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.

BurritoCon 3 - Saturday 27th March 2019 - Manchester

BurritoCon3 Saturday 27th July 2019

I can't remember where I found out about BurritoCon. It either appeared on Dave's wonderful master spreadsheet or I saw it being plugged on Twitter. (I've started tweeting more since G+ died.)

Anyway - it was a one day games day not too far from Birmingham - it's in Manchester - on a weekend where I had a spare slot. (You tend to get spare slots late July and throughout August.)

I wrote to the organiser - at quite a late stage - offering to run games. Turns out we knew each other and he remembered me. (I have difficulty, of course, remembering the hundreds of people I referee games for every year.) So he agreed I could offer a game - but only one, he was very strict on this.

As it got nearer the event the reason for this strictness became clear. It's a small, growing, event. Initially there was interest from fewer than 20 people so he booked three tables at the venue for three games in the morning and three in the afternoon and he had game offers from more than 6 people. And he wanted as many people to get to referee as possible.

As interest grew, he changed the booking to four tables so he could offer a total of eight games. (Still limited me to offering one, though).

All eight games were advertised on Twitter and on the organiser's blog. In fact the organiser did a great job promoting the event and it's always better to have a bit too much enthusiasm than too little effort being put in.

The game offerings seemed to be very eclectic. (Great! Just the way I like things.) I'd just caught and binge watched a bawdy Victorian police comedy series on TV and decided to "Hack" my Code Games to offer a game based on it.

I then playtested the scenario at StabCon and it worked. Well.

There's been some debate on Social Media recently about "comedy" TTRPGs and I generally come down against writing a "funny" game. So I didn't here. The only blatantly "funny" things I did were to called the missing Destroyer the HMS Prince Albert and to give one of the pregens a near the knuckle "quirk". The rest was a pretty basic police procedural story.

There was no prebooking. I enquired before the event about whether I should make my own sign up sheet, only to be told that they didn't use signup sheets. Interesting. The first time I've come across this.

Getting to Manchester from Birmingham was a breeze. Google maps let me walk from the station to the event, even going via a print shop to get some last minute printing done. (I bumped into a fellow GM doing exactly the same. Again, I'm sorry, he knew me but I had trouble putting a name to a face.)

We arrived just before the venue opened. It's in an area of Manchester with lots of "artisan cafe's" and loads of attendees had met up for breakfast at a bistro over the road.

We went across when the venue opened. I was towards the front and overheard the venue manager telling the convention organiser exactly which were the booked tables and so I grabbed the first one, sat down, and filled it with my full colour character sheets. Naturally I got lots of interest and could have had a table of six players. (We'd all agreed as Referees on Twitter in advance to prepare for 5 players but to have a 6th pregen ready just in case.) However, the organiser came around and asked if I could limit my table to 5 people as he wanted every table to have a good number of players 4-5. He'd been around counting. So I'm guessing the total attendance was just shy of 24 people. One of the players agreed to choose another game. (But it was a good choice. Apart from my game there was a FASERIP game, a classic IMAGINE D&D Scenario run using the new Old School Essentials and a Monkey game written by it's creator.)

Of the five players I was left with, four had arrived as a group so there were the usual in jokes etc. But I noticed some of the more socially adept of them deliberately working to include the singleton player as, of course, I did.

As I'd hoped and expected, they'd chosen my game because they just wanted to have a good time. So - even with me playing it fairly straight - it soon descended into an extremely adult version of a "Carry On" film. (We even had the gratuitous cross dressing scene). Laughter and gags flew thick and fast. These were entertaining and experienced players who "got" my system and made it do what they wanted. For large chunks of the time they were simply entertaining themselves and I could just sit back and enjoy the interplay. They made the introductory scene last an hour, somehow.

As we played, I noticed that the venue we were playing in was getting extremely busy. It isn't exactly a gaming cafe. It's a games store on two levels with loads of tables and vending machines and drinks and snacks. There was no special entry free for the convention, the players just paid £3 each for their time at the table and, as referee, I got £1 per player in "store credit" for Refereeing. (£5). Apart from our "convention" there was also a large Pokemon event on (one of the vending machines was just full of packs of Pokemon cards) and the shop was full of casual customers. It was the busiest, most successful shop of its type I've ever seen.

