The Town that Never Was - 22nd-23rd June 2019

The Town that Never Was - 22nd and 23rd June 2019


As well as going to lots of games conventions, I keep my eye out for other "hobby" conventions. I like to take my "Choose Your Adventure" set-up of short (typically one hour) TTRPGS demonstration games. This is a wonderful hobby, but you need to try it out to see what it's really like.


A couple of weeks ago, I came across a Steampunk event called "The Town that Never Was'", due be held very shortly.


This piqued my interest for several reasons. Firstly, it's a Steampunk convention. Steampunk is a term whose definition is firmly equivocated by its advocates. More of a mood than a genre. Not quite a re-enactment society for a History that Never Was. It usually involves ornate dressing up and there are lots of pith helmets, goggles, bustles and the occasional feather. Personally I love the alt-history redolent of H G Wells and Jules Verne element of the hobby and have always found Steampunks to be entirely splendid people.


Then there was the fact that the event was organised by "The Ministry of Steampunk" who had organised the wonderful "Asylum" event I'd sampled in 2018 - and to which I'm returning in 2019.  So I knew it was going to be well organised.


And it was being held at the reproduction Victorian village at Ironbridge Gorge. The perfect setting and somewhere I'd never visited. Apparently this was the third time the event had been held there.


Finally the theme was "The War of the Worlds" - specifically a world just after the Martian defeat.


This was all like catnip to me! So I dropped the organisers a line offering my games. Their initial response was that there was no space left. Hardly surprising! However, a day or two later they got back in touch to tell me they'd found an office for me - next to "The Martian Expeditionary Force".


A quick bit of research found that this was a Steampunk group whose conceit was that they were trying to recruit people for a free trip TO Mars (nothing being said about the return journey) and, failing that, to get people to donate their various germs and ailments. So I swapped a couple of emails with their leader and he agreed that my office could be called their Training Department. So I came up with a short scenario based upon their conceit which he approved of.


As with the Asylum event, there were the large daytime events with a separate, smaller, tightly ticketed, evening event for an additional charge. These are music/dancing type shows and didn't interest me, personally. The museum is in Telford, only about an hour's train journey from Birmingham, so I decided my most cost effective option was to travel to and from the event each day, coming home to rest on the Saturday night. Much cheaper than staying at a local hotel.


The doors opened to visitors at 10:00am, though I noted my games were on the programme due to start at 11:00am. Doors opened to exhibitors are 8:00am. I chose to arrive at 9:00am, catching a taxi from the station. I caught the waiting Black cab on the way but thereafter rang the local hire car firm which turned out to be literally half the price.


Entry was easy. I had advance directions sending me to the tradesmens' entrance. My name was on the list of exhibitors and I was escorted to my venue. This was in the the "Estate Office" a building which was partially 16th and partially 17th century. The Martian Expeditionary Force were set up in the main hallway - presumably where tenants would, in past times, have brought their grievances or come to settle rent. They had flyers and various artefacts - weaponry, retrofitted Martian technology, sinister specimens in cloudy jars etc.


As expected, they were a thoroughly splendid set of coves and took me through to my office. I must admit it, I had a bit of a shock. It was small and dominated by a large, antique, leather topped desk. Presumably where the actual Estate Manager hung out. There were two chairs, a tiny square table and a massive chest. I couldn't at first see how I could possibly play games in there.


However, the - luckily flat topped - chest could pulled away from the wall and made a perfect playing surface. There was a small bench in the main hallway the MEF weren't using which I commandeered. I brought and old school chair down from the loft and stowed the small table in a corner. My display of available games was set up on the desk and the chest lid left for playing on. (These are antiques I was messing with remember.)


Trade was slow at first. It always is at this sort of convention. There's so much for people to see and do, it's not until they've seen everything and want to rest their legs that they usually come back to sit down to play. As people came into the hall to hear the MEF's spiel, I'd explain what I was offering and bring them into my office for a chat and give them my business card.


Unfortunately things remained slow. There were a cheering number of people who remembered my games from the Asylum, and people both in and out of the hobby with whom, I had some great in depth nerdy chats. But there was just so much on at the event - a fun fair, displays, a mayoral election campaign, music, dancing, trade stall and all the usual features of the village - that no-one could spare the time for a game. The Village was still open to members of the public who were wandering about bemused at walking into the vibrant, colourful Steampunk event. I even explained TTPRGs to them.


Eventually a couple in their 70's said they wanted to try a Star Wars game. As soon as I sat down with them, a family walked in but I only had spaces for four of them. They left, and as soon as they did, the older couple changed their mind. Grrrr.


They day dragged even more because there was literally no mobile phone signal so I was unable to stay in touch with the world via Social Media in the quiet moments.


But eventually a teenage girl and her father came in. She'd heard about TTRPGs (well, D&D) and was intrigued but didn't know how to get started. I sat them down and we began my old standby - Matt Colville's The Delian Tomb run using The Black Hack (1st Ed). As always, as soon as you start playing, people come in. Another older couple joined. It seemed to me that several families came in and out. Suddenly the male in the couple said he had to leave. I think it was something to do with his blood sugar, but his wife assured me he'd be fine and they didn't need any extra help. This left the father and daughter playing two characters apiece but I was able to catch a passing mum with a slightly younger daughter to take over the characters for the final battle.


It was all a bit scrappy but absolutely worth it because it was just what the original teenage girl had been looking for. Everyone seemed to have a good time but she was especially pleased. I gave her some starting advice and suggested her dad get in touch with me (business card) for more help and advice.


