LongCon - Garrison Hotel Sheffield Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th June 2026
1. Why I Went
LongCon is a “Garricon” - one of a series of conventions organised by the same group and hosted at The Garrison Hotel in Sheffield. You’ll have seen reports on these previously in this blog. The venue is a good one and the conventions are supremely well organised.
Apart from their major convention - Furnace in October - these conventions are themed. The conceit of LongCon is that players sign up for a single game which lasts for the entire weekend.
I refereed at LongCon many years ago. I found the challenge of refereeing a two-day game was one which didn’t completely suit my skill set. But playing in one long game is something I found appealing, I know the venue and organisation is excellent and the choice of games on offer was amazing.
2. The Shape of the Convention
As with all Garricons the event is clearly sign-posted on a clear web-site with pre-convention communications through a range of social media platforms.
At a set date, people are asked to submit games they wish to run. These are rather fewer than at some events because many referees - like me - are unable to run these games and many players are unwilling to commit.
If you sign up to play a game at a convention and find you have an issue - with referee, other players, the game system etc - you only have to play for fours hours at the most. At the worst, you can withdraw without it being a major disruption to your weekend.
I estimate there were about half a dozen games in play over the weekend.
The games are promoted. Attendees are asked to send in their first, second and third choices. Obviously some of the games are going to be extremely popular.
At a previous event I’d bumped into someone who was considering coming to LongCon but was only interested in playing in one particular game. I introduced him to one of the organisers who explained that if he didn’t get into the game he wanted he could withdraw and his convention fee would be refunded.
Personally I’d advise people to be flexible. I didn’t see a single game I wouldn’t be happy to play in.
After preferences were submitted the organisers allocated people to games. If games were over-subscribed, a randomiser was used to select who got into it. Everyone trusts the organisers. They’ve been doing this for years.
With a whole weekend to play in, it is possible to do character generation at the event. Many referees, though, prefer to know their players' characters in advance.
There was an extremely interesting superhero game I was interested in but the referee wanted to do the character generation and world building via video conference. He was up front about it in his game description. This is not something I enjoy so I didn’t select it.
As it turned out, I got into a great little historical swash-buckling game. Then it turned out my referee wanted to do character generation in advance via Discord. I hadn’t been prepared for that but he handled it very well.
When you get to the event, you go to your allocated play area to meet the other players and your referee and start playing. There is the usual drinks laid on but there is no other organisation. No set time slots. No other events. No speeches. You’re aware peripherally of other games being played but there is no crossover. Even during breaks you tend to stay with your own group.
Your game ends Sunday tea-time and you say goodbye to your playing group and go home.
3. Games Played and Games Run
I played one game all weekend. It was a game of Swashbuckler being refereed by its author.
As I said above, my character was created via Discord prior to the event. The conceit of the game is that our characters had all been framed for crimes they hadn’t committed and were being transported to the colonies as punishment - in our case the West Indies. I saw one of the possible suggested crimes as embezzlement and created a bookish little accountant type.
Saturday Morning
Our referee was extremely keen and asked us all to start the game at 9:30 Saturday morning. Even though I was travelling from Birmingham, I was easily able to make that time. (It just meant eating breakfast in Birmingham rather than Sheffield.)
There were three other players in our game. Two were a couple I knew well from other conventions.
Alongside my bookish accountant there was a West Country smuggler, the young widow of a disgraced naval captain and her friend and protector.
We spent the morning role-playing the journey from Britain to the West Indies aboard the HMS Terror. Amongst other things, we had to deal with a sadistic bosun and a bully amongst our fellow convicts. I was surprised to find my bookish little accountant standing up to both of them. I arranged for the bosun to catch the bully in the act, leading to him being flogged.
Mainly due to some lockpicks our smuggler friend had sneaked aboard, we were able to remove our manacles and creep around the ship. We found the Captain had a list with all of our names on. Though we had access to the magazine and could have blown the ship up the other players wanted to be a bit more cautious.
