Spaghetti ConJunction 3b - Sat 19th Oct 2019 - Geek Retreat Birmingham

Spaghetti ConJunction 3b - Saturday 19th October 2019

TLDR: Small friendly casual two-slots games day at a bright easily accessible venue in Birmingham. Good referees and players.

Full disclosure: I’m one of the organisers of this event.

Four years ago travelling to and from the wonderful Concrete Cow in Milton Keynes, me and a couple of “convention acquaintances” of mine from Birmingham - but from different spheres of the #TTRPG hobby - found out we’d all been toying with the idea of setting up a small convention. A good pun for the name, a bit of brainstorming and the discovery that the perfect venue had just opened up and Spaghetti ConJunction was born. 

This was our sixth one.

It’s a one day, two-slot games day held at Geek Retreat - a dedicated gaming cafe -  in Birmingham. Two slots because the venue’s times don’t allow us to fit in three game sessions. But that’s not a problem because Birmingham is pretty easy to travel to and closing earlyish (8pm) lets people travel to it and back home in a single day from quite a distance away.

From the beginning we were determined to emulate what we saw as the successful Concrete Cow template. Pre-convention promotion but no actual decision as to what games are offered or who plays in which game until the day itself. I was particularly keen on this because - as someone who goes to lots of conventions - I’m often asked to submit games months in advance. I also see the game-playing that goes on as people are desperate to get into “prime” games which excludes the very people I want to encourage - those new to the hobby and/or conventions.

On the surface the day is pretty easy to organise. We just turn up and the venue give us the top floor. Job done.

But as any convention organiser will tell you, the devil is in the detail. There’s stuff you don’t realise until you try to do the job. As someone whose been commenting on #TTRPG conventions for many years, I’ve glad I help run even such a small event because of the new viewpoint it’s given me.

One of the original “three amigos” has now moved away from Birmingham which leaves two of us to do everything now. To be honest this is a bit thin. If one of us had to drop out for any reason the other would have to do it as a one-man band.

Anyway, my partner as always did a superb job of promoting the event and we got loads of people offering great games. We met 8:30 at a bijoux tea house around the corner from GR to run through arrangements for the day. He brings the raffle prizes, I review the anti-harassment policy with him. We both panic a bit. 

The big problem with running a casual unticketed event without prebooking is that you always get nervous because you never KNOW who is turning up - if anyone. We could have too few or far too many attendees.

However, when we finished our breakfast and turned the corner to the venue there were a crowd of about 20 people waiting outside. One flaw of the day is that the venue doesn’t open up until 10am - even for us organisers - so there is some waiting around outside. Sorry!

Then everyone comes in together so I have to start issuing tickets whilst other people set up the room. It’s all rather a mad rush. Luckily our attendees are such lovely people that they queue and wait politely and don’t mind being co-opted into issuing raffle tickets or setting up tables. 

By the time I’d gotten everyone in, the table with the sign up sheets was set up. There were ten games on offer, more than we needed for the 30-40 people present so I decided not to offer a game of my own. As a con organiser you have a duty to let other people Referee. 

I also found out I’d made a personal mistake. I’d offered to run a “Blakes Seven” game in the pre-con promotion and then forgotten it and brought two different games I wanted to run instead. And people were asking specifically for that game. They took my apology with far better grace than I would have done. But it’s a feature of these more casual events that you won’t always get the game you want.

Sign ups were as usual. People were called up in small groups based upon the numbers on their entry tickets and a random list. Equally fair/unfair to everyone and stops people pushing in front to get the game they want. 

Runequest, Firefly/Scum & Villainy and Dungeon Crawl classics filled up right away. Four games got no sign ups at all even after referees pulled their games and signed up to play. Tales from the Loop and a modern update of 5th Ed got minimal players and were able to start. 

I chose not to play. I spent the morning signing in late arrivals and finding them places in games. I also folded all of the raffle tickets and liaised with the venue. There was new management. The previous guys were lovely but this group were better. Just a bit better but better. They’d taken the effort to close the doors to the upper floor and printing notices to put on them explaining that it was closed to casual cafe punters for the day. That meant we didn’t have to turn away groups of MAGIC players looking for a spare table.

