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CON REPORT: Furrycon 2015
10 years ago
Good afternoon, my subjects.
And thanks to all of you who came out to Furrycon 2015. I hope you all had fun ( I know I did ). For those of you who don't know, I am the co-founder of a little convention in upstate New York called "FurryCon", who's theme this year was "Game of Con Chairs (season 2)". But its actually our third year, with the first year being "Furry End of the World Convention". The idea behind Game of Con Chairs, is that the convention is deeply themed (much moreso than any other convention that I am aware of), and has at its center is a game, with an incredible grand prize: being the honorary Con Chair (aka: "The King") for the next year.
The convention was actually Memorial Day weekend, but I've been feeling a little burned-out post-con, so that's why this wasn't posted last weekend. Anyway, here's a little summary of my time there:
LEADING UP
This year I had a lot less to do leading-up to the convention. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I tend to stress myself up to crazy levels, and so I tried to reduce my official con related workload prior to the convention. However, it didn't work out that way. With Concast, building my new costume, getting/designing huge House Foxish buttons for everybody on my team (in the con game), and writing a new song for Hixbi that I wanted to debut at the con, and with track selection for my DJ sets, I ended up stressing myself out just as much as when I had less "officially" to do. Which leads me to believe that, no-matter how many (or few) responsibilities I am given, I will tend to fill the available time to the maximum. If I have fewer official capacities, I will just add on unofficial things. Not sure what to do with this information... but there it is. Anyway: leading up to the convention, I took a few days off for last minute prep work, and it was vitally necessary, so I am glad that I did it.
WEDNESDAY
Drove up later than I expected, getting to the hotel in the dead of night (as usual). Checking in and unloading. I was a bit miffed that I had to pay for my room (being a convention founder), but this year we were trying to make the convention solvent, so I suppose that's to be expected. Not much to say about Wednesday. Lots of packing, driving, unpacking, shower, and then bed.
THURSDAY
I slept in because the first convention events on Thursday weren't until the evening. Got all dolled up in my ren faire garb and moseyed down to registration. Met Soron and Foxy and Kasi, and it was generally pretty awesome. Checked out the new convention swag, which I have to say, I'm pretty impressed-with. (We put a lot of extra effort into reg level gifts and merchandise). I registered and then went over to the Thursday Night Social. It was pretty fun. Met with a lot of repeat attendees. Talked for a long time with Hixbi, Ashadan, and picked the General of the Foxish Army: Delyun. (He's very passionate about Tabletop and had a sound strategy). I passed out Foxish pins, which people really liked. The Taurguryans also had pins, but only gave them to upper-level reg members, and while they were nicer than my Foxish pins, the Foxish pins really stuck out because they were HUGE and blatant. I saw them all over the convention, showing-off how legion my house is! Anyway, and I had some cocktails and h'orderves. Then went to bed.
FRIDAY
The big day. A lot of this was poorly-managed for my usual schedule. I set the alarmclock, and got up earlier than I would have liked, got all cleaned up and dressed up for Opening Ceremonies. Last year I arrived at this late, and hung-over. So this year I was determined to be early and bushy-tailed. Which I was. Unfortunately others weren't and it still ended up starting late. After this, I went to a few panels (which unfortunately weren't taking attendance), then went to the Dealer's Den to check out "The Strategic Game" - a tabletop portion of Game of Con Chairs where the various houses move their armies using points and tokens ("gold") that they get from participating at the convention. I was happy to see that Foxish was dominating. Delyun's early-game strategy had worked, and all we had to do was hang on. The King's Feast was on Friday this year, and so I had to go to that next, despite the fact that I try not to eat before a performance (I was DJing that night) to avoid feeling sick. So even though I was there, I didn't eat anything. Which made me sad. I had to switch DJ sets with Ashadan because the King's Feast kinda put me into a weird situation where I wouldn't have time to get all prettied-up before my DJ set. I ended up taking the last set, which is unfortunate because it was kinda dead. Also: we set off the fire alarm with the fogger. But otherwise it went pretty smoothly. I played the Hixbi song, which people seemed to like. (I will post this eventually to my music profile) When I went to bed that night, I kinda just CRASHED. And ended up sleeping for 12 hours.
