Concrete Cow 09 announcement: 14 March, Milton Keynes

[Neil Smith]

Yay! I can come to this for defo now as the Mrs has decided to visit family in Kettering!
Now, is there anywhere near by that's good for parking my car?

It'll be great to see you!

There is some parking at the venue: see the Concrete Cow directions page for details and maps of how to get there. If the community centre parking fills up, there are other car parks around Wolverton.

Neil.

[Kaiserjez]

Does anybody know if there's easy access to a cash machine on site?

[Evilgaz]

Does anybody know if there's easy access to a cash machine on site?

If memory serves, there's a Tesco next door with facilities. But its been a while...

[Neil Smith]

Does anybody know if there's easy access to a cash machine on site?

If memory serves, there's a Tesco next door with facilities. But its been a while...

Yep, there's a Tesco next door with cash machines outside. There's plenty of take-away places and the like in Wolverton (the venue is on the high street). Tesco has a Starbucks and the venue has a kitchen with plates and a microwave.

Neil.

[Kaiserjez]

Cool, cheers guys. See you tomorrow!

[Pete]

Yo!

A grand day out with some good gaming and damn fine trash talking. I enjoyed both games that I played: Rich Stokes's Umlaut and James Mullen's Dead of Night haunted house romp.

Other tidbits:

• w00h00 and I are living the dream that stubble is hot.
• Graham Walmsley is addicted to Mad Men.
• Jez needs to be way more generous in the application of soothing unguents.
• Gregor Hutton's nickname is The Hutt. (I really don't see the resemblance, must be an in-joke.)
• Everybody loves the Vibram Five Fingers.
• The game that was on everyone's lips was Omnifray.

Many thanks to the Milton Keynes crew for hosting the con. Shout out to Stokemon and Clairebear for letting me crash at theirs on the Friday night and giving me a lift to and from the con.

GBH, cheers
Pete

[Avatar]

The game that was on everyone's lips was Omnifray.

It was?

News to me!

[Pete]

The game that was on everyone's lips was Omnifray.

It was? News to me!

Okay, the game that was on everyone's lips bar Avatar's was Omnifray.

On a Let's Not Put Faces To UKRP Handles note, dude! You were at the Cow? I totally missed you again then... I finally met w00h00, and it was grand to see Jez, Gaz, Elaine, and lots of other folks again. Are you gonna be at Tentacles, 'cos that is my next con? Be sure to wear a floppy bouncing cthulhu hat on your head so that I may discern your august presence. I believe I owe you a beer for merely kicking my Imperial Guardsman in the nuts and not shooting him dead in a game of Dark Heresy that we played yonks ago

On a meeting folks vein, Graham Spearing of Wordplay note has a rather fine line in savage wit as evidenced at numerous times in my Umlaut game. I noted that Graham was reffing a game of Traveller (?) at the table opposite my Dead of Night game... any chance of an AP, 'cos it looked quite good from where I was sitting.

Cheers
Pete

[Kaiserjez]

Well, I had a great time, had a couple of cool games and a good old chinwag with some friends.
I trhought it was a nice venue, the honesty box for ntea and coffee was a nice idea and it was in a great location for food etc from tesco's and fast foodm joints.
If my work allows I will definately be coming to the next one.

[Evilgaz]

You were at the Cow? I totally missed you again then...

He's hard to miss... Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? He's going to Tentacles I believe, as is Woohoo - who doesn't even like Tentacles...

Graham Spearing of Wordplay note has a rather fine line in savage wit as evidenced at numerous times in my Umlaut game. I noted that Graham was reffing a game of Traveller

Mr Spearing was indeed reffing Mong Trav (a title that will never get old) with a little mod of his own - Aspects, where you could spend an Aspect Point to get a plus one if you could make the aspect applicable.

All is all a thoroughly decent session. Traveller system (not too different than the old "classic") is inoffensive enough a lot of the time. I'm unconvinced about the aspect thing - the +1 you got made no difference to any one roll that I could remember and so seemed a bit redundant. Of course, we didn't get any aspect points given out, maybe if they were distributed like candy (as John Wick now endorses more clearly), then maybe I'd have loved them more and it would have encouraged the right behaviours?*

GS was running a published (well, via BITS) scenario and so some of the "game" came from that, naturally. I don't think the scenario was too shabby - I'd argue that at some points there were too many die rolls, I'd have liked it to skip to the rolls that mattered, but maybe that's just me. Things weren't helped by inability to roll above a 4 on 2d6 for most of the session! I didn't see anything in MongTrav that would make we want to run out and but it, rather than just use T4 or one of the many other iterations I've got lying round. In fact, if anything I was thinking about Unknown Armies and the sci-fi version of that the Masonator will be running for my weekly group.

