Game Dream 6: Conventions

Game Dream 6 asks us:

Have you attended a game or media (i.e. comic book / SF) convention? If not, what's kept you from doing so? If so, how was your experience, and what can you share with others to nudge their decision one way or the other?

As regular readers of this blog should know, yes. Since I moved up to Manchester three years ago, I haven't joined up with a local gaming group, and have been relying on cons for my gaming fix. This has included big conventions like Gencon UK, one day events like Dragonmeet, and smaller residential cons like Stabcon and Conjuration. There's also the private 'mini cons' at people's houses, mostly by assorted members of Dreamlyrics, or it's predecessor, the long-dead RPGAMES forum on CompuServe.

Each type of con has it's own atmosphere. The larger conventions like Gencon UK are more gaming industry orientated, with game companies launching new products, lots of traders selling stuff, often a great place to get that obscure long out-of-print supplement you've been looking for for years. Many of the games are demos run by representatives from game companies; sometimes you get to be GMed by the people that wrote the games. They're also places where you can meet some of the names from the gaming industry and get the opportunity to shamelessly namedrop; Yes, I did attend the dinner at Belgo's in London with Ken Hite and Phil Masters during Gen Con UK 2002. I even spoke to E Gary Gygax once!

Smaller cons like Manchester's Stabcon tend to be more friendly and informal compared to the sometimes impersonal larger events. Games run on a turn up and go basis rather than being organised two months in advance and printed up in a glossy programme. The emphasis is more on the actual gamers and less on the game companies.

The private 'mini cons' are something different again. In a way, these are a glorified version of a regular gaming group, only with a few more people meeting once a year rather than every week, although gaming-wise they're still structured around one-shot convention style games rather than episodes of continuing campaigns.

I've played in some great games at conventions; the one-shot format gives the opportunity to play a lot of different systems and styles of play. My convention attendance has significantly reduced the number of games I own but have never played. I think the last eight games I've played have been seven different settings and six different systems. Some memorable ones over the years include the demonic In Nomine game run by Jo Hart at GenCon 2000 ending in the firefight with Tony Blair's angelic bodyguards at a village fete in Devon, the very emotional Angelic In Nomine game run by Mark "L'Ange" Baker at summer Stabcon 2002 set in Naples, and the completely twisted Unknown Armies game run by Maria Whittaker at Sashcon in a hotel in Leicester.

There's only one problem with cons. Since I guess I'm one of the few people in Britain who's into both RPGs and model railways, convention organisers and model railway clubs make no attempt to avoid conflicts of dates!
I see Warley MRC Show clashes with Dragonmeet again this year. At least the coming Winter Stabcon doesn't clash with the Marlow and Maidenhead show, unlike the past two years!