Days and Weeks

This time next week I'll be at Gen Con. Fly out on the morning of Tuesday 2nd August and then get home again on the 9th.

Plus it's less just over 4 weeks to Tabletop Scotland 2022.

As I said in my previous post, I'm more than a little bit excited to be returning to Gen Con and Indianapolis.

My plans for Gen Con fall into three categories:

1. Fun: Play games, enjoy the experience of being there and have fun.
2. Writing: I'm attending several seminars / panels that related to self publishing. Mostly D&D centric but a few generic ones in the mix too.
3. Tabletop Scotland: Mostly from the perspective of picking up new releases and titles that are hard to get in the UK. These are both for my own collection and for the Tabletop Scotland games library. The BoardGameGeek Preview is quite useful for that, although you do have to keep in mind that some of the games that are new at Gen Con are already available in the UK & Europe. There's also an unofficial list of all the RPG products coming out over on RPGGeek. As always I fully expect to buy a mix of stuff from those lists and lots of impulse buys too.
   I'm sure there will be photos galore taken too.

Event wise this is what my schedule currently looks like. It will almost definitely change between now and I arrive.

If you're going to be at Gen Con and you want to meet up, let me know.

Once I'm back from that we're into the final prep stage for Tabletop Scotland.

Safe to say, August is going to be busy!

Gen Con 2022 Event Booking

 As I said in my recent post, I'm looking forward to Gen Con 2022.

Flights, accommodation, tickets etc are all sorted.

So the next step is to work out what I'm going to be doing for my best 4 days in gaming.

Gen Con event booking is different to most conventions, not least because the sheer number of events hosted.  Gen Con 2019 had 19,630 events... I'm expecting 2022's number to be something similar.

Here's the Gen Con 2022 Event Catalog: https://www.gencon.com/events?c=indy2022

And here's a handy alternative web tool with the same info: http://gencon.eventdb.us/index.php

The first drop of the event catalogue was published on the 1st of May and event booking opens on the 15th of May. So what happens in that two week period?

Well, you build your wish list based on the events published at that time, sort them into a priority order, and then at 5pm BST on Sunday 15th May you submit it and see what spaces you've managed to get. Where you didn't get spaces you might want to look at other events to fill the slots.

As I covered back when we went to Gen Con in 2014, the wishlist + submit approach works and it's effective given the sheer number of events and people wanting to book them.

What will I be looking to do? Well I kinda covered that during my Gen Con 2020 post but here's what I've currently got planned.

It's very likely that schedule will change between now and Sunday, and it's also very likely that schedule will change before the con as more and more events are added. But this is what I've got so far.

Worth noting that STEAK NIGHT on the Sunday isn't an official Gen Con event, it's just become a tradition of our visits to Gen Con.

Most of these events don't actually take place in the convention centre, so I see a lot of walking in my future... The convention is spread out across the Indiana Convention Centre (ICC), Lucas Oil Stadium including the pitch / field / whatever, and lots of surrounding hotels that have events space.

Conventions (and ears) in 2022.

So, as with many things, attending conventions in 2022 have an element of hesitation about them.

Many of us who go to multiple conventions per year can't wait to get back to visiting them, whilst at the same time we're all maybe a little bit apprehensive.

So when this year started I had it all worked out.

• March - AireCon
• June - UK Games Expo
• August - Gen Con
• August - Tabletop Scotland

and anything else was a bonus.

Of course, the best laid plans etc etc...

At the start of the year I developed a lovely (it wasn't) ear infection in both ears. An infection that prove resistant to all attempts to treat through the usual means (I have a long medical history with my ears).

The infection's main impact was pain followed closely by an inability to sleep. Fortunately pain killers exist, unfortunately I needed really strong ones. If you've ever been on really strong pain killers for any length of time, you'll know that when you stop taking them it isn't a pleasant experience...

So January came and went, then February, and March (had to skip AireCon) too. With April approaching and no improvement it became clear (well to be fair it already was) that surgery was the only answer. Now, because of my long medical history with ear issues that's never a simple thing to consider but it was becoming a 'necessary evil'.

As I type this it's the day after surgery and already I can tell a big difference. It's not a long term fix but it'll do for now and means I can now actually have confidence in my plans for going to conventions and organising Tabletop Scotland (the latter was never actually in doubt!).

UK Games Expo - Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th June 2022

For me this will be Thursday 2nd to Monday 6th June purely from a travel and social perspective.

