Geek Retreat Sunday 25th April 2017

Large oak trees from small acorns....

I've been coming to Geek Retreat on the last Sunday of each months ever since Spaghetti ConJunction. I offer to run short demonstration games from my "Choose Your Adventure" set up. I missed last month due to other commitments.

Up to now I've run a few short games but it hadn't taken off. Today it did - and how!

It started with three players playing my standard one hour demo of "D&D" using The Black Hack. Two of them were just cutting their teeth on Pathfinder and wanted to see how another GM ran a game.

Shortly after the game started, another player joined and just before the final climax a fifth. I came close to a TPK (Total Player Kill) but careful play by the players of the last two characters standing saved my blushes.

All five players LOVED it and wanted to keep playing. So they all made their own characters and we embarked on a longer adventure. "Falcon's Peak" from Dungeon magazine. Shortly after starting were joined by a SIXTH player. When two players had to leave we they kindly handed their characters to two MORE people who wanted to play. So we had a total of EIGHT players playing over a period of 6 hours or so. All of whom said they loved it and most asking about future events.

Geek Retreat was also host to Nintendo, Pokemon and ARM events today and was the busiest I've seen it, outside SCJ itself.

Touch wood, my small acorn has finally started to sprout.

Birmingham Comic Arts Show

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by one of the organisers of "The Birmingham Comic Arts Show". He'd played a game of Golden Heroes with me over three decades ago and thought I'd make a good addition to the event. He offered me a table. I gladly accepted and counter-offered to bring my "Choose Your Own Adventure" set up with me to offer to run short introductory RPGs for those interested. As always, I also submitted some images and self-aggrandising blurb which they could use to promote my attendance. (You know that bit before the comedian takes stage where they announce themselves using a fake voice? That's me. 90% of the good stuff written about me on the Internet was written BY me.)

Then I heard nothing. The Birmingham Comic Arts show is part of the month long "Birmingham Comic Arts Festival" with events taking place across the city. Apparently. I knew about it from the email I'd received but even I struggled to find any information on line. The website seemed to have been set up in an evening several months ago and then not updated. At all. Minimal information and the line "more information coming soon" right up until the eve of the event. They seemed to be using the "event bright" ticketing system (I'm not a fan) as their main means of promotion. Not a good move. 

A couple of days before the show, I received a general email for exhibitors regarding how to get there and set up. However, my attendance didn't seem to be being mentioned anywhere on their website, so I began to fret a bit. The day before the event, however, I found their Facebook page and they HAD been posting about me fairly regularly. That cheered me up.

I was also emailed right before the show to ask if it wanted to take part in a panel about Card, Board and Roleplaying games no longer being just for nerds. Right up my street!

As always, I turned up bright and early. The show is based in a new University building next door to "Millenium Point" at the edge of the City Centre. Good venue but out of the way a bit. The part of the show I was involved in was in a small multi-purpose hall off the main atrium to the building, right by the coffee bar. My table was the first one people would see as they walked in. As it was a "professional" show I'd bought new table covers, but I hadn't needed to. The tables were all covered with official "Birmingham City University" covers. Good job too, because the tables themselves were splattered with paint. Given how new the building and set up were, it was surprising that they've seen so much use so quickly. (Mind you, "Birmingham City University" isn't Birmingham University or, even, Aston University. It's the one that's grown out of all the old polytechnics scattered across the city.....)

I asked if there was a table for me to run games on and found out that they'd sorted out a couple of options for me - upstairs. Not next to my "presentation table" like I'm used to. They also suggested that I could play in the coffee bar next to the main hall.

I set up in good time. The hall was small but the eclectic collection of exhibitors was quietly breathtaking. There were a LOT of independent comic producers and artists. And some really famous ones. David - flipping - Lloyd, of WATCHMEN fame, was just two tables down from me!

