Sunday 23 September 2018

WynterCon 2018

TLDR: Wierd, eclectic event on grass under a big top. Stunning cosplay. Lots of one hour RPG games - which suits me as a referee. Not recommended for dedicated RPG players.


I don't know what WynterCon IS!

Their own blurb describes it as:

"The South Coast's largest community, family friendly, multi-genre, fantasy, cosplay and Sci-Fi event, all held under an all weather big top."

I first went five years ago when it was fledgling SteamPunk convention as part of a hopeful group of RPG referees. We got very little trade, being hidden away at the back of a rather spawning city centre community venue. I didn't go back for the second year, only to find that they'd re-organised the RPG offerings and had been overwhelmed with demand.

So I've been back for the three most recent ones. And had a great time every time. After the third event it moved out of the town centre and up the road to a local park where the event now takes place under a massive candy striped big top.

What they've done is to offer short one hour demonstration type games on an on demand basis. And the local community seem to just lap it up.

The basics:

WynterCon is a 2 day convention in Eastbourne on the South Coast. It runs from 10-5 on Saturday and 10-4 on Sunday. With its large range of eclectic offerings there's loads for people to see and do. Especially children for which there are several targeted craft activities and stalls.

So I guess it makes sense to have games which can fit into a relatively short day which you can do in between other events.

As with all 2 day events now, I arrange to travel down Saturday morning - even if it means getting up at stupid o'clock - stay one night in a cheap hotel or B&B, and travel back Sunday evening. This cuts costs significantly.

I tried using Facebook live to document my journey. This was seen by an old friend who contacted me en route and offered me a lift from the station to the event, saving sme a taxi fare. Excellent!

The "RPG zone" is right in front of the main entrance. Half a dozen tables offering 5th Ed D&D, One Dice (multiple genres), Mouse Guard, Pugmire, Star Wars and at least one other that I've missed. As well as my own "Choose Your Adventure" set-up which fits right in here. Because it's under a big top, you're playing on grass, which feels really odd. (There were Daleks in attendance but they were unusually placid.)

It isn't particularly warm - which is why all my photos show me in a thick wooly jumper rather than my usual waistcoat. It was also pouring down with rain and the big top isn't 100% watertight so you have to be careful where you position your table to avoid the occasional drip. It's a unique experience.

Saturday I ran four games:

- the Great Airship Robbery. (Steampunk) The party managed to save about one half of one airship.
- One of our dinosaurs is missing. (Steampunk). Some great ideas and puns which really fleshed out this scenario for future run outs. But I can't mention them without giving spoilers.
- Fireball XL5 - carnage, complete carnage. When Professor Matt Matic's EM pulse device took out the Fireball crew's jet bikes rather than the planetomic missile aimed at Earth, Venus was forced to sacrifice herself and Fireball to physically intercept it.
- One of our Clerics is missing - my intro Scenario from the upcoming Role Playing Relief book. Played using The Black Hack rather than my d6 Hack. You get a lot of returning players at WynterCon and this group had played my usual TBH intro scenario in 2017. The party were very successful but pushed things a bit too far and their fighter got turned into a pin cushion in a goblin ambush.

In between all of this I had my photo taken with numerous great Cos Players - the main one being a REALLY impressive Thanos.

After a slow start the RPG zone was really busy.

When the convention shut down at 5:00pm, rather than return to my B&B for the night, or take part in unstructured socialising, I visited the local games cafe - Mana Gaming - to try and drum up an evening game. However, due to the poor weather there were very few people there and I hadn't had a big enough run up to promote a game and drum up players myself. It was an excellent venue and I ate there rather than elsewhere in town. And they try to invite me into a board game and card game. Now that I've found the place and made contact, I will be back next year and I will find players for a game.

Sunday seemed to be even busier than Saturday. Despite being an hour shorter, I ran five and a quarter games (see below).

- The Evolution of Species (Steampunk meets Harry Potter). The RPG organiser brought two Potter Heads to me. Early teen girls in robes with wands. I adapted my standard steampunk game, setting it in a Steampunk technology University. Just as they were being squelched in the climax we grabbed a passing family to join in and play the cavalry coming over the hill.
- One of our Dinosaurs is missing (Steampunk) - my friend's family. Great fun but I felt the dice forced me to needlessly torment his daughter.
- Superheroes vs. Dinosaurs (Superheroes) - a family with two hyperactive young sons who sat down, started playing and told me - 5 minutes in - that they only had 15 mins due to an appointment at the Light Sabre training. I mean I'm good and I think I handled it very well, wrapping things up satisfactorily - but it felt wierd. I felt sorry for a lady who was also playing the game whose session I thought had been needlessly disrupted. So.......
- I ambushed two young teenage girls and inveigled them to the table to give the woman a full game. A totally female table (except for me) running a completely female party. We did my standard TBH intro. They pursued a fleeing goblin straight through the dungeon to the last room. But the scenario delivered as always.
- Then the two Potter fans returned with a friend for more "Steamwarts" fun. I swear I might actually publish this setting! A version of "One of our Dinosaurs is missing" where one of the characters imploded. My second all female party of the day.
- The day finished with a final run through of my standard TBH dungeon with one of the players telling me 30 mins in that they only had 10mins left.

