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Council of Five Nations
Council of Five Nations XXXIV: Convention Report |
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Submitted by DC on Fri, 10/28/2011 - 23:31.
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We've had a few weeks to rest, recover and wrap things up on another very successful Council of Five Nations. To be honest, the SWA Planning Team was concerned about attendance this year. With the economy in an extended slump and gasoline prices hovering around $4/gallon, we were worried these factors might conspire to keep our long-distance attendees away. We were estimating a 10% drop. However, we are very happy to report those concerns were unfounded. Overall, we had an increase in attendance of about 7%! We even had someone fly in from Reno, Nevada to attend our Star Fleet Battles tournament (the biggest in the whole world). Many thanks to all of you who attended. Very special thanks to our Game Masters and Reg Desk Volunteers: Eric Alexopoulos, David Alfano, Tavis Allison, Philip Armstrong, Bill Ashbaugh, Aaron Bandstra, Robert Beaver, Vickey Beaver, Chris Bernardi, Tracy Bloom, Dan Boggs, Dan Bostwick, David Bostwick, Carey Bostwick, Crystal Brown, Christopher Brown, Bernard Bryant, Ben Bunday, Mildred Cady, Thomas Carpenter, Matthew Chambers, David Cheng, Jonathan Choy, Tersha Choy, Jeannie Compter, Aaron Cordes, Greg Croff, David Cuatt, Chuck Davis, Bill Dickerson, Frank DiNola, Ron DuBray, Raymond Dumas, Troy Ferris, Jarrod Ferullo, Chris Ford, Devin Fortman, Kevin Gallagher, Matt Gallinger, Brian Gass, Mike Haggett, Deric Harrington, CJ Henderson, Alex Jurkat, Ken Kazinski, Mike Keenan, Stephen Kent, Jessica Kent, Robert B. Kinkead, Rob Kirker, Matt Kornher, Pete Landry, Andrew Littlefield, Art Lobdell, Jonas Lowery, Frank Luberti, Jr., Ralph Mabb, Ben Maggi, Tom Marli, Dan Masucci, Brett McLean, Michael Moon, Leo Murphy, Chris Nichols, Ben Ossenfort, Mike Paine, Matt Papa, Eric Paperman, Jennifer Paperman, James Parks, Steve Petrick, Mike Reynolds, John Rigley, Rob Rodger, Michael Rogozinski, Vince Romeo, Robert Rowe, Jr., Andy Roy, Mike Russman, Mike Sanchez, David Santana, Karen Seiz, Gerry Seypura, Rodney Sheldon, John Stevens, Robin Toll, Christopher Tosh, Mike Tracey, Bernie Trombley, Michael Tutt, Ben Uticone, Marvin Veeder, Jamie Veeder, William Walker, Steve Watts, Niko White, John Whitehead, James Wilhelm, and our apologies to anyone we missed listing above. There would literally be no convention without you. There was a phenomenon at this year's Council that we think needs to be mentioned. This happens a little every year, but for some reason, it seemed to happen a lot more this year. Hopefully by talking about it now, we can cut down on it's occurence next year. That phenomenon was people pre-registering for events, having the ticket in their posession, and both: (a) not showing up for the game, and (b) not returning their ticket. A lot of people ask us why we don't have a flat entry fee, and deal with the hassle of separate costs for each ticket. The full answer would take several paragraphs, but suffice it to say that we think it's the best system we know of. And one of the virtues is that it gives people more of an incentive to return their tickets to the pre-reg desk if they are not going to attend an event. You get your money back! Or, you can trade it for another ticket. It seemed like we had many more games than usual this year where we sold a lot of tickets (some even selling out), and then a surprising number of ticket-holders did not show. What's up with that? Anybody have any insight? We know the problem will never totally go away. There are always a few no-shows for a variety of reasons. However, it is especially dispiriting for our GMs when we tell them their game is full, or almost full, and then they have a whole bunch of empty seats when the game is set to start. We hope to see less of this in future years. Please help us keep this to a minimum. We're already thinking about how to make not only next year's con better, but our monthly Game-a-thons too. We hope to see you all at many of our events throughout the year. We also hope to see many of you at Carnage next weekend - one of our favorite conventions. Watch your email box for more SWA news soon:
p.s. We're still looking to reunite some Council Lost-and-Found items with their owners. Please click here and see if you can help us. |
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Council of Five Nations 2011 Lost & Found |
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Submitted by DC on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 20:04.
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We had an excellent Council of Five Nations a couple of weeks back (more on that in another message soon). When we were cleaning up, we found a few items that want to get back to their owners. We also have something left from last year's Council that still needs to find its way home. 1) Small plastic miniature figure/game piece The bottom of the base says:
21/60, CG 38 Mephling Pyromancer (c) 2005 Wizards  2) Space and Time Magazine Issue #109 - Winter 2009
 3. US Polo Assn Jacket Dark Blue Fleece
Size = "L (14/16)"  4. Small Blue Sun Board Game Piece - Left over from Council 2010! Can anyone tell us what game this is
from?
