Like many others, there's no way I can attend this, but I'd love to get a copy of the swag bag items. I'm offering $20 plus shipping if someone ends up with an extra swag bag or doesn't want theirs. Contact me at grudunza (at) gmail (dot) com if you can do that.

Will pay more for a complete bag and will buy last year's too

better yet, as others have stated, POD for the printed material from both events. now that would boon to the community at large...

-=v=-

Yeah, sure. I'd rather give FFG my money at a reasonable cost, than pay a lot for a swag bag on eBay or whatever.

Grudunza said:

No kidding. Some clown on BGG is trying to sell it for $100. I don't know who I want to slap more, the person who is selling it for that much, or the person that will buy it for that much.

rikowal said:

I bought this, but you won't need to slap me (very hard) as I negotiated a lower price than $100

Shub-Niggurath said:

Nah, you get a high five for negotiation!

rikowal said:

Some clown on BGG is trying to sell it for $100. I don't know who I want to slap more, the person who is selling it for that much, or the person that will buy it for that much.

As the 'clown' who was selling it for that much on BGG, I agree with your position to a certain extent.

While certainly a high price, it is also in all fairness quite rare. Likely around 200 of these sets handed out in total making it roughly twice as rare as last years event package.

I haven't even seen a set up on ebay for this year's package at all. The demand definitely exceeds the apparent supply of people willing to let go of their promo package, regardless of how minimal the contents were this year compared to last year.

I hope FFG continues to do this every year. I went to last year's and this year's, and the attendance definitely seemed lower this year. I wondered if it wasn't because last year's organization wasn't quite as good, so some people were turned off. Last year, they did sign-up sheets for the set up games, which led to, I think, people feeling like they weren't going to be able to play the Arkham Horror variation they wanted. This year, it seemed much more informal, and we got into all sorts of variations of Arkham Horror AND Mansions of Madness, as well as plenty of copies of Elder Sign available for play. Also, FFG staff and volunteers were much more quick to round up people who were standing around looking at games and setting them up with games to play. It just seemed a lot more casual, flowing and fun this year. Although the lower attendance did, I think, contribute to my wife and I both winning some of the drawings this year for cool stuff.

So hopefully it will be a continued annual tradition, that won't face diminishing returns and eventually end.

Sluggonics said:

I do not think the informality of this years event was the main source of less hectic tension within the crowd. I think it has more to do with lower attendance than it does any changes to how scheduling was done. Less attendance naturally lends itself to less complaints.

Not that I envy the job of doing the schedule for the event, but this year was really no improvement over last year in that regard.

And why wouldn't there be lower attendance? One of the main draws to attend the event is the promo package. Nothing in there for Call of Cthulhu LCG besides a couple deck lists (which should be posted on their website already and not be seen as promotional enticement) or for Mansions of Madness. Even a small mini scenario in the event book would have gone a long way for that. I only live a few miles away and thought the incentives were boring enough to make me wait until the last minute to decide to attend instead of being among the first to get advanced tickets. I can only imagine what people from distant lands felt about it. Not that there is much feedback in that area to go on, unlike last year...

Plus, they didnt announce the event until way late in the year, unlike last year when the consumers knew about it months ahead of time and could schedule days off well in advance to attend.

Although the lower attendance may have something to do with recurring events too. There is a common mindset to take such for granted when you know it is a recurring yearly event. Along the lines of "Well, it's there every year, so I will just go next year". Next year rolls around and the same rationale is given. I know I have done that with Gencon a lot.

Just the feedback on these forums alone is testament to how low attendance was and how low interest in the event is. Last year this forum was pretty active with feedback and people looking to see how it went. This year is cries for promo packages to be sent to people who couldnt be bothered or were unable to make it.

I hope next years event is better too and hope it continues indefinitely. But it would appear that FFG needs to pull out a few more stops to draw the crowds in from far and wide.

I'd agree that the swag bag was not as good this year. There should be something in there for all of their games. While I liked the art for this year's art print, it's useless as swag, as it's too small to nicely frame, and contributes nothing to any of the games. Limited-edition game items are what people really want. Something to symbolize attendance at the event that also adds some exclusivity to your game, as well as having some actual play value.

However, for my wife and I, the swag bag is not why we attend. We live in Indiana, so it's a long drive for us, but we turn it into a mini-vacation, and a four-day weekend. We eat out at nice restaurants, we go shopping at the Mall of America, we see local museums and sights. And the draw to the event itself, aside from our love of the Arkham Horror games, is the chance to meet, talk, and hear from the developers of the games, and the chance to get to play the games with them, or, in my wife's case, to get to help design the next Mansions of Madness print-on-demand scenario. Even if we hadn't won the drawings, the developers are all accessible for questions, discussions, etc., which is really great.

Also, I think FFG advertised it just as early this year as they did last year. They were advertising Arkham Nights at Gen Con this year, which is the same time and place we found out about it last year. So it's been promoted by FFG since early August, at the latest. Whether they announced it prior to that, I'm not sure.

But overall, as you said, there needs to be better promotion, and more valuable swag to actually get people's attention. The event has kind of a half-measure feel to it-- FFG wants to have the event, but pushes the threshold on how little they can possibly do and spend to make it work. It's more than a local Event Center event, but they haven't pushed it enough into something that is a nationwide or at least a regional draw. (beyond people such as myself who can find other reasons to go to Minneapolis beyond the event itself) It's possible that adding a more "prestigious" tournament for Call of Cthulhu or Arkham Horror league play would increase interest. Although even at Gen Con, they have trouble pulling numbers for the Call of Cthulhu tournament.

Bag tags, also known as baggage tags, baggage checks or luggage tickets, have traditionally been used by bus, train and airline companies to route passenger luggage that is checked on to the final destination. The passenger stub is typically handed to the passenger or attached to the ticket envelope: a) to aid the passenger in identifying their bag among similar bags at the destination baggage carousel; b) as proof—still requested at a few airports—that the passenger is not removing someone else's bag from the baggage reclaim hall; c) as a means for the passenger and carrier to identify and trace a specific bag that has gone astray and was not delivered at the destination.

The carriers' liability is restricted to published tariffs and international agreements.

Some clown on the BGG is trying to $100. I do not know who I would like to slap in the face, who is selling more,or buy so many people.