I had a very good time at Dreamation, playing and running games, and seeing old friends. The was my first DE event as a GM, so I got to use the "Staff Suite" as well. Since I barely ate on Friday morning packing to get there, I appreciated the sandwiches I got up there upon arriving at the hotel. My thanks to the people running the Staff and Con suites for keeping us gamers from going hungry or thirsty.
The hotel - I heard complaints, but overall I thought the Hyatt was a change for the better. It took a while to get your bearings straight because of the new hotel, but there seemed to be enough room for all the different types of events going on. I also made time for myself to use the pool and hot tub, and found out the locker room area had a steam room and sauna. A nice way to just relax and forget your worries, if only for a short time. The rooms were nice. I got a fridge and microwave, which I ordered ahead of time, and I thought the beds were more comfortable than the Hilton.
Food - other than the con and staff suites - the hotel had the "Eclectric Grill" and its bar area serving stuff. There may have been another restaurant in the hotel as well. There was also a convenience store in the hotel - if you were able to find it (I stumbled on it by acceident), and they set up a grill area in the dealer/registration/board games area for famished gamers. If you were there around 7:30 pm on both nights, you were able to take advantage of the reduced prices sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers and pizza for $1.00. That was nice, and those burgers and hot dogs hit the spot.
Business facilities - well the Business Center closed on Friday at 6:00 and did not open for the entire weekend. I wanted to check my e-mail. I managed to find an open computer at the Conference Center and used that. This was something you had to know about, because the hotel didn't mention this, maybe because it was free.
Special Events - I took part in three of them. The Weakest Link on Friday, The $100 Pyramid on Saturday and the Trivia Finals on Sunday. I was voted off halfway thru the WL game, lost the qualifying game on Pyramid (The Dungeons and Dragons category killed us) and placed fourth in the Trivia contest that had four people in it. I did enjoy myself at all of these events - for me, it's not all about winning. I thank Bruce and Brendan for running WL and Pyramid and thanks to Phil Gellis for making a quite challenging trivia contest.
My schedule - I volunteered to run 19 hours of gaming at DM. Most of it came off well. Wits and Wagers was a hit and filled both nights it was played. Cutthroat Uno was quite lively. Man Bites Dog had four players plus myself, and Boggle was friendly but quite challnging, with Phil Gellis finding a ten-letter word in the 5 X 5 grid. I've never seen that happen before. I left the Yahtzee game when it stated on Sunday afternoon to play in the trivia competition, but I recorded the three players' badge numbers on the sheet before I left. That's the good. The bad was only one person showed up for Scrabble on Friday afternoon. so Mark S., who was a GM and dealer, played "Super Scrabble" with 200 letters and quadruple scoring. Mark ended up with 600-something and I ended up with 500-something. A good game and scores for two people. The Saturday midnight Tsuro game didn't go off because we didn't have a copy of the game when it was needed. No one signed up for it. I noticed six people signed up for Jenga scheduled at the same time, so I ran that instead.
I chalk up this DM as a success and a great time for me personally. Thanks to Ruth Pinsky for pitching my ideas to the staff. I got W&W, Man Bites Dog and Tsuro on to the schedule. Thanks to all the fellow GMs and others who supported me and took part in my games. And a big thanks to Vinny. I made it to GM status at last. My first gaming event was DE's Spring Gathering in 2006. How far I've advanced in three years. Thanks guys, see you in July at Dexcon
Mike C
Tired, but satisfied board gamer
