I attended Dreamation '96 in January, and had a good time there; I
didn't play much (though there was a fair amount of RPGA Network
stuff), but I did get to hang out and socialize, and I ran an
Amber Diceless RPG that I managed to get sanctioned at the very
last minute.

I decided to attend DexCon '96 (the other Double Exposure gaming
convention) in lieu of attending Origins '96.  First, DexCon was
reasonably close to home, and Origins was in the middle of nowhere
Ohio. Second, I wanted to _game_ at the con, and given that the
roleplaying pickings of the previous Origins were pathetic, I was
unwilling to risk my money and scant vacation time on Origins again.

DexCon is a gaming convention with the feel of a science-fiction
convention. There's a con suite with free snacks and free videos, and,
as an extra-big plus, judges get free food throughout the
weekend. Sure, it's just hot dogs and sandwich fixings, but it's a
huge, deeply appreciated convenience. It's one of those conventions
where everyone talks to everyone; people are there to hang out as
much as game, it seems.

There was plenty of gaming, and, happily, gaming that wasn't AD&D.
The RPGA Network certainly ran a bunch of tables; from everything I
could see, the RPGA marshalling went smoothly and was well-organized.
Other games weren't quite as fortunate. Playing space seemed to be
at a premium all weekend, and it seemed nearly impossible to find
a relatively quiet (for a con) place to game. I ran two games that
were "interactives", and even though the con organizers went out
of their way to help me, adequate space still wasn't to be found.
This bit of disorganization was rather nerve-wracking, as it meant
that the locations of games were changed at the last minute, making
it difficult for any latecoming stragglers to locate the group.

The hotel was reasonably pleasant, nothing exceptional and priced
about average. Most people, from what I could tell, stayed in the
con hotel, though there seemed to be a dearth of room parties.

The DexCon population was largely mercifully free of the junior Magic
weenie crowd. I did see some instances of immaturity (Living City
players throwing tantrums, not a big surprise at any con), but for
the most part the convention was fairly free of attendee-induced
stress.

The dealer room was decent for a small convention, and I managed to
pick up a few out-of-print items that I'd been looking for (oddly,
I'd gotten far more lucky at Dreamation, which had an even smaller
dealer room).

Some of the more interesting games were the Star Wars ship combat
scenarios (played on a grand scale with people as asteroids), the
Living City Triskadecaphobia interactive event, and the Tabulsa Rasa
LARP. I rather regret not having been able to play Tabula Rasa due to
the timing of the games that I was GMing; it was based on the rather
interesting premise of all the (several dozen) characters waking up on
a space station with no memory of who they were or why they were, for
example, beating the crap out of the person standing next to them.  I
spent nearly all my time at the con GMing, wandering around, chatting,
and relaxing, so there's not much more I can say about the quality of
roleplaying, other than the fact there seemed to be a lot of it, and
the number of events and spaces available seemed to balance nicely
against the number of attendees (Dreamation, for example, offered
a lot of games that didn't have sufficient numbers of players to run).

Finally, DexCon offers the "Nexus". This is an interactive
continuously-running game that involves a great deal of politicking
between characters. If you choose to participate (and most people do),
you create an Avatar; the more games you play, the more experience you
accrue and the more powerful your Avatar becomes. This is a nice idea
in theory, which seemed to work fine at Dreamation. At DexCon, however,
this was clearly problematic; there was clear evidence that there were
a fair number of people taking up table space in roleplaying events
simply to zombie their way through and get the Nexus experience points.
While I suppose this isn't as objectionable when there aren't enough
players, and having some warm body is better than leaving the seat
empty, it is still rude to the GameMaster and the other players.

Overall, though, DexCon is an excellent regional convention, well
worth attending if you're looking for some good roleplaying and
a relaxing weekend.