Quote from: Doom;471259I'm definitely not feeling so freakish for running an AD&D game the last year or so, pretty sure I'll wrap it up with Vault of the Drow.

...Now I'm imagining Drow pole vaulters...

Quote from: Benoist;471232That's because 1e is the best edition of the game. "Everybody" knows that.*

[Let Ze Edition Warz Begin!]

* by which I mean in internet parlance that "I" do.

1e's got a weird crazy thing about it, but I feel like if I were to actually run it, it'd be more like a proto-AD&D a la the Gray Book or S&W: Complete.

I wouldn't hesitate to sit down at an AD&D table, though, be it at Gen Con or any other con.  Less work.  More dying and frustrating the GM with stupid ideas and hoping they work.

Just wondewring though, is everything D&D pre-2e classified as 1e, including the clones, red box (the original), OD&D, etc?  That could be skewing the numbers.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;471265...Now I'm imagining Drow pole vaulters...

That reminds me of an ooooold WFB scenario, where a bunch of orcs attack during the Scottish olympics. Imagine Celts tossing logs at orcs to get an idea.

The data itself looks OK - there are separate columns for 'game' and  'edition' so its fairly specific. All the stuff there is listed as  either 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' (Game) + an edition of 1st, or  under game 'Dungeons and Dragons' with an edition of 'advanced 1st'.
I am surprised there's not more OD&D or Basic type stuff apparent though.

As I noted however, most of the 1E is 'Tower of Gygax'  - this is  running lots of sessions (85), though they're short - 1 or 2 hours - and  with a maximum of 8 participants/session. Looking at start times,  appears to be just 2 tables running more or less nonstop. ..though I imagine it will  legitimately get a reasonable amount of exposure with pick-up games, since most of the other RPG events are around 4  hours. (IIRC, I think Abyssal Maw mentioned going to it at a previous Gen Con...)

PS: Note also that all the figures here are 'maximum possible' - the upper limit of capacity - I don't have any details as to what's actually going to be used. (There is a 'tickets available' column but that would get pretty speculative since I don't know enough specifics regarding how Gen Con's ticketing works, and/or introduce probable differences between events that require prebooking and those where you can just turn up, as well as when/if the event schedule thing was last updated).

Quote from: GeekEclectic;471079And what's NERO? Never heard of it before now.

NERO is a boffer larp system which chapters across United States and canada. It is one of the oldest and largest LARPs out there having started around 1990-1991. It basically D&D style fantasy.

It has character classes but uses a point buy system for skills and abilities. The cost differs depending on what class you take. Your character improve by being able to do abilities more times a day, more spells, or swing for increased damage.

Combat is handled by using foam swords swinging for a fixed amount of damage. There are abilities such as dodge and parry that can negate a hit. Spells are handled by throwing a cloth packet filled with bird seed. If the packet hits then the spell takes effect.

Events generally last for a weekend. NERO is designed so that you don't need rules marshals hanging around, so players are pretty much free to interact with each other using the game rules. Where the player hang out is  generally called the town. The event staff will send NPCs in to interact with the players, or NPC monsters to attack them. Some NPCs are plot hooks meant to get the players to leave town and go adventuring on a module. A modules is a series of encounters. The modules are skewed toward live-action challenges. My event staff was pretty creative in coming up with interesting traps, puzzles, and combat situation.

Safety is paramount with a several rules and customs meant to keep the live-action safe and injury free.

http://www.nerolarp.org

I used to own a chapter in northwest PA. It wasn't a for profit more a volunteer run organization. I got out of it when I had my second child and didn't have the time to run events or participate.

Quote from: estar;471590NERO is a boffer larp system which chapters across United States and canada. It is one of the oldest and largest LARPs out there having started around 1990-1991. It basically D&D style fantasy.

It has character classes but uses a point buy system for skills and abilities. The cost differs depending on what class you take. Your character improve by being able to do abilities more times a day, more spells, or swing for increased damage.

Combat is handled by using foam swords swinging for a fixed amount of damage. There are abilities such as dodge and parry that can negate a hit. Spells are handled by throwing a cloth packet filled with bird seed. If the packet hits then the spell takes effect.

Events generally last for a weekend. NERO is designed so that you don't need rules marshals hanging around, so players are pretty much free to interact with each other using the game rules. Where the player hang out is  generally called the town. The event staff will send NPCs in to interact with the players, or NPC monsters to attack them. Some NPCs are plot hooks meant to get the players to leave town and go adventuring on a module. A modules is a series of encounters. The modules are skewed toward live-action challenges. My event staff was pretty creative in coming up with interesting traps, puzzles, and combat situation.

Safety is paramount with a several rules and customs meant to keep the live-action safe and injury free.

http://www.nerolarp.org

I used to own a chapter in northwest PA. It wasn't a for profit more a volunteer run organization. I got out of it when I had my second child and didn't have the time to run events or participate.

Sounds interesting.

OTOH, as a rather big guy, I may have problems with the "tap gently with the boffer sword" - What my instincts say is gentle may not be for someone half my weight!