Unfortunately, I didn't get any more games on Saturday. The out of the way location of the office, lack of pre-advertising and draw of many, many alternative activities all took their toll. But it had been worth it for just that one game. Anyway, I'm not going to moan because I want to stay in the good books of the Ministry of Steampunk.


After searching around for a signal,I called taxi to the station and headed home to Birmingham.


I was a bit later arriving Sunday morning due to the fact that the British Rail service doesn't start early on a Sunday. Sunday went pretty much the same as Saturday - even with me doing some promotion on FaceBook and putting my banner outside the estate office to attract passersby. But there were loads of in depth nerdy chats with people, again.


Eventually a young mother and her two - very active - primary aged sons came in. The boys were very interested in trying a game. She told them it was what their dad used to play. She told me she thought the younger boy, particularly, wouldn't have the concentration span to play a whole game, but I reassured her we could stop at any time of there was a problem.


Guess what? The Delian Tomb with The Black Hack again. (It's just so perfect.) Great fun with the boys suggesting that their mum's Halfling thief led the way and took the risks. ("You make a noise and run away. When they run after you, we'll jump out on them.") And whenever she had to make a decision, and asked the boys what to do, they insisted she decide for herself.


After about 20 minutes she said they had to go but both boys insisted they stayed, which surprised her. She couldn't believe how invested they were. We were joined by two teenagers and their dad. Not enough spare pregens (or chairs or space) so they dad said he'd watch. (He didn't. He was an ex-D&Der who couldn't resist back seat driving. It was so funny to watch.)


The adventure came to its usual conclusion with the evil Bugbear using the captured children as human shields and the characters refusing to let him go. Cue children rescued but one young boy crippled by a Bugbear mattock.


Everyone was happy, I was happy but the mum seems to have had a revelation seeing her two sons playing like that for an hour. So even though there were no other games that day and the rain started pouring down, I still thought it was worthwhile coming.


Not least because the loft area - which contained the kitchen and toilets for us - also contained an old typewriter of an ornate design I've never seen before - which should be on display in a museum - and massive my old book which turned out to be an 1832 bible. I felt as though I should've been wearing white gloves as I turned the pages.


The Town that Never Was will be back next year. Is it worth coming to play TTRPGs? No. It'll just be me again - though I'll arrange it more in advance now I know and WILL get myself a better spot. But it's worth coming for the event. You get all the usual draws of the Victorian Village plus the benefits of a lively and interactive Steampunk event. If you feel the slightest pull of the bustle or pith helmet, I cannot recommend it highly enough.





UK Games Expo - 31st May - 2nd June 2019

UK Games Expo 31st May - 2nd June 2019

This is “the big one”. The biggest gaming event in the UK and the third biggest in the world. It’s not a TTRPG convention, it covers all sorts of tabletop gaming. In fact the only type of game it doesn’t cover is computer games. (They have enough conventions of their own.)

However, there is a significant amount of TTRPG gaming - 500 sessions in the “organised TTRPG track” alone - with multiple official multi-table TTRPG Tournaments, TTRPG “Games on Demand”, a TTRPG zone just for parents and children and numerous TTRPG demonstration games in the main trade hall. 

The preparation for Expo starts about 6 months in advance. Some people start even earlier than that by booking their accommodation as soon as possible. Cost effective choices sell out fairly early for this particular weekend. However, officially, the call goes out for people to offer TTRPG games they want to Referee about 6 months before the convention. Seems early. Games I feel like Refereeing in January I may be bored by come June. But I understand the necessity. Referees and Games have to be approved and entered onto the Convention Game Booking system. And this has to happen early enough for punters to look at the offerings and get excited about coming.

Expo is a professional convention. As such it has a generous rewards policy for all volunteers, including TTRPG referees. If you offer a game, you get in free. If you offer to run enough games to provide 4 hours of fun for 30 people in total, they put you up in the Hilton hotel for free and even provide you with food.

In the past I’ve prided myself on being an “Iron Referee” at Expo, running 8 games in total across the three days and, even, turning up to offer a game in the open gaming area on the Thursday before the convention.

This year, however, I decided to try and rein in my addiction to Refereeing and try to see some of the rest of the event. So I offered the minimum games required to get maximum rewards - 5 four hour slots for 6 players apiece. 6 players is a lot to referee for but - in my experience - you often get people not turning up.

Then you have the ordeal of deciding what you want to offer. The rewards are earnt as soon as the games are accepted. If you don’t get any players, you still get the rewards. So it isn’t the end of the world if no-one chooses your game. But it still makes you feel a bit unloved.

So for my first game, Friday morning I decided to offer a classic “D&D” scenario run using the stripped down “The Black Hack” rules.

I chose to have Friday afternoon off the see the Trade Hall. (It’s a bit quieter on Friday.)

Friday evening I offered a Horror Scenario. I rarely Referee Horror adventures and when I do I am very choosy about the adventure. I have a total of four (and a half) in my repertoire. This scenario was actually an adventure which was given away free in the programme from the 2018 Dragonmeet Convention. It’s very well written. I’ve run it a few times and it’s always fun.

Saturday morning I offered my Steampunk Game “One of our Dinosaurs is Missing”. Saturday afternoon I offered a “Blakes Seven” adventure based on the classic TV series.

I planned to spend Saturday night seeing one of the many shows on offer at Expo.

Sunday morning I offered my Dr Who scenario. The EXACT SAME ONE I’ve offered Sunday afternoon at Expo for four years running. This would be the fifth year. The only difference was I now had the game statistics for the new, 13th, Doctor and her “mates”.

I kept Sunday afternoon free, waiting to see what fate would offer.

All of these adventures are ones I’ve run before and which I have faith in. All of them except one used my own game systems - and that one I was totally familiar with. IMHO Expo is not a convention to be taking risks. By accepting the offer of accommodation you’re effectively being paid to run games and it’s a VERY public forum. Offer what you know.

