LEEDS STEAMPUNK MARKET 7th/8th December 2019

LEEDS STEAMPUNK MARKET 7th/8th December 2019

As you know, over the past couple of years I’ve started to fill in my slate of convention-going by going to non-Gaming geek/nerd events. I offer to run short demonstration TTRPG scenarios to introduce people to this wonderful hobby

Some of my best and worst experiences have been at Steampunk conventions. Best because Steampunks are remarkably splendid people. It’s something they pride themselves on. Also, many Steampunks put a lot of effort into creating a Steampunk “persona” - which is not dissimilar to creating a TTRPG character. Worst because the events are rammed with things for them to do and many people simply don’t have time to sit down for a game.

And I’ve come to love the two worlds I run Steampunk games in. My own alt-Victorian British Commonwealth setting and Martin Pickett’s Victorian Colony of Mars.

A few weeks ago I was sent an email by the Organisers of the Leeds Steampunk market. I’d written to them previously offering games but their events had never matched a gap in my diary. This time, however, it slotted neatly into the pre-Christmas convention drought. (There’s never anything between Dragonmeet and the New Year.)

It wasn't addressed to me personally but was a general mailing. Rather than feeling slighted this actually pleased me. It meant that Steampunk organisers are now proactively thinking about offering games at their events. AND that they have a list of people to approach to offer them. Looks like we're going mainstream. (Steam-stream?)

For some reason the event wasn't actually in Leeds but had been moved to Castleford, a place I was completely unfamiliar with. I found cheap accommodation and booked a train. Luckily I could travel up Saturday morning and save paying for Friday night lodgings.

The event was a two day one but had nothing happening in the evening. As usual when this happens I looked around for a venue to offer a game in the evening if I could find players, but nothing leapt out at me. I did have one pub recommended to me, so I kept it in my back pocket just in case.

I did some minor promotion through the event's FaceBook page but - to be honest - most of my focus was on Dragonmeet and I didn't do as much as I usually do.

So I got up early Saturday morning and set off. Because I just can't trust the buses early Saturday morning in Birmingham, I got a taxi into the city. This got me to New Street station early enough to catch an earlier train. However, after I'd boarded, I checked my new route only to find it included a 46 minute walk between stations in Wakefield! I quickly got off and waited for my pre-arranged train.

Everything was fine until we got to Sheffield where I was due to change trains. Then -as it so often does - the UK train system imploded. For the longest time there were no trains out of Sheffield and - when there were - none seemed to go to Castleford. Luckily I was looked after by a very helpful young man won told me - eventually - to just get onto a train to Barnsley and to get off there to look for a connection to Castleford. After this safari around the North of England, I was over an hour and half late getting to the event.

But, and I can't stress this enough, because I'm a professional and build in buffer time I was still there before the event opened.

The venue was an old water mill. The biggest stone ground mill in the world? It's on a weir and the view out of the windows are stunning. It's been partially refurbished as a multi-use venue and is full of amazing spaces with oak beams, girders and many huge iron features. The games room was on the top floor but there was a lift. It was large, light and airy. A perfect place to play. I found most of the tables were already taken over by a young couple offering board games. I'd worked with them before at the Fantasticon SciFi convention.

There was also a table in the room reserved for the "Coffee Jousting". I was aware that many Steampunk Events had "Tea Duelling" but this was first experience of this version. Apparently Tea Duelling has evolved and there is now a National Governing body which only register victories from officially affiliated events. Hence this iteration, whose rules were totally totally different but just as complicated and were informed by the same ethos.

We waited. And waited. I'm used to things being slow at Steampunk events. In fact my morning spiel normally tells people to look around and come back to play a game when they want to rest their feet because we have the chairs!

However, this was even slower than usual. The event opened at 11:00 am but it was 11:48 before the first people even found the room and they didn't stay very long. We were on the top floor, it turned out, at the top of a secondary staircase. In fact when I popped out for a drink and something to eat (the Mill has an exceptional tea shop - and bar - attached to it) I couldn't find my way back our room. The door to our staircase was very obscure.

