BurritoCon3 Saturday 27th July 2019
I can't remember where I found out about BurritoCon. It either appeared on Dave's wonderful master spreadsheet or I saw it being plugged on Twitter. (I've started tweeting more since G+ died.)
Anyway - it was a one day games day not too far from Birmingham - it's in Manchester - on a weekend where I had a spare slot. (You tend to get spare slots late July and throughout August.)
I wrote to the organiser - at quite a late stage - offering to run games. Turns out we knew each other and he remembered me. (I have difficulty, of course, remembering the hundreds of people I referee games for every year.) So he agreed I could offer a game - but only one, he was very strict on this.
As it got nearer the event the reason for this strictness became clear. It's a small, growing, event. Initially there was interest from fewer than 20 people so he booked three tables at the venue for three games in the morning and three in the afternoon and he had game offers from more than 6 people. And he wanted as many people to get to referee as possible.
As interest grew, he changed the booking to four tables so he could offer a total of eight games. (Still limited me to offering one, though).
All eight games were advertised on Twitter and on the organiser's blog. In fact the organiser did a great job promoting the event and it's always better to have a bit too much enthusiasm than too little effort being put in.
The game offerings seemed to be very eclectic. (Great! Just the way I like things.) I'd just caught and binge watched a bawdy Victorian police comedy series on TV and decided to "Hack" my Code Games to offer a game based on it.
I then playtested the scenario at StabCon and it worked. Well.
There's been some debate on Social Media recently about "comedy" TTRPGs and I generally come down against writing a "funny" game. So I didn't here. The only blatantly "funny" things I did were to called the missing Destroyer the HMS Prince Albert and to give one of the pregens a near the knuckle "quirk". The rest was a pretty basic police procedural story.
There was no prebooking. I enquired before the event about whether I should make my own sign up sheet, only to be told that they didn't use signup sheets. Interesting. The first time I've come across this.
Getting to Manchester from Birmingham was a breeze. Google maps let me walk from the station to the event, even going via a print shop to get some last minute printing done. (I bumped into a fellow GM doing exactly the same. Again, I'm sorry, he knew me but I had trouble putting a name to a face.)
We arrived just before the venue opened. It's in an area of Manchester with lots of "artisan cafe's" and loads of attendees had met up for breakfast at a bistro over the road.
We went across when the venue opened. I was towards the front and overheard the venue manager telling the convention organiser exactly which were the booked tables and so I grabbed the first one, sat down, and filled it with my full colour character sheets. Naturally I got lots of interest and could have had a table of six players. (We'd all agreed as Referees on Twitter in advance to prepare for 5 players but to have a 6th pregen ready just in case.) However, the organiser came around and asked if I could limit my table to 5 people as he wanted every table to have a good number of players 4-5. He'd been around counting. So I'm guessing the total attendance was just shy of 24 people. One of the players agreed to choose another game. (But it was a good choice. Apart from my game there was a FASERIP game, a classic IMAGINE D&D Scenario run using the new Old School Essentials and a Monkey game written by it's creator.)
Of the five players I was left with, four had arrived as a group so there were the usual in jokes etc. But I noticed some of the more socially adept of them deliberately working to include the singleton player as, of course, I did.
As I'd hoped and expected, they'd chosen my game because they just wanted to have a good time. So - even with me playing it fairly straight - it soon descended into an extremely adult version of a "Carry On" film. (We even had the gratuitous cross dressing scene). Laughter and gags flew thick and fast. These were entertaining and experienced players who "got" my system and made it do what they wanted. For large chunks of the time they were simply entertaining themselves and I could just sit back and enjoy the interplay. They made the introductory scene last an hour, somehow.
As we played, I noticed that the venue we were playing in was getting extremely busy. It isn't exactly a gaming cafe. It's a games store on two levels with loads of tables and vending machines and drinks and snacks. There was no special entry free for the convention, the players just paid £3 each for their time at the table and, as referee, I got £1 per player in "store credit" for Refereeing. (£5). Apart from our "convention" there was also a large Pokemon event on (one of the vending machines was just full of packs of Pokemon cards) and the shop was full of casual customers. It was the busiest, most successful shop of its type I've ever seen.
The first session ran from 10am to 1pm. We then broke for an hour for lunch. I found an artisan cafe down the road with passable sandwiches and French toast. But the eating options were myriad. (I presume there has to be a Burrito place nearby).
As you'll have surmised, in the afternoon I had to PLAY a game. (Not my first choice, but still an enjoyable experience.) I stood back to let everyone choose their favourite one first.
Choices were: Heroquest Glorantha, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Star Wars Cassablanca and psychic secret agents preventing the Kennedy Assassination in Berlin. Good selection.
I ended up in the "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" game and was VERY happy with that. This, it turned out, was a well disguised Hack of Lady Blackbird, run by its designer who's tweaking it for publication. (Doesn't need much tweaking if you ask me). Off the books US psychic secret agents "Project Cassandra" foresee Kennedy being killed in Berlin. No one believes them so their bosses send them in to save POTUS and prove the validity of the project in one go. Obviously things don't go to plan.
It's actually a perfect set-up for a mid-budget action movie. Ideal Gerard Butler vehicle.
The characters were very well balanced. Everyone had their necessary role. I was the mercenary type who got a academic and the ex-thief into the city to let them do their stuff. I hope the arrogance of my character - and my luck with die rolls - didn't come over as an experienced player showing off. I tried to sit back and play up the other characters. (And not scream at their analysis paralysis at times.)
The system was basically a dice pool system. These aren't intuitive to me but I understood it pretty much from the start. As I said, I don't see much that needs fixing and it's pretty much ready for publication as it stands.
I paid for my afternoon game (£3 remember) out of my £5 shop credit. Apart from a couple of cans of Coke, the only thing I could find in the shop for £2 was an unpainted metal Superhero speedster figure in a sale box. (When did games stuff get so expensive?) so I asked to have it transferred to the Convention organiser's account and at least one other person copied my example.
Then I came home.
BurritoCon is typical of the new breed of "Games Days" springing up across the country. Just like our own much-loved Spaghetti ConJunction. Rather than a full scale convention, the organisers book a pre-existing venue - such as a games cafe - and just organise the games. Just about everything else is done for them. Today, for example, all the monies were paid directly to the venue using their usual systems.
And it was a really, really,good venue. You'll have noticed in these reports I rarely name people or venues. But this one deserves special citation. It's Fan Boy 3 in Manchester city centre. Large, bright, two floors. Bursting with gaming goodness. Loads of tables. All the snacks and drinks you want at reasonable prices (£1 for a can seems about right to me). It hosted BurritoCon, a Pokemon convention and still had room for scores of other customers during the day. I think they've got stuff sewn up. If anyone thinks about asking me about opening a game store/cafe, I'll simply suggest they visit Fan Boy 3 to see how it's done.
So, with the venue taking so much of the strain, did the convention organiser actually have any work to do? Well, yes. It's only a small event but he did a superb job of matching the number of referees to tables to players. He planned an offering and stuck to it and then trusted the players to respond to it reasonably without any complex signup systems being needed. And he grew the event through relentless on line promotion. Good job.
He's thinking of offering it again in the autumn - and I think he should, though I warned him it's a much more crowded time in the calendar. If another BurritoCon comes up and I'm free, I'll be back in a shot. Really enjoyed it. Really pleasant day out.
