UK Games Expo 217

So, like most of my friends, I went  to UK Games Expo this year.

And Was looking forward to it, I really was. I was GMing all weekend as usual and all of my games had been booked out for months. (I'd had a couple of ticket returns recently but last time I checked there was only one space open for one game.)

But......

You have to make plans for Expo months in advance and things change.

1) one of the sessions I was offering was based on a game which failed to fund on Kickstarter. It's still a good game and a good adventure (Anime, King Kong meets Power Rangers) but the gloss was off it a bit for me.

2) another commitment came up for me. I need to be somewhere in Birmingham City Centre Saturday night. So I had to pull my Saturday night game. I hate letting people down. (I think I have a good rep and have only done this once before in a decade of convention refereeing.)

3) most importantly - my game designer mind had gone elsewhere in recent weeks. Yes I still loved all the games and adventures I was offering, but I'd got new itches I want to scratch. Fledgling ideas I'd love to give a run out to. So I tried to fit in some playtesting.....

UK Games Expo on the cheap (1):

For reasons of my own I've decided to try and cut corners on my Expo experience this year.

So I've accepted ALL the GM rewards. I would've caught a £7.30 train to the con but my wonderful wife game me a lift. My hotel room is free - but I have to make share it with a fellow referee. Luckily I know a great guy from previous conventions.

Good news - checked in early to my room. Bad news - queue for 10am games which was slow even with GMs being fasttracked. Only to find I should've picked up my GMs pack at the NEC main hall. Mad dash over and back followed by confusion over rooms. Also £1.99 charge to take out cash. Really?

First game, my anime game, was great fun. We had one very young player whose ideals were left field but everyone was very accommodating. The climax was a bit more gonzo than even I normally go for. But fun.

Ticket scanning via app didn't work. Food orders via volunteers did. And there were items costing exactly£5 now - the value of the food tokens. Good!

Lots of dashing past people with no time to chat. Trade hall looks a LOT better this year.

Afternoon, classic D&D using The Black Hack. Only four players. Underpowered party. Still succeeded. Finished early, had time for a quick playtest of my new rules.

No food token for tea so spent £5 on a pasty. £5.15 on a pint (really?) just to get a glass to top up from cans under the table (sorry!)

Evening game, Blake's Seven. Some players not familiar with the series. Some VERY familiar. Slightly gonzo ending (again) with lots of Timey Wimey stuff. Great fun, though.

Expo on a budget, day two.

Got up early for breakfast to beat the queue. Breakfast starts at 7:00. I was down by 7:10 and there was ALREADY a queue. It isn't just gamers at the Hilton. Traders and exhibitors were also there and they HAVE to get up early.

But the Hilton staff are very organised and things went well.

Because I was trying to squeeze in a playtest for my card based RPG, I  didn't make full use of the breakfast. I only had coffee juice cereals fruit and full English once. Didn't eat any breakfast pastries. There was an exotic looking gateaux there. Breakfast cake? That's new to me.

No one turned up to playtest my game but I had a great time chatting to other referees over breakfast and in the bar area afterwards.

My first game was Martin Pickett's peerless The Great Martian Tripod Race. A mum, a dad, a son that wanted to play Lucifer and another guy. Yes. Lucifer.

As always fun. But I think the length of my "Code" games is directly linked to the number of players. With only four rather than the six who'd presigned and with clever play they wrapped it up in three hours rather than four. Still they seemed happy and kindly let me run another playtest of my card based RPG system. Great feedback but seem to be taking it in such and obvious direction that someone must have already written it, surely?

Artisan hotdog for lunch - free food voucher collected by volunteer - and a run over to the station to pick up my tickets and a Subway for my trip into Birmingham later. (The subway in the NEC was heaving. The one in the station, 5 mins away, was empty. Just a hint for the future guys.)