Naturally all 5 games were accepted. I’ve built up a good reputation with the organisers over the years. They trust me. And I know what to offer. If you’re new to offering games at the Expo you’ll probably only have one or two games accepted in the first year, unless you’re already known to the TTRPG Organiser (who does, at times, seem to be Omnipotent).

After your games are offered, you sit back and wait. You can’t help watching the booking system - which is superb, and the best I’ve seen at any convention - to see if people are buying tickets for your games. My Steampunk one sold out almost immediately - months before the event. My Horror one sold no tickets.

I was then contacted by the UK’s expert in Indie TTRPGs. He was arranging a meet-up of independent game authors and publishers such as myself on the Friday evening. This is one of my main issues with Expo. The TTRPGs are submitted and published before other events. So if an event comes up that you’d like to go to, it’s more than likely you’ve already offered a game in that slot.

Luckily, my Friday evening game still hadn’t sold any tickets. So I contacted the organisers, pulled the game, and offered one of Friday afternoon as well. Because it had sold out so fast, I offered a second run out for my Steampunk and Dinosaurs game. And its perfectly OK to do that. You don’t have to offer five different games across the weekend. If you’ve got something GOOD, there’s no shame in offering it twice. In fact, I’d go so far as to say you SHOULD offer it more than once to give as many people as possible the chance to play it.

Then it’s just waiting. Last year all volunteers were asked to take part in web-based training. As I’ve said this is a professional event and everyone affiliated with the convention needs to know the rules and procedures. This year we weren’t asked to do it again as we’d already completed it. Newcomers needed to complete it though. It’s just an hour long presentation you need to watch.

Just before the event I realised I’d made a mistake. I’d offered a game using “The Black Hack” rules. But the author had just written a second edition, and it was up for an Expo award. That meant that at the last minute I had to switch from the edition I was used to the new version which I hadn’t played before. There wasn’t much difference but it made me feel a bit out of sorts.

If you aren’t having your accommodation provided, I’d say book early and shop around. The Hotels on the NEC campus are frighteningly expensive that weekend and the supply and demand basis. To stay at the hotel I was in for the weekend would set you back over £1,000. There are far cheaper options. Birmingham City centre itself is only 10 mins away by train.

I’d also bring your own food and drink - a packed lunch. The NEC food prices are very high.

Finally, if you can get to the NEC the evening before the event, there is Open Gaming but, more importantly, you can collect your tickets early and avoid any crush on Friday morning.

I couldn’t get to Open Gaming this year as I’ve recently joined a local gaming club that meets every Thursday night. So I arrived early Friday morning.

The first thing I noticed was there were LOADS of ticket booths open for people to collect tickets from and the early attendees didn’t seem to have long queues to wait in.  Referee tickets and packs were available from a separate secluded room and I was able to collect mine with ease.

The envelope contained my three day pass, slips for all of my games and a food voucher for each day, as well as printed instructions. Having grabbed that I headed over to the Hilton Hotel where the TTRPGs are housed - away from the noise and bustle of the main halls.

The convention starts at 10:00am but the TTRPGs start at 9:00am. This meant that those in charge of them had a very limited time to set up, open rooms etc. A queue formed with people uncertain of whether it was for Referees or Players. Naturally I pushed to the front to ask. Seeing that they weren’t ready, and trusting them, I went to sit on a comfy chair in the bar.

Shortly before 9:00am I walked back to the front desk. The queue was sorted and I was easily able to register my game on the desk’s computer. The convention has an excellent TTRPG management app, and logging your game in at the front desk is the first step. I then went to find my room.

This was a typical hotel convention room. It contained about 8 round tables, four or five of which had games on. One of the tables bore a bright yellow cloth. This was the table of the Room Captain! Their job is to keep an eye on the room and be the first port of call if anything seems amiss. There isn’t much to the role and I’d filled it in 2018. But I take responsibility seriously and had asked not to be given that job this year.

Because of the slight delay, I wasn’t quite as set up as I wanted to be as the session started. The first thing you do is collect your player’s tickets and enter them into the app on your phone. Then you press a button to start the game. As I said it’s a great app - it lets the front desk know immediately what games have spaces in if people turn up looking for one. If you don’t get any players, your game doesn’t run but you may be asked to play in another game to make up the numbers and allow it to take place.

My first game was fine but I felt a slight lack of familiarity with the system changes.  But the players - a full table of six - were all old hands, understood the rules straight away, and didn’t notice anything amiss. I just found that in the new system characters seemed to do a bit less damage and can absorb a bit more, which made the adventure run a bit more slowly. We all had a great time though. As usual for the Expo, the players were just there to have a good time and were great fun.

During the game the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful yellow shirt volunteers came round to check that everything was OK, collect the tickets and take my Friday Food voucher and my food order. I chose a Burrito. 

When I finished my game, the Burrito was waiting for me at the front desk. It was from the Food Vans that the convention organises outside the Hilton. These are artisan food stalls. They are no cheaper than the NEC/Hilton food but it is of much higher quality. The Burrito was amazing!

They give you a two hour break between the morning and afternoon games. Enough time to nip over to the Trade Hall if you want a quick look or visit the Viking display in the grounds between the two venues or pop into the “Collector’s Fair” which is always, co-incidentally, in a hall adjacent to the Expo. This year, the Expo ticket gets you in there for free. Two conventions for the price of one!

I found the two hour break a bit long but used it to check into my room and sort out my games stuff. Accommodation IS provided but you do have to share a room with another Referee, preferably a friend - as in my case.

