-- CaliCon Feeler --

Ok people, if you are out there, we need to get something organized. I want to try and schedule a BIG event with FFG (in hopes they will be able to support it) but I am reluctant to do so without at least a guestimate of attendance. Here are the people I am thinking may be interested and I would like to hear from:

JMcCarthy
ArmaVirmque + guest (Jeff?)
Dr. Cornelius + south bay crew
Deathjester26 + socal crew (if there are any left?)
Khaleesi (if you're out there, drop us a line)
Freerider (ditto)
Kevdawg
MaesterLuke (i heard you wanted to visit)
Syd

and anyone else out there in California who is interested in a attending a legitimate AGoT tourney with prizes and tons of fun oh and lets not forget the Maester's Challenge! Don't be shy, I need to know who is interested so I can get this thing organized ASAP.

You know I'd be in.

If you want to try an attract people outside of Cali, you might have to wait until September or October to dodge Gencon.

I'd like to attend. I might be able to bring a second person (my brother in Sacramento), but his availability changes every week with his work schedule, so his attendance is far from guaranteed. What is this Maester's thing?

Hi guys. Jeff (Freerider) here. Neither Khaleesi or I are playing anymore these days. Her munchkin has moved in with us fulltime and between that and work what little freetime we previously had has been shot (Or at least is being used for other things). We're still kinda vaguely interested in the game and playing and all but don't really see how we could do so again any time soon. (That and we haven't picked up any cards since before the new Core Set came out).

So, yeah probably won't be seeing us anytime soon. We're both glad to hear that you guys are still going strong though. If anything changes I'll let you know and if you know anyone down here near Santa Cruz that actually would want to play regularly let us know, it might get us going again but as things stand you guys are just too far away to visit regular and if we aren't playing regularly then the cost and time aren't worth it right now.

Bah, of course now I kinda want to start playing again just for the Maester challenge.

The Maester challenge was an event/tourney within the rest of the weekend long tourney. Basically there were a list of different "goals" that you could get a chain "link" for if you pulled one off during one of your games. At the end of the entire weekend the person with the most links in their maester's chain won the Maester challenge (that would be me). The links were won for basically unusual things that could happen ina game like: flopping your full hand in setup, playing 3 event cards in one phase, triggering 3 responses to one action, winning a game after your opponent got withing 2 or 3 points of victory, winning by round 3 or sooner, controlling more than 3 attachments at a time, controlling more than 5 characters at the end of dominance, etc. I personally found it interesting because your opponent would sometimes alter their strategy for the sake of picking up a link or two and it got much harder to predict just what the heck the guy across from you was thinking.

Freerider said:

Sounds like a lot of fun. Going to have to look into implementing this into future events. Thanks for the explanation.

Great idea - put me on the list.

-Dr.C

The coolest feedback I heard about the Maester's challenge was that people who felt they were out of the running to make the top 8 still had something to play for.

I'll have to tweak it a bit from what we had last year, but I'd love to do it again.

You know I'll be there Chaos. And I think my brother in law is down, since hes picked up a core set and some ch. packs.

I'd like to go, but depending upon various circumstances probably won't be able to attend. School starts sooner than later and there's the whole "travel" thing too. But I've always wanted to play in something bigger than my four person melees.

I'm super-new to the AGoT card game, and card games in general, so I doubt I would participate, but depending on timing and location and such, I'd probably attend just to watch, learn, and geek out.

Deathjester26 said:

An interesting point, and a little more reasonable than the "Sansa Award" we've been doing at various Midwest events since Trials of the Mad King so many years ago. If it's okay with you guys, I may adapt the idea for the Gencon weekend this year....

OrionsByte said:

You'd be welcome, of course. Are you located in California? This event has always taken place in the East Bay Area in the past.

Arma virumque said:

Yeah, I'm up north of Sacramento. The East Bay Area would definitely be doable.

OrionsByte said:

Out of curiosity, where up north? I used to live in Sacramento.

jmccarthy said:

Yuba City.

ktom said:

Certainly ktom!

And in reference to freeriders post earlier, the hardest part about all of these "tasks" was trying to come up with ones that wouldn't take away from playing the game itself. I tried to come up with ideas for things that would naturally happen durring the coarse of the game, and that didn't require a certain deck to acomplish. I did, however, try to influence people to play different houses for each of the three events (maximizing the number of links the could receive). Hopefully, I'll do a better job of it this year. I can't wait to break all that plastic chain out again!!

And OrionsByte.... I say this to everyone who's new..... I really hope you can make it. If you don't feel comfortable jumping in head first and playing in the tourney, on Saturday night we usually try to hang out. You'll definitely be able to get some games in, and we're always ready to help out and give advice on things (for better or for worse). Either way, it'll be nice to meet you.

OrionsByte said:

How is Yuba this time of year? Nice and warm? One of my best friends from college is from Yuba City, so I know the place fairly well.

Definitely come if you can, I've never been to a tourney, but I'm still hoping to go. My card pool is much more limited than some decks, but I'm hoping my mad skills will overcome that deficiency. And by mad skills, I mean that I've been playing since Christmas, and infrequently at that.

jmccarthy said:

I'm hoping to make this my first tourney as well. I'ma try to make it for sure. ~and of course, I'll win =P

foxpillow said:

Hey, whether you win or not, everyone has such a good time at these things that no one actually loses ....

Oh yeah, I'm not terribly concerned with results and whatnot. Just figured I'd throw in at least one snarky comment. I am looking forward to this a lot. Just hopefully we have a date sooner than later so I can get the time off at work.

jmccarthy said:

Yeah it's toasty. It was up to 106 or 107 this weekend (depending on who you talk to). We're getting a break for a couple days where it should only be around 98.

I haven't tried making my own decks yet - my wife and I are still learning the core set, and haven't picked up any expansions. That's something I would hope to get out of attending an event like this - just being exposed to that kind of play style would be eye-opening for us. This is our first card game so there's a lot we're still figuring out.

OrionsByte said:

CaliCon is a great venue for learning the ins-and-outs of the game! We have a wide range of skill levels which keep things competitive, tons of extra cards available for newer players to rumage through in order to strengthen their decks and a "Sansa Prize" for the person who finishes with the worst record, not to mention all the other prizes from chapter packs to custom power counters to authentic Art prints ect. The whole experience is too good to miss and we would love to have you.

Also I know a few guys who play AGoT in Sacramento who would probably be available to play sometime before CaliCon to get some practice games in. Let me know if your interested...I make it up there every once in a while as well.

Bump.

Ok so as of now we have a tentative date. Saturday Sept. 12 and Sunday Sept. 13

I will be ordering the prize support tomorrow and scheduling the store space as well. I will post all the info once the confirmations have been completed. Stay tuned...

cha0s said:

OrionsByte said:

Also I know a few guys who play AGoT in Sacramento who would probably be available to play sometime before CaliCon to get some practice games in. Let me know if your interested...I make it up there every once in a while as well.

So OrionsByte, what is your schedule like this Friday (7/31) ? The reason I ask is that I am going up to Sac to meet a few guys to play some thrones. Would you be interested in trying to make it as well? Let me know. I sent you a friend request, that way we can PM back and forth to work out the details. I know its kinda short notice but I thought I would try. Thanks,

cha0s said:

I'm afraid I'll be out of town, but another time for sure!