The Asylum - Lincoln 2019 - General Report

The Asylum Steampunk convention - 23rd-26th 2019 - Lincoln

Last year I came across “The Asylum - the biggest Steampunk convention in their world” online. I dropped them a note to ask if they wanted me to run games. When they said yes, I booked a cheap B&B in Lincoln for one night and attended Saturday and Sunday, just to dip my toe in the water and see how it went.

I was impressed by the little I saw of the event. It is a feature of many multi-day Steampunk events that they run evening events that are separately ticketed. Though these are - I assume - BRILLIANT balls, concerts and soirées, they don’t float my boat so I cheekily asked if I could run a long game in the evening. I didn’t expect to be allowed to as this would be a free event. But I was allocated a table in the student union bar and gained enough players for a great game.

So, it was a success. 

This year I vowed to come for the whole extended weekend - it was a Bank Holiday Monday. And found myself really looking forward to it.

I asked if I could bring a second referee - agreed.

I asked if we could run a game in the student Union at nights - they gave use a massive room on the top floor.

I asked if I could run a Live Role-Play - AGREED!

I spent an unconscionable amount of money in the run-up (for me). I bought a top hat. I bought a set of special googles with “gamesmaster” lens inserts. Instead of booking as cheap B&B in town - I booked accommodation on the University Campus - which was a bit more expensive, especially given that it was student accommodation with shared bathrooms etc. By the time I got around to booking all single accommodation was gone so I had to book a double room. I bought an extra Banner to advertise the event. I had new character sheets and table notices printed and laminated.

(Note: if after reading this report you decide to visit The Asylum, book your accommodation early. Cheap stuff books out very early.)

Last year I’d noticed that many Steampunks didn’t just dress up. They created characters and then dressed up as those characters. So, through the event’s Facebook Page, I offered to prepare bespoke character sheets for anyone who sent me a photo of themselves and a character description, so they could actually play their Steampunk alter-egos in an adventure. I was only contacted by three people to make six character sheets (always couples). The reason, I reckon, was that people are working on “this year’s outfits” right up until last minute. But I enjoyed statting up the characters whose descriptions I DID receive. 

For my second Referee the first person I contacted was Dave Winterbottom. Dave organises the TTRPGs at many of the country’s Anime cons. He is an Expo stalwart and also does stand-up where he and audience design TTRPGs live on stage. (Nope - I don’t get how he’d do this either - but he DOES.) Luckily he agreed. And I was able to offer him free accommodation because I’d booked the double room. 

Finally I realised that I probably needed to design so new scenarios as people might have played my standard ones the previous year. So I asked for title suggestions on line and received many excellent ones.

To be honest, I would have liked to travel up on Thursday night but I couldn’t justify the additional room cost to myself. Instead I chose to travel up Friday morning. I got up and travelled at stupid o’clock. I didn’t need to. As a four day event, it doesn’t start until mid-day. But I was just too excited.

Aside 1 - The train routes recommended by two different ticket sites varied immensely. When I studied closely I found that one web-site’s suggestion - via Nottingham - was faster on the way up whereas the other - via Sheffield - was massively quicker on the way back. Go figure? So rather than advance book or split tickets I chose to spend a bit more and buy a flexible return.

Aside 2 - I’d debated whether to buy a new suitcase for the event. For some reason the one I’ve been using for convention visits was wearing out. With all the other expenses, I decided to give it one last outing. The wheels fell off the instant I left my house!

Aside 3 - I lost my old banner on the way to Fantasticon the weekend before The Asylum and my new, second banner, didn’t arrive until the morning I left - ie after I’d set out - so I was without banners and feeling a bit unprofessional. 

The journey was fine and I got a taxi to the University where we were based. I was met by the organiser in charge of that site - who I’m getting to know quite well from various events. He let me into the room where the gaming would take place and I set myself up - one table for a display and one table for playing. (Table covers, natch.) Like last year, the outside of the room housed the smaller items in The Great Steampunk Exhibition and the tables soon started to fill up with artwork and artefacts of all kinds. Some fascinating - some inexplicable. All showing hours of loving work.