The buzz in the room was lovely. Every was clearly enjoying all of the games and whilst some got noisy at key moments, everyone generally played with good grace. There was a stead flow of “gamers food” and drinks up to the con. Because of the limited access early on, the first slot runs from 10:30 to 2:30 so you really need to eat lunch during the game. But - hey - you’re in a GAMING CAFE and the food here is DESIGNING to be eaten while gaming.

By the end of the morning slot at 2:30 we had 5 full tables of gamers. We announced that the raffle was to be drawn at 3:15. When the raffle prizes were put out jaws dropped and there was a flurry of requests for more raffle tickets.

People either stayed and chatted or nipped out. We’re in the centre of Birmingham. You can find ANYTHING you need within a 5 minute walk.

At 3:15 we did the raffle. I HATE #TTRPG convention raffles, especially when they drag on. But I got through all 29 lots (29!) in 3 mins and 10 sec. That’s 6-7 seconds per lot. Beat that! In fact we were through the raffle and all signed up for games by 3:30. 

A few people had only been able to come for the morning. Some only stayed for the raffle! So we had fewer players in the afternoon. Seven games were offered. The Aliens game filled up with 7 players immediately. A second game of DCC was also popular. A play-test of a new game which hadn’t run in the morning got players in the afternoon. And I garnered four players for a game based on the TV series “The Year of the Rabbit.”

One of the great things about the lightweight “Code” rules I write, publish and play is that I can reskin them for multiple IP’s really really easily. So Matt Berry’s sweary, gritty, Victorian, police procedural comedy was a doddle. We had Mabel Wisbech, Detective Wilbur Straus, Flora the Contract Killer and Murky John the “tosher” hunting a missing “Prince Albert”. In this case it was a massive iron clad warship spirited away from London Docks in the middle of the night.

No one chose to play Inspector Rabbit so the game started with him being brutally ejected from a first floor window in the media res first fight scene. John “the elephant man” Merrick’s theatre was successfully defended from the protection mob but only by Flora luring them into the abandoned building opposite and blowing it sky high.(1)

Then the team were set the mystery of finding the missing warship. They successfully tracked the Prussian spy ring who’d used their cover “London City Tours” to steal it away. Unfortunately none of the spy ring survived when Wilbur Strauss blew their premises sky high (2). Luckily the firm’s safe survived the blast and the papers within allowed the group to track the missing ship. By a stroke of fortune (yah gotta love my game system) the airship carrying the - now mysteriously shrunken - ironclad had come down on the cliff of Dover and was easily recovered. The mad scientist behind the theft had escaped, however, on a giant pigeon.

The final scenes were a mad Harryhausen extravaganza of giant pigeons, tiny lions, human sized monkey, gigantic tarantula etc. The group cunningly sidestepped the giant bees and “the case of the Bonsai Battleship” was duly wrapped up. Half an hour early (7pm). But every seemed happy. 

Most games finished early and we tidied the room helped by the Geek Retreat Staff.

So a small - 40 people, 5 table - two slot games day. But c.£200 raised for Birmingham Children’s hospital - they’re beginning to love us and actually sent me a reminder letter this year asking if we wanted anything from them for the con. The players were wonderful. A truly lovely bunch. Referees were ace. The Geek Retreat Staff were lovely. And - you know what - the convention organisers were pretty good too.

Furnace 14, October 12th/13th 2019 - Sheffield

Furnace 14 - 12th and 13th October 2019

TLDR: The “old hands” of the UK TTRPG convention scene deliver another peerless event. Unreservedly recommended.  

I’ve probably written about Furnace half a dozen times by now. It never changes and is all the better for that.

One USP is that it takes place at The Garrison Hotel in Sheffield which is converted from the armoury and gaol of an historic Napoleonic era barracks. You can actually play in the gaol cells, which are basically old school D&D rooms. Very evocative. 

The event has taken place so many years now that the organising committee have “trained” the venue into the needs of gamers and there is now synergy between the event and the hotel. This is excellent and I’ve only seen it at a couple of other long-running events.*

The other USP is that games are submitted a long time in advance. Months. Every attendee who books in advance is recognised and offered a free pre-convention signup to a game of their choice. The event is blessed/cursed with many, many excellent referees. You get another pre-signup for each game you offer to run. So with there being 5 game slots, if you offer to referee 2 games, you get a total of 3 pre-signups which cover all the other games across the weekend. (A pretty BIG hint from the organising committee that they want refereeing addicts like me to offer exactly two games over the weekend.)