I'm really, really, looking forward to UK Games Expo this year. I've missed the event and the people that I normally see there. Plus it's always a useful event from a Tabletop Scotland perspective.

Gen Con - Thursday 4th to Sunday 7th August 2022

For me this is Tuesday 3rd to Monday 8th August factoring in flights etc. Technically Tuesday 9th August as that's when I get home, timezones huh.

If I am really, really, looking forward to UK Games Expo. You can probably add another 2 or 3 reallys onto that for Gen Con. Returning to Indianapolis after 4 years away and going back with Richard, Simon and of course Greg. The festival atmosphere of the convention and the whole celebration of the hobby that the event has really is special.

The event catalog gets released tomorrow and I am looking forward to planning my Gen Con experience.

If I could only go to one convention every year, and could justify the cost every year, then it'd be Gen Con. No Greg that doesn't mean we're going every year.

Tabletop Scotland 27th & 28th August 2022

Then we have Tabletop Scotland. It's amazing to see so many people excited about our event this year. After 2 years without it, we as a team have really missed hosting it. It seems that our attendees and exhibitors feel the same, which is really special.

We have a lot planned and we really think this will be our best event yet. So if you're in Scotland or can make it to Scotland at the end of August, come to Perth and visit the convention.

More RPGing + Board Games on the horizon?

2021 was a year of more roleplaying, 2022 looks similar but with regular board gaming hopefully on the horizon.

I came into 2021 with a reasonable expectation that unless there was a significant improvement in all things COVID, I would continue to game exclusively online.

That expectation became reality fairly quickly, with a couple of small exceptions where I had friends over to play board / card games. Although in all fairness those were more about seeing these friends for the first time since the before times, rather than being specifically board game meetups. I continued my reluctance / disinterest in playing board games online so those occasions also represent the totality of my board gaming in 2021.

RPGs continue to dominate my gaming thanks to those same D&D games I reflected on at the end of 2020.

• Homebrew D&D campaign that's been running fortnightly for 3 years / 10 levels and now starting to build towards what the characters actually have ahead of them. I think the next few sessions will help to shape how the next 12 months of that campaign will go.
• D&D Adventurers League: Avernus Rising has been going for more than 12 months and we're now on part 14 of 20, in fact I think it's possible we might finish part 14 before we get into 2022.
• D&D Adventurers League: Eberron Oracle of War game that I play in. Run by Rich for Iain, Ian, Pete, Shane and I. It's been fantastic fun and a great opportunity to spend time with great people that I would normally see once or twice a year at most. I missed a few sessions this year due to illness or power cuts but I'm looking forward to what's next.

Other than D&D, my 2021 gaming included running games of Trail of Cthulhu, Call of Cthulhu (although that was only for a playtest), ALIEN, Star Wars FFG and The Expanse. Mostly these were one or two sessions.

I also took part in the RPG Writer Workshop again and published the currently 4.8 out of 5 rated and Silver selling "The Oxford Articles" for Call of Cthulhu.

Writing for a system that I had zero experience with was challenging but it's definitely got me thinking about writing more for it. I had hoped to do the workshop again in November but post AlbaCon 2021 I think I needed a break from being creative!

Speaking of AlbaCon, after raising > £3,100 for It's Good 2 Give in 2020 we were delighted to raise > £3,300 for Penumbra in 2021. It's a fantastic feeling that the effort we put in to make the event a success not only results in people having fun but also enables us to support charity.

Day 366 of Year 2020...

It has been 31 days since my last post and it also happens to be the last day of 2020.

As far as leap years go, it has been a year full of challenge and no doubt many people will be keen for it to be over with as soon as possible.

While looking forward to 2021, I have some hesitation about how quickly things will improve with respect to the pandemic, politics, and ongoing aspects of other things 2020 will be remembered for.

But this blog is not about those things and I am not planning to change that any time soon.

Let us talk about tabletop games.

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I usually start one of these with a reflection on the year gone but I think my most recent posts do that for me.

Some brief highlights?

AlbaCon was a success and raised over £3,000 for an amazing charity.

I published Unsettled Ground. An adventure for Dungeons & Dragons on DMsGuild after taking part in the RPG Writer Workshop.

The Dungeons & Dragons Scotland Facebook Group has grown from 0 to 725 members and the associated D&D Scotland Discord Server now has multiple games running on it every week. Not bad. Naturally there was a big upturn of members after March...