I was really happy to be able to take my copy of Golden Heroes over to Mike Collin's table, introduce myself and thank him, after almost four decades, for all the art he'd done on it.  Most of the rules were illustrated by scraps and samples Games Workshop had snapped up from various artists. Mike was the one who'd done all the bespoke work - drawing the example villains and, more importantly, illustrating the scenario I'd written for the rules. He was gracious but genuinely terrified to be faced with it again. It was something he'd done quickly as a young artist and he's gone on to much greater things since. ( I didn't ask him to autograph my rulebook. I'M the one who autographs GH books!)

I also chatted to this great old guy (70's). After I'd explained all about my game, he showed me HIS books. He's an artist from the older British comics (Hotspur etc.) who drew their war and football strips. Pre-2000AD. What I'd call "realist" art. He also teaches how to draw comic art. His work was bloody amazing! Puts everything I do into the shade. It was a honour to meet him. 

I nipped to coffee bar for a cheese sandwich and fruit juice. Really cheap. It's a student venue.

A punter turned up at 10am as the convention was due to open and was asked to sit in the coffee bar as things weren't completely ready. At 10:30 it opened officially and..... hardly anyone turned up. I was expecting this, due to to the poor promotion prior to the event.

As the day went on, a few more people trickled in. If you knew about it, it woud have been a great event to come to. If you went to a ComiCon you'd have to pay loads to get in and then queue for hours to get a few seconds with the likes of the Watchmen artist. Here you could get in for free and spend ages chatting to him. 

I chatted to a few people at my table. There was one young man who really wanted to try D&D and I eventually managed to collared few other University students (a group dressed as various "Doctor" incarnations). I ran a very successful session of my one hour The Black Hack introductory game (Matt Colville's The Delian Tomb, as always).  Instead of going upstairs, I ran it in the coffee bar.Then I returned to my table. 

Just before 12:30 I made my way upstairs to the lecture theatre for my panel. It was half full - which means there were a lot of people there - listening to the older guy I'd met earlier give a talk - accompanied by illustrations on a large screen - on how to draw for comics and lay out a page. Though I only caught the tail end it was great stuff. I turned out, though, that he'd started talking to a nearly empty room and - as people trickled in - had gained a second wind, decided to combine his morning and afternoon presentations into one mega performance and had been talking for over an hour. This had put the programme back. The presenter of a talk about some angry French comic (or something) had been waiting to go on, so my panel was scrapped.

I went to the coffee bar to buy one of their cheap paninis for lunch but they'd sold out so I had to nip out for a Subway. I had difficulty eating it though because the afternoon was a whirl of networking. I met an editor for Titan comics, a steam engine designer (Mamod are still going) and an Afrofuturist. "RPGs coming soon to an Afrofuturist/Steamfunk convention near you!" I found out about TWO more Gaming cafes in the Birmingham area. And loads of people who'd played GH. I realised I REALLY need to get some business cards printed for these sort of events.

I bought a coffee and some biscuits from the coffee bar only to find that they were Starbucks products. Nowhere near the excellent value of the sandwich and juice I'd bought earlier. A bit odd. It was the same bar. A bit schizophrenic.

The day rounded off with another D&D demo - in the coffee bar - to two young boys - year 6 and year 3 -  watched by their mum. I pointed her in the direction of "No thank you evil". However, I think a simple kid friendly D&D box would have been better but is there such a thing?

The show was due to wrap up at 5:00pm but everyone stripped down at 4:00. Some people turned up looking for the event after the hall was mostly empty - a bit miffed that it had shut up shop early.

So, for the second weekend in a row, a damp squib of a convention. A great offering - good access to artists, comics and related exhibitors, two full strands of talks, free entry, great venue - but hardly any punters. 

Us nerds REALLY need to get our acts together, promotion-wise.

Charity Games Day - Tring

Until recently I was not sure exactly which conventions I'd be going to after Expo. I have a certain number that I'm committed to but I wasn't actively farming for more - as I have done in previous years.

However, things eased up a bit a couple of weeks ago, and I had a few weekends freed up.

I'd been aware of a charity Games Day - for "Ollie's Fund" - in Tring run by the people who have run Gamesfest in Tring for a while. I'm not sure how I originally found out about it, but I'd signed up for their Facebook event a while ago and received a drip feed of announcements ever since. So as soon as I'd stated planning for my post Expo gaming, I dropped them a last-minute line asking if they wanted my to come and run my "Choose Your Own Adventure" set up, which they accepted.