What we did was sabotage the ship’s water supply causing the ship to stop off in Antigua rather than its intended destination of Jamaica. Whilst there we released all the prisoners and fomented a riot and an escape - during which the bully took revenge on the bosun.
Whilst the freed convicts ran riot across the island, leading the authorities a merry dance, we went straight to the home of the Governor of the island. It turned out our female comrade was his estranged daughter! We stole a horse, rode across the island and stole a small skiff.
Saturday Afternoon
Before the afternoon session we were able to improve our characters. This is one of the benefits of LongCon - to actually get to use the character improvement parts of the rules and your characters develop across the weekend.
In the morning we’d played in one of the Garrison cells. These are actual Napoleonic cells and were not built for prisoners’ comfort. We were in a the middle of a heatwave and despite mitigations - multiple fans, water-soaked cloths etc - it was beginning to feel uncomfortable so we moved out onto the balcony which was much more pleasant.
After a short stop off at the pirate island of Tortuga we set off for our original destination of Jamaica. Why? Because it turned out the man who had had our friend's husband hanged had been given the Governorship of the island as a reward.
We were not yet ready to exact our comrade’s revenge upon him but we broke into his mansion and discovered evidence that he was involved in some sort of plot with a nearby Spanish governor. We didn’t know what exactly. We could see that he was recruiting young men to train as soldiers for some kind of expedition.
At this time, Spain was Britain’s mortal enemy. This whole scenario was based upon some fiendishly clever historical research and we were given lots of information and given loads of maps of the various islands - most of which went right over my head, I’m sorry to say. I was just there to role-play. But other, more astute, players seemed to really enjoy it.
We had a letter from the Spanish governor but we needed a matching letter from that governor to crack the cypher and reveal the plot.
Saturday Evening
As it started to rain and the evening cooled down, we moved back into the cell.
We had another session of character improvement.
Through clever play we managed to penetrate the Spanish island (whose name I forgot) and steal a mass of incriminating documents from its governor. As well as traitorous Britons, and the Spanish, the plot against Queen Anne also seemed to involve the Dutch, the French and the Vatican. In fact, there was a Cardinal operating out of a monastery nearby who seemed to be coordinating things. He was known as the Pope’s “enforcer”, his monks carried broadswords and the monastery was built atop a rocky islet. Locals who weren’t devout were taken there to be interrogated. It seemed to contain a version of the Spanish Inquisition.
Also, it was impossible to break into, defended by over a hundred well-armed monks and no one that went in ever came out. We needed to get in to discover exactly what the plot was.
That was how the game ended for Saturday.
It had been an extremely good day. Our characters had escaped and travelled the West Indies to uncover a nefarious lot. Somehow through clever play we’d overcome some massive challenges. In conversation with the referee I had to reassure him that things were going well because we hadn’t had much of the swashbuckling, swinging on chandeliers etc that he’d promised. We had just played very cleverly. But we’d enjoyed that.
Sunday Morning
We again started at 9:30. There was a further session of character improvement.
So we had to somehow penetrate an impenetrable fortress monastery - that looked like something out of a James Bond film - find the evidence of an evil plot and get out alive.
Over the morning, we did that. We also rescued all of the prisoners interred there. And set gunpowder charges beneath in its foundations and brought the whole place down.
Then we returned to Jamaica where HMS Terror had just arrived. We kidnapped the Governor, released the pirates in its hold that were due to be transported to Britain for show trials and executions and seized the ship. Crewed by grateful torture victims and pirates - and with the architect of our comrade’s misfortunes in the hold to suffer as we’d suffered - we set sail for Britain only slightly ahead of the fleet of newly recruited soldiers who were going to join the French, Spanish and Dutch in invading our homeland.
Various non-player characters we’d encountered on our journey formed part of the crew. A lady transported for practising medicine for example.
And the original bully from the ship's hold was now our bosun.