Several other events have sprung up at The Garrison which follow the Furnace template. These are all good. But Furnace is the first, the biggest and the best.

I submitted two games in advance - my “Manifold” East-end gangsters game and a re-run of my historically-based “The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes” game which had run so well at Seven Hills earlier in the year. To play, I chose a couple of Cthulhu games (one 7th Ed and one Pulp) and a Marvel Superheroes 1980’s Mash-up.

There is a meet-up and drink in the bar on the Friday night but no official gaming. It’s a really pleasant event and I’d recommend it if your budget stretches to it. This year I decided to travel up to Sheffield early Saturday morning. It saves a night’s hotel cost. The venue is good value but when you go to as many events as I do, any savings help.

So I popped onto a train early Saturday morning and got the hotel in time to meet old friends and set up my table. After the usual welcoming speech, people queued to sign up for slots in games for the first session.

I was lucky enough to get a table of 5 players who created a crime family operating out of a greasy spoon cafe in the East End. The interactions were great. For example one character was “Alberto” who’d been raised in Italy. “Ma’s” first husband (“a real bugger”) had taken him away when they split up. Returning under shady circumstances - everyone just called him “Bertie”.

In this game every player creates two security features of the bank they’re tasked to rob. And I tack on two secret ones of my own. The intelligent and learned player of “Ma” put down “Security Guard” - singular. Because “that’s how many they’d had a the Hatton Garden robbery.” (One of my secret features was that all the other employees - cleaners etc. - were ex-Israeli military - a feature I’d stolen from an earlier run-out of the game.)

The players had put in so many electronic security devices that one character decided they needed an “EMP” device. (I think he’d watched “Captain America: Civil War”.) Somehow with the swingy nature of my rules, they found an ugly old high-tech fence who could get one but only in return for hooking him up with the woman of his dreams, which they somehow did. They even managed to marry him off in double quick time.

So they got their EMP bomb, de-activated all the devices and the hit went well until the ex-special forces guards revealed themselves. Then it was a real bloody massacre. “Ma” and the son who’d taken the role as a bank customer managed to get out with a decent slice of loot. But all the other sons were slaughtered.

The whole game finished with the line (wait for it..........)

“So that’ll be four funerals and a wedding, Ma?”

Doesn’t get any better than that!

There’s free, endless, coffee on hand throughout the morning. There’s also a form to sign to pre-book your evening meals.  For lunch you have basically three choices. Just over the road there’s a big supermarket for meal deals and cafe. Just down the road there’s a fast food burger place. Or you can stay in the hotel bar and enjoy superior bar food with friends. I took the latter option. Soup of the day and a wrap. Comfort food.

My afternoon was Call of Cthulhu. My first experience of 7th Ed. I found it functional and a slight improvement on earlier editions. The referee was fairly new to convention Refereeing but took us through an engaging little scenario smoothly and well. His pregens were gender-locked but, apart from that, it was a typical enjoyable CoC romp going through the research phase to the investigation phase, where the wheels REALLY came off and we found we were in too deep before realising it.

For my evening meal I’d booked pie and chips. In the bar with friends and drink.

The daytime sessions are 3.5 hours long with 1.5 hour breaks in between. The night-time games at Furnace are nominally 4 hours long but often run into the wee small hours and can be legendary. I prefer to be in bed before midnight.

I’d signed up for “Pulp” Cthulhu. In my limited experience I prefer this to “classic” as the characters have about double the skill success levels, meaning they usually succeed rather than usually fail. However, tonight I found that pulp and 7th Ed. Cthulhu seem to be basically the same game.

Again another Referee fairly new to convention Refereeing. Pregens had non-gender specific names. This game was a romp through prohibition era America, starting off as the Untouchables and ending up as The Great Gatsby - with ghouls. Many, many referees pride themselves on doing a superb job at Furnace and post on line before the event about how much preparation they’re doing. THIS Referee obviously felt he had to rise to the challenge. When we found a clue in the warehouse, we got given the actual piece of paper. When we found the stack of wax-sealed envelopes, we were given the stack - individually wax sealed - containing bespoke invitations to a masquerade ball. When the raid on the warehouse went belly up, we got to read about it in the actual morning paper. And when we got to the ball we were all given individual masquerade masks to wear! Bling of the highest order.