I’ve DM’d more sessions of RPGs than I have since my teens including continuing to DM two ongoing D&D campaigns and running several intro sessions of D&D at work and for friends looking to explore RPGs. My two campaigns are made up of:

• Homebrew set in Forgotten Realms with some flavourings of my own. We hit two years of running this in October and successfully migrated to playing online back in March.
  
  
  
  
  
• The other is a run through of Season 9 of Adventurers League – Avernus Rising.
  
  
  
  
  

I’ve also played more RPGs than ever including playing in games of the Eberron - Oracle Of War storyline with Shane, Pete, Iain and Ian run by Rich.  Fabulous people I would usually only get to see at events like UK Games Expo but thanks to the wonders of online gaming I have the pleasure of spending time with them semi-regularly.

Probably worth a few hobby related lowlights too? Although in the grand scheme of things these really are not that important…

Lots of conventions were cancelled, including Tabletop Scotland 2020.

I haven’t played a board game since March, largely due to East Neuk Tabletop being on hiatus.

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So with 2021 on the horizon, what plans do I have?

Conventions?

If (and it's a BIG if) in-person events are actually possible in 2021 then my plan is to go to the following: AireCon, Conpulsion, UK Games Expo, GenCon, Glasgow Games Festival and I plan to finally go to Dragonmeet.  That’s with organising Tabletop Scotland 2021 and AlbaCon 2021.

If in-person events are not possible then I’ll look at attending an equal number of online conventions, although most likely to play RPGs.

Other stuff?

After completing the RPG Writer Workshop I intend to write & publish at least 3 more DMsGuild products & maybe some other non-D&D stuff too.  I’d like that number to be nearer 6 but that’s going to be dependent on available time which will be driven by whether Tabletop Scotland goes ahead or not.  I fully expect to take part in the RPG Writer Workshop events in July and November 2021 either way.

Alongside continuing to run my alternating D&D Tuesday campaigns I want to run at least 6 games other than D&D for more than a one-shot.  Now that’s not with the intention of starting up another campaign but more a case of running short (2 to 4 sessions maybe) arcs.  What games?  Damn good question…

Night’s Black Agents – Unlikely to be the Dracula Dossier (given the session constraint above) but want to run a short arc, likely one of the published ones.

The Expanse or Ashen Stars or maybe both.  They can offer similar play experiences but are different both in setting and play style.

Mutant City Blues or something else that’s police procedural. Maybe 2021 is the year I run Cthulhu?

I’d like to run some Savage Worlds although unsure what setting I’d use.  I could use this as an opportunity to write some Savage Worlds stuff as I have run games of it at cons "back in the day".

Plus it’s about time I tried out 2d20 (maybe Star Trek?), Cypher, Cortex and a couple of other systems to see if they work for me.

Typing that up highlights the challenge I’m setting but I think it’s doable.  Especially if my roleplaying remains online exclusively.  52 weeks in the year. If I run 3 sessions on average for 6 games that is 18 sessions.

Something tells me I’ll be reflecting on failure with this challenge but that’s why it’s a challenge!

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Before I wrap up it’s probably worth reflecting on my Objectives & Principles...

Objectives :

1. Balanced gaming – This is very RPG centric now.  Nothing wrong with that and a complete u-turn on previous times I’ve checked it.
2. More gaming overall – So, I think I’m still doing this.  Between the campaigns and running one-shot demos of D&D I think I’m “up” on previous years albeit RPG only.  Board gaming has stopped and likely will remain thus until ENT can return.
3. More involved – Interesting one this. Conventions help with this a lot and now with a plan to publish more RPG material I think this will develop further.
4. Event Attendance – Technically I attended 5 conventions this year.  All of them were online.
5. Organise Events – AlbaCon is the shining light for this.  I may revisit other ideas in 2021 depending on how things pan out.

Principles :

1. Only buy it if you're going to use it – Well this took a nosedive in March / April. When the first lockdown came, I started to buy more board games. Partly because I wanted to support Scotland's FLGS’ but also because I wanted some retail therapy. I stopped buying board games shortly thereafter and instead bought a lot of RPG books. Mostly D&D books but also other RPGs and lots of PDFs…
2. Is everyone having fun? Including you? – Continues to be key and is a regular topic when people ask me for advice on running RPGs.
3. Accept that you're going to be the GM – I called this an eternal principle a few years back. It still is and something I’m still very comfortable with. Getting to play is nice though 😉.
4. Change is a good thing and is necessary – This one has never been more evident than now. I’ve historically been resistant to playing RPGs online but when it became the only option, I embraced it.
5. Opinions aren't as important as knowledge and experience – This remains to be a truth for me. I continue to value input from lots of people, moreso when it comes to feedback on conventions I organise and of course with the release of Unsettled Ground. That said, I continue to reserve the right to ignore opinions in favour of relying on knowledge and experience!