Saturday, 27 July 2019
Sunday, 14 July 2019
JollyCon 12th and 13th July 2019
JollyCon 12th - 13th July 2019
TLDR: Huge house party thrown by the excellent comedy duo "Jollyboat". Heaven for Nerds. Lots of appetite for #TTRPGs.
I take my "Choose Your Adventure" - an introduction to #TTRPG sessions - to many non-gaming cons. But JollyCon has to be the weirdest - and best - I've ever been to.
I first became aware of Jollyboat a couple of years ago when they started performing at UK Games Expo. They are a comedy musical pirate brother duo. I then met them, briefly, last year when a mutual friend introduced us as we were all arriving at Expo early in the morning. I guess we're all just equally professional. This year, as part of me trying to wean myself off my #TTRPG refereeing addiction, I actually went to see one of their shows at Expo. And was blown away.
When they mentioned, as part of the show, that they had a convention for their fans, I immediately messaged them to ask if they wanted my to offer games at their event. Despite it being early hours of the morning, and them being tired (and, I'd guess, drunk) after doing a show, they replied immediately accepting my offer. This is one thing I've learnt about them. They always reply.
Didn't hear much but then in the week before the event I was suddenly hit by lots of info. This makes you very excited and I even invented and sent them a Pirate joke they'd never heard of - which made me inordinately happy. (Why does the Pirate Captain use conditioner?*)
Which meant it was time to get my "Pirate costume". I'd left it to the last minute because I figured my usual "gaming persona" outfit would get me by just through substituting a scarf/bandana for the flat cap. Who knew that buying a headscarf/bandana in Birmingham on the Friday evening would such a non-trivial task? I ended up buying a cheap and nasty pirate set from a Party store with a bandana two sizes too small for my head!l
There is a pre-con meetup (and drinks) Friday night but I chose to travel up Saturday morning. Because Liverpool is not too far, and the con didn't officially start until 11:00am, I didn't have to get up at stupid o'clock for once. The venue was walkable from the station (especially as I discovered my Apple Watch links to the Maps App and gives you brilliant instructions - better than holding a phone.) It was the Nordic Church and Civic Centre in Liverpool's "Baltic Triangle". (They have all sorts of explanations for the name but I still think it's a rip-off of Birmingham's BALTI triangle.)
I got there by 10:00 an hour before it started. Allowed straight in. The venue basically has three floors. The bottom floor is liked a large meeting room with a small stage. The top floor is a chapel designed like a small church with vaulting roof and pews. The middle floor, where I was based, was the socialising area. I'd been given a small table and chairs at one end - identified by a huge inflatable d20 and couple of small games books. ("Weave" the RPG of textiles magicians and a "Magic Girl" Anime RPG. In both bases, thanks for the suggestion but no thanks.) I later found out they'd been left by my friend who was at the event, performing.
The room also contained tables down one side where food (and drink) were sold. The food was of the "home made" variety often found in churches. The drink was mainly ales and rum - suitable for pirates. Both were extremely moderately priced. The end of the room contained the JollyBoat merchandising stand. The rest of the room was filled with tables.
The whole venue had been decorated and styled for the event. JollyBoat bunting and pirate flags were everywhere. The downstairs room was "below decks", the upstairs room was "the crows nest". Toilets were "the poop deck". JollyBoat themselves were there greeting everyone and "Ed JollyBoat" himself escorted me to my table.
I set up my banner and table. I'd decided to bring a cut down version of my setup - no stands or table covers - which I could fit in a backpack rather than wheeling a large suitcase. I was glad I did. Only one small table. But I set up a display of my available games.
The doors opened at 11:00 and people flooded in. I don't know the exact numbers but I think it was about 200. Lots of people showed interest in my table and we soon had a game going. Firefly using my The Code of the Spacelanes rules. We had mix of people who'd role-played before and newbies. People who'd seen the series and those that hadn't etc. As always happens, the young player who'd never seen the series chose to play River Tam. We'd just had the gratuitous bar room brawl when everyone was called "below decks" for the opening ceremony.
This was an absolute blast! JollyBoat are a musical comedy duo and started out by singing a new song about the convention and everything it offered, with comedy callouts to many of the presenters. There was full program of events in each of the two performing rooms. Singers, open mic, a live roleplay. (Not me. It was called "the Dungeonmster is a Dick"). Live game design on stage, a stripping granny etc. They seemed to be going for a "mini Edinburgh Fringe" festival.
I had two thoughts. Firstly was "with all this on, I'm not going to get any players for games". The second was "who cares. I'd be happen just watching the shows."
Actually I'd even offered 5 mins of gag-telling for the open mic - as long as I wasn't running games. They didn't have a guitar available and I don't have a travelling acoustic or I would have offered a song. As it happened the open mic was over-subscribed. JollyBoat and the audience they've fostered create an inclusive vibe where every feels they can safely have a go at stuff.
But the highlight of the opening ceremony was the Health and Safety announcement. This was given by an older lady - I suppose the equivalent of a church warden. After last year's event, the Venue staff had bought themselves Pirate costumes and prepared some material. It was the funniest - and filthiest - safety warning ever. Eg. "If the fire bell goes off, just run like f@ck". The audience chant of "Health and Safety, Health and Safety......." shows how popular she was.
We returned to the table but some players had chosen to remain downstairs for the "speed friending" event. I filled the table with replacements and we finished the game off. (Wash turned up at the bad guys' door dressed as a Waiter with a food trolley. As he rammed into into the boss, and River unfurled from beneath it, Jane burst in with his SMGs. Very in trope and great fun.)
As people drifted off, I really expected it to be my one and only game of the day. I bought lunch - a huge bowl of steaming vegan soup and a roll. Just veg. but so well seasoned and with such good use of herbs it was lovely and filling.
I collared a family doing the "draw yourself as a pirate" giant blackboard and they syuat down the play. A mum and dad (ex-roleplayer) a young daughter (early secondary school?) a hyper-hyper active younger son (late primary?) and a babe in arms (wearing the cutest Harry Potter romper suit). The daughter chose play horror. So I took out "The Cthulhu Hack" by Paul Baldowski and the intro scenario he'd kindly given me. Another grown man joined us - another experienced role-player and I think a friend of the family. (You can never tell. These games make us all instant friends.)
As you can probably tell, the boy was ball of energy wanting to do everything NOW! Somehow I coped and luckily his character (and one other) boarded the departing steamer (not in Paul's original scenario - and addition of my own) as the rest investigated the spooky warehouse.
My favourite moment was when the young boy's character discovered a desiccated corpse and he said "Like Dr Who?"
Good parenting.
It was sometime around now that Ed JollyBoat took the time to come over, check that I was OK and got me a drink. This is typical of the two of them. Organising and running the event, putting on multiple shows but still taking the time to meet people and check they're OK.
The instant that the Horror table cleared it filled again. This time there were enough newbies to justify my standard intro to #TTRPGs - Matt Colville's (check YouTube) The Delian Tomb using The Black Hack rules by David Black. It's a match made in heaven and I've run it dozens of times - never the same twice - and it always delivers. This time the Conjuror was the star, braining goblins with her staff and saving the day with a LUCKY sleep spell.
