Convention Chaos

Gaming conventions are scary and terrible. Going to a gaming convention means meeting all of those other attendees, who are people—and as we know, people are terrible. Gamers are worse. Who knows who we might end up with sat around a table playing a game, trapped with them for four hours? How are you going to cope with queues to get in—to everything—let alone the crowds in the trade hall and the dealers pushing things at you, trying to sell their latest and greatest games? And if the number of other attendees is an assault on the senses, so are the smells of the other attendees and the range of food on sale. Invariably bland and greasy, and whilst you might be hungry, are really you hungry enough to bolt that burger down and gulp that bottle of fizzy pop in the few minutes you have between the last event and the next? And there is, of course, the ‘con crud’ factor… Just how bad are you going to feel on Monday morning after the convention and your weekend away? What minor illness did you back with you which is going to leave you under the weather for days? Above all, are you really going to have fun, or end up exhausted and hungry with little to show for it except the ‘Con Crud’? Not all gaming conventions are really that bad, but the one you are about to attend in Stuck at a Gaming Convention very probably is.

Stuck at a Gaming Convention: A silly, thematic role playing game is a storytelling game published by Beyond Cataclysm Books. It can be played with a Game Master or without and is designed to take a group of players through the convention experience from the safety of their own home without necessarily having attended a gaming convention—though the experience of play will definitely be heightened if they have. Of course, Stuck at a Gaming Convention could actually be played at a gaming convention and even be influenced by that gaming convention as much as any other! Stuck at a Gaming Convention is a game about surviving the travails and traumas of being at a convention—encountering Coplayer Monsters, Leafleter Monsters, Crowd Monsters, Stallholder Monsters, running to the Food Court and the Nap Station, and all that before even managing to get to the games and actually play something!

Stuck at a Gaming Convention is played using a ten-sided die and a six-sided die. A Conventioneer has three stats—Fun, Fatigue, and Famine. All three are rated between zero and ten and Fatigue and Famine are negative stats, whereas Fun is not. A Conventioneer also has a Name, a non-gaming hobby, a reason why he came to the convention, and a favourite game, the latter selected from the six games detailed in the back of the book. The occupation, non-gaming hobby, and the reason for attending the convention each allow a single reroll during play if appropriate to the situation. The favourite game allows a single reroll in that game if it is played. If any Conventioneer’s Fun reaches a score of ten, then everyone will have had a good time at the gaming convention, everyone can go home happy, and the gaming convention has been a success and Stuck at a Gaming Convention is won. Conversely, if the Fatigue or Famine of any Conventioneer reaches ten, then that Conventioneer is reduced to misery as the gaming convention has beaten him, he and his friends have had a terrible time and decided to go home, and Stuck at a Gaming Convention is lost.

The roleplaying game is played into two phases—the Action Phase and the Gaming Phase. These alternate until the game is lost or won. In the Action Phase, the Conventioneers face the monsters of the ’Fan-dom Encounters’, including the Cosplay, Leafleter, Crowd, and Stallholder monsters. Face-offs against each monster are dice-offs, the player rolling the ten-sided die, trying to roll higher than the monster, who uses the six-sided die. Defeating a monster grants a reward that increases a Conventioneer’s Fun. Visiting the Food Court or the Nap Station will reduce a Conventioneer’s Fatigue and Famine respectively, but at the cost of Fun.

In the Gaming Phase, the Conventioneers play one of six games which include Settlers of Takan, Storm the Castle, and Escape the Dungeon. These are mini-games, typically dice games which are parodies of well-known board games, though Dream It is a drawing game. These are thankfully short affairs, not necessarily that interesting in themselves. They really offer only the one type of game as opposed to the range of games typically offered at a gaming convention, so no roleplaying, no LARPS, and so on. What this means is Stuck at a Gaming Convention may actually be asking the players to have their characters engage in gaming activities which they themselves do not find fun. Some random events might have been useful too, to give more chances of having Fun or suffering Fatigue, and they perhaps, could also have made the games themselves that little more interesting.