Day 332 of Year 2020...

So it's been 184 days since I last posted here. Certainly some of the weirdest days most of us will have experienced and no doubt most of those days will have blurred into one another.

So what's happened?

Conventions -

After cancelling Tabletop Scotland 2020 I saw a slew of online cons materialise, maybe some of them already existed but I wasn't aware of them. Not to be outdone and needing something to fill that Tabletop Scotland shaped void a group of us got together to organise an online RPG convention, one that had a dual-primary focus of playing RPGs and raising money for charity.

So AlbaCon was created.

On October 3rd & 4th we hosted 40 GMs from 6 countries who ran 70 games for 178 attendees from 9 countries.  Which translates into 402 virtual seats taking part in 1,434 hours of RPGs. We hosted 8 video panels about various topics and published them on YouTube. Plus we also raised over £3,000 for It's Good 2 Give which is fantastic and beyond our original expectations.

Not bad for our first event.  Naturally we're doing it again in 2021.

What about Tabletop Scotland 2021?

Well, as you will no doubt have noticed things are in a state of flux at the moment with respect to large gatherings of any kind. That aside we're working on the assumption that the event is going ahead and slowly getting our plan sorted.  The slowness is partly because the other parties we need to work with are also in a state of flux in many respects. When we have more info, we'll share it through the usual channels.

Other conventions across the UK & Ireland are generally in a similar position. Plan to happen but be prepared.  As a reminder, I maintain a list of the board game & RPG conventions here - http://bit.ly/UKIRPGBGCons

I update it semi-regularly but if you're curious about the status of the cons you usually go to, best to ask them directly.

My Gaming -

Board gaming has stopped for me.  I can't play with my regular or irregular groups and the online presence of board games underwhelms me.

RPGs online continues to be my main gaming outlet.  In fact I think I've spent more time playing RPGs this year than I have for many many years, like probably 20 years if not more.

I'm running two Dungeons & Dragons campaigns on a weekly rotation and playing in an adhoc D&D game.  I took part in games at D&D Live, GenCon Online and D&D Celebration; now granted some of those were as research for AlbaCon planning but I still took part and played games etc.

I've also, during this month of November, taken part in the RPG Writer Workshop programme and I should (will!) have published my first DMsGuild product in the next few days.  As I've said to a few people, it was either do that or organise _another_ online RPG convention... I think I made the right choice.

Will I publish more stuff? I hope to.  I've had numerous other ideas pop into my head (which I've written down) throughout this process so it is likely that I will.

So there we have it.  Day 332.

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.

Day 81 of Year 2020...

2020 huh.  The year of the Critical Hit etc etc.  It's certainly going to be one for the history books for the saddest of reasons.  The next few months are going to be really challenging for everyone and I hope you're all keeping safe and staying well.

I'd like to focus on what effect COVID-19 has had on the tabletop games hobby for this post.

Conventions -

AireCon went ahead.  I opted against going, asthmatic and all that.
Conpulsion has been cancelled.
UK Games Expo has moved to the August dates for Tabletop Scotland (in consultation with us).
GenCon is hanging in there but I have serious doubts it'll go ahead or more accurately if I'll be able to get there.  Given the impact on the airline industry there might not be a flight for me to get on.
Tabletop Scotland has re-scheduled to the 10th & 11th October.
Glasgow Games Festival date hasn't been announced yet but I expect they'll be mid-November as usual.

Beyond that a lot of conventions have naturally cancelled.  I maintain a Google Sheet with all the UK & Ireland Board Game & RPG conventions on it if you want to see.

Game Stores -

If there was ever a time for you to support brick & mortar game stores, now is that time.
You can support by contacting them to see if you can buy stuff and get them to post it out to you.
As well as being employers, these businesses are crucial to the community they serve.  If you can't support them financially ask them how you can help and encourage others to do the same.

Here's a list of the Scottish based brick & mortar stores that we compiled for Tabletop Scotland 2019.