We can look at last year's schedule and see who ran that game. If you know, please contact us at the email address below and share your knowledge.  Please let us know if any of these items might be yours. We will arrange to get it back to you. If you're going to Carnage in two weeks, as many of us SWA folks are, we can meet you there. You can email us at Council /at/ swa-gaming.org Thank you. |
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Council Event Changes, Weather Forecast, and Last Call for Pre-Reg |
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Submitted by DC on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 12:00.
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Hello Northeast Adventure Gamers, Council of Five Nations is this weekend (Friday, October 7th - Sunday, October 9th)! We are sorry to announce a few event cancellations: A-Board-1: STARCRUISER (but
still running in the Sat 7pm [E-Board-1] time slot, and maybe other
times over the weekend)
B-Minis-7: Squadron Strike D-Minis-7: Squadron Strike E-Minis-7: Squadron Strike Please keep in mind that pre-registration will close at midnight tonight, Wednesday, October 5th. We do this because we need a couple of days to get all the registrations ready for your arrival on Friday the 7th. Please
click
to
download the Council
Pre-Registration packet in PDF format.
Council Weather ForecastWeather.com
says we are looking at a beautiful Council weekend. Sunny and
cool all three days - good traveling weather for your drive to
Schenectady, NY. Please click
here to see the most up-to-date forecast.
Questions or Comments?You can contact
us directly at council@swa-gaming.org
You can also call Dave at (518) 464-1977, any day until about 11pm Eastern time. Summary of Council Info LinksPlease click for the main Council
general info page.
Please click to download the Council Pre-Registration packet in PDF format. Please click to Pre-Register via the online form (with immediate PayPal or Credit Card payment). Please click for the pre-registration booklet informational text (the stuff besides the event listings... see below). Please click for Directions to Council of Five Nations. Please click for the Council Hotels page. Please click for the Council Parking page. Pages highlighting our game events and special event tracks Please click
to
go to
the Chronological
listing of all events.
Please click for the list of Kids games. Please click for the listing of all the Pathfinder Society RPG games. Please click for the listing of all the Historical Miniatures events. Please click for the Star Fleet Battles tournament page. Please click for the Board Game Geek Top 25 event track page. Please click for the Train games event track. Please click for the Horror games event track page. Please click for the Science Fiction games event track page. Please click for the Battleground: Fantasy & Historical Warfare event track page. Please click for the Savage Worlds event track page. Please click for the Live Action Role-Play event track page. |
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Council gets International Support & Acclaim |
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Submitted by DC on Sat, 10/01/2011 - 21:25.
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It seems that Council's good reputation has spread to the far corners of the world. We had not one, but two international gaming companies reach out to us to offer sponsorship and support. You've already seen their advertisements in our pre-registration booklet; here is a special highlight. Fernando Enterprises is a Sri Lankan miniatures painting company. Love minis, but don't love painting? Outsource the job. You can see some samples of their World War II painted figures (15mm) at Council this year. You can visit their web site at www.MiniatureLovers.com
Right Games is a Russian company that creates board and card games. These games have been translated into English. We will have Evolution: The Origin of Species, Potion Making Practice, The Enigma of Leonardo and The Kingdoms of Crusaders available in the Open Gaming Library at Council this year. If you like the game, you might be able to pick up a copy at Sunday's world-famous Council Discount Auction. You can visit Right Games' web site at www.RussianBoardGames.com
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Council Pre-Registration is Now Open |
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Submitted by DC on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 23:15.
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Hello Northeast Gamers, Council of Five Nations pre-registration is now fully up-and-running. We announced a couple of days ago that the pre-reg packet was available in PDF format. It looks like about 210 of you have already downloaded it. Now, the web site functionality is fully operational: Please click to download the Council Pre-Registration packet in PDF format. Please click to Pre-Register via the online form (with immediate PayPal or Credit Card payment). Please click for the pre-registration booklet informational text (the stuff besides the event listings... see below). Please click for Directions to Council of Five Nations. Please click for the Council Hotels page. Please click for the Council Parking page. Pages highlighting our game events and special event tracks Please click
to
go to
the Chronological
listing of all events.
Please click for the list of Kids games. Please click for the listing of all the Pathfinder Society RPG games. Please click for the listing of all the Historical Miniatures events. Please click for the Star Fleet Battles tournament page. Please click for the Board Game Geek Top 25 event track page. Please click for the Train games event track. Please click for the Horror games event track page. Please click for the Science Fiction games event track page. Please click for the Battleground: Fantasy & Historical Warfare event track page. Please click for the Savage Worlds event track page. Please click for the Live Action Role-Play event track page. You've got about one month to decide. Pre-Registration will officially close on midnight of Wednesday, October 5th. After that, on-site registration prices go up 20-25%. So save money and pre-register! Our rent for the convention facility went up by 10%, but we've kept all fees flat. We're doing what we can to keep the costs of your Council weekend reasonable. Also, please don't forget that the earlier you pre-register, the better your chances of getting your top choices of events. We had dozens of events sell-out in pre-reg last year. More news coming soon. Watch your email box. We look forward to seeing many of you at Council of Five Nations 34! |
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Hotel Update for Council of Five Nations |
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Submitted by DC on Sat, 08/27/2011 - 01:54.
