Off to Conception
Off to Conception tomorrow.
It's the one games' convention I refuse to miss each year. I'll sacrifice GenCon and any other if I can't afford it, but for Conception I always try to find a way.
After driving down the last few years this is the first year I find myself back on public transport. Not really by choice, either. For the past three years I've either driven my own car or a hire car. Of course, I don't have a car now and I'm in no position to hire, so I find myself relegated back to the train. This has the consequence that I can't afford the luxury of bringing lots of games with me as I have done in the past (in a big crate of their own), and I can't do lots of shopping beforehand (or during). On the plus side, shopping shall still be done since at least one of us in the chalet has a car (Chris) and there's no hope of me getting inevitably taking a wrong turn on the trip down (although last year was almost without incident) - or back!
This year, alas, we shall be without beka4711 and purplesnap which means that the Looney Labs table shall be somewhat understaffed. Which probably means needing to close the demo table for a few hours a day to give everyone a break if we can't work out a decent rota to keep it open.
Aside from meeting a lot of other people I often only ever get to see once a year (unless they also attend Dragonmeet which I use as an excuse to also visit a friend in London, so is easy for me to attend) it's also the time to meet up with the Belgian crew. Last year, of course, I was lucky enough to meet up with them twice (in what may well have been a gaming first outside of conventions). Aside from juleske I don't know who else is going to be there, but I know pluizebol, won't which is a shame.
This year it's kind of jumped on me unawares. I still have a lot to do before I go. I have some web design work to finish off, prepare everything for when I'm away (which includes getting some still outstanding chores done), pack my bags (which can potentially be left until the morning), et al. I'm currently placing mental bets on what I'm likely to forget. There's always something.
Last year I failed to get a game prepared in time and ended up being harangued to run something which ended up being a semi-spontaneous game of Call of Cthulhu. Easy to set up since they have Byakhee on the computers there so it wasn't too hard to pump out some characters and revise-on-the-fly a plot in my head that I've actually run in a prototype form (which was very different). A lot of fun, though, it has to be said. This year, however, I can run a game "on the fly" based on a session from a campaign which I mostly did with very few notes but the problem is that it's a Dark Ages: Mage game which means that character sheets are not necessarily going to be available to print out on their computer - let alone any kind of source material. Let alone my specially custom-adapted form-fillable official character sheets which makes throwing neatly made characters together a breeze. As far as I know they don't have internet access (I could be wrong), my floppy drive doesn't work and I have no blank CDs. Ah well, it's either not going to run or is going to involve some very creative last minute thinking. But being last minute I also probably don't have the option of emailing my half-arsed material to one of the organisers to ensure they have it on a CD or on the computers as they have done in the past with me. Maybe I should take some time to think up an ad hoc Chtulhu scenario just in case I end up being asked to run something. Hmm, well, if I'm not too busy working on my novel I've got a three hour train journey to come up with something.
I just love last minute. No, really. Love it. See me bask in its glow. Uh. Where's the glow? Aha. Any minute now. Wait for it... Any minute now the glow's gonna kick in.... Wait for it.... Wait for it.... Any... minute... now.... or now.... maybe, now....
It's the one games' convention I refuse to miss each year. I'll sacrifice GenCon and any other if I can't afford it, but for Conception I always try to find a way.
After driving down the last few years this is the first year I find myself back on public transport. Not really by choice, either. For the past three years I've either driven my own car or a hire car. Of course, I don't have a car now and I'm in no position to hire, so I find myself relegated back to the train. This has the consequence that I can't afford the luxury of bringing lots of games with me as I have done in the past (in a big crate of their own), and I can't do lots of shopping beforehand (or during). On the plus side, shopping shall still be done since at least one of us in the chalet has a car (Chris) and there's no hope of me getting inevitably taking a wrong turn on the trip down (although last year was almost without incident) - or back!
This year, alas, we shall be without beka4711 and purplesnap which means that the Looney Labs table shall be somewhat understaffed. Which probably means needing to close the demo table for a few hours a day to give everyone a break if we can't work out a decent rota to keep it open.
Aside from meeting a lot of other people I often only ever get to see once a year (unless they also attend Dragonmeet which I use as an excuse to also visit a friend in London, so is easy for me to attend) it's also the time to meet up with the Belgian crew. Last year, of course, I was lucky enough to meet up with them twice (in what may well have been a gaming first outside of conventions). Aside from juleske I don't know who else is going to be there, but I know pluizebol, won't which is a shame.
This year it's kind of jumped on me unawares. I still have a lot to do before I go. I have some web design work to finish off, prepare everything for when I'm away (which includes getting some still outstanding chores done), pack my bags (which can potentially be left until the morning), et al. I'm currently placing mental bets on what I'm likely to forget. There's always something.
Last year I failed to get a game prepared in time and ended up being harangued to run something which ended up being a semi-spontaneous game of Call of Cthulhu. Easy to set up since they have Byakhee on the computers there so it wasn't too hard to pump out some characters and revise-on-the-fly a plot in my head that I've actually run in a prototype form (which was very different). A lot of fun, though, it has to be said. This year, however, I can run a game "on the fly" based on a session from a campaign which I mostly did with very few notes but the problem is that it's a Dark Ages: Mage game which means that character sheets are not necessarily going to be available to print out on their computer - let alone any kind of source material. Let alone my specially custom-adapted form-fillable official character sheets which makes throwing neatly made characters together a breeze. As far as I know they don't have internet access (I could be wrong), my floppy drive doesn't work and I have no blank CDs. Ah well, it's either not going to run or is going to involve some very creative last minute thinking. But being last minute I also probably don't have the option of emailing my half-arsed material to one of the organisers to ensure they have it on a CD or on the computers as they have done in the past with me. Maybe I should take some time to think up an ad hoc Chtulhu scenario just in case I end up being asked to run something. Hmm, well, if I'm not too busy working on my novel I've got a three hour train journey to come up with something.
I just love last minute. No, really. Love it. See me bask in its glow. Uh. Where's the glow? Aha. Any minute now. Wait for it... Any minute now the glow's gonna kick in.... Wait for it.... Wait for it.... Any... minute... now.... or now.... maybe, now....