Fun-K-Town Convention Vlog

0:00 Hey, welcome back to another travel vlog here in the Dice Tower. I'm Chris and I'm going to be going to Fun K Town Games in Knoxville, Tennessee. Really excited. I'm being brought out as a special guest there. Really showing off a cool smaller local convention out in Knoxville. So, I'm going to be flying now directly to Nashville. Oh boy, I thought they were closer. I approve of this state. Since I wound up in the wrong city, I decided to get myself a nice little Uber here. So, all right. I'm off to uh fix this whole Nashville Knoxville mix-up. So, thanks for picking me up, sir.

0:40 Yeah, of course. All right. Who are you again? I Maybe I won't actually take out the audio of this. Feel free to say whatever you want. I'm a vassal these days, man. Yeah. So, what do we have this fork here? Here we are at Ivy's studio. That's Austin decided since I'm in town, we'll just uh you know, come by and and he'll show me everything. So, he said that this is where they film all of the stuff for the upcoming games. Uh but he's going to show me the storage closet back here now. There was a lot of games in there. Zack is showing off Altered which was just announced actually this morning. So, this is one of the new game simultaneous play House Chaos. That's me. Wait, no no no. House Vengeance. That's mine. We go down this hallway here and there is both the studio to our right side.

1:29 No, this is the uh master control room. I meant that the studio's on the left side. That's clearly what I said. I said that from the beginning. I said that the whole time. Austin's going to film a uh quick unboxing of Realm of Reckoning, some updates and stuff. You told me this is the quickest path to Knoxville. Uh it's one of the best to Knoxville. Okay, cool. Yeah, I'll take my time. I like their multi-monitor setup here so you can see a lot of different things happening. So, you see Austin up there typing an email and you see they're also typing an email from a dramatic angle. Ooh, yeah. He's having audio issues, so yeah, we're not alone. There's the There's the rake that they use to bash all the equipment when they have audio issues. Well, my Well, my lips are really off. Oh, no, you're recording. Editing a little promo, a trailer update that he's going to be putting up for Realm of Reckoning, and so I'm just I Look, I'm in the manager your position.

2:20 Work faster. Edit better. Why aren't you in Knoxville? We'll get there. Austin was nice enough to give us a ride here to dinner. We're going to grab some dinner before we head over to Knoxville. So yeah, let's see, turn left ahead. Austin, in Tennessee, why don't the cars have drivers? The future is weird. It's cool though, right?

2:42 I'm one of the Futurama tubes. This is close. All right, we finally made it. We're here in downtown Knoxville, Music City, USA.

2:50 not Knoxville. We're still not in Knoxville. We're still in Nashville. So eventually it's just all overlapping music.

3:15 We're finally driving to Knoxville in a driverless car, even. But one important stop first. 60 bucks for an inflatable yard bug? I'm still thinking about it. I don't get tired of it. It just makes me happy every single time. All right, note to whoever's editing, let's just start the vlog here. Hey everyone, I'm here in Old Town Knoxville, Tennessee for Funky Town Games, and I'm just waiting to get picked up here. I'm going to be heading to the convention center, checking in now, so I'm excited to start this whole gaming weekend. The grooviest board gaming weekend in all of Knoxville is the promise here. Better live up to that promise. All right, let's get this Knoxville stuff started here. I'm going to hop into this Uber and we're going to head to the actual air It's you again.

4:01 Hello, you're my Uber today. This is really convenient two days in a row. Here we go. There's This is a one-lane road. Yeah, so this Uber driver over here is uh he's taking me to the University of Tennessee. It's not the We're We're here at the hill. We're following the the UT bus over there. Go Go Knoxville Knockers. Go Knoxville. Uh Knoxville I don't know what they are. There's a lot of doors here, okay? They need knockers. Here's the Nielsen Physics Hall. Science and engineering, everybody. So, young man, when do you plan to start here at the University of Tennessee? Hopefully I can be What's going to be your major? Uh Driving? Let's just keep following that bus. I'm sure it's going to the convention center. And there it is, right behind me, folks, from American Automobile Guidebook 1982, the Knoxville, Tennessee Sunsphere.

