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I did not see a thread discussing Adepticon this year, so I figured I would start one (forgive me if this has already been done elsewhere).

This is the 2nd year in a row I went up for a few hours. Previously I put in the full haul working the Registration table all 4-5 days. I simply went up to shop/chit chat.

I am still glad they do not charge for just walking around and shopping. I will continue to come up and take part as long as they allow this. If they need to charge a minor fee I would not be opposed to that. The new location was kind of a pain to get to and finding parking was a pain. I miss driving up easily into the parking garage and easily finding a space. We stalked an old couple as they left and stole their car. Had the fiancée, so I looked like less of a creep. The shopping area was much better this year, I was pleasantly surprised to find Reaper there. I picked up a few items from them. They were also running the paint and take. It was no charge and even though we were coming in as freeloaders, we could still do the paint and take. I was happy to see some new vendors. Scale 75 looked interesting, but their prices scared me away. I would have bought a single of their paint, but not as a set. I want to try them out first. The concessions were not too expensive. As always there were a fww companies pushing games that I am sure will be dead or fail by next con. I recall not seeing a few companies that were pushing their games last year.

One thing I did notice, or perhaps they were gone from the main hall was Blue Table, were they not representing this year after the bad press? There seemed to be more families this year which is nice they even had a board game area as well as dedicated board game sellers. I predict in a few years they will be very Gencon like in their acceptance of gaming media, I just hope we can keep the young cosplayers away.

Thoughts on the con? Did you enjoy the new location?

beowulfhunter wrote:
We stalked an old couple as they left and stole their car. Had the fiancée, so I looked like less of a creep.

I didn't get a chance to go but it sounds like you had quite the time...

I know Blue Table Painting cancelled their "Valhalla" gameing event, going to Adepticon was probly another expense they can no longer justify.

This was my second year going to adepticon. The parking lot certainly was packed, I ended up quite a distance away.

I didn't participate in any events yet, maybe next year. My wife, our 6 month old, and some friends spent about 5 hours walking around and browsing the vendors on Saturday.

Its well worth the 40 minute drive for me

I have a good friend who was presenting a game there "Terra bellum" if you saw it let me know what you think!

I didn't get to see his game because I was at the ModCube booth most of the time, but I did speak to him several times and he seemed like a great guy . The game sounded neat and I'm looking forward to seeing more about it!

 RiTides wrote:
I didn't get to see his game because I was at the ModCube booth most of the time, but I did speak to him several times and he seemed like a great guy . The game sounded neat and I'm looking forward to seeing more about it!

Play tested it with him and I love it!
He is an amazing dude to sit and chat with and has such a cool vision for this game

Only problem I had with the new location was the difficulty in
grabbing food that was both easy to get to and cheap-ish. At the
former location you had an easy walk to a food court in a mall
or to Target. The food in the area was good, though, if you were
willing to drive. Both Wildberry and Five Guys are quick and easy
to get to by car.

Otherwise, 4.50 for a can of soda seems a bit much, even for
a convention.

Kavik_Whitescar wrote:
I have a good friend who was presenting a game there "Terra bellum" if you saw it let me know what you think!

I walked by his table a number of times as it was between my hotel room and the gaming hall. I stopped a few times to look at it. Not bad. The people running the events seemed nice.

 malfred wrote:

Otherwise, 4.50 for a can of soda seems a bit much, even for
a convention.

Agreed. We went to a nearby 7-11 and grabbed a bunch of bottled waters, beer, and other snacks. Next time, I'll grab stuff at my local grocery store and bring with.

Had a great time, loved the space in the new hotel, it was nice not being "cheek to cheek" with people. Also concessions in the main hall and 2 sets of bathrooms in the main hall was nice as well.

Hotel rooms were nicer than Lombard, yay not having to pay for a refrigerator and the staff were super friendly/helpful. Elevators seemed like less of an issue as well, I never had to sit and wait for one to get back to my room like I did at Lombard, though this could be because I've switched from 40k Team tournament to malifaux and I was missing the big rushes.

One of my classes (display board building) got kinda borked, the instructor didn't make the con. but Mr. Justin from Secret Weapons stepped up to the plate and taught a hell of a class for winging it.

Food was expensive but I just used the costco pass to load up on cheap food/snacks, the costco was less than a mile away.

Also nice was Giordano's and Uno's delivered to the hotel.

I thought the food prices were interesting - $5 for a good number of chicken tenders (very reasonable). But $4.50 for gatorade and $6 for a combination of bottled water and a twix bar (not sure of the breakdown, maybe $3 each?) was as expensive as food on an airline. So, I stuck to the prepared food rather than the prepackaged stuff, which seemed to be the highest priced, and in that case the prices were OK. Would love if they could reduce the drink prices next year, though, of course!

