In short: I have none. The title of the post was to subvert expectations, cause I'm a smart ass (or just an ass, whichever). For transparency's sake, I was initially disappointed that there was no Saturday morning slot scheduled, but after overhearing Tony explain to someone else that asked the reasoning behind it, I thought it was a great call. Come Saturday morning, I really appreciated that I could catch up on some sleep after a rough week and still not miss anything.

I'd like to send out a huge 'thank you' and 'well done' to Tony, Melinda, Matt, and all of the judges. You all did a great job putting together a fun, casual weekend.

I know there were some complaints about "lack of things worth buying" at the marketplace, but I thought there was some *really* cool things in there. I didn't buy anything, not for lack of stuff or lack of funds, but nothing really fit with how I see my character (Ni'Sal). Had I had my val'Borda on hand, however, I probably would have been offering to do unseemly things to get enough gold to buy everything I wanted.

I also heard grumblings that the interactive was slow and/or boring. I cannot speak for everyone else at my table, but I got the sense that we all felt it was an interesting change of pace from the stressful, 'holy shit I have to role as fast as possible to take my turn' battle interactives. I thought not having (really) any sort of map given to us and needing to draw our own - then share with others to get a complete map - was a pretty cool idea. Hell, it was the first time in aaaaaages that I got to use graph paper. I was a happy geek! That there were multiple ways to enter the fortress and different factions we could side with during the second half was rather unique - at least of late.

Now, that's not to say I didn't see some things that could be improved or expanded upon, but that's only because nothing is ever truly perfect and I have the benefit of not having been stressed or under pressure to organize or write anything. So really, it would simply be a case of wanting to eat my cake and have it too.

On the level I believe everyone did a bang up job! I know for a fact that everyone at my table had a great time - including our judges - and we're all looking forward to Origins and the next ArcaniCon.

Kudos to Matt for the way he handled the fairness of the special market at ArcaniCon. With a limited inventory of items, there's no perfect way to handle it. In any scheme, someone is going to miss out, and it's just a matter of determining who goes first. The randomness seems pretty fair to me, and it seemed to work pretty well. Even though I had a low roll and thus wasn't excited by any items still available (yes, I bought something, but just for the story of it), I have no complaint about the fact that I happened to be in a late-time group since it was controlled by dumb luck.

On the other hand, it's not so nice that I heard that some players bought items explicitly for other players who went later. That violates the spirit of the random timing. It starts to break Whedon's Rule and can lead to cooperation among friends or competition by players who are willing to use their time slot for a "finder's fee."

Our table was either the last to go or next to last. Anything I was interested in was either gone or not there in the first place, or pretty much out of my price range. That said I still think Matt did as good a job with this as possible and I thank him for doing so. I do have a character who wants a certain set of lockpicks.

Yeah that was me, and as far as I know I was the only one that did it. and I did it specifically to purchase a sword that belonged to an ancestor of my character, that in all likelihood, I will never use in combat. It would have been played out publicly at the end of the BI, but that roleplay was quashed (that table had more resolution to deal with)

If I was violating Whedons rule I would have certainly gone for the cloak that provided AR.

The Market place provided the opportunity to be a game within a game, when my actual turn came up somewhere in the middle of the pack, I bought something completely useless for my character _mechanically_ but instead could be used as a political tool to win favor from the S'sressen, to whom I gifted said item, without any prior collusion from them.

I ,having spent more than 30 gold that weekend, have in hand a sword i wont use, but posses just for the story, but have in my political folder, more connections and favors than I started with, and as Ivan would say " Is good thing."

In my opinion, this would only be an issue if players were buying multiple items, and had bought items for others. When each player is allowed only one item, if they want to go without to buy something for someone else, who does that hurt? I don't see the problem, personally.

I agree Matt did a great job with the market.

I was at the first table but there really wasn't anything there for Ss'kethis (the cloak of NAR if it wasn't an item bonus (eg doesn't stack with Ss'ressen Scale Armor)). There also wasn't anything there that was appropriate for G'hyu'thyh that he could afford. It would have been nice if there was but it wasn't a big deal. I hope the market makes an appearance again in the future with a different assortment of items (and hopefully I get lucky on my timeslot again).