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hI attended NeonCon this past weekend. Disappointing.
I spent $50 for the ticket - only three of the tables I was set to play actually went off. I played a few other games - board games and even Shadowrun. But that was because the games I'd registered for didn't have the attendees.
I was led to believe that two Paizo people would be attending. I saw SRM running a game once. I was to join the table that had Mike Brock running on Saturday morning 8am. But he didn't bother to show up. Or Rather he did, nearly two hours late.
The next time I saw Mike Brock, was when he was talking with SRM at a nearby table during the Special Event. Mike Brock has a loud voice. I heard the Mike Brock and SRM conversation and not JP who was the Overseer.
There were supposed to be several Venture-Captains. I saw JP run a game, but he mostly focused on his NeoExodus campaign. VC LA Robyn was there and I saw her playing. I saw VC Arizona Rene running a game or two and I also so the new Iowa VC Clarence playing - he played Shadowrun when I saw him. I never saw the new Venture-Captain of Las Vegas or the owner of the convention Doug Dalton. I didn't know Theocrat Issak wasn't the VC anymore but I did see him playing. I got the chance to meet the VC from SF, Mark but that wasn't until we were all just packing up on Sunday. He said he didn't even run and only came out to party.
I had gone to the first three NeonCon's and missed last year with travel to New York. I understand last year was the best so far. I understand that this year it was expected to be as good. I had been lead to believe that Iron GM and even CreativeU would be supported. I have Ult. Combat and saw that people used NeonCon to get their names in the book. With Kobold Quarterly and ad's on EN World, I thought this years NeonCon would be epic. EpicFAIL.
If Paizo will be having Venture-Captains and employee's go to conventions and have those conventions use that as part of their advertising they should have those people there and active. I can't say it was false - I did see them and even play. But they kept to themselves. With Mike Brock being the new organized play guy, I think he should have stepped up and said "Hi!" but he didn't and the only time Doug stepped up was to interrupt the Special with his "Players Award" speech. He could have asked JP if it was alright - if it was at a place to interrupt. It's a timed event.
I spoke to several other players. I understand that Theocrat Issak was the lead on the PFS play for a time and he might not have been up to the task. I understand that NeonCon had hoped for more PFS players and GM's. Is there a correlation between Theocrat Issak's lack of leadership and the PFS play or is there a correlation between NeonCon and the lack of Iron GM and CreativeU that played a bigger role in the matter? There was no focus - no GM or someone that called each event. Just a couple volunteers that put the "potential" events on a list and a "Get it your damn self" type of get together. I had to find the potential table list, then find that table and hope that there would be players and GM's. Often that didn't happen. Then it was up to me to wander around and see if I could join a table. Think the new VC of Las Vegas and owner of the show would want to be around to help out. I might have made a table or two.
I did like the NeonCon dollars. I liked the potential for getting some books and goodies. But my experience with them and the distribution seemed bad. At one table the $10 award would go to the GM and the $5 to the players. Seemed like it was up to the GM to decide if they wanted the higher dollar amount. When it was passed around by the staff to the GM, it was often stated that the person earning the dollars would go to the person with the most kills. Maybe even first 20 or 1. I played a Bard. No killing for me. The fighter got 3 attacks per round as an archer. I got one. I wonder if the odds were in his favor. The one GM on Sunday had us all roll off. That was the fairest, but it was also the least creative. One GM did say that he would give his extra $5 to the group with the MVP as voted on by the players - but we all talked about it - and we all thought that there was no fair way to give it out, as we all did something important and role played well. So we went with a roll off.
In all, NeonCon 2011 was disappointing. It's a good thing that there aren't any other regional conventions going on that weekend. NeonCon would flounder without the LA and Arizona crowd. The Vegas crowd for PFS had - maybe 10-15 people? And they were playing Shadowrun. And that was the fullest table I'd seen. Was or is there a split or faction going on because of the switch in Las Vegas Venture-Captain? If that is the case - that seems like a bad omen.
I would like to hear some other people's thoughts on the convention. I realize that this was a bad event for me, but as an alumni I'd hoped for better.