Spaghetti ConJunction 4a

Normally the part before I arrive at a convention isn't worth mentioning.  However, apparently the GM has a new random encounter table specifically for multi storey car parks, and was determined to use it.  Three times I had to stop on the up ramps - once due to a car suddenly deciding to reverse past the top of the ramp, once due to a car actually driving the wrong way round the car park, and once for the slightly less unreasonable person trying to reverse into a space near the top of the ramp.

Fortunately on the fourth floor I passed my spot check and found a space.  All this meant I was seven minutes late arriving at Geek Retreat, but since they were ten minutes late opening, that was fine, and I joined the crowd of loitering nerds until we got inside.

Geek Retreat has some new tables, and we soon had the room rearranged to our liking and were ready for sign-up.  Low on numbers though.  Where was everybody?

Game 1

I was offering Liminal again in the morning - the fifth time I've run the Fang Gang, which means I may have run it more than the actual writer.  It's a really solid adventure though, with plenty of room for GM creativity in the fine details.  Each time I run this it goes a little differently, and I've learned a lot from running it.

The group did a great job bringing the characters to life.  Once again I'm using my reworked character sheets with both male and female names on as people seem to like having the choice, so on this occasion it was Samir, Alistair, Dahlia and Tony who set out to fight vampire crime.  It's amazing how a few dice rolls can make the combat scenes turn out completely different each time.

I had fun and the feedback from the players was good, so I guess my next step is write some adventures of my own for the next round of conventions.

One useful thing about the Geek Retreat is you can go and order lunch and they'll bring it to the table.  I had my usual chicken and bacon panini.  Some day I should actually try something else.

Between the game slots we had the raffle.  I don't know how they do it, but the raffle at SCJ is always spectacular.  I think pretty much everyone who entered got a prize.  I got a voucher for Modiphius, and given that they sell a bunch of my favourite games (including Liminal) I'm going to have a lot of fun with that.

Game 2

At some point since the start of the first game, several more people had shown up.  Nevertheless, the game I signed up for got only one other sign-up.  Fortunately, it could still run with only two players.

I'd never played an OSR game before, and since part of the reason I go to conventions is to try new things, I thought I'd give Dungeon Crawl Classics a try.  The adventure was Nebin Pendlebrook's Perilous Pantry, and I'm a sucker for alliteration.

What I didn't know was that this adventure is what's apparently known as a funnel.  Accordingly, the other player and me were handed twelve characters each, and played three of them at a time.

We were somewhat hindered by noise.  With the low numbers, we were only using about half of the top floor, and there were not only a couple of tables of people playing Magic, there was also a large group playing a console game (Smash Brothers, I think) at one end of the room.  Combined with the existing noise of the other games, the three of us were having trouble hearing each other, and the game dragged at times as a result.  But when we did all manage to communicate, the game was quite a laugh, with the GM using a large red stamp on each character as they met their sudden and embarrassing demise.

There were some odd moments I particularly liked, like when we were trying to reach something high up and the ten foot pole was not cutting it.  We remembered we had a rope, and used it to tie a staff to the ten foot pole for some extra reach.

Twenty-four characters entered.  Thirteen characters left.

This was a very different style of gaming to what I'm used to.  There wasn't much in the way of character development beyond a slight incredulity that one of my original three got out alive.  It lacked the social interaction between characters that I enjoy.  While it was fun, it felt more like board game fun than RPG fun.  Possibly I'd get more out of a level 1 adventure than the level 0 funnel, but it's not something I'm going to choose over something that's more my kind of game.

If that is your kind of game though, this looks very well put together.  There were some aspects I really did like, such as the critical fumble table, and the fact that the critical fumble table is also printed on the outside of the GM screen where I could read it, so I knew exactly how screwed my character was as soon as the number came up.  This table could easily be adapted for D&D or Pathfinder games and given the size of the rulebook I saw there's probably plenty of other interesting stuff in there.

I hung around for a bit after the game to talk to a few people (mostly to Simon about the Dudley Bug Ball) and went on my way.  Fortunately I made it out of the car park without any futher random encounters and passed my luck check to get home before Storm Ciara arrived.

Reflections

This event is the lowest price one day convention I've been to at only £3 entrance, and £5 for a full day's parking right behind the venue isn't bad either.  Food is reasonably priced, and while the drinks are a little more expensive, the coffee is good enough to justify it.  Plus there's the raffle - I probably won more in prizes than it cost me to attend.

Gender balance still isn't great, with I think only two of us there at the start, but a few more women showed up later on, which is encouraging.  I know I have it easy with not having to worry about childcare.

This convention is great, and needs more love.  Even with low numbers it was still an excellent day out.  I've only made it to three out of seven events and really hope to improve that ratio, so will be hoping like crazy that the autumn event doesn't clash with any larps.  I've got adventures to run.