4:57 This was featured predominantly in an episode of The Simpsons where I have to assume it was truly actually turned into wig storage for a nearby wig shop. The convention center sits right here next to the Sunsphere and right next to World's Fair Park from the 1982 World's Fair which the Sunsphere was built for. It has this beautiful walking area over here you can come check out and they have the Dogwood Arts Festival. The convention hall is about to open up here in about a half hour, so I'm just walking around the fairgrounds and everything and checking out the super cool park. This has some really nice views to go take a look at. Leaving the World's Fair Park area, crossing the railroad tracks here like the proper hobo that I am to get across over here to where they're hosting the Dogwood Arts Festival uh in the public park over here. Rachmaninoff, the last concert by Victor Boracov.

5:47 I don't think Rachmaninoff was that tall in real life. His hands were about that size though.

6:18 Oh man, Erbe del Sol looks so good and their logo is a whale with a cone on its head. I don't need it. It's okay, I don't need it. Oh no, how did this happen? I don't know who Dom is or what he did, but I agree. Let's free him.

6:47 Oh look, look, look, look. Every wig tells a story. I knew it's a wig storage. Well, it's noon now. You hear the bells are ringing. That was That was amazing. That was really cool to go check out. Picked up new earrings and stuff for Wendy, my daughter. So now I'm going to try to figure out where to go in the convention center. I don't know. I wish there was like a sign somewhere that I'm in the right spot. So it looks like I was in fact correct. This This one looked a little funky to me. So it looks like I walked in the right spot here. This is the convention they're going to be doing some events here. This is going to be a tournament of Skyteam. Registration going on over here. Here's the game library. So looks about like seven shelves full of games here.

7:33 Some new stuff, some older stuff, some classic stuff right there. You got a little bit of El Grande next to Elfenland. Let's walk into the gaming hall. Bezier Games, clearly a big sponsor of the event. So, here's the gaming table area and everything. More uh you know, display stuff over there. But, yeah. Ooh, I hope they're showing off Zombie Prints. I want to check that out, actually. Try out Night of the Ninja. I'm a judge. It's Trickster time. I'm a thief. I'm a thief. Oh, here we go. I'm a thief. I'm going to make friends by stealing. All right, you see this here? That's my little secret. Can you see these points over here? No one's ever seen this many points in this game. A cool little display over here on the side for Vengeful Dragon. It's not just cool because I'm going to steal a Twix bar. Uh you're not the same when you're hungry. Snickers. Just kidding. That's a bribe. That's a bribe. I now give this game a 9.7 out of 10. But, there's also an entire friendly local game store, Good Times Game House, which does have stuff available for sale. And it's just nice to see this right here kind of mixed in to the middle of the gaming room.

8:35 Look at the funky lights. Groovy lights, baby. This is so far the grooviest board game weekend I've ever seen in Knoxville. I just added to the Not a very good hand of cards in Down Up, but I flip it and this is great. So, here I am thinking I'm playing the cool new game when someone decides to pull out this thing. I don't have the new hotness. So, there's the main gaming area in the store over there and just outside opposite the library. This is the game of the hour room where I'm going to be showing off uh to multiple tables at once Soda Jerk tomorrow. And they have different people running six tables at a time of the big game of each hour. So, you can see right now, this is Propolis six tables of it set up going. But, then over on this side, you can see future games of the hours uh getting ready to go. So, go. What do we got over here? We've got High Society coming up, Estate. Oh, that's cool.

9:29 Color Field, Roar and Write. And then yeah, this is I think today's slate. There'll be a different slate tomorrow. I recognize Heads Will Roll at all, but I like the pun. The dice are shaped like heads. So, this is the Game of the Hours area and the rest of the room is just open large tables put together. This is a really good idea. Have designated places where people can camp out and play TI4 or D&D and other letters mixed together. PNP, TTR, T2R T2RGE. That's Ticket to Ride Germany or TTRDE is Deutschland or T2R2T. That's Ticket to Ride Tricky Time Crisis.

