Recently, I attended Orc-Con (a.k.a. Strategicon), which was held at the Los Angeles Hyatt Hotel during the President's Day holiday weekend. Given that I have not attended a convention since 1986, I was looking forward to some serious gaming. In the past few years I have switched over to the Rolemaster gaming system, so I did feel a bit intimidated by the 2nd-edition AD&D system used in the games I planned on playing. Orc-Con offered no Rolemaster tournament games, but they did offer numerous AD&D tournaments. With a burning desire to game, I decided to, once again, play AD&D and give it a shot-role-playing is role-playing no matter what system you use.

Most of the DMs (or should I say referees) were inexperienced. Although I have not played AD&D for some six odd years, I felt that I could still run an AD&D game better than the best referee at the convention. I played a total of three games; it seemed like each was all too much "hack-n-slash" and/or simply not well run. To top it off, about 80% of the players were not familiar with the game system, and did not game in the tournament with a competitive edge. Most players played the tournament games like they had all the time in the world to reach their objective.

Orc-Con had about a total attendance of about 500 for the weekend. It is a relatively small convention compared to the ones I have been to in the past, and at this convention the organizers did not really go out of their way to provide good service and a good atmosphere-no discount on the hotel room rate, too many rules to abide by, and too many convention staffers playing hall monitor. In short, if you want a baby sitter then this convention was for you.

In closing, Orc-Con was a nice convention to attend if you had nothing better to do. It was also good to bring all of your friends to game with you, if you could. Orc-Con is definitely a "bring your own crowd" convention. If one plans to attend this convention by oneself, then I would recommend one stays at home instead.

Last but not least, this convention monopolized game sales by letting only one vendor operate. Thus this eliminated any bargain shopping Or any bartering with the merchant. Usually, I expect bargains and sales at a convention, but with Orc-Con what you saw was what you got. I do feel that OrcCon has the potential to be a better convention in the future, but only if they grow and change.

ORC-CON REPORT CARD

COST FOR GAMING VS. ENJOYMENT C
ROOMS B
TOURNAMENT QUALITY & VARIETY C
MERCHANT BARGAINS & VARIETY D
LOCATION/ EASE OF ACCESS B
ORGANIZATION OF THE CON C
OVERALL RATING C