Physically, Stuck at a Gaming Convention is a busy, fuzzy affair in pale pink and purple that lives up to its name. Stuck at a Gaming Convention: A silly, thematic role playing game is silly and it is thematic, a one-shot game about surviving the game as much as the imaginary convention. It is also a game with a dichotomy. The part of the game where you are actually not meant to be having fun in-game is actually more fun out-of-game, whereas the part of the game where you are actually meant to be having fun in-game is actually less fun out-of-game. Stuck at a Gaming Convention: A silly, thematic role playing game is a game where the more fun that the players put into it, the more fun they are going to get out of it, and ultimately it is a game that people are not really going to want to that do that more than once or twice.

Miskatonic Monday #206: As the Stars Fall

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: As the Stars Fall

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jamie Burke

Setting: Modern day North American gaming convention

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Thirty-three page, 18.06 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Your mother warned you about the dangers of your hobby. She was right.

Plot Hook: Some people think gaming conventions are odd. The attendees, even odder. This time, they’re right.
Plot Support: Staging advice, four/five pre-generated Investigators, three NPCs, five handouts, and some monsters.

Production Values: Reasonable.

Pros

# Familiar setting for many gamers

# Creepy tale of blood and possession

# Scope to create the convention

# Easy to adjust to the nineties, eighties, seventies, or sixties

# Hemophobia

# Demonophobia

# Chapodiphobia

Cons

# Could end in a bloodbath and possession

Conclusion

# Unsettling tale of blood and possession which ends under the stars.

# Short one-shot in a familiar setting

Holding Off the Hard Times

With The Zhodani Candidate and Eve of Rebellion, the author Stephen J. Ellis brought his experience of freeforms and LARP—Live Action Roleplaying—to the Third Imperium, the setting for the Mongoose Publishing’s Traveller and published by March Harrier Publishing via Mongoose Publishing. In traditional scenarios and campaigns for Traveller, the Player Characters own a starship, such as an A2 Far Trader or a Type S Scout, and as the eponymous travellers, move from world to world, trading, thwarting crimes, uncovering mysteries and making discoveries, and so on. Alternatively, they go to war, undertaking contracts as mercenaries in low-conflict engagements. Either way, the focus is firmly on their adventures and their narrative. In both The Zhodani Candidate and Eve of Rebellion, the play switched to high above that. In the former, a team investigate a marriage between a war hero and potential sleeper agent and an important noble, whilst in the latter, the events leading up to the assassination of Emperor Strephon are explored, with the players taking the roles of those present. These two scenarios take place on a grander scale, their events often having wider repercussions, and with their mixture of secrets and secret agendas, designed to clash and interact through play, often offer more of a roleplaying challenge then the average scenario. Mirabilis, the author’s third scenario, is likewise inspired by freeform play with its often-interlocking secrets and agendas, but shifts focus whilst retaining a grander scale of play and whilst also being radically different. Mirabilis is diceless.

Mirabilis shifts the focus in both terms of time and space, but is still set in Traveller’s Third Imperium. It takes place on the world of Mirabilis, a low gravity, resource poor, but technologically advanced and important planet in the 82 Eirdani system of the Capella subsector of the Solomani Rim, near the border with the Third Imperium. The year is 1125. Strephon Aella Alkhalikoi, Emperor of the Third Imperium, has been dead for almost a decade and the Third Imperium is beset by rebellion and civil. In response to what it saw as a weakened enemy, the Solomani Confederation made a dash for Terra in an attempt to reclaim the Solomani Autonomous Sphere. Unfortunately, the Solomani Confederation has overextended itself, leaving it vulnerable to disrupted trade, pirate raids, and internal strife. Mirabilis has not yet suffered this fate, but it is up to its ruling Tech Council to ensure that if it cannot avoid such incidents, then it can at least survive them, and potentially survive the dangers to come. The Tech Council of Mirabilis consists of five members, controlling and representing different aspects of its society—Party Chairman Boris Gupta (Technical Maintenance & Party Administration), SolSec Co-Ordinator Jamal Goren (Solomani Security), Admiral Helen Treygar (Military Forces), Commerce Secretary Mario Niemeyer (Merchant Marine & Traders), and Chief Scientist Esme Hawking (Science, Research, & Education). Each council member has his or own agenda and secret, but also knows a secret about a fellow council member and has the means to bribe another. Each also has a power. For example, Admiral Helen Treygar can launch a military coup, Party Chairman Boris Gupta can declare someone guilty of unSolomani activities and strip them of Party membership and thus eligibility to sit on the council, SolSec Co-Ordinator Jamal Goren as the head of Solomani Security can imprison and interrogate anyone as a traitor to the Solomani cause, and so on. Thus, every council member has his or her advantages and disadvantages.

