Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 4: PT's, GP's, and The Long Con
128 Plays6 years ago
Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome to the Goblin Lore Podcast!
In our fourth episode, Alex Newman and Hobbes Q. elaborate on their extensive experience at Magic Grand Prixs and conventions in general. We offer helpful tips for first-time GP-goers, what to look for and do for each personality type, and discuss how introverts or those with social anxiety who are concerned about going to a big event might negotiate the situation.
ALSO! The guys will be at GP Minneapolis, doing giveaways and recording community people for future episodes. Come say hi!
Editor's Notes: A.E. Marling corrected us on a topic from last episode; Samut sparked due to joy and euphoria. Hooray for a positive example for a neo-walker!
You can find the hosts on Twitter: Joe Redemann at @Fyndhorn, Hobbes Q. at @HobbesQ, and Alex Newman at @AlexanderNewm. Send questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to @GoblinLorePod on Twitter or GoblinLorePodcast@gmail.com.
Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art courtesy of Greg Staples, design by JDR.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to GPs and Conventions
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello Podwalkers, and welcome to episode 4 of Goblin Lore. This episode we talk a bit about GPs, cons, magic events, and really dig into culture aspect to magic rather than lore specifically. We think it's a little bit of our duty to not only talk about lore as in the stories, but also our own lore, the community's lore.
00:00:40
Speaker
you know, the things that we do, the stories that we create, and the good times and the adventures that we all have together. And we want you to be a part of that. We want you, if you've never been to a Grand Prix or a Pro Tour or a magic event, come out to one when it's in your area. It's a lot of fun and we're going to explain to you why.
Importance of Community Connections
00:01:01
Speaker
We think this is a really important one because
00:01:05
Speaker
GPs and cons for us have been where we've made some of our best connections, this is where we all met to begin with. So I hope you enjoy!
00:01:16
Speaker
Hello Podwalkers, and welcome to the Goblin Lore Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Redemann. You can find me on Twitter, at Finhorne, that's F-Y-N-D, Horn. You are listening to episode four of the show, where we are talking GPs, cons, events.
00:01:36
Speaker
I don't know, Magic Open Houses, we're going to talk every sort of event that we can think of in the Magic community and why they're important, what we do with them, helpful tips for them. And this is especially cool because for us, for the members of the Goblin Lore podcast, we're getting a GP at the end of this month, GP Minneapolis.
00:01:57
Speaker
you know, back to back with a pro tour as well.
Host Introductions and Event Ideals
00:02:00
Speaker
So I'm going to have my two co hosts introduce themselves. And I want to ask you guys, what would be your ideal event to plan or host at a GP or a con? I'm Alex Newman. I'm on Twitter at at Alexander new M. And
00:02:20
Speaker
What I want to do at a con, or a GP, more likely, just because I think it'd be ridiculous, is a triple Dragon's Maze draft. I managed to find a box really cheap, so I actually have the box of Dragon's Maze that I would need to do this. I just need to find several other unfortunate souls to do it with me. And with that note, I am HobzQ. I can be found on Twitter at HobzQ.
00:02:46
Speaker
For me, I would probably want to combine something. I mean, it's kind of funny. I'm actually probably going to do this for GP Minneapolis, which is combine like having a barbecue or some sort of food event with magic. So the magic part of it could be anything. It could be drafting. It could be a queue because I don't really care. I just really would love to cook for people. I mean, that's what I enjoy doing so.
00:03:12
Speaker
The people who came over last time I did an event at my house, I made homemade enchiladas for everybody, including making me my own salsa. And I really just love cooking. And so to cook for magic players is just something I really love to do.
00:03:25
Speaker
So my ideal event that I'd love to plan or execute or host would be some sort of lore crafting session.
Lore Crafting and Fan Engagement
00:03:35
Speaker
I've really been getting into writing fanfic and like, you know, sort of theory crafting, you know, where you sit down and you sort of think about like, okay, well,
00:03:46
Speaker
We don't know the, you know, why we'll get into this in a later episode, I'm sure, but why Emrakul sealed herself in the moon. Why is it that that happened? And how did she rewrite one of Tamio's story spells? I would love to sit down with a bunch of other people who nerd out about stuff like that. And basically, you know, if you've seen if you've seen the meme of Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, like wide eyed pointing at a cork board with all these pieces of yarn connecting pictures like, no,
00:04:16
Speaker
It all connects see that's basically what I want to do for like a whole day. I think you already That's kind of who you remind me of just on a regular basis. Oh, that's one of the best compliments You've ever given me well before we move on I would just like to clearly state that we do know why emerald locked herself away Why is that I? Mean she had to make way for merit Lage, and that's the only way to bring that about I
00:04:41
Speaker
This is not a Merit Lage podcast. We're not doing this here. We're not doing this here.
GP Activities and Misconceptions
00:04:48
Speaker
So one place that Merit Lage won't show up in the near future is at a GP, at least in Minneapolis. And so I want to ask you guys specifically because you guys have a lot more experience with
00:05:02
Speaker
GP, which for those of you who've never been to a bigger magic event, it stands for Grand Prix. It's just a big tournament that happens and there's a lot of other side events. There are vendors who come and bring cards, they bring supplies, sleeves, deck boxes, play mats. There are artists who show up and they'll do commissions, they'll design tokens, they'll do custom drawings for you, they'll alter your cards.
