Write about a recent adventure or travels
Ahh. Okay, I know I touched on this briefly earlier, but I guess I can give you a bit more detail now.
Last week I went away to a five day gaming convention called Conception. Yes… get the chuckles out of the way now. :p I must admit, its in my mind, every year to ask where the name came from but I never seem to manage it. Now I’ll have to wait before I can ask again. Ah well.
Anyway, down in Christchurch (near New Forest) is a small holiday camp in the style of Haven or Pontins. I think this one is a Hobourne. Anyway, the gamers take over the place from the last Wednesday in January (whatever date that happens to be, but its usually around the 25th of the month) until the Sunday. Most folks stay until Monday simply because driving home is much more pleasant that way.
So… its been the same crew for quite some time now; four lads, two lasses, though this time we had an extra lad along. We all pile into a three bedroomed lodge for the duration bringing along all manner of board game, card game, roleplay game (and console game actually) that we can fit into the cars making the trip. And off we go!
I don’t think I realised the first time I went just how far the convention reaches; people come from Europe, occasionally America to play games at this Con. I thought it was far enough coming from Leicester, but when I open up my ears I hear Dutch, Swedish, American accents… its fab!
The Con is centred around the main hall. Its filled with numbered tables and there are three slots in each gaming day; morning, afternoon and evening. These tables get filled up (quite rapidly) by people playing any and all sorts of games. Tight clusters of happy, laughing people rolling dice, flipping cards or moving minatures across a battle map. I wish I had some pictures, but, as usual I forgot to take my camera along. *sigh* There are plenty of pictures on the website though, take a peep if you want to take a look at what its like.
There is plenty of choice, with a whole host of RPGs I’ve never heard of in my life and some that I know and love. 3.5 DnD and Fantasy World of Warcraft of course are a couple I know pretty well. Then there are systems that I’d like to play, but haven’t had the chance to yet; Call of Cthulhu, Feng Shui, anything with a Cyber Punk sort of vibe. I’d even like to give Pathfinder a go at some point.
There is also the choice to forgo all of that and stay in the lodge. Particularly our lodge as there is NEVER any shortage of games there and rarely are you going to find a time when you say ‘Game?’ and folk say ‘Nah.’ Some folk may say no, but there are enough other people floating in and out to get games in. In fact, I think there are two days that I just didn’t leave the lodge at all! No… make that three. The first day I was just too nackered after the drive, but on Saturday and Sunday there was no need to leave. Sunday traditionally is a dressing-gown-day for me, anyway, but sleeping on what was a rather narrow bed was telling on my back and hips. I blame the twins. :p Oh and the fact that I’m noticably bigger than I was before I left seems to tell me that the good food we ate (cheers guys!) is responsible for a pretty hefty growth spurt from those two. So it just got difficult to wind up the energy to leave the comfort of the lodge, particularly when I had everything I wanted without moving from the sofa. I guess the sore throat/bad tooth/general aches/fatigue didn’t help either. Meh.
I still managed to buy a shit load of stuff! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The story cubes are a welcome addition to the ones I already have (yey!) but the card games are those that caught my attention or browsing, or that came with recommendations from trusted sources. In fact, I’ve already played all of them except one now. I figure now is as good a time as any to gently coax Dave into gaming (bwah ah ah aaa hahaaaa!) using the ‘pity me’ vote. Besides, they’re gently paced games, nothing too complex (age rage 8+) and genuinely fun to play. The jokes in Stoner Fluxx are well worth playing it for.
Meh… we’ll see.
Anyway, the trend generally was wake up nice and late, eat breakfast (or brunch) play a game, get dressed, mooch down to the hall to see what was on and what games I could get into. If I had no luck there I’d come back to the lodge and play there (I think Conception is one of the few places I can still get away with playing Guitar Hero!). In the evening, if the food coma hadn’t knocked me out, I’d head back to the hall to see what the evening games were.
I ended up in a marvellous game just by wandering over in that fashion. Tarrasque. Two teams with a set number of points to spend on building a dungoen that the other team has to get through. You have to make it as tricky as possible as your aim is to stop the other team completing their mission, while you are able to complete your own. This game lead to all manner of sillyness! which I love. Nobody had to fight a Tarrasque – you’ll be pleased to hear – but there was a pit trap filled with cream and a single strawberry, a dire badger than spent most of its time walking across the walls and ceiling, an orc who threw shoes, invisible doors doubling as surf boards, circles of annihilation disguised as display pieces… let’s just say my sides hurt after that one. ^_^
My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.
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That still leaves me with some thinking to do however. This time of year – usually – finds me prepping for NaNoWriMo; putting threads together into a tidy ball that I can stitch or weave at my leisure. November is racing towards us, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do it this year. If only because my time is so restricted.