I was totally oblivious to any other options offered by "Free RPG Day."

The organisers certainly did a good job of selling the convention - through Facebook at least - though I'm not sure how widely the word got out. I suspected it was going to be a small local affair but with a wide range of games on offer - the typical more games than players situation I'm used to from Spaghetti Conjunction, South Oxfordshire Games day etc.

The convention was a one day affair, from 10am to 5pm - nominally two game slots. I had no idea where Tring was, but it turned out you get to Milton Keynes and swap trains so it's "down there" somewhere and between 1 and 2 hours travelling. But - hey - I'm an addict in search of a convention gaming fix.

The first shock was getting to Tring station only to find that it's one of those that isn't anywhere near the town it's named for. Almost two miles out of town, in fact. And, carrying my Furnace bag full of my CYOA stuff it would've been stiff walk. So I had to get a taxi into town.

Tring is amazing. Very very twee and old school. Lots of black and white historical buildings (Jacobean?) it'd be a great place to run a LARP. The venue was a town hall type place. When I got in and upstairs, I could see that there was plenty on offer for punters. At least three D&D/Dungeon Crawl tables. A clutch of Wargames, a couple of board games a handful of traders - including Ed Jowett of Shades of Vengence (the Era The Consortium et al guy). Plenty to occupy a hall full of punters.

I grabbed two tables - one to layout my CYOA setup, the other to play on.

10am came and nothing happened. No punters. The D&D referees sensibly got together with a couple of other people there to get at least one game going. The Tring wargamers entertained themselves. I had a great time chatting to Ed. I've bumped into him at a few conventions and have to same sort of relationship with him that I do with Pete Cakebread (One Dice etc). Mock rivalry. Winding each other up. I especially love Ed's monomania - his focus on his products above and beyond all else. However, as always, it's fascinating to chat to fellow game creators. He has a new card game - which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of his line at all - and is bubbling with ideas.

People began to drift in. I was sort of positioned to welcome them but Ed soon jumped in to hijack them to play his card game. (He's so predictable it's funny.) I noticed Lloyd arrive and we chatted about conventions and RPGs. (And he moaned about the distance from the station and the fact that the bus service is highly irregular - hourly I think he said.) I also met a few new people, one of whom was a sculptor aiming to get into RPG figure modelling. (Some of his 3D image work  on his phone looked amazing - but what do I know?)

Gamesfest apparently attracts shout 150 people. This event - excluding exhibitors - looked more like it attracted 15. (I may be exaggerating a bit, but not by much). Obviously the organisers hadn't counted on it being such a warm pleasant summers day with lots of other events going on. There was certainly enough on offer to occupy 150 people, sadly not many people turned up to experience it.

I got to run one game for a family of mum, dad and two sons. One of sons had very short hair but I didn't twig that it was actually "Ollie" himself. It was my standard one hour introduction to "D&D". Everyone seemed to enjoy it, though Ollie was the cleverer player and his dad would've done well to listen to his cunning plans. They could've saved the child AND killed the bugbear if he had.

For lunch I turned left and went next door to the pub for the suggested burger and pint. The pint was really pleasant and good value (£2.50 for a pint of specially crafted pale ale). The burger was very pleasant but not such good value (£13). I later found out that I could've turned right to find a range of much more cost effective options.

Despite the poor punter turnout, lots of us bought raffle tickets and there were loads of good prizes. (Ed and I each threw something in of course.) So, overall, a decent amount of money was raised.

The convention wrapped up early - though the second D&D game was still going strong - so Lloyd and I shared a taxi back to the train station. As I'm on an advance single I've been able to come up to Milton Keynes early to sit in comfort and type this. However, I'll have to wait for my booked train to arrive in a a couple of hours, so I'm going to go and find a coffee.