00:05:33
Speaker
There's a ton of stuff that goes on in a GP aside from all the stuff that gets planned off-site Which is where the real action happens You know, but I want to ask you guys I mean GP Minneapolis the last time it was around was the first time I've ever been to a GP so what is it about a GP that is
00:05:53
Speaker
a super fun thing to go to. If you were talking to somebody who's never been to one before and you're trying to convince them to come out for it, what would you say? What is the big draw? Well, I think what's really funny is the fact that you listed all this stuff that happens at a GP and didn't even talk about the fact that usually there's also an actual big tournament that's going on. I think that speaks to the fact that
00:06:18
Speaker
Ideally, GPs are starting to become more than just what they started with, which was a big magic event. That's all they really were. They were just a way to have an event with a thousand people or more. They become a lot more of an experience.
00:06:35
Speaker
or at least that's what the good GPs are, are a lot more of experience rather than just a tournament. And one thing to keep in mind and this is a perfect timeliness because I have a new roommate who I've been trying to convince to come to GP Minneapolis this year because he has just skipped the last several and one of the misconceptions he had that may or may not be common but helpful for people listening
00:06:59
Speaker
there is an entrance fee for the main event. There's a cost for the main event, there's a cost for the site events, but there's no entrance fee for the hall. You can just walk in, unlike say a convention, which we can talk about a little bit more later, how those differ from GPs or are similar because there's becoming more similarities.
Artists and Tokens at GPs
00:07:19
Speaker
But you can just go to the main event or you can just go to the event hall, walk in, buy some stuff from the vendors, visit the artists, go find
00:07:28
Speaker
other magic players to play games with and then leave. You don't have to pay some big event organizer a fee. One of the things that I love to do, and I think is the thing that finally tipped my roommate into common, is I'll go to the artists. You mentioned that, Joe, that the artists are there and they have prints and they have things, but what I love to do is collect tokens, different fun tokens that
00:07:57
Speaker
I can use with my commander decks. I play a lot of commander. I play a decent amount of, I have several cubes as well. So I have a lot of various weird tokens that I need. And I love to find ones from artists rather than some of the official ones, because then it has unique flair to what I'm doing. Yeah. And I would like to just, while we're talking about that, I would just like to point out that actually that whole concept, especially artists both being at events at a much larger scale,
00:08:27
Speaker
and doing something like tokens is actually, it's fairly new. Back when I went to kind of my first big events for Magic, that really, there might be one artist, they were just really doing kind of some signing, they may scribble a little bit on your card. Adding kind of having artists there is actually a very new thing. And then artists being there and signing cards and having these tokens is even newer.
00:08:53
Speaker
The tokens in particular, I really want to just make sure the guy to give some credit to Arcade Post, who is really the artist who I believe spearheaded this doing tokens and selling those because I think it's genius. I think it's actually really, really smart what he kind of did.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think it was Arcade Post's booth when I went, and that was the year that Prince passed away, and Arcade Post was selling specially made
00:09:29
Speaker
Prince, it was a limited edition. I think he only made 100. Prince vampire knight tokens. And he had a limit of how many you could buy. But it was this super cool thing where it was a really relevant thing to our GP, to our experience. And it's even better that I can use it in EDH because I have an Edgar Markov deck. But it's cool to have that little bit of art that
00:09:56
Speaker
you know like a almost like a band tour t-shirt a concert t-shirt you know where it's like i was there this is a a thing that you could only get during this experience really um that that to me was a fun aspect of that and and i know at some point we'll have to get on like you know vortos mic or or somebody else who's super into the artist world to to talk about that but the
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, the art booths are one of the best parts of it, in my opinion. But I do think there is that draw of trying to constantly find games to play.
Main Event vs. Side Events
00:10:34
Speaker
Has that been your guys' experience? Because when I went, it seemed like there's so much happening that part of it is like I want to do all of it, but part of it is like I'm here to play magic, right?
00:10:47
Speaker
What's that tension, that push-pull for you guys, between doing events or between either playing in events or just being there for the experience and the ambiance and checking other stuff out? For me, the first Grand Prix I went to was Orlando in 2014. It was right after Kans of Turkey came out and it was limited. I was like, I'm going to play the main event. I'm going to make my seal deck out of Kans and I went and
00:11:14
Speaker
I played like four pre-release events. I did the release weekend and then I went to the GP like, all right, I'm ready. I bought a box and cracked the whole thing into sealed pools and built sealed pools for it. So by the time I sat down at the GP, I'd built 12 or 14 sealed pools in the format. So I was ready to play and I did okay. I think I dropped out in round three or four and realized that personally, I just had more fun when I was doing other things.
00:11:45
Speaker
That's me, because I'm not a terribly competitive person. For some people, that would be fun. For me, it was much more fun to go do a side event or to just find a random game with people. And I would say that, you know, I've attended kind of for both reasons. Like for me, I am a little bit more of a competitive person. I mean, we established on the last show that I'm definitely not a Spike, even though
00:12:10
Speaker
That's, I guess, my reputation. But I definitely have played GPs for the purpose of trying to make day two. And I did that. I finally did do it in Legacy, in Vegas. It was a really big deal for me. But I also know that I've been to three of the GP Vegases. So I went to the first three of them. And in the first two, I missed making day two by one round, which meant that I sat there and I played
00:12:40
Speaker
limited modern masters all day long, which was a lot of fun, except all my friends who dropped out much earlier got to go and experience a lot more things than I did. And so it always is this weird push and pull for me of, do I want to play the main event or do I just want to go and have fun? And I think that that's why I both love GPS and why they can be a little stressful for me.