The game itself was also highly engaging. Knowing my problems as a Referee-turned player I was on my best behaviour and sat back to let the other players’ characters shine. I did such a good job of this that the referee actually forgot about me and I had to gently remind him that he hadn’t asked me for my actions for a while and received an unneeded apology. I then got to perform some completely outrageous stunts. The game finished before midnight and I went to bed happy.

Breakfast is included with the room and is a good quality hotel breakfast.

My morning game only got two sign ups and I dragooned someone who is rapidly becoming a good “convention friend” into making up the numbers. It turned out he’d already played this scenario at Seven Hills earlier in the year but didn’t spot that until the (real, historical) mystery was revealed. This is a good scenario but a bit more cerebral from what I usually run. I may shelve it for a while and keep it to dust off at an appropriate event down the line.

The hotel does a pretty standard Sunday Lunch with a stupidly large Yorkshire pudding hiding the rest of the food. But I chose to opt for steamed fish, sauce and mash. Nice.

Then there was the final speech. A long-serving member of the hotel staff was leaving and the event had had a whip round for him. Nice touch. Then the Raffle. (Urgh!) But it had good prizes and didn’t take too long. No raffle tickets were sold. You get free entry and your raffle number is on your name badge.

Then the afternoon game. I’d picked the Marvel Team-Up game for several reasons. Firstly, the excellent referee who tends to run a gonzo game Sunday afternoon. Secondly, I’ve never actually played the “Marvel Superheroes” system - which had been the major rival to our own SHRPG back in 1984. Finally it was set in the era of Marvel comics which I’d read and knew all about.

He had the character sheets and figures for just about every Hero of the time. I elected to play “Wonder Man”. I was teamed up with Polaris, Wolverine, Colossus and the Scarlet Witch. We were pitched into a series of contests by the Collector and the Gamesmaster fighting such varying villains as Magneto, Kang the Conqueror, the Grim Reaper etc. Not the cleverest of scenarios and it did expose the weakness of the system. Whatever attack you make - punch, magnetic blast, probability manipulation - they all use the same mechanic and the player and referee have to fill in the individual effects from their own imagination. (I use basically the same technique in one of my own games, so I can’t complain.)

But it was the romp I expected with fun players.

Furnace is a successful and well-organised convention. It has built up a clear fan base and style over the years but it isn’t in any way cliquey. If you can get yourself signed up I highly recommend it. Numbers seemed to be fractionally down on last year - I suspect as more and more people set up their own conventions. But as far as I can see, that just opens up some slots for more new people to come along and experience one of the best two day TTRPG conventions on the UK. Peerless.

* venues agreeing to host TTRPG events - but then insisting and using their usual catering offerings and costs - is an issue within the hobby. The best events recognise this and work hard to ameliorate its effects.

WynterCon - Eastbourne 28th/29th September 2019

WynterCon - Eastbourne 28th/29th September 2019

TLDR: Two days of non-stop one hour demonstration games at an eclectic and friendly event. With Wolves.

I can’t tell you what WynterCon is... exactly. It’s a two day event in Eastbourne - one of those wonderful out of season holiday resorts which this country is still blessed with.

It isn’t a games convention or a ComiCon, a Science Fiction Convention or a steampunk convivial. It has elements of all of these but no overall USP. There’s stands selling fudge and biltong, MCU Memorabilia and artwork.  There’s full size X-wings, Captain Jack’s ship, CGI photo booths, Daleks, light sabre training and stuff I didn’t get time to see. And Wolves. A pack of wolves.

It’s the flagship of a successful local charity. “Whatever world you’re from you’re welcome in ours!” It boasts.

Over the years its “RPG Zone” has become well established. Half a dozen tables (2x 5th Ed, One Dice, Fate(?), my stuff and one of the co-ordinators ready to fill in with odd games) all prepared to do what I usually do on my own - offer one off one hour introductory TTRPGs to newbies. Two days where, basically, all that’s offered is Games on Demand - and the public lap it up.

For personal reasons I was slow getting ready for it this year. I hoped to produce some new pregens - faux Harry Potter (there are a lot of Potterheads at the event) and SheRa and the Princesses of Power but I never got around to it. I basically threw all the usual stuff into my new suitcase (my old reliable one having finally died) the night before I set out. I decided to travel light and not take my banner or display stands.