Expo on a budget (3)

Sunday morning got up early again and went down to breakfast as soon as it opened. There was already a queue! But the organisation was good again. I took my time, paced myself and managed the full four courses this time - taking a freshly cooked omelette in place of the full English. I had a great chat with Lloyd about the Games On Demand I'd seen him running so successfully.

Packed and then came down for my first game - another chapter in Martin Pickett's steampunk trilogy - The Antiquerries of Mars. I only had two players turn up out of six booked. One of these was an old mate, Tim, the other was new to me. I panicked for a bit but eventually a third player arrived. We had two ex-army gun bunnies - one retired to hunting, the other to gambling. The third character was an inventor type. They were packed off to search for a legendary Martian artefact. The tension in the scenario built well to the great scene where they find and recover the thing. Then the journey was less exciting as they dodged all the patrolling airships. Three players so - again - it finished early. But everyone seemed happy.

Tim accompanied me over to the trade hall to talk with people about printing cards.

Then back to the Hilton to pick up my preorder for lunch. By now the choice was limited and I had to top up the free voucher with £2 of my own money. (The only £2 I spent at the convention today, though.)

My day rounded off with my old "All of Time and Space scenario". I've been running this for years now and this is the third Expo running it's been my closing game. It's THAT good.

Again only three players. Scarecrow - an Australian navy seal type from some thriller novels. The Eternal Warrior from Warhammer 40k and Londo Molari from Babylon 5 (with personal retinue). Londo and bodyguards were soon dispatched by Scarecrow to be replaced by the pregen Tardis maintenance android. The game was fun as usual, but this time extra Daleks appeared which the characters accidentally led to Gallifrey, resulting in the characters being sent on a decoy suicide mission by the Timelord council.

This one under ran as well but everyone was happy to finish early and get off home. Everyone was knackered after a busy weekend.

My thoughts on Expo 2017:

For me it wasn't a classic but I didn't do anything to MAKE it a classic. Just refereed RPGs wall to wall using safe, well tested, scenarios.

It remains a superb convention. Ideally you'd divide yourself into three parts to enjoy the whole thing. I think it's slightly more for board gamers than RPGers and the Hilton feels a bit cut off from the main event.

Notes to self for next year: put an age limit on some games. It's great to see the youngsters coming through and I'm an OK ref for them. But you need a break from them sometimes. Don't ref wall to wall. Build in a break and enjoy some of the other things the convention offers. I know they're not advertised when you have to submit your games but use this year's programme as a guide. Try to run at least one "event" game.

Bring more food/drink with you, especially fruit and veg. Take advantage of the rewards scheme and share with Robin again.

The Trade hall was better this year. They used vertical promotion so it looked like a show, not an empty warehouse. There were items of food on the food carts costing £5 so, when the volunteers collected your food voucher and got your lunch (BRILLIANT!) they didn't have to worry about bits of change. Though I have to say, if I was paying for the food myself I'd be disappointed. £5 for a hotdog or toasted sandwich is too much no matter good they are.

Talking about the RPG volunteers, they were AMAZING! Jude made it look easy.

OK the ticketing app didn't work - for the RPGs at least - and there was some delay/confusion Friday morning. But it'll be better next year and it's good to see them trialling 21st century solutions.

The BIG negative. The prices in the Hilton are disgusting. The word "gouging" comes to mind. I would seriously recommend no one buys anything at the Hilton.

BUT, apart from that, if you take advantage of the rewards package, can find a good person to share a room with, offer to run the minimum necessary RPGs to get the free room and bring your own food and drink (not allowed officially but I'd recommend it) you can have a great weekend for next to nothing.

To get the rewards, offer to run games for 6 people. Even if they sell out, you'll have some games where people don't turn up so you'll have some smaller groups. You don't even have to do a load of prep. Someone was offering "The Lost Mines of Phandelver" this weekend. £16.99 and comes with pregens and everything. There are plenty of easy and cost effective options out there.

So, Expo remains fantastic and, with a bit of thought, can be pretty cheap weekend. You've got no excuse for not coming.