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;471631Sounds interesting.

OTOH, as a rather big guy, I may have problems with the "tap gently with the boffer sword" - What my instincts say is gentle may not be for someone half my weight!

The swords are well padded and 90% of the people manage to get a hang of it. Mostly by learning where to start their swing (typically a half-swing).

Quote from: estar;471633The swords are well padded and 90% of the people manage to get a hang of it. Mostly by learning where to start their swing (typically a half-swing).

Boffer LARP is on the "list of things I want to try".

Unfortunately, my "list of money" is rather far shorter...

Boffer LARPs are great fun. Worth a try.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;4712311E: alot of this seems to be due to 'Tower of Gygax'. Seems to be very short sessions, usually 1 or 2 hrs: 85 sessions with total participants of 738. Then there's a few 'Tower of Gygax presents' as well (another 6 sessions, 48 participants - longer 6hr games). Plus a few others - about 10 one-off individual games -  and something described as a 'hybrid 1E' game.

How are the AD&D 1e vs. 2e numbers if you count out number of hours played versus individual events?

BTW, how much Palladium stuff is happening?

Quote from: Spinachcat;471699BTW, how much Palladium stuff is happening?

I can field this one, I think.
 
I’m running 3 events total of Rifts and Palladium fantasy “off the grid”, and all three are full up already! I’m trying to find time to do one more hour-long demo of either Rifts or PFRPG. We have another GM who should be running a long demo event after the hall closes; I’m waiting to hear back from him to confirm. If that’s the case, there will be a sign-up sheet at the booth. Lastly, I believe Brand Aten is running a Phase World game, but I don’t have the particulars.
 
One of our key GMs who runs demos couldn’t make the trip this year, so we’re a bit short-handed, but I’ll do what I can if folks want my normal hour-long Rifts demo.

Quote from: Spinachcat;471699How are the AD&D 1e vs. 2e numbers if you count out number of hours played versus individual events?

Ah, good question. We could look at this in a couple of possible ways - either
1) total duration of the events (how long it would take one person to play through all the listed events) ...though some of the events are the same event being re-run, particularly for 1e.

2) What I'm going to call 'participation time' which is the "man-hours" of time people could spend gaming. This would be sum of each events [duration x number of participants] - or, the grand total of time people might spend playing that system at the Con.

By these measures
1st ed: 110 games, 929 people, duration 227, Participation time (sum of duration*participants) =1902 hours.

2nd ed: 17 games, 137 people, total duration 82.5, participation time = 702.5 hrs.

3.5: 73 games, 1291 people, duration of 317 hours, participation time 5745.5 hours.

Pathfinder: 251 games, 3658 people, duration of 1190.5 hours, 17629 hours participation time.

4th ed non-RPGA: 43 games, 583 people, 166 hours total duration, 2274 total hours participation time.

4th ed. RPGA: 188 games, 7742 participants, 565 hours total duration, 21524 hours participation time.

QuoteBTW, how much Palladium stuff is happening?

Thanks Zachary! Hmm..by 'off the grid' you mean not listed in the event calender? In the listings I can see 6 games for Palladium with 47 maximum people (26.5 hrs duration, 204.5 hrs participation time).
Event names are:

Left 4 Dead: Resurrection   (Dead Reign)
Mines of Despair             (Palladium Fantasy)
Power Creep This!           (Heroes Unlimited/Rifts/Robotech mashup)
Phase World: Dark Graves    (Rifts)
Walking Dead Kansas City    (Dead Reign)
Stargate SG1                 (Rifts:Chaos Earth)

IIRC Palladium officially withdrew from Gen Con a few years back, which may explain why not so much going on here? (I believe they have their own convention now?).

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;471768IIRC Palladium officially withdrew from Gen Con a few years back, which may explain why not so much going on here? (I believe they have their own convention now?).

Actually, Palladium is going to be at GenCon this year, as part of their 30th anniversary gig.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;471768Left 4 Dead: Resurrection   (Dead Reign)
Mines of Despair             (Palladium Fantasy)
Power Creep This!           (Heroes Unlimited/Rifts/Robotech mashup)
Phase World: Dark Graves    (Rifts)
Walking Dead Kansas City    (Dead Reign)
Stargate SG1                 (Rifts:Chaos Earth)

IIRC Palladium officially withdrew from Gen Con a few years back, which may explain why not so much going on here? (I believe they have their own convention now?).

They do have a Palladium Open House, but will be at Gen Con this year for the first time in about 3 years.

Yes, there are a few official Palladium games out there, but a few unofficial non-schedules as well. I used to do in-booth demos, but no room for that this year; my demos will be further afield.

Summary of Games on Demand: 431 people played across 82 individual sessions. The Gen Con book listed Games on Demand sessions in a weird way but these numbers are based on the tickets collected at Games on Demand this year. That link lists the games that were played.

82 sessions is a little misleading, as many were two hours long, the exchange rate set by Gen Con LLC being one generic ticket for two hours of play. It was jammed the whole show, though.