A Big Thank You from the Con-Quest Organisers

So Con-Quest 2011 was a great success with plenty of great games running and a busy trade hall. Though numbers were down a little on last years’ event due to the double bank holiday, royal wedding and sunny weather; the atmosphere was great and all the attendees were very enthusiastic.
We had a great line-up of varied games delivered by top class GMs, in our humble opinion one of the strongest game programmes we have seen at any con, and a wide selection of traders and exhibition stalls.
I, personally, enjoyed myself even with all the hard work I had to do and it was great to see everyone happy. :D

First off I would like to thank my co-organiser Dave McAlister, not only for his sterling work in keeping the Con-Quest website and forum ticking over, but for his patience and hard work on the day keeping everything running and covering the Bring & Buy stall for most of the day. His good humour and steadfast demeanour certainly helped me keep working on the day.

We would also like to thank the Con-Quest volunteers for their hard work in making the day a success. Russell, my brother, for his printing of the Con-Quest 2011 Programme Books as well as his help on the day. My Sister, Amy, for helping on the door and Laura for her help on the door and the Bring & Buy stall.

Without all the Game Masters who volunteer their time and creative energy in running some fantastic games for us, Con-Quest couldn’t happen. We would like to thank them all for stepping up to the plate [Gaming Table?] and delivering some magnificent scenarios to the players.
We would especially like to thank the following GMs for the extra effort they went to present and organise their games:
Team 8; John Wilson, Sue Wilson, John Dodd, and Ash Elliott for their great organisation and total dominance of one of the gaming rooms.
Paul Lawrence for his Realms of Cthulhu games with great homemade props and game aids.
Simon Bell for his two Traveller games that transported the player to distant realms.
Jez ‘Jonny Gray’s Brother’ Gray for his entertaining Apocalypse World double-slotter game.
All the Pathfinder GMs for all their organised play.
Chris Tregenza and the 6D6 GMs for all their enthusiasm as well as running games for those players who missed the sign ups.


Alessio Cavatore running his Shuuro game.


Paul Lawrence GMing his game.


More of the 6D6 crew with Chris Tregenza.


The 6D6 Crew


Peter Allan running his Pathfinder game.

We would like to thank all the traders and exhibition stalls/games in making the whole event such a great place to be. We will not name them all here as they were all equally superb.

I would like to thank the Brunswick Inn for hosting our Aftershow party and I would like to thank the Derby LIVE and Kudos Catering staff that were very helpful on the day.


Aftershow Party in the Brunswick Inn.

And finally we would like to thank all the attendees who came to the event and played in all the games and took part in the event. Everyone was happy to be there and created such an abundant party ambience throughout the event. Your feedback on the forms we handed out will be invaluable for our next event and I will publish the results once they are collated.
Here are the feedback results from Con-Quest 2010 for those of you that are interested.

Con-Quest 2010 Feedback Results


See you all we hope in 2012!
Thank You!

Con-Quest Midlands 2012 on Saturday 14th April 2012 at the Derby Assembly Rooms

Back in the Saddle

I have just undergone a small crisis recently with some players of my group not happy with the game system I am running. Now I must admit that I do *really* like HeroQuest, and the new version of the rules for the most part have improved the game to me no end.
I did go through a bit of self examination but by the end of it I was still happy with what I am doing though I have taken some steps to see if I can improve my GMing techniques. I think that I have to be a bit harsher and put the PCs at risk a lot more.

The best thing for me was to run another good game - I did that yesterday and not only did I have a good time but my players were very happy.

 

I ran my 'Winter Warriors' HeroQuest 2.0 playtest game for my brother, my sister and even my wife joined in.
I usually get the players to create their own characters for this game as art of the playtest but as our time was a little bit limited I allowed them to pick from the characters already created in previous playtests. Most of them are excellent characters and offer great opportunity for role-playing.
They picked their characters and got playing, enjoying the setting of the Fimblewinter and stepping up to be the BIG heroes.
It went very well as all the players were trying to work out what was going on and my wife got quite blood-thirsty attacking the Lunar Sorcerer with gusto!

So I am feeling much better about myself and my games and look forward to running a new Firefly game at Dragonmeet 2008 and getting a load of games ready for Conception 2009.