After the shortest of breaks, I had another full table for a Steampunk game. They chose to do "The Great Airship Robbery". A critical success in the initial "find out what you know" roll meant that I did a massive information dump to the table. I told them EVERYTHING about the plot - including all the twists. I had no idea what this would do and thought it might have spoiled the adventure. However, the info proved simply too much for the group and - whilst they were able to foil one side of the plot they couldn't stop the actual robbery. Still, there is something really satisfying about having a group of "French Terorrists" burst into a warehouse - expecting to find everyone inside poisoned - running into massed ranks of British Rifles. And then the characters took their small army with them to pursue the real baddies meaning that, in the end, both airships were recovered in perfect condition. (A rare outcome for this scenario).
This scenario finished shortly after 5pm when tea was served. This was massively well organised. You handed over a fiver and took one of the plates already laid out. These contained salads, crisps and a food option. By the time I got there most of the remaining options seemed to be vegetarian but there was a massive range - "burger", kebab, some kind of sausage thing. I took a plate with sizeable piece of cheese and onion quiche and some bread rolls and butter. For a drink I bought myself a "Mai Tai" rum cocktail. Despite the cute sign saying the more you drank, the more it helped JollyBoat - and the oft repeated exhortation from the lads themselves to eat drink and be merry - I'd kept off alcohol all day for personal reasons. I figured I was due some. It was lovely and so was the meal.
Amazingly, in between tea and the "group photo" at 7pm, I got ANOTHER table of players. Steampunk again. This time my standard "Evolution of Species" scenario. Again a good roll at the start meant that the Lamplighter spotted a pattern in the strange disappearances and the team were given a squad of officers to escort them into the sewers. (Slightly hampered by the fact that the Sergeant in charge fell head of heels for one of the characters and spent all his time protecting her.) The other unique feature of the game was a newbie (in his 30s/40s?) who was enjoying the freedom and trying to make things up before waiting for me to announce them or rolling the dice. My usual giant rats were replaced by giant centipedes. (Later eaten by giant millipedes.) And the whole plot was masterminded by Aliens, not my usual Prussian Vivisectionist.
I was rushing this and made a couple of arithmetic all errors which the table spotted. I blamed this on the Mai Tai - and I wasn't totally lying. (That may also explain why the aliens were "Greys" when I should have used Martians.)
I'm guessing I banged through this whole story in about 45mins, in time for the group photo. So I CAN demo games in under an hour. This was also the opinion of a player at the table - a fellow referee and one of the country's premiere #TTRPG convention organisers - whose views I totally respect.
Then it was outside for the group photo. A motley crew of 200 pirates - many with stuffed monkeys (an inside joke) outside a church. Don't know what the passing traffic thought but there were plenty of honks.
Then inside for the headline shows. Upon arrival punters received goodie bags. (I didn't get one or seek one). Inside one of these was a wristband - either blue or gold for the upstairs room or downstairs one. I had a red band - because I was important. This meant I could do "whatever the f@ck you want" but Ed suggested strongly that Red bands should be in the upstairs room as it was larger. And this WAS the better option.
We got to see the support act - a really talented young magician - first and JollyBoat second.
With the Magician everyone was a winner. We got a great show and he got to try out a whole new act he was preparing for the Edinburgh fringe in front of a supportive audience who didn't mind pauses to check his script. I'm an incredibly picky audience member and my evil critical little man inside would have preferred a larger trick to patter ratio. However, though I think I know how some of the tricks were done, I didn't actually catch him doing it and there was at least one great new twist on an old standard. And every so often he broke off for no reason to give us teasing snippets of his own life story which always cut off unresolved. I loved that and wanted more of it. It was of course resolved at the end of the act.
Then back down to the main room for drinks between acts. BUT the two old ladies who were the venue staff were there in their pirate costumes regaling us all with sea shanties. It was great. The only problem with the venue is the lack of disabled access and they're trying to raise money for a lift. If I HAD a CD player, I would have bought a CD off them as many people did.
Then back to the chapel for the final act - JollyBoat themselves. We got them when they were slightly tipsy, high from a great day, slightly ramshackle (Ed's guitar string broke, Tommy couldn't find the words to a song on his phone - only to be passed a phone by an audience member who'd found them on the website Tommy had made himself!), and absolutely not giving a sh!t. We got their classic songs (the one about D&D monsters was ace as always) but also two of their filthiest and most rarely performed. It was absolute joy!
After 11pm we were supposed to leave the venue. Everyone else was going on to a drunken "after party" ( most having been drinking since 11:00am) but I didn't trust myself and made my excuses to get a taxi to my B&B.
The day had been one of absolute joy. I ran 5 fun games, saw one good show and one completely unforgettable one. Even if I hadn't had any games, I would still have had a great and day. There was just too much to see and do.
At the centre of this were JollyBoat and the crew they've built around themselves. Everything was massively well organised and they seem to be two really genuine guys who'd make any mother proud, who everybody wants to be friends with and - I suspect - many people would like to be MORE than friends with. And they seem to have time for everyone, both in person and on social media. My only conclusion has to be that they are two angels sent down to earth just to bring joy.
I hate 'em. They're just too nice and too bloody talented!
From a #TTRPG point of view is worth coming to JollyCon? Well yes. Apart from my demo games (and I'll be back next year unless something serious happens) there are board games in the main hall and numerous shows to pique your interest and as a nerd. BUT spaces are strictly limited and by coming you'll be squeezing out a real JollyBoat fan.
BUT if you are going to UK Games expo next year, make sure you catch one of their shows. It's the same cost as a Hilton pint, lasts longer and will bring you much much more joy.
Or catch them on tour. I can't recommend them highly enough. They're my friends.
(But they're still far too good looking, nice and talented! B@stards!)
http://www.jollyboat.co.uk
* because of 'is Coarse 'Airs (Corsairs)
TLDR: Huge house party thrown by the excellent comedy duo "Jollyboat". Heaven for Nerds. Lots of appetite for #TTRPGs.
I take my "Choose Your Adventure" - an introduction to #TTRPG sessions - to many non-gaming cons. But JollyCon has to be the weirdest - and best - I've ever been to.
I first became aware of Jollyboat a couple of years ago when they started performing at UK Games Expo. They are a comedy musical pirate brother duo. I then met them, briefly, last year when a mutual friend introduced us as we were all arriving at Expo early in the morning. I guess we're all just equally professional. This year, as part of me trying to wean myself off my #TTRPG refereeing addiction, I actually went to see one of their shows at Expo. And was blown away.
When they mentioned, as part of the show, that they had a convention for their fans, I immediately messaged them to ask if they wanted my to offer games at their event. Despite it being early hours of the morning, and them being tired (and, I'd guess, drunk) after doing a show, they replied immediately accepting my offer. This is one thing I've learnt about them. They always reply.
