OctoCon XXII - April 20-21 (Note the new date!)

[hentzau]

What: OctoCon XXII

When: Friday, April 20th, Noon to Midnight and Saturday, April 21st, 9 AM to Midnight

Where: United In Faith Church, 6525 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL

Who: OOers, spouses, friends, whoever!

Why?: Let's play some games!

The Facilities:

I have acquired the use of the fellowship hall and lounge of my church for us to use for a gaming day. Cost of using said room is whatever donation you care to make. (Note that this is NOT mandatory, just if you feel like donating, donate!)

The church is a converted printing plant, so the main fellowship hall is inside of the main plant space. It is large and roomy and doesn't look very church like (except for the statue of Jesus that will be staring out at the room the whole time. Hoping this might deter cheating.) We will have access to over a dozen 4X8 tables, and more could be grabbed if needed. It is totally handicap accessable. There is also a kitchen that is part of the hall, we should be able to use the refrigerator there for soda and snacks.

The lounge is right off of the fellowship hall, with couches and places to relax if you are not playing a game at the time. There is a 35" TV in there, so if someone so desired we could have video games running in there during the down times as well.

Food:

There are a number of restaurants in the area. Across the street is a Burger King, a Subway, a Dunkin Donuts, and a chinese fast food restaurant. Down the street is a gyros/hot dog place, a typical Chicago corner greek restaurant, a bar, and another Chinese place (non-fast food). The new official favorite restaurant of OctoCon is now The Jolly Inn, right next door. It's a polish all you can eat buffet, and comes highly recommended by those that have eaten there.

There are two grocery stores right by the church; a large chain store, and a smaller Polish market, for your junk food needs. You can bring your own munchies and soda in with you.

We will do our usual Friday night pizza buy in...probably going up to about $7 a person (bring singles!!!). We'll get a bunch of Chicago style pizzas from Giordanos or Al's Pizza.

I would provide 3-4 dozen donuts and coffee for breakfast in the morning, on a first come first serve basis. Everyone would be responsible for their own lunch, but we have a wide selection. It seems like nobody stops playing for dinner, so we play that by ear too.

We always have a snack table, where everyone brings community munchies, as well as a few coolers of soda.
UPDATE!!!

Well, the idiot admin at church didn't have an event on the calendar that had been put in back in November, and now we have a conflict for the upcoming Octocon. So we have two options: Move it to the next weekend, April 20-21, or we could hold in the less than desirable west building. I would personally prefer moving it to the 20th, but I want to make sure it has the minimal impact on attendees. Really sorry about this, folks...


Alcohol:

No alcohol in the church for insurance reasons. Sorry. Regardless, there are a number of neighborhood-style bars and pubs around the church.

Lodging:

The closest motel is the LP Motel, 4605 N Harlem Ave, Harwood Heights. This motel is about 5 minutes from the church. Number for the motel is (708) 457-0600. No guarantees about quality, it looks pretty beat up and run down from the outside.

Another option is the Motel 6 at 9408 Lawrence Ave in Schiller Park. Disadvantage is that it is more like 15-20 minutes from the church. If I were coming here and didn't want to stay in a fancier hotel, that would be my first choice. Phone number is (847) 671-4282.

ThatSteveGuy and Kristie have stayed at the Aloft Hotel in nearby Rosemont and have recommended it highly.

Otherwise, lots of hotel choices all very close because we are near O'Hare. Just look at Google Maps or your other favorite hotel site.

Roll Call:

Confirmed:

Hentzau (and Friends)
Tommy
Jacksonville Joe
Archinerd
Hepcat
ThatSteveGuy and Kristie

[hepcat]

Welp, time to look for some special event pants.

[Isgrimnur]

Welp, time to look for some special event pants.

Spoiler:

Opposuits

[Jeff V]

Mother in law...Will she or won't she come back? Last week it was yes, in February. This week it's no. Unless she does come, I have no freedom.

I can, however, spare some pants for hepcat. How about something in Lycra?

[LordMortis]

I just requested the 23rd through the 27th off. I won't say I won't make it but it's not looking probable.

[Jeff V]

By the way, I just got an email from the wife of my friend Don, who did attend an Octocon some years ago and brought with a friend of his daughters that was into games. He used to always ask when the next Octocon was...the spring Octocons often ran afoul of his seasonal commitments as a bagpipe player, and then my availability became spotty at best. He's been fighting cancer for a while now, and not winning. He was just admitted to a hospice. That is never good.

