The ConNooga Report

ConNooga 2020 is now in the history books and I have to say that I had a great time.  

I got to the convention early on Friday and, as the convention is only a 20 minute drive from my house, I opted to not get a hotel room.  Parking was a breeze.  There was a lot across the street from the convention that had ample parking and charged $10 for 5+ hours.  

As I was unable to secure a sales table for the convention (my fault not theirs), I only had my gaming bag to bring into the convention and was able to leave this with gaming operations in the gaming hall.  I explored the dealer's room, checked out the massive gaming hall, and then got prepped for my first panel.

There was a bit of a snag as, apparently, rooms were not obtained for the gaming panels.  The staff scrambled to fix this problem and all was solved before my first panel (also the first gaming panel of the convention weekend) got started.

RPG 101 (with myself and Robert S. Evans) kicked off right on time in a conference room.  The panel was great fun!

My first game of the evening was Long Road to Redemption which had a good turn-out and was a lot of fun.   The characters were able to provide aid as well as a turn a crazy error in Zimm transit to their advantage!  I'd never seen a mishap work out so well in a character's favor and it was great fun!

Afterward, I drove home and returned to the convention the next morning.  Mr. Evans and I again did a panel at 11am on Profesional Worldbuilding.  We had a good crowd for the panel and, honestly, this panel was even more fun than the previous one.  

At 1pm, I ran "Gone Fishin'" which is always great fun as the patron in that game is a lot of fun for me to play.  He's a combination of wide-eyed child and Harold Hill from The Music Man.  

That evening, I ran "Ice Treasure". I've done this adventure before but this time I decided to do a mashup with "The Bank Vault" adventure and the two combined seemed to make for a more interesting adventure.  

In summary, I had a great time at this convention.  I saw a lot of my friends that I don't see as often as I would like as well as made new friends.  The convention was well-run and both minor and major problems were fixed quickly and successfully.  

I think my only complaint is the lack of available food.  The convention center has only concession stands and there are no restaurants in walking distance.  The convention had arranged for food trucks but there were only three of them and one of those only seemed to serve coffee.  The truck I utilized (Chick-n-Nooga...clever name) had great food but long wait lines.  Not sure why there were only three food trucks (there may have been limits) but a larger number of food trucks would have improved this situation.

But the convention can't control where people build restaurants and that's only a minor complaint.  I highly recommend ConNooga and I thank all of the fine folks who run it for inviting me to the convention.  If you're in the general area and are looking for a great convention for gaming, this is the convention for you.