Origins 2009 Pizza Party Debriefing Notes

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Origins Looney Lab Rabbits answer the call every year in helping make The Big Experiment happen at Origins! Info for Demo Rabbits Other 'How-to' Info

This is a set of edited notes and summaries from the 2009 Origins Debriefing. The complete transcript is here: Origins 2009 Pizza Party Debriefing Transcript

Contents 1 PREP 1.1 Wiki: 2 BOOTH 2.1 Good things: 2.2 Needs: 2.3 Notes to Rabbits: 2.4 Booth Bugout 3 TOURNAMENTS 3.1 GMs? 3.2 Tournament Problems 3.3 Floating tourneys 3.4 Leaderboard 4 THE LAB 4.1 Looney Lounge 4.2 Day Passes 4.3 Kitchen 4.4 Top Rabbit Problems 4.5 Children not being supervised 4.6 Next year we might move? 5 Demos 5.1 Cones 5.2 Open Demos versus Scheduled Demos 5.2.1 Open demos: 5.2.2 Scheduled Demos:

[edit] PREP

• Big thanks to Robin for all the emails and packets and keeping it listed as to who it was for
• Personal schedules were for the win

[edit] Wiki:

• There is great interest in making the wiki as helpful as possible.
• Also, great interest in getting others into editing the thing.
• Best wiki medallion for next year?

[edit] BOOTH

The booth looked great!

[edit] Good things:

• The larger 10x30 booth was a good thing.
  • Does the cost outweigh profit? The booth is expensive, but is it worth it?
• Three rabbits on at all times is a good thing.
• Flow and energy were high.
• Length of Demos are pretty good, but maybe a timer might help?
• People like seeing Andy at the booth.
  • Can we also have a booth appearance on Sunday?

[edit] Needs:

• It was hard for children to reach the high cocktail tables.
  • need either foot stools or higher chairs or something.

• Two cash registers are good, and rabbits shouldn't run them.
  • This means we need maybe 3 temp-workers on duty to cover shifts...
  • but they may not know about games very well. A bit of a problem.

[edit] Notes to Rabbits:

• Don't hang around the booth too much when you are off-duty and wearing a lab coat.
• Do not challenge booth workers to floating tourney rounds

[edit] Booth Bugout

• Planning For The Win!!
  • Went very well aside from unforeseen complications
• People couldn't stand around well
  • Almost got in the way

[edit] TOURNAMENTS

[edit] GMs?

• People running tournaments playing in them
• People winning the tournament that they are running!
• Some tournaments are more conducive to play and run

Problems with this:

• The game moves slower
• The other players may have questions that go unanswered

• Perhaps people who are not as big fan run it so the people who love it play it
• But then they don't know the rules as well

• Some could be sour grapes but still a valid point.
• Also should we really have the tourney if it is poorly attended?

[edit] Tournament Problems

• Are there tournaments that we had that we didn't want?
  • Family flux
  • Binary homeworlds

• Length of Zendo tourney?
  • Speed zendo for first round
    • Would change flavor of game enough that it would be counterproductive
  • Having a separate prelims and finals
    • Fudge it around the blackout (which is why we didn't do that this year)

[edit] Floating tourneys

• How to find people
  • Have multiple meet ups
  • Free seminar, or informal meet ups

• Floating Tournament meet up table?
  • Lots of support for that

[edit] Leaderboard

• Some interest in this, also some negative response.
• Easy with a laptop
  • Would it affect how people play?
  • This forked into a conversation about a large screen monitor.
  • Some concern it would ruin the atmosphere.

[edit] THE LAB

[edit] Looney Lounge

• Seems to have more use more this year
  • Less comfortable for some people.
• People think that it is a rabbit area because of the partition
  • Seems like a walled off space for special space
  • Perhaps have it in another area so it can be more separate from rabbit kitchen
• The Lab, on the whole, is great. If people are reluctant to go there, that might add to the sense of it being a little more quiet and secluded, maybe. If someone wanted to rearrange the room, that might not be bad, but it's probably great as is.

[edit] Day Passes

• What does it cover?
• Is it just dealer room?
  • No generics from day pass people
  • Use the momentum to get them a badge.
• Kristen- "doesn't hurt GAMA to let them have a little fun"
• Mainly just a few demos and hopefully the next time they'll come 'for real'
• Taking people places is also a way to gain camaraderie

[edit] Kitchen

• Larger trash cans and recycling bins.
• Probably need to simplify what's available.
  • Most people don't use all the stuff that is there.
  • People nervous about opening stuff
  • People need to be informed that the food in the kitchen is for everyone (same for drinks)
• ALL FOOD MUST HAVE LIDS
• Keep our rabbit area clean

[edit] Top Rabbit Problems

• TD and TR have too many things that need to be communicated
  • People would leave lab before walking in because of backlogs
  • Processing issue
    • Perhaps have TR by door and TD on other side of hutch?
    • Do we give lab numbers out to each person who comes in to the lab?
• We need to make sure that all of the tds are recording all of the information and that they are all passing stuff on.
• Again give both roles their own books
• Have a TR/TD meet up at the beginning sometime?

[edit] Children not being supervised

• Need to make sure rule is enforced.
• Needs to be a point
• Any kid that is not a teenager should have a parent or adult with them.

[edit] Next year we might move?

• Lower space downstairs that is more open
• The Kitchen will be impacted, among many other things.
• When making plans to move, we will most definitely need to be acquainted with the room layout and who has access.
• Security might become an issue.
• Exposure and convenience, however, would probably be great.

[edit] Demos

[edit] Cones

• Many people like the cones
• Some disagreement, however, saying they were a distraction.
• More demo flip charts

[edit] Open Demos versus Scheduled Demos

• Perhaps just have scheduled demos for the new/promoted games
• Perhaps just have fewer
• Keep to open demos?
• More open demos during blackout

[edit] Open demos:

• Get the people started then get available again
  • Show them rules then get another

[edit] Scheduled Demos:

• Do we ticket the free flow people who join in later?
• How do we handle it?
• Not fair to the ones who paid at first?
• This morning with the your favorite game (3 hour slot, getting 15 minutes of game)
• Do we want to put actual scheduled demos in the book?

• Have a icehouse/treehouse pyramid demo slot that shows multiple games?
  • At GenCon, Shane uses the wording "Happy Hour" to convey the idea effectively
  • Have someone write it up and volunteer to run it.
  • Needs to be well versed in games