DevaCon III - Chester 27th April 2019.
DevaCon is a typical one day, three slot, games day held annually in Chester. What makes it slightly different from most other similar events on "the circuit" is that it's organised by the Stygian Fox TTRPG publishers, a small but - as far as I can see - successful company. So I'd describe it as a "semi-professional" event rather than the "amateur" ones we usually see.
Before the event, Referees are asked to submit games but there is no prebooking. This seems to be mainly to promote the event and so that the organisers can keep an eye on the games vs players numbers and - I presume - the range and type of games offered.
Tickets are sold on-line through a professional booking website in advance of the event. They can be bought at the event itself but are slightly more expensive. Because the event takes place at a high quality hotel the convention tickets are a bit higher than those for similar amateur events, but the more salubrious setting justifies this.
As usual for "Games Days" I arranged to travel to the event in the morning and travel back in the evening, missing the third gaming session. (To stay for the third slot would mean I'd have to stay at a hotel overnight, which isn't usually worth the cost for just one more game session.)
I set off early and, despite British Rail delays and attempts to derail me, arrived at the event early. The convention takes place in a large conference room in the hotel but we were asked to wait outside - in a comfy area with chairs - whilst final setting up took place. This was a pleasant and social atmosphere. However, when there was a slight delay with the ticketing system, someone took out the sign up sheet for his morning game and some people signed up to it. So we all took out our sign up sheets and touted for players, which was a bit chaotic.
However, there was an extremely co-operative and nice atmosphere and the signups actually seemed to go well.
After a few minutes, we were allowed into the room and told our tickets would be checked later. The rooms contained 6 TTPRG tables, a further demo table with an impressive 3D fantasy town set up, a local TTRPG trader and a desk where we could order food and drink laid on especially for the convention. Being a decent hotel it was a very pleasant room with table covers on every table.
As usual I'd been concerned about getting players for my game as its not one of my local/regular events. I needn't have worried. Every one of the six tables seemed to have a full complement of 5-6 players plus referee. The match of Games offered to number of players seemed almost perfect. (That's actually an understatement. It seemed perfect.)
I had 5 players for my 13th Doctor game. All new to me, so I was able to trot out my "standard" scenario that I've been running for 5 years and refereed dozens of times. This time we had The Doctor, Yaz, Graham and two "guest stars" - a Caveman and The Marquis de Sade(!)
Great players. Much scenery chewed. The convention organiser personally went round every table to see the Referees and buy them each a drink as thanks.
At lunchtime I bought some of the "nerd food" laid on especially for the convention. This was well priced - much cheaper than the food and drink on offer in the hotel bar. (At the bar Lager was £5.10 per pint, exactly £2 more than my local club. This is the one drawback with holding conventions in hotels IMHO.)
The afternoon was pretty much the same as the morning. Every table was full. Everyone seemed to be having great games and there was a large variety of systems on offer. There was one 5th ed game and every other table seemed to have a different system. I got 6 players for my Manifold East End Heist game. These players were so proactive that when the organiser came around to offer to buy the free afternoon drink, she had to double check that I was actually refereeing the game because I was just sitting and watching.
Rather than the usual thugs I often see made for this scenario, many players made thinking/sociable characters. This combined with some great dice rolls meant that they worked their way around most of the bank's defences before even setting foot in the place. Luckily there were a couple of more "hands on" characters and we had enough kidnapping and intimidation to bring the Police down on the gang and get their mugs plastered on the TV news.
Because the bank raid went so smoothly, I actually had time to play the dark twisted "bait and switch" ending I'd always planned for this adventure - but it ended up even darker than I'd planned. (Think Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels meets Night of the Demon, with most of the characters being co-opted by the Demon to torment and shred their friend's soul.....)
I sold one of my leftover Role Play Relief books and gave some to the trade stand upon their promise to send any money they made from selling them directly to Comic Relief and left early to catch my train home.
DevaCon is a great day out. Slightly more expensive than most similar games days but slightly posher. I really nice crowd, with a really nice atmosphere in a superior setting. Good stuff! It would be nice if this were held twice a year like Concrete Cow and Spaghetti ConJunction.
Saturday 27 April 2019
Sunday 7 April 2019
Seven Hills 2019
Seven Hills 2018 - Theme Historical
TLDR: a nice weekend of Role-playing. Not a single thing out of place.
Anyone who doesn't know yet should. The Garrison Hotel is the northern hub of TTRPG conventions with something like six there every year. Seven Hills is still the young cousin of the grand-daddy of the Garrison cons - Furnace - with the same excellent 5 slot, with limited presigns, set up. It's just a bit smaller, a bit more intimate, a bit more relaxed and has an annual theme. This year it was "Historical".
The convention has a plethora of excellent Referees and, as usual, the presign system encourages you to offer two games and play in three. You have to submit your games several months in advance, to allow the presign system to work. I'll admit my tastes in TTRPGs run to more outrageous fantasies (hey, I STARTED with Superheroes) and the Historical theme didn't ring any bells with me. So I submitted a couple of bland signups (Sherlock Holmes has been killed, investigate his murder and Something has gone wrong with Time, The Doctor is missing, investigate) planning to write the actual scenarios nearer to the event.