It was a short - 2min - walk from the building with the games in to the student union. There I was able to check in and collect our armbands and keys to the room - though it was too early for get in. I was also able to check out “our” room upstairs for the evening play. It was massive - easily able accommodate a whole convention by itself. 

The convention started. I remained in the  gaming room and didn’t attend the opening ceremony. Slowly people began to drift in. As usual, at first, they were just getting their bearings and few had time to start and play a game. As well as the University site - which used multiple buildings and had masses to see and do in and of itself - the festival (it isn’t really just a convention) spread out across the City of Lincoln to many other sites. The Castle, Markets in the Town Centre, The “Engine House” (live music) etc. There were free vintage double decker buses ferrying loads of steampunks between these many venues non-stop. No wonder few people had time to stop and play a game.

Soon, however, people began to stop and play. Especially as - on a baking hot bank holiday weekend - the room we were in had excellent air conditioning and some people came in just to get respite.

Despite my offering a full range of genres, every game I ran on Friday was Steampunk. I had an eclectic collection of players. The exact details of the games I remember are on a separate post.

The thing about Steampunks is - especially at The Asylum - they pride themselves on being “splendid”. They are universally happy and polite. They never criticise or comment on other people’s outfits, for example, except to say how wonderful they are. They are just looking to enjoy themselves and the games were universally a delight to referee.

The day event closes at 5:00pm, by which time I had run several games.

I dropped my case off in our room - which was in the same building as the one we were running games in - and went over to the Student Union Bar for an evening meal and the evening game.

Initially I was disappointed to find that the Union no longer sold the pies it had specialised in in 2018. This was replaced by an outdoors barbecue. £8.50 but its USP was that along with your choice of burger or hotdog, every plate received several ribs and chicken wings. All well cooked. Value for money, and probably easier to supply the large clientele than cooking individual pies.

The student bar was also good value - £3.50 a pint for bog standard lager and cider. £4.00 for better lager etc.

At 7pm I went up to our evening game room. It was an OVEN! I opened all the windows and doors and it began to cool down. Several people turned up asking for a game and Dave arrived just in time to join in.

The game ran until some time between 10:30 and 11:00pm. As I went to turn in, Dave announced “No! We’re going to promote the games.” He went down to the bar and proceeded to consume copious amount of alcohol and talk to people about TTRPGs. (Dave was fresh back from appearing in and promoting events at the Edinburgh Fringe.) Steampunks are so splendid that you can walk up to anyone and they’ll talk to you about what they’ve been up to and listening to what you’ve been up to.

The bar closed at 11:30 but we sat drinking at a table outside, talking to some great people. We went to our room where the drink enabled Dave to give me some forthright feedback on my refereeing and how I should promote TTRPGs events. Blunt, maybe, but nice for someone NOT to beat around the bush. I loved it.

We didn’t get up too late and went over to “The Refectory” - again only 2min walk from our rooms - for the breakfast included with them. As you’d expect for a Steampunk event this was a stolid full English affair. The room was full of people in various forms of clothing - most too early for full regalia. Again every was polite and engaging in conversations about what everyone was doing.

Saturday and Sunday were both full days of gaming followed by longer games in the Students’ Union at night. Food was from the Refectory during the day (“Meal deal” less than £6) and the (unvarying) barbecue at night. (We could have eaten in the Refectory had we wished).

Saturday night we even had enough players to run two full tables.

All of this was on the University site and everything was within 3min walk of everything else. Even though our focus was so tight, and we stayed within a tiny percentage of the festivals total site, we still got to see loads of fascinating sights. The constant parade of costumes was stunning. The props and vehicles were amazing. (My favourite was the - in progress - full size Steampunk version of ED-209). And everyone and everything was simply splendid. We drank until after midnight and had many interesting chats - including with the luminaries of “The Ministry of Steampunk” themselves. Whilst I’m sure the many tit-bits I learnt about how the festival has developed over the years and the nuts and bolts behind it weren’t meant to be confidential, I’m not going to go into them here. Let’s just say they were fascinating and enlightening.