SATURDAY
Got up ridiculously late, got cleaned up, went to the convention only to find that House Foxish had been annihilated in the Strategic Game. Apparently my trusted General Delyun had been bragging about Foxish's position and had rubbed the other houses the wrong way. They proceeded to gang up on us, and it was only through the fast action of FinnWolf (thanks!) who stepped in as General when Delyun gave up, and reinforced the final land at the very tip of Dorn (named "Balls Deep" by Koss). We were pretty-much out of the game. But then I noticed some things, and I felt that, if I stepped in as General, that we might have a chance of salvaging something. I went to the Wine Tasting, where I chatted with The King. Despite them being the main house to destroy us, we had to negotiate a deal with Taurguryan if we ever wanted to get back to Highgarden (Foxgarden?) which was held by the Lyonstarres. We offered Dorn to them without resistance, which we knew they wanted, and which we could have made costly. Instead, we offered to give it to them freely if they would allow us passage through their territories to siege the loosely-defended Foxgarden territories. They agreed. After this I tried to enjoy the wine tasting, but really became engrossed in The Convention Game, particularly the Strategic Game. Then I had a second DJ set. Unfortunately it wasn't much livelier than the first one. But I did get to meet the Blue Angels, who were staying at the hotel for a Memorial Day airshow, and who came to our convention to hang out with the furs. We got them super-drunk, and apparently they had a great time. There may also be a photo of me in show-costume with them floating around the internet somewhere. I also debuted the new show costume style, which I was a little worried about. Rather than the loincloth, its tight, with a high neck. Much closer to what Etheras wears with his show costume in artwork. People seemed to really prefer it, and in hindsight: so do I.
SUNDAY
Got up early to make first moves in The Game. Now having to step into the role of General, as well as making the convention nightlife as good as possible, puts a lot of pressure on a fennec, and he gets a lot less sleep. Got up, made coffee, hit the shower, and went down to make initial moves. The Taurguaryan alliance had solidified, and so we were granted permission to move through their territories to Foxgarden. I got to meet their general Scales, who was really nice. Now apparently, Lyonstarres and Bark had a bit of an incident, and Hixbi was seeing red. I was about to attack Lyonstarres from the South, and Hixbi and his Avarryn allies were out for blood in the North. Taurguaryan kinda was on our side but didn't want to commit troops. Anyway, it all came down at once, and there was a huge war. In two turns we had retaken Highgarden, and were besieging the Lyonstarres home territory. Bark managed to take over a good chunk of the map. Lyonsstares, began to feel the pressure, and went to Soron to ensure that the Lyonsstare house wouldn't be removed from next year if they came in last. (The original plan was to was to disband the house that came in last, in order to make room for new ones.) Soron stepped in and removed the disbanding rule. Then one person won pretty-much all of the events at the Fursuit games because it was so sparsely attended (furs were off doing other things). Lyonsstare cried foul, and Soron had to step in again. In case its not clear at this point, I spent almost all of Sunday on the Strategic Game. It was really intense and I got quite a kick out of it. I even missed when the Blue Angels gave us a flyover and "dive bombed" the pool deck. Which I guess was a "thank you" for the fun night that they had the previous night. The Strategic Game wrapped up with a surprise move by Lyonsstare to take Kings Landing: one giant push, that denied Taurguaryan their home territory (and therefore 100 game points). It still seemed very close for the final game. Foxish had taken the marketplace each day, but Taurguaryan took it back on Sunday after contesting a sale. I took the King (SomaCat), and his Master of Scritches (Lupine) out for dinner to a noodle place. It was really good. I went back and hung out a bunch with Xan and his GF, we got fancy desserts at Legends, and had lots of tequila, then they did Karaoke. I had kind-of a sore throat and was feeling kinda sick, probably from all the alcohol and sleepless nights, so I opted not to sing. And yeah... that's about it.
MONDAY
With the Marketplace on Sunday, I think Foxish would have won the game. But with it given to Taurguaryan, that put our two houses in a statistical dead heat. I pushed my foxes to go to every event, buy stuff in the dealer's den, and win tournaments. We totally dominated Monday, and you could see it on the faces of the Taurguaryans who tried to mobilize but couldn't quite match us. I even took 2nd Place at the Atari Grab Bag. :)
But in the end, somehow Bark got through (probably from the sheer volume of awards won at the uncontested Fursuit Games). Aerun Wolfsong ended up being declared King for next year. After this I helped them pack up a little, then packed up myself, and went home.
