LoreCon 3 in Burlington.

So the excellent convention in Burlington known as LoreCon just happened this weekend, and while it wasn't as excellent as Carnage, here's my report.

First thing to report...

You're all a bunch of pansies! :)

Seriously, it was ok doing it myself. I was wary before I got there at 9:30 on Saturday, but 5 people who had never played Puerto Rico were waiting for me to arrive and run my scheduled session, starring... Puerto Rico! It was a big hit, and I saw Chuck Burkins in that group, a fine computer programmer who joined my session of Princes of Florence at Carnage back in November. We got 2 games in, the second including me.

My second session was Tigris & Euphrates. Also a big hit, and also being taught to 4 people who had never played. Chuck was also at that one. Two games played there as well, with me also doing that second game. I didn't win, because a kid played spoiler. :)

Two trips to Quizznos let me use some of my Entertainment books to be nice to fellow con-goers. Saved Chuck's family some dough with a "buy one, get one" coupon, then we all ordered in advance for dinner using a $10 off a catering order. I picked it up at 6:15 so that no one had to stop playing games. :)

I didn't end up doing much in the last session... I left at 6:45 to say hello to my family at the Wyndham hotel, where an honor dinner included my uncle Scudder Parker. I was dressed for a game con, not a fine dinner... so I didn't expect to stay... but my family said no one would care how I was dressed, so I stayed until 8:10 when Scudder finished his speech: he really might be governor next time. People there really adore his honesty, integrity, intelligence and passion.

When I got back to the con, I only had 45 minutes before I'd have to leave, if I was to get back to St. J. by the time I told Michele I'd be back. So I couldn't crack open and play Imperial with Josh from Portland, Maine, who'd been emailing with me for a few months in prep for the con. He was disappointed, but we'll get signed up for T&E online, and since Michele has family in South Portland, we'll meet again. He can even come over here for a summer weekend... give notice.

Other than that, I just started Chuck on a refresher game of Princes of Florence and left both that game and Imperial (with Josh) to be finished and picked up by the con-runners and left for me at Quarterstaff in Burlington.

I saw Neil Carr there, with his wife Annick, but didn't have much time to chat. It was well attended overall, with lots of miniatures & RPGs going on, and a good showing of good board games.

I'm getting the impression that people (Carnage aside) would prefer mini-cons at the homes of friends (i.e. ShawnCon) over actual entry-fee cons a distance away. I wish I could've spurred conversation about that earlier, saved effort on my part, instead of having to infer from silence. But Carnage is so good that let's work on that.

Who's in for Fairlee, VT, November 2-4th? http://www.carnagecon.com/. A lot of notice never hurt anyone...