The ACDC 2027 ~ Operations Order

The official Operations Order for the 2027 ACDC.  Note that this is a virtual convention that is held entirely online.

Armchair Dragoons, Regimental Warning Order 26-284

Distribution restriction: No restriction; unlimited distribution is authorized

Situation

• Weather – There’s some sort of ‘Super El Niño’ that’s supposed to last into February, which sounds like a forecast of “stay inside and play games”
• Enemy Forces –  Mall kiosk perfume salesmen, mandatory family ‘fun’, Christmas music before Thanksgiving, and apathy, in roughly equal measure
• Friendly Forces – Friendly forces for this mission include all Dragoons regardless of physical location, with additional reinforcements being coordinated
• Attachments & Detachments – None at the present

Mission

The Armchair Dragoons and other friendly forces conduct online/virtual game convention operations beginning with event submission (29 October) and badge registration (approx 12 November), before culminating with the execution of the Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention (The ACDC), from 15-17 January 2027

Operations

• Commander’s Intent

The Armchair Dragoons repeat their execution of the original online wargame convention, with our annual mid-January digital convention — The ACDC.  The Armchair Dragoons provide wargamers with a multi-facted wargaming weekend as we come out of the holiday season, and give players an opportunity to meet, play, and congregate in an online/virtual convention, with the only required travel being the trip to the computer desk.
The Armchair Dragoons plan to offer a mixture of larger events, quick/casual games, opportunities to learn from/play with designers, a robust seminar program, and a variety of industry-focused talk shows.
Please contact the organizing team at armchairdragoonsevents – (AT) – that ‘gmail’ thingee if you’d like to volunteer beyond just GM’ing or playing games

• Concept of the Operation

The ACDC will focus on the following 3 lines of effort:

1. Wargaming Events: the primary activity will be wargames played through virtual tabletop systems like VASSAL, Rally The Troops, Tabletop Simulator, and Tabletopia, among others.
   Registered players may play in any number of non-overlapping events for their $5 registration cost.
   The GMs will ensure the appropriate game-specific modules are available for the players joining the game. (Sync Matrix TBP, below)
2. Topical Seminars: Both wargame-related and more general military history seminars are planned, as well as industry-focused discussions: formal presentations, industry interviews, and talk shows are the traditional formats we use.
3. The Convention ‘Community’: There will be additional channels opened up on the Discord server to create virtual ‘meeting places’ for attendees to congregate between games for any sort of community-building discussion.
   The ACDC will also include several “pick-up game” voice/chat channels for use by players who decide to join in any impromptu or unscheduled games they organize between themselves.
   Note that these pick-up games are not official ACDC events, and will not appear in our schedule nor will tickets to those events be required (though you will still need a badge for the show for access to the channels on the Discord server).

• Subordinate Tasks

1. Organizing Committee – Update/create relevant SOPs in advance of detailed planning for this ACDC, to include participant help guides
2. GMs – prepare, present & supervise games played during the convention,
3. Players – Ensure you have the correct platform software (VASSAL, TTS, etc) loaded and functional before registering for any games
4. Seminar Speakers – Prepare & present content for online audience, including participant Q&A
5. Editorial Team – ensure content is captured during the event to most accurately capture the convention for follow-up articles

