"Please Register with the Hostess."
Seminars, Tournaments, Panel Discussions, even sports events in the flurry of activities, the most difficult part of Origins was deciding which of the simultaneous events you most want to see. This vear we had a staff of 12 with us, yet coordinating proved impossible. Two weeks of action was packed into a short weekend. Most inconveniently, our own chance to eat was early morning in a lown where only the Howard Johnson's was open. Walking at midnight through Origin's first electrical storm, one could not help but wonder whether all this feverish activity was, in some way, responsible for the nearby lightning strikes. But once inside the motel coffee shop, all such thoughts are dispelled. Randy Reed is providing the floor show!
Coffee glides down into one's stomach and sets everything intb motion One's ideas advance in cofumn of route fike battafions of the Grand Armee. Memories come up at the double bearing the standards that are to lead the troops into battle. The light cavalry deploys at the gallop. The artillery of logic thunders along with its supply wagons and shells. Brilliant notions of the combat as sharpshooters. The characters don their costumes, the paper is covered with ink, the battle has begun and ends with an outpouring of black fluid like a real baltlefield enveloped in swathes of black smoke ffom expended gunpowder.
This year the national wargaming convention began on Barbarossa day at Widener College in Chester, Pennsylvania As always, Origins afforded much color and movement, a chance to meet with gamers on a personal basis and exchange ideas, and a rush of new designs from practically all the game companies. The present piece is only an initial account of the convention, Invariably much goes unseen when one single pair of eyes is all that is observing. In any case, these are the impressions of one observer for what they are worth
The site at Chester was an indifferent but interesting location. Widener was largely inaccessible except for cars, and those were favored with very little parking space Different convention facilities were widely separated or else crunched together For example. while there was a good ten-to-twenty minute walk from the main events building to the sales floor, most of the tournaments occured in one cafeteria amid a hubbub of noise and activity Similarly, seminar events were held at both the convention center and at a gym where the sales floor was located Further, the road route from the main complex to the gym was rather confusing for anyone attempting to make the trip for the first time
Some of the difficulty was relieved by the convention staff in a novel way Basically, the U.S. Army was prevailed upon to provide 2 1/2 -ton trucks to run a shuttle service between the two main convention areas At first this was puzzling. Then it turned out that Widener is the former Pennsylvania Military College, transformed intoa coed community college after 1973. In addition, it became apparent that in exchange for transport service, the Army was able to place a recruiting booth on the convention sales floor. People had varying ideas on the propriety of this feature.
As far events are concerned, Origins truimphed over its locale. In fact, 168 different tournaments seminars, panel discussions and meetings were offered for the interested hobbyist, on everything from Napoleonics to miniatures to game design topics A number of events were well attended but, judging from the packed cafeteria. Tournaments seem to have been in vogue this year. Unfortunately this had disastrous consequences for the open gaming side of the convention there was little room for open gaming in the tournament area; Widener kept another large cafeteria area completely closed off so that it could not be used: and the dormitories had tew or no provisions such as tables and chairs in common rooms on which to set games up. A vending machine room downstairs in the convention center touted as an open game area was much too small to have been the single open gaming area and, in addition, had also to function as a snack bar. Finally, all the facilities closed at midnight to prevent overnight matches.
As for the seminars, these were a mixed bag. Two that I dropped in on had about a dozen people, as did another I gave myself. Many events had scheduling problems anid were not held or were shifted to different rooms, and some seminar hosts were less than courteous when involved in hassles of this sort. On the other hand, some events were more noteworthy and interesting. The SPI Roast, while not as large as in other years, lost none of its heat and humor, and was the subject of much discussion after Jim Dunnigan was queried on aspect's of SPI's personnel policies. On the historical side, Kevin Zucker's Napoleonic seminar drew almost a hundred people interested in his Campaigns of Napoleon series. As far as design is concerned, it is sad to report that, in contrast to 1976 when such an event was last held, the number of game designers with problems who sought to make use of the game consultation service drooped off considerably.
