Compulsion 2017

I was at Conpulsion in Edinburgh this weekend. This is a 2 day convention run by the University types in Edinburgh in Scotland. Scotland's biggest gaming convention.

I've always liked Conpulsion because of its short game slots with long breaks in between to allow me to take part in panels, as a guest. This year, however, they seemed to have put some panels I could have been on at the same times as games were being run. I did not approve. It seemed I'd have long 2 hour breaks between games with nothing to do. Strike 1.

I'd also arranged to meet some people for a "private game" Saturday evening. In the end, they didn't attend. They was a slot where I didn't submit a game for prebooking and inclusion in the programme. Strike 2.

It's actually cheaper, as well as faster, to fly to Scotland than it is to travel by train, so I throw my lightweight games into a flight bag with minimal clothes changes and fly up Friday night. Which means I can do a full day's work and still travel up. I miss the "Friday night Social" - which is no loss to me - but I arrive ready to start bright and early Saturday morning.

Well, that's the plan. In fact my flight was delayed by two hours and I arrived at my hotel well after midnight. I was seriously worried that I'd be knackered for the following day. Strike 3.

Conpulsion 2017 was not shaping up well!

But I had a really good breakfast at my hotel, walked easily to the venue and arrived early. Getting in was smooth due to the good organisation. And I was given a free "guest" T shirt.

There were 6 RPG games on offer based on my rules - only three of them offered by me.  Over 10%  of the pre-advertised RPG offerings were using games I've written.

The main venue for the convention is Teviot House - a historical building with several students bars, lots of wood and leather and many traditional staircases, many of them spiral. It's a great place for RPG's.

However, this convention also has loads of traders, board games, tournaments and seminars. So most of the RPGs took place in a nearby building called "Potterow". It's the first time I'd played there. It is an amazing building. Circular, with a domed plexiglass ceiling. Light, bright, full of heavy wooden tables.

In the morning I had a full table for my Blakes Seven game - the first time it's run.  The first player to arrive snaffled Avon. (Fair enough). Other characters chosen were Vila - natch - Cally, Soolin and Galen. Galen is actually a technomage from the Babylon 5 spinoff series buy, hey, if a player wants to do something, I try to accommodate them.

The game went well. The technomage proved a bit overbearing and the clever play meant the characters avoided combat - which left Soolin at a bit of a loose end. Cally was also being played by someone new to RPGs and was a bit of a spectator for the first part of the game. So I was really pleased with the way I "balanced" everyone's contributions by the end of the game. I'm running the scenario at other conventions, including Expo, so can't give the any details. But - as I say - it went well.

The organisers give Referees a pack containing labels for players to write names on, a "players wanted" sign (if needed) etc. They also bring you a bottle of water and a choice of chocolate bar and fruit. They also have industrial levels of cake on offer including a wonderful no added sugar raspberry cheesecake which tasted great and didn't challenge my type 2 diabetes.

The only two choices during the 2 hour lunch break were a fencing lesson or a session explaining how the "RPG saved Star Wars". Neither appealed. So met up with Chris Dean - author of "I love the Corps". We found a quiet bar and put the world rights for an hour or so.  Then a bit more networking with various people I know. Conpulsion has a really nice atmosphere and my three concerns were soon forgotten.

My afternoon game was my King Kong/Anime mashup using my Anime Rules. The ones that didn't fund on Kickstarter.  6 players signed up. 5 found the table. They made the ships engineer, the ships cook and a bodyguard. All support types. There was a (rubbish) photographer who gave me a reason to send them to the island. There was also a secretive psychic  monk type who gave me a conspiracy to fund the expedition. (I later found out that it was the psychic monk's first RPG. What a character to make for your first game!)

Again I can't talk too much about this scenario as I'm running it at upcoming conventions. Lets just day the characters took a lot of damage but also dealt quite a bit out. Brutal. But fun.

Then another two hour break. I checked my "pick up" game, offered on the day. It had three players and was definitely going to run. Then I went to find tea. Initially I ate alone in the bar but then I made my way to the lounge where my evening game was to run and had a couple of nice chats with people.

My players turned up. Only three but we had a great game of "The Great Martian Tripod Race". This scenario always delivers. In this case it was the character feeling shame over possibly committing indirect genocide, only to be told "you're British, it's what we do." The climax was great with all the competing tripods being taken out and humans and Martians all rushing en masse to drag their fallen machines over the line. Great fun!

I then had several minutes of players telling me how my game was so much better than Fate. Did my ego good, I can tell you.

When I arrived the following morning, I found that my game only had one player. This didn't surprise me because it's the same old Dr Who (without the Doctor) scenario I've been running at conventions for year upon year now. It's the third year running I've offered it at Conpulsion, so it it wouldn't have surprised me if it didn't garner players. But we got a second signup before the game. And then, when I went to the table, I got two passersby looking for a game and just dropping in. There was usual eclectic collection of characters from across Time and Space. The caveman who discovered fire, a warrior priestess who used songs to access the spirit world (or something - her player know who he was running even if the rest of us weren't sure), and ancient Chinese warlord/DemiGod and an AI android from the future. It was the usual romp - with the high point being the J'Dhun (Space Rhino police) getting into a jurisdictional dispute with the Elephun (Space Elephant FBI - apparently). The climax was unusually bloody with the AI and caveman actually being nuked.

Then (finally) I was on a panel about "Writing RPGs for fun and profit" with the usual suspects. I really enjoy being on convention panels but ConPulsion is the only one where I can do this. I really missed being on a panel on Saturday.

Because my flight back to Birmingham was at 7pm, I couldn't risk offering a game in the afternoon (3pm to 6pm) session. So I signed up to Martin Pickett's "One of our airships is missing" game - using my Code of Steam and Steel steampunk rules. Martin designs and runs great games set on "The Victorian Colony of Mars". "The Great Martian Tripod Race", which I'd run Saturday night, is one of his. This game is the third scenario of his I'd played. We agreed that I could dib out after two hours to go and grab my plane.

We played a sky police squad whose airship was sent to find the missing mayoress of Victoriana. I played the ship's gunner.

I love Martin's games. On the surface they are very straightforward, but that just gives framework for players to chew up the scenery and explore myriad ways of solving the problems they face. His pregenerated characters carry the most wonderful Steampunk devices (my gunner had an "Ether Compass"). And I find his quintessentially English GMing subtly amazing. Everything seems so calm and reasonable at first then slowly descends into frenzy.

I'm afraid I was a bit of a nightmare. Knowing I'd have to leave early, I had an excuse not to play the Sergeant in charge of the squad. I find playing the "leader" of any RPG party to be a poisoned chalice. RPG characters are eclectic individuals. Trying to "lead" them is worse than herding cats. Unlike the other players I was familiar with and comfortable with the rules, the setting and the referee. I knew my character needed to disappear before the end of the adventure. So I dialled up the gung ho factor, running headlong into danger, facing down to enemy when the Sergeant - more sensibly - dived for cover. And, as so often happens in these cases, suddenly my character developed a charmed life. Fortune favours the bold, it seems.

During the game, the airline sent me a text to say my plane was delayed - again! But THIS time it meant I could stay for the end of the scenario. Win!

In the run up to Conpulsion, I felt concerned due to intermittent communication, last minutes changes to the organisation, some of the friends I was expecting not coming and the massive delays on the plane. But, once I arrived, the marvellous wonderful people there - organisers, players, fellow referees and fellow game designers - just make it a magical experience. It has the NICEST atmosphere. Well worth a visit.