A Gamers Gaming Getaway 2022 Con Report
A Gamers Gaming Getaway (AGGG) 2022, Blackwells Adventure Centre, Near Bromsgrove, B60 1PY
Thursday 17th - Sunday 20th November 2022
https://gamersgaminggetaway.nicepage.io/
So it was with some trepidation that I set off for Bromsgrove early Saturday morning by train.
I had submitted a couple of tabletop RPGs to run on the Saturday and I was concerned about a few things. First off the con was more LARP and live action focused with a few board games. Also I had submitted my games a few months in advance and hadn’t heard anything back from the organisers whether they had been received, approved or put on the schedule. I had almost written the con off as I’ve had a couple of bad experiences getting knocked back with small conventions recently. However, I happen to check out the game schedule on their website and found my games on there. So I was up!
I caught a quick train early morning to Birmingham New Street and then changed for Barnt Green. From there a local taxi through beautiful countryside to the venue, Blackwell Court.
The grounds of Blackwell Court.
Blackwell Court is an old Manor House set in lovely grounds that is now an Adventure Site and Outdoor Activity Centre. There are two camp grounds, wooden pods, a lodge bunk house, a tented village, and rooms available in the Manor House itself. There is an Exhibition Hall, a large games room, and gaming spaces in the Manor House. There is also plenty of open space as well as wooded areas on the grounds. I didn’t explore much of it due to time, but on a sunny November morning it was a beautiful area to visit.
I signed in at the reception desk, getting my name badge and lanyard, as well as being directed to the Exhibition Hall where my games were taking place. I had a full game in the morning, all seven players.
I was running my Fria Ligan Alien RPG scenario “Empty Vessels Make No Noise”. I have ran this scenario many times before but I haven’t ran it recently so I thought another outing would be good.
My gaming table set up with character sheets laid out. Note the iPad Pro with scenario images and the flashing light.
I set up my table, getting my LED lights set up behind my chair along side my flashing light. I also laid out the character sheets at each place setting with each cover sheet and agenda sheet too. I also had a card for each player character’s talent too. The maps we’re put in the centre of the table and the Panic Table sheet for the players to access. I had two dice trays out, one for the base dice and the other for the stress dice. I had twenty of each type so plenty for the players to share. At my end of the table I had the GM screen set up with my iPad Pro in front displaying my Keynote presentation. I controlled the Keynote using my iPhone as a remote control. Behind the screen I just had my stacks of casino chips.
I use casino chips to represent some of the consumables, points or items during the game. I had luminous green casino chips to represent the Stress Points, blue casino chips to represent the air, red casino chips for an wounds or damage done to the characters, and millionaire casino chips to represent the Story Points in the game.
The players turned early and chose their seat around the table based on the player character they wanted to play. The player characters were based on the characters from the film “Event Horizon”, in particular the crew of the spaceship Lewis & Clark.
The view from my end of the table, note the stacks of casino chips and the tin cases for the dice.
We had Captain Miller who is in charge of the crew but always leads by example, Lieutenant Starck the executive officer who was always protective of the crew, Pilot Smith who is over-protective of the Lewis & Clark, Engineer Justin who is keeping the ship‘a systems in the green, Rescue Technician Cooper who is helpful to everyone, Medical Technician Peters who is keeping the crew as a family together, and Medical Officer D.J. who is always set on his medical mission to save lives.
I took the players through the character sheets, informing them on how consumables work, the Attributes and Skills work to make the dice pool, how Talents and equipment and add additional dice as modifiers, and how Stress works to add more dice to the pool but also can trigger Panic Attacks.
I also showed them how the agenda sheets work and unfold to reveal their character’s agendas.
Me standing as GM explaining the rules. I usually stand whilst GMing. Photo by Dave Wetherall.
I started the scenario with the briefing with Admiral Hollis and his adjutant Lyle. They informed the crew of their new mission, cancelling their R&R that was scheduled to happen. They are instead to proceed to the Delos System at all haste. The Delos System is a contested system between the two great powers USAC (United States Aerospace Command) and UPP (Union of Progressive Peoples). Due to its contested status there are no space colonies, no space stations, no satellites, and no ships stationed there. The system has no strategic value and very little economic worth. It is just too remote for anyone or anything to be there.