One colorful aspect of any gaming convention is the array of new games that appear on these occasions. Operational Studies Group was certainly no exception and its new games included Danny Parker's Dark December, on the Battle of the Bulge, the micro historical game Battles of The Hundred Days, which received a wild reception, and the science fiction micro game Starquest. For its part, GDW showed up with many of their older games in boxed versions, and with their long awaited Marika-Merkur. SPI had their Campaign for North: A monster design, but they arrived at the sight a mere fifteen minutes before the convention sales floor opened and so were never able to get properly set up, at least not until Friday afternoon. Freedom in the Galaxy, their version of a certain popular movie, did very well, Avalon Hill also came in with new fantasy and science fiction titles, notably Dune, from the novel of that title, and Magic Realm, breathlessly awaited since 1978. If a single design theme is illustrated by the new games at Origin's, in 1979 it had to be science fiction games.
One other interesting element of the new material available should be noted Many people commented upon the sheer number of new game companies that surfaced at Widener Among these was Dan Palter's West End Games, which was showing Al Nofi's design Imperium Romanum Game manufacturers had a very interesting combination miniatures and board naval game called North Cape dealing with World War II Arctic convoys. California based People's War Games was showing its monster Russian front game titled Korsun Pocket. Creative Wargames Workshop brought out a great little power politics design titled Junta. The people who earlier designed a huge Siege of Jerusalem 70 AD game certainly a design which suffered from a lack of exposure within the hobby, are now trying with a promising Viet-Nam air war game. The list could go on and on New companies included Dimension Six, Yaquinto Publications, and Nimrod Games as well as others whose booths I could not even get to In any case it seems that a great many people have decided to take the plunge with company efforts of their own.
Earlier I mentioned problems with the location and site of Widener. These should not be attributed to the convention staff under Jay Hadley, who did a tremendous job given the very inadequate support. It appears that a number of convention volunteer workers failed to show up and that there were difficulties in organizing an effective staff even before June 22nd. Attendees from the Metro Detroit Wargamers who staged Ongins'78 had to pitch in to help with the convention work. As it was, at one point the convention staff trying to hold everything together was down to a total of only five persons. This compares to a total attendance of 4,200 currently being claimed for the con,although this fiqure seems a little high to me.
On the Charlie Roberts Awards there were renewed discussions this year focusing on the games nomination process Scott Bizar brought a motion at the Game Designers' Guild to also place that organization's concern about the Charlies on record. Arrangements are being made for a different nomination process for next year to be finalized this August. Be that as it may, the 1978 Charlies were determined by 505 votes at Ongins. The 1978 Designers' Guild Awards were determined by about forty members at that meeting.
The Charlies eiected John Hill to the Hall of Fame, the Guild appointed Tactics II to its Hall of Fame Dave Isby's study of the battle of Cambrai, To the Green Fields Beyond, now has become the first design to win both a Charles Roberts Award and a Designers' Guild Award.
Another important business item was the question of Origns itself. It now appears as if general regional groups wil! alternate in bringing Origins to their part of the country. There is to be an Eastern Gaming Association formed around Jay Hadley's group, a Mid-Western Association built around the Metro Detroit group, and a southwestern group with Howie Barasch's Heritage Models operation as a nucleus. Origins '80 will be held at the convention center at the University of Delaware, which is apparently accessible to public transportation, a definite plus. The favored site for 1981 currently appears to be Dallas with a mid-western location for the following year.
My last noteworthy memory of Origins '79 is a social one. I attended as an independent event host, but drove down with the OSG staff, and stayed with them at a Sorority House known as the Castle. This was truly something else: a sorority converted from an old house, maybe that of the college president. There were statues. trophies, and woodwork galore, quite different from the remainder of the campus. The locale was so nice that the OSG staff could not resist the notion of throwing a party there Consequently, late saturday afternoon, following my presentation of "Sense, Style, and Simulation." Kevin and I went looking for an open supermarket and came back with supplies. The party at "The Castle" that night was great, went late, and afforded an opportunity to meet many interesting characters in this hobby It was a refreshing difference from the hectic convention routine and one would hope that the pause that refreshes becomes a traditional part of Origins.
In the meantime, if you were a passenger aboard the Army 2 1/2, Origins, with the diesel exhaust blowing back over the cab and into the flatbed, I would not blame you for doubting the combat capability of soldiers driven for hours to a battlefield aboard such a vehicle.
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© Copyright 1979 by Operational Studies Group.
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