10:21 Here's previous year Game of the Hours that they've got, which is really neat to see like the Yeah, just what different stuff they've featured. Running six tables of these at once. That's a That's a pretty cool thing and being able to hold on to some of these and have them for later. Oh, more of these photo games. Oh dear. Oh dear. You saw nothing. You saw nothing. I got to go. I think a really cool call over here is having a section of just family games that Yeah, these are not one of the ones like most hardcore gamers will be gravitating towards, but there's there's definitely families playing together. Like having Doomlings in the library is not a bad idea. I do like looking at some of these older ones that they have featured. Look at this. This is a Silverline printing of Through the Desert. That's That's neat, but they also do have other kind of bigger name things as well.

11:08 And I like these small cases over here. It's kind of fun to see You just look in here what What we got We have One Night Everything. So, yeah, Bezier is a sponsor of this con if you hadn't noticed yet. Oh, all the Valley of the Kings. That's cool. All three boxes there. So, yeah, I I do I just love perusing through libraries like this. This shelf is full of spoilers. Full of spoilers if you never watched the Planet of the Apes musical. Special guests this year. There's a little There's a little bit of me the game table and level up podcast. Very cool. Very cool. Za za za za za za za zombie princess over here checking it out here with the Bezier team. We got

12:06 So Jay, and let me ask you this without you yelling at me this time. Now, if I think that it's really good to bid eight bids. I think I'm going to win eight tricks this round and to hit those exactly and to score points for every single one of those. Is that correct? I mean I might I might be new at this trick taking thing, but Yes, you win. Yeah, baby. Zombie princess deluxe edition.

12:52 I have forgotten what it is like to walk around a city with so many hills. A little out of shape. And in this corner of the gaming area is the Plato win section and so these are donated games that you can come play. Uh sign up in the book itself and then you might be entered or you will be entered and you might win a free copy of it. Check out Galactic Cruise over there. Ooh. Hey there. That's pretty good looking. Uh so I have games of all different types ranging from Galactic Cruise to just teeny little junky games and stuff. One of the things you notice that a lot of people do is they just bring their collection of games and they're willing to share and play with other people. They put up little signs here provided by the con. This stack of games belongs to such and such person and they're totally willing to just let people yeah, play with them or sometimes ask them if they want to just borrow it and put it back.

13:44 Board game exchange tomorrow. All right, I might have to go check that out. Oh, sorry. You got that one? This is the best game of Medici I've ever played. Austin is just getting hammered mostly by himself. Oh, he's passing. All right, Queenie is going to crawl forward one step. This is the best finale to a race that we've ever seen. Moves two forward, two. Crawls. Queenie. Bear turns around. RIP LOL. Everybody recovers. Everybody recovers. Recover move, two. Oh, it's the Queen's game to lose. The Queen's Gambit pays off. Just finished Excalibur and oh, what is this that's in my hand? Look at that. Is that the I win chip? Oh. No, don't worry about that. Austin had that.

14:38 Good job, buddy. You're the biggest loser. It's Saturday at the con. Uh well, I'm not at the con yet. I'm leaving the place I'm staying, but we're going to be driving over. I'm going to be checking out uh well, I'm going to be running the play test sessions of a couple more prototypes I have and then showing off Soda Drinker and the other mini hour thing. So, it's going to be a fun

15:08 Matt Robs Biscuits. So, those are the main gaming rooms down the hall over there. Then also out in the big main hallway here, have other tables set up people playing out here on occasion, and more tables are getting set up for the flea market that'll be this afternoon.

15:33 Just taught these six tables of people here Mythic Dice, Armello Dice, this is basically Skull King the Dice Game. This is the big game of the hour here, and the next hour we'll be teaching Soda Jerk to all six of these tables as well. Do people will come in and out, and that's just kind of one of the big fun events that they do here at Funky Town. But also on this side of the room that is just big games. So you see people playing Galactic Cruise and other stuff around there. So one of the two big gaming rooms here, but I like this This is a cool little event to do.