00:13:06
Speaker
Yeah, I can feel that. And there's so much to do even if you choose one thing. Say you're not going to play the main event, say you're not going to do any of the sponsored side events, but you're just there to meet up with friends and play Cube or EDH or whatever all day. There are so many things. I just remember the day that
00:13:32
Speaker
I think it was the Saturday of GP Minneapolis last time, and everybody was rotisserie cubing bright and early. As soon as the hall had opened, all the cards were spread across the tables, and it was rotiss cubing with Nate Webber and everybody. And then there's your promo cube, Alex, and the modal cube.
00:13:58
Speaker
and Jeff Goode had brought his creature-less cube. And that just takes up a whole day just to play, I mean, you know, if you're gonna play it out, to play, what, two, three cubes? Yeah, no, there was a day last year that...
00:14:12
Speaker
I did that, went from cube to cube to cube, and then I was like, oh, now it's time to grab some food and then go home. Can I ask, Habs, because you've done, so you have done a main event. Let's start there. It is the center point of what a GP was originally made for.
00:14:31
Speaker
Somebody comes up to you and says, hey, I'm thinking about doing a main event, whether it's standard, whether it's modern, whether it's legacy. I don't know if they do vintage GPs, but they're doing a main event, they're thinking about it. Why would you tell them yes or no? Or what would you tell them? For me, I always looked at the fact of like, is this a format that I want to play? And is this a format that I would have fun
00:15:00
Speaker
trying to go deep in an event. Like it's a challenge thing. It's the competitive side of me. So GP Vegas became the largest of magic events. I mean, the first GP Vegas, they had no clue what was going to happen. I mean, they had never had an event like that before. And I, and I've seen the evolution of how they run GP Vegas in particular, and just trying to prepare for basically
00:15:26
Speaker
It has grown in some ways into magic's version of a con. There's been a lot of discussion about this, like magic having its own convention where we do nothing but kind of celebrate magic. But the whole point of that would be not just having a main event. It would be having multiple things that are going on and be having panels. It would be having an artist row. It would be having other experiences to do. But that first GP Vegas was all about modern masters. It had just come out.
00:15:57
Speaker
It was like a set that people hadn't seen. Most people weren't getting to draft it yet. At that point, GP fees were actually still very reasonable compared to what they are now. It basically was the cost of doing a sealed event for Modern Masters, which is kind of funny that, you know, we're now talking about sealed events at a big, a main event can be three, four times the cost of what it would be to just play the, the do it at like your local store. And I went there and it was 5,000 people.
00:16:27
Speaker
sitting down to really just play magic. They had side events, but they didn't even have enough rooms to be running the side events effectively. They literally were calling events that were like you are, they had to get permission to open up more of the convention center because they had rented too small of a space. But that was an error that people went to play. You went because you were trying to make it to day two. You were trying to,
00:16:55
Speaker
make it onto the Pro Tour, whatever it is. I mean, I find that they're fun to do if you're trying to have a goal. Like I've always wanted to say that I day two at a GP. Sure. But for the simple experience of playing or necessarily for just a casual fun aspect, you would say ignore that. That's not the point of the main event. No, no, it is really not. And especially with the cost increases that we've seen,
00:17:24
Speaker
It really should be that you are dedicated to trying to show that you could do really well and in a big event.
00:17:32
Speaker
So then let me throw it over to you, Alex. So the main event for those, I'm assuming most of our listeners are going to be more Vorthos
Unique Side Event Formats
00:17:41
Speaker
-minded. That's the listenership we're trying to cultivate here. For Vorthos-minded people, the sponsored side events, things like, you know, standard legal booster drafts or modern masters drafts or
00:17:55
Speaker
I'm sure there's sealed events, there's constructed, there's chaos drafts. Is that a place that you have done an event? And is it something you'd recommend for a casual first-time person at a GP? It's something I'd recommend for anyone to take a look at. And the way these events are set up, most of them are three-day events, some are four, but they start Friday.
00:18:19
Speaker
Run Saturday and Sunday. Well, the main event starts on Saturday, so even for the competitive players, if you get there early enough, you can go do side things and more casual stuff Friday and then show up Saturday morning to be competitive in the main event.
00:18:32
Speaker
But there's a lot of stuff going on inside events. We just say Sides is a shorthand, but you've got the on-demand things which are going to be like the standard legal booster drafts, your standard, your modern. Those are the really conventional things that you could do at a store, but they're firing them every time they get enough people to do it. You get eight people draft, eight people draft. For some of the modern masters events, those have been great because it's a really good way to go through modern masters product. If you really like that format,
00:19:00
Speaker
Just on demand. You go, they stand you in a corner as soon as you have eight people. All right, we're going to a table. You guys are going to play. But they also have scheduled events too. And they have some scheduled ones that are standard or sealed and things. But that's where they do some of these just different things that it's really hard to do in a smaller place. It's hard for a store to run, but because the Grand Prix's are such large scale, they can do things like, when I went to GP Orlando, I did a Ice Age sealed event. We got four packs.
00:19:30
Speaker
of original Ice Age and two packs of Cold Snap. And we built sealed decks. And it was me and a bunch of other players who've been playing since the original Ice Age. I think there were like 12 of us. And we just hung out for, you know, a couple hours and played rounds. And then they had a judge assigned to the event. And because there's only 12 players, he didn't have much to do. So he just kind of hung out too. So we're all just chatting. That was a lot of fun. And they've also started adding even some really random events that you're just never going to see anywhere like
00:20:00
Speaker
build a box of sealed so you get a literal booster box of a set and you get to build a sealed deck out of that entire 36 packs and you and you still only have 50 minutes to build if I remember correctly. Yeah, or I think last year didn't they do? Oh, I can't what they call it. It was like big spend or something and it was like Modern Masters Modern Masters 2 original Zendik car.
