I posted this up on the GC FB page: We are considering adding a few seminars (1-2 hours?) this year. I wanted to see if this appeals to a large segment of you guys or not. Topics proposed are Castle Greyhawk Then and now (Grohe, EGG Jr, Talanian); Play, Design and Form pre-D&D 1972-74 (Kuntz) and TSR retrospective (Kask, Ward, Mentzer). Nothing is locked in as of yet- so give me your feedback. I wanted to get the view from the forum lurkers as well. Any seminar would be considered an event and would require SPs to get a ticket. We could go with a small setting, such as a hotel suite and charge 2-4 SP or a larger forum in the bar area at 1-2 SP. The bar area would restrict times to morning or early afternoon to deconflict with lunch and dinner hours when there is more traffic in the bar.
I would love to participate, but I'd like to solidify the time slots ASAP so that the seminar / panel does not conflict with running games. Cheers, Jeff T.
Ok Jeff. I'll have to propose a time and get a consensus form all involved. I'll email you guys to get that going. Luke
Late morning, before lunch, might be a good way to go with those, before the gaming day gets started.
TSR Retrospective would be very interesting given Garycon being in Lake Geneva. I know that a few years ago a tour was schedule that fell though but it sounded like a good time.
I'd be slightly interested to interested in various possible seminars. I personally probably wouldn't do more than 1 per Con. I'd like to see maybe ~2 per year offered. If you throw out every single one everyone involved could possibly present in the same year, my guess is you'll get oversaturation, small crowds, and run out of topics that will draw before long. I'd agree the 10-noon area is probably the best spot for them. Second choice would maybe be back to back with the auction, like Seminar 2-4, Auction 4-6, or similar.
Well, I managed to fit in a few seminars and they should appear on the sneak peek. They will be held in the afternoon mostly. Tentatively we have scheduled: Frank Mentzer Thursday seminar on TSR and Gary 1980-1985. Robert J Kuntz Friday on Game Design and playtest 1972-4 Allan Grohe, Jeff Talanian and Paul Stormberg Saturday on a Historical look at Castle Greyhawk inception to CZ Jon Peterson Sunday morning on the development of RPGs. These are likely one of kind events that may not be repeated in the future. I hope you enjoy them. Luke
Luke: any chance you could video the seminars? I'm sure some folks won't be able to attend due to gaming conflicts, and it would be nice to be able to go back to refer to them later as well.
I think that these seminars are a great idea. I will probably only make the first one, but like the idea of one per day. I always like hearing Frank's stories at the GenCon auction and look forward to a few more stories from that time. Everything I am seeing makes me more excited that I will be attending my first GaryCon this year.
We have had discussions about video recording the seminars to be archived on our site. So, fingers crossed and we can make it happen.