I love WynterCon. It's weird and eclectic and the only convention where EVERYONE does what I usually do alone. And it had an audience that craves these short form games.  So it's a good place for a refereeing addict to get a fix. If you're local and seeking a fun day out - especially for the kids - it's worth a visit. I wouldn't recommend it for dedicated RPG players.

Saturday 15 September 2018

Concrete cow 2018.2

TLDR: Concrete Cow RPG convention. Twice a year. Milton Keynes. Well organised. Great games. Essential. Should be part of everyone's convention calendar. Numbers seemed to be down which is a shame.

I've written about Concrete Cow more times than any other convention. It's held in a Community Hall, in Wolverton, a suburb just outside Milton Keynes, twice a year. The Hall is on a high street near the station next to a Supermarket, food outlets etc. It's a perfect location

I've done it so many times, it's now routine. Though you're not bound to it, you're asked to tell the organisers which games you want to offer in advance so they can list them on the website. Which I did.

Then I caught my usual train. As always, with no preplanning, bumped into Pookie my fellow Spaghetti ConJunction organiser. We chatted. The 90 minute journey from Birmingham was pleasant. We arrived in good time. £5 entry (profits to charity). If you're offering to run a game in the morning, you put down a sign up sheet you've made. There's a good template on the website (recommended but not required) and blank ones are available on the day to make a hand written sheet.

Normally there's time to nip next door to the supermarket to buy some supplies but I just spent my time chatting to old mates. This included James, the other SCJ Mavern, so we had a committee meeting. I was disappointed to see numbers seemed to be down on previous events. 40-50 people I'd guess. There were three traders.

Just before ten o'clock is signups. This is random via ticket. There is no prebooking. Nothing - the exact games offered, who plays in what - is decided until the day. It's the fairest system I know. But you do have to be prepared to take pot luck.

Games offered tend to be outside the mainstream - no 5th Ed, Pathfinder etc - but still accessible. Pulp Cthulhu for example. You're taking pot luck and there doesn't seem to be a pattern as to what runs and what doesn't. But there are more than enough games offered to cover the players there and all of them look to be at least good. At least a third are offered by what I'd rate as "top" Referees. So you'll definitely get into a game you'll enjoy and probably get into one game on the day which will be memorable.

The morning game is three and half hours. Against all logic and expectations, I got a full table of 6 players for my d6 based old school run out of the rules and scenario from the forthcoming "Role Playing Relief" book we're writing. (To sell in aid of Comic Relief. Copies coming soon.) The table spanned from an RPG newbie to some very crusty and experienced old hands. Yes, they decided to set the party up as a gang running a collection racket, who worshipped the Goddess "Moolah", but they were all determined to have fun. The rules were basically validated but I learnt a lot.

Lacking supplies I availed myself of the free tea and coffee in the kitchen during a comfort break.

There's an hour's break for lunch. I was going to the supermarket to buy a meal deal as usual but bumped into Steve who was going for chips and tagged along. He also showed me the plates and cutlery in the kitchen we're allowed to use. So lunch became a very pleasant experience. I'll do that again.

Afternoon sign ups go in reverse order to the morning. If you went last before, you're first now. It's very fair.

My "East End bank job goes sideways"using my own multi-genre rules - garnered three players. Enough. At least two of them were southern lads (Luton) with appropriate accents and all three brought the fun.

This was another new scenario for me. Though from one viewpoint it seems cheeky, I used the "players design the scenario" approach. Rather than prepare a detailed bank vault, for example, I asked the players to each give me two security features and I added two secret ones. They seemed fine to go with this approach and it went well.

As I'd half expected they sunk their teeth into the heist element and side-stepped the secret Cthulhu "bait and switch" bit. There was very little combat, most of it was resolved by intimidation and stunt driving. Turned out to be an enjoyable puzzle solving session with lots of great gags but very little jeopardy. I enjoyed it and they certainly seemed to. I'll run this one again.

There is a third game in the evening but experience has shown that staying for it isn't cost effective for many reasons. So I left just after the raffle (great prizes, good chance of winning, for charity, buying tickets very recommended).  Pookie did as well. Pleasant joumey home.

