Winter StabCon 2019

Winter StabCon 2019

My convention going year started, as it always does, with my first visit to StabCon. If been writing and blogging about this wonderful convention for years so I'll keep the basics short. (If you want more details, simpler check back to earlier reports.)

- Stockport
- Residential -  inexpensive hotel
- Relatively cheap beer and cheap "gamers menu" specifically for the convention.
- Friday to Sunday
- 300 attendees, most board gamers but strong TTRPG track. 25%+ of the games on offer, I'd guess.
- Very free form organisation. TTRPG sign up sheets and noticeboard available but no official slots.
- Family atmosphere. Can be a bit intimidating at first, but once you're settled you feel right at home.

I have several prearranged games and events at StabCon now. Two things made this one a but different.

Firstly, I was on still holiday from work. This meant I could come down early on Friday and fit in an extra game in the afternoon. (Normally, I'm rushing from work and arrive just before the evening session.) I posted on FaceBook before the event to see if anyone else was there early and got skme interest in a "East End Bank Heist" game I offered.

The second difference was that I'd decided to try videoing some parts of my convention and post them on a YouTube channel, as a companion to my blog posts.  The YouTube channel is called RPGS4ALL. Please visit it, watch, subscribe, like comment etc.

So I arrived at lunchtime, a bit before the convention was due to start. Checked in and went to see if I could sign in to the convention early. There was a queue! People are desperate to get in and get gaming.

I ran my East End Heist Game, taking a video of my players before the event and interviewing one afterwards. In addition to the three players I'd prearranged with, we snagged a couple walking past. It was one half of that couple I interviewed after the game.

I've run this scenario a few times before and it usually involves complex planning and execution. This team were a more straightforward and managed the actually robbery really efficiently, so I was able to run the switch and bait ending which I'd always had prepared but not had a chance to use before. This game was a hoot. Dodgy accents and much adult humour.

I was very impressed by the professional manner of the player I interviewed after the game.

Throughout the game I'd kept myself topped up with the endless supply of free coffee which is always on hand at StabCon. But when the game ended, I enjoyed my first beer of the day (pint of lager £3.45) and ordered my tea. 12" "American Hot" pizza ordered at the bar and brought to the table. Under a tenner and enough for two people - I had trouble finishing it. Recommended.

Friday night I have lucked into playing in a Savage Worlds game run by a friend and excellent, personable and entertaining Referee. Prewar, Superpowered British Agents vs. Nazi plots. Indiana Jones meets The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From Austria to Egypt we had high jinks foiling the development of a sonic super weapon, ending an a high speed chase across the desert to retrieve the plans.  We got to sample some of the new Savage Worlds rules. (Short response - swings and roundabouts IMHO.) Great fun.

I again for filmed (most of) the players before the game and interviewed one afterwards - at almost midnight. Again I was impressed with how well he came across. I uploaded the videos back in my room, so didn't get to sleep until the early hours.

Of course many people were still playing board games downstairs at that time.

By my standards I was running a bit late the following morning. Breakfast is included in the stay and - by the standard of cheap hotels is actually quite palatable.

I got to my first game on time. This was a session of "The d6 Hack" from the upcoming "Role Play Relief" books. The players were two mature couples who did not wish to introduce themselves on my YouTube channel, which is fine.

Basically this was just good old fashioned D&D just using d6's. I was a romp. There's a certain joy in playing with people who've played for years and use their experience to walk all over the dungeon. It was glorious to see.

One of the two ladies agreed to be interviewed after the game but after  a short amount of fascinating feed back, my phone ran out of memory. So I lost that interview.

I ordered fish and chips for lunch and checked the sign up sheet for my afternoon game. This was a 13th Doctor game.

In the run up to StabCon I'd had my usual panic about not getting signups for my games. So I'd prepared a 13th Doctor game because I thought it would garner interest. This backfired. All my other games filled out, but this one had only two players. I posted a quick plea on FaceBook but resigned myself to running a game for two players.

As it happened, I got talking to an old, old, old TTRPG acquaintance (like four decades old) and he joined in. One of my regular players responded to my Facebook plea, so we had a table of four. Great! One player played the Doctor, one played Graham but the other two chose to play "Guest Stars". A computer Hacker and a Pacifistic Space Pirate. Amazingly, none of them had ever played in my "standard" Dr Who scenario so I was able to trot that out and see how the new Doctor tackled it.

