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Conception 2005

Well Conception is well and truly over and good fun it was, for the most part.

To recap, Peter, John, Max (an honorary member?) and myself (Gerald) were flying the flag for Shadow Warriors. Well the flag was really a banner and it was fixed to a table for the most part, but no one could have missed us in our "Nuclear Yellow" Fleeces…. could they.....  J

Below you’ll find a comprehensive Con Report from Max (thank god someone remember what we did for 4 days.... other than play poker and drink ....Schtop!.... Schtop!..... your liver cannot take it!!) and one from John.

Hopefully over the next week or so Peter and I will add our recollections (if we can remember anything?). A number of pictures were taken over Conception and when I get the time to take them off the camera and sort through them I’ll add them to this page. I’m also hoping to persuade both Max and John to make the adventures they ran available for download on our scenarios page. So that those that did play them can see where it all went wrong.....

For details on the SLA scenario run by Max click here

But for now on with the Con Reports!!

Conception 2005 by Max.

Arrived Wednesday.
Think it was Wednesday... it's all a bit of a haze now... yes definitely Wednesday. The camp site was as remembered from last year, with the same slightly surreal feeling of a deserted place of fun and frolics, with nothing but large, ruck sack wielding, black t-shirt wearing, grinning gamers as far as you could see... sanity loss... Found the bar... no, that's not right, found Dennis, then the keys, then the bar, that's it... the lodge / chalet was large enough to sleep eighteen thousand. No really. The quality and size of the accommodation is fabulous, it's great to be comfortable for the planned 4/5 hours sleep per night ahead...

Shadow Warriors in main hall, set up, ready to go, fleeced up in banana split yellow, beers in hand. Main hall is busy, traders set up, a few LARP-ers wandering aimlessly... most of the tables taken up with Living games... well, pretty much all of them really... and the lodges and chalets... and the bar... up on the roof, every cupboard, nook, cranny, available piece of space: Living gamers... no really.

Got chatting, tried feebly to formulate a plan for the next few hours, played board games, card games, drank beer, laughed a lot and got the feeling it was going to be long night. Found out the bar prices were apparently in some foreign currency, couldn't possibly be pounds sterling... then found out it was supposed to be our earth UK pounds they were asking for...realised the genius of supermarkets... went to Sainsbury's, and spotted the staff looking at us with envy: their puny fluorescent orange fleeces were pale in comparison to the Shadow Warriors Nuclear Yellow. Interesting observation: there comes a point in any discussion where the question "do you think we have enough beer?" ceases to mean anything real, as you never think you have enough beer. As it turned out, we did have enough beer. But it was a close call.

Back to gaming and plotting the best way to get people to actually sign up and play boardgames. Obviously the best way would have been to advertise them as Living Boardgame, but that seemed a tad drastic. Lost every game I played to the superior strategy and cunning of Gerald, Peter and John. But I would have my revenge...

There was a quiz. Yes, a quiz. About role playing, games and related culture references. Apparently. Though it all seemed a bit vague and hazy to me at this point. I feel my contribution was hugely undervalued. Though the fact that answering 67 to everything seemed a good strategy to me may have hindered me being taken seriously.

Went to chalet to play "stuff". Ended up playing poker until 04:30. I think some beer may have been drunk as well. Now I've never played poker like this before, with the chips, and the proper rules and all, and I'm crap at bluffing, so I figured it was gonna be a short session. Turns out the element of dumb luck can't be discounted though.

Thursday was odd. Played some games, met some other people who wanted to play games. Tried to find a game I could play on the sign up boards and failed miserably... no Living characters you see... By early Thursday afternoon figured out why people were moving as if they were in a treacle fog and speaking to me in Arabic. 04:30. Poker and beer. That whole sleep thing would have to be revisited I felt. It also starts to dawn on you how much fun you can have. Not the complicated, multiple-days planning and complex arrangements type fun, but just laughing a lot at funny stuff that seems to just breed itself when you're around games. Games are fun. Who knew?