CONCLUSION
It really is one of the best conventions out there. The strong theme gives a super-intense atmosphere of real rivalry and competition, which was much stronger than last year. Also the Medieval feeling of it was stronger than last year too, with all the heraldry and using the BobLEDs in the King's Feast. Apparently the convention went much better than last year, because in the "Scritch and Bitch" (post closing-ceremonies and coronation) there were almost no complaints.
WHAT WENT WELL
... Thursday Social was awesome (people got less drunk than last year, much more open, and good food)
... Opening Ceremonies went well
... The Game was way better than last year, and people really got into it.
... Attendance, while down from last year, seemed the opposite. Attendees were all over, going from room to room, chatting on the convention floor, attending panels (etc). I think this was because of The Game, which got people out of their rooms and into the convention to do stuff!
... The dances were run on time, and generally did very well. Early set Friday was totally hopping!
... Wine Tasting
... King's Feast
... The theme, continues to be strong and attendees play along strongly!
... Dance's laser light show is great, but still could use more. I would really like the lasers to be on the control board. Its hard to blackout when there are all these green beams everywhere.
... Stuff went off mostly without a hitch
WHAT WENT BADLY AND NEEDS TO BE CHANGED
... The convention game, while much more awesome than last year, and more robust against one person meddling, still has problems. Panels that aren't run didn't have counted attendance, what to do when only 2 people show up to fursuit games, 11th hour rule changes (while the game is in progress). I feel that in some ways, the King last year had too much influence, and that this year, we gave the same to the Game-Masters. Really, I'd like the game to be digitized to remove any bias or inconsistency, and also have hard rules that Game Masters can't change after the game has already started. I heard numerous complains about this during the convention, and honestly... if people are putting this much time and effort into the game, I think the Game Masters really need to not change the game.
... Panels didn't get held. This happens at all conventions, but last year we were really good about holding panels, even if only a handful of furs showed up. This year we kinda regressed on this front, where numerous panels that I wanted to attend were not held, or had to be held elsewhere because rooms were locked (etc), and getting the word out that a panel has been moved is a challenge.
... We have run into an interesting problem. One of the complaints during Scritch and Bitch was that there's no evening programming. The thing is, we did that intentionally so that people would come to the dance. This being a Frozen Oasis founded con, the dance / frozen drinks is supposed to be the center of the convention. Last year we had programming conflicting the dance, and dance attendance was very low during certain panels ("What I Hate About the Fandom" being the obvious one). This might be an irreconcilable problem. A lot of effort goes into making that dance room and then the DJs to go up there... so we owe it to them to try and give them an audience, but at the same time we have to accept that not everybody likes rave-style dances. So how do you provide programming for the latter, without sapping attendance from the former?
AND FINALLY...
Due to a family conflict, its a bit "up in the air" whether I will even be able to attend next year (its moving to September to the weekend of my nephew's birthday). Because of this, and because I think there's a conflict of interest with a founder being a house-lead, I'm going to be stepping down as leader of House Foxish. I do hope we win some year, but it will be under someone else's supervision. Initially this was going to be Hixbi, but after Bark won this year, he's likely to stay on as the Bark House Leader. So there's a vacancy for some fox out there!
Anyway-way, thanks for reading!
~ Etheras
And thanks to all of you who came out to Furrycon 2015. I hope you all had fun ( I know I did ). For those of you who don't know, I am the co-founder of a little convention in upstate New York called "FurryCon", who's theme this year was "Game of Con Chairs (season 2)". But its actually our third year, with the first year being "Furry End of the World Convention". The idea behind Game of Con Chairs, is that the convention is deeply themed (much moreso than any other convention that I am aware of), and has at its center is a game, with an incredible grand prize: being the honorary Con Chair (aka: "The King") for the next year.
The convention was actually Memorial Day weekend, but I've been feeling a little burned-out post-con, so that's why this wasn't posted last weekend. Anyway, here's a little summary of my time there:
LEADING UP
This year I had a lot less to do leading-up to the convention. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I tend to stress myself up to crazy levels, and so I tried to reduce my official con related workload prior to the convention. However, it didn't work out that way. With Concast, building my new costume, getting/designing huge House Foxish buttons for everybody on my team (in the con game), and writing a new song for Hixbi that I wanted to debut at the con, and with track selection for my DJ sets, I ended up stressing myself out just as much as when I had less "officially" to do. Which leads me to believe that, no-matter how many (or few) responsibilities I am given, I will tend to fill the available time to the maximum. If I have fewer official capacities, I will just add on unofficial things. Not sure what to do with this information... but there it is. Anyway: leading up to the convention, I took a few days off for last minute prep work, and it was vitally necessary, so I am glad that I did it.