Location	Name	Website
Aberdeen	ABZ Games	https://www.facebook.com/abzgamesonline/
Aberdeen	Asylum Books & Games	https://www.facebook.com/asylumbooksandgames/
Aberdeen	Plan 9	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Plan-9/341081725918660
Airdrie	The Last Outpost	https://www.facebook.com/outpostcomics/
Ayr	Unboxed Gaming Café	https://www.facebook.com/unboxedcafe/
Cumbernauld	Castle Comics	https://www.facebook.com/castlecomicsuk/
Dundee	Highlander Games	https://www.facebook.com/HighlanderGamesDundee/
Dunfermline	Little Shop Of Heroes	https://www.facebook.com/LittleShopOfHeroes/
Edinburgh	Black Lion Games	https://www.facebook.com/blacklionedinburgh/
Edinburgh	Edinburgh Game Hub	http://www.gameshubedinburgh.com/
Edinburgh	Geek Retreat	https://www.facebook.com/GeekRetreatEdinburgh/
Edinburgh	Murphy's Vault	http://www.murphysvault.com/
Edinburgh	Noughts & Coffees	http://www.noughtsandcoffees.co.uk/
Edinburgh	Red Dice Games	http://www.reddicegames.com/
Elgin	The Pop Shop	https://www.facebook.com/ThePopShopElgin/
Falkirk	Geeks & Games	https://www.facebook.com/GeekGearBox/
Glasgow	Geek Retreat	https://www.facebook.com/GeekRetreatUK/
Glasgow	Geek-Aboo	https://www.facebook.com/thegeekaboo/
Glasgow	Lucky Sparrow	https://www.facebook.com/luckysparrowgamescafe/
Glasgow	Max XP	https://www.facebook.com/pg/maxxpgaming/
Glasgow	Static Games	https://www.facebook.com/StaticGamesUK/
Glasgow	West End Games	http://www.westendgames.co.uk/
Hamilton	Settlers	https://www.facebook.com/SettlersHamilton/
Inverness	Ellerium Games	http://elleriumgames.co.uk/
Kirkcaldy	Kingdom Comics & Games	https://www.facebook.com/kingdomcomicsfife/
Lanark	Knightly Gaming	https://www.knightlygaming.co.uk/
Largs	Bus Stop Toy Shop	http://www.busstoptoyshop.com/
Paisley	Comicrazy Café	http://www.comicrazy.co.uk
Perth	Big Dog Books	http://bigdogbooks.co.uk/
Stirling	Common Ground Games	http://www.commongroundgames.co.uk/

Community -

This hobby is all about socialising with others whilst playing games and when that ability to socialise is limited or even removed entirely it can be very difficult.

I've never been in a situation like this before and whilst I know that between my family and other things I can keep myself busy and entertained, I will miss playing games and socialising with others.

So how does someone tackle that?

Play online.  Get organised as a group and get online together.  If you meet up at the same time every week or fortnight then try and get people to do the same but online.  It won't be the same but it will be better than not doing it at all.  It's not something I've done but it is something I will explore.

RPGs -

Wizards Of The Coast recently published this article - https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/remote - and whilst it's Dungeons & Dragons centric it's useful in general for all RPG players and those looking to explore that.
In there they mention Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds as well as chat/video tools like Discord, Zoom and Skype.  It's worth noting that there are other online RPG platforms like Astral and D20Pro which offer similar functionality to Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.  Try them out and see which one works best for you.

Update - Chaosium have also published an article - https://www.chaosium.com/online-gaming-getting-started/

Board Games -

There are several options here and I won't list them all mainly because I'll end up forgetting something.  So here's 5 I found whilst searching online -

• Board Game Arena - https://en.boardgamearena.com/
• Tabletopia - https://tabletopia.com/
• Yucata - https://www.yucata.de/en
• Happy Meeple - https://www.happymeeple.com/en/
• Tabletop Simulator - https://www.tabletopsimulator.com/games

Whilst many of these RPG & Board Game online platforms have free versions be aware that their services are seeing huge spikes in players and that by buying a license, not only are you getting more functionality, you're enabling the companies involved to provide a better service overall.  So if you can, do.

Closing out this post I hope everyone stays safe and well over the next few weeks and months.  Let me know how you're dealing with this exceptional circumstance and get in touch if I can help.

Oh and WASH YOUR HANDS!

GenCon 2020 - The Prep...