Didn't hear much but then in the week before the event I was suddenly hit by lots of info. This makes you very excited and I even invented and sent them a Pirate joke they'd never heard of - which made me inordinately happy. (Why does the Pirate Captain use conditioner?*)
Which meant it was time to get my "Pirate costume". I'd left it to the last minute because I figured my usual "gaming persona" outfit would get me by just through substituting a scarf/bandana for the flat cap. Who knew that buying a headscarf/bandana in Birmingham on the Friday evening would such a non-trivial task? I ended up buying a cheap and nasty pirate set from a Party store with a bandana two sizes too small for my head!l
There is a pre-con meetup (and drinks) Friday night but I chose to travel up Saturday morning. Because Liverpool is not too far, and the con didn't officially start until 11:00am, I didn't have to get up at stupid o'clock for once. The venue was walkable from the station (especially as I discovered my Apple Watch links to the Maps App and gives you brilliant instructions - better than holding a phone.) It was the Nordic Church and Civic Centre in Liverpool's "Baltic Triangle". (They have all sorts of explanations for the name but I still think it's a rip-off of Birmingham's BALTI triangle.)
I got there by 10:00 an hour before it started. Allowed straight in. The venue basically has three floors. The bottom floor is liked a large meeting room with a small stage. The top floor is a chapel designed like a small church with vaulting roof and pews. The middle floor, where I was based, was the socialising area. I'd been given a small table and chairs at one end - identified by a huge inflatable d20 and couple of small games books. ("Weave" the RPG of textiles magicians and a "Magic Girl" Anime RPG. In both bases, thanks for the suggestion but no thanks.) I later found out they'd been left by my friend who was at the event, performing.
The room also contained tables down one side where food (and drink) were sold. The food was of the "home made" variety often found in churches. The drink was mainly ales and rum - suitable for pirates. Both were extremely moderately priced. The end of the room contained the JollyBoat merchandising stand. The rest of the room was filled with tables.
The whole venue had been decorated and styled for the event. JollyBoat bunting and pirate flags were everywhere. The downstairs room was "below decks", the upstairs room was "the crows nest". Toilets were "the poop deck". JollyBoat themselves were there greeting everyone and "Ed JollyBoat" himself escorted me to my table.
I set up my banner and table. I'd decided to bring a cut down version of my setup - no stands or table covers - which I could fit in a backpack rather than wheeling a large suitcase. I was glad I did. Only one small table. But I set up a display of my available games.
The doors opened at 11:00 and people flooded in. I don't know the exact numbers but I think it was about 200. Lots of people showed interest in my table and we soon had a game going. Firefly using my The Code of the Spacelanes rules. We had mix of people who'd role-played before and newbies. People who'd seen the series and those that hadn't etc. As always happens, the young player who'd never seen the series chose to play River Tam. We'd just had the gratuitous bar room brawl when everyone was called "below decks" for the opening ceremony.
This was an absolute blast! JollyBoat are a musical comedy duo and started out by singing a new song about the convention and everything it offered, with comedy callouts to many of the presenters. There was full program of events in each of the two performing rooms. Singers, open mic, a live roleplay. (Not me. It was called "the Dungeonmster is a Dick"). Live game design on stage, a stripping granny etc. They seemed to be going for a "mini Edinburgh Fringe" festival.
I had two thoughts. Firstly was "with all this on, I'm not going to get any players for games". The second was "who cares. I'd be happen just watching the shows."
Actually I'd even offered 5 mins of gag-telling for the open mic - as long as I wasn't running games. They didn't have a guitar available and I don't have a travelling acoustic or I would have offered a song. As it happened the open mic was over-subscribed. JollyBoat and the audience they've fostered create an inclusive vibe where every feels they can safely have a go at stuff.
But the highlight of the opening ceremony was the Health and Safety announcement. This was given by an older lady - I suppose the equivalent of a church warden. After last year's event, the Venue staff had bought themselves Pirate costumes and prepared some material. It was the funniest - and filthiest - safety warning ever. Eg. "If the fire bell goes off, just run like f@ck". The audience chant of "Health and Safety, Health and Safety......." shows how popular she was.
We returned to the table but some players had chosen to remain downstairs for the "speed friending" event. I filled the table with replacements and we finished the game off. (Wash turned up at the bad guys' door dressed as a Waiter with a food trolley. As he rammed into into the boss, and River unfurled from beneath it, Jane burst in with his SMGs. Very in trope and great fun.)
As people drifted off, I really expected it to be my one and only game of the day. I bought lunch - a huge bowl of steaming vegan soup and a roll. Just veg. but so well seasoned and with such good use of herbs it was lovely and filling.
I collared a family doing the "draw yourself as a pirate" giant blackboard and they syuat down the play. A mum and dad (ex-roleplayer) a young daughter (early secondary school?) a hyper-hyper active younger son (late primary?) and a babe in arms (wearing the cutest Harry Potter romper suit). The daughter chose play horror. So I took out "The Cthulhu Hack" by Paul Baldowski and the intro scenario he'd kindly given me. Another grown man joined us - another experienced role-player and I think a friend of the family. (You can never tell. These games make us all instant friends.)
As you can probably tell, the boy was ball of energy wanting to do everything NOW! Somehow I coped and luckily his character (and one other) boarded the departing steamer (not in Paul's original scenario - and addition of my own) as the rest investigated the spooky warehouse.
My favourite moment was when the young boy's character discovered a desiccated corpse and he said "Like Dr Who?"
Good parenting.
It was sometime around now that Ed JollyBoat took the time to come over, check that I was OK and got me a drink. This is typical of the two of them. Organising and running the event, putting on multiple shows but still taking the time to meet people and check they're OK.
The instant that the Horror table cleared it filled again. This time there were enough newbies to justify my standard intro to #TTRPGs - Matt Colville's (check YouTube) The Delian Tomb using The Black Hack rules by David Black. It's a match made in heaven and I've run it dozens of times - never the same twice - and it always delivers. This time the Conjuror was the star, braining goblins with her staff and saving the day with a LUCKY sleep spell.
After the shortest of breaks, I had another full table for a Steampunk game. They chose to do "The Great Airship Robbery". A critical success in the initial "find out what you know" roll meant that I did a massive information dump to the table. I told them EVERYTHING about the plot - including all the twists. I had no idea what this would do and thought it might have spoiled the adventure. However, the info proved simply too much for the group and - whilst they were able to foil one side of the plot they couldn't stop the actual robbery. Still, there is something really satisfying about having a group of "French Terorrists" burst into a warehouse - expecting to find everyone inside poisoned - running into massed ranks of British Rifles. And then the characters took their small army with them to pursue the real baddies meaning that, in the end, both airships were recovered in perfect condition. (A rare outcome for this scenario).
This scenario finished shortly after 5pm when tea was served. This was massively well organised. You handed over a fiver and took one of the plates already laid out. These contained salads, crisps and a food option. By the time I got there most of the remaining options seemed to be vegetarian but there was a massive range - "burger", kebab, some kind of sausage thing. I took a plate with sizeable piece of cheese and onion quiche and some bread rolls and butter. For a drink I bought myself a "Mai Tai" rum cocktail. Despite the cute sign saying the more you drank, the more it helped JollyBoat - and the oft repeated exhortation from the lads themselves to eat drink and be merry - I'd kept off alcohol all day for personal reasons. I figured I was due some. It was lovely and so was the meal.