So hours of travel just to run a 1 hour game. Was it worth it? The networking with Lloyd and Ed and lots of other people was great. It's also important to support these small events so we get more and the hobby grows. And, yet again, the hobby has raised money for a good cause. So, yes, I think it was worth it - just! If you see Gamesfest in Tring advertised - I think it's around October time - and you're nearby and want to play, I think that's going to be a more successful event. You should even get takers if you want to offer to run a game - but don't hold me to that.

Just be prepared for that extra journey to and from the station.

UK Games Expo 217

So, like most of my friends, I went  to UK Games Expo this year.

And Was looking forward to it, I really was. I was GMing all weekend as usual and all of my games had been booked out for months. (I'd had a couple of ticket returns recently but last time I checked there was only one space open for one game.)

But......

You have to make plans for Expo months in advance and things change.

1) one of the sessions I was offering was based on a game which failed to fund on Kickstarter. It's still a good game and a good adventure (Anime, King Kong meets Power Rangers) but the gloss was off it a bit for me.

2) another commitment came up for me. I need to be somewhere in Birmingham City Centre Saturday night. So I had to pull my Saturday night game. I hate letting people down. (I think I have a good rep and have only done this once before in a decade of convention refereeing.)

3) most importantly - my game designer mind had gone elsewhere in recent weeks. Yes I still loved all the games and adventures I was offering, but I'd got new itches I want to scratch. Fledgling ideas I'd love to give a run out to. So I tried to fit in some playtesting.....

UK Games Expo on the cheap (1):

For reasons of my own I've decided to try and cut corners on my Expo experience this year.

So I've accepted ALL the GM rewards. I would've caught a £7.30 train to the con but my wonderful wife game me a lift. My hotel room is free - but I have to make share it with a fellow referee. Luckily I know a great guy from previous conventions.

Good news - checked in early to my room. Bad news - queue for 10am games which was slow even with GMs being fasttracked. Only to find I should've picked up my GMs pack at the NEC main hall. Mad dash over and back followed by confusion over rooms. Also £1.99 charge to take out cash. Really?

First game, my anime game, was great fun. We had one very young player whose ideals were left field but everyone was very accommodating. The climax was a bit more gonzo than even I normally go for. But fun.

Ticket scanning via app didn't work. Food orders via volunteers did. And there were items costing exactly£5 now - the value of the food tokens. Good!

Lots of dashing past people with no time to chat. Trade hall looks a LOT better this year.

Afternoon, classic D&D using The Black Hack. Only four players. Underpowered party. Still succeeded. Finished early, had time for a quick playtest of my new rules.

No food token for tea so spent £5 on a pasty. £5.15 on a pint (really?) just to get a glass to top up from cans under the table (sorry!)

Evening game, Blake's Seven. Some players not familiar with the series. Some VERY familiar. Slightly gonzo ending (again) with lots of Timey Wimey stuff. Great fun, though.

Expo on a budget, day two.

Got up early for breakfast to beat the queue. Breakfast starts at 7:00. I was down by 7:10 and there was ALREADY a queue. It isn't just gamers at the Hilton. Traders and exhibitors were also there and they HAVE to get up early.

But the Hilton staff are very organised and things went well.

Because I was trying to squeeze in a playtest for my card based RPG, I  didn't make full use of the breakfast. I only had coffee juice cereals fruit and full English once. Didn't eat any breakfast pastries. There was an exotic looking gateaux there. Breakfast cake? That's new to me.

No one turned up to playtest my game but I had a great time chatting to other referees over breakfast and in the bar area afterwards.

My first game was Martin Pickett's peerless The Great Martian Tripod Race. A mum, a dad, a son that wanted to play Lucifer and another guy. Yes. Lucifer.

As always fun. But I think the length of my "Code" games is directly linked to the number of players. With only four rather than the six who'd presigned and with clever play they wrapped it up in three hours rather than four. Still they seemed happy and kindly let me run another playtest of my card based RPG system. Great feedback but seem to be taking it in such and obvious direction that someone must have already written it, surely?

Artisan hotdog for lunch - free food voucher collected by volunteer - and a run over to the station to pick up my tickets and a Subway for my trip into Birmingham later. (The subway in the NEC was heaving. The one in the station, 5 mins away, was empty. Just a hint for the future guys.)