Though Eastbourne is a long way from Birmingham, it makes economic sense for me to travel down at stupid o’clock Saturday morning. Even though you can get some great deals on good guest houses and hotels in Eastbourne, it doesn’t make sense to pay for that extra night’s accommodation.

I have to say that, with all my travels, I’ve seen the worst of this country’s railway system - especially passing through London - but this journey was a breeze. Even the onboard WiFi worked!

The taxi driver taking me to the convention knew all about it. This is almost unheard of. In most of the events I go to, the local taxi drivers know nothing about the event happening right under their noses.

 I got to the event just it was opening. Last year it had been under a massive circus tent which was.... interesting. This year it had moved to a sports centre which was a perfect setting with a really nice ambience.  The RPG zone was near the entrance, just past the Light Sabre arena, and was one of the first things punters would see coming in. 

The organisers had set up two tables in an L shape - the way I like it - one for display, one for playing. Even without my stands I was able to put an impressive set of games on offer. 

As always, things started slowly. Punters were flooding in but there’s so much to see and do before they feel the need to sit down. And when they did, it was the 5th Ed tables that filled first. However, it didn’t take too long for me to get my first table. Two pairs of young - teenage - people, new to TTRPGs, who - after much vacillation -    asked for a Steampunk game. Then they couldn’t pick a title from the ones I offered them. Eventually we agreed on “Murder on the Occidental Express”. This was a mistake.

You often get a quiet player in a game who takes a while to get going. All four of these players were quiet and seemed to find it hard to make a decision. “The Captain shows you the murdered body of Lord Carnaby. What do you do?”

The set-up was also a bit “big” to get their heads around. Five giant (Titanic-sized) steam liners linked together to create a gigantic cross-Atlantic steam “train”. Eventually the Confederate gun-runner was foiled and only one liner had a hole blown in its side. Fun was had but - it was not an easy start to the convention.

Then things took off. I ran my standard introduction to “D&D” - The Delian Tomb using The Black Hack.  Following recent debates, I switched it up a bit. Instead of the farmers couple begging to have their children rescued, I had the kids beg for their parents to be saved. And I had the party check with the Priest PC about the morality  of ambushing  or killing captured goblins. Made very little difference.

I ran it three times - in rapid succession - normally for family groups, which is always a rewarding. But....three times!? I swore to swap out the scenario if asked to do it again.

In between I grabbed a quick Hog Roast for lunch (“outside, through the tent, past the wolves, past the pirate ship”).

Emerging from my fantasy marathon, I was asked if i could run a Dr Who scenario in half an hour. COULD I!?

Canon characters. It ended up (somehow) with Ryan playing bridge with Soloman (and his two red robots) for the fate of The Tardis Team.

The day was rounded out with a game of Fireball XL5. I found myself with a player who’d been born to play Zonney the Lazoon - overacted all the aliens and tore my throat raw with their accent. I refereed standing up - just trying to keep up with the enthusiasm of the 5th Ed referee who was running games with far more players than I was.

The convention wrapped up at 5:00pm. There is an additional after party with music, drink etc. But I chose not to go. Instead I headed into town to run my standard Dr Who scenario (the one I’ve run dozens of times over 5 years) at a local gaming cafe. 

I’d arranged this via Facebook ahead of time. Four young men - late teens to early twenties. Oddly they hadn’t attended WynterCon during the day and no-one came from WynterCon for the evening event.

They were enthusiastic and gonzo. The biscuit craving Ice Warrior. Grey-ham - Graham’s dark counterpart from another dimension. Grey-ham failing to land the Ice Warrior ship on the moon and pulling his “I packed something for that” special effect.

“Superglue!” “How does Superglue help you land a spaceship?” Cue the most side splitting mime I’ve seen. Four limbs flailing above and below the table accompanied by a description of the buttons being pushed. I had to give it to him.

And, my favourite bit, when the penny dropped and a player realised what they were up against (the worst Dr Who fan-fic opponent concept ever) he just said “That’s it! I’m getting out of here!” Instead of heading off to fight it like most groups do.

It was a great evening in a lovely venue. It’d tried this last year and got no players. I’ll try it again every year from now. The players were begging me to come back to Eastbourne earlier.

I rose to pouring rain. When I got to the WynterCon venue we found to marquee set up beside the sports hall - the one containing the X-Wing and Pirate ship - was flooded and shut.

