SotA Con – A Shroud of the Avatar Fan Convention – Nov. 4-6, 2016

I've been meaning to ask about you folks from out of town. Are there enough people to get something like a SuperShuttle? The weather out here is great right now but it goes from this week's high in the upper 70s to "WTF why's it so #@&%ing cold all of a sudden!?" It usually happens around Halloween.

 

As for me, I'm doing an Uber from the airport to the hotel and back to the airport (for other people flying in, touch base with me via PM and maybe we can car pool). The only other transportation would be to/from the dinner. I figured there would be plenty of cars for the other meals and if not, I'd Uber or walk if it's close by. That's my official plan anyway! I'm also hoping that the WTF weather holds off for an extra week as I REALLY don't want to bring a coat along with my costume and other stuff. I'm a very light traveler and like to keep my backpack easy to handle.

 

Hahaha Ohio does that daily.

 

So before you think I'm joking... here's this week's weather forecast... today it'll be in the 80s... in 3 days it will almost be freezing at night... so I'm running air conditioners today and I'll turn on the heater in a 36 hours.

 

Where is the dislike button...

 

You made me check out weather here in Indiana. 81 high today, 57 high on Friday. 39 low Friday night. So about the same.

 

Ride Offer,

I finally decided to drive, versus other methods, in from the NYC area. Offering a free ride to anyone in the NYC area.

New luxury car, no smoking, no pets, no drugs, no weapons, safe driver, rock music, no charge other than some nerd talk.

Sorry for late notice, was considering AMTRAK. Leaving Friday, returning Sunday afternoon.

Room for three at most.

PM for specifics on pick up location, times. If flying in from overseas will offer a free pickup from any NYC area airport.

 

That is super generous! You guys won't have to worry about riding with me and my husband who doesn't play or care about our game and will be constantly looking at his watch and talking about how our dog is at home all alone... Then me saying "We could have just gotten a hotel room in Baltimore..." Cue the uncomfortable silence of me stewing and him wishing that we could just hurry home after the last joust. Lol. Well at least I'm a friendly drunk but not too friendly unless you're my husband (cue Al Bundy whimpering "Noooo Peg!")

 

My friends.

I am SO getting excited about SotA Con East 2016 !! I will be there!! (not that is is very important).

I am one of the SotA Con East 2016 coordinators, backers, hand-holders, and oh ... fishermen!!

I will be on stage at times with my fishing pole! er here... is a picture to give an idea:

Yes this is me (Winfield) on Richard Garriott (Lord British) property in Austin TX at HoBLotH 3 earlier this year.
Like my fish? FISH!!!

Innocent Plug:
Make sure you plan to come to the Tournament Dinner Saturday Night too with Lord British and Darkstarr...
Believe me, a once in a lifetime event with those two!​

Also, I am driving from Bristol VA/TN and can join up with people on Weds 2 September in Bristol VA/TN. We depart via rental van, etc. early on Thursday 3 Sep to get to Baltimore. PM me on forums here if you are interested.

In addition, I will announce this here:

• Anyone who brings a fishing hat to the event will get a prize from me (Winfield). You will need to see me and have me verify it is a good fishing hat (smell helps too! hmm, maybe or maybe not). Prize may be an add-on store thing or a handshake. BRING A HAT and find out!
• Attendee Journal attendees can sign! I will also have a book to sign, inscribe, write in, for ALL attendees ... to make their comments and MARK for all time ... to be on presentation forever AT PORTALARIUM in Austin TX. Yes, every attendee needs to sign this book!
  • Who can bring some Calligraphy pens to help us inscribe the introduction pages and make it a bit professional looking. Oh, using Runic Alphabet would be great! Everyone knows that alphabet -- we can reserve a few front blank pages for all of this! Come with ideas -- we can sort them out when we get there on Thurs/Fri November 3/4. Look for me!
• I am working to bring some Tracy Hickman novels (Dragonlance Chronicles / Test of the Twins, etc.) to the SotA Con (if they deliver in time!). This will be fun! Wish Tracy were attending! I met him and Richard in 2015 in Austin... 30 years of two writers coming together! -- Epic!!!

​

Thanks!

-- Winfield

 

Just reserved my Amtrak tickets. Room already done. Be there Thursday afternoon, leaving Sunday on the 8am train.

 

If anyone who is coming is willing to possibly run a short DND campaign on Sunday please contact me.

If anyone is interested in heading up some game tables with board games please let me know. I know a couple have said they would do so; however, I haven't had confirmation on what games people will be bringing and coordination and I'd like to get that knocked out this week. I'm going to send a reminder out over social networks to the same effect.

 

Is there a thread for posting outfit ideas and personal nicnacks that we will be bringing with us.

I was fortunate to come across a nice wand suitable for masterworking and enchantments! A little silver and gold acrylic paint and here it is... if you look closely theres even a black orb at the tip as if it has a socketed necromancy gem. Great find for me. look forward to bringing it along with my makeshift outfit.

 

@Violation Clauth , noted that the convention room closes at 5:30 for the day. Could it not also be open at night running concurrent with the VIP (Fri) session & Medeviel Dinner (Sat) would allow us a place to gather at the hotel?

I can see concerns with it being setup properly and clean for the event next morning. Possible to get a group of us to take that task on?

Thoughts?

 

@Violation Clauth - I am bringing the Drinking Quest game. I think many people can run this game.

http://www.drinkingquest.com/tabletop-games-out-of-stock/drinking-quest-trilogy-edition

 

Due to insurance reasons the hotel will not extend it past 5:30pm without substantial cost increases... really big disappointment there for me too. I originally had requested it for "the three days" assuming that meant I'd have contiguous access throughout the entire time and had to adjust when I learned that wasn't the case. Sorry.

Great! Thanks!!!

 

Understood. Interesting. We run our annual baseball draft in Harrisburg every year and we have full use of our conference room everyday, Thursday-Sunday. Must be the difference in being in a big city like Baltimore. Had to ask though.

 

I guess that just means we have to take it to the tavern... So sad. LOL

 

They're requiring a staffed person from the hotel remains in watch of the room the entire time. Essentially we have to pay for extra hours of use equal to the 1/2 day they consider a day rental. It's something I'll cover in detail in the post mortem; however, the short answer is it's not viable to use after hours.

HOWEVER!!! We have the hospitality suite that you can expect to be available for a lot of that. @Bayard is being exceptionally helpful in having that available for after hours usage

 

Good news, indeed

 

They have an indoor pool area, gym, bar, and we have the hospitality suite. A lot of on-location "after hours" different types of spaces available. Also, we're in the Inner Harbor so... tons of stuff to get to quickly. The location is ideally located where we're a few blocks from a huge selection of food venues and attractions.