At EN World, I talked about my experience as a publisher attending MACE 25, November 12 to 14, 2021 at the Hilton Charlotte University Place in Charlotte, North Carolina. At d20 Radio, I spoke with the show’s owner as well as Jodi and Clint Black of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and Carolina Game Tables, and Christina Stiles of Christina Stiles Presents and Misfit Studios (who I’ve interested here about her work on Rogue Mage RPG and JordanCon), getting their perspective. Unfortunately, I ran out of space to share the thoughts of MACE charity raffle organizer, Benjamin Burton, two-time ENnie nominee, Robert H. Hudson Jr, and author, Randall Hayes. Thus, I’m including what they thought of MACE 25 here.
Professional Do Gooder, Benjamin Burton, helped to organize MACE 25’s charity raffle as well as many others. He shares his impressions of MACE 25, in general.
“I thought MACE went very well this year. I’d have liked to of seen more masks being worn, but that was beyond anyone’s control. I had a blast gaming and seeing old friends.
“Compared to previous years? Well I’ve been coming for almost 20 years, and this felt like MACE to me. I remember the smaller years in High Point, [North Carolina], so MACE has never been about numbers to me. There were things missing this year, but it was still a good time.
“MACE intentionally stays a small con. It’s got a personal feel, and I see the same people every year even if I don’t know everyone’s name. You can fit in better with the little hidden gem cons easier sometimes. I love the big cons, but I feel like MACE is my home con.”
As to the charity raffle, what Benjamin accomplished impressed me. With attendance of 425 to 475 fans (down from 2019’s 710 pre-Covid numbers), they managed to break prior records and reach $3,000.
“This was our 4th year doing the raffle. Previously we’d done tournaments for various games to raise money for different non-profits. This year was our most successful by a fair bit. We seem to get better at this every time, and people come to know and expect us now. We get messages leading up to MACE from total strangers about the raffle and donations of loot all weekend. Veterans Bridge Home has been the recipient of our efforts twice now, I suspect that’ll be the case next year too.”
Robert H. Hudson Jr, two-time ENnie nominee and frequent freelancer at Misfit Studios and elsewhere, gave his perspective on the con. First, how did it compare with prior MACEs?
“I think it compared favorably. Every game I was a part of made all of my players (from the GM side of the table) and fellow players (from the player side) had fun; and the convention ran like clockwork. You can’t ask for better than that!”
And your overall impression of the 25th anniversary show?
“I loved it! There were fewer people of course, that was to be expected given the current Covid issues, but it was incredible to finally be able to see old friends, make new ones, and game with them/run games for them after almost two years. Ron [McClung] and Jeff [Smith, the co-organizers of MACE] worked themselves ragged to try and make it a special event, not just because it was the 25th anniversary, but because it was the first return to conventioning for so many people, and they succeeded.
“There were fewer games on the schedule this year than any previous year owing to Covid, but that had a bright side in that I saw a lot of new faces at my table when I ran, and got to game with some new people and new GMs when I wasn’t running.
“I was pleased to see the veteran’s charity raffle back again, having been afraid that they wouldn’t make it after the Covid-skip. There are a lot of veterans among the gaming community (myself among them) and any opportunity for our community to reach out and help our brothers and sisters is always appreciated, especially one so cleverly and expertly designed to appeal to the convention-goers.
“There’s really nothing like MACE in my experience. The games are the thing, and they’re always varied and great; and Ron and Jeff are always working 150% to make it a success – but the real sell for MACE is the people. They all love the same thing – the gaming – and they’re all there, young and old, from just around the corner and three states away, GM and player alike, to share that mutual love with one another.”
Randall Hayes*, former neuroscience researcher, former college professor, and now writer/entrepreneur, with an “in-person game teaching service called Dice for Hire as a side hustle,” attended and shared what he enjoys about the show.
“I’ve been to MACE at least half a dozen times. It’s my favorite small game convention because they run such a tight ship. There are lots of games, and relatively few of them are canceled at the last minute. It happened to me twice this year out of about seven sessions, once on Friday because a board game tutor was late (he texted an apology), and the other was Sunday afternoon, which is almost to be expected. Complaints are taken seriously, and there’s normally a good variety of games. I wish there had been more narrative games this time, but they’re somewhat out of fashion right now. There’s more detail (with a few pictures) in this issue of my newsletter, Doctor Eclectic.”
*Because Randall Hayes’ resume is largely outside of tabletop RPG, I’m sharing bits of it here.
“I’ve done a couple of different blogs over the past ten years, and a podcast, links to which are available at my Substack. I’ve recently published science articles with magazines like PaAbnormal, Utopia Science Fiction, and a previous column at The Intergalactic Medicine Show. Fiction has appeared in Lackington’s Magazine and a couple of anthologies, Mohs 5.5 Mars and American Dread from Muddy Paw Press.
“I did some creative writing as a student, but my professional authorial journey started with technical articles in research journals, which were not that much fun to write. There were silly traditions like writing in third-person, passive voice: ‘Experiments were performed.’ As though simply saying that you were objective made it true. That was the culture, though. Then I started doing volunteer science journalism on the radio for KPFT, the Pacifica station in Houston. That led to an evolution podcast and eventually to submitting science articles to SF magazines.
“I’ve never written for game magazines, though I did quite a few in-character adventure logs for a long-running OSRIC campaign set in and around a published indie mega-dungeon.”
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