Mirabilis is designed to be played by five players exactly, who will each take the role of a member of Tech Council of Mirabilis. Each is provided with a character sheet and background information on the situation on the planet and its surrounding systems in the year 1125. As the Tech Council of Mirabilis, they take control of five levers of power or planetary stats—Tech Level (Science), Population (Maintenance), Law Level (Social Order), Wealth (Foreign Relations/Trade), and Military Power (Defence)—in order to push their agenda and respond to threats and dangers. Over the course of five turns and a decade from 1125 to 1135, they will negotiate, bribe, and blackmail each other to place these in order of priority. Those given priority will improve, but those not given priority, will suffer and not be as capable of responding to future situations and threats. The planetary stats are the only numbers given in the scenario, and will go up and down over the course of the scenario depending upon what the players and their characters decide. For example, a population increase might come about because of refugees, but a decrease because on of the planet’s flying cities crashes, the military’s capability is increased because the construction of new fleets or is reduced because maintenance time is neglected. Every turn there are trade-offs between improving a planetary factor and not improving planetary stats.

Mirabilis is based on the Prisoners’ Dilemma game theory. In a Prisoners’ Dilemma, the participants have the reasons and the means to individually do better if they betray others, but better overall if they co-operate. Ultimately, the outcome of this scenario and the fate of the world of Mirabilis being in the hands of the players and their negotiating ability and how they react to events revealed from one turn to the next. If events and the actions of other council members do not go his way, a Player character has the means to conduct a single coup, although a coup has a deleterious effect upon Mirabilis’ planetary stats.

For the Game Master there is a complete guide to staging and running the scenario as well as the rules. There are also events from year to year that the Game Master will provide as briefings to the council. These are all made available to the council members, but for a more complex game they could be handled as individual briefings given to the appropriate council members who then have to brief the council—or not. As an aside, there is everything here to run this game as a play by email instead of a convention one-shot.

There are some elements of Mirabilis which some players may find unpleasant or uncomfortable playing. Most obviously, they are roleplaying Solomani and Solomani in the Traveller setting tend to be racial supremacists. There is also a race of Uplifted Apes on the world of Mirabilis which are regarded as lesser. In addition, the players will find themselves controlling the fate of millions, who may well die because of their decisions. The scenario though, is definitely about the latter rather than the former.

Physically, Mirabilis is lightly illustrated and laid out in simple fashion. It could do with a slight edit in places.

Whether run as a one-shot or a convention scenario, Mirabilis is a really taut, fractious scenario, forcing the players as members of Tech Council of Mirabilis to make difficult decisions over the course of a few hours. Together they hold the fate of a planet in their hands in the face of encroaching Hard Times and what they decide will determine if it survives the coming dark age or falls to it.

The Psionic Puppet

The Zhodani Candidate is the second scenario from the designer of the superlative freeform, Eve of Rebellion. Set in the Third Imperium of Mongoose Publishing’s Traveller and published by March Harrier Publishing via Mongoose Publishing, The Zhodani Candidate won the Zhodani Base Awards 2019 for Best Adventure. It is a one-shot scenario suitable for conventions or campaign breaks, designed to be played by five players, plus the Referee. In terms of mechanics, The Zhodani Candidate is written for the current rules for Traveller, but is so rules light, it can be run by almost every previous version of Traveller, or indeed, be adapted to almost any system of the gaming group’s choice. Indeed, the primary game content in The Zhodani Candidate in terms mechanics are the stats and skills of the five characters involved, although stats are also provided for the Cepheus Engine.