00:20:28
Speaker
like all of these six really expensive booster packs. Yeah, and I think those are some of the places where I think our creative minds might enjoy playing the most, because you do have that opportunity for crazy weird formats. I think this is where some of those, that Mel quality comes in, where you see, especially a chaos draft,
00:20:53
Speaker
where somebody has a pack of alliances alongside a pack of gate crash.
Social Engagement and Anxiety
00:21:01
Speaker
And you're thinking about, okay, what synergies could be possible between these things? So with the sanctioned events out of the way,
00:21:10
Speaker
What do you find yourselves doing? If you're a new person coming to a GP for the first time and you don't really know anybody or you haven't sort of made friends beforehand that you're coming to meet,
00:21:24
Speaker
and you see somebody breaking out a cube, how would you go into that social encounter and ask to play and ask to meet people and ask to get engaged? Because I think that's a big thing that gives a lot of people anxiety too or worries people. I would love to play with some of these people who look like they're having great experiences, but I don't know how to broach that.
00:21:51
Speaker
Well, for me, I can tell you as someone who has social anxiety, it would be difficult to just walk up to somebody. But how I've kind of done that is I sort of backed into it. When I went to GP Vegas in 2015, there was the Command Zone podcast. It's a podcast I love to listen to. Those guys love the commander format, and that's most magic that I play. Well, they were doing a big event.
00:22:16
Speaker
at one of the hotels over there. It's like any listener just come show up. I went and just showed up. I hung out there with, I think they had 100 people in the room playing magic for a few hours. That was a really good way to meet people. Just throughout that weekend, I'd see people I saw at the event. Hey, you guys playing Commander? Go over and join them. On Sunday of that event, I got to Cube Draft for the first time in my life because there was a group of four that came from Toronto,
00:22:46
Speaker
that I had played Commander with while they were looking to get eight people so they could cube. They saw me. They're like, hey, come on over. So I joined them. They got a couple other people. And we fired an eight-man cube. Do you know what's really hilarious, Alex? What's that? We were both in that command zone room together. Oh, yeah. See, and what's really surprising. But I did not know you then. No. And I ended up meeting, I think, both of you guys through Jeff Good, Chief of Minneapolis. Yeah.
00:23:16
Speaker
It's funny that a guy who lives out in the Northeast introduced a bunch of Minneapolis magic people to each other. Yeah Because I also I went to that Event like you're saying and I found that things like Vegas where there is something like that going on that to me you kind of mentioned the question Joe like I am considered a pretty outgoing person by most people's standard and
00:23:42
Speaker
But I actually have an incredibly tough time with doing that. When I moved to Minneapolis, one of the only things that helped me kind of get connected in with the Minneapolis magic scene was actually because of social media where I had met enough people that I felt comfortable because I had gone to some stores and I found myself just kind of
00:24:07
Speaker
Standing off to the side hoping that somebody would start the conversation with me first You know like just try to look like I'm open to a conversation Which I will tell you based on the fact that I teach social skills for a living is The least effective way that I would tell somebody to try to start a conversation But I was you know the magic is something that I knew that I am very comfortable with no in and out and I still I
00:24:36
Speaker
felt incredibly uncomfortable and gps could just magnify that i think that for me i have to have had like some sort of social media presence or a connection to a group before i would ever feel comfortable approaching people to play a cube yeah and i think that's i think that's right i
00:25:01
Speaker
I'm trying to think of if there was a moment like that for me, but I know that more so I got involved
00:25:11
Speaker
When I showed up to an event at Need Hall in downtown Minneapolis and started meeting some people and got Twitter handles thrown at me that I wrote down and later followed and we started getting connected and then I eventually went to the GP.
00:25:33
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, it is, I think that is actually a great thing though, is that we do have the social media quality.
Community and Connection
00:25:40
Speaker
There are hashtags you can look up. There are people that you can, you know, tune into their feed and see like, oh, hey, this person that I at least have some sort of connection to, even if it's, you know, I mean, I'll say for us, I think I can speak for all of us that when we're at GP Minneapolis this year, if you listen to the podcast, come up and say hi, like come up and,
00:26:02
Speaker
Ask for a game of modern or legacy or Popper or EDH or whatever and we'll Jam like it'll be awesome. Well. Yeah, or we'll hang or we'll say hey We're heading over to you know wherever and we're gonna go grab lunch like come hang out with us and and I that's a totally legit thing because this is
00:26:23
Speaker
To me, this is a chance for people to get connected. I think that's what I found the most at the GP was that was the moment where I went from feeling like somebody who sort of was, you know, peeking around at the magic community and like, you know, sort of considering getting back in. I saw some events. I did some things. I played a little bit here and there to like being back in full tilt and immersed in loving it.
00:26:52
Speaker
I think that weekend is where it changed for me. That weekend in Vegas was the first time that I really, truly felt part of the greater magic community. I mean, I have a local store I go to here a lot, and while I knew people at that store, I knew people at Dreamers, I was a regular customer there, we all knew each other. That was not part of the magic community, as part of the Dreamers community. At GP Vegas, I was part of the magic community.
00:27:19
Speaker
and it was incredible. I love going to these events now.
