Day 148 of Year 2020...

So it's been 67 days since I posted.  What's changed?  Well in many ways, not a lot.  In other ways, quite a bit.

Conventions -

The catalogue of convention cancellations has grown exponentially with essentially everything from mid-March onwards being cancelled.

Greg and I had already decided to cancel our trip to Gen Con as even if it was to go ahead (it isn't), we didn't think we should go.  Of course we are now looking at 2021...

So yeah the rescheduled versions of UK Games Expo and Tabletop Scotland (more below) have been cancelled.  As has Gen Con in Indianapolis and Spiel in Essen.

The impact on the hobby cannot be underestimated and it will be a multifaceted one.  I'll probably reflect on that later.

If you want to see the sea of red / cancelled cons go here - http://bit.ly/UKIRPGBGCons

Game Stores -

To repeat what I said in the last post...  If there was ever a time for you to support brick & mortar game stores, now is that time.
Many in the UK are starting the process of re-opening which means, amongst other things, they're spending money to bring in products to sell.  Your support will make that effort worthwhile.

Community -

I would encourage you all to explore the options available to you, especially as right now I'm seeing more and more people (re)turning to this hobby as an outlet for escapism.

You can do this via the various social media platforms but also through forum services like BoardGameGeek (link to Scotland forum), ENWorld (for RPGs), D&D Beyond (for D&D specifically) and there are many more.

Facebook is littered with groups.  Here are a few I'd point those in Scotland at :

Dungeons & Dragons Scotland - https://www.facebook.com/groups/DnDScotland/
Dungeons & Dragons Glasgow - https://www.facebook.com/groups/525585977643435/
(Aberdeen) Granite City D&D - https://www.facebook.com/groups/245802669125748/
Open Roleplaying Community Edinburgh - https://www.facebook.com/groups/605318762823146/
Scotland Tabletop - https://www.facebook.com/groups/164138950300208/
Board Game Player Glasgow - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BoardGamesPlayersGlasgow/
Edinburgh Board Gamers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/EdinburghBoardGamers/
Juniper Green Board Gamers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/393090567800456/
(Aberdeen) Granite City Gamers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/366948050026563/
there are lots more...

Ultimately though if you're not sure where to start get in touch and I'll see how I can help.

Looking forward - 

In many respects I think the tabletop hobby will see 2020 as an aberration and attempt to write it off.  It's never as simple as that but as we all look for brighter days and a time when we're all able to get round a table to play games again I wanted to spotlight a little on Tabletop Scotland 2021.

It's going to be a 3 day affair and we're back at our regular time of August.  What will adding a third day bring to the convention? 
Right now that's not 100% clear.  We want to enable the whole range of game playing options that are available normally as well as things like the Bring & Buy.  Exhbitors wise it's TBC how this will work and until we've discussed it with them in more detail it is far too early to speculate.

Now the trick here is we're all largely working on the assumption that by August 2021 we'll be back to "normal" from a hobby perspective.  We'll be able to sit together in large numbers again etc.  There's a fair bit of fingers crossed associated with this and in reality we have to plan on the basis of "normal" anyway.

What would you like to do on the Friday at Tabletop Scotland?
With this extra day, what would you change about the Saturday & Sunday?
I'm curious to know.