Inspired by the television series Homeland and the Cold War brainwashing thriller The Manchurian Candidate, plus the Trust and Betrayal mechanics of Contested Ground Studio’s Cold City roleplaying game, The Zhodani Candidate is a scenario about intrigue, deception, and conflicting agendas. It takes place in the year 1098 on the planet of Mora in the Spinward Marches. Lady Isolde Ling Muudashir, the heir to the Duchy of Mora, is planning to marry ex-Imperial Marine Sergeant Darius Cantu, a love match rather than the traditional marriage of securing dynasties and economic alliances. Cantu is a war hero who fought in the Fourth Frontier War against the invading forces of the Zhodani Consulate and after being captured, spent a decade in the Zhodani re-education camps before being returned to the Third Imperium as part of a prisoner exchange. Cantu would simply have remained an ex-war hero, content to do charity work for veterans of the Fourth Frontier War, were it not the fact that he met Lady Isolde and they fell in love.

Consequently, various Imperial agencies with an interest in the security and stability of the rich and technologically advanced Duchy of Mora given its role as the gateway to the Spinward Marches, have concerns about the intending nuptials. They are worried that Sergeant may have been brainwashed by the Zhodani during his decade-long captivity and may be a secret sleeper agent. As husband-consort to the Duchess of Mora, he would have access to a great deal of classified information and would represent a major security risk. Informing the current Duchess, Delphine Adorania Muudashir, of their suspicions, the agencies have come to a compromise with her. They will form an Inter-Agency Taskforce to perform a security vetting of Sergeant Darius Cantu and determine if he can be cleared to marry Lady Isolde, or whether he is the Zhodani Candidate—a sleeper agent programmed to betray the Imperium. They will then approve the wedding guest list, should the wedding go ahead.

The Inter-Agency Taskforce consists of five members. They include Undersecretary Eon Jaxon, Undersecretary to the Ministry of State, Spinward Bureau, who formed and heads the Inter-Agency Emergency Vetting Taskforce; Senior Ducal Bodyguard Sir Jans Hillier, the head of Her Grace’s Security Service; Perrin Davos Senior Security Vetting Agent, Ministry of Justice, a specialist in security vetting; Lieutenant Samanthe Rosen, Imperial Naval Intelligence, a junior member of Naval Intelligence recommended by the Admiralty as an investigator and interrogator; and Senior Scout Evelyn Tremayne, a representative of the Intelligence Branch of the Interstellar Imperial Scout Service with information to present to the Inter-Agency Emergency Vetting Taskforce. All five player characters are presented in some detail and come with full stats, skills, background, and equipment, as well as a Departmental Agenda, a Personal Agenda, and more. What this means is that there is quite a lot of information for the players to absorb in terms of their characters—and then there is the addition of Traveller’s Library Data pertinent to the scenario.

The scenario itself is divided into two parts. The first is the investigation of Sergeant Darius Cantu, the second is the vetting of the wedding guests and the wedding itself. Now although there is a central objective in the scenario, that of ensuring that Lady Isolde Ling Muudashir is married to a safe husband, achieving it is only half of the scenario’s playthrough. The other half is the interplay of the player characters and their sometimes conflicting objectives. Here, as with the earlier Eve of Rebellion, is where the author’s experience with playing and creating freeforms come to the fore. That said, the objectives in Eve of Rebellion are tightly supported by the links between the player characters, but in The Zhodani Candidate, these are not present, at least not initially. At the start of the scenario, the player characters do not know each other, so the players will need to work harder to involve their characters in the scenario. Now the investigation serves to pull them into the scenario, but after that, the players will need to work hard to work bring their objectives into play without exposing them.

The actual adventure in The Zhodani Candidate runs to less than a third of its length, but includes staging advice, the scenario’s events, and possible outcomes. Besides this, it comes with the five player characters, Library Data, timeline of events, and reference sheets for the Game Master. In comparison, The Zhodani Candidate is mechanically more complex than Eve of Rebellion, and the Game Master may want to have access to both Traveller, First Edition and Traveller, Second Edition from Mongoose Publishing to the fullest out of it. The complexity comes in the fact that unlike in Eve of Rebellion, the player characters in The Zhodani Candidate are going to be doing a lot more than just talking and deceiving. Stats and guidelines are given should the Game Master want to run the scenario using the Cepheus Engine.