On Monday a lovely couple arrived in the gaming room and set up to offer Board Games and TTRPGs. They have been cataloging every Board game and TTRPG produced that they can find that has any reference to Steampunk - and collecting as many of them as they can. Their file of games is a very impressive piece of work.

Dave and I ran a few more games. I offered my Live Role Play to a very small audience, wrapped up and made my way home. And slept for most of Tuesday.

The Asylum is, quite simply, Heaven on Earth. We saw only the smallest, smallest portion of it and everyone was simply delightful. I was struck by Facebook posts after the event from people who said they were nervous about coming because of the difficulty they have in social situations who said just how easy it was to talk to everyone.  And that was my experience as well. I normally need TTRPGs to help me interact with people. Not so at The Asylum. Everyone great everyone else as old friends.

Tickets for the event are £40 (I think). This gets you access to almost all the sites for the various events on show that I didn’t get to see. I was quoted that 4,000 tickets were sold. However, the market and other events in the centre of Lincoln are free and the organisers estimate the festival brings 30,000 Steampunks and “steam-curious” people onto the streets of the city reach day for four days. 120,000 footfall.

It’s on those streets in the free part of the event that the only friction seems to occur. Steampunks revel in looking splendid and love having their photos taken. All they request is that you ask permission politely first. Apparently anyone with an SLR camera feels they can turn up in Lincoln over the weekend and behave like amateur paparazzi, yelling at people and snapping pics freely and without manners.

I highly recommend The Asylum as an event in and of itself that everyone should treat themselves to. Dave is an absolute convert and, before leaving, made sure next years dates didn’t conflict with The Fringe. He’s going to be back.

If you’re interested in TTRPGs, there’s just me and Dave at the moment. Other more dedicated events might suit you. But there’s potential for growth. We could probably  run a TTRPG convention nestled within the larger event but I’m not sure that’s the best way forward. Next year Dave and I will be back and I’m thinking of asking a third Referee along. However, I will order each of us (me included) to take a day off from the gaming to climb on a free vintage bus and head out to explore all the wonders The Asylum has to offer. Jet Pack Racing, Dinosaur Racing, Teapot Racing, Tea Duelling, Low Altitude Display, Steampunk Choirs, Talks, Seminars, Display, Exhibitions, Markets etc. etc. And to promote the evening games to see if we can’t fill that upstairs room at the Students’ Union each and every night.

As you’ll see, I’m a convert. I may just be a Steampunk myself.

The Asylum Lincoln 2019 - Simon’s Games

The Asylum Steampunk convention - 23rd-26th 2019 - Lincoln

TLDR: 4-7 games per day, during the day and at night, for an eclectic range of players - mostly Steampunk. Exhausting but fun.

Normally I post some information about the games I run - and play in - as part of the main convention report. I’m not sure how helpful this is, but it gives some kind of idea about what I do an conventions. So I keep doing it.

However, I found my report on The Asylum over-running so I’be decide to split out my games reports into a separate document this time. Unless stated otherwise, the games are all “The Code of Steam and Steel” Steampunk games.

My first game - early Friday afternoon - was The Great Airship Robbery. This was with an older couple - who’d never plated TTRPGs never played before - with a D&D player joining in at the end. Somehow the scenario played very fast, with both Airships being recovered intact.

The second game was a full table - 5 players - for “Queen Victoria must die”. This group contained people familiar with TTRPGs and they asked to make original characters! This didn’t take long - 5-10 mins - and we still completed the game in about an hour. I’ll admit this was the first time I’d run this scenario and - at the start - it was just a title and my usual page of bad guy statistics. But it soon developed into a full story.

The third game was for a family of three. The mother was reluctant to play but I did my usual “just sit down with a character sheet in front of you, you don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to” trick. We were joined by a passerby. I don’t have a not of exactly what game we played. However, at the end, the Mum said it “wasn’t too bad”.