Mega HeroQuest Game last Saturday

So a busy game on Saturday.
It looked at one point to be eight players plus me but unfortunately two of the players couldn't make it. Still I had six players I had to cram into my little attic room. Also a wide catchment area for the players as one came from Leeds, two from Stoke-on-Trent, one from Long Eaton and only my two siblings were from Derby.

It ended up being ran in two long sittings but it went very well. Epic and silly at the same time.
Many laughs were had, especially at the GM's expense.
A new Gloranthan metal has discovered though, Me-Lead!

So a good game and expect the podcast to go up by the end of this month.


Dave, Rob, Mark, Simon and Russell



Dave, Russell, Amy and Jenny the spectator

Here is some background for the campaign:
http://dnd.meetup.com/700/pages/Glorantha_HeroQuest/

http://dnd.meetup.com/700/pages/The_White_Rams_Clan/

http://dnd.meetup.com/700/pages/The_Imore_tribe/

http://dnd.meetup.com/700/pages/Time_Line/

http://dnd.meetup.com/700/pages/Settlem ... Rams_Clan/

Contributions sought for Continuum 2008 Programme Book?

0 Continuum 2008. John Foster Hall [also known as New Hall], Leicester University. UK.
Friday 1st - Monday 4th August 2008.
http://www.continuum.uk.net

Continuum 2008 is a three day convention for 250+ attendees held in a modern conference centre at the University of Leicester Halls of Residence, Oadby, Leicester, UK.
Call of Cthulhu, HeroQuest, RuneQuest, BRP, Savage Worlds, Indie games, and plenty of other game systems will be played at this convention.

A colour Convention Book will be produced and given free to all attendees on arrival.
As well as information on the convention, venue and games programmes there will be articles on gaming and role-playing.

We are looking for contributions for this year's Convention Book, whether it is artwork, maps, articles, non-player characters, scenarios, encounters, gaming or GMing advice, settings, stories or anything else you can think of.

We can not pay you but all contributors will receive the heartfelt thanks from the Continuum Committee, the joy of seeing their work in print and a free copy of the Con Book.

All copyright of any material we use in the book remains the authors or artists, so you can use it again elsewhere.

If you can send all submissions to darransims AT googlemail DOT com.

Thank you for your time.

August's EMD&DMUG Monthly Meet.

The East Midlands Dungeons & Dragons Meetup Group August Monthly Meeting
Sunday 12th August 2007
The Brunswick Inn
1 Railway Terrace, Derby, DE1 2RU.


So this was my first East Midlands D&D Meetup Group monthly meet and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I know the Brunswick Inn well, having spent my last night of freedom before my wedding there, though I have never played a game or knew that people meet up there for games.

There were a few problems with the original date as it clashed with Derby County’s first match of the season; the pub is one of the closest to the stadium and the railway station and was packed with football supporters. This would have made it very difficult to play games!
I did try to snag one of the small meeting rooms in the Assembly Rooms on the same day but was denied by The Powers That Be. So it was moved to the Sunday instead; nice and quiet but unfortunately the kitchen is closed on Sundays so people had to buy their food from the very expensive café at the railway station.

So I arrived at one o’ clock and sorted out my membership card and handed over my donation to the group of thirty-five badge-holders with neck chains. The membership cards double as name badges having a mug shot as well as the on-line avatar of the wearer – nice touch!
I then set up the table ready for my game in the far corner of the room. Sorting out all the money and other props.

I did have three people pre-booked for the game at the EMD&DMU website but I also managed to rope in four more players for the game, giving me a full set of players.
After checking that they all were familiar with the setting of Firefly/Serenity [they were!] I started off telling them that given a choice between doing something sensible but boring or doing something risky and fun always go for the risky option!


The whole group of gamers playing Serenity:HeroQuest.

The players picked their characters; all choosing characters that suited them well and I handed out the small stacks of money to each of them [except Call who only gets a ripped 1 Cred note!] along with their Gun Cards.