The first session ran from 10am to 1pm.  We then broke for an hour for lunch. I found an artisan cafe down the road with passable sandwiches and French toast. But the eating options were myriad. (I presume there has to be a Burrito place nearby).

As you'll have surmised, in the afternoon I had to PLAY a game. (Not my first choice, but still an enjoyable experience.) I stood back to let everyone choose their favourite one first.

Choices were: Heroquest Glorantha, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Star Wars Cassablanca and psychic secret agents preventing the Kennedy Assassination in Berlin. Good selection.

I ended up in the "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" game and was VERY happy with that. This, it turned out, was a well disguised Hack of Lady Blackbird, run by its designer who's tweaking it for publication. (Doesn't need much tweaking if you ask me). Off the books US psychic secret agents "Project Cassandra" foresee Kennedy being killed in Berlin. No one believes them so their bosses send them in to save POTUS and prove the validity of the project in one go. Obviously things don't go to plan.

It's actually a perfect set-up for a mid-budget action movie. Ideal Gerard Butler vehicle.

The characters were very well balanced. Everyone had their necessary role. I was the mercenary type who got a academic and the ex-thief into the city to let them do their stuff. I hope the arrogance of my character - and my luck with die rolls - didn't come over as an experienced player showing off. I tried to sit back and play up the other characters. (And not scream at their analysis paralysis at times.)

The system was basically a dice pool system. These aren't intuitive to me but I understood it pretty much from the start. As I said, I don't see much that needs fixing and it's pretty much ready for publication as it stands.

I paid for my afternoon game (£3 remember) out of my £5 shop credit. Apart from a couple of cans of Coke, the only thing I could find in the shop for £2 was an unpainted metal Superhero speedster figure in a sale box. (When did games stuff get so expensive?) so I asked to have it transferred to the Convention organiser's account and at least one other person copied my example.

Then I came home.

BurritoCon is typical of the new breed of "Games Days" springing up across the country. Just like our own much-loved Spaghetti ConJunction. Rather than a full scale convention, the organisers book a pre-existing venue - such as a games cafe - and just organise the games. Just about everything else is done for them. Today, for example, all the monies were paid directly to the venue using their usual systems.

And it was a really, really,good venue. You'll have noticed in these reports I rarely name people or venues. But this one deserves special citation. It's Fan Boy 3 in Manchester city centre. Large, bright, two floors. Bursting with gaming goodness. Loads of tables. All the snacks and drinks you want at reasonable prices (£1 for a can seems about right to me). It hosted BurritoCon, a Pokemon convention and still had room for scores of other customers during the day. I think they've got stuff sewn up. If anyone thinks about asking me about opening a game store/cafe, I'll simply suggest they visit Fan Boy 3 to see how it's done.

So, with the venue taking so much of the strain, did the convention organiser actually have any work to do? Well, yes. It's only a small event but he did a superb job of matching the number of referees to tables to players. He planned an offering and stuck to it and then trusted the players to respond to it reasonably without any complex signup systems being needed. And he grew the event through relentless on line promotion. Good job.

He's thinking of offering it again in the autumn - and I think he should, though I warned him it's a much more crowded time in the calendar. If another BurritoCon comes up and I'm free, I'll be back in a shot. Really enjoyed it. Really pleasant day out.

JollyCon 12th and 13th July 2019

JollyCon 12th - 13th July 2019

TLDR: Huge house party thrown by the excellent comedy duo "Jollyboat". Heaven for Nerds. Lots of appetite for #TTRPGs.

I take my "Choose Your Adventure" - an introduction to #TTRPG sessions -  to many non-gaming cons. But JollyCon has to be the weirdest - and best - I've ever been to.

I first became aware of Jollyboat a couple of years ago when they started performing at UK Games Expo. They are a comedy musical pirate brother duo. I then met them, briefly, last year when a mutual friend introduced us as we were all arriving at Expo early in the morning. I guess we're all just equally professional. This year, as part of me trying to wean myself off my #TTRPG refereeing addiction, I actually went to see one of their shows at Expo. And was blown away.