16:25 One two people, some of them you might not know, that's totally fine. This is the kind of game that is better with more folks. So crowd in, play, and and and enjoy yourself. Finished teaching up Soda Jerk and Mythic Dice, and so now checking out the game bizarre. I'm guessing some of the best stuff has been picked through already, but it is fun. I do just love looking through little markets and stuff like this. Sky Team set up over here with the words flight simulator. So these are Sky Team set up behind there. They're using this front space for gaming, but you would go through and do a three-step tutorial system before you would come here to the jumbo jet, and you would play a game of Sky Team. They had a little tournament system going. This is your Captain Chris speaking here with co-pilot Will. We're going to be taking on the challenge of Haneda Airport. So here's a beautiful view of the skies of Haneda, and this is what we're looking at the console back here. So, this is a tournament. If we land this plane successfully, I think we get to take over the convention. Is that correct?

17:22 Yeah. So, what will you do when you are king of Funky Town Games next year, Will? Uh we're going to have have more more airplanes coming in. So, what's going to be your strategy to win to land this uh very difficult airport here? Uh don't run out of fuel. Fine.

17:36 a good and key thing. And don't crash into the traffic. I'll do what I want. All right, we went down in a blaze of glory. Actually, it's not considered very glorious when you crash into an airport, but we did our part, right? Yeah, I mean, you know, nobody's We're not around to hear all the bad stuff they're talking about. That's the That's the spirit. Here we go. Never trust me behind the the cockpit of a plane again. So, I'm here with Mike Randolph. You're the head honcho of this entire thing, right? You are king of the Funky Bunch.

18:03 I am the mayor of Funky Town. All right. So, how long you've been doing this convention now?

18:08 This is our sixth year. Fifth year at the convention center. Wow, super cool. Okay. And then so, it's been growing every year. This is the largest one so far? By far. This has been a great year for us. Do you know about how many attendees?

18:19 We got about 320 this year. Nice. Yes, that's a big step up. Even from last year, I think, right?

18:25 Last year, we were about 235, 240. So, yes, this was a big growth year for us. Yeah, we're really excited. That's great. And so, what made you decide that you want to start your own convention? So, been to several conventions around the area. Some of them are much larger than this, but one of the things that we noticed were that um people were coming in and they didn't have that immediate group to get connected with. They're walking around looking for something big, grabbing a rule book, kind of flipping through it. It's been intimidating if you've never been to a board game convention before. And so, we wanted to do something that had some ways to get people connected really quick right from the jump. Okay, this is the game of the hour, for example.

18:58 That led to the game of the hour. Yes.

19:00 That's awesome. Yeah, it's really cool because I know people who came solo or just two people then jumped into a table of like six others, played Hot Street, played Mythical Dice. Mhm. Oh, it's fantastic. And we've got folks that will, you know, they're new to the town or they've been here for a year or two and they haven't found that board game group yet. This gives them a chance to say well, get started here, meet three or four or five or six new people at the table and worst case scenario if you don't like the folks they're only there for an hour and you move on to the next group next town. But uh no, we've had a lot of successes and they're a real good part of Funky Town. Very cool. You plan to do it again next year? Absolutely. Same place, same time of year, last weekend of April. All right. Well, very good. If you have been watching this and thought this was interesting, maybe you're a local to the area or maybe you want to travel to see Tennessee, consider Funky Town. Absolutely. Thanks a lot.

20:04 So, down at the end of the hallway here where everything is, there is Social Deduction Knoxville. So, this is the group where Blood on the Clock Tower being played, other large group games sitting around. So, a whole nice designated area kind of away from all of the the rest of the stuff, but then there's also tables in the hall. Yeah, just kind of nice nice layout utilizing the space that they've got.

20:37 So, walking by this is a very eye-catching game over here. Ballons Olympiques. So, uh this is a balloon movement kind of a racing game where not only are you worried about just the spatial where you're going to be, but also depending on your height and your elevation, there's different movement. So, this one you said is coming to Kickstarter soon, is that right?