WEDNESDAY
Drove up later than I expected, getting to the hotel in the dead of night (as usual). Checking in and unloading. I was a bit miffed that I had to pay for my room (being a convention founder), but this year we were trying to make the convention solvent, so I suppose that's to be expected. Not much to say about Wednesday. Lots of packing, driving, unpacking, shower, and then bed.
THURSDAY
I slept in because the first convention events on Thursday weren't until the evening. Got all dolled up in my ren faire garb and moseyed down to registration. Met Soron and Foxy and Kasi, and it was generally pretty awesome. Checked out the new convention swag, which I have to say, I'm pretty impressed-with. (We put a lot of extra effort into reg level gifts and merchandise). I registered and then went over to the Thursday Night Social. It was pretty fun. Met with a lot of repeat attendees. Talked for a long time with Hixbi, Ashadan, and picked the General of the Foxish Army: Delyun. (He's very passionate about Tabletop and had a sound strategy). I passed out Foxish pins, which people really liked. The Taurguryans also had pins, but only gave them to upper-level reg members, and while they were nicer than my Foxish pins, the Foxish pins really stuck out because they were HUGE and blatant. I saw them all over the convention, showing-off how legion my house is! Anyway, and I had some cocktails and h'orderves. Then went to bed.
FRIDAY
The big day. A lot of this was poorly-managed for my usual schedule. I set the alarmclock, and got up earlier than I would have liked, got all cleaned up and dressed up for Opening Ceremonies. Last year I arrived at this late, and hung-over. So this year I was determined to be early and bushy-tailed. Which I was. Unfortunately others weren't and it still ended up starting late. After this, I went to a few panels (which unfortunately weren't taking attendance), then went to the Dealer's Den to check out "The Strategic Game" - a tabletop portion of Game of Con Chairs where the various houses move their armies using points and tokens ("gold") that they get from participating at the convention. I was happy to see that Foxish was dominating. Delyun's early-game strategy had worked, and all we had to do was hang on. The King's Feast was on Friday this year, and so I had to go to that next, despite the fact that I try not to eat before a performance (I was DJing that night) to avoid feeling sick. So even though I was there, I didn't eat anything. Which made me sad. I had to switch DJ sets with Ashadan because the King's Feast kinda put me into a weird situation where I wouldn't have time to get all prettied-up before my DJ set. I ended up taking the last set, which is unfortunate because it was kinda dead. Also: we set off the fire alarm with the fogger. But otherwise it went pretty smoothly. I played the Hixbi song, which people seemed to like. (I will post this eventually to my music profile) When I went to bed that night, I kinda just CRASHED. And ended up sleeping for 12 hours.
SATURDAY
Got up ridiculously late, got cleaned up, went to the convention only to find that House Foxish had been annihilated in the Strategic Game. Apparently my trusted General Delyun had been bragging about Foxish's position and had rubbed the other houses the wrong way. They proceeded to gang up on us, and it was only through the fast action of FinnWolf (thanks!) who stepped in as General when Delyun gave up, and reinforced the final land at the very tip of Dorn (named "Balls Deep" by Koss). We were pretty-much out of the game. But then I noticed some things, and I felt that, if I stepped in as General, that we might have a chance of salvaging something. I went to the Wine Tasting, where I chatted with The King. Despite them being the main house to destroy us, we had to negotiate a deal with Taurguryan if we ever wanted to get back to Highgarden (Foxgarden?) which was held by the Lyonstarres. We offered Dorn to them without resistance, which we knew they wanted, and which we could have made costly. Instead, we offered to give it to them freely if they would allow us passage through their territories to siege the loosely-defended Foxgarden territories. They agreed. After this I tried to enjoy the wine tasting, but really became engrossed in The Convention Game, particularly the Strategic Game. Then I had a second DJ set. Unfortunately it wasn't much livelier than the first one. But I did get to meet the Blue Angels, who were staying at the hotel for a Memorial Day airshow, and who came to our convention to hang out with the furs. We got them super-drunk, and apparently they had a great time. There may also be a photo of me in show-costume with them floating around the internet somewhere. I also debuted the new show costume style, which I was a little worried about. Rather than the loincloth, its tight, with a high neck. Much closer to what Etheras wears with his show costume in artwork. People seemed to really prefer it, and in hindsight: so do I.