When they mentioned, as part of the show, that they had a convention for their fans, I immediately messaged them to ask if they wanted my to offer games at their event. Despite it being early hours of the morning, and them being tired (and, I'd guess, drunk) after doing a show, they replied immediately accepting my offer. This is one thing I've learnt about them. They always reply.

Didn't hear much but then in the week before the event I was suddenly hit by lots of info. This makes you very excited and I even invented and sent them a Pirate joke they'd never heard of - which made me inordinately happy. (Why does the Pirate Captain use conditioner?*)

Which meant it was time to get my "Pirate costume". I'd left it to the last minute because I figured my usual "gaming persona" outfit would get me by just through substituting a scarf/bandana for the flat cap. Who knew that buying a headscarf/bandana in Birmingham on the Friday evening would such a non-trivial task? I ended up buying a cheap and nasty pirate set from a Party store with a bandana two sizes too small for my head!l

There is a pre-con meetup (and drinks) Friday night but I chose to travel up Saturday morning. Because Liverpool is not too far, and the con didn't officially start until 11:00am, I didn't have to get up at stupid o'clock for once. The venue was walkable from the station (especially as I discovered my Apple Watch links to the Maps App and gives you brilliant instructions - better than holding a phone.) It was the Nordic Church and Civic Centre in Liverpool's "Baltic Triangle". (They have all sorts of explanations for the name but I still think it's a rip-off of Birmingham's BALTI triangle.)

I got there by 10:00 an hour before it started. Allowed straight in. The venue basically has three floors. The bottom floor is liked a large meeting room with a small stage. The top floor is a chapel designed like a small church with vaulting roof and pews. The middle floor, where I was based, was the socialising area. I'd been given a small table and chairs at one end - identified by a huge inflatable d20 and couple of small games books. ("Weave" the RPG of textiles magicians and a "Magic Girl" Anime RPG. In both bases, thanks for the suggestion but no thanks.) I later found out they'd been left by my friend who was at the event, performing.

The room also contained tables down one side where food (and drink) were sold. The food was of the "home made" variety often found in churches. The drink was mainly ales and rum - suitable for pirates. Both were extremely moderately priced. The end of the room contained the JollyBoat merchandising stand. The rest of the room was filled with tables.

The whole venue had been decorated and styled for the event. JollyBoat bunting and pirate flags were everywhere. The downstairs room was "below decks", the upstairs room was "the crows nest". Toilets were  "the poop deck". JollyBoat themselves were there greeting everyone and "Ed JollyBoat" himself escorted me to my table.

I set up my banner and table. I'd decided to bring a cut down version of my setup - no stands or table covers - which I could fit in a backpack rather than wheeling a large suitcase. I was glad I did. Only one small table. But I set up a display of my available games.

The doors opened at 11:00 and people flooded in. I don't know the exact numbers but I think it was about 200. Lots of people showed interest in my table and we soon had a game going. Firefly using my The Code of the Spacelanes rules. We had mix of people who'd role-played before and newbies. People who'd seen the series and those that hadn't etc. As always happens, the young player who'd never seen the series chose to play River Tam. We'd just had the gratuitous bar room brawl when everyone was called "below decks" for the opening ceremony.

This was an absolute blast! JollyBoat are a musical comedy duo and started out by singing a new song about the convention and everything it offered, with comedy callouts to many of the presenters. There was full program of events in each of the two performing rooms. Singers, open mic, a live roleplay. (Not me. It was called "the Dungeonmster is a Dick"). Live game design on stage, a stripping granny etc. They seemed to be going for a "mini Edinburgh Fringe" festival.

I had two thoughts. Firstly was "with all this on, I'm not going to get any players for games". The second was "who cares. I'd be happen just watching the shows."

Actually I'd even offered 5 mins of gag-telling for the open mic - as long as I wasn't running games. They didn't have a guitar available and I don't have a travelling acoustic or I would have offered a song. As it happened  the open mic was over-subscribed. JollyBoat and the audience they've fostered create an inclusive vibe where every feels they can safely have a go at stuff.