The afternoon session runs from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. My Room Captain - coincidentally (or not) also my room-mate - had no players for his game so I was asked to take on the role for that session.

Another full table of 6 players for my Steampunk and Dinosaurs game. Another group just looking to have fun. A variety of genders and ages. One player seemed to be able to see into my head and predict every twist and turn of the game. But it was massive fun with a wild ending involving a giant scientist and one character turning out to a Roger Moore type smoothie, romancing the enemy spy.

My game ended in good time but, to my horror, I saw that four other tables in the room showed no signs of finishing. I had my Indie Gamer’s meet up to go to. I politely reminded all the referees of the time but none seemed to show any inclination to wrap up. Eventually I had to go the front desk and call the Organiser in to have a word with them. Another Referee was temporarily made Room Captain and I made it to my Indie Designers event just in time.

This was good and well meaning and had plenty of potential for networking. But one of the reasons I play TTRPGs is because they give me a structure to interact with other people. I’m not as good in unstructured social situations and didn’t make best use of the meeting. I was also surprised to see so many people from a professional company there as well. However, I will go again next year and try to prepare myself to make better use of the time.

It was then that I made my biggest discovery of the weekend. You don’t get any food vouchers for your evening meal. Prices in the Hilton are notoriously high. The Bar food is expensive and the staff are overwhelmed and slow. Allegedly even a cup of coffee costs £5!  However, one of the larger suites had been turned over to Open Gaming. The convention trade halls close down for the evening and many gamers decamp to the Hilton looking for somewhere to play. And in the corner, the convention organisers had prevailed upon the hotel to set up a stand featuring “gamer food”. Still a bit pricey (£5.10 for a pint, £1.20 for a can of coke, £1 for crisps, and £4.75 for the limpest most pathetic sandwiches you’ll ever see) but it had a “meal deal” for £6, it WAS the cheapest coke anywhere in the convention and there was no queue and the staff were quick, professional and polite. This was to be my stopping point throughout the weekend.

After my sandwich I went to find my evening show. I found a huge queue snaking across the hotel being professionally managed by the wonderful, wonderful yellowshirts. Despite the huge numbers we were soon in and seated.

This was “The Dark Room” a live on-stage computer text adventure. Basically a shouty Australian haranguing the audience with the kind of catchphrases, in jokes and call and response stuff that English audiences love. Real end of the pier stuff. It was good and funny - and it’s easy to see why people return year after year - and presenter was an impressive force of nature. But it was a bit too rumbustious for my tastes.

After the show, I thought I’d grab another meal deal in case I got hungry in the night. Something strange happened. The lady serving was trying to clear out all the leftover sandwiches rather than throw them away. As I was the only person who wanted any, she emptied the chiller cabinet in front of me. About a dozen sandwiches for £2.40. I put them in a box, claimed my own and took the rest to the front desk for the wonderful, wonderful yellow shirts.

In the morning I got up early. Breakfast is included with the room - and it is a very very good hotel buffet breakfast - but experience tells me that the room fills up fast. I got in my 7:00am and by the time I’d finished my cereal course, the queue for the hot food filled the room. However, by the time I’d finished my fruit course it had died down.

Over the course of the hour I rinsed the breakfast, consuming a total of 5 different courses and entertaining people on twitter with the description of my Mr Creosote-like activities. The free hotel breakfast is always one of the highlights of Expo for me.

I was in my room in good time for my morning game. Alas, the internet backbone seemed to crumble under the weight of the busy Saturday at the Expo, so I was unable to use the app to record my players’ tickets. But the wonderful, wonderful yellowshirts collected them in the old fashioned way.

This game was another run out for my Steampunk and dinosaurs game. Again a table of six players. But this time they were all middle-aged, white, men like myself. (What we now call “Grognards”.) I am good with and enjoy diverse tables of players but sometimes its nice to play with your own kind for a bit.

This table totally “got” my game system, milking all the goodness out of every drop. The same scenario, a totally different outcome with the engines from a wrecked airship being repurposed into makeshift missiles to catch the fleeing mad scientist. That’s why I run games more than once. They always work out differently.

Lunch was Burrito again. Over lunch I began to pick up stories from the Trade Hall. Apparently it was rammed and getting around it was difficult, bordering on unpleasant, at times. Hint: Saturday is VERY busy in the Trade Halls. 

There was an excellent seminar that I would have liked to go to and if I’d known about it early enough, I would have offered a game in the evening to keep my afternoon free.

My afternoon game was my Blakes Seven Game - based on the classic TV series. Only 5 players this time - and again all Grognards. Well, I suppose it IS an old TV series. Great players - who, again,  totally “got” my rules. Great fun. Round of applause at the end.

Tea was another meal deal.

I’d booked two shows that night. The first was “Knightmare: Live”. Based on the old TV series. Ambitious but a bit ramshackle. There’s an idea in there somewhere but they need to hone the good bits (the animated wall acting was excellent) and drop some of the less successful elements. The audience seemed to love it though, so maybe I’m just an old fusspot.

After that it was straight into Jollyboat. I’ve been aware of them for a while, met them, even have one as a FaceBook friend, but never seen them perform. I didn’t realise just how good they were. The act is pirates singing funny songs but there’s just so much talent at so many levels that I could appreciate. I’ve written parody songs myself so I can tell you these were top notch. I play the guitar a bit and can tell you, these guys are GOOD. They’ve got great singing voices. But best of all they’re dyed in the wool gaming nerds whose songs feature gags about Owlbears and Mimmicks. It’s like they’re plugged straight into your funny bone. I loved ‘em. (I also messaged by FB buddy afterwards and blagged my way into running some TTRPGs at their upcoming convention.)