Flights - Booked

Accommodation - Booked

Tickets - Booked

So pretty much sorted then?  Logistics wise yeah largely there.  What comes next is figuring out what I'll be doing when there.

Events wise there's a LOT to choose from.  Event booking goes live on Sunday 17th May and based on 2019's event schedule of 19,589 different events there's going to be some decisions to be made!

I think this time my focus is going to be on the Gen Con film festival and the seminars / panels with a selection of gaming events (probably RPG centric) mixed in.  Plus of course the exhibitor hall where all the gaming goodies will be.

After seeing Eye Of The Beholder at Gen Con 2018 and having lots of good chat with the team behind it I was able to host the UK Premiere at Tabletop Scotland 2019 which was fantastic.

Maybe I'll see something else that I can bring to a future Tabletop Scotland?

I'd be interested in seeing Seminars & Panels either by D&D twitter folks I follow or podcasts I listen to.  There might be a few others that catch my eye but that's a decision for nearer the 17th May.

Gaming events will likely involve a few RPGs.  I'd like to try and play in a game of Night's Black Agents and also will likely sign up for some D&D 5e too.  That aside I think the majority of my convention time will be spent in the exhibitor halls and playing board games.

Exhibitor wise I think I might have a bit of a RPG splurge this time as that's largely my gaming focus at the moment although I will be picking up various new releases and other games to be added to the games library for Tabletop Scotland 2020.

If you're going to GenCon let me know (not you Greg, I know you're going!).

A look back at 2018 & 2019 and a look forward at 2020.

I skipped the whole of 2018 and 2019 from this blog and I feel kinda bad about that.

Not hugely bad because both years were excellent in hobby terms but still kinda bad as I had plans for this thing.  So how do I summarise the last 2 years in my hobby?

2018 : My now annual visit to UK Games Expo, a return to GenCon, the realisation of a hobby dream in Tabletop Scotland and a return to DMing D&D thanks to my players and Matt Colville.

It was a great year for my hobby, a challenging one but a great one.  Whilst swapping a large chunk of my free / game time for convention planning wasn't hard, it wasn't easy either.  I did manage to offset that a little by running D&D 5th Edition.  2018 was a year that reminded me why I love this hobby.

2019 : No GenCon 2019 but I did go to Conpulsion in Edinburgh, AireCon in Harrogate and Glasgow Games Festival in erm Glasgow which was nice. Obviously I also went to UK Games Expo which in 2019 was a different experience largely off the back of the relative success of Tabletop Scotland 2018 as I had people thank me and the team for the con and "recognisable name" publishers mention that they'd heard about how good it was.  Oh and Tabletop Scotland 2019 happened too, twice the space and at times really tough but hugely worthwhile.  In between all of that my D&D group kept going, with an often disrupted schedule but all good, and East Neuk Tabletop turned 5.

So 2019 was another great year for my hobby.  In many respects a more challenging year due to trying to exceed the expectations of those who came to Tabletop Scotland 2018.  I could write a lot about my Tabletop Scotland 2019 experience but if I was to boil it down to two things it'd be this -

• we hosted over 100 tables of RPGs, avergaging 20 tables per slot. Including games especially for kids.
  As a Roleplayer "first" this gives me such joy.
• our attendance was up by 54% on 2018 with almost 1,600 individual people being there.
  That's a success story and one I'm hugely proud of.

2020?  Well now... it's looking busy convention wise -

• AireCon in March
• Conpulsion in April
• UK Games Expo in May
• GenCon in July/August - there for my birthday and I'll have my GenCon brother Greg with me as always.
• Tabletop Scotland in August
• Glasgow Games Festival in November

In between all of that the D&D game and East Neuk Tabletop attendance will continue; plus I'm planning to add another RPG "slot" to my schedule with Night's Black Agents looking like the favourite to start that off.  I have some other hobby goals for 2020 that probably bleed into 2021 and beyond but they're not currently for sharing :-P

I intend to post on here about GenCon 2020 (tickets go on sale on the 26th January!) and hope to get the chance to meet many people I only know in an online capacity.  So if you're at GenCon and our cyberpaths have crossed somehow let me know as it'd be great to meet you and maybe even play a game.

To wrap this up, I have one thing to ask.  If you see me at a convention, in a game store, at a games club or out and about and ANY of the above mean something to you then let me know.

Cheers and here's to a great 2020 in the hobby.

2018 is on the horizon and it's going to be a busy year...

So as ever I've not posted here for some time.

