The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => Discussion => Topic started by: SnowFire on March 23, 2018, 01:15:19 AM
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The place: New York City, a distant southern suburb of Toronto
The time: Thursday, August 16 through Sunday, August 19
Stuff to do: It's New York. There's everything from High Culture (art museums, concerts, historic sites, Broadway musicals & plays, pretentious indie film theatres, snobby French restaurants, artisan organic local Brooklyn cafes/breweries/snacks) to Low Culture (video game import stores, bars, bowling, karaoke, Mets / Red Bull games, Central Park, dim sum, cheap banh mi sandwiches). Also chillin' and playing vidja games, board games, card games, role-playing games, mind games. That works too.
Cost: TBA, but not as bad as you might think? EDIT: I booked a spot, and while a little pricier than I hoped for, the location is great and we'll have plenty of room. Probably around 270 per person, will go up or down based on surprise extra attendance / no shows. As usual, if budget is the problem, contact SF & Meeple; we can work something out.
Events will vary; no guarantees if you want, like, Hamilton tickets in the front row.
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Coming
(SnowFire, Meeplelard)
NotMiki
Meiousei
Ciato
Dark Holy Elf
superaielman
CmdrKing
Veryslightlymad
Sierra
Talaysen
Aziraphale
Sopko
Magic Fanatic
OblivionKnight
Carthrat
AndrewRogue
metroid composite (Friday-Sun only)
Maybes
Nephrite
Maybes but unlikely
Yakumo
Dhyerwolf
Not Coming
Gatewalker
Grefter
Shale
DjinnAndTonic
LadyDoor
Tide
Magetastica
Niu
For the unlisted maybes out there: Confirmations help, even maybes with vague guesses as to how maybe it is. Cloudy crystal balls are fine. If you are a 90% maybe rather than a 50% maybe, please say so - it will affect the size of the place rented. Which will probably happen sooner rather than later, so speak up! (EDIT: Rental in, it's for 16x people by default. Since I'll be chilling at my nearby apartment most likely, that's really 17x people, and we can easily go a bit over that as needed.)
Arrival & departure dates are also useful to know. Note that if you are arriving Wednesday August 15, that's great, and I can host some people on my sofas, but if too many people want to do this, y'all may need to split a hotel. It's probably fine, just we should coordinate it. Same with people staying Sunday night; a few might squeeze in, but more may want to grab an extra hotel night.
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Why New York? Partially to do something different since NJ was done before, but also partially due to lack of tons of driver volunteers in the other thread. Do not bring along a car; parking is expensive in NYC! Public transit should suffice for everything, unless you want to go hiking or visit West Point or some such.
Location:
Here's the rental address:
https://goo.gl/maps/ZbLn5FMpS1C2
354 Grand St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Relevant intersection is Grand & Havemeyer St in Brooklyn.
It is most easily accessed by the following subway lines:
* Marcy St (J, Z, M subway lines)
* Lorimer St (L subway line)
* Metropolitan Ave (G subway line) (but... unlikely you want to use this one, the G line sucks)
Transit
Bus
If you are on the East Coast, by far the cheapest way to get to NYC is bus travel. Greyhound will drop you off at the Port Authority on 42nd & 8th, which directly puts you into the subway system to get wherever you're going. There are various other discount bus lines (e.g. Megabus, BoltBus, etc.) which are also good, but be warned they will drop you off in the street. Most bus lines will accept a ticket for one time as valid at a different time, with lots of service, so there's also some nice flexible scheduling.
If you arrive at the NYC Port Authority bus station, the subways you want to take to get to the Con location are:
* Take the A/C/E Downtown (blue line) to the 14th St stop. (It's just 2-3 stops away, short trip.) Transfer to the L.
* Take the L line to Lorimer St stop. (14th & 8th is the start of the L line, so you can't go the wrong way; any train will work.)
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Car
If you insist on driving yourself, you'll need to find some parking. There's also some pretty steep bridge tolls, and bridge traffic is going to be bad if you don't come at a non-peak hour. I'm sure something can be found in the area, but you may not like the price (read: consider taking a bus instead). It's about 24 dollars a night for overnight parking in NY. Really, don't do it.
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Train
If you'd like a slightly nicer way to get here, Amtrak service in the Northeast Corridor is pretty good, with much nicer interiors than a bus and more room to stand up and walk about. It's mildly more expensive, and doesn't really work if you live west of Pittsburgh or south of Richmond or so, but otherwise is fine.
If you arrive at the NY Penn Station, the train stop you probably will arrive at, the subways you want to take to get to the Con location are:
* Take the A/C/E Downtown (blue line) to the 14th St stop. (It's just 1-2 stops away, short trip.) Transfer to the L.
* Take the L line to Lorimer St stop. (14th & 8th is the start of the L line, so you can't go the wrong way; any train will work.)
