Adepticon Development- Running an Event.

I was first approached by Tim over at Cursed Treasures about running a Legends of the High Seas event at Adepticon in 2009, Tim's the author of the Legends book, and he and I had first met at Adepticon in 2008 when he was demoing his own game in the specialist game hall. I love his game and have played quite a bit of it myself since it was released including hosting my own event in 2009 which, despite the bumps in the road was great time and overall success. My writing and blog coverage of said event, prompted Tim to ask me about running Legends at Adepticon in 2010. As I am sure all my fellow citizens recall 2009 was brutal year economically here in the US. Personal strain on my own business and family and uncertain economic times kept me from making the commitment in 2010, in fact thou I had registered and paid, I was even sure I'd actually make to Adepticon in 2010, until probably late Feb. Regardless in spring2010 the ship slowly began to turn upright for me and get things back on track financially.. With my house in order I started to think seriously about what High Seas event would entail and how to pull off. If you'rer familiar with the two Legends book, both High Seas and Old West. While the game system at its core has a great mechanic, what really makes these books shine is the rules meeting the campaign system. The question in running an event is how to incorporate what really makes the game great in a 4 or 5 hour event.

My own event was run in May of 2009 was an actual campaign style event with full access to all rules and crew improvements and add on's between rounds. This event ran roughly 10 hours, and we ended up rushing in the last turn or so because ti was getting so late. The result here was learning what worked and what didn't, this was clearly not the way an Adepticon event could run, and it was just way to much of time sink and specialist events like High Seas, at Adepticon run on a 1/2 day schedule. Knowing what would not work is one thing, but figuring what would work is another can of worms. It required significant thought and some play testing to pick the proper scenarios and weave those into a modified quickly campaign system..that can mimic the idea of the book, in a 4 game, 5 hour setting while keeping true to the spirit of the book. The result are the event rules posted here.

Adepticon is such a spectacle when it comes to eye candy for the hobby. You must accept when running an event that bar is very high when it comes to presentation. Thankfully I knew meeting that challenge would not be difficult considering the people I have helping me, Rich at Chicago Terrain Factory's awesome Pirate Castle is the center piece of the event. Inspired by him I have created the Pirate dungeon. Include those with the other terrain I have from the Pirate event I already ran, (Including my friend Jason's Tavern Fight board), and we are well past the threshold needed for 5 tables and a 10 man event. Just when I thought we were all set, Tim decided to up the ante by letting me know our 2010 Adepticon casual discussion of doing the Boarding Action scenario had become a reality.Tim is currently working the Wicked Wench, which is 50 gun monster from Old Glory, a scale representation of one the largest ships that sailed the Spanish Main in the early 1700's, My part in "Boarding Action" is to get my ship prepared. My ship, a converted remote control toy, is a Galleon modeled with only 10 guns. However its physical size and available room dictate- its 20-24 gun vessel. A much smaller ship than, the Wicked Wench, -"The Soltera" (as I call her) is a good compliment to the realities of the scenario, in that pirates where constantly trying to "trade up" to bigger and more powerful vessels. The crew of the Soltera trying to seize the Wench as their new flagship from fellow pirates is A "boarding action" in the making for sure. More on my work on "The Soltera" and modding it specifically for the scenario in a separate post.

While the players are bringing their own crews, I'll have a couple crews worth of models on hand for crew shortages, and additional hired hands as the need arises, but I am personally really looking forward to what people bring out to the event. I do plan on painting up some addition models to fill any gaps that my arise in the event.The final component is the logistics of the event itself this includes the statistic keeping, pairings, scenario sheets and event descriptions. and result sheet. Having done all the worksheets for my previous campaign, I already have the templates created and its just matter of exchanging the text. Pairings were a more difficult challenge as its not just a win/lose type event but based on how much "infamy" your crew can earn through scenario objectives and rewards. After some discussion I ended up settling on a round robin style event, with predetermined slots as that seemed to be the best solution. In the end, I think its as prepared as it can be. I would love to have a done primer for the event however. That just isn't a reality. Scenario play testing was solid and there is time for more of that and I am still developing all the bells and whistles for the final scenarios.

The professionalism of the Adepticon team is just superb and its great to know there is such a solid back bone behind you when you step up to do something like this. From the venue, to the advertising, to the prizes and awards. I'm sure more details are to come, but It's looking like smooth sailing at this point. Keep in mind, even the smallest event like mine, is as its base, a team event. I couldn't pull it off without the help of everyone involved. That's what a convention like Adepticon does best, It's a celebration of everyone's love of the hobby. This will be my 5th Adepticon and I couldn't be more stoked.