Eventually a family of three - mum, dad and son - accompanied by the son's friend, sat down to play. The dad was a TTRPG referee in his own right and I was mainly interested in showing his wife what the hobby was all about. We were joined by the son of one of the traders and I ran a game of the "The Occidental Express".

This is one of those scenarios which  started off as a title suggested by someone on an online forum which is rapidly developing a life of its own. Five huge Steam-liners joined together to make a single huge ocean train. What could possible go wrong?

Luckily the game was a hoot - literally. (I wasn't expecting the extremely vicious Owl that popped in to guest star.) The kids seemed more interested in robbing the casino than solving the mystery. The dad - who was like a hyperactive kid himself - went full noir private eye. Whilst the mum sighed, rolled her eyes, and did all the sensible stuff. The game coincided with the coffee jousting and may have been so loud that it interfered with that. But I didn't really care, I was having so much fun.

But that was literally the only game I ran all day. The board games seemed to get very little interest as well. Whilst tweeting about it, I was invited to an event in Leeds the following day and began to make arrangements to jump ship.

However, at the end of the day, and unprompted, the organisers moved us to a room on the main staircase lower down where we'd get more passing trade. So I decided to give the event another chance on Sunday.

Though I remembered to pack my Top Hat away, I forgot about the waistcoat and bow tie. So I checked into my accommodation (a "salt of the earth" type pub) and walked the streets of Castleford to an nearby ("salt of the earth") Fish Restaurant still wearing them! I must have looked a real sight!

Sunday morning was a revelation. The sub £30 room came with included continental breakfast - hot being a bit extra. I was considering buying the hot breakfast to fill up but the morning staff at the pub made the cold offering as good as anything you'd find in a four star hotel. The fruits looked individually polished.  I filled my boots and was VERY happy.

The Sunday room was smaller but busier. We got more passing trade. There was a close-up magician who was so good he made my brain hurt. I had to tell him to go away. What he was doing was literally impossible.

I ran three games of The Black Hack. Most of my clientele were children accompanied by a smaller number of adults. Some stayed on for more than one game. It was lucky I've now got three totally different demonstration scenarios. My favourite punter was a granny who was looking for a game to play with her grand-children at Christmas. Though I was able to show her the principles of TTRPGs, I wasn't able to recommend an out-of-the-box game which would do the job in the same way that Monopoly used to. I need to do some research there.

At the end of the day, I checked the trains and the system had imploded again. I set off a bit early on a wing and a prayer - heading in the wrong direction - via Leeds and managed to connect with a delayed train home. In fact I ended up getting home earlier than I'd planned.

This event was an end of the year poser for me. Going to conventions costs money, time and effort. I need to look at the costs and benefits. I ended up with four one hour games over a weekend, which I'd call a net loss. Sometimes - like when I ran games at The Town That Never Was Steampunk event - I'd call it a Loss Leader, making contacts and preparing the ground for a more successful year next year. However, before I do a Steampunk MARKET again (as opposed to a Convention) I think I'd have to insist on having a highly visible place near the front of the event.

I'd always recommend visiting a Steampunk event. They are lovely welcoming places full of splendid people. What ComiCons should be but too often aren't. But they aren't all set up to make the best use of somebody like me.

Dragonmeet 2019

Dragonmeet 2019 - Saturday 30th November - Hammersmith, London

TLDR - A massive pre-Christmas all-you-can eat buffet of a convention. Too much to fit into a single day. Whatever you’re looking for you’ll find it here.

Dragonmeet has been going for years. As the big analogue gaming event in the nation’s capital you’d expect it to be one of the country’s premiere events. Though it has always been good, it has had trouble in the past living up to it’s potential - in my humble opinion.

Recent years have seen an upturn with it moving to bigger and bigger venues and expanding its size and the breadth of what it offers. This hasn’t always been an easy process. Though the 2018 event was large and successful, the event outgrew traditional paper-based game booking systems, for example, with some unfortunate consequences.

