The first ever Spaghetti ConJunction

I've attended loads of game conventions but Spaghetti ConJunction is the first one I've been involved in organising.

It wouldn't have happened without four very important people. James Mullen and Pookie were my co-organisers and I wouldn't have had the balls to take the plunge without them there to share the risk, responsibility and workload. Andy Hopwood who jumped in as minister without portfolio, offering his advice and support based on his own experiences of running events. And Sam, the guy who's opened and runs Geek Retreat in Birmingham. The perfect location for the event.

And, of course, the wonderful guys at Concrete Cow whose ideas and organisation we ripped off for all it was worth.

I had a bit of a ropey start. I said I'd get "Tombola Tickets" for the sign ups, but they were delayed in the post. So we had to use raffle tickets instead. I also said I'd bring a cash box, but I couldn't find the keys. So my Saturday morning was spent waiting for a shop to open where I could get a last minute replacement.

Then, of course, I fretted and fussed. Would we get enough people? Would there be too many? Not enough games offered? Too many? Would everyone find the place on time and would we get started according to our ambitious timescale?

As it turned out, I needn't have worried. Everything went smoothly. About 40 people turned up - a nice number for the space and for a first event. There were loads of games and several didn't run in the morning. But all the prospective GM's seemed happy to play instead.

I had six players for my morning game, Martin Pickett's wonderful "The Great Martian Tripod Race". The players chose to go the "Scientific Romance" route with paranormal elements, so it was very in the vein of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".

The characters were:

James Coldfield - the werewolf mechanic.
Bradley Hyde - a hunter who used his difference engine to plot the routes of his prey
Luke "the antithesis" Cooper - a silver tongued campaigner for the rights of Humanity.
Noah Carlisle - a "trader" (thief) with the ability to adopt a ghostlike form
Zaccariah Zoddoff - a gentleman, and leader of the team

And

Rodney of Mars - a Martian outcast, shunned for his unnatural telekinetic abilities and raised by humans (currently acting as Zaccariah's bodyguard.)

From the very first scene, this was an absolute hoot. Highlights included the hunter staging a fake pursuit of the werewolf to cover the thief's robbery of crucial tripod parts from their Martian rivals. A hunt that rapidly degenerated into a pitched battle between the Human and Martian teams - sparking a diplomatic incident which nearly precipitated a war. Rodney telekinetically debagging the 80 year old swords mistress who was carving him up, in order to buy time for him and his comrades to escape. Zaccariah being tricked into marriage as he was forced to indecourously and publicly grope an ambitious young gold-digger in order to retrieve an important document secreted about her person. Rodney TKing the human mech around the course. This was first time that the scenario ended with a marriage taking place beneath the triumphant tripod. Great players, great fun.

Eating lunch during the first game meant that the break between games was a relaxed affair. Given the number of players vs. games I decided to scrap my afternoon game offer. I went around chatting and most people seems to want a repeat event, many in less than a year. We pulled the raffle after half an hour. There were loads and loads of good prizes. I'll let you into a secret - I'm not a huge fan of raffles at conventions. I was determined that ours wouldn't drag on and managed to bang through over 20 draws in well under ten minutes.

Afternoon sign ups went well and I was pleased to see two referees who'd missed out in the morning getting a full table of players in the afternoon. Also pleasing was her number of people arriving partway through, just for an afternoon game.

I signed up for Chris Dean's "I love the Corps" game. We've been circling and supporting each other at conventions for a couple of years now and it was nice to see one of his games through to the end. (I pass my character over to a newly arrived player and tootle off to start a game of my own at the introductory events we tend to go to.) Immensely detailed and well thought out, the game was a bit combat heavy for my current tastes up front but really took off when Chris pulled his neat "twist". I'm not going to reveal it but it was a good one. Chris is a high octane, high action entertainment kind of GM rather than a laid back facilitator and I can see why his games are so popular.

At the end there was bugger all tidying up to do because it was a games cafe and the staff did it all.

So, thoughts on Spaghetti ConJunction. I'd say it was a nice "games day" event rather than a full blown convention. But well worth doing and, if everyone stays on board, well worth doing again. Watch this space.