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.