On the way back my character went through all the captured documents to discover we hadn’t cut the head off the snake. The real villain was the Chancellor. He’d been placing his own people in key military positions and sending loyal troops and ships on missions away from home. He'd arranged for invading forces from various other countries to attack at the same time from myriad directions. His intent was to force Queen Anne to abdicate and negate the Act of Settlement so that the Catholic pretender, James, could take the throne. As I said, some fiendish level historical research.
In Britain we put in at Poole where our smuggler friend took revenge on his enemy. We foiled that part of the invasion by moving the signal beacons to cause the ships to crash on the rocks.
We took horses to ride to London, that being faster than sailing along the south coast.
Talking to our referee, he was a lot happier. We were role-playing more broadly and heroically. This is because our characters had improved. Most of the other players had improved their characters’ abilities to perform spectacular stunts and I’d put points into making inspiring speeches and encouraging pirates to follow in our adventures.
Sunday Afternoon
We stopped off on our way to London to beard my nemesis in his lair.
This was magnificent! I told my friends to do whatever they wanted, banged on the gatehouse door and demanded to be taken to see the master of the house. No weapons. No plan. I just marched straight into his drawing room where he was surrounded by half a dozen armed thugs. I just read the riot act to him until he got bored and ordered his men to gun me down. I just ducked out of sight as my friends emerged to swashbuckle their way through the lot of them.
Then to London, too late to stop the invasion. There was fighting on the streets and the Chancellor had already advised the Queen to retire to Hampton Court for her own safety.
Using historical documents we sneaked our way into the palace. Swinging down from a minstrel’s gallery we disrupted the forced abdication and saved the Queen. Hurrah!
The fates of our characters were decided and narrated. My character went into politics.
On my way out I passed some of the other attendees in the bar and stopped to have a drink with them. Unusual for me, but I felt so good.
4. Play Reflections
Swashbuckler is a very sound game. Nothing very innovative, but it has all the levers you need to emulate swashbuckling pirate adventures or similar.
The referee had meticulously researched the historical period, produced myriad maps and handouts and constructed a compelling adventure. He refereed for a whole weekend competently and well without at any time going over the top.
We had created fairly standard player characters. A smuggler, an academic, a sailor and a Governor’s wayward daughter. None of us put in an over-the-top portrayal. We just role-played.
But the whole game was just magical. I’m sure my write-up above doesn’t communicate to you the feelings we had playing it. To have the time to inhabit the characters and watch them grow. Playing through characters and story arcs. You don’t get that at other conventions. Even in home games it takes much longer.
To get the chance to play in a twenty hour mini-campaign across two days is like binging a streaming TV series. It’s a heady experience.
5. Cost, Time, and Value
Convention Ticket: £30
Travel: £22.69
Accommodation: £95*
Total: £147.69
Hours of play: 20
Cost per hour: £7.38
The Garrison Hotel offers a standard rate for convention attendees of £95 per night. This is much lower than they, and other nearby hotels, would usually charge on a busy Saturday night. This also includes breakfast.
I didn’t stay at the Garrison Hotel this time. I have discovered an economy hotel in the city centre which is sometimes cheaper. But not always, especially when you take the cost of breakfast into account. With surge pricing even the cheaper hotels can charge more than The Garrison on some Saturday nights. Always compare the prices and always book early.
I’ve discovered that Sheffield train station, the Garrison and my cheap hotel are all on the same tram route which is free with my senior travel pass. This has made travelling to Garricons a lot easier for me and saved me paying for taxis as I have been doing for years.
6. What I Took Away
I enjoyed LongCon a lot. For a short time I pondered if I should offer to referee a game next year. However, the last time I tried I found the experience stressful and I rapidly told myself not to be silly.
I’ll certainly be back next year, as a player. I really don’t care what the game is, who the referee is and who the other players are. It’s the time that makes the difference and makes this convention so unforgettable. LongCon delivers an experience you simply don’t get anywhere else.
Maybe one more year as a player and then consider refereeing a long game in 2028?
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