But the highlight of the opening ceremony was the Health and Safety announcement. This was given by an older lady - I suppose the equivalent of a church warden. After last year's event, the Venue staff  had bought themselves Pirate costumes and prepared some material. It was the funniest - and filthiest - safety warning ever. Eg. "If the fire bell goes off, just run like f@ck". The audience chant of "Health and Safety, Health and Safety......." shows how popular she was.

We returned to the table but some players had chosen to remain downstairs for the "speed friending" event. I filled the table with replacements and we finished the game off. (Wash turned up at the bad guys' door dressed as a Waiter with a food trolley. As he rammed into into the boss, and River unfurled from beneath it, Jane burst in with his SMGs. Very in trope and great fun.)

As people drifted off, I really expected it to be my one and only game of the day. I bought lunch - a huge bowl of steaming vegan soup and a roll. Just veg. but so well seasoned and with such good use of herbs it was lovely and filling.

I collared a family doing the "draw yourself as a pirate" giant blackboard and they syuat down the play. A mum and dad (ex-roleplayer) a young daughter (early secondary school?) a hyper-hyper active younger son (late primary?) and a babe in arms (wearing the cutest Harry Potter romper suit). The daughter chose play horror. So I took out "The Cthulhu Hack" by Paul Baldowski and the intro scenario he'd kindly given me. Another grown man joined us - another experienced role-player and I think a friend of the family. (You can never tell. These games make us all instant friends.)

As you can probably tell, the boy was ball of energy wanting to do everything NOW! Somehow I coped and luckily his character (and one other) boarded the departing steamer (not in Paul's original scenario - and addition of my own) as the rest investigated the spooky warehouse.

My favourite moment was when the young boy's character discovered a desiccated corpse and he said "Like Dr Who?"

Good parenting.

It was sometime around now that Ed JollyBoat took the time to come over, check that I was OK and got me a drink. This is typical of the two of them. Organising and running the event, putting on multiple shows but still taking the time to meet people and check they're OK.

The instant that the Horror table cleared it filled again. This time there were enough newbies to justify my standard intro to #TTRPGs - Matt Colville's (check YouTube) The Delian Tomb using The Black Hack rules by David Black. It's a match made in heaven and I've run it dozens of times - never the same twice - and it always delivers. This time the Conjuror was the star, braining goblins with her staff and saving the day with a LUCKY sleep spell.

After the shortest of breaks, I had another full table for a Steampunk game. They chose to do "The Great Airship Robbery". A critical success in the initial "find out what you know" roll meant that I did a massive information dump to the table. I told them EVERYTHING about the plot - including all the twists. I had no idea what this would do and thought it might have spoiled the adventure. However, the info proved simply too much for the group and - whilst they were able to foil one side of the plot they couldn't stop the actual robbery.  Still, there is something really satisfying about having a group of "French Terorrists" burst into a warehouse - expecting to find everyone inside poisoned - running into massed ranks of British Rifles. And then the characters took their small army with them to pursue the real baddies meaning that, in the end, both airships were recovered in perfect condition. (A rare outcome for this scenario).

This scenario finished shortly after 5pm when tea was served. This was massively well organised. You handed over a fiver and took one of the plates already laid out. These contained salads, crisps and a food option. By the time I got there most of the remaining options seemed to be vegetarian but there was a massive range - "burger", kebab, some kind of sausage thing. I took a plate with sizeable piece of cheese and onion quiche and some bread rolls and butter. For a drink I bought myself a "Mai Tai" rum cocktail. Despite the cute sign saying the more you drank, the more it helped JollyBoat - and the oft repeated exhortation from the lads themselves to eat drink and be merry - I'd kept off alcohol all day for personal reasons. I figured I was due some. It was lovely and so was the meal.

Amazingly, in between tea and the "group photo" at 7pm, I got ANOTHER table of players. Steampunk again. This time my standard "Evolution of Species" scenario. Again a good roll at the start meant that the Lamplighter spotted a pattern in the strange disappearances and the team were given a squad of officers to escort them into the sewers. (Slightly hampered by the fact that the Sergeant in charge fell head of heels for one of the characters and spent all his time protecting her.) The other unique feature of the game was a newbie (in his 30s/40s?) who was enjoying the freedom and trying to make things up before waiting for me to announce them or rolling the dice. My usual giant rats were replaced by giant centipedes. (Later eaten by giant millipedes.) And the whole plot was masterminded by Aliens, not my usual Prussian Vivisectionist.

