Origins 2011 Preliminary Planning

[weesel99]

Here are my thoughts for events (basically modeled around GenCon events):
Thursday 3:00 - General Wars
500 Point Armies, General Specific, No Marvel
Min 8 - Max 32 Players
3-5 Rounds (Most Likely 5 Rounds)

Friday 10:00 - Lightweight
380 Point Armies, No Marvel
Min 8 - Max 32 Players
3-5 Rounds (Most Likely 5 Rounds)

Friday 3:00 - Heat of Battle
450 Point Armies, No Marvel
Min 8 - Max 32 Players
3-5 Rounds (Most Likely 5 Rounds)

Saturday 10:00 - Championship Main Event
550 Point Armies, No Marvel
Min 16 - Max 64 Players
5 Rounds
1 Hour Break
2 Rounds for the Top 4

Sunday 10:00 - Draft
450 (Bring 900) Point Armies, No Marvel
Min 8 - Max 32 Players
3-5 Rounds (Most Likely 5 Rounds)

The rounds are based on the amount of players:
1-8: 3 Rounds
9-16: 4 Rounds
17-32: 5 Rounds

[lefton4ya]

Are the 10:00 ones AM or PM? I would rather have afternnon, but maybe get them done first so you can have the rest of the day to check out the rest of the Con. Latenight events should be avoided to not conflict with LARPing and other big tourneys.

I also think we should have three or four 2-hour open gaming events that beginners and novices can play who find about about it through the Origins book/site and not on this Heroscapers.com and can preregister for or just use generic tickets on the day of. Maybe one Friday evening, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday. Demo table should get people interested and teach how to play but according to the rules should not have full games and is free with day pass. We can use mostly the same maps/tables as tourney for open gaming, except we could add one or two multi-player (3-4) maps in case groups want to play together.

[weesel99]

Originally Posted by lefton4ya

Are the 10:00 ones AM or PM? I would rather have afternnon, but maybe get them done first so you can have the rest of the day to check out the rest of the Con. Latenight events should be avoided to not conflict with LARPing and other big tourneys.

I also think we should have three or four 2-hour open gaming events that beginners and novices can play who find about about it through the Origins book/site and not on this Heroscapers.com and can preregister for or just use generic tickets on the day of. Maybe one Friday evening, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday. Demo table should get people interested and teach how to play but according to the rules should not have full games and is free with day pass. We can use mostly the same maps/tables as tourney for open gaming, except we could add one or two multi-player (3-4) maps in case groups want to play together.

Yeah, the times are 10 AM. I figured that we would have someone in the demo room for a couple hours at a time. Basically tagging each other out after a few hours of sitting down there. I think there will be at least 6 of us. Have the demo table open from 12-6 each day with 2-3 hour blocks for one of us.

[jacob_j_p]

Have you heard back from the Origins organizers about doing a "free" demo? I think they typically want ticketed events unless you buy a spot in the event hall.

Remember they are trying to money running this event.

[lefton4ya]

Maybe we should scale back a bit, being that there will be no new scape available to buy by the time of Origins. The idea of a demo table was to get people into the game to try and eventually buy it, but now we would have to say "You can only get used or overstocked since the game was discontinued 6 months ago". They still have DDM & StarWars minis tourneys and that has been gone longer so I think there will still be interest, just not as much. Same goes for Gencon and other cons I assume too.

Also, for open gaming or even tourneys where non Heroscapers.com users sign-up, we should probably bring figures for people to borrow (and maybe come up with pre-made armies for total newbies), but someone at all times will have to keep track of what is borrowed from whom when the owner may not be around. I didn't loose any scape last year and tons of people were rifling through my stuff, but that is up to you guys I guess.

[lefton4ya]

Any progress with this? Also, maybe we could organize Heroscape and Summoner Wars events too! I am sure truth would come and could provide some prize support if we promoted the games at events.

[weesel99]

I'm not sure of the scale of tournaments we could host at Origins or if we would be able to do it. These would be somewhat difficult to put together if we are unable to get prize support. I like the idea of Summoner Wars also, but again without prize support could be difficult.

