South I go once more to the Big Smoke and the warm embrace of Dragonmeet, a con I used to attend regularly but have not been to for many years. I’m looking forward to catching up with friends and seeing what the con has to offer now it has grown substantially since I attended last. Let’s talk about what’s catching my eye and things I may recommend to you from previous experience.
What do you mean you don’t have one of these excellent accessories? It goes to every con with me and I am always looking to adjust a little what it contains. Definitely worth a visit to the stand to see what new shiny things they have
The idea of Faith intrigues and this outfit now has a board game out called Ether Wars. I’ll try and get a demo of the later for sure. However folks who run this company, can we not have the art you are pushing for ‘Dragons conquer America‘ on the front page of your site. Is that lady just really warm? Enough already.
No I don’t have enough dice, just leave me alone ok! Check out these beauties.
I’ve heard lots of good things about Stak Bots from various people but never had the chance to try it out. Hopefully this time will be the charm.
Peter is going to be along with his latest game Newspeak which I am hoping to get a little taster of before it goes live on Kickstarter at the start of 2018.
Lamentations of the Flame Princess
An OSR game with a METAL (throws up the horns) edge and the nicest books in the industry. Don’t know if I’ll pick anything up might just go and fondle the produce. Is that wrong?
I must sit down and play something from this outfit. I keep missing them at cons and have no idea as to the quality of their output. Time to rectify that I hope!
Another one I missed at Expo that I would like to get a shot of.
Sarah Kennington is another of the local designers I’ve had the pleasure to watch take their projects from prototype to fully released. She has run some barnstormer Kickstarters and will be down demoing the company’s latest game of cults and control called Carcosa.
Looks like some kind of fancy table topper, could be just what I am after.
I haven’t seen Graham Walmsley for many years so it would be good to swing by and have a chat about what he is up to. He just ran a very successful kickstarter for ‘Cthulhu Dark’ so may have to pick a copy of that up if it’s on sale.
I don’t really know much about Ghostel other than it’s a successful Kickstarter. I’ll hope to get a demo and report back.
Local designer Mark McKinnon will be showing off his game of post-apocalyptic mayhem that I really like and reminds me a lot of old GW games from my youth that I really enjoyed. Check it out and back it when he comes back to Kickstarter next year!
And all the rest…
The main reason I go to cons is to be surprised, to see and play the games I wouldn’t normally. If you see me wandering around and are really passionate about a game that is at the show then come up and have a chat about it and I’ll see about giving it some coverage.
Other things that are on
RPGs
All the RPGs are taking huge player numbers to my mind. 6 players? I break out in a sweat at 5 for my regular group and at least then over the course of weeks I can ensure everyone gets their moment to shine. The offering seems to be fairly mainstream, loads of D&D and Pathfinder, with the occasional dash of Indie.
Board Games
Esdevium are running a Best of Essen area, so I’ll try and spend some time there figuring out if anything on offer is for me.
Charity Auction
Don’t know if I will be able to hang around for this or not, but if you have some spare cash they are always good for some interesting/ rare items.
Bring & Buy
Always worth a look to pick up a bargain or two.
I’m really looking forward to attending Dragonmeet again, and getting to see folk that I don’t socialise with in real life nearly enough. To me the people I spend time with at a con are the heart of why I go to these events. To share in a game, in triumph and defeat with friends old and new is why I play, write and share my hobby as wide as I can.
Iain