Come the convention and I hadn't actually had any ideas as to what to write.
Because I got to loads of conventions, I usually travel up to the Garrison events Saturday morning, stay one night, and travel back Sunday. They are not weekend conventions, they are two day conventions. Friday night is just "socialising". So saying one night makes economic sense.
At the last minute, however, I decided to travel up Friday and use the evening to finally write my games. But I got involved in socialising in the bar. And eating and drinking. The beer is a reasonable price and the food at The Garrison is always good. What was nice about the evening was new people walking up and introducing themselves. Somehow we must have just looked like gamers to all the new faces.
So I got up really early Saturday morning and sat down with Wikipedia and an exercise book to write my Saturday game. To my joy I discovered a real Victorian scandal which the Royal Family might have killed Holmes to cover up and loads of other events which happened on the random date I'd chosen to set my game. It virtually wrote itself - though I decided the Royal Family hadn't done the dirty deed. The Germans had done it intending to bring the scandal into the open and frame them.
There were signs of refurbishment in the Garrison rooms and at breakfast. Smashed Avocado was available. The "Full Yorkshire Breakfast" was described as being "sprinkled with cubed spring onions" which, luckily, didn't actually materialise.
My first game was "The Blue Planet". Not actually historical being science fiction. It was a playtest of the new 3rd edition starter set. I played a dolphin. We also had a semi-gorilla game warden, ex-marine boat pilot, a human adapted to life in water and a young businessman. Great setting. Good starter scenario with a very strong opening. Confident and experienced referee and an adequate game system that is probably more fun to read than to play.
Though the food at The Garrison is good and worth the money, it's a lot cheaper to nip over to the nearby supermarket to buy lunch - which I did.
My Sherlock Holmes game was offered in the afternoon. However, I wasn't certain it would run. I'm competing with some elite referees at Seven Hills. As it turned out, I did get three players, all old friends. Two of them are a wonderful German couple that always seem to pick my game when I've got German bad guys!
The scenario I'd thrown together that morning went like a breeze. Excellent players loving the actual historical twists and turns. An ex-army surgeon/barber, a persona non-grata "gentleman" and John Watson's estranged brother teamed up to solve the mystery and ended up changing history. And luckily I didn't need the "it was the Germans all the time" twist. This scenario is going in the bank and I'm going to run it again. One player commented that he'd gone from a scenario in the morning where the referee had loads of props and had three device screens going at once to mine - with handwritten notes in an exercise book - and both were good.
You prebook your meals at lunchtime so after the game it was easy to decamp to the bar to collect it. I spent the time between the afternoon and evening games socialising again. This is unusual for me. There was just such a nice atmosphere.
Then the evening games. This was Owl Hoot trail, the D&D western with Elves, Orc, a halfling gunslinger and me - a steampunk dwarf - investigating zombie-based shenanigans in a frontier down. I loved the OSR rules which encouraged much scenery eating from the experienced players. A brilliant end to the first day.
On Sunday I got up early again to write my "something is wrong with time" scenario. Again, Wikipedia gave me a string of historical dates to hang the game on. And it became clear as I wrote who the villains just HAD to be.
I opted for the lighter "Eggs Benendict" breakfast and the portion was massive.
My game was due to run in the first session. Again I got three players but this time they were new to my games. The Timelords chose to send "The Vetinarian" to investigate in lieu of The Doctor. Shows what they think of humanity. She picked up a far future Janitor and an 18th century French Musketeer. It went well - despite the Timelord piloting her Tardis straight into a black hole followed by a supernova (double critical) - but ran short. However, everyone was happy with this. I'd overbought at Morrisons the day before so still had loads of food left for lunch, though The Garrison does offer an excellent Sunday Lunch.
After lunch was the raffle - well managed and not tedious with excellent prizes. And the announcement of next year's theme - "Punk".
Though I could have presigned for the afternoon game, I hadn't. I went to the sign up sheets after the queue had died down and got into a Vikingrs game (not a typo) involved a shipwreck, monastery, Troll and Demon. Good on-trope fun.
I travelled home with friends - more socialising - on a train that was criminally over-crowded.
Seven Hills was, for me, a perfect event. Perfect synergy of hotel and convention with good value food and drink. Numbers seemed a bit down and - being hypercritical - I was reminded of the old "Incredibles" observation - "when everyone's special no-one will be". It was an event of all highs with no lows to act as contrast. Literally just too good to be true.
And so flipping friendly that even a socially awkward sod like me enjoyed the chatting in between games.
It doesn't get any better than this.
TLDR: a nice weekend of Role-playing. Not a single thing out of place.
Anyone who doesn't know yet should. The Garrison Hotel is the northern hub of TTRPG conventions with something like six there every year. Seven Hills is still the young cousin of the grand-daddy of the Garrison cons - Furnace - with the same excellent 5 slot, with limited presigns, set up. It's just a bit smaller, a bit more intimate, a bit more relaxed and has an annual theme. This year it was "Historical".