Amazingly, in between tea and the "group photo" at 7pm, I got ANOTHER table of players. Steampunk again. This time my standard "Evolution of Species" scenario. Again a good roll at the start meant that the Lamplighter spotted a pattern in the strange disappearances and the team were given a squad of officers to escort them into the sewers. (Slightly hampered by the fact that the Sergeant in charge fell head of heels for one of the characters and spent all his time protecting her.) The other unique feature of the game was a newbie (in his 30s/40s?) who was enjoying the freedom and trying to make things up before waiting for me to announce them or rolling the dice. My usual giant rats were replaced by giant centipedes. (Later eaten by giant millipedes.) And the whole plot was masterminded by Aliens, not my usual Prussian Vivisectionist.
I was rushing this and made a couple of arithmetic all errors which the table spotted. I blamed this on the Mai Tai - and I wasn't totally lying. (That may also explain why the aliens were "Greys" when I should have used Martians.)
I'm guessing I banged through this whole story in about 45mins, in time for the group photo. So I CAN demo games in under an hour. This was also the opinion of a player at the table - a fellow referee and one of the country's premiere #TTRPG convention organisers - whose views I totally respect.
Then it was outside for the group photo. A motley crew of 200 pirates - many with stuffed monkeys (an inside joke) outside a church. Don't know what the passing traffic thought but there were plenty of honks.
Then inside for the headline shows. Upon arrival punters received goodie bags. (I didn't get one or seek one). Inside one of these was a wristband - either blue or gold for the upstairs room or downstairs one. I had a red band - because I was important. This meant I could do "whatever the f@ck you want" but Ed suggested strongly that Red bands should be in the upstairs room as it was larger. And this WAS the better option.
We got to see the support act - a really talented young magician - first and JollyBoat second.
With the Magician everyone was a winner. We got a great show and he got to try out a whole new act he was preparing for the Edinburgh fringe in front of a supportive audience who didn't mind pauses to check his script. I'm an incredibly picky audience member and my evil critical little man inside would have preferred a larger trick to patter ratio. However, though I think I know how some of the tricks were done, I didn't actually catch him doing it and there was at least one great new twist on an old standard. And every so often he broke off for no reason to give us teasing snippets of his own life story which always cut off unresolved. I loved that and wanted more of it. It was of course resolved at the end of the act.
Then back down to the main room for drinks between acts. BUT the two old ladies who were the venue staff were there in their pirate costumes regaling us all with sea shanties. It was great. The only problem with the venue is the lack of disabled access and they're trying to raise money for a lift. If I HAD a CD player, I would have bought a CD off them as many people did.
Then back to the chapel for the final act - JollyBoat themselves. We got them when they were slightly tipsy, high from a great day, slightly ramshackle (Ed's guitar string broke, Tommy couldn't find the words to a song on his phone - only to be passed a phone by an audience member who'd found them on the website Tommy had made himself!), and absolutely not giving a sh!t. We got their classic songs (the one about D&D monsters was ace as always) but also two of their filthiest and most rarely performed. It was absolute joy!
After 11pm we were supposed to leave the venue. Everyone else was going on to a drunken "after party" ( most having been drinking since 11:00am) but I didn't trust myself and made my excuses to get a taxi to my B&B.
The day had been one of absolute joy. I ran 5 fun games, saw one good show and one completely unforgettable one. Even if I hadn't had any games, I would still have had a great and day. There was just too much to see and do.
At the centre of this were JollyBoat and the crew they've built around themselves. Everything was massively well organised and they seem to be two really genuine guys who'd make any mother proud, who everybody wants to be friends with and - I suspect - many people would like to be MORE than friends with. And they seem to have time for everyone, both in person and on social media. My only conclusion has to be that they are two angels sent down to earth just to bring joy.
I hate 'em. They're just too nice and too bloody talented!
From a #TTRPG point of view is worth coming to JollyCon? Well yes. Apart from my demo games (and I'll be back next year unless something serious happens) there are board games in the main hall and numerous shows to pique your interest and as a nerd. BUT spaces are strictly limited and by coming you'll be squeezing out a real JollyBoat fan.
BUT if you are going to UK Games expo next year, make sure you catch one of their shows. It's the same cost as a Hilton pint, lasts longer and will bring you much much more joy.
Or catch them on tour. I can't recommend them highly enough. They're my friends.
(But they're still far too good looking, nice and talented! B@stards!)
http://www.jollyboat.co.uk
* because of 'is Coarse 'Airs (Corsairs)
Sunday, 7 July 2019
Summer StabCon - 5th - 7th July 2019
Summer StabCon 5th-7th July 2019
TLDR: Anyone who has read my blog - or my earlier printed diaries - already knows all about StabCon. Held twice per year in the same hotel in Stockport, organised by the same couple (absolute Heroes, both!) for years, it's always the same and always delivers. It's the comfort food of conventions. Like coming home to an extended family. Like putting on your old comfy dressing gown and slippers.
You book up in advance (usually at the previous StabCon) and the organisers prebook a room - including breakfast - for you. There is no requirement for any pre-organisation. You just turn up from 2pm on the Friday and see how things go.
Some of the more modern con-goers have set up a Facebook page for the event. This is nothing to do with the organisers but they often check in. I used the page to pre-advertise the games I was intending to run. But there is no requirement for referees to do this.
As usual I travelled up straight after work on Friday. I arrived at the event in time to check in - both at the hotel reception to get my room and at the convention front desk to collect my personalised name badge. I got talking to a player in the queue who was enquiring about my games and I asked him to post my sign up sheets on the board whilst I waited.
I'm never sure at StabCon where to pitch my sheets. The provided sheets are simple A5 forms. Some people bring their own, A5 or A4, B&W or colour. This time I'd gone all out producing A4 full colour jobs only to find almost everyone else using the B&W A5 ones provided by the convention. I looked like I was trying too hard. But my Saturday morning game (Star Trek the original series) booked out in under a minute! Surely a record of some kind. There seemed to be a few more TTRPG games on offer than usual - StabCon is primarily a board game event - and most of them were already full of players. The TTRPG side of the convention seems to be healthy and growing.
I bought myself a pint and ordered my usual StabCon Friday night food (a 12" "American Hot" pizza) and chatted to a couple of people. Loads of people said "hello" to me. I'm sorry. I did a count once. I run games for literally hundreds of people every year. Possibly pushing a thousand. And I've never been good at asking or remembering names. I'm more likely to remember your character. Everyone knows me but I know hardly anyone.
Anyway I made my way over to my usual Friday night group.
A long long time ago I found out that by the time I arrive at StabCon, it's too late to find players for an evening game. But I've been lucky enough so sign up for a Savage World campaign run by the same Referee with the same players every Friday night. This is my first bookend of the weekend. I know what I'm doing and who with before I arrive.
Actually this is the third campaign we've been in with this referee. It all started off with a one-off "play yourself in a fantasy game" adventure which spilled off over two conventions. (The one famous for its "Lancashire Goblins".) The players all begged for more so the referee ran a massively detailed mini-campaign based on a series of books by David Gemmell. For the last two years he's been running a pre-WW2 game. Sort of Indiana Jones territory but we're all minor Super-types. (I'm a cyborg, sort of "the £6,000 man".) This referee is a larger than life character and the games are designed with lovely tongue in cheek humour. Previously we'd stopped the Nazis from weaponising Tea and Opera. This time we were tasked with extracting a German doctor who could confirm the rumours about that status of Hitler's genitalia - and that of other Reichsmarshalls.
