Wellycon, the astonishing weekend of boardgame fun, is back again for 2011. With a new venue and an expanded program, it’s going to be amazing! If you love games, you need to be there. Here’s the spiel, directly from the Wellcon folk themselves:
This year we are located at:
Student Common room, Level 1,
Student Service Trust Building1,
Massey University, Entrance E,
Tasman Street, Wellington
There is plenty of parking right out front of the Tussock bar and cafe which is the ground floor of the Student Service Trust Building, so we strongly advice that you enter from the Tasman Street side unless you are taking public transport.
If you are taking public transport the number 10 bus is the best. It does not run directly down Tasman street, so you can attempt to walk through Massey from the other side or get off near the top of Tasman street and walk to Entrance E or simply walk from Adelaide Road where a bunch of buses such as the number 1 bus travel.
http://www.metlink.org.nz/timetables/bus/010
Food will be available on site over lunch each day (12 – 2 approx). Drink and snacks will be available for the duration of the convention from us or from a bank of vending machines. We will also take prepaid orders (approx $10) for dinner each night. You are welcome to bring your own food to the venue. Food and drink don’t mix with board games, so please don’t eat or drink at the game tables. We have a special breakoutroom for eating.
There will be a number of features:
Trading session (Sunday 12pm): Bring along those unwanted games
Prototype play-test (Saturday 3pm): Open to anyone keen to play or demo prototype games, be sure to bring your latest creation.
Pub quiz (Saturday 7.30pm): Test your gaming and general knowledge in a 30 minute quick fire quiz.
Family session (Sunday 2.30pm): Especially for families with kids ages 5 -10 (discounted admission)
Published designers will be on site during the weekend, as will some of your favourite vendors. We will have more volunteers this year to organise and teach games. This is all in addition to our excellent game library crammed full of gaming goodness.
While stocks last we will be giving away our commemorative dice for free to any first time attendees and anyone that travels from outside of the lower north island. Bring a friend that hasn’t been before and you also receive a free dice. Otherwise you can pick up your dice for $3 each (limit 5).
The Admission fee is $5 a day flat rate with discounts for families. This is effectively nothing. You can’t go to a movie for $5, a 12 year can’t satisfy their hunger at McDonalds for $5, you can’t hire rollerblades or bikes for $5. Nether can you rent a new release video, buy a magazine, or even drive up the coast for $5. It’s scandelous, it’s outrageous, it’s incredibly cheap.
Of course some might say you can sit at home playing games with your mates all day for nothing. But the fact is most of us won’t and can’t and most of us want to play something we don’t already have. You get to immerse yourself in games … if you want.
And really importantly there are prizes galore. Your expected value of prizes is likely to exceed your entry fee, meaning that statistically WE ARE PAYING YOU TO COME AND PLAY GAMES. We have Pixelpark and Seriouslyboard both on board (drum roll please), and we hope to have a presence from our Friendly Local Game Stores too.
To fast track your registration you will want to register by sending an email to our special registration address wellycon2011@gmail.com , with your home town, names of the people attending, which previous Wellycons you have attended and your Boardgamegeek user id if are a member. This will ensure you avoid the queues and can get into gaming as quickly as possible.
We are ready and rearing to go for a fantastic weekend of gaming. Check out the schedule above and be ready for prizes, personalities and plenty of Pandemic. Bring some friends and some games and we’ll see you there.
Full program
Saturday
9am Setup
10am Registration
2pm Tournament
3pm Prototype demo and play test session
5pm Prize giving
6.30pm Pizza dinner (orders confirmed by 5.15pm)
7.30pm Pub quiz
Sunday
10am Registration
12pm Trading
2.30pm Family session
5pm Prize giving