The money is used to show how rich [or poor] the characters were and they could use it to buy extra equipment or supplies with it. One player, Chris asked what else it was used for. I told him that you could earn or steal more and I would take some off you if you walked into a bar, brought fuel, weapons or ammo or pay your docking fees. It is part of the Firefly setting – ‘Get a job, get paid, keep flying’.
“Pay Bills? I play these games to get away for paying bills and direct debts and the like!” He stated incredulously. Nice moment that.

The gun cards are a new thing I have introduced to my games. I wanted to give the players more ‘flavour’ for the setting by allowing them to see picture of the weapons they will be using along with the associated abilities and capabilities of those weapons. Also it allows me to take them off them should they lose them or hand them over to someone else or they can trade them between each other. The Captain has the most and he can choose to give them to the other players or not.














I had advertised I was running ‘The Quick and the Dead’ but as no one had played before I decided to run the first game ‘Echoes in the Black’ as that is a better intro to the game I think.

I started the game with the Betty setting down at Eavesdown Docks on Persephone with a cargo of scrap metal in the hold, not worth much but better than dropping into atmo with an empty hold. Straight away as they walk off the Betty they are surrounded by Alliance soldiers lead by Redbone Bright, the officer in charge of the docks. He hit the Betty with a citation for littering as it was leaking oil all over the dock. He also wanted to know who they all are, my trick to get the players to introduce their characters to each other ‘in game’ so to speak. The group bribed him, haggling him down to almost next to nothing. From there they went onto the Palace Saloon to meet their contact, called Rogan Joshi, to whom they should ‘curry’ favour.

The Palace Saloon doesn’t quite live up to the image its name conjures. Located in the poorer area of the docks, the lower port fees being what makes this area so special, the Palace Saloon is a dive. A clean dive but a dive none the less, renowned for it late-night Karaoke and it’s private booths that are ideal for private meetings. Before they could get in through the door though the barkeep, Azcal Breen, made sure they enter his ‘fine’ establishment un-strapped of their iron. Why the gun control? ‘cause the damage done to the décor!’

Rogan had a private booth in the saloon and got to business straight away. The job is simple but comes in two parts. The first part is a legitimate delivery of lug nuts [you can’t have too many lug nuts] to the Highgate Skyplex in the Regina sector. The Highgate Skyplex use to be the HQ of the terraforming operation of the whole sector, but most of it is now dialect, the few functional areas used now as a space warehouse by the eccentric merchant Brian Hammond. Rogan has obtained, at great expense he points out, the Ident cards that allows docking at the Skyplex and will pay the crew for this job to avert suspicion.

The second part happens on U-day at 09:00. By quirk of a computer error all the secure sections of the Skyplex can then be entered, including Brian’s vault, for a two-hour window of opportunity. Also as it is U-day all the feds are away on shore leave just leaving the local guards on duty. It should be easy to deal with the local talent and walk into the vault. The contents of the vault include the payroll for all the Skyplex staff and all of it is for the taking, that’s their payment for the second part of the job. Rogan only wants the seven large black cases all marked with Alliance flags that are also in the vault as they are ‘technically’ his property. Do not open them, shake them up or scan them in any way. Drop them off at the rendezvous point on Angel and the job is done. Simple, huh?

The trouble is that U-day is six days away and the Highgate Skyplex is six days away on full burn so the timing will be tight. There can be no distractions. Rogan leaves after paying them for the lug nut job and giving them the seven ident cards, the ‘Multipass’ name badges I give out as another prop.

The group liked the sound of the job, a whole vault for themselves was good thing. However they were a little suspicious of the seven black cases. Could they be much needed medicine or something more sinister? Seven cases and there are seven of them, could that be something?

Before they left the bar the barkeep, Azcal Breen, came over to them and asked if they would do him a little job for him if they were departing soon. A case in his backroom needs ‘disposing of’ so no trace of it can be found. Just push it out of your airlock and into a sun if you can as long as is gone. And no its not what you are thinking, I have better ways of getting rid of bodies. You can check out the case if you like just lose it.

The group took this job on as well despite Rogan warning them earlier about distractions. They opened the case up and looked inside. It was broken engine parts, all with Alliance holographic serial numbers on.

