Thanks to Arn, we now have a LiveJournal feed, so you can now receive KapCon updates through your LJ friends list. There's also a standard RSS feed for people who'd rather monitor us through BlogLines or similar.
Not very useful at the moment, but it should come in handy around September, when we start pushing people to pre-register.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Monday, January 23, 2006
Kapcon 15 Hugely Successful
As an early post-con report, I shall keep my comments brief, but the overwhelming concensus is that Kapcon 15 was very successful. We had over 100 attendees (I beleive 105, but haven't been through the sign-up sheets for the RPGA and checked them against pre-registrations), which is a very good number. We had a variety of excellent games run by wonderful GMs, and a lot of keen and enthused players.
[Update: Final count = 110 attendees, 1 fewer than last year]
From an administrative point of view, people were very cooperative, they listened well and followed instructions, and that made the lives of everyone who was working in admin much, much easier. So my thanks to everyone for being so polite and considerate over the course of the weekend.
T-shirts were sold again this year, and the delicate balancing act of a not-for-profit con was pretty much bang on. We sold 30 t-shirts, gave one away as a prize, and have one left over (a White Large if anyone's interested). The 'cafe' was in operation again - not a fully featured cafe at all, but rather a candy bar plus coffee urn and hot water. This too was a complicated exercise in neither making nor losing money, and though there are a few leftovers, the cafe pretty much broke even. Both t-shirts and the cafe represent a fair amount of work by the organisers and committee, but the benefit of having drinks and snacks and cool t-shirts feel worthwhile.
The number of players in each round was very consistent this year, with 11 or 12 games being run each round except the 6th, in which numbers always drop as out-of-towners and exhausted players take their leave. The quality and energy level in the 6th round was, anecdotally and from personal experience, fantastic once again.
It has been a big year for the Kapcon team, in terms of Real Life. A lot has been happening in the lives of the people who run Kapcon, some of it wonderful, some of it difficult. It was deeply satisfying for me on a personal level to see the team working hard over the weekend to bring Kapcon to life, and seeing it all come together smoothly and joyously. I cannot thank the team enough for their efforts.
Financially, the con succeeded in its goal of charging attendees enough to cover the costs, and nothing more. There was a price drop a few years ago, and the introduction of discounts for paying early, and the current attendance fees allow us to run Kapcon within a hundred or so dollars of the cost, depending on numbers of attendees. This is a delicate balancing act when your costs are in the thousands, but we've managed to get it right several years running.
So, another Kapcon has passed, very successfully, Debbie and I as organisers have settled in and are already discussing next year's con, and discussion and digestion of K15 is thriving on blogs and nzrag.com.
Thank you to everyone who helped make Kapcon awesome. Y'all are stars.
Matt Cowens, Organiser Kapcon 15
[Update: Final count = 110 attendees, 1 fewer than last year]
From an administrative point of view, people were very cooperative, they listened well and followed instructions, and that made the lives of everyone who was working in admin much, much easier. So my thanks to everyone for being so polite and considerate over the course of the weekend.
T-shirts were sold again this year, and the delicate balancing act of a not-for-profit con was pretty much bang on. We sold 30 t-shirts, gave one away as a prize, and have one left over (a White Large if anyone's interested). The 'cafe' was in operation again - not a fully featured cafe at all, but rather a candy bar plus coffee urn and hot water. This too was a complicated exercise in neither making nor losing money, and though there are a few leftovers, the cafe pretty much broke even. Both t-shirts and the cafe represent a fair amount of work by the organisers and committee, but the benefit of having drinks and snacks and cool t-shirts feel worthwhile.
The number of players in each round was very consistent this year, with 11 or 12 games being run each round except the 6th, in which numbers always drop as out-of-towners and exhausted players take their leave. The quality and energy level in the 6th round was, anecdotally and from personal experience, fantastic once again.
It has been a big year for the Kapcon team, in terms of Real Life. A lot has been happening in the lives of the people who run Kapcon, some of it wonderful, some of it difficult. It was deeply satisfying for me on a personal level to see the team working hard over the weekend to bring Kapcon to life, and seeing it all come together smoothly and joyously. I cannot thank the team enough for their efforts.
Financially, the con succeeded in its goal of charging attendees enough to cover the costs, and nothing more. There was a price drop a few years ago, and the introduction of discounts for paying early, and the current attendance fees allow us to run Kapcon within a hundred or so dollars of the cost, depending on numbers of attendees. This is a delicate balancing act when your costs are in the thousands, but we've managed to get it right several years running.
So, another Kapcon has passed, very successfully, Debbie and I as organisers have settled in and are already discussing next year's con, and discussion and digestion of K15 is thriving on blogs and nzrag.com.
Thank you to everyone who helped make Kapcon awesome. Y'all are stars.
Matt Cowens, Organiser Kapcon 15
Sunday, January 22, 2006
The morning after
No sleep, no voice, no energy - but plenty of good memories. Thanks to everyone who came, and particularly to everyone who played in any of my games. I'll post some stats once I get the spreadsheet, but attendance was over a hundred.