Then another meal deal (a different, less generous, woman tonight) and to bed.

Up early for another 5 course breakfast feast. Then my Dr Who game. I’ve run this one dozens and dozens of times over 5 years at dozens of conventions for hundreds of people and it still delivers. A diverse table of 5 players. This lot cleverly avoided fighting the “big bad” - instead accidentally creating their own “big bad” - a giant four armed Cyber-Jhduhn as it happens - to fight it for them. Admittedly the 13th Doctor was behaving more like the 6th, but - by god - I love running this adventure.

Lunch was spiced Korean fish and chips which was simply AMAZING. 

I was tired by then. Not as tired as most people. Many people go a bit wild at Expo and stay up until the early mornings - gaming, drinking, socialising. I’d paced myself, sensibly, but was still flagging. I considered going home early as all the TTRPGs were booked up. However, I hung around the front desk and managed to get into a Call of Cthulhu game. This was a pleasant, mild, stroll through the backwaters of England which unfolded about about a tenth of the pace of one of my games. But I was playing specifically to try and hone my skills as a PLAYER - which I know are poor. I think I succeeded. I didn’t force the pace. I kept my mouth shut most of the time and “bigged up” the other players and their characters and let them solve the mystery - playing the role of jokey sidekick.

And then a train ride home.

I thoroughly enjoyed Expo this year. I didn’t get anywhere near the trade halls and feel all the better for that. If you like board and card games or bring and buy stalls there are two halls of goodness for you - three counting the Collector’s Fair. It’s just not for me. The organisation this year was just slick and the yellowshirt volunteers were amazing! And all my games had full tables making me feel loved and wanted. It was a lovely weekend.

Next year I may offer 6 games for 5 people instead of 5 games for 6 and hold off offering some of them until the seminar schedule is announced. I won’t be going to any shows - even JollyBoat. I think I’ll be seeing THEM again well before Expo 2020.

Mug and Game - May 2019

Mug and Game May 2019

I go to a LOT of conventions. I probably COULDN’T go to one every weekend but I’d give it a try. This ambition it thwarted by three things:

• Real life (I DO have one)
• The fact that sometimes conventions fall on the same weekend, sometimes three or more on the same date. (Glut)
• The fact that sometimes there are weekends where there are no conventions on at all. (Drought)

One of these great droughts seems to fall in May. I guess this is because “the big one’ UK GAMES EXPO takes place at the end of May and everyone is gearing up for for it.

In the middle of May was the wonderful NorthStar SciFi TTRPG convention but I had a (rare) Real Life commitment that prevented me attending. Though it was successful, it seems attendance was smaller than that it deserved, probably part of the pre-Expo phenomenon.

When I don’t have conventions to go to I look around for other events where I can offer my games. (This can, as you know, include non-gaming events). An online friend of mine who is also a great convention goer and advocate posted about possibly going to “Mug and Game” - a games convention in Congleton. I couldn’t find any other reference to the event elsewhere, including the usual convention listings, and their Facebook Page and Web-site were extremely light on traffic. And I had no idea where Congleton was. 

A quick check showed it was only slightly over an hour away from Birmingham by train, so I dropped the organisers a note explaining who I was and offering games. They kindly accepted my offer but because I’d over stressed my bona fides and mentioned my authorship of Golden Heroes, they asked me to offer a game of that. (It’s not something I offer these days.)

So prior to the event I had to do some preparation. To my surprise I found that the convention scenario I’d run when first demonstrating Squadron UK - a really neat time stop mystery called “The Long Minute” - existed as completely finished and formatted document on my old laptop. Apparently I’d originally written it up for the banned and illegal Golden Heroes v.2 I’d once worked on. THAT was a time saver!  (And I was also impressed by my layout.)

I don’t have GH pre-generated characters so I took the example character from the banned rules and produced a second character sheet with an alternate gender. I then put aside a couple of evenings to create 5 new characters. (Mug and Game insist on 6 players per TTRPG table.) As its turned out, it only took a couple of hours. Rather than produce dual character sheets with alternate genders, I produced the characters as part-gens with full attributes and powers, a suggested partial rationale and left the players to round out the background and fill in name, gender, height, weight etc.

It was massive fun and easier to do than I remembered.

Because the journey from Birmingham to Congleton was relatively short, I didn’t have to get up at stupid o’clock to set out. On the way I checked FaceBook to find the organisers had posted a “we’re all set up and ready” post, so I posted a reply 

promoting my two games.

Changing trains at Stoke on Trent I ran into my Internet friend. Well, I was travelling on the logically best train. When we got off at Congleton it turned out the train was also carrying another Convention acquaintance of mine - apparently I’d first run a game for him in the 1980’s at Dragonmeet when he was eight years old - and his (11 year old?) son. So we all shared a taxi to the venue.

The venue is said to be a mile and a half from the station and the taxi cost £4.50. 

The venue is reached via a very well maintained graveyard next to a perfect country church and seems to a vicarage which has been converted to an extremely high standard into a church hall. The signposting was excellent, starting with poster at the end of the side road leading to the church with multiple further posters throughout the graveyard leading to a big sign on the door. It’s the best signposting of any convention I’ve been to.

Entry is £3 and everyone pays, even Referees. However, I was given a ticket with my name on entitling me to a free meal and drink, which was a good reward. 

The event is basically an all-day, 2 slot, games day which is an off-shoot of the local games club which meets at the venue. But the organisers clearly want to do it “properly” and have organisation which rivals or even exceeds that of other conventions. 