• Coordinating Instructions

1. Badge Registration
   • The ACDC has a cost of $5/attendee for a weekend badge
   • As always, our Regimental Captains on Patreon have a free badge included with their membership in that support tier
   • GM’s with at least 6 hours of approved events will get a free badge to The ACDC
   • Featured guests for talk shows & seminars will get a free badge to The ACDC
   • There is an option to print your badge, if you want it as a keepsake. Obviously, we don’t need no stinkin’ badges for an online convention, but some people like to collect them
2. Discord Server
   • Only ticketed attendees will be given access to the ACDC Discord server
   • Discord server will be active once registration is open and will close approximately 1 week after the conclusion of The ACDC
   • Discord help guide will be posted to the Armchair Dragoons site
3. Event schedule
   • Event schedule will be posted here, for you to recon before registration opens.
   • All times for events are listed here in US-Eastern time, but the Tabletop.events registration site converts to your local time zone.
4. Event Submission
   • GM’s need not purchase a badge to submit events, but all events are subject to approval before they are available to the public.
   • GM’s are expected to have a full teaching knowledge of the game, as well as mastering the tools used to present the game online, including “hosting” the game in the chosen virtual platform (TTS, Tabletopia, VASSAL, etc). GM’s will need to provide their Discord user name as a part of registration to enable player comms if needed before/during events.
5.  Streaming
   • YouTube streaming, including seminars & talk shows, will be through unlisted Youtube links, with URLs provided exclusively to attendees.
     This will allow us to still leverage YouTube chat during the livestreams while still limiting the audience to registered attendees.
     Streams will be made public after the convention is finished.
   • Individual event tickets are needed to play in the games, but not to watch.
     While we hope to stream many of the games through YouTube, many of them may only be made available to registered participants through the screen streaming function on Discord.
   • All GMs will make every effort to stream their games through the Discord screen sharing, and through publicly-viewable channels (YouTube, Twitch, etc) when possible.
6. Updated 2027 Dragoons gear, as well as 202 ACDC-specific merch, will be available through our online store

Event submissions for the January 2027 ACDC are scheduled to open on 29 October

Service Support

• Support Concept

Armchair Dragoons will provide the scheduling & registration framework, as well as the online ‘anchor’ presence for the convention using Discord, with announcements through our site and social media channels.
As the central clearinghouse for information, Armchair Dragoons will take the lead in supporting convention attendees.

• Technical Support
  1. Armchair Dragoons can offer limited technical support for the registration / scheduling software through the tabletop.events platform
  2. Armchair Dragoons makes no promises, guarantees, warranties, or assurances that the platforms used for this convention (such as TTS, or VASSAL) will load and function correctly on your individual machine.
     In short: it is your responsibility to make sure your computer works with the platform for the game(s) you want to play this weekend.
  3. Armchair Dragoons will be publishing a few “tips & tricks” guides for specific platforms, but these are in no way intended as any sort of guarantee of success nor an implied offer of universal tech support.
• Personnel
  1. Anyone wishing to volunteer as a GM is instructed to submit the event through the event submission link
  2. Anyone wishing to volunteer as a seminar speaker is instructed to contact the convention team at armchairdragoonsevents – (AT) – that ‘gmail’ thingee.
     Please include a draft outline of the content to be covered and include at least 2 options for times at which you can present.  Note that whenever possible, we will try not to schedule multiple seminars at the same time.
•  Promotions
  1. A bank of images is available to freely share here: banner ad (728×90) ; social media box (500×500); large banner (728×250)
  2. Everyone registering for/attending the ACDC is asked to share information about the convention through their social networks; the more, the merrier!

Command & Signal

• Command
  1. Armchair Dragoons will lead the effort, with assistance from other organizations as needed
  2. Questions or concerns should be communicated to armchairdragoonsevents – (AT) – that ‘gmail’ thingee
• Signal
  1. We will use online comms for site administration and other coordination
  2. All games are played online through virtual platforms like Tabletop Simulator, VASSAL, and Tabletopia.
     It is the player’s responsibility to ensure the appropriate software is working on his/her own computer.
  3. Games will operate with online voice channels, such as Steam Chat or a Discord server.  The GM will communicate to the players which channel is being used, but it is the player’s responsibility to ensure the audio is appropriate for the game.
  4. While some GMs prefer Steam Chat for their voice comms, the priority will be the dedicated Discord Server available for that weekend for both voice and text chat

Sync Matrix

Event list will be posted as events are confirmed

All of the The ACDC 2027 Articles
Operations Order ~ Call for Events ~ Registration Open ~ Opening Day ~ Game Reports ~ AAR

Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons.
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