Thursday night was a promised 'early night' as people had to run first thing... yeah right... early... hhmmm... played poker, and I think, magic. Held on by skin of teeth in poker and did ok in Magic... despite a certain person's insanely clever / powerful decks that threw / exploded / scrapped cards / ate your shoes / turned your eyes to jelly type decks. Some people have a knack for constructing decks. I'm not one of them. We all went through the usual moans about strange rules and possible witty counter remarks to their suggestion. Proxy cards my arse. I think it was at this point that we became saturated with Bill Bailey to the extent that sporadic bursts of "A-a-haa-a-aaa" were greeted with idiotic giggles. Sleep beckoned. But not before... to everyone's utter, utter surprise, and Peter's amazement... I won the poker! Woo-hoo! Dumb luck and aces...

Full sign ups for the Friday RPG's being run, but people were still reticent to play board games. Cthulhu and SLA came and went. Some more classic moments of in character madness and fun, with John managing a 100% insanity and fatality rate, has to be said, through no malice or fault of his own. Apart from him writing the scenario and all. Players eh? Gotta love 'em. Evening was spent with games, decks and beer, and finally more poker. An honourable mention to Peter's I-Pod thingy here. Bloody good bit of kit. Though who thought to put Bill Bailey on it... hung, draw and quarter them I say... or maybe just make them slaves...

By now lack of sleep, continuously talking, having to be wired for GM-ing and running games, and not a few beers, was starting to slow everyone up... until Saturday morning... when everyone seemed to get their second wind at the same time... which was nice... Saturday seemed busier, more people, with lots more looking for things to do: more full sessions in the rpg's and a good few board games. During a couple of the breaks, discovered that I am actually as bad as I feared at 99% of most card board / strategy games... bloody Settlers... Saturday evening we decided to throw caution to the wind and eat some 'proper' food from the bar-restaurant-bit. The only person not to feel as if they'd been poisoned, robbed, then thrown in to a blender in broad day light, was Peter who wisely figured out that you really can't fook up bangers and mash.

Men on a mission on Saturday night: beer, games, with SLA being run for Fin, Andrew and Radain... characters of note and distinction that managed, with very little help from me, to cover all the bases of madness, chaos, misinterpretation and tucked up from NPC's that every rpg should feature.

Sunday. Can't believe it's gone so quick. Seemed like ten minutes ago I was arriving and looking forward to it all. More gaming. Then the raffle. Ah, forgot about that. It seemed like a good thing to support and buy a ticket, but obviously we weren't going to win anything. And we didn't. So no surprises there then. Wrapped everything up by about 16:00.

Shadow Warriors got an honourable mention and thank you from the organisers, and rightly so. It's an uphill ice skating match to get rpg-ers, especially Living gamers, to take any notice or interest in board games, but the challenge was met and seems to have been used as a good base for another assault next year.

To summarise: played lots of games, laughed a lot, met lots of people, slept very little. Oh, and I believe some beer may have been drunk. Thanks to Peter, Gerald and John for sharing beer, food and games and making it another brilliant con.

So... see you all at GenCon then?

Unless we've all become slaves... A-a-haa-a-aaa...

Conception 2005 by John.
Your Con Diary seems to have caught the essence of the weekend superbly Max. I'd like only to add, if I may, a few observations ...

Food: Baked potatoes - fantastic. Can't go wrong (apparently). Everything else (apart from sausages and smugness) should be avoided unless drunk.

Yellow Fleeces: Great idea, lets get some hats! :)

Poker: The longest game of poker I've had. Ever. Either Max got the poker details slightly confused in his description, or I've got the details slightly confused in my mind! I thought we played Wednesday night (for ever), Thursday (until 12.00ish) and Friday (I played until 12, you mad feckers until 3). Midnight, sleep beckons, last few chips, just lost heavily to Max and Peter. Have a great idea - try to lose then I can go to bed! Brilliant. So, next hand: all in blind for 82. Peter sees me. So of course I win the hand! With a straight!! On the last card!!! Who thought up this game? Kudos to Gerald for taking over my position so I could sleep.

Not quite so many Kudos to Gerald "2 sheets" for the slight communications problem viz-a-viz the Cthulhu sign up on Friday for Saturday's game(s). J

Cthulhu games were good, though and I was happy to run 3 versions - 1 survivor in each case, mad as a spoon every time.

Fave quotes:

Colonel to the Doctor:  "Are you suggesting the allies are using bear-carrying gliders?"

SS Major to the Ghoul sorcerer (while abasing himself at the sorcerer’s feet):  "Give me ze power, I must have ze power"

Colonel to the Professor:  "Give me the sword, God wants me to have it!"