As an RPG convention Concrete Cow is simply flawless. Understated excellence. Should be on everyone's essential annual calendar. TWICE! You'd need to have a good reason NOT to go in my opinion. For me it's up there with Expo and the best of the Garrison cons. Which makes the drop in numbers surprising and a bit upsetting. The next Concrete Cow is in March 2019. Let's all go and give the old  girl some support, eh?

Sunday 2 September 2018

Fantasticon 2018

TLDR: Fantasticon is a quirky science fiction convention. Along with seven of my usual one hour demonstrations I ran two "live roleplay" sessions on stage. Not one for dedicated TTRPG players but fun. THE GOLDEN GRAIL TAVERN craft bar is a real discovery.

Fantasticon is a Science Fiction convention organised by a book publishing company. I first went to it two years ago with my "Choose Your Adventure" set up. I was put in a side room then. Last year I went back and was given a table in a prominent position and got a lot more play. Both of these events were in Hull. I'm called "Mr RPG" on the website. It tickles my ego so I keep going back.

This year it was moved to a leisure centre in Cleethorpes for some reason. This is blooming miles from Birmingham where I live. However as always, I try to economise and arranged to travel up at stupid o'clock Saturday, stay at a cheap B&B overnight and travel back on Sunday.

The convention always has a series of events on stage. Apparently in my feedback from last year I'd suggested doing a live role play. I then promptly forgot about it. The organiser contacted me two weeks before the convention offering me a slot on stage. I accepted. This then became TWO, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

When I got off my train on Saturday morning, I was greeted by sunshine beaming down on Cleethorpes' wonderful sandy beach. It was picture postcard English seaside. It was glorious! I elected to walk up the promenade to the leisure centre. 20 minutes trailing a heavy bag but a lovely walk.

When I arrived I found that the games room was actually a squash court set off the side from the sports hall where much of the convention was taking place. No black soled shoes allowed. No food. No drink. Luckily my brown soled crocs were deemed acceptable.

Fantasticon is - and appears - incredibly ramshackle but packs in loads for people to do. Laser Tag. Nerf Wars. Escape Room. Retro Video games. Up to date video games. Dr Who actors. Daleks. Craft Ales. Traders. And loads of stuff I've probably missed.

The "games room" alone boasted my Choose Your Adventure setup, two tables of boards games, Magic, Zombiecide and two different "Elite" RPGs. (No-one's yet explained to me why there is Elite Encounters AND Elite Dangerous).

It was a bit off putting telling people to take their shoes off as they came in. But despite that the room was soon busy.  At one point every table in the room was busy. I ran three games one after the other, mainly with new players though there were some with experience:

- Cthulhu Hack - TPK when they decided to try to take the thugs guarding the warehouse head-on.
- The Black Hack. A lovely Scottish family. Mum, dad, two daughters. "Please rescue our children" "Whut's innit fer us?" Stereotypes are sometimes true. They rescued the children but not until one of them had been half roasted.
- The Black Hack again. Started with one interested player and me shamelessly press ganging people from the hall. This time the children were successfully rescued.

Then was time for the Live Role Play. The events were behind schedule. So I sat and watched two fantasy authors being interviewed by a very refined lady who I think was a crime author. This was very nice but there were loads of other events going on around in the sports hall and I thought the acoustics didn't serve the panel well.

There were microphones on stage. I had a hand held radio mike. I'd been asked to run the game for three players. The characters had been preselected via internet vote. I had NO audiovisual backup. Critical Role this wasn't! There wasn't even a table on the stage. We sat an empty chair between each of those with the microphones and I put the laminated character sheets, pens and dice on those.

I'd prepared handouts for the audience with copies of the character sheets on and a grid in case anyone wanted to map the dungeon. Then we were off!

I gave out the handouts and we got three volunteers from the audience. A bloke and a teenage boy who'd wanted to try RPGs and a mum who had no idea about them. I'll admit I played it like an ham, striding up and down in front of the stage, speaking clearly and loudly into the mike. I had no problem with the acoustics! (The rest of the hall may have had the problem!)

The scenario was "The Delian Tomb" by Matt Colville run using The Black Hack rules. I've run this dozens of times and - as you'll see - had run it twice already that morning. So I knew it backwards. That, and the fact that players roll all the dice, meant it went incredibly well. Far better than I could have hoped. The characters, alas, took no damage at all. However, we had a stunning climax where the Bugbear tried to use one of the captive children as a human shield. When this failed he threw the boy at the fighter, intending to make a run for it. Rather than catch the child, the fighter (played by the mum) stepped aside and let him crash to the floor so she could stop the bugbear. Cue one broken neck and dead child.

We bashed through it all in 40-50 minutes. At the end I was buzzing. I got some great feedback, not least from the organiser who was incredibly ebullient, demanding more in all future conventions. The audiovisual guy was also incredibly complimentary and is keen to offer more AV support next year.