SUNDAY
Got up early to make first moves in The Game. Now having to step into the role of General, as well as making the convention nightlife as good as possible, puts a lot of pressure on a fennec, and he gets a lot less sleep. Got up, made coffee, hit the shower, and went down to make initial moves. The Taurguaryan alliance had solidified, and so we were granted permission to move through their territories to Foxgarden. I got to meet their general Scales, who was really nice. Now apparently, Lyonstarres and Bark had a bit of an incident, and Hixbi was seeing red. I was about to attack Lyonstarres from the South, and Hixbi and his Avarryn allies were out for blood in the North. Taurguaryan kinda was on our side but didn't want to commit troops. Anyway, it all came down at once, and there was a huge war. In two turns we had retaken Highgarden, and were besieging the Lyonstarres home territory. Bark managed to take over a good chunk of the map. Lyonsstares, began to feel the pressure, and went to Soron to ensure that the Lyonsstare house wouldn't be removed from next year if they came in last. (The original plan was to was to disband the house that came in last, in order to make room for new ones.) Soron stepped in and removed the disbanding rule. Then one person won pretty-much all of the events at the Fursuit games because it was so sparsely attended (furs were off doing other things). Lyonsstare cried foul, and Soron had to step in again. In case its not clear at this point, I spent almost all of Sunday on the Strategic Game. It was really intense and I got quite a kick out of it. I even missed when the Blue Angels gave us a flyover and "dive bombed" the pool deck. Which I guess was a "thank you" for the fun night that they had the previous night. The Strategic Game wrapped up with a surprise move by Lyonsstare to take Kings Landing: one giant push, that denied Taurguaryan their home territory (and therefore 100 game points). It still seemed very close for the final game. Foxish had taken the marketplace each day, but Taurguaryan took it back on Sunday after contesting a sale. I took the King (SomaCat), and his Master of Scritches (Lupine) out for dinner to a noodle place. It was really good. I went back and hung out a bunch with Xan and his GF, we got fancy desserts at Legends, and had lots of tequila, then they did Karaoke. I had kind-of a sore throat and was feeling kinda sick, probably from all the alcohol and sleepless nights, so I opted not to sing. And yeah... that's about it.
MONDAY
With the Marketplace on Sunday, I think Foxish would have won the game. But with it given to Taurguaryan, that put our two houses in a statistical dead heat. I pushed my foxes to go to every event, buy stuff in the dealer's den, and win tournaments. We totally dominated Monday, and you could see it on the faces of the Taurguaryans who tried to mobilize but couldn't quite match us. I even took 2nd Place at the Atari Grab Bag. :)
But in the end, somehow Bark got through (probably from the sheer volume of awards won at the uncontested Fursuit Games). Aerun Wolfsong ended up being declared King for next year. After this I helped them pack up a little, then packed up myself, and went home.
CONCLUSION
It really is one of the best conventions out there. The strong theme gives a super-intense atmosphere of real rivalry and competition, which was much stronger than last year. Also the Medieval feeling of it was stronger than last year too, with all the heraldry and using the BobLEDs in the King's Feast. Apparently the convention went much better than last year, because in the "Scritch and Bitch" (post closing-ceremonies and coronation) there were almost no complaints.
WHAT WENT WELL
... Thursday Social was awesome (people got less drunk than last year, much more open, and good food)
... Opening Ceremonies went well
... The Game was way better than last year, and people really got into it.
... Attendance, while down from last year, seemed the opposite. Attendees were all over, going from room to room, chatting on the convention floor, attending panels (etc). I think this was because of The Game, which got people out of their rooms and into the convention to do stuff!
... The dances were run on time, and generally did very well. Early set Friday was totally hopping!
... Wine Tasting
... King's Feast
... The theme, continues to be strong and attendees play along strongly!
... Dance's laser light show is great, but still could use more. I would really like the lasers to be on the control board. Its hard to blackout when there are all these green beams everywhere.
... Stuff went off mostly without a hitch
WHAT WENT BADLY AND NEEDS TO BE CHANGED
... The convention game, while much more awesome than last year, and more robust against one person meddling, still has problems. Panels that aren't run didn't have counted attendance, what to do when only 2 people show up to fursuit games, 11th hour rule changes (while the game is in progress). I feel that in some ways, the King last year had too much influence, and that this year, we gave the same to the Game-Masters. Really, I'd like the game to be digitized to remove any bias or inconsistency, and also have hard rules that Game Masters can't change after the game has already started. I heard numerous complains about this during the convention, and honestly... if people are putting this much time and effort into the game, I think the Game Masters really need to not change the game.