The table had suffered some "campaign bloat". When you run a regular group there are times when a player is away and you let another one join in. Then, when the original player comes back, your group has grown. Today we were up to seven players. A couple too many IMHO and any other time I might have felt a bit disgruntled. And Savage Worlds, whilst clever, has a couple of features which aren't to my taste. But THIS referee coped easily and, Friday night, after a long week at work, all I want is few beers with friends and I'm not really bothered about fighting for spotlight time. I found the endless analysis paralysis and discussion about which character exactly was sitting in which seat in which car amusing rather than irritating.
After an incident a few years ago (detailed in my printed diaries) I am usually careful about how much I drink at a convention. But Friday night at StabCon I relax a bit. A total of four of us bought rounds for the table. I was sensible enough to switch to Diet Coke after about four pints
As usual we didn't finish the adventure the referee had planned for the session and we voted to finish early - before midnight - rather than push on into the early hours. (I don't think he's realised yet that we do it to keep him offering the game at the next event. He has to carry on to finish it off.)
It's a lovely setting he's created for the game and when finally gets around to publishing it as a sourcebook, I'll let you all know about it.
Some people at the table carried on playing "beer and pretzels" games. Some of us turned in. What with all the beer and being tired from work, I slept like a log. It had been a great start to the weekend.
I got up early, sorted the resources for the day's games and went to breakfast. As usual I got there as soon as it opened. (I'm not a fan of the peak time breakfast crush at hotels.) The breakfast - included in the booking - is a typical hotel buffet breakfast. Not the best, by far, but perfectly adequate and we've all eaten worse.
After breakfast I checked my sign up sheets. Out of three games for five players each only one space wasn't filled. (More about this, later.)
I'd booked myself a table in one of the side rooms used for RPGs, so I took my place and set up for my first game.
This was Star Trek - the Original Series - using my own The Code of the Spacelanes rules. This is something I'd been putting off for years. I've used the game to replay the classic ST-TOS episode "The Doomsday Machine" many times but placed in a more generic setting. But I'd never gotten around to statting up the classic characters. Sometimes things are just TOO obvious, you know? But for some reason I thought it was about time.
The five players elected to play Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Chekhov. No Kirk or Scotty. Interesting.
I ran an adventure rooted in the first ever Star Trek original novel "Spock Must Die" by James Blish. One of the things about StabCon is that there is minimal official organisation. The organisers provide a noticeboard, sign up sheets and rooms. That's it. There are no official TTRPG "slots". You have to set your own times. Eg. One I saw for Saturday morning said "10am start, no more than 6 hours."
When you try to do this you realise it's impossible. No-one wants to start before 10am but you want to finish in time for lunch. You can't fit in a four hour slot easily. So I'd posted this as a three hour game.
And it worked perfectly. The players, most of whom have played with me before, were all wonderful. I learnt a lot about real science vs. Star Trek science from the player controlling Spock - and had make several rulings in favour of canon. All characters were played with joy and to type. And the setting and rules were a perfect match. Like Fish and Chips. I'll be running this game again. And again. And I'll add the characters into my "Choose your Adventure" set up.
For lunch I went to the bar and bought a couple of baps. The synergy between the hotel and the convention is great. The food offered is just what gamers want. Sandwiches, baps, pork pies, doughnuts, chocolate pies(!) for lunch and Pizzas, Burgers, Curry and Fish'n'chips at night. (Though everything is available all day.)
In the afternoon I ran my "Year of the Rabbit" game. This was a bit of a punt. It's based on a new TV series that not everyone has seen. A gritty, sweaty, Victorian, Police comedy. Somehow I managed to binge it on line before the series had finished on telly. I loved it!
In order to run it I hacked my own Code games. Arguably - spoilers - given the final episode the series could be described as "Steampunk". However, it's only lightly Steampunk and my Code of Steam and Steel rules wouldn't have worked. So I knocked up "The Code of the Rabbit".
This is the game for which I had only four out of five sign ups. The "big three" from the series - Inspector Rabbit himself, his partner, Strauss and London's first WPC, the gloriously foul mouthed Mabel - plus the Flora the contract killer (and Rabbit's lover). No-one wanted to play Joseph Merrick "the Elephant Man" - who is a big part of the series.
Again this was made glorious by players who just came to play and have fun. In particular I was overjoyed to have one of my regular players take the role of Mabel. I've never heard her swear before but soon we were all f-ing and blinding all over the place. The room was filled with other gamers and we distracted a couple sometimes, but it was more for the wacky shennanigans than the swearing.
I'd stated that this slot would run for 2pm to "6ish" giving us four hours, knowing most of my games run for less than this. But what with it being a new scenario - my second of the weekend - and a couple of other factors, the players ate the plot up and were looking to complete it in less than three. During one of the "comfort breaks" I came up with an extra layer of the onion for the mystery which, as it turned out, I didn't need. The final scene was riotous hoot of people repeatedly pushing buttons which they knew they shouldn't - trying to undo the hilarious effects of the previous one. THAT's what distracted the other tables. (When board gamers overhear Roleplayers, they can be a bit bemused.) I'll be running this adventure again at a convention in a few weeks and know what tweets to make.
I was running short of cash, so I ordered my evening food - Fish and Chips - from the bar in the convention room. It is cash only. So I went out to the main hotel bar to buy my drink. The barman there asked about the sort of games we were playing and I launched into my evangelism for TTRPGs. He commented on how much beer gamers put away every time they turned up.
But the hotel NEVER runs out of beer. Another example of the synergy between the hotel and the convention which other venues could learn from. My fish and chips, delivered to my numbered stand at my table, arrived in less than half an hour. The kitchen was constantly banging out hot meal after hot meal. The hotel must make a pretty penny on the catering and the bar even though the gamer food prices are so reasonable. This hotel as been well trained and learnt its lessons.
Another StabCon tradition that's developed is me offering a horror game Saturday night. I don't run many horror games and I've exhausted all the scenarios I'm comfortable with. However, I'd recently played in a game run by its author at another convention. It had gone on to win two awards at UK Games Expo. The scenario was intriguing, clever and devious. (It explores the consequences of transporting a classic bit of Lovecraftian Lore to the near future.) So I'd bought that to run.
Alas, though I'd played it and read it through several times, when it came to play there proved to be just one too many moving parts for me to handle. Like when you've got a cryptic crossword to solve and you just can't crack it.
But the players were having a great time playing their characters and were very tolerant of my occasional page flipping in search of a particular reference I remembered. And we managed to engineer a very satisfying ending. You know those cryptic warning messages you get and think "why is this so garbled? Couldn't they have been clearer?" Well now we know why.
One of the signs, I think, of good referees is that we are very self critical. So I knew I hadn't delivered. It happens from time to time. But the players honestly thanked me for a good session and I did overhear some of them talking to friends about it very positively afterwards.
Before turning in I posted two things on the TTRPG sign up board. One was a note to tell my regular Sunday morning group of players where we were playing. The second was a sign up sheet for a potential game Sunday afternoon.
A week ago on Twitter someone had posted an idea for a game when every time someone used a resource, they tore a piece of paper from a toilet roll on the rebels. So the roll would act as limit on the group's resources. The idea had intrigued me and so I offered to run a toilet roll based game Sunday afternoon - and I wrote the sign up sheet on toilet roll. StabCon is the only convention where I'd feel confident doing that.
