It seems so short but sweet.
For the first time in a few years I didn't run two games back to back only running a single game in the morning slot only.
I spent most of the afternoon attending the seminars or catching up too briefly with people.
It was an early start with catching the 05:00 AM train to London but I was able to get to Kensington Town Hall without getting swamped in the crowds. Most of the traders got to the venue early so it didn't take long to get them all loaded into the main hall. Pushing a few trollies in and out is one of my ways of giving back to the con. Also stuffing the Goodie Bags with the programme books and other goodies was a big help.
The Main Trade Hall
I then set up my table, located on the upper floor in a little sealed off area, ready for my game. The sign-up sheet was filled in very fast as soon as the doors opened!
I ran the latest episode in my Serenity: HeroQuest saga titled 'Rocks and Hard Places'
It was the first time I had ran this episode and I hadn't really finalised the plot. I was hoping that the players themselves would direct where and when the action would take place as I would follow their lead more.
I started the game in Deadwood, just as in the HBO series of the same name as I think it would fit in the 'verse no problem. Channelling Al Swearengen proved to be a problem, possibly due to the early morning, and the start of the game floundered a bit. Also I did expect there to be a shoot-out in deadwood but the players [with one notable exception] seemed to want to avoid any violence at any cost.
There was a lot of role-playing in character which over-ran a little so I had to rush the ending a little. The addition plot points and distractions worked well with the players getting paranoid over the conspiracies. All the players were very surprised by the big reveal and manufactured their own surprise ending involving the whole crew leaving Johner behind to have a shootout with all the Feds at his insistence.
I did record this game so expect it soon to be podcast on One Man and His Dice.com.
I spent the afternoon attending the seminars.
I walked into John Wick's Seminar halfway through so I was unable to record that one. Very interesting and it seems I share similar GM style and theories. I will have to look up his 'Houses of the Blooded' as only then was it explained to me what it was about despite asking on a few forums.
John Wick
I then spent the next half hour wandering about the whole complex taking photos of the gaming groups. There were some fantastic looking games. The Phoenix Games club had a great looking Dungeon game in action, the Shadow Warriors had a Great War biplane battle game that just simply gorgeous, there was a very detailed Camelot diorama, a BattleStar Galactica board game that looked cool, and many more excellent models and games.
I then went to the Robin Laws and Kenneth Hite seminar that I did manage to record. It didn't have an overall theme, just an open Question & Answer session and didn't suffer for it. Some excellent questions were answered and there was some great discussion that was very interesting.
Robin Laws and Kenneth Hite
That was followed by a Guest of Honour free-for-all seminar. At first there was only Robin Laws and John Wick but then Kenneth Hite and James Wallis each joined later.
A great seminar that by accident seemed to focus on the fantastic work of Greg Stafford.
We also learnt how each guest started off into this hobby of ours with some funny results.
Again I managed to record this and it will be podcast on One Man and His Dice.com.
Kenneth Hite, Robin Laws, John Wick and James Wallis
So a very good convention where I got to catch up with a few people though unfortunately far too briefly and run a good game. I do have a few recordings that I hope to get up over the next couple of weeks.
More photos at:
Dragonmeet 2008 photo set on my Flickr Site
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