The group then had to pay out for fuel, grenades, ammo, supplies and spare engine parts. The Captain give his second in command 200 Creds to buy the stuff, stuff worth nearly 1000 Creds!
Also Johner managed to find a contact selling a Gatling gun for 600 Creds, a barging!
The trouble is the Captain was a little stingy with his money so said no to the Gatling gun. However Johner asked if he could hire it!
Well that made me laugh so I said they could, the only thing is that it would have a great big ‘HIRE’ sign painted down the sides making it very un-cool.




From there the game went down hill very fast!
Some of the key moments for me were when encountering the distressed engineer adrift in space who pleading to be rescued, the pilot Hillard said “She sounds too needy and is talking too much. Women hate that!”
And when the group had their bar room brawl Johner used the Gatling gun to waste some of the other combatants away!


“Money, money, money!”



“I got the Gatling gun!”


More photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darran/sets/72157601417033593/

And
http://dnd.meetup.com/700/photos/?photoAlbumId=199663&photoId=1886068



So in all a very good afternoon and a very good game, probably made better by washing down pints of ‘White Feather’ ale.
It is a shame I could stay on after my game and play Paranoia with the rest of the group but I had to get back to wife who was feeling a little neglected.
All being well I will run the sequel ‘The Quick and the Dead’ Serenity:HeroQuest at September’s EMD&DMU monthly meet up.

[Sheffield UK] Furnace 2007

0 Furnace 2007. The Garrison Hotel, Sheffield. UK.
Saturday 20th - Sunday 21st October 2007.
http://www.rpgfurnace.com/


The venue from outside.


Furnace's very own bar!

As we reflect on how brilliant the coming summer will be this year, I thought it was timely to remind you to take a look at Furnace, tabletop roleplaying game convention set in a converted gaol house amongst the hills of Sheffield. It is almost very castle like.We're running the convention over the weekend of October 20th/21st 2007.

Main website: http://www.rpgfurnace.com

Many familiar tentacles will be there and some new tendrils too. Our game line up so far includes:
Call of Cthulhu 'Dr. Zugsmith Leaves for Cairo' Classic 1920s.
Call of Cthulhu 'The Legacy of Deacon's Wood.' Gaslight.
Call of Cthulhu 'Slapton Sands' Modern Day.
Savage Worlds 'Mission Arcturus' set in the 2300AD sci-fi universe.
Mythic Russia 'Party like its 1381!' run by the game's author Mark Galeotti.
'In search of the King' set in the First Age of Middle Earth and using a new game system.
Monkey 'The Bag of Wind' a new storytelling game based upon this much loved Chinese Classic.
Blood and Sand 'Enter the Arena' epic swords and sandal action using the MRQ SRD
'Bullet Cop Against the Mob' hardboiled 70s cop action.
RuneQuest 'She dreams of Empires' set in Michael Moorcock's Elric setting.
Plus expect more great games to be added to this list.

Five game sessions, Twelve tables, seventy gamers, one gaol. Will you be allowed home?!


Tabletop game of Serenity - I think they got into some trouble?


One of the gaming tables.


Evilgaz runs his games in one of the four cells.


A game played in the 'basement cell' - note the clever use of the screen.


A Gloranthan miniature wargame.


Me at Furnace's very own bar! - I was there a lot.

Signup here: http://www.rpgfurnace.com/?page_id=13

To see photos of the venue and last year's event:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/furnace/pool/

Tentacles Untapped Con Report

Tentacles Untapped 2007 Con Report.

0 Tentacles Untapped. Castle Stahleck, Bacharach, Germany.

Friday 25th - Monday 28th May 2007.
http://www.tentacles-convention.de/

Well I had a complete blast!

What a fantastic con. And the usual problems that have plagued this con in the past [things not under the control of the convention organisers] have been resolved.

All the guests were approachable and very talkative, the freeforms just looked amazing with almost every player being in costume, and all the games I ran had international players of very high standard.

The Friday went well and did seem to start earlier with the Opening Ceremony going well. The Moon Design Seminar was good, Rick Meints and Simon Bray explained about the new products and about the completed manuscripts they have lined up. Authors Greg Stafford and Jeff Richards also added further insight.