GPs vs. Conventions Experiences
00:27:24
Speaker
Got to talk about being part of a greater community. This might be a good time to then pivot just a little bit and talk about conventions because we talked a little bit about how they're different, the same as GPs, and ultimately, conventions don't have a central tournament, the conventions. It depends a lot on what the convention is. You have writing conventions, you've got video game conventions, you've got
00:27:50
Speaker
Really, the big divide, how I think of it is you have the fan run conventions and then you have the big media cons, the big industry cons. Your comic cons are all industry cons. Your PAX events are all industry cons. There's a lot of similarities between the two. There's panels at all of them. There's vendor rooms at most of them.
00:28:12
Speaker
But your fan cons are usually smaller in hotels. There's a little different feel because the fans are doing the things. So your panels are less, here's our new thing that we're going to release in the next year, or here's a preview of stuff. And it's fans talking about their favorite 80s cartoons at 10 o'clock at night. But in general,
00:28:39
Speaker
One of the things that I love about conventions, a lot of the local ones that I've gone to at least, is the panels. For me, at least, it was a great place to be part of the group without having any attention on me because the attention was on the people up on the stage. I got to be part of the group listening and learning things and getting to know what other people's perspective was on stuff, but also have the focus not being me. I got to blend in with the crowd.
00:29:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I can dig that for sure. So I don't think I have a personal experience with a con since I was maybe seven. When Gen Con was still in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I'm from, it moved out to Indianapolis in later years. But my dad was a huge Star Trek The Next Generation fan, so therefore, you know, Star Trek Next Gen
00:29:35
Speaker
but it's become one of the biggest conventions in the country and it's great. It was a fun time. I actually, I think one of the coolest things about a convention that is different than maybe a magic GP, and maybe magic GPs can take a little bit of a note from conventions in the coming years, but one of the cool things is you get sort of
00:30:02
Speaker
Specifically you get panels and, you know, actor appearances. Now there's not real, there aren't really actors in Magic the Gathering.
00:30:11
Speaker
you know, other than the magic movie that's supposedly in the works in pre-pre-production or something that has been for five years. So I actually got to meet some of the actors from Star Trek and like my little seven-year-old self was basically shaking, you know, shaking the hand of the guy who played Sulu. Like that was incredible, you know, and so
00:30:35
Speaker
those experiences of getting to meet people you see on TV or that you know as personalities is a really fun thing. It sort of makes it that surreal experience. A lot of the conventions I go to are a little more writing-centric too. And so I had a similar experience a couple years ago when I got to go to a lot of the ones that are like science fiction fantasy writers, they do a thing they call coffee clutches.
00:31:05
Speaker
which the author will sit down with a group of people who have to sign up beforehand, so it's capped at a certain number, to just have coffee and talk and just have a conversation. Well, Brandon Sanderson, my favorite author, I love his work, he got me one of his books, got me writing again. So he was coming to one of our local conventions here a couple of years ago, but he's Mormon, so he doesn't drink coffee. So instead of coffee,
00:31:36
Speaker
Sidenote sorry play magic. Yes, he does and the Sanderson the draft with Sanderson was full before I could sign up for it because they do that when he shows up to these events. Yeah, but he there were so many people in the room. They actually split it split the group into two.
00:31:56
Speaker
because his assistant came with and so they just cut the time in half and we talked to his assistant and then talked to Brandon. That was just such an amazing experience to get to talk to both Brandon and his assistant, who's one of his best friends who's been working with him for years, who was actually working to become an editor. He brings a lot of those skills to help Brandon. It was just wonderful and that's a lot of those conventions can do. Bring some of these bigger names
00:32:27
Speaker
to a place where people can meet them and interact with them and do stuff. So, I mean, this is kind of one of the things that we've been, I mean, I've talked to people about this, about how we can make magic events more like that, because I think that larger events that are more than just the gameplay of what a GP historically has been, I think would help
00:32:52
Speaker
maybe improve some of the social anxiety and the awkwardness that that are people who may be a little bit more introverted and still want to get to come to experiences may have having panels or having like you said these coffee basic meetings where you can come have a smaller intimate meeting where you get to meet people that you've only seen we have where we don't have writers or actors that are on that level
00:33:21
Speaker
We have our pro players, we have our artists, we have even our cosplayers, which I think is going to be a huge part of what we're seeing more in the Magic community.
Cosplayers and Community Impact
00:33:32
Speaker
And having these people put together events or things to come to could completely change the GP experience. Depending on how they want to work it, Wizards of the Coast has some employees who could do it.
00:33:45
Speaker
Mark Rosewater has done panels at other events that he's gone to talking about game design. That would be fascinating to have him just lecture for 45 minutes about game design and magic. And they used to do a lot bigger of a presence at San Diego Comic Con, including a panel that would be like Mark Rosewater, Aaron Forsythe,
00:34:09
Speaker
Scott Laraby, and they would run through kind of a mini rundown of what Wizard had coming. I mean, they've shuttled a lot of that, I think, more to Gen Con. But we do have. Yeah. I went to PAX East a couple
Enhancing GPs with Panels
00:34:22
Speaker
of years ago. I got to go to that panel when they were talking about the second and third Theros sets. And like you said, so they have people who have the experience. Actually, what's funny is they even have their own cosplayers in some way. Gavin's the one that really sticks to mind.