Why now?  Well this remains my primary "brain dump" source for what's going through my head hobby wise.  I do brain dumps less and less these days because I have a number of other channels in which to do that but if I want to rattle off a few things then I'll likely come back here.

2017 has been an interesting year for me and my hobby.

End The Turn ended.
Largely down to availability, surprisingly not my availability but Liz's.  Will we revisit a podcast in the future? Unlikely but only because of other stuff that's going on that is eating up time.
It was an interesting and enjoyable experience doing the podcast and whilst I have no desire to start another one I'm not ruling it out.

RPGLiveUK happened.
I ran a RPG at it and that seemed to go down really well.  The weekend as a whole was great fun and I came away from it with the desire to run more RPGs but also accepting that right now that isn't going to happen for all the reasons I've listed previously in this blog.  I'm not giving up but if I do run something I can see it being one-shots and I'd definitely re-run Brave New World again if the notion took me.

Roll Against Cancer faded.
Largely down to venue challenges, i.e. not finding one but more on that to come...

Convention Calendar on Google Sheets became a "go to" thing.
People on Facebook and Twitter started to contact me about it and were actually USING IT to plan their convention travels and perhaps more importantly convention organisers started to contact me about getting their 2018 dates on it.
If you've not seen it before I've tweaked the Bit.ly link to be - http://bit.ly/UKRPG_BGCons - if only because it's not just a 2017 list now...

Objectives & Principles largely remained on track...
If you ignore the lack of RPGing and End The Turn ending that is.

What does 2018 look like then?

Well 1st of all this is happening...

After 4ish years searching for a suitable venue, one appears from left field and I have to say it's damn near perfect.  So on the 1st and 2nd of September 2018 you should come to the Dewars Centre in Perth to attend Tabletop Scotland.
I've written a fair amount on this blog on what a convention should and shouldn't be.  34 posts (excluding this one) are tagged with convention.  I'm sure some of that will come back to haunt me but that's absolutely fine.  If my team and I fail to hit the heights of what I expect then I assure you the first people who'll be pointing that out will be us.

Alongside that I will be going to GenCon again. Whilst I won't be posting with quite the same voracity as I was ahead of that first trip, I hope to post some stuff in the run up to this trip.

Since announcing Tabletop Scotland I've visited a lot of game stores that I haven't been to before.  That will continue with some repeat visits no doubt for those I've recently visited.

I'm hoping to be at UK Games Expo, potentially going to AireCon and more than likely will be at Conpulsion at least for the Saturday to promote Tabletop Scotland.

I'll obviously continue pushing East Neuk Tabletop Games forward and go to DWARF for regular gaming.

Beyond that I've no idea.  All of my spare time and energy is going into making sure that this convention is all that it can be.

So yeah.  2018 is going to be a very busy year.

Seminar : Using Games To Build Community

Sooo.....  This is the 2nd time I've posted this.  Thanks to the wonders of the Blogger Android app I managed to wipe the original post.  Fortunately I had the content of the post in an email I sent to Dustin.  Needless to say the Blogger Android app has been removed from my phone and tablet to avoid the same thing happening again...

I’ll be the first to admit that with hindsight I wasn’t the target audience for this seminar.

That actually disappoints me as I really wanted to be the target audience but I feel that Dustin (the organiser) had to tailor his pitch to a largely generic level to ensure he covered the variety of bases that the wide audience would need support in.
That said, I felt it was too light and not entirely sure what people took away from it other than "must do stuff" around choosing areas to organise events in and how to partner with FLGS' etc.
My view is that specific elements of community and choice of venue to enable that community to grow could have been expanded on.  Limited time to do that in many respects as it was a 1 hour seminar but I would have looked at things similar to previous topics in this blog.

Venue - Everything about choosing your venue needs to be based on engagement, this is both for the internals and the externals of that venue.
Externally the venue has to be -

• Signposted : So people need to know that there is something inside the venue associated with games.  This can be posters and other signage but from a tabletop hobby market it has to be clear of the types of games that will be on offer whilst still remaining relatively neutral on the level of "geek" association.
• Welcoming : Everything about the externals of the venue needs to enhance the likelihood of people wanting to enter. Avoid the stereotype of blacked out windows etc.  People need to see in to ensure that they can see it's a venue they want to go into.
• Accessible : Can a wheelchair get in? Can a kids pram/buggy get in? These ideally shouldn't involve a need to invoke a secondary method such as an elevator.  Accessible also applies to things like security and "do I need a badge/pass" to get in? Ideally not although appreciate in certain environments that isn't an option.
• Restrictions : Does the venue have any restrictions based on age or other elements? E.g. there was 1 gentleman who talked about his gaming community meeting up in a bar. I'm unclear on the laws in the US and indeed if they vary by state but in the UK under-18s aren't allowed to enter a bar without that bar having a food license or indeed some sort of family license (which is usually time bound),  I personally think that bars are a bad choice if you're trying to include the younger communities not just because of the licensing but also because parents may not be keen on having their kids attend a bar.