Halfway through the game a young man wandered past and started watching. We invited him to join it - though I had to work out how "Ryan" suddenly appeared on a planet halfway across the galaxy.

This game was glorious. Ryan coming up with Computer game type solutions and being chided by the Doctor. The Hacker trying to crash the systems whilst Graham found simpler "real world" solutions. Everyone lived! Peace was bought to the planet and even the "big bad" got a happy ending. (First time ever!)

In tried to interview the new player after the event. It seemed he'd just discovered StabCon and dropped in to look around. This was his first game, at the con, though he was a very experienced TTRPG player.

Despite me clearing loads of memory, my phone again failed partly through the video. But he lent me his phone and promised to forward me the video.

For my evening meal I had grilled chicken and chips.

Another thing I've lucked into at StabCon is offering a Horror game Saturday evening. Now I am NOT a natural horror referee (or player). I have written two good horror scenarios in my life. (But they are really, really good, I think.)  However, I've run them both at StabCon. Last time I ran a great scenario from "The Three Faces of the Wendigo" by Paul Baldowski.

This time I decided to offer a scenario which was given away FREE in the programme for the DragonMeet convention in December 2018. Classic 1930's Cthulhu-type adventure between the Wars in London. (I told the players it was being filmed in black and white.) A "not Miss Marple at all" type with her friends, servants and associates. We had a Russian mercenary and Oriental manservant who dodged all the unfortunate stereotypes and were played perfectly for 21st century sensibilities.

The scenario ran extremely well (thanks DragonMeet) but was more of a romp than being really scarey. I'd feared it may run short (it WAS a freebie after all) but in the end I had to rush the conclusion. Great fun with great players.

Again my phone messed up any videoing.

Sunday morning I have a regular Superhero campaign. This was the second chapter.

One of my players from the horror game the previous night. turned up with a proper video camera. Tripod and everything. So we we able to record an intro to the game, the players and their characters. Somehow being filmed "properly" made everyone nervous - me included.

 The Heroes' (retired) mentors were being framed for murder. The first session had ended with the characters apparently tracking down their mentors and being told told to mind their own business. Two had inveigled their way into the senior team's investigations and the rest had been left "tidying up", effectively splitting the party. (I'd also failed to keep detailed notes.)

This session started with a bang. The Heroes who'd been "left behind" turned up with another version of the senior team claiming their comrades had been tricked by a group of robot doubles. Imagine a "Justice League vs. Justice League" battle with the characters caught in the middle. When the pursuing characters side won, I informed them they'd been playing robot doubles themselves all to time and they'd just helped defeat and capture the real "Crusaders" and their own team-mates.

The robots then descended upon the real player characters - who were still busy packing boxes - and defeated them. Most of the Heroes were captured, of course, which was my plan all along. One teleported across the world to get help only to find the Superhero teams in America and Canada tied up with their own problems.

Of course, the evil villain behind the plot was revealed as being one of the player characters all along, who happened to be a robot himself. So he'd played an evil robot duplicate of a good robot at the start of the session, who actually turned out to be an evil robot halfway through, only to be revealed as a good robot reprogrammed by aliens by the end.

The final session was an escape from the "villain's" lair which culminated in "Elsa" (weather powers) using the bad guy's own force field to turn the entire building into a Snow Globe - revealing the secret hole in the field.

Of course the game ended with the Aliens - having brought down Superhero teams across the globe - choosing to invade.

Next time the heroes will have to free their reprogrammed colleague and somehow foil the invasion.

Lunch was the last of the sandwiches at the bar. The hotel seemed to be running out of stock. It being Sunday lunchtime this means they probably prepared just about the right amount for the convention.

As always, I immediately signed up for the next StabCon. Most people do. However, rather than staying for an afternoon game, I chose to depart. I'd had enough. In a good way. It had been another wonderful experience.

In case you're not clear. I LOVE this convention. It's like being part of a big family.

My takeaway from Winter StabCon 2019 is that I need to get my iPhone sorted out if I went to do a lot of videoing. But the players at the convention come out extremely well when I video them, so the channel seems to be a good idea.

Of course, when I got back to work the following week, all of my students had found about about my YouTube channel. THAT was an interesting experience!