The Friday daytime session finished off with a fourth game. “Drill to the Heart of the World”. It started with some interest from a father and his daughter. I called over a wheelchair user - who turned out to be deaf - and his carer. They shared a character - Sir Michael Poole. I felt that the Carer got a bit too caught up in the game and answered for the character sometimes without consulting his ward, so I made of point of consulting him directly whenever I could. I kept his ward involved.

This was my third time running this scenario. The previous weekend - at Fantasticon - both times the “Poole” character - once male and once female - ended up copping off with the Queen of the Hollow Earth. This happened again. The smile of the face of the disabled player when he told us he was hoping to stay and rule with his beautiful conquest was priceless. The scenario is developing a life of its own. 

By the end of the day, I’d run four 1hr games in a session running from 11am to 5pm. I consider that a success.

For Friday night  we’d been promised the room upstairs at the Student Union. (Last year I’d had to find a table in the bar downstairs.) It turned out to be massive - at least 8 large tables - and big enough to host its own convention. It was the first time I realised how hot the day had been as it lacked the air conditioning of the room I’d been in all day.

Somehow with my promoting on Facebook and throughout the day, I’d managed to attract four players. My friend and fellow Referee, Dave Winterbottom, arrived so we had 5 player game. Because we had a couple of players returning from the Queen Victoria game during the day - they already had characters. The new characters had to be made according to the same rules. The group had voted, during the day, to allow paranormal abilities. One of the characters was a witch. Dave chose to drive the game by creating a “glass cannon” character - one which is extremely good in one area but weak in others - with the paranormal ability to drain energy sources.

For personal comfort, the scenario I chose to run was the one from the rulebook “The Steel of the Gods”. Being hyper-self-critical I felt that this older adventure began to its age and creak a bit and the paranormal abilities tended to take events slightly gonzo. But there was much laughter with the group of characters only getting away by the skin of their teeth. They did, ultimately, fail in their mission though.

On Saturday, I ran six games during the day - though I only have records of 5. I ran “Murder on the Occidental Express”. This was the first time I’d run this and most - if not all - of the players were new to TTRPGs. Again the scenario developed during the hour of play.

I ran “The Great Airship Robbery” twice. 

I also ran a couple of D&D type games using The Black Hack. These groups didn’t have much time and I’d wanted to see if I could deliver “The Delian Tomb” with a full and complete story in under an hour.  I succeeded.  One game took 20mins, the other in 30. In both times I delivered the full story but I’m unsure if the players got a fair grasp of the whole experience as I tended to rush the explanation of the rules. I’m sure a 30min demo is achievable but I think I need to design a different scenario.

Whilst I was doing all this Dave ran two great games of “Microscope”. Both of these were longer than my games but engaged a larger number of players.

The first game he ran seemed to be an absolute blast. It had the group laughing so hard and so long that they seemed to be physically in pain. The second game was more serious and there were some interesting ethical debates.

We’d been promoting the evening games at  the Student Union. I’d even primed a couple of people to act as fill-in Referees if we were over-run with players.  As it turned out, we had enough people for two tables. Some people were specifically looking for 5th Ed D&D. So Dave offered a game of that. It was one of the reasons I’d invited him to come along and referee some games with me.

I ran a Steampunk game again. Two of players were ones who’d played in my evening game last year. They’d sent me photos of their Steampunk characters before the event and I’d produced bespoke character sheets for them. So they arrived in full costume - the Martial Archeologist with her Sonic Device (a steampunk combination of violin and trumpet) and an Aerial Engineer wearing his Jetpack. Because of the archeologist character, I chose to run “The Antiquaries of Mars” by Martin Pickett. I had to do some quick thinking because two of the players were bringing back their characters from the previous night. My alt-Victorian setting and Martin’s “Victorian Colony of Mars” settings are set 40 years apart. But we managed.

The 5th player had only ever played 5th Ed D&D. 

It turned out that Dave is an enthusiastic and LOUD referee and I had to take my players out onto the balcony to play - which turned out to be a really lovely setting on a warm summer’s evening. Both games went well.

