The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => Discussion => Topic started by: Tide on September 26, 2017, 02:37:58 PM
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I'm not usually the one to start this, but thought that this might be a good time to start planning if people want to get together the next year. Everybody had stuff to do in 2017 amongst other things so maybe having a topic up earlier would help.
I'm open to ideas. I was thinking a DLC Toronto would be cool, but realize that since I'm the only one living here, I probably can't take a huge group. A mini meet might be possible though.
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I really enjoyed Toronto! ...in, like, 1994. (They still had posters celebrating Blue Jays > Phillies in the '93 WS around.) I'd be up for a DLC Canada East mini-meet.
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there is an east coast of canada?
I don't know if I would be able to come, need to finance. Been thinking of maybe saving up and getting to Europe.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOJemHKzRQY
Just kidding I totally want to go.
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I am interested in DLCon, but Toronto might be a bit too far west for me to afford it.
Shun wants to see you all again, too! He is much more well-versed in Fire Emblem now, so he's prepared!
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I would be interested, but considering there will be a job change and likely move between now and then, can't say 100% for certain.
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Just as a note, it doesn't have to be in TO. The big problem of having it take place in TO is that I'm the only person I'm aware of from around the area, which makes transportation a big hassle (unless other people are willing to drive up). Personally, I wouldn't mind Vancouver (since I've never been), but IIRC that was the most recent DLC location and dunno if the elves and Ciatos are willing to host.
Anybody else thinking of being able to host and/or can think of other places for the group to hang out at?
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I'm down for Toronto. I've never been and that always gives a place points.
While I literally have no idea where the world I will be next time, I'd like to try to make it. Babything will be old enough that it won't be such an ordeal to drop her off with the grandparents before we go, or hire a babysitter while we are wherever we are.
Minor thing is that friend and I are planning to go to New Zealand for 2 weeks sometime in the summer (though probably a shoulder season because holy crap airfare, dunno how you Aussies do it). Other than avoiding overlap, that shouldn't interfere. Travel is one thing I am always willing to drop money on.
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Having a bunch of awesome friends that you can crash with helps so very very much.
The flight, eh you get used to it.
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Australia Con would be pretty damn sweet but I think most of the DL don't have their passports or something? Thought that was a thing. Also, the plane tickets would be crazy expensive.
If people are up for a Toronto meet, my biggest concern is transportation. Since no other DLer lives around here as far as I know, unless someone else is driving up, I'll be able to take only a very limited group. If we can address that, I can start thinking about other things.
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Well.... you tell us. At Vancouver, there were totally troops of DL'ers heading off to go bowling and getting there via mass bus rides, or going to the downtown via the SkyTrain. Nobody really had any cars (except for maybe Djinn? Not even sure about that.). So... are you deep in the suburbs, or are you vaguely close to the Toronto subway or Toronto buses? Even if it's a bit of a walk, that might be fine, no need for cars.
It's possible some people missed out due to lack of passport, but DLC16 had pretty good turnout, and if this is a minimeet / side-meet anyway, then that isn't a big deal. If turnout is so big as to be a proper meet, but not enough to rent a house, then we can, at worst, grab big suite rooms at a hotel that we overstuff. (I've been in big suites designed for 4 people that we then stuck 8 people in if cost is a concern.)
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I had a car which got used a few times, but it didn't feel hugely necessary. Mostly just a time saver. (And also because I didn't fly into YVR, I flew into SEA, picked up Gate, and drove up.)
Anywho, if necessary, I can always rent a car. I have surrendered to my life as a designated driver. Plus if babything comes along, I *have* to have a car.
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I would be so down for Aussie Con or Vancouver Con mk.II.
West Coast US Con would probably be within my budget.
I'm still down for Japan Con too if anyone else is interested. And Japan is literally transportation-worry-free.
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I am hoping to go to WorldCon next year, since it's right here in San Jose, and that's Aug 16th-20th. Anything other than that and I should be good to hit up DLC as well. Anywhere in the US or Canada is probably fine.
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Toronto Con works for me.
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Should be much easier for me to get anywhere for DLC next year.
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Super and other people with cars: How likely are you going to be able to drive to TO? I know Super has driven to Niagara before, but I don't know if this is a thing that other people want to do. Having people drive in instead of flying in has a few advantages:
1) We have more cars, so we can get around easier. The major problem as I mentioned with a Toronto Con is that going anywhere typically requires a vehicle. Public transit is not great and unless we are going downtown Toronto everyday, you will want a few cars to be able to go to different places.
2) Less trips to the airport. I don't live close to it, so driving to the airport actually takes about 35-40 minutes. And that's one way. So driving to and back is about an hour, which is a bit of a hassle.