... Panels didn't get held. This happens at all conventions, but last year we were really good about holding panels, even if only a handful of furs showed up. This year we kinda regressed on this front, where numerous panels that I wanted to attend were not held, or had to be held elsewhere because rooms were locked (etc), and getting the word out that a panel has been moved is a challenge.
... We have run into an interesting problem. One of the complaints during Scritch and Bitch was that there's no evening programming. The thing is, we did that intentionally so that people would come to the dance. This being a Frozen Oasis founded con, the dance / frozen drinks is supposed to be the center of the convention. Last year we had programming conflicting the dance, and dance attendance was very low during certain panels ("What I Hate About the Fandom" being the obvious one). This might be an irreconcilable problem. A lot of effort goes into making that dance room and then the DJs to go up there... so we owe it to them to try and give them an audience, but at the same time we have to accept that not everybody likes rave-style dances. So how do you provide programming for the latter, without sapping attendance from the former?
AND FINALLY...
Due to a family conflict, its a bit "up in the air" whether I will even be able to attend next year (its moving to September to the weekend of my nephew's birthday). Because of this, and because I think there's a conflict of interest with a founder being a house-lead, I'm going to be stepping down as leader of House Foxish. I do hope we win some year, but it will be under someone else's supervision. Initially this was going to be Hixbi, but after Bark won this year, he's likely to stay on as the Bark House Leader. So there's a vacancy for some fox out there!
Anyway-way, thanks for reading!
~ Etheras
In any case, this was my first FurryCon and I had a fantastic time. So do keep up the good work.
Lyonstares did not go to Soron to get suspension of the "last house out" rule. I believe that was house Bark. As general for Lyonstares, I did not interceed in this, and I know Draconis wasn't involved deeply in the game. In fact the folks running the game later told me that the last house out rule had never officially existed, but earlier in the game they said it WAS a rule. I had not even been aware of the "last house out" rule until Saturday. That is what house Bark was upset about. When I found out about the "last house out" rule, at the time, Bark was in last. Having been told it WAS a rule, I was trying to negotiate an attack on Taurguryan, the point leader, to get Bark out of last. For some inexplicable reason, the Bark general was offended by the news of being in last place and took things personally, saying I was dissing their house, when in fact, I was trying to save it since house Bark and house Lyonstares were pretty close last year. Go figure. When the "last house out rule" was officially killed, house Lyonstares was still doing well on the board. It wasn't until later that we were ganged up on.
Lyonstares DID have Soron intercede when house Bark, late in the game, came up to the table with a huge sum of money they had "claimed" when no one showed up for the fursuit games. The reason for the complaint was that the games had been rescheduled and not everyone was aware of the change, so it indeed was not fair to "award" the money when all attendees were not aware of the change in times to allow them to attend. In fact, the signs showing the wrong time for the fursuit games were still up after the war game ended.
My analysis of the game:
I will point out, that although house Lyonstares is billed as being the "Bad Boys" in the con, we were the only ones who kept our word in the game, and actually were trying to play the game for the points instead of playing to win against certain houses. A quick run down. Bark and Arwen had only verbal treaties of non agression with Lyonstares. Lyonstares was attacked by both houses first. Taurguryan and Lyonstares had a written treaty, but Taurguryan lets Foxish through their territory to attack Lyonstares. Although not technically a treaty breaker, definitely not friendly. Foxish and Lyonstares had no treaty. Foxish's crime? Never wanting to talk with Lyonstares and then teaming up with Taurguryan even though Taurguryan was the point leader. Taurguryan had three territories to Lyonstares' two for most of the game. Even though Lyonstares was third in position in the game, we ended up being attacked by everyone in the game at the same time in the end. As a gamer, this made absolutely no sense to me. Taurguryan was wanting to sit pat and win on points. That was a given. Bark's general could have taken over the entire country of Arwen and won the game easily, yet they did not in order to pursue our house. Even though Bark won King in the end, it could have easily cost them the crown. Arwen, was never really in the game as far as playing it and had given control of their army to the Bark general. Bark could have moved all the Arwen armies out of their home territory and taken control of it without even a fight. Oh well. Foxish was fighting for pride, while I do not fault them for this, I was disappointed in their unwillingness to even talk with us. In the end, Lyonstares was lucky to keep their home territory intact and was even able to stab into the heart of Taurguryan (in a surprise move), taking their capitol on the next to last turn. Although we were driven out of the capitol on the last turn of the game, we still occupied part of their home country, denying them the points and probably giving the crown to Bark. Despite being almost overwhelmed in the end, we were still able to be a maker.
