Episode 333 – Board Game Cruises, Cons, and More, with Monica Rasso
Board Game Cruises, Cons, and More
with Monica Rasso
333 Fact – We talk about the 3-3-3 rule for adopting a rescue dog.
Sponsor Message – If you need to talk about other ideas to get started budgeting, set up a call with First Move by going to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers today.
What We’ve Been Playing
Furnace
Splendor Duel… and a quick digression in to reading rulebooks (or novels) vs watching videos (or listening to audiobooks)
Fruition
HEAT: Pedal to the Metal
Sauscharf – as anticipated in episode 327!
HerStory – Underdog Games has a crazy sale on it this month – $19.19!
Agueda – 3 days left on Kickstarter!
SNAP Review – KuZOOka
Cooperate to get the animals out of the zoo in this unique game. Like Liars’ Dice, you need to make a guess that is plausible across everyone’s hands. Like a rogue-like videogame, you’ll need to get better over multiple rounds to beat the game.
Watch the video or read the full review.
Monica Rasso, Event Manager
Monica runs a ton of board game events (and some non-board game ones, too). Like what?
Tantrum Con
Monica met Will, Ryan, and Kevin at a smaller con (Mega Moose Con in SC). They had been running a free game day with 200+ people and were starting to think about running a “real” convention.
Monica had already volunteered at other game conventions and even been the general manager for one.
So she sat down and met with the whole Tantrum House team and they decided to plan out a board game convention that used everyone’s strengths.
This year: ended up at 750 attendees, sold out and had to turn people away! This means they’ll be moving to a larger facility next year.
Cruise: Meeples at Sea
Met ladies at Dice Tower Con when she was volunteering there. “We do a board game cruise!” Monica went on it, it was about 100 people and a lot of work.
So much work that the two women running CruisieCon asked Monica to become their cruise director!
Monica wanted to do more, so she started Meeples at Sea to run a board game cruise at a different time of year… and then post-COVID it merged with CruisieCon.
What is it? A game convention – on the water. Food, activities, travel is all included. And of course, lots of games. A full week at the best price they can get!
Proto ATL
ProtoATL is a convention dedicated to playing prototype games!
Andrew Smith (Andy) from Gold Seal Games was running a mass-prototyping event out of a breakroom at PSi (a distribution & fulfillment company). Designers would have to leave and go to a hotel overnight and come back in the morning.
“What if we could do it all in one location?” This would allow food, staying late night to keep gaming, etc.
Now ProtoATL is in the Westin Buckhead in downtown Atlanta.
What is it? “The business side of gaming.”
Publishers come, designers (and some playtesters) buy badges. All about getting feedback on game prototypes! There are also seminars, networking, and other kinds of help for upcoming game designers.
Naturally, one of the sponsors is The Game Crafter, making lots of pieces available for prototyping.
One Last Thing…
Table-flipping is an awesome feature of Tantrum Con.
Monica manages one other convention: Game & Party Con in Jacksonville, FL.
Find Monica Online:
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