One new mechanic which The Zhodani Candidate does add is for handling trust between the player characters. Adapted from Cold City, it measures the degrees of trust between the scenario’s cast, which can grant a bonus between two trusting characters. Conversely woe betide anyone who breaks their trust with another character, or rather expect trust to be lost and broken as the player characters’ differing objectives clash and conflict with each other.

Physically, The Zhodani Candidate is a 1.44 Mb, thirty-six page, colour PDF (though only the cover and some maps use any colour). It is well written, the characters are solidly designed, and the advice is excellent throughout. If there is anything missing, it is that the scenario could have done with a few more handouts, perhaps to give out as part of the briefing handouts and so establish a sense of verisimilitude right from the start. No doubt a Game Master could create these herself as part of her preparations to run the scenario—and even better if she did them as folders of briefing material, one for each player and his character, ready to be opened at the inaugural meeting of the Inter-Agency Emergency Vetting Taskforce.

What The Zhodani Candidate lacks in comparison to Eve of Rebellion is a sense of grandeur and elegance. Now this is due to differences in their subject matters, Eve of Rebellion with high politics and family matters, The Zhodani Candidate with subterfuge, espionage, and deception. So there is more machination to The Zhodani Candidate, more grit and more paranoia. Eventually though, The Zhodani Candidate will probably confirm everyone’s perceptions of the nasty, underhand, and perfidious Zhodani and their sneaky use of Psionics, and drive everyone on the taskforce into a showdown from which none are going to walk away unscathed.

Imperial Destiny

Since its publication in 1977 and development as the Third Imperium setting, only one event and time and date has mattered in the Traveller roleplaying game. That time and date is 1517 hours on 132-1116. The event is the assassination of Strephon Aella Alkhalikoi, the Emperor of the Third Imperium, his wife, Iolanthe Abartii Guuibataashullibaa, and their daughter and his heir, Grand Princess Ciencia Iphigenia Alkhalikoi, and the Aslan Yerlyaruiwo ambassador, at the hands of Dulinor Astrin Ilethian of Dlan, Archduke of the Domain of Ilelish. Although Archduke Dulinor would assume the throne by Right of Assassination, the bullets he would fire from the Magnum Revolver it was his perogative to carry it loaded anywhere within the Imperium—even into the Imperial Throne room—would topple the Third Imperium. This event and its subsequent Rebellion changed the future of the Traveller timeline, the conflict between the leading claimants grinding each other into technological regression and making Humaniti’s greatest empire vulnerable to attack by external forces.

It does not have to be though… For example, between 1998 and 2015, Steve Jackson Games published and supported GURPS Traveller, a version of the Third Imperium setting in which Dulinor’s assassination attempt was foiled and the Rebellion never took place. Alternatively, a gaming group can explore what happens on the date 132-1116 and perhaps decide the future of the Third Imperium with the scenario, Eve of Rebellion. Now in most Traveller campaigns, players take the role of ship’s crews, being the eponymous travellers, moving from world to world, trading, thwarting crimes, uncovering mysteries and making discoveries, and so on. Alternatively, the player characters will go to war, undertaking contracts as mercenaries in low-conflict engagements. In Eve of Rebellion though, the players take the role of those present at the events leading up to the assassination of Emperor Strephon. Each has his motivations and reasons for being at the Imperial Court—all of which will drive them to act in the best interests of the Imperium (or so they think).

Published by March Harrier Publishing via Mongoose Publishing, Eve of Rebellion is a one-shot scenario suitable for conventions or campaign breaks, designed to be played between four and five players—though it will play best with all five players, plus the Referee. In terms of mechanics, Eve of Rebellion is written for the current rules for Traveller, but is so rules light, it can be run by almost every previous version of Traveller, or indeed, be adapted to almost any system of the gaming group’s choice. Indeed, the primary game content in Eve of Rebellion in terms mechanics are the stats and skills of the five characters involved, although stats are also provided for the Cepheus Engine.