The players seemed to enjoy things, maybe next time I'll try for a Golden badger ...

Bill Bailey is a god. We need more BB music, not less! Traitors, spiders! (Spiders, traitors - they will take us and they'll make us ... )

Thanks to you Max, for running a great SLA game. Sorry we couldn't get through the scenario any faster - but good things should be savoured J  Here's hoping GenCon will be as good, if not better.

Thanks Peter for the lift, and cooking duties, Gerald for organising the fleeces, posters and the Superbowl evening and thanks to all for the good time.

Cheers,

John

P.S. Shivers? Do we have to kill them?

**New  Pictures from Conception New**
Schtop..... Schtop!! That drink is not ready!! (Grolsch the drink of Conception)	The Shadow Warriors team at Conception were (left to right) Max, John, Gerald and Peter.	We are Human Slaves in a Insect Nation!!!   A-a-haa-a-aaa...	Max (behind the GM screen) running a game of SLA.
We had 9 players for Formula De playing in Brasil on the Interagos track.  Only 5 players finished the race!!	John (in white) running a game of Cthulhu.	A hard fought game of Settlers.

Shadow Warriors are proud to announce that we will be running events at Conception 2005, at the Naish Holiday Village near Christchurch in Dorset.  Conception runs from the evening of Wednesday 2nd February until the evening of Sunday 6th February.  For more details click the link below.

TimeTable

Friday

Cthulhu (RPG)
Slot 5: Friday 9am - 1pm

Settlers of Catan (Board Game)
Slot 5: Friday 9am - 1pm

SLA Industries (RPG)
Slot 6: Friday 2pm - 6pm

Formula De (Board Game)
Slot 6: Friday 2pm - 6pm

Saturday

Cthulhu (RPG)
Slot 8: Saturday 9am - 1pm

Settlers of Catan (Board Game)
Slot 8: Saturday 9am - 1pm

SLA Industries (RPG))
Slot 9: Saturday 2pm - 6pm

Formula De (Board Game)
Slot 9: Saturday 2pm - 6pm

To find out more about our Events at Conception 2005 click the link below

Boardgames

Turn up and play Board Games (If you bring it, they will come) [top]

We will bring along a selection of board games for people to borrow and play during the convention and will teach rules if required. If there is a particular board game you'd like us to bring along, please let us know ASAP - if we have it, we will bring it with us.

RPG's

Call of Cthulhu (2 Slots).  [top]

Slot 5: Friday 9am - 1pm
Slot 8: Saturday 9am - 1pm

November 1942, Transylvania. As the war rages in Russia, the Fuhrer has sent out groups of soldiers to recover occult knowledge to give him ultimate victory, and the allies have undercover teams trying to stop them. As part of a crack unit, can you stop the "Knowledge man was not meant to have" from falling into enemy hands?

Will you survive an ancient evil, a terrible curse, and the soul-shuddering truth of a 1000 year old legend - not to mention the bullets and bombs of a more mundane enemy? The choice is yours, the fate of Europe lies in your hands.

SLA Industries (2 Slots).  [top]

Slot 6: Friday 2pm - 6pm
Slot 9: Saturday 2pm - 6pm

Siren's Song  For more details on this scenario

4-6 Players (Pre-Gen's Supplied) 

Date Line: Tuesday, 20th December, 901 SD. 5pm. The day the rain stopped.

The screen hisses.... white noise.... meaningless static on every single channel in the WoP.... then after what seems like an eternity, the screen flickers to life..... a harshly lit interior, plain background, like a hospital room.... then the unmistakable voice of Mr. Slayer....

"My fellow citizens, my children.... nothing lasts forever. Nothing it seems, except betrayal. Senti is dead. More will follow. Be prepared."

The screen flicks back to normal programming, leaving in it's wake a stunned silence from all who have witnessed this scything announcement.... as if nothing has happened.... as if nothing will be the same again....

A squad is needed to undertake a BPN. Nothing too dangerous. Nothing too complicated. A good chance to earn some easy cred's with no fuss and minimal danger.

Unfortunately not your squad.

To see what we've planned for Conception 2006 
1st February - 5th February 2006

CLICK HERE

All trademarks acknowledged.