I was rushing this and made a couple of arithmetic all errors which the table spotted. I blamed this on the Mai Tai - and I wasn't totally lying. (That may also explain why the aliens were "Greys" when I should have used Martians.)

I'm guessing I banged through this whole story in about 45mins, in time for the group photo. So I CAN demo games in under an hour. This was also the opinion of a player at the table - a fellow referee and one of the country's premiere #TTRPG convention organisers - whose views I totally respect.

Then it was outside for the group photo. A motley crew of 200 pirates - many with stuffed monkeys (an inside joke) outside a church. Don't know what the passing traffic thought but there were plenty of honks.

Then inside for the headline shows. Upon arrival punters received goodie bags. (I didn't get one or seek one). Inside one of these was a wristband - either blue or gold for the upstairs room or downstairs one. I had a red band - because I was important. This meant I could do "whatever the f@ck you want" but Ed suggested strongly that Red bands should be in the upstairs room as it was larger. And this WAS the better option.

We got to see the support act - a really talented young magician - first and JollyBoat second.

With the Magician everyone was a winner. We got a great show and he got to try out a whole new act he was preparing for the Edinburgh fringe in front of a supportive audience who didn't mind pauses to check his script. I'm an incredibly picky audience member and my evil critical little man inside would have preferred a larger trick to patter ratio. However, though I think I know how some of the tricks were done, I didn't actually catch him doing it and there was at least one great new twist on an old standard.  And every so often he broke off for no reason to give us teasing snippets of his own life story which always cut off unresolved. I loved that and wanted more of it. It was of course resolved at the end of the act.

Then back down to the main room for drinks between acts. BUT the two old ladies who were the venue staff were there in their pirate costumes regaling us all with sea shanties. It was great. The only problem with the venue is the lack of disabled access and they're trying to raise money for a lift. If I HAD a CD player, I would have bought a CD off them as many people did.

Then back to the chapel for the final act - JollyBoat themselves. We got them when they were slightly tipsy, high from a great day, slightly ramshackle (Ed's guitar string broke, Tommy couldn't find the words to a song on his phone - only to be passed a phone by an audience member who'd found them on the website Tommy had made himself!), and absolutely not giving a sh!t. We got their classic songs (the one about D&D monsters was ace as always) but also two of their filthiest and most rarely performed. It was absolute joy!

After 11pm we were supposed to leave the venue. Everyone else was going on to a drunken "after party" ( most having been drinking since 11:00am) but I didn't trust myself and made my excuses to get a taxi to my B&B.

The day had been one of absolute joy. I ran 5 fun games, saw one good show and one completely unforgettable one. Even if I hadn't had any games, I would still have had a great and day. There was just too much to see and do.

At the centre of this were JollyBoat and the crew they've built around themselves. Everything was massively well organised and they seem to be two really genuine guys who'd make any mother proud, who everybody wants to be friends with and - I suspect - many people would like to be MORE than friends with. And they seem to have time for everyone, both in person and on social media. My only conclusion has to be that they are two angels sent down to earth just to bring joy.

I hate 'em. They're just too nice and too bloody talented!

From a #TTRPG point of view is worth coming to JollyCon? Well yes. Apart from my demo games (and I'll be back next year unless something serious happens) there are board games in the main hall and numerous shows to pique your interest and as a nerd. BUT spaces are strictly limited and by coming you'll be squeezing out a real JollyBoat fan.

BUT if you are going to UK Games expo next year, make sure you catch one of their shows. It's the same cost as a Hilton pint, lasts longer and will bring you much much more joy.

Or catch them on tour. I can't recommend them highly enough. They're my friends.

(But they're still far too good looking, nice and talented! B@stards!)

http://www.jollyboat.co.uk



* because of 'is Coarse 'Airs (Corsairs)

Summer StabCon - 5th - 7th July 2019

Summer StabCon 5th-7th July 2019

TLDR: Anyone who has read my blog - or my earlier printed diaries - already knows all about StabCon. Held twice per year in the same hotel in Stockport, organised by the same couple (absolute Heroes, both!) for years, it's always the same and always delivers. It's the comfort food of conventions. Like coming home to an extended family. Like putting on your old comfy dressing gown and slippers.