The five characters in Eve of Rebellion are Emperor Strephon Alkhalikoi, Grand Princess Ciencia lphegenia Alkhalikoi, Prince Varian Alkhalikoi and Prince Lucan Alkhalikoi, Dulinor Astrin Ilethian, Archduke of Ilelish, and Duke Norris Aella Aledon. Of these, one player will take the roles of both of the twins, Prince Varian Alkhalikoi and Prince Lucan Alkhalikoi. It should be noted that Empress Iolanthe is not amongst these five. In the first of two non-canonical elements in Eve of Rebellion, she is not included, having died in 1112. The other is that Duke Norris is present at the court prior to when the asassination attempt took place in the official history instead of being in the Spinward Marches restoring the ravages of the Fifth Frontier War. Of the five, Emperor Strephon Alkhalikoi wants to continue his reforms and ensure that he has a successor to continue them; Grand Princess Ciencia lphegenia Alkhalikoi wants to maintain her status and power of Iridium Throne and possibly marry a suitable suitor; Prince Varian Alkhalikoi and Prince Lucan Alkhalikoi want maintain their louche lifestyle; Dulinor Astrin Ilethian, Archduke of Ilelish wants to reduce Imperial taxes which he sees as unfair and a cause of corruption; and Duke Norris Aella Aledon wants to learn why he is at the Imperial court. Now it should be clear that these are not all of their motivations, but their motivations interlock with each others, some opposing, some in alignment.

Now there is a very good reason for this, and that is the fact that the author has experience in writing LARP—Live Action Role Play—scenarios where the emphasis is on interaction, talking, negotiation, and scheming, rather than on physical actions, such as sword fights, use of magic, running and jumping, and so on, but with tightly bound and opposing characters that possess strong motivations to encourage roleplay. And this is what is, a LARP scenario, written for the Third Imperium and around the most significant event in its history. Unlike a LARP scenario, the players do not have to dress up as their characters, but rather Eve of Rebellion is played around the table with a Referee, just as a standard tabletop roleplaying scenario would be. Of course, with the scheming and intriguing going on, the players are allowed to leave the table and perhaps conive, intrigue, and confide in their fellow players, but they still need to keep the Referee informed.

To support Eve of Rebellion, the author provides everything necessary to play. This includes an explanation of the plot and its set-up and intricacies for the Referee, a guide to running the scenario, labels for each character—including two for the Varian/Lucan player, full stats and briefings for each character—these are two to three pages in length, a set of library data which can be printed out for each player, a quick briefing for the Referee and list of who has what skill for her reference. Every character is illustrated and comes with detailed background, goals, and resources. The goals and resources are very clearly marked and easy for the players to grasp.

Physically, Eve of Rebellion is a 1.29 Mb, twenty-seven page, black and white PDF (though the cover does use colour). It is well written, the characters are superbly designed, and the advice is excellent throughout. 

If there is a problem with Eve of Rebellion it is that the casual player is not going to grasp the nuances and significance of the situation in its set-up. This is very much a Traveller scenario, and for the players to really get the most out of this scenario they very likely want to be au fait with the background to the Third Imperium and its events. Now the Library Data undoubtedly helps with that, but this is still very much a scenario that a Traveller fan will get the most out of. Similarly, this is not a scenario for Traveller devotees more interested in the technical and technological aspects of the setting rather than the background and roleplaying. That said, if you are a Traveller fan, and a Traveller fan with some knowledge of the setting, then this is a scenario that you absolutely have to play. With its superbly designed set-up and support, impressively presented characters and well-explained, interlocking goals and motivations, Eve of Rebellion is an opportunity for you to explore and play out a pivotal event in Traveller canon, to redirect its history in a way that no other scenario does. 