The convention has a plethora of excellent Referees and, as usual, the presign system encourages you to offer two games and play in three. You have to submit your games several months in advance, to allow the presign system to work. I'll admit my tastes in TTRPGs run to more outrageous fantasies (hey, I STARTED with Superheroes) and the Historical theme didn't ring any bells with me. So I submitted a couple of bland signups (Sherlock Holmes has been killed, investigate his murder and Something has gone wrong with Time, The Doctor is missing, investigate) planning to write the actual scenarios nearer to the event.
Come the convention and I hadn't actually had any ideas as to what to write.
Because I got to loads of conventions, I usually travel up to the Garrison events Saturday morning, stay one night, and travel back Sunday. They are not weekend conventions, they are two day conventions. Friday night is just "socialising". So saying one night makes economic sense.
At the last minute, however, I decided to travel up Friday and use the evening to finally write my games. But I got involved in socialising in the bar. And eating and drinking. The beer is a reasonable price and the food at The Garrison is always good. What was nice about the evening was new people walking up and introducing themselves. Somehow we must have just looked like gamers to all the new faces.
So I got up really early Saturday morning and sat down with Wikipedia and an exercise book to write my Saturday game. To my joy I discovered a real Victorian scandal which the Royal Family might have killed Holmes to cover up and loads of other events which happened on the random date I'd chosen to set my game. It virtually wrote itself - though I decided the Royal Family hadn't done the dirty deed. The Germans had done it intending to bring the scandal into the open and frame them.
There were signs of refurbishment in the Garrison rooms and at breakfast. Smashed Avocado was available. The "Full Yorkshire Breakfast" was described as being "sprinkled with cubed spring onions" which, luckily, didn't actually materialise.
My first game was "The Blue Planet". Not actually historical being science fiction. It was a playtest of the new 3rd edition starter set. I played a dolphin. We also had a semi-gorilla game warden, ex-marine boat pilot, a human adapted to life in water and a young businessman. Great setting. Good starter scenario with a very strong opening. Confident and experienced referee and an adequate game system that is probably more fun to read than to play.
Though the food at The Garrison is good and worth the money, it's a lot cheaper to nip over to the nearby supermarket to buy lunch - which I did.
My Sherlock Holmes game was offered in the afternoon. However, I wasn't certain it would run. I'm competing with some elite referees at Seven Hills. As it turned out, I did get three players, all old friends. Two of them are a wonderful German couple that always seem to pick my game when I've got German bad guys!
The scenario I'd thrown together that morning went like a breeze. Excellent players loving the actual historical twists and turns. An ex-army surgeon/barber, a persona non-grata "gentleman" and John Watson's estranged brother teamed up to solve the mystery and ended up changing history. And luckily I didn't need the "it was the Germans all the time" twist. This scenario is going in the bank and I'm going to run it again. One player commented that he'd gone from a scenario in the morning where the referee had loads of props and had three device screens going at once to mine - with handwritten notes in an exercise book - and both were good.
You prebook your meals at lunchtime so after the game it was easy to decamp to the bar to collect it. I spent the time between the afternoon and evening games socialising again. This is unusual for me. There was just such a nice atmosphere.
Then the evening games. This was Owl Hoot trail, the D&D western with Elves, Orc, a halfling gunslinger and me - a steampunk dwarf - investigating zombie-based shenanigans in a frontier down. I loved the OSR rules which encouraged much scenery eating from the experienced players. A brilliant end to the first day.
On Sunday I got up early again to write my "something is wrong with time" scenario. Again, Wikipedia gave me a string of historical dates to hang the game on. And it became clear as I wrote who the villains just HAD to be.
I opted for the lighter "Eggs Benendict" breakfast and the portion was massive.
My game was due to run in the first session. Again I got three players but this time they were new to my games. The Timelords chose to send "The Vetinarian" to investigate in lieu of The Doctor. Shows what they think of humanity. She picked up a far future Janitor and an 18th century French Musketeer. It went well - despite the Timelord piloting her Tardis straight into a black hole followed by a supernova (double critical) - but ran short. However, everyone was happy with this. I'd overbought at Morrisons the day before so still had loads of food left for lunch, though The Garrison does offer an excellent Sunday Lunch.
After lunch was the raffle - well managed and not tedious with excellent prizes. And the announcement of next year's theme - "Punk".
Though I could have presigned for the afternoon game, I hadn't. I went to the sign up sheets after the queue had died down and got into a Vikingrs game (not a typo) involved a shipwreck, monastery, Troll and Demon. Good on-trope fun.
I travelled home with friends - more socialising - on a train that was criminally over-crowded.
Seven Hills was, for me, a perfect event. Perfect synergy of hotel and convention with good value food and drink. Numbers seemed a bit down and - being hypercritical - I was reminded of the old "Incredibles" observation - "when everyone's special no-one will be". It was an event of all highs with no lows to act as contrast. Literally just too good to be true.
And so flipping friendly that even a socially awkward sod like me enjoyed the chatting in between games.
It doesn't get any better than this.
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