My notes tell me I ran four steampunk games on Sunday for an for eclectic range of groups. However, I was getting as bit overwhelmed by this time and didn’t keep details. I know I ran another game of The Occidental Express.

Dave facilitated another game of Microscope and one of Lovecrafteque when he was able to walk away from the table several times and leave the group of players - all beginners - to carry on with it themselves. Excellent facilitation.

The evening event was dominated by the “Burlesque” show. There are loads of ticketed evening events at The Asylum. (Which, to be honest, was why it surprised me that we were allowed to offer a free one.) These usually last the whole evening. But, for some reason, the Burlesque show was offered twice - 7pm-9pm and 9:30pm to10:30pm. We had loads of people expressing interest in our evening games but only if they’d round out the rest of their evening before/after the Burlesque.

As it turned out, we had 3 players plus Dave and myself. So we each pitched a game. I pitched my standard Dr Who scenario (the one I’ve run dozens of times over 5 years). Dave then pulled to rug form under me by pitching a Code of Steam and Steel game. He won and proceeded to weave a world where the French Revolution never happened. France went on to develop submarine technology. Britannia ruled the waves, France ruled the depths. We had an actual marine biologist playing an intelligent Octopus marine scientist. Though Dave claimed to be making things up, his knowledge of underwater fauna - especially giant squid - impressed her. (I think he’d read a textbook once and had been looking for the opportunity to use his knowledge.)

A middle aged couple came in (most of the table were 20’s until then) and asked if they could join in until 9:00pm (Burlesque). Complete newbies to TTRPGs. Another couple came in half an hour later and asked to be allowed to watch. When the first couple left at 9pm, the second couple tagged in - taking over the first couple characters. I felt sorry for the lady concerned because her predecessor had created on character who was one of Napolean’s psychic interrogators - basically the Political Officer on our sub. Not easy to pick up and play.

Playing a character in my own game for once, I started with a spectacularly critical failure and finished by cheating to win the final battle. (Well, people’s lifts home were starting to arrive.)

Again I’ve no notes of how many games I refereed on Monday. I suspect about three. I know I ran a game of The Black Hack for two young 5th Ed experts. As they were familiar with the work of Matt Colville, I ran the scenario I’d designed for Fantasticon the previous weekend - The Tomb of the Twisted Mage. We were joined by two older ladies who were unfamiliar with TTRPGs. I realised, with pleasure, that I was running a game for an all female table.

The day was, however, dominated by my “Live Role Play” in the afternoon. This was advertised in the programme and was to take place in a seminar room in the building. I went up early to find the previous event (“How to do your own pyrotechnics”?) cleaning up.

By the time my presentation was due to start I had an audience of THREE! So I sat them at the table at the front and just started running “One of our Dinosaurs is Missing” for them. Two more people drifted in, so co-opted them to roll the dice for the bad guys. And we had a fun game with the usual wacky endings this scenario produces.

I’ll put my thoughts about TTRPGs at the Asylum in my other report. But overall I refereed or played in almost 30 hours of TTRPGs over 4 days at The Asylum. For people ranging from complete newbies to expert 5th Ed dungeon masters. Male and female across and age range of - I’d guess - 60 years. I’d call that a success.

FantastiCon - Cleethorpes: Sat 17th - Sun 18th August 2019

Fantasticon 2019

TLDR: Fun, slightly ramshackle, SciFi convention crammed with things to DO - including ME running games live on stage - with variable success. The best craft ales around. Friendly, welcoming and enjoyable.

4 years ago I wrote to a Science Fiction convention called “Fantasticon” to ask if I could offer to run some demonstration TTRPG games. I’ve been attending ever since. Even though there are other TTRPGs on offer, I’m listed on their web-site as “Mr RPG.” (Even though I’ve been going for 4 years, I’m still not listed as a “guest”.)

The first two years I went, the convention was in Hull in council offices. I got myself promoted from a side room in the first year, to prime position in the middle of the trade hall in the second.

