Fake "Lifestyle" gamers spending thousands on a fake #dnd experience.

I've played D&D in a faux castle. No celebs. Much fun.



This was the Dunfey hotel in the San Francisco Bay Area which hosted the PacifiCon conventions for many years and it was California faux medieval castle with all the historical accuracy of Disneyland.

And it was FREAKING awesome for D&D games.

Total sadness when the hotel got "renovated" into lameness and soon thereafter, poor PacifiCon fell as well. Great memories though.

WotC has been pushing D&D as a Lifestyle Brand since 4th Edition, that is one of the major reasons why D&D has been colonized by the woke. Lemmings are gonna lemming.

I've played D&D in a faux castle. No celebs. Much fun.



This was the Dunfey hotel in the San Francisco Bay Area which hosted the PacifiCon conventions for many years and it was California faux medieval castle with all the historical accuracy of Disneyland.

And it was FREAKING awesome for D&D games.

Total sadness when the hotel got "renovated" into lameness and soon thereafter, poor PacifiCon fell as well. Great memories though.

Pacificon was back at the Dunfey (now called the San Mateo Marriott) for 2021 and had "Back to the Dunfey" as its logo. I played there last year and had a good time. I at least played a Victorian magician/engineer in the mock stone tower room.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210811122859/http://www.pacificongameexpo.com/

I'm not sure when you played, but I've played at Conquest/Pacificon for most years from 2003 to now, and I think there's still plenty of great gaming there.

Well, aside from  my "Come to Uruguay" pitch in the video, I think any gamer will be more satisfied spending, say, $500 to buy a ton of my products, than spending $4000+airfare to go to a hotel in rural northern england and play D&D with second-rate voice actors or pron stars who pretend to play D&D online.

The thing about dropping $500 on RPG books is the it's likely that most of the material in those books won't actually get used. Nothing against your books, Pundit, but I've bought four of your games (Forward to Adventure, Lords of Olympus, Arrows of Indra, and Lion & Dragon) and still have yet to play any of them. They look interesting, but I have hundreds of games and adventures, and most of them from any publisher get unused. I've been planning an Arrows of Indra game to run at an upcoming convention, but I haven't done it yet. Even though I'm running a D&D 5E campaign, I don't even get much use out of most D&D5E purchases. I've gotten very little out of anything except the core books.

Given this, spending more on airfare, hotel, and similar on a gaming convention or gaming event makes sense to me - because it is buying guaranteed gaming experience as opposed to something to sit on your shelf and hope to use at some point. Obviously, a $4000 price is targeting very wealthy people - but for rich people, it's buying something that can't be matched by books on a shelf. Personally, I have paid over $1000 for a number of gaming conventions I went to (factoring in airfare, food, lodging, and such). D&D in a Castle is outside my price range and I doubt I'd go even if I was super-wealthy, but I could see paying such for a different gaming experience.

Quote from: RPGPundit on June 21, 2022, 12:54:59 PM

Well, aside from  my "Come to Uruguay" pitch in the video, I think any gamer will be more satisfied spending, say, $500 to buy a ton of my products, than spending $4000+airfare to go to a hotel in rural northern england and play D&D with second-rate voice actors or pron stars who pretend to play D&D online.

  You ever consider hosting a small con out there?  I researched the city a good bit, and it seems certainly more interesting than Indianapolis for people to visit.

There are actually gaming cons in Uruguay. There's a big geek con, called Montevideo Comics, and then there's a number of specifically RPG focused mini-cons organized by local clubs. I'm sometimes invited as a guest to those.

The thing about dropping $500 on RPG books is the it's likely that most of the material in those books won't actually get used. Nothing against your books, Pundit, but I've bought four of your games (Forward to Adventure, Lords of Olympus, Arrows of Indra, and Lion & Dragon) and still have yet to play any of them. They look interesting, but I have hundreds of games and adventures, and most of them from any publisher get unused. I've been planning an Arrows of Indra game to run at an upcoming convention, but I haven't done it yet. Even though I'm running a D&D 5E campaign, I don't even get much use out of most D&D5E purchases. I've gotten very little out of anything except the core books.

Given this, spending more on airfare, hotel, and similar on a gaming convention or gaming event makes sense to me - because it is buying guaranteed gaming experience as opposed to something to sit on your shelf and hope to use at some point. Obviously, a $4000 price is targeting very wealthy people - but for rich people, it's buying something that can't be matched by books on a shelf. Personally, I have paid over $1000 for a number of gaming conventions I went to (factoring in airfare, food, lodging, and such). D&D in a Castle is outside my price range and I doubt I'd go even if I was super-wealthy, but I could see paying such for a different gaming experience.

There's a lot of knowledge in my RPG library. It represents 1000s of hours of thought and creativity. I reference it all the time. Even if I don't play many of the actual games, I borrow and mix and match ideas.

But yeah, I'd trade it all for a weekend of gaming with rich people in a castle-hotel, "woo hoo"...are we having fun yet?

Hmmmm, if I'm going to a hotel with a porn star it's not to play D&D.

Are you going to play FATAL instead?

For me, a good GM and a character sheet on scrap paper would make a better game then a lousy GM and thousands of dollars worth of props. Props and rules are only tools, the GM player interplay is the heart of the experience. I would pay money for a campaign with a good GM and good players that are all looking for a similar experience as me, and no castles, game boards, or fancy miniatures would be necessary.