I'd drunk rather more beer than I usually do when refereeing and again had a good night's sleep. Breakfast was fine again - the hash browns being particularly well done as I like them.
Sunday morning was my second bookend to StabCon. Just like Friday night's game, I'd once run a one-off game (a refight of "The Force Awakens" with new characters) and the players had asked for a sequel. This had turned into a Star Wars campaign and - when I'd run out of story ideas - changed into a Superhero campaign. Both campaigns using my unpublished Manifold rules.
I was a bit worried about this game because it was six months between episodes and - even though I checked back in this blog to see what had happened - I tend to forget things. But I needn't have worried. The corrupted robot character was rescued - well given the tools to save himself really. And the characters took off into space to defeat the alien invasion despite me throwing literally overwhelming odds against them three times. Somehow all the characters and all the players just gelled this morning. It was an absolute delight. This could have been a natural break point - well they had just saved the world - so I asked if they wanted a change of genre (I wasn't going to offer to step down and let them free to play other games!) but they all want to carry on with their superheroes. One player asked me if I had more ideas for future adventures. "A few". I said.
No-one signed up for my toilet roll game so I left early. I'm always ambivalent about staying for that extra game StabCon afternoon. Before leaving I paid the £15 sign up for Winter StabCon 2020 and made a crack about how it never goes up. "Actually we're thinking of lowering the price" I was told.
When someone mentioned the convention seemed quiet, I overhead that it had had 282 attendees out of a possible 300 places. It had an absolute top limit of 300 places. So they don't bother advertising. I'm breaking "the first rule of StabCon" with this post! I think it seemed quiet because a lot of the board gamers moved out of the noisy main room to rub shoulders with the TTRPGers in the side rooms. They seemed a lot busier to me, but my games weren't disturbed.
StabCon remains the comfort food of conventions. I think some of its attendees just don't realise how special it is. The organisation is seamless. The synergy between the hotel and the convention is great. It's not a five star hotel but it's cheap. And the attendees are just lovely people. They're just the usual wonderful people this hobby has to offer without the "edge" some gamers sometimes have. I think it's just become my favourite convention. If you have the chance to get your feet under the table here, snap it up.
TLDR: Anyone who has read my blog - or my earlier printed diaries - already knows all about StabCon. Held twice per year in the same hotel in Stockport, organised by the same couple (absolute Heroes, both!) for years, it's always the same and always delivers. It's the comfort food of conventions. Like coming home to an extended family. Like putting on your old comfy dressing gown and slippers.
You book up in advance (usually at the previous StabCon) and the organisers prebook a room - including breakfast - for you. There is no requirement for any pre-organisation. You just turn up from 2pm on the Friday and see how things go.
Some of the more modern con-goers have set up a Facebook page for the event. This is nothing to do with the organisers but they often check in. I used the page to pre-advertise the games I was intending to run. But there is no requirement for referees to do this.
As usual I travelled up straight after work on Friday. I arrived at the event in time to check in - both at the hotel reception to get my room and at the convention front desk to collect my personalised name badge. I got talking to a player in the queue who was enquiring about my games and I asked him to post my sign up sheets on the board whilst I waited.
I'm never sure at StabCon where to pitch my sheets. The provided sheets are simple A5 forms. Some people bring their own, A5 or A4, B&W or colour. This time I'd gone all out producing A4 full colour jobs only to find almost everyone else using the B&W A5 ones provided by the convention. I looked like I was trying too hard. But my Saturday morning game (Star Trek the original series) booked out in under a minute! Surely a record of some kind. There seemed to be a few more TTRPG games on offer than usual - StabCon is primarily a board game event - and most of them were already full of players. The TTRPG side of the convention seems to be healthy and growing.
I bought myself a pint and ordered my usual StabCon Friday night food (a 12" "American Hot" pizza) and chatted to a couple of people. Loads of people said "hello" to me. I'm sorry. I did a count once. I run games for literally hundreds of people every year. Possibly pushing a thousand. And I've never been good at asking or remembering names. I'm more likely to remember your character. Everyone knows me but I know hardly anyone.
Anyway I made my way over to my usual Friday night group.
A long long time ago I found out that by the time I arrive at StabCon, it's too late to find players for an evening game. But I've been lucky enough so sign up for a Savage World campaign run by the same Referee with the same players every Friday night. This is my first bookend of the weekend. I know what I'm doing and who with before I arrive.
Actually this is the third campaign we've been in with this referee. It all started off with a one-off "play yourself in a fantasy game" adventure which spilled off over two conventions. (The one famous for its "Lancashire Goblins".) The players all begged for more so the referee ran a massively detailed mini-campaign based on a series of books by David Gemmell. For the last two years he's been running a pre-WW2 game. Sort of Indiana Jones territory but we're all minor Super-types. (I'm a cyborg, sort of "the £6,000 man".) This referee is a larger than life character and the games are designed with lovely tongue in cheek humour. Previously we'd stopped the Nazis from weaponising Tea and Opera. This time we were tasked with extracting a German doctor who could confirm the rumours about that status of Hitler's genitalia - and that of other Reichsmarshalls.
The table had suffered some "campaign bloat". When you run a regular group there are times when a player is away and you let another one join in. Then, when the original player comes back, your group has grown. Today we were up to seven players. A couple too many IMHO and any other time I might have felt a bit disgruntled. And Savage Worlds, whilst clever, has a couple of features which aren't to my taste. But THIS referee coped easily and, Friday night, after a long week at work, all I want is few beers with friends and I'm not really bothered about fighting for spotlight time. I found the endless analysis paralysis and discussion about which character exactly was sitting in which seat in which car amusing rather than irritating.
After an incident a few years ago (detailed in my printed diaries) I am usually careful about how much I drink at a convention. But Friday night at StabCon I relax a bit. A total of four of us bought rounds for the table. I was sensible enough to switch to Diet Coke after about four pints
As usual we didn't finish the adventure the referee had planned for the session and we voted to finish early - before midnight - rather than push on into the early hours. (I don't think he's realised yet that we do it to keep him offering the game at the next event. He has to carry on to finish it off.)
It's a lovely setting he's created for the game and when finally gets around to publishing it as a sourcebook, I'll let you all know about it.
Some people at the table carried on playing "beer and pretzels" games. Some of us turned in. What with all the beer and being tired from work, I slept like a log. It had been a great start to the weekend.
I got up early, sorted the resources for the day's games and went to breakfast. As usual I got there as soon as it opened. (I'm not a fan of the peak time breakfast crush at hotels.) The breakfast - included in the booking - is a typical hotel buffet breakfast. Not the best, by far, but perfectly adequate and we've all eaten worse.
After breakfast I checked my sign up sheets. Out of three games for five players each only one space wasn't filled. (More about this, later.)
I'd booked myself a table in one of the side rooms used for RPGs, so I took my place and set up for my first game.
This was Star Trek - the Original Series - using my own The Code of the Spacelanes rules. This is something I'd been putting off for years. I've used the game to replay the classic ST-TOS episode "The Doomsday Machine" many times but placed in a more generic setting. But I'd never gotten around to statting up the classic characters. Sometimes things are just TOO obvious, you know? But for some reason I thought it was about time.
The five players elected to play Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Chekhov. No Kirk or Scotty. Interesting.