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Hello Northeast Adventure Gamers, We are in the final stretch of assembling the event schedule for Council of Five Nations XXXIV (October 7-9), one of the longest-running Adventure Gaming conventions in the USA. Watch your email box and the SWA web site for updates. We have an update specifically related to Council hotel options. Back in April, we posted a rate of $114 per night for the Parker Inn. This rate is still in effect. However, we have recently learned that the Parker Inn is currently going through the bankruptcy process. Click here for a good article. We called to ask if room bookings on Council weekend will still be honored, and we were assured they would be. But we still suggest you book with this in mind; if you are risk averse, perhaps one of the other options here would be more to your liking. You can go to the Council Hotel Options page to see the other places we suggest for your Council weekend stay. We look forward to seeing all of you at Council this October. |
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Our First Council Events! |
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Submitted by ericpaperman on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 13:17.
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Congratulations to Crystal Brown for being the first one to submit an event for this year's convention. She'll be running "Summer Camp of the Living Dead: Part 2" using the All Flesh Must Be Eaten RPG. Congratulations also to Benjamin Maggi for being first to submit a board game event (Shadows over Camelot) and to Mike Paine for being first to submit a miniatures event (Conquest of Hanghai). Thanks for your support! |
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SAVE THE DATE: Oct 7-9 for Council of Five Nations |
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Submitted by DC on Sun, 05/22/2011 - 11:37.
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Hello Northeast Gamers, We're getting our act together a lot earlier this year, and starting up the Council of Five Nations planning machinery. Council is Friday, October 7th through Sunday, October 9th this year. That's the weekend before the Columbus Day national holiday (just like it is every year). Please mark your calendars now and plan to be there! We have the basics on our Council general information page: We also have Hotel reservation info, if you'd like to book now. (We think the deal at the Parker Inn is particularly nice. Book early to get into our 10-room block). Of course, the emphasis of this phase of Council prep is our annual Call for GameMasters. We'll send out a separate notice to the over 200 potential GMs in our database. But if you're thinking about running a game for us, you can see that here: It's way to early to have pre-registration material ready, but we have already made one important decision: Council entry fees will not increase from last year.Even though the rent on the facility went up by 10% (the contract is already signed), we are absorbing this increase. We know money is tight for a lot of folks, and the price of gas makes it that much tougher for those of you who are out-of-town to justify the trip. We hope that putting on one of the best cons in the Northeast and keeping fees flat will help you decide it's worth the trip.Please watch the Council general info page, and your email box, for more Council news as things develop. ... but please mark October 7-9 on your calendar now! Thank you, The SWA Leadership Team |
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Council 2010 Lost & Found |
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Submitted by DC on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 23:09.
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Hello Northeast Gamers, We're wrapping things up (and recovering) from another very successful Council of Five Nations. Thank you to the over 260 people that attended. We'll have a full report soon. One important bit of housekeeping to share: there were a couple of items turned in to our lost-and-found. 1. Board Game Piece 2. Historical alternate-history game resource book If either of these items is yours, please email us at council /at/ swa.gaming.org and let us know. We hope to see you all at many future SWA events. |
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Entertainment options during Council Weekend |
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Submitted by DC on Mon, 10/04/2010 - 23:55.
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As you know, Council of Five Nations XXXIII is this coming weekend, October 8-10. Not only do we have over 150 gaming events scheduled, but we want you to be aware of other entertainment options at Proctor's theatre, our host facility. SPAMALOT The touring company of the Broadway
show _Monty Python's Spamalot_ will be performing on Council
weekend. There is one show on Friday night (8:00-10:30pm), and
two shows on Saturday (2:00-4:40pm) and (8:00-10:30pm). You can click here
to go to the Spamalot page on Proctor's web site, and can also purchase
tickets online. It looks like most tickets available are in the
$60 range.
Please also check out the Council Parking page to see how these shows will affect our parking situation. The Proctoberfest 24-hour Movie Marathon Described as "a cinema smorgasbord of
the very best and worst of movies from SciFi, horror, fantasy and
comedy." This marathon event begins at 12 noon on Saturday the
9th and runs continuously until 12 noon on Sunday the 10th.
Please click here to go to the Proctoberfest page on Proctor's web site. You can see highlights of the movies offered, and also download a PDF with the entire schedule. Ticket prices are normally $40 in advance, $50 at the door, and $25 for an 8-hour pass. BUT, we have arranged for a special Council of Five Nations discount. Show your Council badge when buying and you can get in to the whole marathon for only $20. Reminder: You have only two more days to get the lower pre-registration entry rate for Council. Pre-reg will close at midnight on Wednesday night. Pre-registrations are still coming in at a healthy rate, so we're expecting an excellent crowd this year. We hope to see you all at Council of Five Nations XXXIII this weekend! |
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