But the current organisers pressed on. The same venue - a huge convention hotel in Hammersmith London - was used again but with far more space booked. The convention was advertised months in advance and referees were asked to submit games.

Though the convention caters for all manner of “analogue” (non-computer) games, this blog only concerns itself with #TTRPGS and these come in several different packages at Dragonmeet. There are living world games prebooked and organised by their respective societies. Traders selling and demonstrating their games - and all the new and latest games can be found here. Then there is a wonderful “Games on Demand Room” where you can drop in to play 2 hour games, with new games starting every hour. Of course there’s lots of open gaming space and people come and set up ad hoc games. Finally - and of most interest to me - there’s the organised track of 4 hour games.

For this latter we were asked to submit games months in advance. This always gives me some pause because I always worry that my tastes may change before the day. So I left it until the last minute - mere weeks before the day - and submitted a Steampunk game for the morning, a Star Trek Game for the afternoon and a quirky game based on a Channel 4 comedy series in the evening. My games were advertised on the web-site. I was a bit put out by the number and quality of other games on offer and wondered if I’d even get any players.

If you offer to run games, you get free entry to the convention - so it’s well worth offering to run one game session as you’re left with plenty of time to experience everything else.

Then, as the convention neared, the organisers announced they were introducing an electronic prebooking system for #TTRPGS. This is pretty typical to be honest. Dragonmeet is like an Iceberg with 90% of the work and preparation going on behind the scenes - out of sight. Things are only announced when they’re finalised. Often quite late in the day.

To prevent people booking games and then not turning up to play - a problem with pre-booking systems and some #TTRPG players - there was a nominal £2 charge per ticket - on top of entry to the convention - but this money was donated to charity.

Then we had the pre-convention fun of checking our games to see if we had any bookings. My Star Trek game booked out almost immediately. My Steampunk game was slower. My quirky evening game gained no traction, but I’d half expected that. (My evening game hadn’t run in 2018.)

Days before the event communications boosted at all levels. PDFs of the - impressive - programme were emailed to all attendees and Game Referees received clear instructions.

One of the drawbacks of Dragonmeet is that it is a full day in London near Christmas. If you want to stay to the end, you either need to be local or book overnight accommodation which is pretty expensive. (Though convenient, staying at the convention hotel is costly.) To be honest, I’d resigned myself to Dragonmeet being a one short one-day event for me - travelling down in the morning and back home later, missing the evening session, most years. But the British railway system spoilt even that, with me often being delayed by late trains. (This year there was an actual Train Strike on the day of the event!) Luckily in recent years and in return for a couple of favours I’ve had people kindly offer to put me up in London, so I can travel down Friday evening and back on Sunday - enjoying the whole Dragonmeet day.

If you can only get there for morning and afternoon sessions, the event is still amazing but if you CAN stay for the whole thing, it’s even better.

Hammersmith is easy to get to from anywhere in London. I heard of people booking cheaper accommodation elsewhere in the city and travelling to and from the con on public transport options they’d researched, so you don’t even have to stay particularly nearby. The nearby shopping precinct above the underground station has lots of great places to grab a bite to eat. 

Not having to rush down, I booked a cheaper train for Friday evening and had a pleasant and relaxed journey and pre-convention night with my acquaintances. I rose early Saturday morning, grabbed breakfast, bought some comestibles from a nearby supermarket and went to the venue well before opening time. As a Referee I was let in early and was able to find my gaming room and select and set up a table. From my point of view everything seemed well organised.

I had some time to browse the two trade halls and other offerings. This included the excellent programme - which includes #TTRPG scenarios and a Space Whale Game. Nome of these were needed but they were great inclusions.

I was surprised how many traders had seemed to leave setting up until the morning of the event. However, I suppose they also want to avoid the London accommodation costs and travel to and from the venue in a single day. It must be hard work for them (but profitable).