There was the ubiquitous hatch serving drinks and food. All the food is homemade - I was able to resist the £1 charity brownies but the 50p charity cookies - as large and tasty as you’d get from a professional outlet - proved to be my downfall. The official “Mug and Game” mugs the coffee was served in were surprisingly and pleasantly over-sized. “Gamers Mugs” I was told. 

I’d guess there were about a dozen tables crammed into the hall, most of them set up for board/war game hybrids - Bloodbowl and the like. I think about three were devoted to TTRPGs. I’d forgotten to print sign up sheets but the organisers had already done that for me - to a far higher standard than I usually do. A neat touch was that my sheets were clearly marked with a green “meeple” and a large green wooden meeple was sitting on my table. 

I noticed that my Referee’s chair was positioned adjacent to and backing onto another game table covered with terrain and figures of Gods and Monsters and switched myself to the other side to be as far away from it as possible, backed up against a wall.

The event officially started at 10:00am with games due to start at 10:30, but most of my players were early to arrive and we got most of the organisation dealt with early.

Though I was ready for 6 players and 6 had signed up, only 5 played. This was my 13th Doctor game, so most of the players played Jodie and her three mates, whilst the 5th player was a silurian warrior picked up along the way. This was the usual blast but I was a bit ring rusty, forgot some of the initial set-up (the “storylines” - those of your who know my Code of the Spacelanes game know what I’m talking about), slightly rushed the scenario through my over familiarity with it, resolved two major fights with critical failure rolls, forgot to set up my hourly alarms on my phone,  and - without the usual character generation - wrapped it all up in 2.5 hours rather than the recommended 3-3.5. I tried to tack on a gratuitous Dalek Mothership but clever play from my Grognard player (playing “Graham” natch) and ANOTHER critical roll from the Doctor meant even that didn’t prove much of a threat. I apologised to the players but they had all had a great time and didn’t mind. Two of them had an afternoon event elsewhere, anyway.

Lunch was my free meal. Had my game gone on, I could have ordered it at my table through the regular and attentive table service. I had choice of homemade mac and cheese, cous cous and chilli with french bread. I chose the latter. The long lunch break meant I had plenty of time to chat with the lovely people there and set up my GH game. At the front of the hall was a pile of board games - presumably the club’s library - and some old magazines. One of these was the issue of White Dwarf which contained “The American Dream” my GH scenario with the Super Army and for a moment I considered swapping out my afternoon game for that adventure. (I also showed it to I anyone that would listen.)

My GH game in the afternoon again had 5 players rather than 6 and one of those said he had to leave early. Of course I said I’d accommodate him.

This game went better than I had an hope to expect. Balance was perfect. There were some extremely satisfying character arcs, including a character who was seen to “go vigilante” in full view of the other characters and Police. I’d forgotten just what a bastard the final villain in this scenario is but soon remembered. The last Hero standing, seeing flamethrowers held to the heads of his paralysed comrades, had no option but to let the villain escape with his ill-gotten goods only for the vigilante to ride to the rescue and - putting all of Birmingham at risk - pull off an end-game type 

dusting of just the bad guys. (It was one of my random roll tables.) 

Tables and chairs were being cleared as my game ended so I think the timing was perfect this time. I thanked the organisers and left via shared taxi and train home.

Mug and Game was a thoroughly lovely day out. Great people, at a good venue with exemplary at-event organisation.

I don’t usually mention areas for improvement but the only two minor details were pre-convention promotion and the fact that tables were a bit too close together. The TTRPGs were spread out though, seeming to be set in the corners of the rooms.

And there I think there were people who turned up on spec who couldn’t find a TTRPG to play in, but some of these may have been looking as a couple (I could be wrong).  So there seems to be space for growth/more referees.

The event is run 4 times a year. This was the third. They are looking to expand into the upper floor of the venue if they can get enough up front bookings. Numbers were already bigger than events such as Spaghetti ConJunction - at its smallest - and, I think, NorthStar. and that was without some locals turning up because of the Bank Holiday weekend.

This is one to watch. It’s a lovely event and sure to grow. I know I’ll b doing my damnedest to be back in September - the weekend after Concrete Cow.

NorthStar 2019 - 11th-12th May

Try as I might, I can't get to every convention in the UK. This weekend I was busy with real-life stuff and missed the wonderful NorthStar Convention.

This is a typical "Garrison" convention. I've posted about these many times, so you know what to expect. A two day event at a wonderful hotel in Sheffield.

The USP of NorthStar is that all the games offered have to be SciFi.

It seems to have gone well and I've read many positive reports. Here is a typical one from Jason Bratley - reproduced with permission:

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I loved this Con. A big shout out to the organisers from me.

Game one was a fantastic locked room murder mystery set in the star wars universe. I played (no suprises here) a Droid. G8-T3 which I totally failed to notice that its name was Gate. Doh. But I had fun, lots of fun and it took my mind off my anxiety about running my game next. Also I managed to play a light-side character in a star wars game. That's a first for me.

Game two was my game. Grief I had been as anxious as hell before running. Had I done enough prep? I asked myself, certain that I hadn't. My background in GMing is helped that I used to be an ad-lib actor. I'd originally had an idea of a title for my game. I spent a good 15 mins when Dom reminded me that I needed to post a blurb working on a general expansion of that. Did I do any more prep? Well I reread the rules. Mostly. So my anxiety was mainly self created, but also unavoidable. I have problems remembering things. I can quite happily plan a scenario. Remembering it afterwards. If I'm lucky sure.

Oh and I'd bought a prop. "Cowboys. A book for ages 5-6" it was the historical document the players (all playing robots) had to teach them about the world outside their home that they were forced to abandon.