After only the shortest of pauses, I got my first game. Intro “D&D”. So ran my alternative scenario - the Goblins adventure I’d designed for my live on stage role-play at Fantasticon. This group decided to pull down the rocks the goblins human captives had been stacking in from of the giant cave and release the monster within. TPK. Half the party were crushed in the avalanche, the rest were killed by the escaping dragon. Some of captured villagers were released though and the goblin threat was much reduced by Dragonfire.

Then the same again. This time I started with two players and the table slowly grew to a full five. This party went the more sensible route of fomenting rebellion amongst the goblins whilst they sneaked in to tackle/behead the chieftain.

Then AGAIN! Again the “big red button” of the blocked up cave attracted their attention. But this time through a lucky Charisma roll they did a deal with the dragon and defended its egg from goblin attack whilst it went all Game of Thrones on the goblin town.

I grabbed a quick burger. The Marquee had opened up again with wood chips scattered all over it’s floor.

When I got back the organiser asked me if I could run Star Wars game for SEVEN players! Could I!? Luckily it turned out to be only six players and two - Newt Scamander and his friend - left early to attend the final of the Cosplay competition.

My day ended with a quick “One of our dinosaurs is missing” Steampunk game which started with two people and ended with four.

I had been so busy over the weekend that I hadn’t had time to explore the convention. Despite my busy day, I was still beaten by the 5th Ed referee who at one point, apparently, ran a game for EIGHT pikachu’s.

I was exhausted but happy. This is what I love doing. 12 games over two days. Overall the RPG zone had run 49 games for a total of 216 customers with many being turned away because all the referees were busy. We need at least one more referee.

If you’re into Cosplay and/or Nerd/Geek culture (or Wolves) WynterCon is well worth a visit. If you only want to play TTRPGs you might find it a bit limited. If you want to Referee, get in touch.

A strange, eclectic, lovely event.

The Owlbear and the Wizard’s Staff - 21st September - Royal Leamington Spa

The Owlbear and the Wizard’s Staff - 21st September 2019 - Leamington Spa

TLDR: A large, well organised and superior two slot games day organised by a Magician with a “Create Food and Drink” spell.

There seems to be a resurgence in conventions at the moment. Presumably this is part of the general resurgence in the hobby and the availability of more gaming-suitable spaces coupled with the ubiquity of Social Media to advertise them.

I was aware of OB&WS in its first year, last year, but it didn’t fit my schedule at the time. I’m still not sure of its USP but it seemed to be part of the nostalgia for UK TTRPGs of the 1980’s - the heyday of White Dwarf.

Anyway, it did fit with my schedule for 2019 so I contacted the organiser MONTHS in advance offering my services as a Referee - as usual. I was politely informed that all the refereeing spaces were filled. I can’t remember exactly how far ahead this was but I feel it was about 6 months ahead of the event. I was invited to attend as a player.

I am not proud to admit that some of my baser instincts crept in. I’m not used to being rebuffed as a referee and - with my particular addiction to running games - don’t travel to conventions merely to be a player. 6 months out and all refereeing slots taken? It felt like an in-house stitch-up. Didn’t they know who I was?

So I began pestering the organiser to let me know if any referees dropped out. I’m not proud.

Despite the fact that this is just a typical one-day two slot event the organiser hypes it on-line - especially through Twitter - as if it’s the one, the only, the best RPG convention there’s ever been. So when he started asking referees to confirm their games and some didn’t seem to respond, I was in there - pestering. Eventually I was granted as slot. However, it turned out he DID know who I was and specifically asked me to offer a game of Golden Heroes - not my first choice for con games these days.

As the event drew nearer people began tweeting excitedly about their refereeing preparations, booking hotels etc. They seemed happy to travel from all over the country for this convention and pay the requisite travel and accommodation costs. I couldn’t see the particular appeal.

Personally, having given GH an outing at “Mug and Dice” earlier in the year, I didn’t prep, knowing I could just pull that game out of the box.

Along with relentless up front promotion the organiser also allocated all players to games in advance of the event. He seemed keen to micromanage the numbers up front.

When date drew near, I pulled out my GH box only to find my pregen characters missing. So I checked online and found a print shop in Leamington Spa I could dash to upon my arrival to get character sheets printed and do character generation at the table. (Amateur!) Luckily the character generation system is fun.