With them giving us a fridge for free I didn't really worry about the food prices at all. Much more spacious and comfortable.

100% like this location more than previous years.

Overall I had a great time with just a few minor things that threw me off.

Aside from the signs, the Hotel seemed to make no effort to actually stop outside food. My buddy witnessed one confrontation between the Hotel Staff and a guy openly carrying a fifth of liquor plus a mixer, but as long as you kept your beverages even slightly discrete nobody seemed to have a problem.

I think the new venue was a tremendous success. Bigger, just a friendly, more amenities, and better dining options around the con. The parking sucked, as did the loss of food options within walking distance, but all in all its a great step for the con.

A hit tip goes out to the whole Adepticon crew and the Renaissance staff for a well run event.

I was thinking about trying to go next year but as a presenter, dunno if I would do the dealer hall, or try for something like a permanent demo table? Or would the both be in the same area anyway? How much were the rooms? And do you get a big fridge or a little mini fridge? I was thinking I'd just go grocery shopping and buy normal food and pack a lunch rather than paying through the nose for frozen-then-microwaved junk.

 Polonius wrote:
Aside from the signs, the Hotel seemed to make no effort to actually stop outside food. My buddy witnessed one confrontation between the Hotel Staff and a guy openly carrying a fifth of liquor plus a mixer, but as long as you kept your beverages even slightly discrete nobody seemed to have a problem.

I think the new venue was a tremendous success. Bigger, just a friendly, more amenities, and better dining options around the con. The parking sucked, as did the loss of food options within walking distance, but all in all its a great step for the con.

A hit tip goes out to the whole Adepticon crew and the Renaissance staff for a well run event.

We put all our food and booze in an empty 720 all weekend, and had no issues lol

The main problem I had with the $4.50 drinks was that it was a watered down cup of ice with a little Pepsi in it. After purchasing 4 (was unaware of the price at the time) I brought 1 liters of Pepsi to the team event. The Long Island Ice teas cost about as much, finished Saturday with two of those!

Had a great time, the new venue worked out great other than the no floor pads in the main hall, best year so far for us by a wide margin.

Had a bunch of fun last minute half ass teaching the diorama class with MisterJustin.


And now for the long snow filled drive home.

Yeah, it's snowing like crazy in Lake County (just North of Chicago). It just missed the convention dates, thankfully.

We left around 8:30a today, and are just now getting out of the snow a little north of Indy on I-65.

I liked the fact that you could now walk down the rows of table while they were being used to look at the games in progress, previous years it's been packed really tightly and was hard to do that without disturbing everyone. The vendor area was also nicely space out and I didn't feel like I was being squeezed by a wall of people, the high ceiling also helped keep the heat down considerably. Last year I felt like I was going to have a panic attack due to the heat and lack of space so it was a major, major improvement for me.

Only downside was that it's now an extra 30 min away, but I know that I'm still incredibly spoiled compared to everyone that has to drive and fly in from out of state. Unlike the old Lombard location food requires driving to and I'm not super familiar with the area but I'll be much better situated next year.

I think the venue change was really nice and had a great time. It was far more open and the gaming was more centralized than in the old location so you could wander from room to room without crossing the whole hotel. I was really impressed with the Saga viking tables and a lot of the MDF cut wild west terrain that was set up. Saga had a pretty impressive turn out so I may have to give that a try next year, I haven't seen it played locally but I do love me some vikings. Firestorm Armada also had a pretty good turn out and seeing it first hand was a lot more impressive than what I've viewed online. They had some really nicely painted armies for both Saga and FA which got my hobby juices flowing.

I also managed to get some free stuff from the roaming Swag Wagon on Sat, and free stuff is always great

Was my first time at adepticon as an attendee and as a game runner ( I ran a 28mm scale big-mecha game on Saturday). As a game runner my fee was waived, but the amazing "full swag bag" was worth double the admission fee. I do wish I'd known earlier that walking in to observe was free as I've lived within 35 miles of Adepticon since it's inception.

Also tried Saga and Broken Contract, shopped at the vendors and bits swap and played Fistful of Seamen. I'll be posting a full report on the blog later in the week, but suffice to say that it was an exceptional experience, they treat their game runners very well and I will be back to run a game again next year.

Thanks Adepticon!

 Eilif wrote:
Was my first time at adepticon as an attendee and as a game runner ( I ran a 28mm scale big-mecha game on Saturday). As a game runner my fee was waived, but the amazing "full swag bag" was worth double the admission fee. I do wish I'd known earlier that walking in to observe was free as I've lived within 35 miles of Adepticon since it's inception.

Also tried Saga and Broken Contract, shopped at the vendors and bits swap and played Fistful of Seamen. I'll be posting a full report on the blog later in the week, but suffice to say that it was an exceptional experience, they treat their game runners very well and I will be back to run a game again next year.

