INTERVIEW WITH GRANT GARVIN (January 8th, 2006)
  >WIth the pending NorthEast Regional Qualifer (NERQ) being hosted at a new venue, the ASH HEAP thought it was a good idea to chat with the promoter, fellow VTES player and VEKN Prince, Grant Garvin.

NERQ at TEMPLECON

www.templecon.org

How and when did you get into VTES?

What’s your favorite way to play? Casual/Fun, Constructed Tournament, or Draft tournament?

Favorite expansion to date? Least favorite expansion to date?

Other than Blood Dolls, are there any cards that seem to find themselves in nearly all of your decks?

I think most people around here would agree that I own far too many copies of Carrion Crows and Earth Meld.

What are your thoughts on deal breaking?

Personally, I tend not to do it, as it doesn't really factor into my style of play. However, in high level tournament play I expect to encounter it, and would not think poorly of a person for doing so if quite a bit is on the line. If you are going to break a deal, at least be creative about it. Use semantics to your advantage, and try to at least retain the illusion of truth to support your lie. I've found it a lot harder to get pissy at someone if they can concoct a clever way to screw me over.

What VTES artwork would you love to have a print of?

I own quite a few prints, and out of those I do, the Ron Spencer and Quinton Hoover work is by far my favorite. Gunther, Beast Lord and Earth Meld really appeal to me. I had tried to purchase the original of Gunther a few years back, and missed out on doing so by literally a few hours of sending an email regarding it. That still frustrates me.

What is the current meta-game like in Seekonk, Mass?

Slow. Not as in deck speed, but VTES play itself. Due to the upcoming convention there is just a lot of plain craziness around here, so it has been tough to get a game going. Still, the latest meta-game around here has been quite a bit of weenie dominate bleed, potence weenie, and weenie vote. Did I mention that my playgroup seems to be allergic to Vampires over 5 capacity for the past year or so?

Do you think the current VTES ranking system does what it should? If not, what would you like to see changed?

Do you think the current Prize support system is adequate? If not, why?

Absolutely. I think people expecting White Wolf to fork over a ton of prize support completely out of their own pockets is totally unreasonable, and that people need to become less focused on what goodies they can reap from an event in general. Prizes are nice, yes, but a tournament is ultimately about going out and enjoying yourself with your local crew, or hanging out with another group and playing within a foreign meta-game that you haven't experienced before.

Do you think VTES should print FOIL cards?

I know a lot of militant VTES players would want to crucify me for saying this, but I think foils are a good idea. The bottom line is that the gaming industry does not solely exist on rainbows and sunshine, and producing a CCG and keeping it profitable is a rough business. While I personally don't find foils or premium cards very interesting, it's very easy to see that Wizards of the Coast has done well with their implementation in Magic, and they appear to be quite popular. If it takes a marketing gimmick to help White Wolf sell more cards, which in turn keeps fresh product on store shelves, I don't see where the problem is. If you have an issue with foil cards, trade any you may accumulate to someone who does appreciate them. I honestly can't see where all the venom for them can realistically be coming from, other than the idiotic notion that VTES must distance itself from "That Other Game" as much as possible. That mindset is absolutely silly, and I think VTES could actually benefit from following the lead of Magic in terms of marketing in a lot of areas.

It must be hard starting a CON. What has been the most difficult part thus far?

Suffice it to say that if somebody told me last year the monumental unexpected issues we've faced in trying to get this convention off the launch pad, there is no way in hell that I would have gone through with it. That's coming from a person who has experience in large event coordination for over a decade. I'm incredibly happy that we're going through with TempleCon, and it's nice to see it all finally coming together, but with the limited staff we've had it has been a source of a lot of stress over the course of the past year. The thing that's kept me going is little more than the fact that the first year of a convention is always the hardest, and that we already have a lot of systems in place to make things a lot easier on us when we do this again next year. I would have to say that the most difficult part I've experienced thus far is the issue of having outside sources commit to providing help and resources, and then not coming through in those areas that you expected them to for various reasons beyond your control. The one piece of advice that I would give to anyone considering putting together an event of this caliber would be to always assume that you may be left high and dry by anyone at anytime, especially if they are not financially involved with the convention, and sometimes even if they are. It's not enough to just have a back-up plan. You need back-up plans for your back-up plans.

How'd you decide on the name TEMPLECON?

It's a long story, but the origin of the name has very practical roots. We had a rather large list of prospective names, and each one of them was already taken. For those not in the know, there is virtually no name ending in "con" that hasn't be used by other events out there. There is even a convention titled "Every Other Name was TakeCon". So we concocted something that could be easily remembered, and at the same time was unique to Owl and Crow studios, as the Temple part is in reference to long held future plans for other endeavors. As an aside, as mythology geeks, we almost named the convention "Helicon," but we figured that most people wouldn't get the reference. We were probably right about that.

Was Providence your first thought or were any other sites considered?

A lot of sites were considered in New England. We at first had expected to run the convention in the Salem/Beverly Massachusetts area, but we couldn't find a location that would meet our standards at a price we could afford. We knew the location in Providence we found was absolutely perfect, specifically because it had a ton of parking, lots of good food and entertainment within walking distance, and the hotel was fantastic and being newly renovated as well. The hotel staff has also been very cooprative with us, as a gaming con has a lot of different needs (and people!) that your usual hotel booking isn't used to. We'll be happy to work with them again next year.

There was some discussion on the newsgroup about a discrepancy with the VTES pass for TEMPLECON. Can you explain what happened with that?

When you are putting together an event of this size, sometimes you'll run into some confusion amongst even the staff. In this case, the person responsible for pricing misunderstood the way the weekend discount pass for VTES was supposed to function, and it wasn't clear at all on the website how it was set up. This lead to a small crisis that we had to quickly take care of, but we cleared it up, and I'm really sorry for any confusion it caused amongst the VTES players planning on attending the con. Believe me, when I found out about it, I was as shocked as everybody else, if not more.

What events have been seeing the most interest by prospective attendees?

VTES is, obviously, looking like one of our big draws. WARMACHINE, the fantastic miniatures game from Privateer Press also has a huge and quite loyal fanbase coming, as does Magic, of course. We have also been surprised at the number of board gamers coming to TempleCon.

What's your favorite saying on a T-shirt you own?

"Staff"

What book have you read the most number of multiple times?

As far as novels go, I was a Lord of the Rings kid, and re-read the trilogy almost every year for a long time. As far as comics go, Sandman easily takes that spot.

What's the best show currently on TV?

I honestly don't watch TV much, so I can't say, but I'm sure if I had a favorite show it would quickly be canceled by Fox, as usual.

Favorite Alcoholic beverage?

Absinthe, because it is the only beverage that can sate my gothique and tormented soul. =) Kidding aside, I am a fan of the stuff, but not the cheap and trendy mouthwash that seems to be the rage now. I'll only touch labels on the level of the Jade line from Ted Breaux. Fantastic stuff. I also like good whiskey and scotch, which I'm going to be consuming a good amount of after this convention is over.

Moulin Rouge: love it or hate it?

I think you can just refer to my answer to the previous question, there.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

None. I bite.

Any last comments?

I'm looking forward to seeing a lot new faces at TempleCon, and hope everyone enjoys the event we're throwing. It's been really cool organizing an event with VTES as such a big part of the equation, mainly due to the dedication of the community and their willingness to go just about anywhere to toss some blood around. Also, thanks for giving me the opportunity to do the interview. You've done a excellent job with the Ash Heap, and I can tell that it's become quite a active community.