Leamington Spa is only half an hour from Birmingham. It’s a delightful town. Very English middle class. I arrived early and camped out in a twee coffee shop waiting for the print shop to open. By use of a taxi I got my sheets printed and arrived at the event venue in good time. If I hadn’t had the last minute glitch it would have been easy to walk.

The event venue is a musical rehearsal building. Entrance was through a medium sized  room contained a gaming table, kitchen area, several comfy sofas and all the paper work - a single sheet listing tables, games and players. The adjacent room - which is where my game was -  was clearly and orchestra rehearsal room. It was was big and bright. The entrance area was clearly a break-out room for orchestra players.

Both rooms were full of people catching up. This seems to be an event for Twitterati to meet up face to face. Many had arrived Friday night and had already been out for a curry and/or beer together. This is a very social event. (If you like that sort of thing.)

I found my table easily. It had been labelled with a printed A4 sheet giving game title, system, Referee and scenario description along with full colour convention logo. VERY professional. I was also given a Referee’s “goodie bag” as thanks. (As of writing I still haven’t opened it. I’ll do that at the end.)

A player wandered over and we began making his character as i began setting up. (Dear God I’d forgotten what its like to have to get all the miniatures out and lined up ready for the scenario). Soon we had FRACTAL the laser Hero. Other players drifted over and made ALBATROSS, a flying mass of muscle, GAMMA and his sidekick RAY and SHELL SUIT, an armoured alien who, unfortunately, had first landed in Liverpool. The two last players to arrive were given my only part-gen (an archer he named THE GOLDEN SHOT) and pregen - POLYMER - Growth and stretchiness. A great quote at the table - about one of the newly rolled characters - was “I want to draw him.” GH character generation still delivers.

The scenario - my standard time stop scenario “The Long Minute” - went well though with 6 characters and my intent of telling a whole story in a 3.5 hour convention slot meant combat were short and (for the bad guys) brutal affairs. I made a note to myself that if I run GH again at a con, I’ll just run a large “Battle of New York” style event.

During a comfort break I popped to the break-out room. I asked the organiser how much the bottles of Diet Coke were. Nothing, I was told, they were a donation. The room contained bottles of coke and water, coffee and tea, cake and biscuits. All free. All donations. Amazing!

When I got back to my table I heard one player saying to another “I can imagine your character’s comic.” Joy! 

The scenario ended with a very experienced player coming up with a wonderful “reverse the polarity” trick - turning against the bad guys the exact ploy the Mega-villains was going to employ against them. I had difficulty keeping a poker face when he suggested it.

At lunchtime, boxes of samosas we delivered. As I packed away all my stuff (so MANY bloody figures!) I saw people bringing plates through and worried they might all be gone before I could get there. I shouldn’t have worried. They didn’t run out all afternoon, no matter how many I ate.

Lunchtime was more smiling faces catching up. This is such a joyful event.

In the afternoon I played in a “Forbidden Lands” adventure run by a charming Mexican referee. Started in the desert (where my Orc Druid grabbed the one waterskin and doled it out a swallow at a time - I’m incorrigible - an awful player) before getting to an oasis which was basically the “two witches” scene from the the classic D&D module “Horror on the Hill” on steroids. Great fun with charming scenery chewing players. Imagine Queenie from Blackadder 2 playing a (powerful) goblin warrior. So it was enjoyable despite a quirky and un-intuitive system.

When the event wrapped up, it was a 10-minute walk to a superior (not cheap but worth it) pub - where the organiser had prebooked some space for us all.

Attendance was 90 people. About a dozen games in each slot. Mostly eclectic but with 5th Ed deliberately sprinkled in. The organiser is charming and puts in loads of work. He is paranoid about everything working and was pleased the last minute drop outs and last minute arrivals balanced out. It is an excellent event the result of one man’s vision and hard work.

I still can’t work out what makes it so popular that people are willing to travel so far to come and look forward to it with such joy. The constant relentless promotion on Twitter is one thing. But having thought about it - I think the pre-allocation to games is a big factor. It creates the (correct) impression that its a well organised event and nothing is being left to chance. And you know before you arrive exactly what games you’re playing in - there’s no risk of last minute disappointments.

And so much - endless - free food and drink!

What about my Referee Goodie Bag, you ask? Hang on.....

..... sweeties (swizzles, black jacks, a liquorice pipe), three branded Owl Bear and Wizard’s staff dice and a very impressive Owlbear Figure with a wizard’s staff - some assembly required.