On this episode, Ken recaps running ShadowDark, Mothership, and Gaslands Refueled at a local RPG convention. We also delve into how to support your local conventions (MEPACon in the Pennsylvania, and Who's Yer Con? in Indiana).



Chapters



0:00 Intro & MEPACon Setup2:10 Venue Upgrade & Con History4:00 ShadowDark: Morka Norden Recap7:00 Learning from Live Play & Light Mechanics9:30 Mothership Funnel: Decanted Breakdown13:00 Emergency Decanting & Medical Mishaps17:00 Engineering, Design Tweaks, & Player Strategy22:00 Gaslands: Straight to Hell Tutorial26:00 Concrete Jungle & Advanced Play Challenges30:00 Why Local Cons Matter & Final Reflections



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Watch to the Episode




Watch Support your Local Convention (S4E22) on YouTube.




Show Notes



MEPACon RECAP




What is MEPACon?

MEPACon stands for "Mid-Eastern Pennsylvania Gaming Convention"



Located near Allentown, PA



About 30 minutes from Ken’s house. 



Held every six month, in spring and fall



Not sure on the exact head count, but Ken's thinking 150 people. Probably more.



Moved to Delta Hotels by Marriott, which is a MUCH better hotel than the previous one (which is being torn down)





Ken ran four games:

Decanted: A Mothership funnel … that failed at being a funnel. Except, maybe not?



Morka Nordan: A ShadowDark adventure ripped from Ken’s lunchtime adventure

Got used to the digital tabletop handling all the light stuff. It's harder to do in the real world.



This is the game where Ken realized just how many ShadowDark mistakes he'd made with his lunch time game.





Two Gaslands Refueled games

Straight to Hell: A 2-hour intro game



Concrete Jungle: A 2-hour race/battle royal game that probably needs to be 4 hours. And maybe I just need to run three 2-hour slot tutorials during the weekend to build up a base of experienced players.








Supporting Your Local Conventions




Importance of local conventions for playtesting, community, and outreach



Thoughts on prepping for Who’s Yer Con and leveraging past games



Reflections on building in-person player communities post-pandemic






Featured Image Meta



An old-time ariel map of Allentown, PA.