20:57 to get it out in May. Hoping to get it out in May? Very cool, very cool. And the name of the company? Greenbrier Games. Greenbrier Games. So, yeah, go check it out if you want something that looks very very unique. Taking here to Kern's, which is like a food market restaurant kind of area and there's some outdoorsy stuff. You can come watch some movies in the summertime, but as for me and my stomach, we go to food. Where are we going? We're going that way. Uh I'll go where I want. Here I go.

21:33 Disco chicken. Disco chicken. The Poké Ball place has a really cool custom drink option. Just came back from dinner. It is about 9:30, 10:00 at night. So, you can see things are quieter, winding down. It's the last full evening of the con. Tomorrow's going to be the Sunday half day. So, and I'm flying out around noon. So, I'm going to come back in the morning and just kind of check things out for a little bit. You can see the volleyball tournament is done, which makes this just ever so slightly easy to walk through. But, let's see what game is going on the last night. Plenty of tables still going. Some announcements.

22:25 Oh, Play to Win is cleared out. Oh, snap. Oh, they're giving stuff away. They're giving it away. Dirty birdie. All right, who won the Electoral College here, guys?

22:41 We are almost there. We're in the We're in the third We're at the end of the month, I should say. Okay, yeah. You're in the third trimester of the election. Got it. All right, where's where's Florida swinging? Uh Florida. Unbelievable.

22:56 Yes. Unbelievable. Where's Rhode Island? Who's got Rhode Island? It's the 11:30 at night crowd and one of the things you'll notice actually the game store back there Good Times Game House is actually still open. This hall closes at midnight each night. They'll ask everybody to leave, but the game store is open all the way until midnight. Though I'm not going to make it. We're going to bounce. It's Sunday morning at opening here. You see people trickling in. The game store already staffed who were just here until midnight last night. Couple people setting things up and Bezier selling games, but I was told I needed to try Potchke's Bagels. These things are super good. All right, I think you can't tell how big this bagel is, but I'm not really good with percentages. I think this is approximately a lot bigger than a normal bagel though. So this is fantastic and a nice send off morning.

23:45 There's a lot more open tables, but people are definitely enjoying themselves here on Sunday. And check this out. This Crokinole has been been busy the entire entire weekend, which is always great to see. Here it is. Good shot. Good shot. I've done better. I've done so much worse. There's no game of the hour games today, so this is just an open spillover gaming room and you can see large large games being set up and played multiple RPG sessions and stuff and there is funky music white boy. All right, it is time for me to get heading out, but as a nice little surprise for you vlog watchers here. Did you know that Mike Delisio actually came to Funky Town Games as well? Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Mike Delisio, major internet celebrity.

24:34 So all right. Well, this is probably going to be the end of the vlog here unless there's a big travel issue. So uh stick around after the credits and hopefully I'm not there because that means that I flew home nice, safe and sound, had a good night's sleep and went back to the studio to edit this vlog together. Well, Funky Town Games, it's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been funky. Oh, I get it. Funkey Town Games.

25:01 Uh thanks for watching another video here on The Dice Tower. Uh we really appreciate you stop by and checking our things out. Thanks so much for joining us today. And hey, if you really like what we're doing here at The Dice Tower, then there are different ways to support The Dice Tower. One of those ways is through Patreon. We have links in the description to this video. We have links to lots of other things we do down there, so definitely check it out. But either way, we're glad you watch us. Tell your friends about The Dice Tower. And the next time though, I'm Tom Vasel, and I hope you enjoyed this video. I knew since I was only going to put like a thing here at the end, a little stinger. The travel plans got completely porked. I'm still in the Knoxville airport, everything's fine, but I have not seen a Quiznos in so long. There is a Quiznos here.

25:47 I haven't seen one in the wild, probably decade. I thought those Mouse Trap commercials killed them. Zone of shame. Spared no expense. Using fossil records in the various strata, archaeologists are actually able to date the Orlando airport to the 1900s.