People who roleplay tend to be a shy bunch, so they’re not always super-easy to find. I met most of my best friends at roleplaying conventions. They’re a great and (usually) safe place to meet up with other people who are interested in the same things that I am. Since I’ve only recently moved into the Newcastle area, I wanted to get in with other gamers in Newcastle and hoped that I could attend a convention or similar gathering to meet some.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long as roleplayers in Newcastle had been clamouring for a roleplaying convention of their own. NewCon, the Newcastle Roleplaying Convention, just started this year and the Boobook and I had a wonderful time attending.
For those of you who haven’t heard about roleplaying, it is, in its most basic form, a shared storytelling experience. People pretend to be various characters within the story and go on imagined adventures together. There are many different types of rules and story settings for this sort of game, though the most famous of these would be Wizards of the Coast’s ever-popular Dungeons and Dragons fantasy setting.
The convention was held at the local leagues club and entry fees weren’t very steep – just a gold coin donation to your choice of charity (Beyond Blue or White Ribbon) and away you go!
While I was at the convention, I ran two games of Engine Heart, a free setting about robots. In it, my 5 players took on the bodies of 5 little household robots, as they worked together to escape the house that they were trapped in.
The map means nothing!
We had a lot of laughs and it was interesting to see how different people came up with different solutions to the robots’ main problem of figuring out how to turn a doorknob when none of them had hands.
I played a few games too – Droo and I had a go at trying out Fiasco, a crime caper simulation game that randomises characters and settings for truly unexpected plot twists ala Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Burn After Reading. We couldn’t stop laughing throughout the game as our crime trio made one blunder after another as their attempt to kidnap a Russian mobster resulted in one of them being tied to a giant teddy bear and paraded around the streets of London atop a Mini Cooper.
Figuring out what possible stupidity happens next in Fiasco
We also tried some new board games courtesy of Serial Games. We played several rounds of a competitive board game called Tsuro: The Game of the Path, which proved to be quite entertaining. The Boobook intends to purchase said game sometime in the future so that we can play it with friends.
The object is to stay on the board and not collide with anyone else. This is much easier said than done.
Plus, I got to meet up with a group of Vikings (more on that next week) and even signed up for the local chapter of the International Game Developers Association!
Vikings from Óðin Hundi
All in all, I had a wonderful time at NewCon 2016. I’m glad that most of the proceeds of the convention went to charity. They even had a charity auction of various games.
Thanks to Good Games for running a great convention! We’ll definitely be back next year!
Owls Well 