Final revelations of the game? I think that house Foxish and Lyonstares found common ground in the end, and, in my opinion, don't want to rip each other's throats out. While it is fun for the con theme to play Lyonstares up as the villains, much of that is just atmosphere for the con. I think others found that house Bark has filled the role of villain much better. We did find that some attendees took things way too seriously. After all, it WAS a game.
Other Con happenings:
I gave two panels. One was on antiques, and the other was on printing. The antiques panel was lightly attended, though I had about 8 people during the convention tell me they had wanted to attend. I did give out lots talks about antiques during the con in "impromptu" panels. The printing panel was really well attended, (mostly by house Foxish). Although at first, I thought this was just to gain points, and it probably was, we had a lively discussion and much information was exchanged. Yay!
I do think that evening panels would have been good. I'm not much of a dancer/drinker, though I am social and try to support the DJs, I would have enjoyed some alternate evening diversion after working the dealer den and war game all day. It is difficult finding the right panels for the right times. You have to guess which panels will be a drain on attendance on dances and other panels. Etheras, I did drop in for your set, and I do enjoy your costumes. I think you are a great asset to the con and I would be sad if you could not make it next year. House Foxish is losing a great house leader.
Overall, the con was very well run, the swag was awesome, and the theme work cannot be beat. The end result was much fun was had by all.
I was somewhat disappointed in the attendance numbers for the con, though I thought FurryCon did quite well, pretty much holding steady in their numbers despite "being ganged up on" by all the other conventions that popped up suddenly to bracket it regionally. I find it sad and disturbing that other cons would not try and respect the dates of an established, close con. I can see being forced to cover another con's dates if they were a thousand miles away or something, but to intentionally cover another close con's date is disrespectful of that con and for the Fandom in general. The number of Furries is not so great that we can have multiple cons in the same region at the same time. What ends up happening is you kill cons or end up with weak attendance at several cons. You also create enemies, and make the Fandom a less fun thing to be involved in.
Sorry for being on a soap box, Etheras. I do concur with your con conclusions.
So starting out, the "Disband last house" rule... as far as I know... was still in-effect. I asked for it to be added to raise the stakes, and to make room for new Houses. But in hindsight, I think that was my mistake. People really feel a lot of pride in their house and I think a disband could leave some real bitterness... which would be bad. So I am glad Soron overturned that.
As for Foxish unwillingness to negotiate with Lyonsstares, I am not sure you can blame me for that, considering our traditional rivalry and the fact that you were sitting on our home territory. Also: you say you were the only House that kept your word? I never broke my word to anybody. I don't think Avarryn or Bark did either. Taurgaryan did backstab a lot though :P
As for my strategy: after getting trounced on Saturday, I focused almost entirely on non-board-game points, and was otherwise satisfied to keep the 100 pts of Foxgarden. It mostly worked out... we did come in 2nd... but I think the fiasco of the Fursuit Games sweep by Bark kinda made it hard to overcome.
Lyonsstares are the villain, I think, because Draconis has cultivated a persona of being a mischievous rascal... which is kind-of accurate ;P And so whenever someone untoward happens, people assume he had a paw in it. :P I was actually planning to end the Foxish / Lyonsstare rivalry if we won the crown this year (at least from our side). But next year it will be up to my replacement.
But if there is a real villain of this year, I think it was Taurguaryan. They are the only house to break a treaty with every other house (except Bark, but they stabbed Avarryn, which is basically like stabbing Bark). They actually tried to invade Highgarden after helping us win it back!
We did flood your panel for points, but in all sincerity, I was legitimately going to go to it anyway because I have some stuff I want to publish someday, and info is surprisingly hard to come by. Half the time, the site is trying to sell you something.
Thanks for your support and thanks for coming. I'm glad you had fun. If I do attend next year, I think I would like to make a truce with Lyonsstares. But ... at the same time I really don't think that a Founder should be a House Leader. I find myself at odds sometimes between supporting my house and supporting the convention in-general. Which... is not a good position to be in.