We can also probably talk about dates and maybe even things to do, although I think finalizing the location is probably more important. Does anyone else have an idea for a con location?
For dates, I was thinking maybe first week of July since we have Canada Day here and people in the states have 4th of July. This means that we can probably do maybe 3, 4 maybe even 5 days if people want. There may be some festivities and of course some gaming stuff if people just want to huddle and watch online (SGDQ / EVO). Winter is probably not a good month for me, and I really don't want people driving into Canada in the Winter (it's an adventure, I tell you what) so that's easy to eliminate.
As for things to do in TO, obviously, there is the the CN Tower to visit and for those of that don't live near here, the falls is also worth going to. People can probably come over to my place for the day, but I'd suggest that we stay at a hotel nearby since I'm not sure if my parents want to have like 10+ people around that they don't know well. Anything else people would want to do? There is stuff such as 401 Games (which sell primarily table top games, but you can also try some) or Museums, but you can probably do those in other cities as well.
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Chances are pretty high I'd be flying into Toronto directly. Unlike Vancouver, where Seattle is much cheaper, Toronto is actually the cheapest point to fly to within a 4 hour drive radius. I'd have to do more research into the cost of rental cars directly from there, but either way, I'm a non-factor for the arriving-at-the-airport thing. Allowing for space in whatever car I ended up in, I could bring people to con location with me (and baby and Andrew).
4th of July is good in theory but in the US it tends to jack up travel prices. Any holiday is good for that! It's also a family holiday for people who do that sort of thing.
As far as locations... I'm pretty open to wherever. I can't commit until I know more about my situation, and I'll always be more likely to make a West Coast con just because of how much easier it is for me (I mean, I can drive my own car for any of those, so), but I like travel. I'm still down for a Vegas con though that location feels more tragic than practical now. Aussie Con would be awesome given my plans to head to New Zealand for 2 weeks next summer anyway.
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I'd probably fly. That's a brutally long drive to make for me (9 hours+driving everyone around at the con)
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We are going to Australia next summer too!
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If Aussie Con is on the table, I'm in.
No one up for a trip to Japan, home of JRPGs?
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Checking the driving distance, I can't see myself driving that distance alone. If someone is in the car with me, that could change things drastically.
If I were to come down there, I'd either fly or take a bus. 7-9 hour ride is a bit on the rough side of things to drive alone.
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Well, the last few years when I've said I'll be there something has come up, so...I'll not make that commitment now :)
I don't think I'd drive (got 120k miles on my car, kind of put like 30k a year on it already, so...), but I am more than happy to rent a car (either drive it myself, or put in money to help with someone else driving) when we arrive if it's in a location like Vancouver.
Financially, given the house and some illnesses in the family, as much as I want to go to Australia or Japan for a con, I think those are way out of everyone's price range. Vancouver is doable, although ideally I'd like something more officially on the East Coast (I know this year turned out to be a bad timing year for everyone, it happens). I'm still several years from hosting in Pittsburgh, unfortunately (and would need help for that!).
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I'll likely be able to make a con. I'd prefer not to drive up - 9 hours each way is a bit much. I'll look at getting a rental car when I'm up there if needed.
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We could do an Australia con, but I would want to bail down headcount super early and pick a city, my apartment now is only appropriate for sharing with 1 other person for a short period, so I would need to prep. Buuuuut we also could do it in my home town than Melbourne. Disclaimer on that I can't drive so.... it would be public transport/uber for days. Melbourne would support that okay though, Brisbane less so.
I am not sure if I will do US/Canada this year and honestly if Aus means OK is it I would rather he have a chance to go.
Edit - note that I didn't say that wrote off Japan winkyface.
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Well... since con-planning doesn't seem to be progressing any further...
Hey Grefter, if you're down for a trip to Japan this summer, I've got a place for you to stay~
And if anyone else wants to come along, then we can do an Eastern hemisphere mini-con. There may not be any other DL-ers here, but it IS Japan. Tons of other gamer nerds for us to hang out with. There's actually a whole Twitch gaming channel group that regularly hangs out nearby here of mostly foreigners, so there's no shortage of DL-type activities to do at least.
If anyone's up for that, then anytime from the 3rd week of July to the last of August is open. August tends to have a lot of festivals if people are interested in that, too.
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so...we really need to make some headway on con details. We need to make decisions, fast, so people can start making plans.
Where are we having it? Who is hosting it? When are we having it? These are details we should really hammer down as soon as possible. We've made no progress in the past few months and that's absolutely not a good thing.
I might be coming down harsh but we need to make SOME kind of action. Djinn is right in that con-planning doesn't seem to be progressing and we need to fix that.
