Ohio's Con on the Cob - Oct. 17-20 - You comin'?

[sniderman]

Con on the Cob is an annual "4-day celebration of games, art, freaks, and fun" held every October in Hudson, Ohio. I've been meaning to attend it, but I just can't get a good grasp on WHAT it is as the website is always so dang eclectic. It seems to be less of a gaming con and more of an art/craft/"experience" event. I'm interested in attending, but I'm trying to determine if there's enough gaming to merit the trip or if it's more for the artist-types. I'm looking for a good selection of RPG gaming here.

Has anyone attended? If so, would you recommend it to someone interested only in the gaming part of it?

http://www.cononthecob.com/

[Omote]

This year will be my 5th Con-on-the-Cob. The focus certainly seems to be on arts, artists, crafts and the like, and that is because the con organizers do a ton of that stuff outside of Cob, and in addition at Cob. But, there is a TON of gaming at Con-on-the-Cob. It's a great game convention, and many of us have been working hard for years to get Cob to have more old-school D&D style games there. Cob has a great deal of current Dungeons & Dragons type games (Living Forgotten Realms, 4E, etc). I'd say about 30% of all of the games being run are these current D&D styles games, many of which are Living games. But there is also a fair amount of Call of Cthulhu there. When I started going to Cob 5 years ago, I think there was like 20+ games of CoC. That was very cool. There is still a lot of CoC, but not as much as in the past.

There's a nice contingent of Castles & Crusades players who come out to this con, but most of those games tend to be pick-up, off-grid games. There was one game of Mutant Future last year. Con on the Cob is the pefect place for Labyrinth Lord. If we could get a few dedicated people to come and run a few games every year, Labyrinth Lord would take off!

Con-on-the-Cob is a small convention that is bursting at the seems. There are probably 300-400 attendees over the 4-day convention, which is a nice size although the hotel is small. The dealer's room is very small, but faily well stocked. Cob is a friendly convention with a big art show. It's probably the most open, and friendly convention I have ever been to. Cob is also a growing gamer-party convention. Every year the parties seem to get better and better.

Bottom line, this is primarily a gaming con during the main hours of 9am - 9 pm. After that, it turns into a "relax-a-con" with people generally just hanging out and socializing. But, this is the perfect con for classic gaming. Labyrinth Lord would do great here. We need some dedicated people to come in an run some games.

~O

[sniderman]

Hmm...you may have just sold me on it. If so, I'll run a game or two of Mut Fut as well.

[kmelion]

I agree with Omote, and I have been attending since it started. I would love to see a goblinoid games presence there. Someone should get on that.

[sniderman]

Well, I tried to register a Mutant Future game, but the stupid website crashed upon finishing. I've already dropped a line to the Con's tech folks about the Runtime error. I'll see what happens. I'd like to swing by for a day, see what it's all about, and run at least one MutFut game. If I like how it goes, I'll make plans to attend the entire four days and run a crap-ton of games next year. Right now, I just want to see what it's like and -- hopefully -- get one game of MutFut on the docket.

[sniderman]

And no replies to my emails, so that's frustrating. Wanting more info on the event, I checked out the CotC blog. Last post there was March 2011. So that's no help. Checked out the Vendors link to see who'd be selling stuff. Hit a 404 Error (plus the link looks like it's dated 2009, so it hasn't been updated in 3 years). So I think I'll just stop trying to get some info/answers on the event and won't bother trying to register.

[kmelion]

We've been going to Con on the Cob since its inception. We really enjoy the focus on the art and music related to gaming. And we've had the opportunity to have some more person to person interactions with some really cool names in gaming, like Larry Elmore. Try http://www.cononthecob.com/ I just looked there and the website is up to date with the 2012 info. There's always a TON of games going on, and a nice dealers room too. It's definitely a smaller venue, but one full of stuff to do and entertainment. Hope to see you there this year.

[Omote]

COTC has outsourced their gaming registration/set-up to another company this year. I'm not surprised that there are some glitches in there. I was only able to register for one game before the system crapped out on me. I did get a confirmation, so hopefully that is a good thing.

As for LL and MF, I'll reaffirm the stance that Con on the Cob is the perfect type of convention for these games. The general gamer population there seems more open to trying different game and especially playing game for the pure fun of a simple, enjoyable one-shot.

Hit me up if you want to get a LL or MF game going while there.

~O

[Omote]

Larry Elmore is a party monster at this con. Just saying.

~O

[Omote]

Also, here is some tech-support info I got on one of my successful attempts to register for a game:

Remember all badges, event tickets, and merchandise will be available to pick up at the convention. If there is a problem with the order, please feel free to contact us at support@mstbgaming.com or you can call 419.307.0048 and we will be happy to help.

Also, here is the gaming related registration website for COTC:
http://www.mstbgaming.com/

Hope any of that helps.

~O