The players were awesome. I had a couple of veterans from my last game and everyone else seemed to be new to the system. Every one of them had their moment where they shone. I honestly couldn't have had a better group. They helped shape the world according to their own theories. I certainly wont look at a cowboy hat in the same light. We actually had a moment where a couple of players were crying with laughter. Awesome.

And awesome is how I'd describe the next game. P.... ran a brilliant game of The Cthulhu Hack - Valkyrie-9. This time for a change I played a drone. Actually we all did and in truth we were something more sinister. My character didn't quite get the trouble it was in. It was a survey drone and at character gen I started to wonder, why was it designated so. I came up with the idea that as it spent a large time away from the humans and other drones and it was praised whenever it found valuable mineral deposits that after a while it had started to be a little... Fixated on rocks. To the point that my companions had at one point explain a situation to me in the terms of rocks.

The next morning we had R....'s game of John Carter. I'd been looking forward to this. This was the one game I'd bought but only skimmed through and the mechanics were eluding me. I needed to see the game run by someone and R... is a great GM. I played a dashing sky pilot over Barsooms dunes. Sword fights, lasers and eggs. It was a fantastical daring romp.

Finally we gathered for our final game of the Con. Inspectres in Space. It was a great game set with a different pace to it. This was a build the universe as we go along game. We were a group searching the outer rim of the known worlds on a colony ship come cathedral for a jump gate. Our ship was maintained by a group of highly religious droids who were dumb as rocks when alone but due to hive mentality more intelligent and more fanatical when in groups. Our GM guided us through the game with skill and we held the distinction of being last game running. Which shows how invested we were in the game. Oh, in that one I played a weeping willow.

There were so many games I wanted to be in. They all looked so much fun. Thanks to all you awesome people.

DevaCon III - 27th April 2019 - Chester

DevaCon III - Chester 27th April 2019.

DevaCon is a typical one day, three slot, games day held annually in Chester. What makes it slightly different from most other similar events on "the circuit" is that it's organised by the Stygian Fox TTRPG publishers, a small but - as far as I can see - successful company. So I'd describe it as a "semi-professional" event rather than the  "amateur" ones we usually see.

Before the event, Referees are asked to submit games but there is no prebooking. This seems to be mainly to promote the event and so that the organisers can keep an eye on the games vs players numbers and - I presume - the range and type of games offered.

Tickets are sold on-line through a professional booking website in advance of the event. They can be bought at the event itself but are slightly more expensive. Because the event takes place at a high quality hotel the convention tickets are a bit higher than those for similar amateur events, but the more salubrious setting justifies this.

As usual for "Games Days" I arranged to travel to the event in the morning and travel back in the evening, missing the third gaming session. (To stay for the third slot would mean I'd have to stay at a hotel overnight, which isn't usually worth the cost for just one more game session.)

I set off early and, despite British Rail delays and attempts to derail me, arrived at the event early. The convention takes place in a large conference room in the hotel but we were asked to wait outside - in a comfy area with chairs - whilst final setting up took place. This was a pleasant and social atmosphere. However, when there was a slight delay with the ticketing system, someone took out the sign up sheet for his morning game and some people signed up to it. So we all took out our sign up sheets and touted for players, which was a bit chaotic.

However, there was an extremely co-operative and nice atmosphere and the signups actually seemed to go well.

After a few minutes, we were allowed into the room and told our tickets would be checked later. The rooms contained 6 TTPRG tables, a further demo table with an impressive 3D fantasy town set up, a local TTRPG trader and a desk where we could order food and drink laid on especially for the convention. Being a decent hotel it was a very pleasant room with table covers on every table.

As usual I'd been concerned about getting players for my game as its not one of my local/regular events. I needn't have worried. Every one of the six tables seemed to have a full complement of 5-6 players plus referee. The match of Games offered to number of players seemed almost perfect. (That's actually an understatement. It seemed perfect.)

I had 5 players for my 13th Doctor game. All new to me, so I was able to trot out my "standard" scenario that I've been running for 5 years and refereed dozens of times. This time we had The Doctor, Yaz, Graham and two "guest stars" - a Caveman and The Marquis de Sade(!)

Great players. Much scenery chewed. The convention organiser personally went round every table to see the Referees and buy them each a drink as thanks.

At lunchtime I bought some of the "nerd food" laid on especially for the convention. This was well priced - much cheaper than the food and drink on offer in the hotel bar. (At the bar Lager was £5.10 per pint, exactly £2 more than my local club. This is the one drawback with holding conventions in hotels IMHO.)

The afternoon was pretty much the same as the morning. Every table was full. Everyone seemed to be having great games and there was a large variety of systems on offer. There was one 5th ed game and every other table seemed to have a different system. I got 6 players for my Manifold East End Heist game. These players were so proactive that when the organiser came around to offer to buy the free afternoon drink, she had to double check that I was actually refereeing the game because I was just sitting and watching.

Rather than the usual thugs I often see made for this scenario, many players made thinking/sociable characters. This combined with some great dice rolls meant that they worked their way around most of the bank's defences before even setting foot in the place. Luckily there were a couple of more "hands on" characters and we had enough kidnapping and intimidation to bring the Police down on the gang and get their mugs plastered on the TV news.

Because the bank raid went so smoothly, I actually had time to play the dark twisted "bait and switch" ending I'd always planned for this adventure - but it ended up even darker than I'd planned. (Think Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels meets Night of the Demon, with most of the characters being co-opted by the Demon to torment and shred their friend's soul.....)

I sold one of my leftover Role Play Relief books and gave some to the trade stand  upon their promise to send any money they made from selling them directly to Comic Relief and left early to catch my train home.

DevaCon is a great day out. Slightly more expensive than most similar games days but slightly posher. I really nice crowd, with a really nice atmosphere in a superior setting. Good stuff! It would be nice if this were held twice a year like Concrete Cow and Spaghetti ConJunction.