Apart from the two trade halls - which seem to sell everything anyone could want (and more) - and all the gaming I listed above, Dragonmeet also has a massive bring and buy area, an excellent  programme of seminars, a podcast zone - where listeners and broadcasters can meet - and is the big annual industry meet up. Anyone who is anyone is there - somewhere.

And this is another issue with the event - there’s simply too much for any one person to do. You have to carefully plan your day and - even then - you’ll probably have to miss out something you wanted to do. I don’t see how anyone could claim they’re not getting their money’s worth.

In a cunning bit of planning, doors open for #TTRPG players at 9:00am, aiming to have games starting by 9:30am. The trade halls don’t open until 10:00am. Thousands of people come to the convention and this smart idea staggers the opening, reducing the queues - a bit.

Any games which are fully prebooked or which have only once space left are considered full. Any games with two or more spaces spare have written sign-up sheets which punters can sign into on the day. These one the day sign ups are free.

This is the first year of the electronic pre-booking system and it is excellent. It certainly ameliorated all the issues with having hundreds of people trying to sign into games on the day. However, I hope in a future upgrade they’re able to produce more attractive on-the-day signup sheets. 

Gaming takes place in conference rooms on the floor above the trade halls. Tables in each room are left free so games don’t encroach on each other. In fact some referees chose to push tables together to make larger tables for their games. I like to keep my tables small and intimate. But they needed room for all the gaming bling they’d brought - which, I’ll admit, slightly intimidated me. I may need to up my game a bit in future years to compete.

As I’ve said, my first game was Steampunk. This was an expansion of a one hour demonstration which I’d taken round Steampunk conventions in 2019 which had begun to develop a mind of its own. Giant Drill, Hollow Earth, Dinosaurs. You know the kind of thing. Great players, great fun. Oddly for me I over-ran into lunchtime. However as the lunch break at Dragonmeet is now two hours that was no problem.

For lunch you have the option of eating in the hotel - expensive but high quality - nipping out to one of the nearby hostelries or snacking on your own smuggled in goodies. (Remember my visit to the Supermarket earlier on?)

I then had a full 90 minutes to tour the trade halls, chat to friends, visit the podcast zone etc. (I resisted the urge to tell them who I was and trying to get them to interview me.) This was enough time to remind me that my “thing” is refereeing games and all of the other convention stuff just doesn’t interest me. 

My afternoon Star Trek game was great. Players just turned up, picked their characters and we had a great time. Uhuru and Sulu were a bit more proactive than usual. Kirk seemed a bit bewildered. Scotty and Spock were both spot on. In fact Spock was so effective that I had great fun reining him in by having a female Vulcan scientist outranking him in every field and questioning his logic. (Of course she turned out to be a Romulan spy and revenge was sweet.)

The break between the afternoon and evening games was shorter than at lunchtime. The trade halls close in the evening and most people seem to leave then to go home or go out socialising in the big city. My plan was find a game which needed an extra player and join in.

For speed I chose to eat in the hotel. There was a buffet which was a bit pricey (£18) but was proper restaurant food and the gamer-friendly all you can pile on your plate idea appealed to me. I also enjoyed a pint of lager. Whilst hotel prices - £5 isn’t bad for London and is still cheaper than UK Games Expo. (Which being in Birmingham should be cheaper.)

I then waited around the signup sheets seeing which games needed a player. When there were a handful of us in the same boat I cheekily offered them a Steampunk game - and ended up with a 5 player game! I ran my classic Missing Dinosaur game and it delivered as always. Though this bunch didn’t choose to turn the mad scientist in to the authorities, instead electing to seize his crazy inventions for their own commercial ends. Great fun though.

Then back to my accommodation and an early journey home on Sunday.

Ten different people visiting Dragonmeet would have ten different days out, all good. The expansion in size and electronic booking system for games seem to have made it even better. On a personal note, finding ways to do the whole day cost effectively has transformed my approach to and view of the event. It’s more relaxed and less rushed.

It’s an essential part of most people’s calendar and one they look forward to. Though a great event to arrive at ad hoc, it’s best enjoyed with some careful and cunning pre-planning.