[Origins 2018] Origins After Action Report Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2

Highs and Lows

So... what was good and what can be improved of Origins 2019?

Good

- One of the best things about this year was the attendance numbers for my games. With quite a few repeat customers from previous years. I always thought of Origins as a convention where people attend specific events year in year out. Building a following is something I want to see more of.

- Last year, I posted that I did not enjoy one of the Arcanis adventures. It was not the case this year. I enjoyed myself at all the tables I played (all 5 slots). Some stories pleased me more than others but overall, it was a good.

- Seeing my kids at Origins was a high point. Maybe in the future, I don't think the girls will want to come, especially not for 5 days. ActionMan on the other hand will want to come. Five, ten, forty day...

- Friends. I have so many of them I get to meet at the con.

      My Arcanis buddies: Sean-E, Paul & Nicole-G and the kids, Dave-M, Jacquie, and the PCI gang: Henry, Jimmy, Pedro.

      Dave-M, Matt-M from Rogue Cthulhu,

I'm forgetting a lot of people here.

Bad

- Well... The biggest disappointment was that neither of my Wednesday games went off. Oh well. Maybe next time. Then again, Wednesday is slow all around the convention.

- I was shocked, and unhappily so, by the price increase of Shadowrun games. Eight bucks for 4 hours at a table of 8. NOPE. If the experience was good, I could console myself. But it was not. What happened was that everyone had a backup and a backup to the backup: four faces, two hackers, three adepts, four gun-totting goons. Surprisingly, I was the only one who was a magic infiltrator. Large tables and price hikes mean that I am OUT from future Shadowrun events at Origins.

- When people complain to the head of a department, as I did to the RPG HQ, I don't want to hear that "we can't do anything because of [politics]". That's lame. Take it seriously.

- Again, their website is just plain crap. People claimed issues with it - which I lucked out and did not experience myself. One problem I have is with the difficulty in getting to important things: number of tickets available, access to what to see. I showed my wife and even she thought it was pretty craptacular. I have little hope by now that they will change this.

Improvable

- I already complained about this and people spoke to me about it. With the spread of the convention, generic tickets should be easily available. If you have an RPG HQ, they should sell generics. They do at Gencon. I don't care about your inner politics: make it easy for me, the attendee. This is something that can be improved easily.

Conclusion

This year's Origins left me thinking and seriously re-think whether I wanted to attend again. Perhaps bring ActionMan...

I will be debating it some more. However, there were a lot of good things this year that makes me think I want to return: That most of my games went off mostly.

As a bonus, the Arcanis games were great, with my character being oddly effective in combat situation for once. I was still a face that serves as a morale office.

More than a week after Origins, I am leaning towards going back next year. With most of my tables happening AND my fun time playing Arcanis, I think I'm going back next year. Whether I will plan a full schedule like this year remains to be seen.

I'm going back!