RQ Con Down Under - Highlights and Lowlights from MOBTOTRM_at_vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au on 1996-01-27 (Glorantha Digest Vol 02)

From: MOBTOTRM_at_vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 1996 18:35:23 +1100

G'day all,

RQ Con Down Under

Phew! Now I know what Dave Cheng and Shannon, Eric et. al. must have felt like!

The con is over, and I'm pleased to say by all accounts so far it is considered a great success! Personally, I was very happy with the way everything went, and many people remarked to me that the con had a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere (if only they knew of the frenzy behind the scenes!).

The venue, the Primary School I work at, proved to be most satisfactory, despite my initial misgivings and some people's fears. They imagined they'd be squeezed into tiny desks (like the scene in the 'Blues Brothers' when they visit the nun in the orphanage). In actual fact we used adult-SIZ furniture most of the time, though some remarked it was a 'long way down' in the toilets! Because we had the venue all to ourselves, we could be flexible and change locations as required, even grabbing chairs and heading outside when the whim struck. And we had a whole football field to play trollball on!

PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS
* The "Registration Party" (held at my place the night before): a great
way for our 18 internationals, 56 out-of-staters and our local attenders to get together, and meet our special guests informally.

The buzz in the HotB area straight after the dinner break: 88 people all intent on winding up their various subplots before the rebellion broke out!
Greg's open-air HQ-at-dusk seminar.
The Live Action Trollball game, with Wes's 4 year old daughter Sue 'SIZ 2' Nicholson wiping out her SIZ 16+ opposition!
The Lore Auction: this could have gone on for hours!
The Auction: $45 for the "Avenger Ant" issue of HEROES must be some sort of a record!
Learning that our caught-in-the-act canteen robber (see lowlights) was arrested with the frenzied assistance of 'Grip' and 'Fang', two of the Victoria police force's Rottweiler attack dogs.

LOWLIGHTS
* The Bayswater Pub's curious closing times (we always seemed to descend
upon it at 10 minutes to closing).

Greg e-mailing me a week before he's due to arrive to say his passport has expired and the US government is both under 16 feet of snow and closed because the Republicans have blocked the budget (some nervous nights followed, I can tell you!)
The canteen break-in on the Friday night: stolen was a slab of Coke and a box of jelly snakes - since recovered, though we suspect the boys in blue may have helped eat some of the evidence. What the heck.
John Hughes paying big money to buy back his donated copy of Duck Tower (again).
Nick Brooke's tuneful rendition of "The Red Vexilium" during the Lunar Tunes seminar.
The 400+ beer bottles on my front nature strip for collection the morning after the Registration Party: my garbos must now think the normally sober people at #48 have suddenly become drunken sots.

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the con such a great success, our special guests; canteen wonder worker Lynn James; con gopher Leslie; my co-auctioneer Rick Meints; the writers and GMs of the tournaments; those of you who billeted our guests and attenders from out of town; and everyone else who pitched in to lend a hand. I was especially touched to see attenders volunteering to help clean up rooms and put away furniture at the end of the con: this was greatly appreciated!

Finally, thanks to my co-organisers Andrew Bean and John Hughes; Andrew especially for running all over town fixing up this 'n that the week before and John especially for the wonderful job he did on Questlines, the con fund-raiser book (available now from your Reaching Moon Megacorp representative).

While there are no plans for a return event some day, a RQ Con Down Under II is certainly not out of the question.

Shortly, all con attenders will be receiving the post-con "Squawkings from Quackford" and HotB players will be invited to write up their escapades during the freeform. These will be published along with our seminar transcripts and other con goodies in Questlines II some time in future. If you played in HotB, get writing!!

Thanks to everyone whose posted their comments to the Digest so far, and who have e-mailed me privately. Keep 'em coming!

Kind Regards to you all,

MOB