FantastiCon 2017

FantastiCon 2017

FantastiCon is a Science Fiction convention in Hull. I first went to it in 2016 as part of my plan to try and visit non-RPG conventions to introduce people to the joys of the RPG hobby. (I find many preconceptions are dispelled within minutes of playing their first game.) WhyFantasticon? Two reasons. It fitted in with my diary for 2016. But, more importantly, the organisers responded to my initial approach and were extremely welcoming. Many a time when I write to convention organisers saying "Do you want me to come an run some Tabletop Role-Playing Games?" I receive no reply.

I'm not an expert on SciFi conventions but FantastiCon seems to me to be smallish one. It is run by a small publishing company but the aim seems to be to run a welcoming event with a family atmosphere with the focus being upon those that attend having lots to DO rather than lots to BUY. There are trade strands and the stage events include book readings by authors that the company publishes, but these are not the central focus of events. There is Cosplay, massive and organised NERF wars, computer consoles of all kinds from retro to VR, live music, live presentations from a scientist trying to reproduce Iron Man's armour and myriad other things I've forgotten.

It runs on Saturday and Sunday. I get in free, but I earn nothing from these events so I have to watch costs. Though Hull is a serious journey from Birmingham the high costs of train tickets on a Friday evening and the cost of a hotel Friday night (at the height of Hull's "Year of Culture" events) meant it would have cost me about £100 more to travel up on a Friday night. So it was a case of getting up at stupid o'clock on Saturday morning to catch the first train from Birmingham to Hull to arrive just in time to dash to the event and set up just before the doors opened.

The event takes place in Hull's historic Guild Hall. A very atmospheric venue. It takes place on the first floor. Basically there's a square central chamber with a stage, seating and some trade stands with an adjacent hall. There are corridors off with other rooms. Last year I was in one of the side rooms - the Board Room with a massive Board Meeting table surrounded by pictures of centuries of Hull's Mayors. It was an interesting venue for RPGs - but not the most suitable. This year I felt I'd been promoted because I was in the Hall adjacent to the main chamber, which had all the computer stuff in it, along with retro arcade machines, other gaming, trade stands (including a craft ale stand selling Mead and Specialist Ciders and Ales) and the Bar. Also a table which was kept full of free squash and biscuits throughout the weekend. The was good communication up front and I negotiated a change from a large circular table - which everyone seems to assume is ideal for all RPGs - to a set up of two smaller rectangular tables arranged in a L shape. One for my "Choose Your Adventure" display and one behind it to actually play on. The table was in prime position, being the first thing people saw when they left the  main chamber. I had the Elite Dangerous Table RPG ("Elite Frontier" I think) on one side and a table offering board games on the other. Perfect!

The convention was slow to start. The taxi driver taking me to the event knew nothing about it. I don't know how these events could promote themselves more. It obviously had capacity for more people. However, there were enough people to more or less fill the central room for the talks and occupy most of the event tables for most of the time. The feeling was of people who felt it was "their" convention - sort of like a large extended family.

I know my place at these conventions. It's not what the punters came for. I get quizzical looks at first, have to grab people and engage them in conversation. They all need to look around the convention first before any of them come back to play. But there are a good mix of people who've heard of RPGs and want to try them and people who've tried it a bit but want to see more of what's on offer. At this convention there were a large number of people who "used to play" when they were younger but have lapsed. And I even managed to grab a couple of people who knew nothing or had misconceptions and convert them.

On Saturday, I ran a total of four games. The first was a one hour demo of my Code of the Spacelanes rules using Star Wars characters. Great fun with the rebels rescuing the scientist with the "important information" from the Imperial Shuttle at Mos Eisley star port. In order to escape, the "Jedi in hiding" severed a coolant pipe to cause the ship's engines to overheat and explode. She got the scientist out but had to abandon her fallen comrades. She made a last desperate attention to telekinetically lift them out before the explosion. I carefully explained how difficult this was and how the difficulty increased with each additional person she tried to lift - only to have her roll a critical success. Perfect!

Before the next game, I nipped out to buy lunch. There were food facilities available somewhere in the venue, but I knew there was an M&S just down the road. I returned with two "meal deals" to see me through the day.

Over lunch I saw a drone buzzing a very active T-Rex in the gaming hall.

My second game was another Code of the Spacelanes (well it was a SciFi convention) but this time skinned for Blakes Seven. Another one hour demo. In fact it's exactly the same scenario as the Star Wars one, but I don't think many people would notice it. We had a couple of people start but drop out to attend events starting elsewhere but Gan, Dayna and Tarrant saw things through. Not all the players were familiar with the series and there was much hair-based humour. This went so well that the remaining three players didn't want to stop playing so I had to tack on a extra scene with Liberator pursuing and engaging Travis' pursuit ship. This pushed the game to almost 2 hours.

Then it was time to introduce a family - mum, dad, teenage son, two (early teens?) daughters - to "Dungeons and Dragons - via "The Black Hack" and Matt Colville's "Delian Tomb".  This was the usual romp but I had to apologise to the dad at the end. He kept trying to get his family to stop, ponder, plan (vacillate) whereas they were all diving in head first after the fun, fun, fun and I went with the majority.