You book up in advance (usually at the previous StabCon) and the organisers prebook a room - including breakfast - for you. There is no requirement for any pre-organisation. You just turn up from 2pm on the Friday and see how things go.

Some of the more modern con-goers have set up a Facebook page for the event. This is nothing to do with the organisers but they often check in. I used the page to pre-advertise the games I was intending to run. But there is no requirement for referees to do this.

As usual I travelled up straight after work on Friday. I arrived at the event in time to check in - both at the hotel reception to get my room and at the convention front desk to collect my personalised name badge. I got talking to a player in the queue who was enquiring about my games and I asked him to post my sign up sheets on the board whilst I waited.

I'm never sure at StabCon where to pitch my sheets. The provided sheets are simple A5 forms. Some people bring their own, A5 or A4, B&W or colour. This time I'd gone all out producing A4 full colour jobs only to find almost everyone else using the B&W A5 ones provided by the convention. I looked like I was trying too hard. But my Saturday morning game (Star Trek the original series) booked out in under a minute! Surely a record of some kind. There seemed to be a few more TTRPG games on offer than usual - StabCon is primarily a board game event - and most of them were already full of players. The TTRPG side of the convention seems to be healthy and growing.

I bought myself a pint and ordered my usual StabCon Friday night food (a 12" "American Hot" pizza) and chatted to a couple of people. Loads of people said "hello" to me. I'm sorry. I did a count once. I run games for literally hundreds of people every year. Possibly pushing a thousand. And I've never been good at asking or remembering names. I'm more likely to remember your character. Everyone knows me but I know hardly anyone.

Anyway I made my way over to my usual Friday night group.

A long long time ago I found out that by the time I arrive at StabCon, it's too late to find players for an evening game. But I've been lucky enough so sign up for a Savage World campaign run by the same Referee with the same players every Friday night. This is my first bookend of the weekend. I know what I'm doing and who with before I arrive.

Actually this is the third campaign we've been in with this referee. It all started off with a one-off "play yourself in a fantasy game" adventure which spilled off over two conventions. (The one famous for its "Lancashire Goblins".) The players all begged for more so the referee ran a massively detailed mini-campaign based on a series of books by David Gemmell. For the last two years he's been running a pre-WW2 game. Sort of Indiana Jones territory but we're all minor Super-types. (I'm a cyborg, sort of "the £6,000 man".) This referee is a larger than life character and the games are designed with lovely tongue in cheek humour. Previously we'd stopped the Nazis from weaponising Tea and Opera. This time we were tasked with extracting a German doctor who could confirm the rumours about that status of Hitler's genitalia - and that of other Reichsmarshalls.

The table had suffered some "campaign bloat". When you run a regular group there are times when a player is away and you let another one join in. Then, when the original player comes back, your group has grown. Today we were up to seven players. A couple too many IMHO and any other time I might have felt a bit disgruntled. And Savage Worlds, whilst clever, has a couple of features which aren't to my taste. But THIS referee coped easily and, Friday night, after a long week at work, all I want is few beers with friends and I'm not really bothered about fighting for spotlight time. I found the endless analysis paralysis and discussion about which character exactly was sitting in which seat in which car amusing rather than irritating.

After an incident a few years ago (detailed in my printed diaries) I am usually careful about how much I drink at a convention. But Friday night at StabCon I relax a bit. A total of four of us bought rounds for the table. I was sensible enough to switch to Diet Coke after about four pints

As usual we didn't finish the adventure the referee had planned for the session and we voted to finish early - before midnight - rather than push on into the early hours. (I don't think he's realised yet that we do it to keep him offering the game at the next event. He has to carry on to finish it off.)

It's a lovely setting he's created for the game and when finally gets around to publishing it as a sourcebook, I'll let you all know about it.

Some people at the table carried on playing "beer and pretzels" games. Some of us turned in. What with all the beer and being tired from work, I slept like a log. It had been a great start to the weekend.