After the live roleplay, I was hit by an anticlimax. The games room was dead and I felt drained. So I did what I've never done before, I went to the craft ales bar.

They're called THE GOLDEN GRAIL TAVERN. Look them up on line. They are amazing. All off the craft ales come in bottles which are full pints. Uniformly £3.50 per pint. Ludicrously good value. As a lightweight lager drinker I chose a cider rather than an ale and my head was soon buzzing. It hit me like a rocket.

At this point the Scottish family came back looking for a Star Wars game. So I ran my total rip off of the first Star Wars. Mos Eisley. Cantina. Rebels smuggling out defecting Imperial scientist. Looked like we were going to have a TPK until an imperial walker pilot decided to defect. Great fun.

I had a second pint of Cider. I knew I was drunk. The daytime event wound down and the evening musical event started. The piratical comedy duo Jollyboat etc. Then one of the traders decided to cover the tab at the craft ale bar for the evening!

I'd swapping texts with my wife all day. Upon hearing about the open bar - and how I was already feeling - she told me to get out of there. So I made my excuses and walked out as a woman with an acoustic guitar and the voice of an angel was serenading a captive crowd. "Take a bottle with you" they said.

So there I was, 8 o'clock on a sunny evening strolling along the seaside swigging rocket fuel cider following my iPhone maps. Put in the wrong postcode. My phone died. Had to be escorted to my B&B by a lovely old lady on a mobility scooter.

Morning was a proper B&B home cooked full English breakfast. And I strolled up the promenade to the leisure centre again as the sun beamed down. Paradise!

We started off with my blatant Star Wars rip off again. Best moment the player playing the renegade taking out a thug in the cantina with a blaster shot, catching his falling drink as the shot ricocheted off the wall to take out a thug fighting another character. Great fun!

Then a dad turned up with a gaggle of five preteens - mostly his with some friends. So we had a six player TBH game. It turned out the father had  played my usual scenario at Fantasticon in 2017 so I played a much abbreviated version of Dyson Logos' The Goblin Gully. The dad was really into it and I had to try and tone down him ordering the kids around and draw out their (usually better) ideas. Much much fun with smart goblins and a rope bridge. Cue one dead hobbit. (I let the boy play a captured goblin).

Then it was time for my second live roleplay. My own Steampunk rules - The Code of Steam and Steel. My own "The Evolution of Species" scenario I'd run dozens of times before - half a dozen at The Asylum Steampunk Convention the previous weekend. Again I had handouts with the three characters chosen by
Internet vote. The start was delayed again, not least by the audio-visual guy setting up a "Go Pro" to record it.

To be honest I found this session harder going. The fact that I have to roll dice in opposition to the players slowed things down. I also failed to draw in the players as much. A scenario which is fun around a table proved complex on stage. Then, I rolled high and they didn't. This meant that their characters had to use the cheating rules to win by devious and unheroic means. And I killed the dog. If I do it again, I'll probably use "one of our dinosaurs is missing" as the scenario. And get another volunteer to roll for the bad guys.

But I sought audience input - one of them introducing a gratuitous T-Rex. And the feedback I got at the end - some recorded - was universally good. I tried to get some feedback from the players but they'd already been collared by a YouTube channel. I await the link with interest. I think it's going to be more balanced than they would have given me.

After the wind down, (no cider this time but I bought a present from the Ale Bar for my wife) I got in one more game. This was a general SciFi game. I was going to run my usual rip-off of the Star Trek episode The Doomsday Machine but I think one of the players' dads had played it before and told him all about it. So I substituted a cut down version of my Fireball XL5 scenario. "You're the only ship in the quadrant. Delay the unbeatable alien invasion fleet until support arrives". My die rolling continued to be immense. But the players refused to give up. When a critical roll left them with  a ruined hulk of a ship, they threw themselves across space to board and co-opt an alien battleship. Then then used this as a Trojan horse and go all Independence Day and introduce a virus into the alien fleet. Job done.

I just had time to be interviewed by the YouTube channel before starting my four hour journey home to Birmingham.

Seven Tabletop games. Two live roleplays. I'm waiting on two YouTube links and a video of one of the roleplays. I've got a handful of feedback videos to upload somewhere.  I'd call the weekend a success. I've carved a slot for myself at this convention. Not sure I'd recommend it for general TTRPG players. But it's a great, friendly, inclusive and eclectic way to spend a weekend.

And the REAL discovery is THE GOLDEN GRAIL TAVERN. Every convention with a
Iicence should invite them along. Most won't though. Their drinks area cheaper and better than those sold in venue so they won't allow them in. Shame.