In the meantime, here's some links to other people's post-con reports:
Also check out the comment threads on NZRaG and Diatribe.
In the meantime, here's some links to other people's post-con reports:
Also check out the comment threads on NZRaG and Diatribe.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
K-8 update
"Eight more days to go; eight more days till KapCon..."
Eight days out, and the final, last minute panic is setting in. Will we have enough games? Will anyone actually show up? Will the local shops run out of "V"?
Actually, I'm not that worried about the middle one - we've had a healthy number of pre-registrations. And while its now officially too late to get the preregistration discount (unofficially, however...), it's still worth your while filling out the form and preregistering. For a start, it means you get a better choice of games for first round. While there are still spaces available in all of them, some are very close to full - so if you want to play in Murder, Inc: Payback or The Flight of the Aristola, you should probably pre-register fast.
We've had some game offers that aren't on the website yet: Svend is running an amusing game called "Never Work With Animals" about, well, working with animals; Paul Wilson is talking about Kung Fu madness, and Hugh Dingwall and Vishala Jekic are offering "Normality", a disturbing freeform about where our society might end up. The RPGA have put forward a very healthy selection as well. We still need more games though (we always need more games), so if you're thinking of running something, then please let us know.
Finally, remember, the PreCon is on the Friday night, at the Southern Cross, at the top of Cuba St, starting from about 7ish. See you there!
Badges are Awesome!
Thanks to the efforts of Giffy, there are badges available this year as Kapcon souvenirs. They have the Kapcon 15 logo in black on a white background.
They are round button badges of approximately 2.5 cm in diameter.
They will be available at the convention for the bargain price of $3 for one, $5 for two. There will be a limited supply, in the neighbourhood of 25 badges. Not badgers.
They are round button badges of approximately 2.5 cm in diameter.
They will be available at the convention for the bargain price of $3 for one, $5 for two. There will be a limited supply, in the neighbourhood of 25 badges. Not badgers.
How to book into a game
Kapcon runs a round-by-round booking system for getting into games. When you register, you get to choose which first round game you want to play in. This is the only session you can choose before Kapcon. We ask that you give 3 choices, so that we can put you into another game you're interested in if your first choice is full.
Before the first round on Saturday, at about 8.45am, the GMs who are going to run a game in the second round will step forward and describe the game to the attendees. We ask you to listen carefully, as you will have to choose your second round game before you go and play your first round game. You need to be at Kapcon before 8.45 to be sure that you will hear all the options. There are slips of paper called game choice forms on the tables for you to write your choice on, and hand in to the front desk. Again, we ask you to write your name and three choices on the game choice slips of paper to help us get you into a game you're interested in.
During the first round we will sort all the game choice forms, and get as many people as possible into their first choice games. Some people may get their second or third choice, depending on the popularity of certain games. If you do not get your first choice in a round, we will endeavour to get you into your first choice in the next round.
Before the second round, the third round GMs will describe their games. Again you will fill in a game choice form for your third round game. This pattern follows on for the whole convention.
Because the timetable may change on the day, we fill games on a round-by-round basis. It is not possible to guarantee that any one player will find a space in any particular game, but we will do our best.
RPGA Games
RPGA games are an exception to this rule. Bob Beck is in charge of the RPGA games, and their booking system and you must see him to arrange placement.
Before the first round on Saturday, at about 8.45am, the GMs who are going to run a game in the second round will step forward and describe the game to the attendees. We ask you to listen carefully, as you will have to choose your second round game before you go and play your first round game. You need to be at Kapcon before 8.45 to be sure that you will hear all the options. There are slips of paper called game choice forms on the tables for you to write your choice on, and hand in to the front desk. Again, we ask you to write your name and three choices on the game choice slips of paper to help us get you into a game you're interested in.
During the first round we will sort all the game choice forms, and get as many people as possible into their first choice games. Some people may get their second or third choice, depending on the popularity of certain games. If you do not get your first choice in a round, we will endeavour to get you into your first choice in the next round.
Before the second round, the third round GMs will describe their games. Again you will fill in a game choice form for your third round game. This pattern follows on for the whole convention.
Because the timetable may change on the day, we fill games on a round-by-round basis. It is not possible to guarantee that any one player will find a space in any particular game, but we will do our best.
RPGA Games
RPGA games are an exception to this rule. Bob Beck is in charge of the RPGA games, and their booking system and you must see him to arrange placement.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Website updated
The KapCon website has finally been updated, with a whole slew of new games added. Links to the RPGA games have also been added, and Bob Beck has set up an online signup sheet for RPGA members here. Of course, we still need more, so if you're planning a game, please fill out the form or let us know.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
More Games for Kapcon XV!
More games
Our website co-ordinator is on holiday at the moment, so hasn't been able to update the website, but there have been a slew of new games added. In first round, we have "Bleeding Hearts" by Donna Giltrap (a medical soap in the style of Shortland Street) and Mike Sands' pirate-fest, "A Cruise In The West Indies". In other rounds, we've had people volunteering to run Serenity, Weapon of the Gods, Insylum and Cowboy Bebop.
We'll update the official website ASAP.
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