0 Conception 2006. Naish Holiday Village, Highcliffe, Christchurch,
Dorset, UK.
Wednesday 1st - Sunday 5th February 2006.
http://conception.modus-operandi.co.uk/
What a fantastic convention!
The accommodation in the lodges is the best I have ever stayed in and
also the best value for money. The venue itself is good with the main
bar having lots of little nooks and crannies to grab a table and game
in. Though at times it did look like the convention was a little busy
with a struggle during the busier gaming slots to find a good table.
The convention staff was friendly and helpful at all the times I interacted with them and the games muster went without any hitches at the start of each slot. The only drawback is the need to shout out the players' names in some sort of bizarre auction. I am not sure how you would go about fixing this as the players did get to the games and the games went ahead. I did notice no name badges were given out to the attendees, just the staff and traders. Perhaps name badges may help but I do know from experience that they do facilitate the introductions better and help with locating people.
What helped make this experience perfect, and I hope the convention organisers pass this on, are the Hoburne Holiday Parks venue staff. The site staff, administration staff, receptionists, catering staff and bar staff were all friendly and professional. As a venue manager myself I notice how efficient, effective and tolerant their service was. I never had to wait long to be served at the bar, meals were served promptly and they were very respectful of the convention attendees, even those of us that were in costume.
My wife, my brother and I didn't arrive until late afternoon on the Wednesday and by the time we got to drop our cases off at our lodge and stocked up on supplies we were too late for the UK Role-players welcome party in the bar. We did take a look around the site and spend some time in the bar sampling the beer! I posted up my schedule and the first sign-up sheet for my Serenity:HeroQuest game that evening and I noticed that it filled up in five minutes with a couple of reserve sign-ups as well. Same for sign-ups for the other Serenity games over the weekend as well.
I must apologise to those Conception 2006 attendees that had wished to sign up for my Serenity:HeroQuest games but couldn't play due to the games being over-subscribed. I am sorry for any disappointment and inconvenience this must have caused. Every Serenity:HeroQuest game I ran, apart from the last one on Sunday, had two or three reserve sign-ups as well as the main six.
The Serenity:HeroQuest game itself is set in Joss Whedon's 'Firefly' and 'Serenity' setting or the 'verse as it is know on the show. The characters I used were from Alien:Resurrection; the crew of the smuggling ship 'The Betty' as played by Winona Ryder ['Dracula' and 'Edward Scissorhands], Michael Wincott ['Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' and 'The Crow'], Ron Perlman ['Hellboy' and 'Beauty and the Beast'], Dominique Pinon ['The City of Lost Children' and 'Amelie'], Gary Dourdan ['CSI:Crime Scene Investigation'], and Kim Flowers. Joss Whedon had wrote the script for Alien:Resurrection and this was his first stab at an old ship with a mis-fit crew; it is surprising how they are similar to the core crew of the Serenity though a little darker and rougher around the edges.
The scenario involves getting questioned by a dodgy Alliance officer
on Persephone, my trick to get the players to introduce their
characters to each other. Then they get told their job by one of the
bosses of the criminal underworld in a seedy bar. They then set off
in their ship to do the job after some planning and suffer two
dilemmas while travelling in the Black. The heist itself usual goes
straightforward if the planning was done well though there are a few
surprises along the way. The escape is close but the exchange of
goods is always fraught with danger in case of a double cross. Then
there is the big surprise that usually ends in a mad rush and a
gunfight. It normally ends well as the puzzle pieces drop in together
at the end.
During the adventure there are plenty of opportunities to role-play
some great characters and ham it up big style. The HeroQuest system
does allow for some good characterisation as Joss Whedon has done
most of the work when he wrote the characters.
My first game was Thursday evening that was probably one of the busier evenings as I did struggle to get a table at first. Managed to get one that had plenty of light with help from the organisers. The game went well though I did have one player who didn't know the setting of Joss Whedon's 'Firefly' or 'Serenity' and who also tried to dominate the game. He was always speaking for the other players, interrupting me when I was speaking to the whole group or to individual players. It took a bit of patience and all my GM skills to deal with him. By the time of the heist, in the main part of the adventure, I had the others players taking part and getting involved more and that part of the game just buzzed along nicely. One of the advantages of running the game in the evening is that we did run over the normal four hours of the game slot. We finished the game just before midnight so almost five hours of role-playing.
The second game I ran on the Friday morning was with the 'Portsmouth' boys [who made up the majority of the group]. Excellent down-to-earth players with a good sense of humour. Straight away they got into their characters, one player on looking through the character sheet of Johner said "Hey! This is me! My life all laid out on paper." The character interaction was good as well, the banter kept on flowing. During the game I couldn't stop laughing as they played out so funny. The game went so well with lots of role-playing that I had to speed up the end of the game a little to fit it in the four-hour slot.
