UK GenCon - are you going?

[dpmcalister]

I'll be there - from Wednesday midday until Monday. I'll be in the RPGA area mostly running the Living Spycraft schedule 8)

 

[Zander]

I'll be there - from Wednesday midday until Monday. I'll be in the RPGA area mostly running the Living Spycraft schedule 8)

Great! I'll pop round on Saturday to say hello. Should I ask for you in the RPGA area?

I hope you have net access at the con otherwise you won't get this message in time. :\

 

[Pinotage]

Well, when you get back, remember to let us all know how it went!

Pinotage

 

[Prism]

Our group is going (7 of us). Setting off in about, hmm, an hour. We'll be playing some LG and MoH and spending some time at the bar. Who invented the 9am game and what was I thinking of when I signed up for them!?

 

[Zander]

Well, when you get back, remember to let us all know how it went!

Pinotage

Will do.

 

[Zander]

Our group is going (7 of us). Setting off in about, hmm, an hour. We'll be playing some LG and MoH and spending some time at the bar. Who invented the 9am game and what was I thinking of when I signed up for them!?

"spending some time at the bar" and "9am game" don't go together too well.

I've decided to wear a home-made EN World tag at the con. Yes, it's geeky. Yes, I'm a geek.

 

[Zander]

Well, when you get back, remember to let us all know how it went!

Pinotage

I went for the day on Saturday and had a good time.

Butlins in Bognor was easy to get to from London. Signs from Butlins' main gate to the buildings where the con was being held would have helped. Luckily, I spotted a couple of guys in Horsemen Events T-shirts and just followed them.

The main hall was pretty busy but not that big. The trade area had interesting stands (yes, I bought stuff!) but there weren't many of them. The GenCons at Olympia had many more traders - at least double - as have the Dragonmeets.

WotC and Games Workshop had demo areas with friendly staff. I wanted to play a game of Heroscape but didn't have time.

I spent most of the afternoon & evening playing Megadungeon Survivor (D&D). I had three PCs, two of whom died, but the DM was great and the game was a lot of fun.

The amenities at the venue (food & drink, lavatories etc) were pretty good.

If they have GenCon at Butlins in Bognor next year, I'll go again maybe even for the whole weekend.

 

[Pinotage]

Thanks! What were the dealer halls like? Do you see some of the big US publishing companies there, or mainly WotC? How about RPGA games? Well attended or not?

Pinotage

 

[Zander]

Thanks! What were the dealer halls like? Do you see some of the big US publishing companies there, or mainly WotC? How about RPGA games? Well attended or not?

Pinotage

The trade area was pretty small; just a couple of rows of tables across a small side-section of the main hall. I didn't see any of the big US publishers apart from WotC. Even WotC only had a demo stand: they weren't selling stuff.

The RPGA games were held in another building. I didn't take part in any RPGA games so I wasn't there long - I just popped over to see dpmcallister. From the little I saw, they seemed to have quite a few tables (more than a dozen?) each with six players. On the day I was there, there were two sessions: 9am-2pm and 3pm-8pm. There may have been another session at night but I left just after 7pm so I don't know about that.

At the Olympia GenCons, almost all the RPGing was in one big hall but in Bognor it was split between at least three area. So it's difficult to say which had more gaming going on. If I had to take a guess, I'd say Olympia.

 

[Prism]

Thanks! What were the dealer halls like? Do you see some of the big US publishing companies there, or mainly WotC? How about RPGA games? Well attended or not?

Pinotage

I think there were in the region of 20 RPGA tables

The LG games were absolutely packed pretty much every time I played, although I wasn't around for any of the evening sessions. To be honest, they could have done with a few more tables as things were pretty much booked up for that day early each morning. I pre booked most of my games but some of the others in my group couldn't find enough games free to use their tickets

In comparison the MoH games were less popular with 3 tables running 3 mods throughout the weekend. The only problem we had was that one of the mods, Fallen of Sharn, only appeared as a game just before the conference and so few people pre-booked on. Also a few DMs went missing for these slots. My friend went to three slots to play this mod and every single one was cancelled on him. I was luckier and managed to play the mod

In the evenings we played the dungeon Maure Castle and the updated Tomb of Horrors, both in the DOGs area, with a heavy supply of beer from the bar - it was a blast