Then the convention moved to Cleethorpes and took over the local leisure centre. Last year the tabletop gaming, which included me, was put in a Squash court off the main hall. It was a sizeable and convenient room with good passing trade due to the glass wall out to that hall. Unfortunately, without prior warning, we were told that ordinary shoes weren’t allowed on the floor - which led to some interesting comments and potential players walking by. However, the organiser allowed me to run two TTRPGs live on stage in front of the, small but friendly and supportive, convention audience. That was fun and I learnt a lot.

For 2019, the organiser moved the date into the summer holidays. This meant it conflicted with a TTRPG convention I love going to - Grand Tribunal in Cheltenham. But, torn between a small friendly convention of my peers,  with loads of great gaming, and being “Mr RPG” and running games on stage, I went with my Ego, not my Heart, and chose Fantasticon.

Cleethorpes is a classic Northern seaside town and so, with shopping around, it’s possible to find some cheap B&B’s to stay in. It is also only a few hours travel from Birmingham and so it’s possible to get up a stupid o’clock and travel to the convention Saturday morning to arrive just as the doors open. And since there is only one train that’ll make that journey it’s possible to save money using Split Ticketing and Advance single tickets. The accomodation and train travel costs were, therefore, extremely reasonable for a two day event.

Set against that were taxi fares to get around Cleethorpes (and to fill in for failure of early buses in Birmingham to fulfil their timetable. Grrrr!)

The journey went well but somewhere along the line I lost my pull up banner - the one which makes my set-up look so professional.

I arrived at the Convention just as it was opening. I found that this year we were in the children’s gym - with all the equipment moved out - and there were no issues with shoes. Alas I also found I only had one table. It was extra long, but I prefer to have two - one to display the available games and characters - and one to play at. That and the lack of my banner made me feel a bit out of sorts.

Also in the room was table heaving with a board game library, a table set up to demonstrate the Elite Dangerous TTRPG*, a table playing Magic the Gathering and TWO tables put together (grrr) for a very impressive 5th Ed Dungeons and Dragons set-up being offered by a well-organised young lady. 

* I only encounter the Elite Dangerous TTRPG - which is based on a computer game - at Fantasticon. Usually the totally different Elite Dangerous ENCOUNTERS TTRPG is being demonstrated as well. However, I didn’t see THEM this year.

The room had no direct viewing access from the main part of the convention and so things were a bit slow to get going.

Before I go through my experiences, I’ll describe the rest of the event. I LIKE Fantasticon as an event because there is lots for people to do. There is a main hall which contains a small stage - with good PA technician. Chairs are arranged in front of that and there are regular interviews or presentations. Fantasticon is organised by Fantastic Books, a small scale SciFi publisher, and their authors are always ready to discuss their work or process. 

The main hall and side rooms are crammed with stalls selling cookies, fudge, craft ale, artwork, SciFi books and ephemera - some 3D printed to demand - a NERF arena, classic computer console games etc. This year they had an escape room but I didn’t see the usual Dr Who guest actors. The whole event is very vibrant and active but - it must be said - looks a bit ramshackle.

The venue is a rare one in that it doesn’t insist on the convention using its in-house catering. This is a blessing and an issue. The catering organised by thre convention is a booth selling canned drinks, crisps, chocolate and “hot dogs” - boiled tinned frankfurters in dry white buns (and these ran out by Sunday). However they also laid on bottomless squash and biscuits. AND “The Golden Grail” craft ale Tavern were there again selling mead and grog and craft ciders and craft ales in big bottles at reasonable prices. It’s the only alcohol outlet that I really rave about and I just wish more conventions could book them.

Anyway - my day. After a slow start, two quiet teenage boys asked for a game. They were stuck in analysis paralysis picking the genre, so I guided them towards Steampunk. “One of our Dinosaurs is Missing”. They seemed completely stunned when I asked them what their characters were doing. Fortunately I snagged an older guy passing by and pretty soon the table was working. Good news, they recovered the missing Dinosaur. Bad news, they destroyed the Mad Scientist’s device which meant they were unable to return it to its original condition. 

For once I’d had the foresight to pack some food and I was munching on a sandwich when the organiser found me to tell me my first on-stage Role-play was due in half an hour - a bit earlier than we’d anticipated. 

