Historicon 2010 at Valley Forge Conference Center

I had a nice long sleep Monday morning to recover from all the late, late nights at Historicon.  I found Historicon 2010 at the Valley Forge Conference Center (VFCC) to be a very good convention.  No disasters at least on the logistics and admin side.  Whether or not it was a financial success will require a report from the ConOps/HMGS-BoD.  I certainly hope it was a success financially because I would like to see future Cons at the Valley Forge Conference Center.

The con was laid out between the club gaming areas under the Radisson, the seminar rooms in the Scantilon, and the big gaming areas and dealer hall in the main conference center.  Travelling between these locations was a time-wasting chore until I was informed of the "service corridor" (aka "secret tunnel") that was a direct route between the Radisson and conference center areas.  Layout was not an issue after that.

The VFCC needs to do a few things to get used to wargamers as conventioneers.  First, keep the water stations filled until late at night.  Second, make sure their elevators are in good condition to handle the "extra-capacity" that wargamers present to mass-movement.  And third, keep restaurants open Sunday morning.  The VFCC has a largely captive audience and we can fill any and all eating venues that are open.

I didn't have a car at the VFCC and didn't miss it.   Next conference, I'll take more deli meats and cut back on restaurant expenses.  Though I must say the restaurant prices were "hotel-sized" but not anything I hadn't seen before.  The food stands set-up in the gaming areas were also reasonably priced for a hotel convention.

My fellow AoCM'ers and I played lots of Volley and Bayonet and Command Decision, mostly courtesy of Jake Strangeway, a gamemaster extraordinaire. Kevin's "Charm City Convention" game went off well; the Society of Destruction succeeded in the game by opening their convention , "A Gathering of Friends" to compete with the (fictional?) HMGS-GAMA sponsored "Historigins" Convention.  The Charm City Con game was a spoof of the angst and consternation and bumbling surrounding the intended move of Historicon from the pits of the Lancaster Host to the apocalyptic setting of the Baltimore Convention Center, as only a Baltimore denizen could conceive.

Registration saw an increase in the amount of goodies in the "swag bag."  That's good.  Game CD's, plastic miniatures (ECW and WWII), and sample magazines were included.