Airecon in my local gaming convention, but I've never been properly*, mainly as it is very boardgame focused. However, over the last few years, that has been changing. One of my fellow Garricon organisers, Graham, has been helping to organise a roleplaying section to the event. This has been growing steadily, and had 18 tables available in each organised slot, with 16 games offered consistently throughout the weekend.
*I did pop in a couple of years ago for an hour (which cost me a full day's ticket) to catch up with Graham and Tom and was really impressed at the scale and shear organisation.
Graham asked me to run some games, so I pitched two City of Mist and one Traveller scenario for the Saturday and Sunday. I deliberately picked the four hour slots as I know I most comfortably run games around 3.5 to 4.5 hours. However, the turn around between slots was small so there wasn't really scope to overrun. Saturday was the City of Mist day, with my forever game Traveller on Sunday. I'd run all the scenarios pitched at conventions before, so I knew they worked fine.
I had this mad idea that I'd take the bus from home to the convention, but that fell by the wayside when I realised that there wasn't a bus late enough for the Saturday evening slot (finishes at 23:00, last bus around 22:40) and that I'd finish gaming on Sunday and not be home for another hour and a half (on a twenty minute journey). So it was parking at the local multi-storey carpark for the day. However, aside from food that was my only real expense for attending, as you get a free ticket if you are running.
I arrived in Harrogate just after 10:00, and was in the venue queue shortly after. As entry requires a bag search (every day) it was slow but steady with two doors open. I had a clear slot, so I wandered towards the trade hall to have a look and coincidentally bumped into Graham, who had already had a full day of being the Roleplaying Tsar.
The trade hall was heaving. Fortunately, I wasn't there for any boardgames. The roleplaying vendors were limited in number, but did have a good selection. However, there was nothing I was especially after and I managed to talk myself out of any new Mothership material or the Ronin Mork Börg hack. I did grab a new hard dice tray, as my existing neoprene ones have all developed creases. I said hello to Fil and Paul at All Rolled Up who seemed to be very busy (which is exactly what they'd want).
After my initial reconnaissance, I headed off to find the Queen's Suite, where the roleplaying games were being held. I resisted the Bring and Buy as there was a huge queue of people looking for bargains and dropping off games, and passed the Chaosium stand. Lunch was a sandwich from one of the many food stands. Airecon has a great selection, and even if the food hall is a bit of a trek, the food on offer is worth a look.
And then it was time for games. I set the table up, and as ever, City of Mist looks really impressive on the table.
My first game was 'The Uninvited Guest' (the 'Unwanted Guest' in the Local of Legends book) which I'd run recently at Revelation. I'd originally got three sign ups that Graham was aware of, but people were signing up until right before the sessions so you had no idea whether you'd have a full table or not. As it happened, I needed up with two people as one had dropped out. That pushed us towards a more initimate investigation, probably a bit more like the genre (which I describe as Netflix Marvel) that the game emulates so well. I gave the players a few experience bumps (three each) to compensate, and we explored the scenario. It never fails to amaze me how differently different groups of people approach the same problem. It's one of the fun things of running the same scenario again as a GM.
Characters in play: Declan L'Estrange and Bassie.
Ultimately, they prevailed, and seemed very happy with the outcome. One of the players went away happy, as they'd wanted to understand how to play the game as they had it, but didn't quite grok it.
I dived out from the gaming area and grabbed a pizza in the food hall. The guy making it was worried I'd be disappointed, as it was on the gluten-free base, but it was just what the doctor ordered. It was nice to catch up with an old friend over the meal.
My second game was 'The Maestro of Chalk', which was also from the Local Legends book. I'd previously run this at Revelation in 2024, and it'd presented some challenges with character selection that I'd taken onboard. I'd addressed this for both games by pulling out the pre-generated characters that were a bit too focused for the scenarios. This worked well, and I don't think that anyone felt that they were limited in choice.
I had a full house for this game, five players, several of whom I knew from other conventions. They seemed to click as a group, with lots of interplay and zing at the table. I had a lot of fun as part of the opposition they faced could beguile people, and face danger rolls kept on getting failed and people kept on giving the opposition lots of updates on their investigation. They faced down a very dangerous threat which could cause a lot of damage, and worked out its weakness. It was amusing to see a monster taken down by spraying it with a one litre bottle of mineral water! Overall a fun game!
Characters in play: Detective Enkidu, Lance Sullivan, Mairead Conroy, Flicker, Scarlet
Then it was back to the multistorey and home.
I didn't rush in on Sunday morning, as I wasn't running again. Arrived, cleared through the bag checks and had a wander around the trade hall and then a look through the bring and buy. Picked up a boardgames on spies (City of Spies - Estoril 1942) which looked intriguing and cost a whole £10. The bring and buy seems magnificently organised.
Quick chat with David Scott on the Chaosium stand. We've not talked for years and it was nice to see him. Sadly, most of what Chaosium produces isn't my cup of tea these days.
I had a good natter with Graham as he was diligently signing thank you cards for GMs, then we went and hit the street food. I had a lovely lamb, couscous and salad dish.
My final game was the misleadingly titled 'A nice and easy in and out' for Traveller. Nominally, I was using Cepheus Universal, which is functionally Mongoose Traveller 1e (and not that far from 2e), but it all faded into the background.
Some more drop outs and I had two players arrive. I started setting up and explaining how the game and characters worked, then another player walked up and asked if they could join as the game they were in wasn't running. I welcomed them to the table and passed them the remaining characters to check out, and started my introductory spiel again. And then another person came up and asked me if they could join in. They were a volunteer but weren't needed right now. I welcomed them too, and started to do the introduction again.
It was that point where I realised that I had a table of players who had never played Traveller before and wanted to find out about the game. It always makes me nervous, as I'm showing them my forever game and I want them to love it! I was also conscious that I was running a scenario that didn't really showcase the Charted Space setting. However, I knew that it had worked well at TravCon 2024 and I've been running Traveller for over forty years so the system isn't a challenge for me.
The scenario is a simple heist and double cross, which seemed to go down well. There was a bizarre moment when one of the players started laughing, then explained that the warehouse map I'd just opened had been used in another scenario that they'd played the previous year on the Sunday. I guess it's a small world and the Loke Cyberpunk battlemaps are really good. I used some of the tricks from TravCon, stealing the Legwork and Alertness clocks concept from The Sprawl again.
The player who had arrived last dropped in and out of the game; I wasn't sure how much they'd enjoyed it but at the end they had a really enthusiastic and animated chat with me which suggested that they had. Another of the players had a skim of the Mongoose 2e rules on my iPad and liked what they saw. I'm hoping I've won another few people over to the game, if not the setting.
Then it was time to go, and I headed out from a convention hall that was being packed up without a care in the world and no need to check everything was okay. I should do more cons when I'm not in charge! I intend to return to Airecon next year.
23 March 2025
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