00:34:39
Speaker
which just always makes me crack out. Yeah, and so there is that element of that. I know when she was still involved with the game, Christine Sprankle was just a phenomenal ambassador for the game. You would have people coming up to her all the time at events. I never saw her at
00:35:00
Speaker
at GP Minneapolis I don't think she was there but all the pictures all over Twitter of just these kids who were like blown away that she was cosplaying their favorite character and they got to have a picture with Chandra or with you know Avison or you know something like that I mean that is a changing experience for a kid.
00:35:23
Speaker
and there was a picture of her as avison in front of the las vegas sign in a magazine i believe it was rolling stone like it was a camera was out specifically but it was a very high-profile magazine actually it was i actually think it was yeah that was after the first or second second that was after yeah wow yeah i mean this that kind of reach can be there i i i think i i think if you do take some of those leaves out of out of
00:35:53
Speaker
main con books, you can really amp it up. And that's something that Vortos Mike, who we mentioned before, Mike Lineman has been talking about a lot, is how you make a con even more of an experience, or how you make a GP even more of an experience.
00:36:11
Speaker
you know, you make the main event less of the main event, you make it a part of it, sure, that's the main thing that'll drive the pros there, but you'll get the casual players, the Vorthoses, the Mel's, the, you know, the people who are interested in magic purely from an intellectual standpoint, you know, who aren't players necessarily, but love game design, or, you know, just love fantasy design and character stuff, they're with other stuff.
00:36:40
Speaker
Well, you make it a feature of the thing rather than the focus. And there's a lot of room for panels and things too, like what we're doing right now, we're podcasting. There are so many podcasters in our community, they could easily have some podcaster volunteer come in and talk about here's how you do it. Here's how you balance the sound and the technology and how you start your own podcast. Yeah, have somebody like Safran Olive talk about how you're how you be a moto streamer. Yeah.
00:37:08
Speaker
There's a lot of different ways to engage with the community and there's as many ways as there are to engage in the community or be a part of this community. There is a list of panel topics that you could get people in to talk about. And it may be that we need to be doing that at something like specifically like a Vegas where it's not every GP because I mean you always have fatigue and burnout.
Coping with Social Anxiety
00:37:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:33
Speaker
So Alex, one thing that you mentioned when we were doing kind of the show notes for this that I would really like to spend some time for us talking about is kind of this idea of like, we've talked a lot about mental health on this cast already, but I think the last cast when we did the trauma, you talked a little bit about your own experience with anxiety. And I know that with social anxiety in particular, that can be something that really limits
00:38:01
Speaker
somebody's experience, especially going to even getting through the door of a big con or a magic GP. And I was hoping that you might be willing to kind of talk a little bit about your experience.
00:38:17
Speaker
for a long time to kind of go back just a little bit. Conventions are a thing that I wanted to do forever. Like I heard about the comic cons and the packs. These are big events that I thought sounded really cool. But before my anxiety was diagnosed, I just knew I couldn't do that. I just knew that wasn't a thing that I could do despite the fact that I really wanted to.
00:38:41
Speaker
So you're talking about being a limiting factor getting in the door, like literally it prevented me from even looking at the feasibility of going to them. But fortunately, I was diagnosed and I went through a year therapy and within a few months I went to my first convention. And it was quite a nerve wracking experience for me. Well,
00:39:05
Speaker
I just kind of felt sick in my stomach the whole time, but I was also quite euphoric because it was just amazing to be in this place and just sitting in that room. And that's why I think one of the reasons why I love panels at conventions so much because it gives me a place, at least for me. I know it's different experiences for different people with social anxiety, but I've never had a lot of trouble with crowds usually because being the slight, you know, the overweight white guy,
00:39:34
Speaker
I blend into a crowd really easily. The panels were perfect for me to go be part of the experience without feeling threatened and singled out. That con, in fact, was an amazing experience because they have really good on-ramp to try to get people involved if you want to be involved. Because it's a single track and there's so few people, they take meal breaks. A lot of these conventions,
00:40:03
Speaker
It's like half an hour to 15 minutes between each thing. And so if you want to do stuff, you have to skip something to go grab food at fourth street. They have a two hour meal break and they're like, Hey, you guys don't have everyone to eat with. Come find one of us and we can all go as a group. And for me, I lived in the area. So I knew where the food was first two days. I just didn't do that. I skipped that. I went and grabbed food by myself because that allowed me to spend time on my own.
00:40:32
Speaker
decompress, to get back some energy as an introvert, and then go back into the experience. But then Sunday was when I said I decided if I spend two days skipping the meals with other people, Sunday I'm going to grab lunch with a group. By setting a small step for myself, I was able to
00:40:53
Speaker
slowly ramp into it over the weekend, get more comfortable in the group, and then go with, I think there was like 12 or 15 people. So even if you're eating with 12 people, focus isn't on you, not very much. You can just sit back and be passive participant. So I think there's some good things there. With a GP, it's a little bit of a different experience. I know personally, magic,
00:41:22
Speaker
taught me how to talk to people. I started going to my local store and playing because I discovered that magic gave me a game between another person. So if I didn't have the capacity to have a conversation, I didn't have to. There was no expectations of that. So I'd say if this is a thing that sounds interesting to you and you have some social anxiety and you can get yourself to that event hall, sign up for some side events. Do a draft. You'll sit down and play.