The Friday afternoon game I ran was an epic Gloranthan adventure. I had four sign-ups for this game, two had played HeroQuest and in Glorantha before and the other two were a father and son team. The young lad was only nine but did show some maturity beyond his years [and was more mature then some `experienced' players I have known in the past]. Though his attention span is a little short he did stick with the whole game for four hours. He played the leader of the group so I was able to concentrate on the other player characters while he was distracted.
The game itself was about getting one of the player characters, the Heler devotee Steffen Cloudsaver, permission to marry his sweetheart, Crefnya Long-Braid. The trouble is not only is his sweetheart daughter of the chief of an enemy clan, a clan that is currently feuding with the player characters' clan, but she is also a Babeester Gor worshipper. That is bad as Babeester Gor is the goddess of the vengeful earth, her followers usually are warrior women that use battle-axes, paint themselves in blood and generally hate men. The nasty stuff they do to their male victims is best not dwelt on. To top all that Crefnya is the bodyguard of Gylenda Copperaxe, a Maran Gor worshipper. Maran Gor is the goddess of the dark earth, also known as the `Earth-Shaker'. Her followers are earth priestess that most men fear for they are vile in their actions and are known to be more vicious than the Babeester Gori. They also tend to be very corpulent and hideous for they are rumoured to eat their captives' flesh. Think Mother-in-law from hell but only worse!
It was a small comedy of errors to get the sacred gifts to present to
the Maran Gor priestess and the Clan chief. On top of all that they
also had to liberate the clan from encroaching Lunar soldiers and
deal with the `Tricky Trees' that were growing rapidly in the village
before even getting Steffen's sweetheart [and the Maran Gori] free of
the forest.
An superb game and the player of the Yinkini did a first-rate job of
describing a seduction so subtle that it went over the head of the
nine-year-old player [and if I wasn't concentrating it would have
gone over my head as well! ;) ]
The Saturday morning game was another over-subscribed Serenity:HeroQuest game. Again I had an fantastic group of players that really played for the story and for the fun of the characters. I was pleased to see a couple of the players that had put their names down as reserves on previous games had finally got a chance to play. This time due to audacious planning and manoeuvring of the spaceship `the Betty' at the end of the heist the players managed to get away without firing a single shot.
One of the best things was one of the characters using his `Don'tF **k-with-me Authority' augmented by his `Never Loses His Cool' and `Distinct Overwhelming Bearing' abilities to scare down some guards so that they just dropped their weapons, handcuffed themselves and then preceded to lock themselves in the brig. Priceless!
My second Glorantha game was also full with seven players on Saturday
afternoon. It was also my infamous `Dark Heart of the Dragon Lands'
scenario that has been played at every convention I have been to over
the last three years or so. I do like this scenario as players always
react differently to it every time.
It starts with a feast so that the players can introduce their
characters to each other. There they learn about the Massacre of the
Tarnda clan by Dragonewts seven years ago. The whole clan was wiped
out, slaughtered like sheep and the Dragonewts have occupied the land
ever since. However news just in has the Dragonewts packing up and
leaving the area. They are sent on a mission by the king to check to
see if the weird Dragonewts have really left and if it safe to
return. The player characters have to sneak on and work out why the
Dragonewts have left and who is really behind the disaster. They do
meet a couple of the strangest non-player characters I have ever
played and that did freak them out a little. At the main site they do
get unnerved as they investigate deeper. They also get more and more
mystified the more they discover. The outcome is always different
although in most cases they do work out who is behind it and put a
stop to them.
This time as I was running it I realised I had forgotten to tell the players some important information, information that has a key affect in the game. However the players still managed to work out just who the villain was during their investigations; it was the head of the priests. Also this group set a trap for him and allowed him to enter the main fort thinking he had succeeded in his wicked deed. Once he was in the trap was sprung using all the player characters to stop his evil plan.
The last game I played on the Sunday afternoon was another Serenity:HeroQuest scenario. This was delayed somewhat as I had forgotten that the raffle and closing ceremony in the main hall was still on. This group of players included a couple of the convention organisers who wanted to play having heard a bit about it. The game started well but about half way through one of the organisers was feeling knackered [after running a five day convention I wasn't surprised for I have done a three day convention and I know what I feel like at the end]. He had to drop out with apologies but I was able to explain that in game quite nicely: he was so drunk he had passed out in his cabin!
Also due to it being the last day another player had to drop out as his group of friends had packed up and were leaving for home. This left only four characters to do the heist but they did rise up to the challenge. They cooped admirably with the surprises along the way and managed to complete the heist. Another funny bit was about a little item I leave in the vault to distract the players. A can of Pepsi, a relic of the earth-that-was, in a glass case. Worth a fortune to a collector but very difficult to find a fence for. Most groups leave it, and the others take it with them just in case they can sell it. This time, however, the player of the Johner character said he would carefully take it out the case, inspect it, then open it and proceed to drink it! That made me laugh especially as he crunched up the can and left it to be found.
So to conclude, an excellent convention with plenty of games running. I think I would have been able to run more if I hadn't promised my wife that I would spend the evenings with her. Would I go again next year? Oh yes!
Cheers,
DARRAN SIMS
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