For this, the convention had funded me in producing 50 copies of my D6 HACK - a game I’d written for the Role-Play Relief books we’d sold for charity earlier in the year. These were to be given to the audience and contained the full game as well as the pregens to be played on stage AND the special dungeon I’d designed.

The previous year I’d run Matt Colville’s “The Delian Tomb”, my standard introductory scenario. I realised that I couldn’t run that one again this year, so I’d written and playtested a replacement. The idea was that the audience could follow the dungeon in the book as we played through it.

The set was adequate but a little crude. Four chairs on the stage, each with a microphone. In front of them two chairs to act as makeshift tables with dice, pregens, pencils etc. on them. I had a wireless microphone and strode up and down in front of the stage, sometimes talking to the audience and sometimes (a bit too much) directly to the players on stage.

I selected volunteers from the audience. Two teenage girls, one early teens one later, in Cosplay. An older guy (forties?) in a brown shirt and very fine “Jayne” hat. I also press ganged an woman in her thirties (?) who seemed a bit reluctant. 

The audience was slightly sparser than last year and I received less feedback than I remembered in terms of laughter, calling out etc. The older guy on stage tended to dominate a bit but he also tended to miss some of the cues. If he’d listened more to the bright ideas of the younger players they’d’ve done a lot better. Also he seemed able to talk loudly into his microphone whereas the younger girls sometimes forgot to and we lost their suggestions.

The adventure was resolved within the alloted hour. Having failed to find the magic item they needed to defeat the Evil Wizard’s Revenant, as the party fled in terror the Priest (played by the previously reluctant woman) made an impossible roll to banish it, so everything turned out well in the end.

I’d been really looking forward to this and was hyper self-critical. The players had had a good time but I didn’t know how well it had gone down with the audience. I think I’d over-prepared it and the idea of the audience following the dungeon in a book hadn’t seemed to work.

5/10 room for improvement.

Upon return to my proper table, a couple wanted to play “Firefly”. We grabbed some passersby and soon had a full table. To rescue Mal, Zoe and Simon from the Alliance before a shuttle could arrive to whisk them away, they engineered a fake fire alarm at the Star Port. As the Alliance agents hustled the hostages into a hover wagon and headed across the landing pan, our heroes commandeered a fire truck and pursued - Jayne having immense fun with the water cannon.  It all ended with Wash crashing the truck into the shuttle as it landed, cutting it in two (and nearly finishing Jayne in the process). Fun!

A lady turned up and asked for her table back. So had to clear my stuff away. Elite Dangerous gave me their table to use. So I was able to run one last Firefly game for two players - they chose to play Wash and Kayleigh. Not the most powerful pairing. Same scenario but their final showdown with the Alliance agents was in the VIP lounge with Kayleigh using a makeshift Taser to drop the leading Alliance Agent whilst Wash was dismantled by his bodyguard. She then threatened to kill the bodyguard’s boss unless the - not mentally gifted - bodyguard co-operated. Challenging but satisfying.

In the evening, most activities at Fantasticon wind down. There are a series of - usually musical - shows on stage. (This year started with a long sword demonstration.)

However, the BIG thing is that the organiser usually covers the cost at the craft ale bar for the evening. Superb alcoholic drinks. Nectar. Free all night. I don’t stay. It’s just too dangerous for a lightweight like me.

Just before I left, a group came into the gaming room, pulled the tables together and set up a zombie board game with about a dozen players.

Overnight at my Guest House, I pondered the day’s Live Role Play. I decided to design a story based adventure with several obvious locations rather than a dungeon. It was roughly based upon a scenario I’d downloaded online a couple of years ago which had recently been updated by a friend in his online blog. Only roughly though, as I had to hack it back so it could be completed in just an hour. I wrote it out by hand on two pages of an exercise book before breakfast.

I got up early. Arrived at the Leisure Centre before anyone else and grabbed TWO tables, one for my display and one to play at. I felt happier already. It was then that I noticed that my table was the only one in the room with table covers. Maybe it’s all the uncovered tables that make the convention look so ramshackle.