Internally the venue has to be -

• Signposted : Again this is key.  Where does the community meet? In a FLGS/FLCS scenario that should be much clearer however in most other scenarios signposting internally may be required or at the very least there needs to be someone available throughout the session to direct people to the correct location.
• Welcoming : Again the interior has to present the atmosphere that it is welcoming to the community.  Social elements like cliques can be perceived without actually existing plus the "politeness" element of not wanting to interrupt a group of people whilst they're engaged in games is something that needs to be addressed.  This could be managed through having "spotters" to handle that engagement with the new attendees.
• Layout : Ideally the layout should be semi-flexible so that different combinations of tables/chairs can be used to accommodate different games and/or events.  If that's not an option, e.g. where the layout is fixed booth type tables/chairs then this can be a challenge to ensure the new attendees can see opportunity to join in.

Targeting your community - Knowing how to target and who to target is very difficult without knowing about existing play groups and understanding more about what sort of appetite exists within the wider community.
So how do you start that?

• Format : If there is a pre-existing community, such as the one you may be in or one that you have had previous involvement in then that's as good a starting point as any. If there's a pre-existing board/card/war/roleplay gaming community then use that format as the starting point with the expectation and open mindedness to be able to support other formats.
• Branding : Giving anything a name gives it identity and a brand that can use to refer to it. The easiest trap to fall into here is to brand it based on the format of the game being played. Naming the community as a roleplaying group may result in the silent exclusion of those who don't "do" roleplaying as they perceive the community as only playing that format of game. The flipside is that anything more generic may mean it slips under the radar of existing gamers who think you're something else.  E.g. when I opted for the name Kingdom Of Adventure it was obvious to me what that meant but when speaking to people who became customers some thought it was a soft play area for kids. So branding (for want of a better term) is key.
• Frequency : This depends on a variety of things; your available time and the venue's available time probably being the greater influences on the frequency.  What's important is that you set a schedule, stick to it and promote the future dates in every piece of marketing you have. So if you meeting every 2nd and 4th Sunday then don't break that routine and ensure that everyone knows that's when things are.  For some events a more frequent schedule can be better but the key to promoting the frequency and schedule regularly is that this presents attendees an opportunity to "invest" in the community.  Without that community investment it is harder to build momentum and harder to grow overall.
• Event Format : This is in many respects driven by the format of the event, however don't assume you have to go for formal tournament based play by default.  Competitive games work just as well in a casual format as they do in a tournament format.  It's true that tournaments will drive commitment to the community but at the same time it can be off putting to new players.  If it's CCG/TCGs that are being played then a tournament enables better community cohesion and integration as it's not just people playing in their own "sub-communities" and are simply sharing the location, not that there's anything wrong with that per se but it does dilute the identiy of the community a bit.
• Promotion : Nothing beats word of mouth, ask everyone that you know if they are interested in trying the games out and if not ask them to ask their friends. Plenty of people are willing to give things a try and simply not everything is for everyone. Other promotion will depend on budget and time.  Social media promotion can work for you and be free too. I'm not talking about advertising on Facebook more the use of key phrases especially when it comes to your location / region.  Using hashtags on Twitter for your region can also draw people into the community but that the social media element really depends on how rural or urban your community is going to be based.  More rural is likely going to work better through word of mouth or posters. For ENT we've used posters to good effect thanks to Alan mostly. Having something recognisable to a gamer (current or lapsed) will perk their interest but at the same time if you're looking to target non-gamers then it needs to be more obvious what the community is about.

Each of these elements above come under the umbrella term of "barriers to entry".

Every barrier that is put in front of a potential attendee at an event is something that the event organiser needs to either remove or mitigate to give every opportunity for new attendees to participate in the hobby.

These are the things that every event organiser has to overcome to enable the greatest chance of success for their event.