Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Kapcon T-shirts

Each year Kapcon sells t-shirts to commemorate the occasion. They're usually around $15 - $25, come in a range of sizes and colours, and most importantly need to be ordered in advance if you want to make sure you get one.

There'll be more details coming soon, but here's the current design:

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Kapcon - Playtesting

One way to make sure the game you're going to run at Kapcon will be as good as possible is to playtest it. To do this, you need to have your game/scenario (or at least a rough version of it) ready in advance of Kapcon, and get together a group of players who will play through the scenario and give you a little feedback afterwards.

In the past, I've found playtesting incredibly useful for identifying the good bits of the game, spotting areas that need beefing up, and for stealing cool ideas off the players to make the scenario better (especially at the end when I've asked for suggestions on how to make the game better).

This year Alasdair Sinclair, aka Mash, will be helping Kapcon GMs to find playest groups (as well as doing his best to get into some playtests, since he's going to miss out on playing in the rounds when he's GMing). To do this, he's going to use a tool called doodle. It's a really easy to use website calendar thingy for multiple people to use to indicate availability. Why use it? It gives you access to keen players other than your regulars, and might give you a chance to sneak into playtests you otherwise wouldn't have heard of.

Mash will no doubt have more to say on this, but here's the page for his Fright Night horror game playtest (this one's Wellington based):

http://www.doodle.ch/b3iyprdtmdpkvyhy

Check it out - it's incredibly easy to use!

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Kapcon First Round Games Announced

Over on the official Kapcon website, the first 11 games for Kapcon have been announced. Nine of them are in the first round, and registration is now active!

The following games are confirmed as part of the first round:

* Doom Town - Alasdair Sinclair.
* Horror on the High Seas - Liam Jones.
* A Midsomer Night's Murder - Michael Foster.
* Sleeping Ducks - Susan Harper.
* The Last Action Hero - Dan L'Estrange.
* PX Poker Night - Idiot/Savant.
* Games on Demand - Mike Sands, Steve Hix, etc.
* The Strange Affliction and Decline of Dieter Kozier - Grant Robinson.
* Yesterday's Woe - Dale Elvy.
* The Seven Samurai of P-ram - Andrew MacLeod.

Games on Demand is a new idea this year, a dedicated room where non-timetabled games will be played throughout the weekend, with a see-who's-there-and-who-wants-what organisational approach. In the words of Mike Sands and Steve Hix:

Games on Demand: We'll provide a big selection of games and we'll play or run whatever you're interested in. You can also bring your own game to run.

Second round games so far:

* Best Friends - Jenni Dowsett (nee Sands).
* Games on Demand - Mike Sands, Steve Hix, etc.