I've known Don since we were kids. In high school, we became introduced to Avalon Hill board games. Thanks to the Horatio Hornblower novels, he became enamored with the romantic view of a sailor's life. One of his favorite games at the time was Wooden Ships and Iron Men, and we played out all of the battles. After high school he was admitted into the Merchant Marine academy. When he'd be home on break, we'd play games...several tournaments of Gladiator comes to mind. On one of his breaks he tagged along with me to my university, where I was a leading member of a gaming club that we established on campus. He even came along to a class where a girl was all psyched to do a paper on how blacks finally got a nation of their own in Rwanda. Don had just come back from a cruise in Africa and kind of destroyed her thesis...she then asked if he could help with her paper but a few days later he was off to his next cruise to South America. In recent years, gaming has been sporadic, once every few years I might come by and we'd play Dominions while making a favorite delicacy such as beer cheese soup. This was usually late October, and we'd celebrate St. Crispian's Day. We were in an English class together in high school where we bonded with the teacher (who, incidentally, died just last year at age 94) and one night (this was a year or two after high school) we went with that teacher to see Branaugh's Henry V. The battle of Agincourt took place on St. Crispian's Day and often when we'd have these infrequent gaming sessions, we'd watch the movie (one of the few DVDs I still have).

Sorry to put a downer on this thread but it seems the best place to vent given Don's love of games. My parent's dying signaled that my generation was now next (he lost both of his first). I've been fortunate up to now to not have any close friends die from accidents or untimely disease...that appears ready to change.

[Isgrimnur]

I’m sorry that you’ll be losing an old friend.

[hentzau]

Sorry to hear about Don, Jeff. I remember when you brought him. Here's hoping his passing is easy.

[Archinerd]

Sorry Jeff, that sucks.
I remember playing a few games with them when they were there.

...

As for myself, I can only make Friday for this Octocon. I have to attend a wedding that Saturday.

[Xmann]

sorry about Don Jeff. I'll unfortunately be moving into the territory of friends getting older and passing on in the next several years myself.


been wanting to go to Octocon for years.

let me see what I can do and if I can pull it off.



Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Jeff V]

Don passed away at 4:50 this evening. We've been wanting to visit over the past few months as he was in (mostly) and out of the hospital, but nearly the entire time at least one of us has been sick. We finally made all the arrangements to go tomorrow, he did not wait for us .

At least his daughter made it back from Purdue in time.

[hepcat]

My condolences to his friends and family.

[hentzau]

Posted an update...please check it out.

[Zarathud]

Easy choice for me, the next weekend would be great.

[hepcat]

I voted don't care either way, but if moving it to the following weekend means I get a better chance of playing Zarathud's copy of Rising Sun, can you change mine to that?

Also, where are we on my suggestion that the church allow a cash bar? Lord Mortis running it out of the trunk of his car is getting tiresome.

[Archinerd]

I vote move the date.
I may still not be able to make day 2 - there is a milestone birthday in the family that Saturday but so far nothing has been planned for it (and may not be). Still, a small chance on the 21st is better than no chance on the 14th.

[Jeff V]

I don't advise taking my preference under any consideration, but my wife's schedule gives me a >0% chance of attending the 14 but unless I bring both kids, the 21 is likely out. The boy who was so unruly when I tried this last year would likely be more content this time as long as the battery in his Kindle holds out; my daughter is less likely to stay put with hers and will insist on exploring (and getting into everything she can get her hands on).

BTW, I told boardgame designer Glenn Drover about this event at a public playtest of his new game that launching on Kickstarter soon (see my post in that thread). If the timing works with his schedule, he might drop by and host some playtests of this new railroad game.

[hentzau]

Always up to try out a new railroad game.

Reminds me, I need to get another play of Railways of the World under my belt. It's been too long.

[hentzau]

OK, I've officially requested the new date to be the 20th and 21st. Sorry about having to change this around.

[LordMortis]

We just started using Sharepoint/Teams/yammer at works and there is a "meme" or "Stickerpack" called Octocorn. I keep seeing OctoCon during our rollout training.

[hentzau]

Some OctoCon news...

1. At church yesterday, the head of the building committee came over and apologized to me profusely again for asking us to move our date. She said that the building committee appreciated it so much that they are going to be providing a tray of Jimmy John's mini subs for dinner Saturday night. I told her that it wasn't necessary, but they really wanted to do this. So we got food for Friday night.

2. Not that I want to send people away from OctoCon Saturday night, but right down the road from OctoCon, the Patio Theater is hosting the Suicide Girls Blackheart Burlesque show. So, you have some additional entertainment options available...

[hentzau]

Just spent two hours replacing light bulbs in the Fellowship Hall for you filthy animals.

[hepcat]

I think once you see how good I look under that soft lighting I had you install you’ll understand why it was necessary.

[Archinerd]

I have final confirmation, I'll be able to attend both days.

[hentzau]

I have final confirmation, I'll be able to attend both days.

Excellent...