After clarifying the timings - I knew there was an evening musical event in the main hall but didn't know if the gaming hall was staying open (it was) - I ate my second meal deal of the day and corralled some people for an evening game. For this I checked they were up for a longer game and pulled out my Doctor Who scenario. If you don't know what this is, this must be the first one of my convention reports you've ever read. Three years I've been running it, and here it was again. My Favourite.

We started with two players. Make anyone you want from anywhere in Time and Space. So we got a Lizardman Space Corsair and Prince Thundarr with his Sword of Power! (Not He-Man, not at all, no way!)

These two started off by losing the Tardis - the first group in three years to do this. I kept corralling passersby. They were first joined by a 23rd century scientist whose time travel device had gone wrong and - later - by a Witchfinder General who'd been ambushed and banished by a combined coven of all of his most powerful enemies. Again we lost a couple of players before the very end (Thundarr and the Witchfinder) but the Lizardman Corsair and the Scientist saw it through. Not before the scientist threw a dead body into a cyber converter and accidentally created an eight-limbed cyber monstrosity. They never met the real "big bad", choosing to create their own instead.

They were also the first group in three years to simply leg it and leave the J'Duhn to deal with things - seeing the J'Duhn ships as a great way to escape. Another first and - if you think about it - pretty sensible. Which means that they were the first group ever to be in orbit, nuking the moon (it was the only way to be certain), rather than underneath being nuked.

The convention ran until 11pm but my game wrapped up at about nine so I was able to make my way to my hotel quite early.

Sunday was quieter than Saturday. I was warned by the taxi driver taking me from the hotel to the Guild Hall that I wouldn't be able to book a taxi to the station that evening because of all the events on in the town. It was only a short walk anyway. I guess this contributed to the smaller turn out.

But I played two games on Sunday. The first was a group of older teenagers. The girl in the group has discovered 5th ed D&D and has been GMing some games for her friends. However, she was frustrated with the combats being so key to the game. Cue a one hour demonstration of the more storytelling approach, in this case my Code of Steam and Steel one hour demo. (Yes, basically the same scenario as the Star Wars and Blakes Seven one but you wouldn't know it.)

As always, riotous fun, but this group seemed to specialise in influencing others and acquiring followers. It's funny how different groups adopt different styles with the same scenario and the same pregens. So the hunter shot a feral dog and adopted its puppy.* A giant alligator turned up in the sewers to chomp on the cybernetic giant rats. Lampwick, the caretaker of St Pauls catacombs, was so grateful that the posh nob had turned up to fix things, that he offered to help out. In the final battle, Lampwick and the puppy helped fight off the giant rats (Lampwick dying in the process), the giant cybernetic gorilla also took a shine to the knight of the realm and Igor turned on his master who - seeing his evil plans come to naught - chose to kill himself rather than be captured. An unusual but satisfying conclusion.

* During the game we were visited by Death, enquiring about fatalities in the game. We grassed up the dog slaughtering Hunter. Death said he'd refer the matter to John Noakes.

After nipping to M&S for two more meal deals and consuming one, I had a request to run a Firefly game. Two of these were players who'd experienced the Blakes Seven game but not known the series. They wanted to see how it worked with characters they knew. The guy who'd played Gan chose to play Jayne. (Nuff said). His mate chose River. We were joined by a third player who selected Shepherd Book. I'm always  pleased when someone chooses Book because it shows we have subtler type of player in the group. A fourth guy, who I'd chatted to earlier and who had expressed an interest in the games, but who was loathe to join in, asked if he could watch and see what it was all about. We convinced him to have Wash's character sheet in front of him and said he could just sit in the mule outside the bar if he wanted to. (Ha! Got 'im!). I checked everyone was up for a longer game and pulled out my more complex Firefly scenario. (I don't think they'd spotted if I'd run the Blakes Seven one again, but it didn't hurt to be sure.)

What can I say? A romp. Fun, fun, fun. As always, Mal, Zoe and Simon are missing (I don't have them available as pregens). Wonderful misunderstanding with Jayne and River being caught on CCTV holding a watch-house at gun-point. River (as always when I run this) running right into Patience's hands to demand where her brother was and (as always, against the odds) getting away with it. And a great final showdown in Reaver space to rescue an ungrateful Mal. "Who's just brought my ship into Reaver space with the gorram LIGHTS ON!" Pause. A calmer voice comes on the radio. "Wash, dear. Go dark. Now."

As Zoe and Mal - who'd been hiding in a wrecked ship - turn everything on to attract the Reavers away from Serenity, the crew throw everything they have at it, eventually succeeding with much ingenuity and much luck and much depleted on weapons and shuttles.

The game finished in good time for me to pack up and head to the station. And the British rail system has been fine this weekend.

FantastiCon was a success for me. I ran 6 games in two days, three of which were extended far beyond the one hour demos I'd expected. And great, fun games with engaging and inventive players. I sold some books! Not enough to cover the cost of the convention (Mr Taxman) but every little helps. I feel guilty sticking to my table and not taking part in the wider events I was repeatedly invited to, but I'm an RPG junkie and, anyway, the computer addicts were glued their screens and googles as well. If the dates line up, it'll definitely be on my calendar for 2018.