A Conventional Hobby

When a man gets onto your train and announces, “You’re in the latest book I’m writing.”, that moment might be the time to start worrying. Fortunately this happened at eight o’clock on the morning of Saturday, 12th March, 2016 and I was on the London Midland 07:54 am train to London, Euston travelling to the village of Wolverton where I was to attend a very pleasant gaming convention. The gaming convention in question was Concrete Cow and fortunately, the author was also attending. The author in question was Simon Burley.

Simon Burley is best known for being the co-designer of Golden Heroes, the Super Hero RPG published by Games Workshop and being the designer of its more recent redesign, Squadron UK. He is also known for the prodigious number of gaming conventions that he attends each year from one weekend to the next, each time trying to referee as many games as he can. Now he has gone from writing his own RPGs to writing about the hobby in the form of Conventional Thinking. This is a guide to gaming conventions here in the UK from September, 2015 to February, 2016, serving as an introduction to the public side of our hobby as opposed to the hobby as we enjoy it at home around our domestic gaming tables.

In actuality, Conventional Thinking is not so much a guide to ten gaming conventions as a guide to the author’s experiences at each of the ten conventions that he attends throughout the course of the six months that the book covers. In each case, he provides not only the obvious such as name, date, location, and times, but also the convention and venue types, number of attendees, and entry cost, as well as his own personal travel and accommodation costs. So he begins in September, 2015 with ReUnicon 2015, a one day event in Brighton, where he stays overnight and as ‘Guest of Honour’, referees two games using his own rules system—one a superhero game, the other based on Doctor Who—and plays a Call of Cthulhu game set in World War Two and attends another eight conventions before book the closes in January, 2016 with Conception, a four-and-a-bit day affair at a holiday camp in Dorset on the south coast. Over the course of the convention the author runs games set in the Star Wars and Doctor Who universes as well as an anime game. Mr. Burley much prefers to be the referee rather than play games. In the process, his travels take him to Newport in Wales, Sheffield, Telford, Oxford, Dorset—again, London, and Stockport. All easily accessible because being Birmingham based, the author can get to most places in the United Kingdom with relative ease.

In addition to the details about each convention and his costs, the author goes into some depth about his experiences at each, about what he enjoyed and what he did not. This includes what he eats and drinks—the cost of beer being a constant concern—as well as how well each convention is organised. In fact, most of the ten are well organised and all of them are friendly and welcoming, all the more notable because in most cases they are not professionally run events, but organised by enthusiastic amateurs who do a good job on their own time, their efforts not only going towards the attendee’s enjoyment of the event, but also donations to charity that are organised as part of the event, typically a raffle or bring and buy.

As an introduction to an extension of what is a private hobby, Conventional Thinking is a useful little book. After all, taking a pastime that you normally do round the dining room table with your friends and doing it in public with gamers that you do not know, can be a daunting prospect (indeed, I know of gamers who would never think of attending a gaming convention). Thus it provides an introduction to roleplaying on a broader stage with fellow enthusiasts, in the process showcasing what going to convention can be like, though of course from just the one perspective, indicating perhaps that a book from multiple perspectives—for example, both a player and a referee—might not be unwarranted.

One issue with Conventional Thinking is that only covers six months of a year. This means that it misses out on the conventions that happen between February to August. This is intentional, as when this was released in April, 2016, the reader could pick this book up and plan ahead for the events that he might want to attend later in the year. That said, what it means is that does mean is that the author misses out on discussing the largest gaming convention in the United Kingdom, UK Games Expo, now also the fourth largest gaming convention in the world and the hobby’s showcase in this country. Its write-up will just have to wait for volume two.

Also, as much as the book is written in a light and chatty style, essentially that of a diary, it is somewhat scruffy and it really does need a good edit. Nevertheless, Conventional Thinking is a light and engaging read. 

Conventional Thinking highlights the public practice of our hobby and showcases how fun it is, how much effort organisers put into making sure that their conventions are well run and enjoyable, and to an extent, the state of the hobby in the United Kingdom. For anyone wanting to find out what attending a gaming convention is really like, then Conventional Thinking is a sound place to start. It is also a useful resource for anyone who runs a convention and wants to find out how others run theirs  and an even bigger introduction for anyone who wants to set up a gaming convention for others to attend.