[lefton4ya]

We could just trim it down - maybe 4 8-16 player tournament events and a couple blocks of open gaming for newcomers. You could also ask site sponsors if they will sponsor us with prizes, and since TrollandToad is an origins sponsor, they might be more likely to help.

Deadline to submit event forms is March 1, but I'd like to see interest here - maybe a poll like "If we build it, will you attend?" that GenCon had.

[MattserTruckRally]

Originally Posted by lefton4ya

We could just trim it down - maybe 4 8-16 player tournament events and a couple blocks of open gaming for newcomers. You could also ask site sponsors if they will sponsor us with prizes, and since TrollandToad is an origins sponsor, they might be more likely to help.

Deadline to submit event forms is March 1, but I'd like to see interest here - maybe a poll like "If we build it, will you attend?" that GenCon had.

I think that is a good start. We can move quickly if need be.

[jacob_j_p]

Hey, I think scaling it back is a good idea...

I think just one large tournament, for up to 32 players, and the other 3 days are just 'casual/learn to play' type events

[weesel99]

I should be able to get some prize support and create some trophies (I'll pretend to be artistic). So from my previous post, how does this breakdown of events sound?

Thursday 3:00 - General Wars
500 Point Armies, General Specific, No Marvel
Min 8 - Max 32 Players
3-5 Rounds (Most Likely 5 Rounds)

Friday 10:00 - Lightweight
380 Point Armies, No Marvel
Min 8 - Max 32 Players
3-5 Rounds (Most Likely 5 Rounds)

Friday 3:00 - Heat of Battle
450 Point Armies, No Marvel
Min 8 - Max 32 Players
3-5 Rounds (Most Likely 5 Rounds)

Saturday 10:00 - Championship Main Event
550 Point Armies, No Marvel
Min 16 - Max 64 Players
5 Rounds
1 Hour Break
2 Rounds for the Top 4

Sunday 10:00 - Draft
450 (Bring 900) Point Armies, No Marvel
Min 8 - Max 32 Players
3-5 Rounds (Most Likely 5 Rounds)

The rounds are based on the amount of players:
1-8: 3 Rounds
9-16: 4 Rounds
17-32: 5 Rounds

This has us running just 1 event per day except on Friday running 2. The types of tournaments we run would still be up to debate. I can handle most of the organization. With at least 6 of us running/monitoring the events we shouldn't have an issue. We would just need the space for 32 maps (Main Event). This would also leave open maps for people to view and play the game.

[lefton4ya]

Thanks for following up on this weesel99 - I like the event suggestions. I think if you fill out the event form, you should also put a scheduled spot for open gaming on Saturday and Sunday (for newbies and non-Heroscapers.com users), maybe 3:00 each day. The demo table can teach games but according to the rules, I think you still need to have scheduled events and charge for full games, even if it is their first game. I also think you should open up one event to Marvel - maybe the draft one or Heat of Battle.

Another option is a two-day championship and I really like the Gencon idea of switching army with your opponent for final rounds. But I don't know the interest on a 2-day tourney, so we could just do a 6-round championship where the last 2 rounds are done this way.

Do you wanna throw a quick "If we build it - would you come" poll and see responses.

Also, I have a bunch of Wave 8/13 and Orm's return and maybe a ROTV I could give as prizes if I can get a free ticket.

FYI - change your signature link to "[thread=33077]2011 Origins Preliminary Planning[/thread]" or an interest poll when/if you make it.

EDIT:
I called Gama and got some clarifications. If we were a official Gama Origins Club, we could set up a demo table for free in front of the event tables in the miniature event room, otherwise it is $75 for a table in the open gaming area. Registration for Gama is $50/year for the club and I think this is a great deal because then all Gama members can get 1/2 off registration - which means all Heroscapaers.com users (or lurkers) could get Origins tickets 1/2 price which would greatly increase attendance. I could pay the fee if no one else can because every one of us will save more than that on attendance. I suggest filling out the 2011 Origins Club Application right a way for our "Heroscapers Club" so we can then register the events as our club. Also we could use the same club to run other events such as Summoner Wars and then all our event attendance would be added to get free tickets for us organizers.