I try to report on my visits to conventions factually. I try to let people know what the convention is like so they can decide if it's an appropriate for them to attend. I don't give explicit ratings. Sometimes, my personal feelings might slip through.
But, dammit, Concrete Cow is simply the best RPG games "day" in the country. There - I've said it.
The website contains all the facts you need to know in a clear, easy to access format. Despite the fact that organisers and devotees are active on a range of social media, there's no crucial fact buried in an obscure Facebook post which only those in some kind of inner circle see. Everything is put on the website. Potential games are advertised in advance but nothing is prebooked.
My experience has evolved over the years. Recently I've started bumping into a fellow hobbyist on the train down and our wonderful chats have evolved into our own Spaghetti ConJunction, a games day where we blatantly steal everything we can from the organisation of Concrete Cow. This year we were joined by an enthusiastic young games designer who I know from other conventions. We seem to be developing a Birmingham Faction to attend.
An easy and, always, efficient journey from Birmingham - under 90 minutes, just over £20 return - and we get to Wolverton railways station just outside Milton
Keynes. A quick, 5 minute, walk to the venue and we're there. It's a bright community centre with a larger central room - split into two using dividers when the games start. There are loads of smaller rooms off, free coffee and tea and a high street outside with a supermarket right next door. It's perfect.
When you arrive you pay £5, write your name on a printed ticket and stick it on your chest. If you're intending to play, you also take a tombola ticket. A new group of wonderful people having taken over the running of the convention and the young lady taking the money was asking everyone if it was their first Concrete Cow so she could issue them with a special "Golden Ticket". I was incredibly gratified when I was asked the question and the guy next to me in the queue burst out laughing and made a crack about the number of conventions I attend. It's nice to be noticed.
Being hypercritical, there are usually raffle tickets on sale at the front desk. I always pay £5 to get in in buy 5 tickets at £1 each. I didn't this time. Throughout the day us crusty old timers were bemoaning how difficult it was to buy raffle tickets (someone usually brings them around) as we had to go and search them out. Ultimately, I didn't buy any this year.
Talking of which I dropped a hardback proof copy of my new game "The Code of Warriors and Wizardry" into the raffle. I later realised I'd mistakenly brought my expensive glossy full colour version rather than the cheaper "standard" colour one. Whoever got it had got a good book. I also asked to organiser to allow us to promote Spaghetti ConJunction, but she did it for us as part of the opening speech.
Sign up sheets for the morning games are on a table for perusal. I proposed to run game based on "Fireball XL5", a TV puppet show which is over 50 years old and rarely repeated due to it being in Black and White.
People are called up in turn based upon the last numbers on their lottery tickets. A fair and efficient system. My game was one of a few that only got one signup. I pulled it and chose to sign up for another game. There are always more excellent games on offer than their are players to play them. Numbers seem to be a bit down this year. (There are lots of conventions to choose from, I suppose.) And my personal rule is to run my game and try to horse trade for more players if I get two or more sign ups.
My respect goes out to the young lady who got no sign ups who refused to give up. She announced that she was happy to run for one player and - eventually - ended up getting two.
I signed up for game of "Hot War" - which I'd seen people rave about on line but never played - set in the Warhammer Fantasy RPG universe (another win) run by a referee I know from other conventions and online forums. We had five players. Perfect!
The game revolved around a conclave following the assassination of the emperor. We played dodgy types who were manoeuvring, Game of Thrones style, to grab the throne for ourselves. It was a massively well prepared game with the referee distributing superbly detailed background sheets. I think there were 5 sides of typing for each of us - all different. Alongside the 5 player characters there were ten or so NPC nobles with votes and myriad threats to the empire which needed dealing with.
The characters were give out by the Referee. I was given the crusty old Pope-type. I'm not aware of any choice in this. The referee seemed to know his players and gave them the characters he thought were most appropriate. I liked this approach.
The game was well run and created a good fictional storyline. The other characters were the Emperor's dissolute son, a General from the Northern marches, a Count from the South (secretly the host of an ancient demon) and a conniving Countess/business woman.
The game itself is slightly "zoomed out" covering the resolution of the various threats facing the empire and the credit this brings to the various pretenders to the throne. Not to my personal preference. Feels a bit board gamish. The resolution is through building large "dice polls". Also not a personal preference of mine. The winner of the contest then has to narrate what happened in the story. Again, not my favourite. It feels a bit like "now entertain us".
But, all of this was offset by an excellent referee that knew what he was doing and a very personable group of players - as I'd expect from Concrete Cow. And a great game was had all. We weren't allowed to kill or otherwise remove from the game any other PC until the last hour. I had the conniving Countess (selling promises of political marriages all over - ugh!) on the ropes but was not allowed the finish her off because it was 5 minutes (5 minutes!) before the DEAD line.
So - as we entered the last hour - the southern count - who'd been clearly losing up until this point - ambushed the northern baron, shucking his current "shell" and taking a new host. With their combined abilities, he soon finished off the young prince. Seeing an experienced player clearly gaming the system, I gamed back, forcing a conflict in the only ability I had left which clearly outranked him, Faith. Rather than Roleplaying, I gamed to "win" the game - well, to stop him winning. That's not my usual preferred style of play. The ancient demon was revealed in the light of the powerful Artefect I'd recovered and was destroyed/banished.
Unfortunately, that took us to the end of the session and the referee called the remaining conclave to vote. Players of dead PCs still controlled NPC votes and - with just my Pope and the conniving Countess left standing - she won convincingly. (5 minutes!)
Good game. I won't turn my nose up at Hot War at conventions in future but it won't be my first choice. This game was made by the excellent players and the superb Referee rather than the rule system.
Lunch was a couple of meal deals from the Supermarket and then it was into the afternoon signups.
I offered my new Fantasy rules - The Code of Warriors and Wizardry. The scenario from the rulebook. A sprawling romp. BUT I can't put anything specific on the sign up sheet without giving the plot away, so I wasn't sure of getting players. As it turned out, I picked up three plus a referee whose game hadn't filled. These were experienced gamers out for a good time. They didn't use the system to create gonzo events, but preferred to sit back and let things unfold and role-play a romp. It was fun, but one of those games where clever play let them avoid the climax and succeed brilliantly despite every substitute final battle I tried to improvise into events so I felt it ended with a bit of a damp squib. But it was one of those when the journey is more important than the destination. Gobbo the Goblin developed the battle halibut, Barg the Troll responded by using a shark as a club, Jim Bob the explorer acquired a battle flamingo and Barleycorn Bran, the yokel, drifted through events inadvertently leaving disaster in his wake like some kind of medieval Frank Spencer.
There IS third game in the evening but most people don't stay. I headed out to catch the 7:00pm train and found the entire Birmingham contingent from the morning making the same trip, joined by another personable long time hobbyist and convention organiser who got off at Rugby.
It's a shame that the growth of conventions seems to be eating into Concrete Cow's numbers a bit. The organisation, games and players remain exemplary. If any newbies come to me to ask "which convention should I go to first" my answer will be - without any hesitation - Concrete Cow.
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