Two days ago a powerful signal emitted from the Delos System and is causing a hazard to navigation in the surrounding sectors, effecting all USAC vessels, UPP ships, and commercial shipping in those areas. Your mission is find the source of the transmission, investigate it and silence it by any means necessary. Retrieve any information and data and/or launch a rescue mission if required. You are to lend a helping hand to all and to preserve all life, especially if it happens to be an enemy like the UPP.
However, you are to avoid any diplomatic incidents but you are to also maintain your sovereignty and uphold USAC protocols and ideals.
The Delos System is a fourteen day jump away at FTL so you do need to leave straight away.
These are your orders and good luck!
Admiral Hollis' Briefing.
The players went to getting everything ready on the Lewis & Clark for their jump and mission. None thought to do any further research or investigation though.
Justin wanted to check the Lewis & Clark’s engines and systems. Using his Heavy Machinery 3 and his Strength 5 plus his toolkit bonus of +2 and another +2 bonus from his familiarity of his ship (The Lewis & Clark bonus) he had 12 dice to roll. He got a couple of successes and therefore not only had all the lights on his board in the green but also boosted the engines to shave off a couple of days off the journey time.
Peters also wanted to check the medical equipment before the flight so rolled on her Medical Aid 3 plus Empathy 5 with the bonus from her Medical Kit of +2 to get ten dice in her pool. Unfortunately her player didn’t get any successes so had to Push her roll, gaining a Point of Stress. I gave the player a green casino chip to represent the building stress, that player ended up at the end of the game with nine Stress Points in total. The player re-rolled the dice pool with the extra yellow Stress Dice and did get a couple of successes - the medical supplies were still on the dock of the space station so needed to be brought on board.
Starck ran the numbers on her course plotting and passed that on to the pilot Smith who also managed to get a good result, reducing the journey time to a week. Medical Officer D.J. Also ran a check on the cryo chambers and also got all of them working, even the spares, due to a good result.
So most of the players had rolled for a skill check and we even had a rolled Pushed so the players were now very familiar with the basic mechanics of the game.
The players for my game, they just got out of cryo and the alarms are sounding!
The player characters went into cryogenic sleep for their journey and then were rudely awakened by the alarms sounding. I had set up my flashing light earlier by the gaming table and I switched it on to add more tension to the game. The players had their characters fumbling to find out what was going on. The ship was seemingly under attack with the computer recognising a threat. Proximity alarms were ringing and the comms and navigation were down. The CRT screen were scrolling with interference and nothing could be discerned. Justin and Cooper went to restore power in engineering, Starck and Smith were straight on the bridge still dripping wet from the cryogenic fluids trying to locate their position. Captain Miller calmly walked onto the bridge to keep things in check as the others tried to restore order.
There was something 200 clicks off the starboard bow broadcasting a broad band, multi-frequency signal that was interfering with the Lewis & Clark’s sensors, comms array, and computer systems. Peters managed to do a life scan as the others did get some order back on the ship.
What followed was quite an adventure as the characters investigated the cause of the signal and were able to move on to the titular empty vessel. Once on the empty vessel then it went very wrong, very fast.
The action gets tense. Photo by Dave Wetherall.
The players did embrace the investigative horror aspects of the game, putting their characters in harms way as part of the roles but also working to keep them fleeing the more dangerous parts. They did like the folding agenda sheets, especially the way it revealed the next act’s agendas for them. There were several conflicting agendas and the players did play up to them. The Lewis & Clark crew weren’t too dysfunctional compared to my other scenarios so they were able to work out their differences peacefully.
The climax was a lot of fun with one player coming up with a great way to use the escaping air from the front facing airlock to protect the ship. It was an audacious plan but the dice did back him up!
The players were happy at the end of the game.
It was a great game with some amazing players and it went well.
We broke up for lunch and I checked out of the convention as my afternoon game only had two sign ups. Some of the other players had bailed out as there were a few crossed off names.
It was a great morning but it was a shame I couldn’t stay as I had an issue at work I had to leave early for. I had been receiving phone calls and texts about it and had to go in.
As the weather was so nice, and the surrounding countryside was so beautiful I decided to walk back to the railway station down some country lanes. That part of the world is quite wonderful.
The beautiful countryside!
I would like to thank Catherine and Dave for being so helpful and understanding. They have a very nice gamer’s’ gathering there!
It was certainly a good experience and the con looked fantastic and well organised. I’ll certainly have to stay for a weekend next time instead of a day trip.
My next convention will be Dragonmeet 2022 in December which will be Vaesen RPG focused.