There was plenty of new product released at Tentacles, ‘Blood over Gold’ the 154 page trader princes campaign book, ‘Champions of the Reaching Moon’ the Lunar Hero/Hero Band book and ‘History of the Heortling Peoples’ one of the Stafford Library unfinished works. All look fantastic and it is good to know that Rick will stick to doing the larger page counts rather than splitting books down that has been done in the past.
Interesting to hear that they have a number more books in the pipeline, an Elf Book, a Prax pack, two books about the West, the Great Argrath Campaign by Greg Stafford, and of course the new setting-less HeroQuest core rule book.Though there are plenty of works ready to come out there was a call for more.
Any idea will be considered though there will be a contract issued with deadlines and a project leader will be required – any interest contact Mark Galeotti.

The rest of the evening was more of a social gathering, drinking beer and chatting with friends new and old. Also had a good talk with the 'Smart Party', a group of players from Nottingham who were Tentacles Virgins though regular convention goers. We even played the pub quiz as one of the teams and didn't do too badly considering the other teams had the creators and writers of the games we were being asked questions on!



All day Saturday I ran my Serenity:HeroQuest games for 12 hours and had a good time. The first game was with the Smart Party and a couple of others joined in as well. A very good game though I did have problems putting on the blue rubber glove under the table, which spoiled the surprise some what. The players managed to get me in a fit of giggles at one point. I was annoyed with myself that I didn’t take a photograph of the group though.
The second game was also a hoot with the players really got into the characters and hammed it up a little even though some did not know the setting that well. All the players were surprised by the big reveal at the end.



The last game ended up being a player verses player as the player of Johner accepted the bride and turned on the rest of the team. All the players were up for this, all played like they weren't expecting the double cross and we did run with it; putting us all on the spot as I had to make it up as we went along.



One thing I do love about running games at Tentacles are the international players. I had English, German, Dutch, French and American players in my games and was a nice mix to have. I am just sorry they had to struggle with my Derby mumble.

On the Sunday there was a little mix up with where the group photo would be taken due to the rain. The tried to fit everyone into the main hall but due to sheer numbers they wouldn’t all fit in! Luckily the rain had stopped in time for us all to file out and get into position. I wore my silly Jayne hat that is bright orange so that I would be stopped easily. The mess about with the group photo delayed the set up for the freeform so that ended up starting a little later than hoped.

The Serenity/Firefly freeform 'You Can't Take the Sky from Me!' that I helped to write and run went very well. I was very nervous as this was the first freeform/Larp I had run and GMed and I wasn't sure if it would go well. Once we started the game none of the GMs were need for about the first hour; all the players just carried on playing and staying in character, getting twisted deeper and deeper into their plots. So good to see.
I think part of the reason it went well was the support of Simon, Colin Driver and Bazz Hoftijzer as the GMs and the quality of the players.
I think I will do another again now that I have caught the bug!







Sunday ended with sitting in the auction and the closing ceremony where I had won a prize [and a cool tentacles badge] for running games. It is good to have a convention that rewards the GMs.
I did witness the ‘Daughters of Darkness’ book burning that I am always in two minds about though it was funny to see Daniel Fahey spill a drop of his drink on the burning ashes to see them explodes in a great gout of flame!





So the highlights were winning a set of duck miniatures on the tombola, being declared having the loudest snore, getting excellent players in all my games, laughing so much over the whole weekend and meeting old friends and making new ones. The lowlights were being declared having the loudest snore, going up and down the stairs of the castle and the fact that the weekend is over.

So special thanks to Fabian and all his team for organising such a fantastic convention. I do appreciate all the hard work that goes into running a convention from my experience with Continuum and Furnace but I do not think that I could do it each year!





Cheers and here’s to Tentacles 2008, Friday 9th to Monday 12th May 2008.

To see photos of this year’s Tentacles go to my Flickr Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darran/

Tentacles Untapped photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darran/sets/72157600285540891/

Nick's Tentacles Untapped Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23016277@N00/

Nearby Gamers

Here's a new resource which needs a lot more gamers to sign up:

http://nearbygamers.com/

I have added myself here:
http://nearbygamers.com/gamers/DarranSims

While Furnace 2007 is located here at http://nearbygamers.com/gamers/Furnace and Continuum 2008 has its own place here http://nearbygamers.com/gamers/Continuum2008.