Seven Hills 2019

Seven Hills 2018 - Theme Historical

TLDR: a nice weekend of Role-playing. Not a single thing out of place.

Anyone who doesn't know yet should. The Garrison Hotel is the northern hub of TTRPG conventions with something like six there every year. Seven Hills is still the young cousin of the grand-daddy of the Garrison cons - Furnace - with the same excellent 5 slot, with limited presigns, set up. It's just a bit smaller, a bit more intimate,  a bit more relaxed and has an annual theme. This year it was "Historical".

The convention has a plethora of excellent Referees and, as usual, the presign system encourages you to offer two games and play in three. You have to submit your games several months in advance, to allow the presign system to work. I'll admit my tastes in TTRPGs run to more outrageous fantasies (hey, I STARTED with Superheroes) and the Historical theme didn't ring any bells with me. So I submitted a couple of bland signups (Sherlock Holmes has been killed, investigate his murder and Something has gone wrong with Time, The Doctor is missing, investigate) planning to write the actual scenarios nearer to the event.

Come the convention and I hadn't actually had any ideas as to what to write.

Because I got to loads of conventions, I usually travel up to the Garrison events Saturday morning, stay one night, and travel back Sunday. They are not weekend conventions, they are two day conventions. Friday night is just "socialising". So saying one night makes economic sense.

At the last minute, however, I decided to travel up Friday and use the evening to finally write my games. But I got involved in socialising in the bar. And eating and drinking. The beer is a reasonable price and the food at The Garrison is always good. What was nice about the evening was new people walking up and introducing themselves. Somehow we must have just looked like gamers to all the new faces.

So I got up really early Saturday morning and sat down with Wikipedia and an exercise book to write my Saturday game. To my joy I discovered a real Victorian scandal which the Royal Family might have killed Holmes to cover up and loads of other events which happened on the random date I'd chosen to set my game. It virtually wrote itself - though I decided the Royal Family hadn't done the dirty deed. The Germans had done it intending to bring the scandal into the open and frame them.

There were signs of refurbishment in the Garrison rooms and at breakfast. Smashed Avocado was available.  The "Full Yorkshire Breakfast" was described as being "sprinkled with cubed spring onions" which, luckily, didn't actually materialise.

My first game was "The Blue Planet". Not actually historical being science fiction. It was a playtest of the new 3rd edition starter set. I played a dolphin. We also had a semi-gorilla game warden, ex-marine boat pilot, a human adapted to life in water and a young businessman. Great setting. Good starter scenario with a very strong opening. Confident and experienced referee and an adequate game system that is probably more fun to read than to play.

Though the food at The Garrison is good and worth the money, it's a lot cheaper to nip over to the nearby supermarket to buy lunch - which I did.

My Sherlock Holmes game was offered in the afternoon. However, I wasn't  certain it would run. I'm competing with some elite referees at Seven Hills. As it turned out, I did get three players, all old friends. Two of them are a wonderful German couple that always seem to pick my game when I've got German bad guys!

The scenario I'd thrown together that morning went like a breeze. Excellent players loving the actual historical twists and turns. An ex-army surgeon/barber, a persona non-grata "gentleman" and John Watson's estranged brother teamed up to solve the mystery and ended up changing history. And luckily I didn't need the "it was the Germans all the time" twist. This scenario is going in the bank and I'm going to run it again. One player commented that he'd gone from a scenario in the morning where the referee had loads of props and had three device screens going at once to mine - with handwritten notes in an exercise book - and both were good.

You prebook your meals at lunchtime so after the game it was easy to decamp to the bar to collect it. I spent the time between the afternoon and evening games socialising again. This is unusual for me. There was just such a nice atmosphere.

Then the evening games. This was Owl Hoot trail, the D&D western with Elves, Orc, a halfling gunslinger and me - a steampunk dwarf - investigating zombie-based shenanigans in a frontier down. I loved the OSR rules which encouraged much scenery eating from the experienced players. A brilliant end to the first day.

On Sunday I got up early again to write my "something is wrong with time" scenario. Again, Wikipedia gave me a string of historical dates to hang the game on. And it became clear as I wrote who the villains just HAD to be.

I opted for the lighter "Eggs Benendict" breakfast and the portion was massive.

My game was due to run in the first session. Again I got three players but this time they were new to my games. The Timelords chose to send "The Vetinarian" to investigate in lieu of The Doctor. Shows what they think of humanity. She picked up a far future Janitor and an 18th century French Musketeer. It went well - despite the Timelord piloting her Tardis straight into a black hole followed by a supernova (double critical) -  but ran short. However, everyone was happy with this. I'd overbought at Morrisons the day before so still had loads of food left for lunch, though The Garrison does offer an excellent Sunday Lunch.

After lunch was the raffle - well managed and not tedious with excellent prizes. And the announcement of next year's theme - "Punk".

Though I could have presigned for the afternoon game, I hadn't. I went to the sign up sheets after the queue had died down and got into a Vikingrs game (not a typo) involved a shipwreck, monastery, Troll and Demon. Good on-trope fun.

I travelled home with friends - more socialising - on a train that was criminally over-crowded.

Seven Hills was, for me, a perfect event. Perfect synergy of hotel and convention with good value food and drink. Numbers seemed a bit down and - being hypercritical - I was reminded of the old "Incredibles" observation - "when everyone's special no-one will be". It was an event of all highs with no lows to act as contrast.  Literally just too good to be true.

And so flipping friendly that even a socially awkward sod like me enjoyed the chatting in between games.

It doesn't get any better than this.