The characters had interaction possibilities between them, although only one had cause for genuine full-on conflict. I did try to generate some tension at one point, but the other player wasn't really buying it and everyone seemed more happy with being "gamer" about things, so I went with that in the end (not saying that's a bad thing, it is what it is). GS allowed generous amounts of time and opportunity for players to get their interaction on, but no-one was biting, so he forged on when he felt he could. For me personally and my No Game Suffers From Too Much Pace philosophy, I'd have hit the accelerator harder, but that's easy to say from this side of the GM screen.

If I had to have one quibble, it would be that there was a little too much reading from the book. GS did a good job of taking snippets, looking up, making eye contact etc., but personally I'd have preferred a smoother ride. That is normally achieved by writing your own scenario, so you know in your head what's happening and don't have to refer too much to notes. Like I say, he made a fair pass, but could have just done with that little bit more of a natural organic feel.

The other advice I'd give is to get stuck in earlier. We had quite a bit to read, a fairly lengthy intro, that didn't really affect the scenario later on - I'd have liked to either have seen a more in media res start, or more loaded characters to get them talking to each other quicker and get some drama rolling (again, this is probably scenario scripted, but as a GM you can always tweak things).

All in all it was a decent session, twist at the end - which the players (or at least I) could see coming, but the characters largely ignored. Some moments of panic and drama, a good finale, ably GMed.

I'd like to have seen more for players to do - but then again a more chatty group of players would have filled the time more meatily. I don't think the system is anything special, or notably, different from previous Travellers to make it worth a look unless you have no Traveller books, and even then, its not terribly exciting. Traveller proves as ever to be a staple "decent game" pick at conventions though.

My main gripe would be that I would have preferred to see a Wordplay version run...

7/10

Gaz

* Of course in my Savage game, I singularly failed to give out that many Bennies *again*. I probably managed about one per player on average, but that just isn't good enough. I need to start being more generous. Its hard when you're Evil. I guess I expect a higher standard than is normal, so things other people would think is worthy of a Bennie, I expect as base-line playing. Suffice it to say you don't won't me doing your annual review when we get into discussion about what is Going the Extra Mile and what is Just Doing Your Job.

[Avatar]

Are you gonna be at Tentacles, 'cos that is my next con? Be sure to wear a floppy bouncing cthulhu hat on your head so that I may discern your august presence.

You betcha!

The funny thing is I was going to be in that Umlaut game until Nate put up BSG at the last 'mo.

[Phil Masters]

Yep, good event as ever. Thanks to the organisers for the effort.

[First Age]

A great day out

I met loads of 'convention mates' and put a few faces to forum names.

Thanks to Rich Stokes for a great must buy game of 'Umlaut' (released later this year). All the players create a band and then take it in turns to play out a scene of differing types to further the cause of their band, often at the expense of the others. The centre piece of the games are the gigs where you play off against another one of the bands to see who can win the most glory (and the all important Hope and Fanbase). Rich has captured the hilarious fractious nature of metal perfectly. I fell in love with my band: Consumption, a Goth Metal band. Members included Albion Crow, the fickle Jessica Morn and Jeffrey Smile (on bass). A titanic duel continued between my band and Ragnarokski, Pete's (Peturabo's) Polish metal band. Fantastic.

ROCK!!!

I'd like to say a quick thanks to all the players in my Traveller game. I thought it was a good game and great focus around the table. 7/10 from the Evil One has got to be good, if you consider I automatically lost a mark for not running it with Savage. I am going back to my hermitage in Barnsley city centre to ready my GM-fu to smarty proportions for the next outing.

Thanks to Neil and all other organisers.

[neil]

I'm totally bummed I didn't make it on Saturday, but my back decided that it was not in the mood for a two hour car journey.

My apologies to anyone who was anticipating either of my games, though I wouldn't be surprised to find that that was no-one And apologies to Mr Spearing who transported a big box of Gloranthan goodness for me and had to return with it.

Hopefully by September I;ll have lost enough weight that my back is less temperamental.

Does sound like I missed another good one though.

- Neil.

[Graham W]

It was a superb day, thank you. A pretty decent game of Prime Time Adventures in the morning; a pretty good game of Traveller in the afternoon. I enjoyed running Lacuna in the evening, too: rather self-indulgent and weird.

The ratio of games to players was a bit off: there wasn't all that much choice. I'll make sure I come prepared to run stuff next time.

The game that was on everyone's lips was, indeed, Omnifray. You couldn't get away from it! Around the PTA table, we were all saying "I would have played something else, but there were only slots for Omnifray". And, later, someone was saying "I'm trying to get a complete alphabetical set of games, so I had to buy Omnifray for the O".

I do like Mad Men very much.

Graham