I ran an adventure rooted in the first ever Star Trek original novel "Spock Must Die" by James Blish. One of the things about StabCon is that there is minimal official organisation. The organisers provide a noticeboard, sign up sheets and rooms. That's it. There are no official TTRPG "slots". You have to set your own times. Eg. One I saw for Saturday morning said "10am start, no more than 6 hours."
When you try to do this you realise it's impossible. No-one wants to start before 10am but you want to finish in time for lunch. You can't fit in a four hour slot easily. So I'd posted this as a three hour game.
And it worked perfectly. The players, most of whom have played with me before, were all wonderful. I learnt a lot about real science vs. Star Trek science from the player controlling Spock - and had make several rulings in favour of canon. All characters were played with joy and to type. And the setting and rules were a perfect match. Like Fish and Chips. I'll be running this game again. And again. And I'll add the characters into my "Choose your Adventure" set up.
For lunch I went to the bar and bought a couple of baps. The synergy between the hotel and the convention is great. The food offered is just what gamers want. Sandwiches, baps, pork pies, doughnuts, chocolate pies(!) for lunch and Pizzas, Burgers, Curry and Fish'n'chips at night. (Though everything is available all day.)
In the afternoon I ran my "Year of the Rabbit" game. This was a bit of a punt. It's based on a new TV series that not everyone has seen. A gritty, sweaty, Victorian, Police comedy. Somehow I managed to binge it on line before the series had finished on telly. I loved it!
In order to run it I hacked my own Code games. Arguably - spoilers - given the final episode the series could be described as "Steampunk". However, it's only lightly Steampunk and my Code of Steam and Steel rules wouldn't have worked. So I knocked up "The Code of the Rabbit".
This is the game for which I had only four out of five sign ups. The "big three" from the series - Inspector Rabbit himself, his partner, Strauss and London's first WPC, the gloriously foul mouthed Mabel - plus the Flora the contract killer (and Rabbit's lover). No-one wanted to play Joseph Merrick "the Elephant Man" - who is a big part of the series.
Again this was made glorious by players who just came to play and have fun. In particular I was overjoyed to have one of my regular players take the role of Mabel. I've never heard her swear before but soon we were all f-ing and blinding all over the place. The room was filled with other gamers and we distracted a couple sometimes, but it was more for the wacky shennanigans than the swearing.
I'd stated that this slot would run for 2pm to "6ish" giving us four hours, knowing most of my games run for less than this. But what with it being a new scenario - my second of the weekend - and a couple of other factors, the players ate the plot up and were looking to complete it in less than three. During one of the "comfort breaks" I came up with an extra layer of the onion for the mystery which, as it turned out, I didn't need. The final scene was riotous hoot of people repeatedly pushing buttons which they knew they shouldn't - trying to undo the hilarious effects of the previous one. THAT's what distracted the other tables. (When board gamers overhear Roleplayers, they can be a bit bemused.) I'll be running this adventure again at a convention in a few weeks and know what tweets to make.
I was running short of cash, so I ordered my evening food - Fish and Chips - from the bar in the convention room. It is cash only. So I went out to the main hotel bar to buy my drink. The barman there asked about the sort of games we were playing and I launched into my evangelism for TTRPGs. He commented on how much beer gamers put away every time they turned up.
But the hotel NEVER runs out of beer. Another example of the synergy between the hotel and the convention which other venues could learn from. My fish and chips, delivered to my numbered stand at my table, arrived in less than half an hour. The kitchen was constantly banging out hot meal after hot meal. The hotel must make a pretty penny on the catering and the bar even though the gamer food prices are so reasonable. This hotel as been well trained and learnt its lessons.
Another StabCon tradition that's developed is me offering a horror game Saturday night. I don't run many horror games and I've exhausted all the scenarios I'm comfortable with. However, I'd recently played in a game run by its author at another convention. It had gone on to win two awards at UK Games Expo. The scenario was intriguing, clever and devious. (It explores the consequences of transporting a classic bit of Lovecraftian Lore to the near future.) So I'd bought that to run.
Alas, though I'd played it and read it through several times, when it came to play there proved to be just one too many moving parts for me to handle. Like when you've got a cryptic crossword to solve and you just can't crack it.
But the players were having a great time playing their characters and were very tolerant of my occasional page flipping in search of a particular reference I remembered. And we managed to engineer a very satisfying ending. You know those cryptic warning messages you get and think "why is this so garbled? Couldn't they have been clearer?" Well now we know why.
One of the signs, I think, of good referees is that we are very self critical. So I knew I hadn't delivered. It happens from time to time. But the players honestly thanked me for a good session and I did overhear some of them talking to friends about it very positively afterwards.
Before turning in I posted two things on the TTRPG sign up board. One was a note to tell my regular Sunday morning group of players where we were playing. The second was a sign up sheet for a potential game Sunday afternoon.
A week ago on Twitter someone had posted an idea for a game when every time someone used a resource, they tore a piece of paper from a toilet roll on the rebels. So the roll would act as limit on the group's resources. The idea had intrigued me and so I offered to run a toilet roll based game Sunday afternoon - and I wrote the sign up sheet on toilet roll. StabCon is the only convention where I'd feel confident doing that.
I'd drunk rather more beer than I usually do when refereeing and again had a good night's sleep. Breakfast was fine again - the hash browns being particularly well done as I like them.
Sunday morning was my second bookend to StabCon. Just like Friday night's game, I'd once run a one-off game (a refight of "The Force Awakens" with new characters) and the players had asked for a sequel. This had turned into a Star Wars campaign and - when I'd run out of story ideas - changed into a Superhero campaign. Both campaigns using my unpublished Manifold rules.
I was a bit worried about this game because it was six months between episodes and - even though I checked back in this blog to see what had happened - I tend to forget things. But I needn't have worried. The corrupted robot character was rescued - well given the tools to save himself really. And the characters took off into space to defeat the alien invasion despite me throwing literally overwhelming odds against them three times. Somehow all the characters and all the players just gelled this morning. It was an absolute delight. This could have been a natural break point - well they had just saved the world - so I asked if they wanted a change of genre (I wasn't going to offer to step down and let them free to play other games!) but they all want to carry on with their superheroes. One player asked me if I had more ideas for future adventures. "A few". I said.
No-one signed up for my toilet roll game so I left early. I'm always ambivalent about staying for that extra game StabCon afternoon. Before leaving I paid the £15 sign up for Winter StabCon 2020 and made a crack about how it never goes up. "Actually we're thinking of lowering the price" I was told.
When someone mentioned the convention seemed quiet, I overhead that it had had 282 attendees out of a possible 300 places. It had an absolute top limit of 300 places. So they don't bother advertising. I'm breaking "the first rule of StabCon" with this post! I think it seemed quiet because a lot of the board gamers moved out of the noisy main room to rub shoulders with the TTRPGers in the side rooms. They seemed a lot busier to me, but my games weren't disturbed.
StabCon remains the comfort food of conventions. I think some of its attendees just don't realise how special it is. The organisation is seamless. The synergy between the hotel and the convention is great. It's not a five star hotel but it's cheap. And the attendees are just lovely people. They're just the usual wonderful people this hobby has to offer without the "edge" some gamers sometimes have. I think it's just become my favourite convention. If you have the chance to get your feet under the table here, snap it up.
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