Saturday 25th May 2019, 10.00am - 6:00pm
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It was good to head down to Congleton for this Games Day.
An early start on the train to get there in time as I was running a game in the morning slot.
It was good timing as well as I met other gamers on their way to the venue so we shared a taxi there.
There was plenty of signage so you were in no doubt that the Games day was taking place. The venue is a converted vicarage building done in a modern style and was a good sized space.
We were greeted warmly on arrival and I started setting up ready for my game, getting my screen and PowerPoint presentation set up via my iPad remote controlled by my iPhone.
The Sign up sheets for the day were done so beautifully and nicely labeled with a different coloured meeple for each table.
My game was also well signed up, six players in all.
The players arrived promptly and several had played in my game at the last Games Day. So I must have not put them off anyway.
I started with the ‘Principles of the Loop’, and got on quickly with the character generation.
We had our 14 year old Jock called ‘Clubber’ with his cricket bat and favourite song ‘Danger Zone’ by Kenny Loggins. He has an Raleigh Aeroburner BMX bike.
The knife wielding Troublemaker was Clubber’s twin brother, Chad who is always playing Sex Pistols’s ‘Anarchy in the UK’. He has a Raleigh Chopper bicycle in fire red.
The 14 year old Rocker Chick was Trixie with her flick-knife comb and rocking off to ‘Sweet Child of Mine’. She has a black Raleigh Bomber bike.
Trixie’s kid sister at 12 is Bernadette, who is a serious Computer Geek with her amped up hand held computer console and listens to the newly released ‘Careless Whisper’ by George Michael. She rides a Raleigh Starburst bike in red with silver stars.
Our 13 year old Weirdo Rat who always has his pet rat with him and plays Hughie Lewis ‘Hip to be Square’. He rides an old Raleigh Penny-farthing bike.
Last but not least is 13 year old Young Farmer Andy with his mini tool kit and love Suzie Quattro’s ‘Devil’s Gate Drive’. He rides a Raleigh Cruz, a motorised bike.
The scenario starts with scenes at home and Rat decides to sneak out and grabs basic supplies of crisps, biscuits, pop, a sleeping bag, and a small one-man tent. Andy has permission to go and is more organised having plenty of farm produced fresh food; meat jerky, cheeses, bread, bottles of cider, and a bottle of moonshine. He has a cassette player to play his songs and takes his bevy tent with him too.
At the sisters household they get permission to go due to their CHARM. Their mother was keen, inappropriately very keen, to see their friend, Clubber, and she seemed to be a little weak at the knees when he arrived. They have a new two-person tent with camper beds, they make sandwiches, take loads of chip sticks, sneak some of their father’s beer, and pack a map and compass too.
Clubber gets permission to go quite easily but is forced to take his twin brother with him. Their mother packs them a hamper with fresh food, they take a stove and pans, and pack a first aid kit just in case.
After the girls recover from their mother’s response to Clubber’s presence, they get on the road and head towards Gotham (pronounced GOT-ham) and the idea of a cool fresh water lake in this Heatwave.
They hit the country lanes on their bikes heading out on their adventure.
What follows is a run in with a black Mercedes, a hoover bike, an truculent robot, a gang of hooligans, rain during a drought, and scientists trying to save the world.
The players had great fun and really went to town playing the characters. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves.
I had a rapid lunch, a homemade chili con carne, provided by the con as part of the sweat equity for running a game at the con.
For the afternoon slot I wasn’t running a game so I got in on Simon Bray’s OpenQuest games as part of his Crucible of Dragons setting. This was set on the Island of Pherae, a land ruled by dragons.
It was using pre-gens so I had the Dwarf character, Karathas Goldma.
As a group we were to head out to an island that just suffered a landslide and ancient ruins were uncovered. We were to explore and ‘liberate’ any treasures we discovered.
We travelled across the ocean in the ‘Ripper’, ending with us having to row the vessel itself.
Arrival at the Sea Queen’s Isle, the original name for the uncovered island, was straight forward, at first. Creatures soon attack us on the beach and we fought off ghouls and followed by a giant crab.
After that we explored the island and got involved in the puzzles and mystery of the ruins. We were hit hard on the final climax as we missed out one of the ruin sites so missed the clues there.
It was a great game, lots of fun working out the mystery and the other players around the table were great fun to, adding to the experience.
I liked the OpenQuest system, a stripped down version of RuneQuest, it has a simpler skills set and doesn’t seem as broken as most D100 games. It was nice to dip into the percentiles dice but I don’t think I’ll be making a habit of it.
After that it was the goodbyes before heading out the door to catch the train home.
It was a very good games day with excellent attendance and was very well organised.
The next date is on Saturday 14th September 2019.
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