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Well, so that there's not a clash between expectations and reality here, Tide sounded skeptical of doing a full-on DLCon in IRC awhile back, and made it sound like he'd rather keep to a smaller mini-con in his house rather than a big con.
[23:32] <Tide|SuperisKnoll> But a mini meet would probably work
[23:37] <+SnowFire> Anyway if you really are set on doing a low-key minimeet, per Sopko, you should probably let everybody down sooner rather than later so that a replacement can be proposed. And then pick some minimeet time that doesn't conflict with vanilla Con, e.g. December - April or so.
[23:37] <+SnowFire> If you're doing a "real" con, then you may want to look into house rentals in Toronto if there's actual turnout and not a blip like there was for poor JimCon.
[23:56] <Tide|SuperisKnoll> well I thought I would get the conversation started if anything
[23:56] <Tide|SuperisKnoll> someone with much more organizational skills than I can take it from there :V
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So yeah, if we DID do TorontoCon, sounds like we'd have to remote-organize it. And Tide hasn't been around for awhile on IRC (the above snippet is from like 2 months ago). So maybe time for backup strats? Do we have any volunteers other than Toronto? Boston attempt #2? Bay Area? NY/NJ? DC? Japan/Australia?
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I think relocating might be the best idea if Tide's not up to it. We COULD try a distant organization for Toronto Con, but the question is how many people are up for it?
The real question is, before we pick an area, is who is willing to run it? Hmm...wonder if there's a rentable house near the Jersey shore, that could be an option. Just shooting ideas into the wind.
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Thought I would poke my head in since user Snowfire has reached out to me on Discord.
I likely can't host DLCon this year. Between getting married and looking for a new job, I also have to look at moving into a condo. So that's a lot of stuff that's going on, which is currently eating up all my free time and money. I very much doubt I will have the money or time to organize one.
I think Meeple has the right idea - probably best to relocate somewhere else. Problem is, I don't think there is anybody else who has offered. I mentioned very early that I wanted to start up a discussion but that it didn't have to take place in TO. Does anyone have any availability for 2018?
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So discussing with Snowfire, the two of us are willing to host something in this area. Two options come up:
-Rent a house in the NYC Suburbs and have a DLCon near NYC. It's NYC, it sells itself, I don't have to justify why this is a worthwhile place to go.
-Do something similar in the Jersey Shore area, for a change of pace from a usual DLCon in Jersey.
So...before we make any decisions, we think it'd be wise to gauge interest first.
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I am interested. I can also be a driver. My mild preference is something close to NYC, but I'm perfectly fine one way or the other.
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Based on quickly talking to Snowfire, the quick pros and cons of the two options are...
NYC will be more expensive, but it's right by NYC and probably more convenient location wise across the board in a number of ways. Even disregarding "It's NYC", it's a closer location to both of us, and closer to relevant airports, etc.
The Shore is basically the opposite, but also by the Ocean, instead of NYC, which depending on who you are, may be more appealing.
Snowfire, feel free to flesh out that list in whatever way you see fit. This is just a quick overview of the two options.
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Meeple's list is basically correct, not much to add to it.
The one wild card I'll throw out there is that, if people are weird and uninterested in NYC tourism, there's two flavors of Jersey Shore: Northern & Southern NJ. Northern NJ is the default, and allows for a bit of everything: maybe some NYC tourism, maybe some beach. There is also Southern, though; the main appeal of South Jersey is that it's cheaper. But the tourism opportunities are a lot more placid, so it'd be more a "we just want to veg out and chill around a rented house playing video games and maybe hit the beach / boardwalk" con (although if you still wanted to do some sort of big city tourism, Philadelphia is reasonably accessible by train ride, and the casinos have shows & such). The possible bad news is that you get to fly into Philadelphia rather than NYC, which while a pretty well-served airport, is not as well served as the NYC trio of JFK/LGA/EWR are. (I grew up in South Jersey, hence me mentioning this.)
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I am actually going to try to go this year... 8-)
I just need to know when and where so I can coordinate my week off to go. I have my boss ready to allow that time so I am hopefully all set.
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We are going on vacation for three weeks in July, until about the 25th? August would be rad for us, though.
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(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/thumb/a/ad/Bender_blackjack_hookers.jpg/800px-Bender_blackjack_hookers.jpg)
Since nobody seems to be suggesting alternative venues anymore... I think NY/NJ is in? (Barring various mini-cons in Australia & Japan, of course, but those don't quite count.) If anyone has any last minute proposals, this is the time to bring 'em up.
August is possible, but the weekend of August 3-5 is out for me (GenCon). Other date preferences / blocks are helpful to know. As CK pointed out in IRC chat, this is official prodding time - even if the answer is still "uh maybe still not sure", useful to know. (Sounds like Djinn & Grefter are still out... anyone else have known preferences?)
