Geek Retreat, Birmingham, UK.
Saturday 10 February 2018.
A late finish at work the night before, not getting in until 02:00, meant a rush in the morning to get the train on time.
Got to the venue in plenty of time, it’s only a few minutes walk from the railway station, and it was good to see it busy. There were lots of familiar faces in attendance with plenty of games on offer. I got my game sign up sheet into the mix as the game sign ups started.
Those attendees that were new to the convention went first then it went on to the random ticket allocation for the rest of the sign ups.
All the games had plenty of sign ups and one game even had to relocate to the downstairs section of the venue due to all the tables getting used.
I ordered some coffee before the game started and the service at Geek Retreat was excellent. It was delivered to my table promptly.
My game of Tales from the Loop, ‘Atomic Butterflies and Feral Buddleia' had three sign ups so we began straight away.
I started with a quick snapshot of summer in Derby back in 1984, dealing with the weather, political situation, technology advances, music (Now That’s What I Call Music had just came out), and what the kids did back then.
Then we got on with the char-gen after I covered the ‘Principles of the Loop’ with the players. We had a Rocker called Ed who wore denim and had an iconic bandanna, Peter who was a bit of a Weirdo with a pet rat, and a young Troublemaker called Neil ‘nicker’ Smith who was armed with a Knife. Their Hideout was an old WWII pillbox bunker with a crack in the roof, a rat run to keep other rodents away, a boom box for rock music, and a discarded punch bag.
The home life scenes consisted of Ed’s single mother who was a suspected shop lifter, Peter’s communist father shouting at Breakfast TV whilst reading the Morning Star, and Neil’s father having an early morning tipple.
My Tales from the Loop game in action
After discovering the strange piles of animal bones, the disturbing lack of any insects or birds, escaping the attentions of the local bullies, butterflies acting bizarre, ethereal woman chasing butterflies, Ms Science Teacher getting a illicit rendezvous, and a burning hole in a chain-link fence, the Kids managed to solve the Mystery before the the whole area was overwhelmed by carnivorous plants.
It was a thankless task though for the Kids as the return to the mundane was a sharp counterpoint to their adventures.
The game ran for over three hours but ours was the first of the morning games to finish.
After that it was the raffle with a real cornucopia of prizes.
I couldn’t stay for the afternoon session as I had to get back for a family event
In all it was a great event and I look forward to Spaghetti Conjunction 2B.
#TalesfromtheLoop
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