Thanks Adepticon!

You played with a fist full of seaman???? What the hell kind of con was this???

How was the Prodos tables?

Raven911 wrote:

 Eilif wrote:

Also tried Saga and Broken Contract, shopped at the vendors and bits swap and played Fistful of Seamen. I'll be posting a full report on the blog later in the week, but suffice to say that it was an exceptional experience, they treat their game runners very well and I will be back to run a game again next year.

Thanks Adepticon!

You played with a fist full of seaman???? What the hell kind of con was this???

A long con.

Raven911 wrote:

 Eilif wrote:


Also tried Saga and Broken Contract, shopped at the vendors and bits swap and played Fistful of Seamen.

You played with a fist full of seaman???? What the hell kind of con was this???

The best kind of con…


Seriously though, it's a massive multiplayer pirate game that takes up multiple tables, around 40x40 feet of space and goes on for almost 5 hours.
The game's blog is here: http://fistfullofseamen.blogspot.com
Such an epic excperience that I'm writing the game it's own blog post later in the week.

I really wish I had gotten to participate in that event, it looked awesome!

 Eilif wrote:
Also tried Saga and Broken Contract, shopped at the vendors and bits swap and played Fistful of Seamen. I'll be posting a full report on the blog later in the week, but suffice to say that it was an exceptional experience, they treat their game runners very well and I will be back to run a game again next year.

Thanks Adepticon!

I am looking forward to your report, it was nice serving under the British Flag together, only if it was for 10 minutes.
Long story short the Admiral's flag ship decided to Ram against the French flag ship. Musket and swivel gun fire was exchanged followed up by bloody boarding. After that our sailor started a mutiny and kicked me out of the ship (Me, the Admiral!!!).
So being the treacherous rat I am, I joined up with the French.

About Adepticon, I had a blast! First time I have been in such a big con related to Wargaming. In Europe these venues normally are relatively small. However even with the amount of people it was very spacy and you could stop by and have a look at all the games being played without being nudged by rogue elbows. I enjoyed looking at the awesome Zone Mortalis boards. I hope to join next year for some bloody boarding action with my Iron Warriors!

It was a pleasure playing with some fellow pirates and sailors! Yarrrrrr!

 Oberst_kramer wrote:

 Eilif wrote:
Also tried Saga and Broken Contract, shopped at the vendors and bits swap and played Fistful of Seamen. I'll be posting a full report on the blog later in the week, but suffice to say that it was an exceptional experience, they treat their game runners very well and I will be back to run a game again next year.

Thanks Adepticon!

I am looking forward to your report, it was nice serving under the British Flag together, only if it was for 10 minutes.
Long story short the Admiral's flag ship decided to Ram against the French flag ship. Musket and swivel gun fire was exchanged followed up by bloody boarding. After that our sailor started a mutiny and kicked me out of the ship (Me, the Admiral!!!).
So being the treacherous rat I am, I joined up with the French.

About Adepticon, I had a blast! First time I have been in such a big con related to Wargaming. In Europe these venues normally are relatively small. However even with the amount of people it was very spacy and you could stop by and have a look at all the games being played without being nudged by rogue elbows. I enjoyed looking at the awesome Zone Mortalis boards. I hope to join next year for some bloody boarding action with my Iron Warriors!

It was a pleasure playing with some fellow pirates and sailors! Yarrrrrr!

Admiral D. Is that you?
Mr T. and I had a fine time serving under with you, even if you did turn traitor and all!

For those not there, Mr T and I were unable to secure a ticket to the event, but the organizers allowed experienced Captains to choose a first Mate. Admiral D chose Mr T and myself and we had a jolly good time. The whole situation was really a good reflection on both the participants' and organizers' desire to include as many people as possible and ensure that everyone enjoys themselves.

beowulfhunter wrote:
We stalked an old couple as they left and stole their car.

Why did you steal their car?

Admiral D. Is that you?
Mr T. and I had a fine time serving under with you, even if you did turn traitor and all!

For those not there, Mr T and I were unable to secure a ticket to the event, but the organizers allowed experienced Captains to choose a first Mate. Admiral D chose Mr T and myself and we had a jolly good time. The whole situation was really a good reflection on both the participants' and organizers' desire to include as many people as possible and ensure that everyone enjoys themselves.

It's me!

You seemed to have the proper jolly cut-throat attitude I needed in my crew. For the record Mr.T and Eiliff, then seized control of the flagship after I was dumped at the frenchies and went on sailing(pirating) on their own, and from what I gathered, did pretty well.
I am gladly surprised that you are in the Chicago Skirmish Wargames, is this a club you guys own/have? Where is it? You can PM me about it if you want...

For those of us who did not go..

Any listing of the Swag Bag contents so we can regret missing adepticon even more?

-P