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Airplane
Air travel can hit any of three major airports in NYC easily enough. Any decent flight search website will have a "New York" option that includes all three: JFK, LaGuardia (LGA), and Newark Liberty (EWR). In general:
* If you have heavy luggage you don't want to lug through public transit, just take a taxi / Uber, especially from JFK or LGA. (Don't do this from EWR.) It's not THAT bad in price and will take you to the doorstep of 354 Grand St.
* If not, transit isn't bad. From JFK, it's 5 dollars to get on an AirTrain that will take you to the subway system, then 2.75 for a subway fare. From LGA, you will generally want an MTA bus ride to the subway system, where you then do the same thing afterward; should be 2.75 total. From EWR, you can take a NJTransit train directly to Penn Station in New York, which also connects to the NYC subway.
More precise directions to the con location:
* If you arrived at EWR (Newark), take NJ Transit rail to New York Penn Station.
* From there, use the same instructions as above for train arrival - take the A/C/E subway line downtown to 14th St, transfer and take the L subway line to Lorimer St.
* Do not use a taxi/Uber from Newark. It will be expensive and slower, because that means crossing through Manhattan and two sets of bridges. Don't do it.
* If you arrived at LGA (La Guardia), consider just taking a taxi / Uber.
* If you want to be efficient and use public transit, take the Q70 express bus service from LGA. There's just one stop so you can't mess it up; after it hits all the LGA terminals, it goes directly to Jackson Hts. / Roosevelt Ave subway stop and deposits you right outside it.
* Take the E subway line westbound in the direction of Manhattan. (Your ticket for the bus should transfer for free here and not cost you anything.) You are not actually going all the way to Manhattan, though. Transfer at Court Square station, just before Manhattan.
* Take the G subway line. This is the start of the G line, so there's no direction to worry about, any train is good. Go to Metropolitan Ave and get off.
* If you arrived at JFK airport, consider just taking a taxi / Uber.
* If you want to be efficient and use public transit, take the AirTrain to Archer Ave / Sutphin Blvd. Careful! There are AirTrains that simply loop around between the terminals, and there is an AirTrain that goes to Howard Beach as well. Don't take those. You want Archer Ave / Sutphin Blvd.
* Take the J/Z subway line to Marcy Ave.
During the Con itself, we'll use MTA subways to get around, or perhaps rarely MTA buses as needed. Basically, buy yourself a ~20 dollar pass, and you should likely be good. (I'll be happy to buy any remaining credit at face value if you have leftover money on it.)
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Events:
Will be hashed out more later, but the one thing I will add is that if you want to go to a "touristy" location that doesn't have ticketed seats (e.g. a game, a musical), we really want to go on Thursday or Friday, not Saturday or Sunday. This is stuff like the Statue of Liberty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and so on that gets extra-crowded on the weekends. As such, expect the "tourist" focus to be on Thursday/Friday, and the casual / gaming focus to be Saturday / Sunday.
If you have some event your heart is set on, say so in this thread! We can see if we can get a group going. Otherwise, we'll post some suggested events once schedules get more locked down, and we'll see who's interested in what.
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I plan on coming. Unless something unexpected happens.
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Probably coming. May or may not stay at the house, might stay at home in NJ and bus in. We'll see.
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Put me down as a maybe but probably not. Already have a vacation planned for the start of July and I need to put money into car repairs, but if that stuff ends up cheaper than I expect I might be able to swing this too.
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Planning to be present.
EDIT: by the way, if anybody wants Utena on DVD, let me know and I'll bring it along. Was cleaning out the apartment this week and discovered I still had my original 90s copies in a drawer (I've since bought the remaster).
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Well, the car repairs are going to end up costing even more than I expected, so I'm just going to say I'm not going to be able to make it.
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Please put me down as a maybe, leaning more towards yes than no. I just started a new job this month, but I should have time off accrued to be able to go in August.
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Planning to be present.
EDIT: by the way, if anybody wants Utena on DVD, let me know and I'll bring it along. Was cleaning out the apartment this week and discovered I still had my original 90s copies in a drawer (I've since bought the remaster).
Woot CPM release
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I definitely plan on coming. I'm already on the confirmed list, but now, like, EXTRA confirm me, or whatever.
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y u gotta b so extra
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Dammit, I've got to unconfirm. Friends are getting married that weekend and they callously failed to check with me before booking a date.
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BOOOOOOOOO
BTW hard confirming at this point. Bought my ticket.
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Hmm. Well, there is a nonzero chance of my coming to DLCon this year after all.
As it turns out, my Uncle lives in New York, so my family was thinking of having a get together visit with him sometime this year. When I brought up me wanting to go there for the DLCon event, they thought they could move the event to just before or after so that I can make the trip to see you guys then my family.
Due to trying to figure out the logistics of plane tickets and a place to stay for other members of my family, it would be helpful if there was a place in NY I could crash for a few days before or after the Con in case my Uncle's family's apartment can't hold all the family comfortably.
Any takers for some extra Djinn time? I'll bring you snacks from Japan.