I got up early, sorted the resources for the day's games and went to breakfast. As usual I got there as soon as it opened. (I'm not a fan of the peak time breakfast crush at hotels.) The breakfast - included in the booking - is a typical hotel buffet breakfast. Not the best, by far, but perfectly adequate and we've all eaten worse.

After breakfast I checked my sign up sheets. Out of three games for five players each only one space wasn't filled. (More about this, later.)

I'd booked myself a table in one of the side rooms used for RPGs, so I took my place and set up for my first game.

This was Star Trek - the Original Series - using my own The Code of the Spacelanes rules. This is something I'd been putting off for years. I've used the game to replay the classic ST-TOS episode "The Doomsday Machine" many times but placed in a more generic setting. But I'd never gotten around to statting  up the classic characters. Sometimes things are just TOO obvious, you know? But for some reason I thought it was about time.

The five players elected to play Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Chekhov. No Kirk or Scotty. Interesting.

I ran an adventure rooted in the first ever Star Trek original novel "Spock Must Die" by James Blish.  One of the things about StabCon is that there is minimal official organisation. The organisers provide a noticeboard, sign up sheets and rooms. That's it. There are no official TTRPG "slots". You have to set your own times. Eg. One I saw for Saturday morning said "10am start, no more than 6 hours."

When you try to do this you realise it's impossible. No-one wants to start before 10am  but you want to finish in time for lunch. You can't fit in a four hour slot easily. So I'd posted this as a three hour game.

And it worked perfectly. The players, most of whom have played with me before, were  all wonderful. I learnt a lot about real science vs. Star Trek science from the player controlling Spock - and had make several rulings in favour of canon. All characters were played with joy and to type. And the setting and rules were a perfect match. Like Fish and Chips. I'll be running this game again. And again. And I'll add the characters into my "Choose your Adventure" set up.

For lunch I went to the bar and bought a couple of baps. The synergy between the hotel and the convention is great. The food offered is just what gamers want. Sandwiches, baps, pork pies, doughnuts, chocolate pies(!) for lunch and Pizzas, Burgers, Curry and Fish'n'chips at night. (Though everything is available all day.)

In the afternoon I ran my "Year of the Rabbit" game. This was a bit of a punt. It's based on a new TV series that not everyone has seen. A gritty, sweaty, Victorian, Police comedy. Somehow I managed to binge it on line before the series had finished on telly. I loved it!

In order to run it I hacked my own Code games. Arguably - spoilers - given the final episode the series could be described as "Steampunk". However, it's only lightly Steampunk and my Code of Steam and Steel rules wouldn't have worked. So I knocked up "The Code of the Rabbit".

This is the game for which I had only four out of five sign ups. The "big three" from the series - Inspector Rabbit himself, his partner, Strauss and London's first WPC, the gloriously foul mouthed Mabel - plus the Flora the contract killer (and Rabbit's lover). No-one wanted to play Joseph Merrick "the Elephant Man" - who is a big part of the series.

Again this was made glorious by players who just came to play and have fun. In particular I was overjoyed to have one of my regular players take the role of Mabel. I've never heard her swear before but soon we were all f-ing and blinding all over the place. The room was filled with other gamers and we distracted a couple sometimes, but it was more for the wacky shennanigans than the swearing.

I'd stated that this slot would run for 2pm to "6ish" giving us four hours, knowing most of my games run for less than this. But what with it being a new scenario - my second of the weekend - and a couple of other factors, the players ate the plot up and were looking to complete it in less than three. During one of the "comfort breaks" I came up with an extra layer of the onion for the mystery which, as it turned out, I didn't need. The final scene was riotous hoot of people repeatedly pushing buttons which they knew they shouldn't - trying to undo the hilarious effects of the previous one. THAT's what distracted the other tables. (When board gamers overhear Roleplayers, they can be a bit bemused.) I'll be running this adventure again at a convention in a few weeks and know what tweets to make.

I was running short of cash, so I ordered my evening food - Fish and Chips - from the bar in the convention room. It is cash only. So I went out to the main hotel bar to buy my drink. The barman there asked about the sort of games we were playing and I launched into my evangelism for TTRPGs. He commented on how much beer gamers put away every time they turned up.