00:41:51
Speaker
And especially if you've been going to a local game store, the mechanics of that experience are the same, but you're going to be in this big hole of people and you can slowly kind of get yourself acclimatized to that. And then you can start looking to take other small steps and kind of make some progress towards whatever goals you might have at the event. One thing that you said really kind of stuck out to me, which was this concept of
00:42:15
Speaker
you said you needed the time as an introvert. And I think that a lot of people generally would be like, well, why would an introvert ever be going to a con to begin with? And I was hoping that you might be able to kind of shed some light on that. We can kind of talk about that a little bit. Yeah. And one thing to keep in mind is taking that point from you that an introvert doesn't mean that you don't go out. I think introvert versus extrovert is kind of how you get your energy.
00:42:43
Speaker
I am actually an outgoing introvert. I really enjoy conversation. I like talking. That's why I'm doing the podcast. But I'll tell you when we're done with this call and we're done and hung up, I'm going to spend at least an hour sitting in my room doing nothing talking to no one to recharge. That's how I get my energy back. It's funny that you mentioned this because the very first time I ever really had experience with
00:43:12
Speaker
some sort of like psychological testing or anything of that nature was actually at my high school. So I went to a Catholic school while my senior year they had us kind of do like a career development type class in our quote unquote religion course. And so we did a Myers-Briggs type test. So people that don't know Myers-Briggs is this idea that it's a personality type inventory. It gives you kind of ratings on different scales if
00:43:39
Speaker
You ever seen in a dating profile or had somebody say, yeah, I'm an INFP or an ENFP or one of those. They're really referring to what's called Myers-Briggs typing. And so I did this test and I came back with almost exact 50-50 split on extrovert and introvert. So once again, talking about that idea that's really funny that people want to know what an INFP is versus an ENFP and these all just sound like random things, but they're dimensions.
00:44:06
Speaker
that we once again treat as categorical things, kind of like we were talking about on the very first episode. And I think this was the first time that it really stuck to me that things weren't all or none. Like I'd been considered an extrovert my entire life.
00:44:22
Speaker
I would go and do these things and I would be the person that's jokey and talky and I would be the center of attention and I would leave there and just be completely drained for hours on end and the first time I ever noticed that was looking at this and I learned a little bit more about like extraversion and introversion and I think Alex had a really good point about it is I
00:44:44
Speaker
Being an introvert doesn't mean that you want to necessarily not have human contact. It might mean that you like to do some things on your own, you like smaller groups, but you could also really enjoy conversation and being amongst others, you just don't get energized from it the way that an extrovert might. As a kid, my parents' very quick story to try to help give the kids allowance and also curb behavior,
00:45:12
Speaker
they had like each day we had a kind of a goal, a thing that we would try to do. So mine was to not talk a lot, or not, not to not talk a lot, but just not annoy people with the amount that I talked to them. Despite the fact that my entire life I've scored as an introvert. And I was laughing kind of when you were talking about your your parents setting the goal for that because I same thing as a kid, I was
00:45:40
Speaker
Dominated conversations I was unable to be shut up part of this came from probably being an only child who was ever only really around adults But I remember somebody trying to like trick me by being like we're gonna play a game Where it's the goal is to see who can be the quietest the longest and I just had no desire to win it Okay, who's playing okay, are we done because I think okay I lost
00:46:07
Speaker
We have established that you're not a spike, so you wouldn't have that pride to win that game, so that makes sense. Right. That's confirmation confirmed. We can now officially confirm. Hobbs is not a spike confirmed.
00:46:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's fascinating too. And especially because in large groups, in large group settings, you do have this mix of people. And I think the beautiful thing about a con or a GP or one of these big events is you get the biggest swath of people who are all sorts of different neurotypes or, you know,
00:46:49
Speaker
tendencies, you know, all of it.
Diverse GP Experiences
00:46:51
Speaker
And I think that's a great thing too. I mean, thinking about the way that you, you know, that a GP is structured is you have all this opportunity, you have all of these different
00:47:03
Speaker
things you can go do. You can, you know, if you're getting tired of interacting with people and playing, you know, in cubing or EDHing, you can go wander off by yourself and go just stare in people's card cases, you know, at the vendors. You can
00:47:18
Speaker
You know, go just check out the art. I mean, you know, if that's starting to overwhelm you, you take a break. You know, if you need more and more action, there's, you know, there are people talking about it all over the place. Find a group to jump in with or just start chatting with or, you know, go watch the the coverage booth. I mean, like there is so much for everybody. Well, they've they've got the if you like watching magic,
00:47:45
Speaker
They have feature matches going on too. You can just go stand and watch some players playing magic.
00:47:53
Speaker
Right, people bring trade binders, so if you need like that kind of intense interaction, go negotiate with somebody to get that last piece of, you know, Abu Power 9 that you need or whatever. Well, so why don't we start wrapping this up. We've got two segments left, but why don't we wrap this up with sort of a quick hit.
First-Time Attendee Tips
00:48:12
Speaker
Let's throw it back over to U-Hubs to start. For somebody coming to their first GP,
00:48:18
Speaker
What is a tip or two that you would give them? What's something you'd say either it's a must do of things that they have to try or experience or something they should do to prepare? I guess what I can hit on a little bit is the the playing side if you're gonna play in a event if you're gonna play say in the main event where you're gonna play nine rounds of Magic
00:48:43
Speaker
I do have some tips from that, just that I've had to kind of learn because of things that I'm not the best at doing when it comes to self care on a long day. So the first and foremost really is seriously, it sounds kind of simple and silly, but you need to really hydrate. Like between rounds, having a bottle of water, either at your table or in your bag, like it is really important if you're, you think that you're just sitting and you're not doing a ton.
