds of those who will NOT likely play if it's legal vs. those who will NOT likely play if it's banned are greater than 12:1

Narrative - only 20% in favor, with none tied to its legalization influencing their choice to attend; 60% straight against with 1/3 of the respondents basing their decision to attend or not upon it being banned; the rest neutral


Stronghold Assault
Stronghold assault is heavily opposed in the GT, though not as much as Escalation.

GT - 63% opposed, 22% in favor, the rest neutral
Narrative - Dead heat, 34% opposed, 34% in favor, the rest neutral, though several respondents would not participate if it's legalized, and banning it would cause no respondents to NOT participate

Digital Formations
Digital formations were generally opposed

GT - 69% straight opposed, 18% straight in favor, rest neutral; 7:2 in terms of those who would NOT attend if legalized vs. those who would NOT attend if banned

Narrative - 46% straight opposed, 23% straight in favor, the rest neutral; 6:1 NOT for legal vs. NOT for banned

Digital Dataslates
These were generally favored in both events. Nobody in the Narrative or GT respondents believed they'd refuse to attend if Dataslates were legal.

GT - 26% straight opposed, 53% straight in favor, the rest neutral
Narrative - 11% straight opposed, 60% straight in favor, the rest neutral

40K-Approved Forgeworld Units
We did not ask about these for the Narrative, because they will be legal either way; same is true for all other Forgeworld related questions we asked

GT - 51% straight opposed to 40K Approved Forgeworld units, 36% straight in favor. 13% don't care.

We then asked for further response in terms of potentially allowing 40K Approved units with a limit of 0-1:
23% said they should still never be allowed
41% said they would be ok with them if restricted to 0-1
30% said they wanted them unrestricted
6% said they did not care

So people are generally still more against FW or neutral than for, but the largest minority is in favor of or OK with 0-1. This leaves us at least pondering 0-1 FW for the GT, though we're cognizant also that the majority still prefer it not be used AND that the odds of those who would NOT attend if legal were 2:1 over those who would NOT attend if banned. Further, most of the NOT ATTEND IF BANNED came from respondents who said they were not likely to attend in 2014 regardless.

So some pondering to do here.


Next
Forgeworld non-Super Heavy / Gargantuan that also do NOT have the 40K Approved Stamp, and FW Armies
77% straight against
7% straight in favor

If we use any FW at all, it will definitely at MOST be 40K-approved, and this one was clear.

This was also the ONLY response where the largest minority was in the camp of "I would not participate if you legalized these for the GT."

The Concept of Comp, Rules Changes or Ban Lists

This question merely asked if people were OK further discussing these subjects, so simply "how do you feel about us surveying further about these" // "how do you feel about them in general."

48% straight opposed
33% straight in favor
The rest neutral

Further, 9:1 of those who would not attend if we considered them vs. those who would not attend if we didn't, with ALL Respondents in the "I wouldn't attend unless you implemented bans/comp/rules" being people who said they were not going to attend in 2014 either way.

Nice poll, good questions, valuable data. Sounds like you are on the right track to keep NOVA attendees happy.

nkelsch wrote:
Nice poll, good questions, valuable data. Sounds like you are on the right track to keep NOVA attendees happy.

Thanks Nick ... hoping you'll make it back this year!

Narrative Story material for those who enjoy dramatic flair and pretty sound writing ..
http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2014/01/cataclysm-and-descension-nova-open.html

MVBrandt wrote:


Next
Forgeworld non-Super Heavy / Gargantuan that also do NOT have the 40K Approved Stamp, and FW Armies
77% straight against
7% straight in favor

If we use any FW at all, it will definitely at MOST be 40K-approved, and this one was clear.

This was also the ONLY response where the largest minority was in the camp of "I would not participate if you legalized these for the GT."
.

I'm pretty sure this is misleading. You could rephrase it as, "Who owns FW stuff that is not 40k approved?" and you would probably get those same numbers.

Tournament players don't buy things that they can't use and this is an easy way that they don't have to face that stuff. You may be penalizing the collector who wants to play with his/her cool looking, crappy FW unit because the hardcore peeps want to cut down on the variables