Saturday 4th October 2025
Concrete Cow is a small but perfectly formed one day convention in Wolverton, near Milton Keynes. It runs twice a year - in March and October. It is the convention I've probably written and blogged about more than any other. It was the one I visited last before COVID derailed my convention going habit. So a lot of this report is going to be a repeat of what I've posted many times before.
Before the event
The convention has an informative and very useful web-site. This makes it clear that you don't have to submit or sign up to games in advance of the day. No preplanning is necessary. You can decide everything on the day.
However, many Referees choose to send in details of the games they intend to run so they can be posted on the web-site. This helps to promote the event and may help attract players to their game. Games tend to be newer or "indie". Often people will playtest their new games at the convention. I've been doing that for decades.
Before this year's event I made two decisions.
The first was to attend for just two sessions. The convention has three game sessions - Morning, Afternoon and Evening. If I stay for the evening game, it finishes too late to catch a train back to Birmingham and I have to pay for an evening at a hotel. Much as I'd like to, that's too expensive for one four hour game session.
The second was to submit, in advance, the details of the games I intended to offer. Looking at the great games other people were posting, I worried that I'd miss out getting players for my games if I didn't compete. So I sent in details of a play test of my forthcoming horror game - the scenario about issues with a historical brewery re-opening. Plus a scenario based on a recently streamed TV series set in the Alien franchise.
All that was left to do was prepare my game materials and book my train ticket. Despite my issues five years ago, I decided to book an open return so I could choose my travel times on the day. Now I'm familiar with the travel again, I may switch to advance singles for the event in March 2026 for a saving of about £8.
After booking the ticket an old friend contacted me via Facebook to offer me a lift. Checking my blog, this happened 5 years ago. Maybe I'll remember next March and not have to pay for a train at all.
In the morning
Despite booking an open return, I ended up on the exact train I always seem to travel on. The friend I always used to travel with was on the same train but we missed each other until we got off. Apparently in my previous blogs I'd posted about needing the journey time to finish my preparation and he was trying to give me space. Good man! (I didn't need it this year but I appreciated the thought.)
There is a short walk from the train station to the venue. Exactly the same walk I’ve taken so many time before. The years just fell away. We arrived shortly after 9am. There was a sign on the door but it wasn't open yet. So I nipped to the large Tesco conveniently sited right next door to grab a cheap packet of biscuits. By the time I returned, the door was open.
Concrete Cow takes place in a large, clean,bright community centre. There is a central hall - with a kitchen - and smaller rooms off. In the main hall a trader - the wonderful ubiquitous Leisure Games - was set up and a table where you sign in. It costs £5. Cash but there is an option to use PayPal. You get given a raffle (or tombola - I didn't check) ticket. As I was hoping to Referee games, I didn't need it. You also write your name on a sticky label to stick on your top. If you've got sign up sheets you hand them in. There's a pile of blank ones if you need to write one on the day.
The morning sheets are laid out on the table to allow people to peruse the available games. I noticed another prospective Referee had claimed a table and laid out their pregenerated character sheets, so I did the same. (A mistake as it turned out.)
Shortly before 10am, an organiser welcomed everyone and explained the sign up system. The digits from zero to nine had been arranged in a random order. Each was called in turn from that list. As each was called, people with that digit as the last one on their ticket came up to pick their games and sign up. This reduces crowding seen at other events, with only 1/10 of the attendees signing up at any given time. In order to be fair, the order is reversed for the afternoon games. If you're in the last group called up in the morning, you'll be first in the afternoon.
It works really well. The system wouldn't work for a larger event but for a boutique convention like Concrete Cow it's excellent.
By the end of the sign ups, some games had a full table of players, some had none and some - like mine - had only one player signed up. So I yielded my table to a Referee who had attracted enough players.
There were two games which individually didn't have enough players to run but which, between them, had enough players to run one game - if you included the displaced Referees. I tried to get everyone to sign up for my game but eventually relented and suggested everyone play in the other Referee's.
Disappointed as I was at not Refereeing my own game, I was pleased with the game I was in. A younger man (they're all younger than me these days) playtesting a system of his own design. In the early days of the Holy Roman Empire, Christianity has dispatched Magic and Monsters. So when Monsters turn up, the authorities have to send magically gifted individuals to track, identify and deal wth them - whilst denying the very existence of those Monsters, Magic and Adventurers.
A well researched game with some interesting features. During a break I nipped to be kitchen to make myself a coffee using the freely provided resources. (Hence my cheap packet of biscuits.)
The game came to a very satisfying climax with the meticulously researched werewolf-type demon dispatched in brutal fashion in a busy market square.
The morning session is three and a half hours, running from 10:00am to 1:30pm.
During the lunch break I went next door to Tesco to get a meal deal. There are many many food outlets on the road outside the community centre but I couldn't bring myself to smell out the venue with Pizza or Fish and Chips.
In the afternoon
Following my morning hubris, I didn't lay out my pregens for my afternoon game. This was my game based on the recent Alien: Earth streaming series. I'd run a short version of this at Tabletop Scotland as part of Games on Demand and it had worked. This was a full scenario.
Four players signed up for it and a fifth - one of the convention organisers - joined in.
This was a blast. The characters in the actual TV series are infamously incompetent. My players were experienced role-players who were both fun and supremely competent. But my system is so swingy and full of criticals that nothing was ever certain.
The afternoon session is four hours. 2:30pm to 6:30pm. I aimed to be finished by 6pm but it was well past that time when we wrapped up.
I didn't stay for the raffle. (I hate raffles at conventions. I understand why they exist and appreciate the good they do but they're not for me.) I thanked the organisers and left in good time to catch my train back to Birmingham.
Summary
Concrete Cow has been running successfully for decades. The organisation is now smooth and seamless. It is a really comfortable and friendly convention with excellent players, referees and organisers. Definitely tends towards Indie games and is a great place to test things out.
I was disappointed to see that the attendance wasn't massive. Nearer 50 people than 100. I can't think of a better, easier, day out.
Costs:
Train ticket - open return with Senior Railcard: £27.50
Entry: £5
Total £32.50
Hours of play: 7.5
Cost per hour: £4.33
Cost of a pint of Lager: n/a (but there's Tesco next door and nice pub over the road.)
Sent from my iPad
