C O N R E P O R T
 | S.T.E.A.K. 2006
When: October 21st-22nd 2006
Where: Eau Claire, WI
What: A two day Gaming event. |
Okay, so, this is listed as a "Con Report," but I'm honestly not sure if S.T.E.A.K. would be described as a Convention. S.T.E.A.K. is a free two day gaming event that a bunch of us put together (with Topher at the helm) in an attempt to do something fun for a fall weekend. It's like a microconvention really.
Before I start, I should point you towards a
video entry in my blog which actually contains a few video moments from S.T.E.A.K. and my first reactions to it.
What I'm betting you're asking yourself right now is, "What does S.T.E.A.K. stand for?" Well, the official answer is that we don't know entirely - although the T stands for Belgium. It's what happens when you spend so much time trying to think of a name that anything will do. Anyway - this is what happened...
Saturday:
I woke up early and wandered over to Davies center, where Topher and Calvsie were already setting up. I went over to Arrowhead (one of the three rooms we were in) and set up my PS2 and my laptop. I would pretty much live in Arrowhead that entire weekend.
Throughout the day, people slowly filtered in - and by late afternoon there were about 20-30 people there (which was what we were expecting). I was running movies, so nothing terribly exciting from that. I forced people to watch Hackers yet again (as the afternoon movie), which is for me probably one of the greatest bad geek movies of the nineties.
I also sat online for most of Saturday, and had some "interesting" conversations... which were quite entertaining.
Beeffalo and I played Amplitude as well, which is (of course) one of my favorite games. All in all, a good time.
At the end of the night, I wandered back home, spent a little time online, and went to bed.
Sunday:
Sunday started out almost as early, and I got Arrowhead nice and set up again. I spent the morning doing effectively the same thing I had done the day before - playing films, sitting online, pretty much just guarding the room and making sure it ran smoothly.
I could pretty much write up what we showed and all that, but frankly, it's pretty boring to read about.
Anywho, that afternoon I ran a test campaign of the still being written Horror expansion for
Super Awesome Action Heroes entitled "Oh Crap, Zombies!" in which the players had to survive in a Zombie filled building for two hours. I used the floor plans for Davies center (the building we were in) as the map, and forced the players to play versions of themselves (with their inventory being "whatever is in your pockets") which made it actually very interesting.
The campaign went exceptionally well, and I definitely see potential for the expansion and the system.
Anyway, as the evening slowed down, I put in Laughing Boy and Adrenaline Drive (a couple of my favorite movies) and kept myself from murdering someone who is even more annoying than Calvsie (Calvsie is oddly likable -- this person isn't). As the evening wound down, I packed up and headed back across lower campus to home sweet home.
In Conclusion
S.T.E.A.K. was a big success, and we all had a damned good time. Its something that's easy to put together, and I wouldn't be surprised if we did it again next year.
Of course, I won't be in town next year... but I'll still try to make it.
*shrug*