Expo on a budget (3)

Sunday morning got up early again and went down to breakfast as soon as it opened. There was already a queue! But the organisation was good again. I took my time, paced myself and managed the full four courses this time - taking a freshly cooked omelette in place of the full English. I had a great chat with Lloyd about the Games On Demand I'd seen him running so successfully.

Packed and then came down for my first game - another chapter in Martin Pickett's steampunk trilogy - The Antiquerries of Mars. I only had two players turn up out of six booked. One of these was an old mate, Tim, the other was new to me. I panicked for a bit but eventually a third player arrived. We had two ex-army gun bunnies - one retired to hunting, the other to gambling. The third character was an inventor type. They were packed off to search for a legendary Martian artefact. The tension in the scenario built well to the great scene where they find and recover the thing. Then the journey was less exciting as they dodged all the patrolling airships. Three players so - again - it finished early. But everyone seemed happy.

Tim accompanied me over to the trade hall to talk with people about printing cards.

Then back to the Hilton to pick up my preorder for lunch. By now the choice was limited and I had to top up the free voucher with £2 of my own money. (The only £2 I spent at the convention today, though.)

My day rounded off with my old "All of Time and Space scenario". I've been running this for years now and this is the third Expo running it's been my closing game. It's THAT good.

Again only three players. Scarecrow - an Australian navy seal type from some thriller novels. The Eternal Warrior from Warhammer 40k and Londo Molari from Babylon 5 (with personal retinue). Londo and bodyguards were soon dispatched by Scarecrow to be replaced by the pregen Tardis maintenance android. The game was fun as usual, but this time extra Daleks appeared which the characters accidentally led to Gallifrey, resulting in the characters being sent on a decoy suicide mission by the Timelord council.

This one under ran as well but everyone was happy to finish early and get off home. Everyone was knackered after a busy weekend.

My thoughts on Expo 2017:

For me it wasn't a classic but I didn't do anything to MAKE it a classic. Just refereed RPGs wall to wall using safe, well tested, scenarios.

It remains a superb convention. Ideally you'd divide yourself into three parts to enjoy the whole thing. I think it's slightly more for board gamers than RPGers and the Hilton feels a bit cut off from the main event.

Notes to self for next year: put an age limit on some games. It's great to see the youngsters coming through and I'm an OK ref for them. But you need a break from them sometimes. Don't ref wall to wall. Build in a break and enjoy some of the other things the convention offers. I know they're not advertised when you have to submit your games but use this year's programme as a guide. Try to run at least one "event" game.

Bring more food/drink with you, especially fruit and veg. Take advantage of the rewards scheme and share with Robin again.

The Trade hall was better this year. They used vertical promotion so it looked like a show, not an empty warehouse. There were items of food on the food carts costing £5 so, when the volunteers collected your food voucher and got your lunch (BRILLIANT!) they didn't have to worry about bits of change. Though I have to say, if I was paying for the food myself I'd be disappointed. £5 for a hotdog or toasted sandwich is too much no matter good they are.

Talking about the RPG volunteers, they were AMAZING! Jude made it look easy.

OK the ticketing app didn't work - for the RPGs at least - and there was some delay/confusion Friday morning. But it'll be better next year and it's good to see them trialling 21st century solutions.

The BIG negative. The prices in the Hilton are disgusting. The word "gouging" comes to mind. I would seriously recommend no one buys anything at the Hilton.

BUT, apart from that, if you take advantage of the rewards package, can find a good person to share a room with, offer to run the minimum necessary RPGs to get the free room and bring your own food and drink (not allowed officially but I'd recommend it) you can have a great weekend for next to nothing.

To get the rewards, offer to run games for 6 people. Even if they sell out, you'll have some games where people don't turn up so you'll have some smaller groups. You don't even have to do a load of prep. Someone was offering "The Lost Mines of Phandelver" this weekend. £16.99 and comes with pregens and everything. There are plenty of easy and cost effective options out there.

So, Expo remains fantastic and, with a bit of thought, can be pretty cheap weekend. You've got no excuse for not coming.