Other people began to arrive and I heard stories of people with hangovers from the free bar. Also the Zombie game had apparently run until 11:00pm. (Hmmm, I may investigate running a longer game in the evening next year.) The impressive young lady running 5th Ed wasn’t back. I heard she was, apparently, a “professional” GM who is sometimes paid to run games and had been refereeing at a convention in a castle the previous weekend. Good luck to her I say.

Once the convention had warmed up I got a table of players for a Steampunk game and had my first chance to try out one of the new scenarios I’ve prepared for The Asylum steampunk convention next weekend. “Drill to the Heart of the World”.

(Who am I kidding? I’ve got one basic scenario which I just “reskin” for different adventures.)

It was massive fun with Lady Melissa Poole becoming Queen of the Hollow Earth.

After that I had three players for a Cthulhu Hack game. As usual they thought they could shoot/blag their way through it. Cue one character fleeing in terror as the other two were torn apart by the “Bag Bad”. (It’s hard to run a Horror game in an hour without it degenerating into pulp.)

Just before the day’s live role play, I quickly squeezed in another Steampunk game. A young boy and his father and a passerby. The boy really wanted to play. His dad tried to opt out but I put a character sheet in front of him and told him he didn’t have to say anything. He was soon involved.

The Great Airship Robbery. This stood out for two reasons. The boy used my “bidding” initiative system to grab easy opponents to fight, usually dropping his dad in trouble so he could come running to the rescue. Also, when trying to cross from one airship to another, trying to jump over isn’t the best course of action. Putting a plank between isn’t much better!

Then to the Live-Role Play. The audience was even smaller than Saturday. But this went 100% better. Firstly the players who volunteered were GREAT. Two mid/late teen girls from the same Cosplay group. One had played in Saturday’s game. I didn’t know because she’d changed costumes. She knew the game and helped her friend - especially with talking into the microphone. An older (but still very young - 20’s/30’s) woman. And a white haired grandad (you know the cool guys in their late 60’s early 70’s).

The older guy chose to play the thief. He was a hoot. Clearly channeling “Vila” from Blakes Seven, he poo-poohed every heroic act the other characters suggested, refused to scout (until he was bribed) and was never around when a fight started (but always emerged behind the baddies once things kicked off.) A classic thief and he was clearly driving all of the other players up the wall.

Then, as you’ll have gathered, the other players clearly wanted to get stuck in. 

I’d also learnt from Saturday and took time to explain things to the audience and brief the players about microphone use etc.

And finally, the mapless, story-based adventure worked much better. Things were resolved by the characters setting off a revolution between the two factions of goblins and rushing in the kill the goblin king. (Sling bullet from behind by surprise doing most of the damage, of course.)

(Oh yes, the huge, pint-sized bottle of craft cider - £2! - I was swigging from to stay lubricated - helped as well.)

It was great. There wasn’t much feedback from the audience - or maybe I just didn’t notice them laughing at the Thief through my own chuckles. But the players clearly had a hoot.

And at the end a big bearded guy from the audience - who’d looked bored throughout - stormed up to me and said “That’s not fair! What was in the cave?”

(The goblins had been forced their human slaves to pile rocks in front of a cave near their village - nearly blocking it. Sensibly, the players had avoided it.)

So I broke my own rule and let him see behind the curtain. He seemed satisfied.

The session was filmed and I hope it captured half of my fun. If it did, expect to see it on YouTube soon.

I returned to my table and had time to fit in another session of “Drill into the Heart of the World” - where, coincidentally, Sir MICHAEL Poole turned down the chance to become King of the Hollow Earth - before travelling home.

I don’t get to many SciFi conventions but FantastiCon seems to be unique. The vision of one man who just wants everyone to have FUN it may seem (I’ll say it again) rather ramshackle but it is just rammed to the rafters with things to DO. Friendly, welcoming and with the best bar and best beer in the world. If you want to GAME there’s plenty to do. If you want to play TTRPGs, you’d find it a bit more limited. It’s just FUN.