RopeCon 2012 report (live-ish)

First day of RopeCon 2012 down (the biggest Nordic roleplaying, larp, miniature wargaming etc. event held in Espoo Dipoli convention center in the Aalto technical university campus), with me running demo games of Carnevale. I did bring my own table for this very purpose, but it kind of pales in comparison to the beautiful Hirst Arts table the guys from Tampere tactical wargames club brought... for me to demo Carnevale. I understand that the guys there rushed this in 4 hectic days to complete in time for RopeCon. My jaw dropped when I saw what they had created... I knew that they "had been working on a small table for Carnevale", but I never had any idea... My own 36"x36" table pictured for comparison.

The tables themselves drew interest and from them, also Carnevale. I was actually positively surprised how much people were interested in demoing and I managed to run 3 demo games today. 2 with very positive reception, one with a meh -type feedback, criticizing the paperwork the game has and the overkill aspect of the gameplay, but you can't win them all... I actually didn't even have time for dinner in the 5 hours I was in today (I arrived sometime before 3 pm to put things together and then realized I had left my miniatures at home... a hour's trip later I was demoing my voice away for the rest of the time after I had put my stuff together).

Moreso... many were interested in the game today, but didn't have time for a demogame just today, but promised to return tomorrow.

Meanwhile.. here are some snapshots from today.

Second day down.. Took some more pics, but I'm too tired at the moment to edit and upload them. Busy day, demoing from morning to evening, probably managed to squeeze in 6-7 demo games today, I kinda lost count. Broke my voice and got a minor headache.

People loved the game. Carnevale seems to be at its best when played with a tongue-in-cheek mentality for the sake of having fun. The players laughed a lot after epic manouvres and accomplishments and spontaneusly invented narratives for the game. Probably the best criticism I heard today was that the game didn't have rules for tightrope walking (clotheslines and such), but I reassured him that David would invent them if asked to. :)

Tomorrow still to go. It shall be a short day with only a couple of games, but I trust that there won't be a lax moment there either.

Couple more of in-game pictures from saturday. We also gave out a Carnevale blister (thanks to Vesper-On for the prizes) everyday, and the traditional way of giving away stuff randomly in our organizing group has been a dice-throwing competition... 10d10, difficulty 7. The winner got the Rhinoceros... and the unfortunate bloke pictured here fumbled on a 10d10 roll... and got a stun counter. :)

More after todays demoing.

It's over... and I managed to squeeze in 2 demos for the 3 hours time. I was positively surprised that one of the players from yesterday brought a friend to try out the game. Also, the creator of this amazing table (Mr. Hurmalainen - pictured) managed finally to try out Carnevale. He also won the daily prize contest by rolling a critical on the daily dice-rolling competition.

I would like to thank Vesper-On for sponsoring the event and thank everyone who participated in the demos. I hope that the event managed to draw interest in the game.