Running my First Big ITS, Part 3
The day of... All of my hard work up to this point will be for nothing, if things don't go well the day of the actual tournament. It was somehow the most stressful, part of running the event. By now, all the prizes I was going to get were accounted for. My wife (Lauren) and I spent the previous day making sure that everything was up to snuff. Player packs, all of our signs for the raffles, table numbers, door signs so people walking by would know what's going on, were all made, checked, and double checked.
Set Up & Registration
Two hours before the first dice were to be rolled, I had a number of volunteers show up early, to help set up the tables. First, we moved all the chairs out of the way, rearranged the tables to the configuration that Lauren had measured out the day before, to best fit four long rows of tables, and give ample walking space. Next we had large sheets of 9/16" plywood brought in to cover the dining tables, each capable of supporting two game tables. The plywood had to be thick to support the table without bowing, don't get 1/4" plywood and hope for the best, the investment in thicker wood is well worth it.
While the tables were set up, Lauren and I got registration started. Each person confirmed their ITS PIN, which I made sure was entered properly into OTM. I also had a list of all the players which were already confirmed on OTM, so that as they checked in, I could cross them off, and make sure that anyone was missing, but had confirmed in OTM, wouldn't get added to the tournament. After confirming their ITS PIN, they received a patch, a custom objective donated by Top Down Terrain, collected swag from our other vendors, and were able to pick one of our four raffles for their name to be put into the drawing for.
With registration complete, it was time for a beer.
Two Days of Games
Overall, everything went incredibly smoothly both days. Nate was busy handling rules questions, and the one player we had drop allowed Jon to be on duty for rules questions the second day. Jon, Nate, and Lauren were all taught how to enter scores into OTM, at no point were any scores put in incorrectly, nor did we have to go back and change scores, which is a huge relief. Every player had the standard Infinity scoring sheet at the last page in their packet, so we simply had people show us the scores, initialed by both players, and they were entered right into OTM.
One special note is that we obsessively hit "Save" every time we entered anything into OTM. Once in the past I hit a bug that caused me to lose all my scores in a small tournament, and I sure as hell wasn't going to let that happen at the Rose City Raid. Additionally, we exported the data after each round, so we'd have a hard backup if all else failed.
Amazing Tables
Regular readers of my blog and forum posts should know that I love terrain. I'm a huge advocate for the use of special terrain rules, and I like the table to be as much of a challenge as your opponent. I encouraged people to bring some crazy, challenging tables to play on, and wasn't disappointed.
Every table in the tournament was fully painted, and there wasn't a scrap of paper terrain in sight. This makes our games look truly cinematic. There were many hours of hard work and dedication put into each one
Photography
Jon and I are both photographers, in addition to being miniature wargamers, but we knew that our time was going to be SLAMMED during the event. Having good photography is very important for future events and sponsors, so we needed to figure out a solution. Fortunately, my new buddy in Utah, Brian, of Mini-Boss Studios, chimed in, offering to do the job.
Brian managed ALL of our needs for photography, including pictures which we were due to give our sponsors, so they can show off excited people with their gear. You can see his photos of other events on his Facebook page. Check him out, he is a great, dedicated photographer in our hobby.
If you would like to check out all 369 photos he took this year at the Rose City Raid, check out the full gallery here.
That's a Wrap!
Holy cow, what a weekend. Running an event is FAR more exhausting than playing in it, but it is also extremely rewarding. All the people who showed up were great to hang out and share a beer with. With the tournament over, we packed our miniatures and terrain, leaving the hall as we found it. With that, the Rose City Raid 2018 came to an end.
Next Year?
That's right, we're already planning next year's Rose City Raid, and it's going to be mind-blowing. The first RCR was just a warm-up for what is coming next. I've been talking with other tournament organizers, and we believe it's time to unlock Hard Mode.
Our goal for the RCR2019 is to make it the most memorable and challenging Infinity event, ever. The tables will be HARD, the scenarios will be HARD, but the beer will be cold, and the prizes will continue to be epic. Get practicing with the special terrain rules, and work on the hardest scenarios, and you'll be prepared for next year.
Keep an eye on my blog over this next year as I create more special terrain, all of which will get used in 2019. See you next year!