But the hotel NEVER runs out of beer. Another example of the synergy between the hotel and the convention which other venues could learn from. My fish and chips, delivered to my numbered stand at my table, arrived in less than half an hour. The kitchen was constantly banging out hot meal after hot meal. The hotel must make a pretty penny on the catering and the bar even though the gamer food prices are so reasonable. This hotel as been well trained and learnt its lessons.

Another StabCon tradition that's developed is me offering a horror game Saturday night. I don't run many horror games and I've exhausted all the scenarios I'm comfortable with. However, I'd recently played in a game run by its author at another convention. It had gone on to win two awards at UK Games Expo. The scenario was intriguing, clever and devious. (It explores the consequences of transporting a classic bit of Lovecraftian Lore to the near future.) So I'd bought that to run.

Alas, though I'd played it and read it through several times, when it came to play there proved to be just one too many moving parts for me to handle. Like when you've got a cryptic crossword to solve and you just can't crack it.

But the players were having a great time playing their characters and were very tolerant of my occasional page flipping in search of a particular reference I remembered. And we managed to engineer a very satisfying ending. You know those cryptic warning messages you get and think "why is this so garbled? Couldn't they have been clearer?" Well now we know why.

One of the signs, I think, of good referees is that we are very self critical. So I knew I hadn't delivered. It happens from time to time. But the players honestly thanked me for a good session and I did overhear some of them talking to friends about it very positively afterwards.

Before turning in I posted two things on the TTRPG sign up board. One was a note to tell my regular Sunday morning group of players where we were playing. The second was a sign up sheet for a potential game Sunday afternoon.

A week ago on Twitter someone had posted an idea for a game when every time someone used a resource, they tore a piece of paper from a toilet roll on the rebels. So the roll would act as limit on the group's resources. The idea had intrigued me and so I offered to run a toilet roll based game Sunday afternoon - and I wrote the sign up sheet on toilet roll. StabCon is the only convention where I'd feel confident doing that.

I'd drunk rather more beer than I usually do when refereeing and again had a good night's sleep. Breakfast was fine again - the hash browns being particularly well done as I like them.

Sunday morning was my second bookend to StabCon. Just like Friday night's game, I'd once run a one-off game (a refight of "The Force Awakens" with new characters) and the players had asked for a sequel. This had turned into a Star Wars campaign and - when I'd run out of story ideas - changed into a Superhero campaign. Both campaigns using my unpublished Manifold rules.

I was a bit worried about this game because it was six months between episodes and - even though I checked back in this blog to see what had happened - I tend to forget things. But I needn't have worried. The corrupted robot character was rescued - well given the tools to save himself really. And the characters took off into space to defeat the alien invasion despite me throwing literally overwhelming odds against them three times. Somehow all the characters and all the players just gelled this morning. It was an absolute delight. This could have been a natural break point - well they had just saved the world - so I asked if they wanted a change of genre (I wasn't going to offer to step down and let them free to play other games!) but they all want to carry on with their superheroes. One player asked me if I had more ideas for future adventures. "A few". I said.

No-one signed up for my toilet roll game so I left early. I'm always ambivalent about staying for that extra game StabCon afternoon. Before leaving I paid the £15 sign up for Winter StabCon 2020 and made a crack about how it never goes up. "Actually we're thinking of lowering the price" I was told.

When someone mentioned the convention seemed quiet, I overhead that it had had 282 attendees out of a possible 300 places. It had an absolute top limit of 300 places.  So they don't bother advertising. I'm breaking "the first rule of StabCon" with this post! I think it seemed quiet because a lot of the board gamers moved out of the noisy main room to rub shoulders with the TTRPGers in the side rooms. They seemed a lot busier to me, but my games weren't disturbed.

StabCon remains the comfort food of conventions. I think some of its attendees just don't realise how special it is. The organisation is seamless. The synergy between the hotel and the convention is great. It's not a five star hotel but it's cheap. And the attendees are just lovely people. They're just the usual wonderful people this hobby has to offer without the "edge" some gamers sometimes have. I think it's just become my favourite convention. If you have the chance to get your feet under the table here, snap it up.