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For posterity, am surely interested in attending such an event, have no known limitations to availability or strong preferences in where it is held. (hence not saying much, I'm not really adding anything except headcount to narrowing things down)
Truthfully I'm wondering if I shouldn't do both american DLCon and go out of country with whoever is willing at this point. It certainly sounds like a GREAT idea...
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I'm projecting August 9th to 12th or there abouts. Just giving us a date to work with and we can adjust accordingly, but I figure I'd take the first steps and say "Here's a date, who does that work for?" rather than people dancing around the issue.
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That sounds good for us!
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I'm interested in an NY/NJ con but that particular weekend's out.
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We can do:
-July 6-9
-any weekend in August
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July/August works for me.
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I am interested in a DLCon, and those dates work fine, but EDIT: East Coast is really expensive for me. Especially given other trips happening this year. If I paid for the airline ticket, I almost certainly couldn't afford things like a share of the rented house, games, souvenirs, possibly food. So I'm likely out due to budget this year. West Coast is a just huge difference in ticket prices for me... (Not to mention how much I loathe NYC and don't want to spend that much money to go somewhere I hate, even to see my DL friends.)
But uh... if anyone is down for coming to Japan, that's still an open offer if you want a place to sleep and a tour guide.
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I'll be at Worldcon here in cali from Aug 16-20, so I could probably swing july 6-9 just fine, but would not be able to do august.
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Hm. So potential wrinkle, I noticed that basically the only requested vacation time in my department over the summer so far naturally includes the first two weeks of July. I'm not sure if that precludes me getting that time, since the 6-9th includes my alloted weekend off and all and I'd be doing less than a week?
That said, for people with potential schedule conflicts, how does the first weekend of August (3-5) work? I'm currently in a "I dunno if I even plan to stay at my job that long" mood but figured I'd cover my bases. And also it narrows things down a bit since it looks like mid-August probably isn't working for people.
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The host is busy that week, unfortunately.
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I am tentatively interested. The tentative part is that I have no idea what job I will have in about 6 weeks and where that job might be located (some of the options might be notably closer to this DLcon than LA is). I'd try to come if possible, but I'm just a big question mark at the moment.
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Mrf. I’m guessing the last weekend in August is a no for the same reason the second is then?
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July/August is pretty open. August 5-11 is not ideal for me, but if the con hits some of those dates I can still go.
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I made a rough planning sheet here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NM_OtaViMQCFKn53ybU42qkKnLwNGEmlPWrM5TeZyKo/edit?usp=sharing
(A, B, C, & D responded off-thread, and all said "maybe.")
Right now, tentatively it looks like Jul 6-8 and Aug 17-19 are the best weekends to structure around. Unfortunately CK might not be able to make the first, and Gate definitely can't make the second, but they seem to be the smallest compromises. Any other last objections or potential attendees? We'll probably lock the date down by the end of the month otherwise.
EDIT: July 27-29 is open as well now.
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We haven't actually booked tix to Australia yet, so we could go slightly earlier and be back for the last weekend in July, if that helps at all.
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If... that doesn't put you out, certainly it's fine on my end. Dunno about Shale, Gate, or our hosts though.
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Oddly enough, I think that both of those dates actually work for me, even given my Job being in peak season in Summer. August is when things are winding down, and that specific weekend in July is my Birthday, whereupon I can take an extra day off because that's a random thing work gives me.
So barring any unforeseen disasters, I should be able to swing this year.
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I vote for July 6-8 and I would like us to make a decision soon so we can start making plans! Thanks <3
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Pick a date, I'll work on trying to make it (can't promise anything, like usual, but will try)
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Are there any late-breaking complaints about July 27-29, actually? Assuming you can still shuffle your travel around... it sounds from CK like that would be much easier, and both the July dates don't interfere with Gate.
If it turns out that 27-29 is a no-go as well, then we'll just have to flip a coing between July 6-8 and August 17-19.
EDIT: Hmm, looks like VSM has issues with July 27-29. Ugh.
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Chatted with Meeple, and... tentatively, looks like August 17-19 is the winner. Unless there's a sudden uprising in support for July 6-8 / people suddenly realizing that Aug 17-19 is no good for them, gonna lock that date in in the next 48 hours or so. Speak up now or forever hold your peace, etc.
New thread to follow as we lock down details.
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Just confirming that August 17-19 works for us.
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Noting that I am probably in because I don't see you clowns in person often enough. I have no known schedule conflicts in that timeframe at this moment.
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I can also be put down as a tentative yes, barring any unforeseen nonsense, which, there fucking better not be unforeseen nonsense