00:49:09
Speaker
It is very easy to get dehydrated. And I will say that for me, my play skill, everything is going to go way down. Along those lines is too is remembering to eat. It's very easy to just you get limited time between rounds. And it's easy to just go round around and want to process the round and talk about it with somebody. And you also need to eat. So even if I
00:49:36
Speaker
For instance, bring granola bars and carry granola bars that are in my bag. I try to have food on me. I had a friend at the last GP who wasn't playing, who was willing to grab me food in between rounds. So if you're going to play in that long of an event, realizing that it is a lot of magic, especially if you're not used to playing for nine hours, 10 hours a day.
00:49:57
Speaker
And then I want to bring some advice that I see at a lot of cons that I think is useful for both of these. And it relates to sort of the physical self-care that Hobbs is talking about too. They call it the 6-2-1 rule. Every day you should have at least six hours of sleep, two meals, and one shower. You probably want more for the first two, but try to get at least that.
00:50:20
Speaker
You're not going to play very well. You're not going to be able to do stuff if you're just not sleeping. And especially at conventions. Like the GP Hall closes, you know, early evening. If you have friends, you could end up playing late at night. If you don't, if you're there by yourself and you're just engaging with some people, you may not have stuff that late. But at some of these cons, they have things going until two or three in the morning. And so make sure you plan your time so that you can get at least six hours of sleep.
00:50:48
Speaker
I'm getting a little older. I feel like I might need, start needing to get more than that, but six is a good pace line.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah, and I think my big tip would be if you're bringing cards, if you're not coming to just play a cube or something like that, if you're actually bringing cards, be it your collection, to trade, be it decks, be it anything, if you are bringing a cube, make sure that you have it on you at all times in your eyesight.
Card Security and Listener Feedback
00:51:17
Speaker
Make sure that if you don't, that it is with somebody that you know and trust, that it is going to be taken care of.
00:51:25
Speaker
Some advice that I heard fairly early before I started going to a lot of GPs too is like I have a backpack. I stick all my stuff in. If you're going to stick that onto the floor, stick your foot through one of the backpack loops, just through one of the shoulder straps. Because then it just can't, someone can't take it off without you noticing. It's just a little thing to help. And if, you know, if you're having a casual pickup game, you can just have it sitting on the table or in the seat next to you.
00:51:48
Speaker
The last thing that I wanna ramp us to in this episode is we don't have listener questions this episode really, but we do have basically some editor's notes from our last podcast.
00:52:02
Speaker
at AE Marling on Twitter, and Marling is one of the flavor text writers for Wizards of the Coast, and he's also one of the Loergeufs, another really great podcast. Michelle Rapp, whose article we mentioned on the previous episodes, is also one of the Loergeufs. They talk the magic stories that come out as they come out.
00:52:24
Speaker
A. E. Marling replied to us about our conversation on we don't see planeswalkers sparking from joy or from happiness. We only see it through trauma. And he reminded us that, quote, Samet sparked after a euphoric experience with Hazoret. I would love to see more planeswalkers gain their spark from joy.
00:52:44
Speaker
Um, and so that happened in the Amonkhet story or hour of devastation story endure. And I did link that in a tweet reply to him. I'll put that in the show notes, but so we do have one example of a planeswalker sparking from joy from euphoria and, and Neil Walker at that, which is a great, that is a great example of that. I was glad there was an example from recent because I really could not think of one honestly. Um,
00:53:14
Speaker
And we also had a listener kind of right back, and unfortunately, I'm trying to remember who it was that mentioned that they actually found the card that I thought is very not flavorful, this protection sphere or amulet or whatever it is. Amulet of protection? Is that safekeeping? Safekeeping, yeah.
00:53:39
Speaker
Yes, at Kyle C. Carson. So Kyle Carson's a really great guy too. And he mentioned that to him from a D&D perspective in world building, it actually made sense to have an amulet that basically... Yeah, but it's interesting. And so I just wanted to bring those up because I really appreciate the feedback that we got there and sort of that, from both AE and Kyle, it's really cool to have
00:54:05
Speaker
sort of that pushback and just keeping us thinking about what we're doing, what we're saying, and if we miss something, I want to know that because then we get to learn. That is one of my biggest things, one of my biggest philosophies as a teacher, as a content creator is
00:54:23
Speaker
I'm not infallible and I know you guys sure aren't and and I know that we are all we all have that little element of blue in us at least that says we want to progress we want to do better and we want to know how we can continually improve what we're putting out there.
Episode Conclusion and Social Media
00:54:46
Speaker
That's our show. Thanks for listening, Podwalkers. Remember, you can find the podcast at Goblin Lore Pod on Twitter. You can find Joe Redemann at Findhorn. That's F-Y-N-D, Horn. You can find Hobbs Q at Hobbs Q.
00:55:04
Speaker
You can find Alex at alexandernewm. You can email any questions, comments, concerns to goblinlorepodcastatgmail.com and you can find us on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Podbean, Google Play and any other place that you can find podcasts.
00:55:23
Speaker
One final note, we are going to be at GP Minneapolis this summer. There's a variety of events that will be going on, so stay tuned to our Twitter channels and we'll be keeping you updated on where we're going to be and what we're going to be doing, the events that are going on. Please come up and say hi, stop by and just introduce yourself
00:55:44
Speaker
And also know that we are going to be doing some recording at the GP, so we might be able to ask you a couple questions and get you on to an all-listener, all-community episode to air sometime after that GP once we hit August. Thank you all for listening, and remember, throw enough goblins at any problem and it should go away.