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I am setting up to go via bus, I'm going to buying my ticket soon. I must make due on my promise that when I meet Meeple, I'm going to punch him in the face. Now that is becoming a near reality. :D So for now, unless something drastic happens, count me in!
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I've got like... An 85% chance of being able to come. Going to have to plan a bit for who's covering what shifts at my job for the week I'll be out, but it's easier for me to save up money.
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I created a Discord for tracking DLCon activities, as well as general DL chatter. Totally public, join on up, open to anyone including DLers, friends of DLers, whatever. Doesn't matter if you're coming or not.
https://discord.gg/Jb9J2Mp
Also we're at the point where we're actually going to rent the place, which means locking down a count of who's coming and who isn't. Any maybes who can confirm / deny their potential attendance? Renting a LITTLE extra space is fine in case turnout is surprisingly high (hey, more room for us all), but I don't want to rent a LOT of extra space...
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Due to suddenly needing to move and possibly change jobs, I will definitely not be able to attend.
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So, I am...
CONFIRMED (thanks to Snowfire's sexy, dulcet tones)
Well, like, 99.97%, just in case something terribly tragic happens (death, house catches on fire, Donald Trump wins a presidential election, etc.). I'll be busing up on Thursday, leaving Sunday, if that works (will pick up my ticket soon). If we can coordinate some bus arrivals at once, that would probably be a good idea. I'm coming from Pittsburgh, so about 10 hours (6 if we drove straight there, but buses).
Who wants to see a show? Haven't been to Broadway in like 5 years, would love to see something again (Pittsburgh CLO is a great substitute, but hey, I'll be in the area).
Super, remind me to shove my foot up your ass when I am there.
Also, my wife will not be there, since some were asking.
Things have settled down after a very eventful few years. No issues with wedding, cars, moving, buying a house, to dissuade me this year! May not be able to do further away ones in the future, but hey, this is doable.
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I am 100% down for a show, never been.
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Tickey bought. I am now 100% ready for travel. And now to worry about other things...like gifts for Magic and Meeple :3
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One of my coworkers (a lady in her 60's) said that Book of Mormon is absolutely hysterical.
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Are tickets still absolutely ungettable unless a year in advance?
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Well, I am officially out as of now then. Sorry for the false hope. It was as much of an emotional roller coaster for me as I’m sure it was for you.
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Are tickets still absolutely ungettable unless a year in advance?
There are a lot of tickets left for August 17. It's Hamilton that you can't go to unless you book a year in advance now.
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I'll come! I think on Friday, though.
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Sigh, I won't be able to come, again.
A lady quit job at the company, and I have to cover her opening. Won't be able to get a vacation for couple of months.
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So, I ended up taking a bunch of time off before DLCon, but don't really feel ambitious enough to do multiple trips, so pondering heading out to NY a day or two early. I'm up for getting a hotel for those days, but curious if anyone else is heading in early? Even in tourist mode bumming around by myself seems a bit weird.
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Administrivia reminders:
* I updated the directions on how to get to the rental in some detail on the first page, in the 2nd post. Ping me if any of this is remotely unclear, and don't be shy about calling if confused on the day of. Better than accidentally getting on the wrong bus or the like.
* ...however, those directions apply to getting to the rental. If you are arriving on Wednesday or earlier, and aren't going to a known place already (e.g. Sopko), this'll slightly change. You're either going to my address or to whatever hotel you're staying at. Happy to chat about directions to these places as well.
* On that note, if you're arriving on Wednesday or earlier, might be useful to get a rough count of the number of people doing this, since I would imagine that if there's a lot, it may make sense to split a hotel room or the like. (Currently, this is Sopko, CK, Mei, Andrew, judging by the travel thread.)
* There's a Google Doc with current rough suggestions of Stuff To Do in NYC linked in Discord. If you want to just Go With The Flow, no need to sweat it, but if you have anything you particularly want to do or attempt to get a group together for, or that would require advance ticketing, give it a look.
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Magic is trying to coordinate with arriving on the same time as I...so depending on how he sets that up, he might be arriving on Wed as well. I guess this means I have to learn to use a train...never used one before...
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So I booked a hotel room on Wednesday night, since there's juuuust enough early arrivals that it might get cramped at casa de snowfire. If'fn another early arrival wants to bunk there that night, there's an available bed.
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So...I talked to Snowfire last week about this, but I'm officially posting it now:
While I know it's late, I have to unfortunately de-confirm. My mother had a significant surgery yesterday, and I've been staying home to help her recover. I was thinking she might recover quickly enough I could come out on Saturday or even late Friday, but with the way it's going, I don't think that's going to happen. I'll let you know, Snowfire, if I can come in (also, send me an address, PayPal, or something to send money in for my share of things), but I think I'll have to just do the online thing through Dischord or whatever we're using.
So...yeah. I'm sorry, and extremely disappointed :(.
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While I'm also disappointed that you likely can't be around, that is the definition of "having your priorities in order" and I hope your mom's recovery goes well.