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Conception 2006

So that's all for another year...  (Mmm, another year, you say .... ?)  as Conception 2006 is over and we all survived... well I think we all did?  Can anyone confirm that?  Peter, John, Max, Mark.... Anyone!!?!!

A number of pictures where taken during the Con and I'm hoping to have them up on the website soon.  But for now we have a Con Report from Max and John (new) and available for download Max's very successful Cthulhu by Gaslight scenario.  I'm hoping to have the other adventures we ran and another Con Report available soon.  So check back soon.....

Conception 2006 - Recollections From A Con by Max

A Games convention you say...? While composing my memoirs, my mind was inescapably drawn back to the case of the intrepid con goers and the recurring in-joke... The prep for Conception starts a few months in advance, with writing up of games, testing organising all the details of getting and staying there, etc. This time was no exception, and a lot of pulling together of both scenarios and organising went on. Much 'advertising' was done on various forum and boards, e-mails circulated and cajoling attempted to get as big a turn out as possible, both in Shadow Warrior attendees and those who we all know would have added loads to the event by their being there.

As it turned out, it was down to the Usual Suspects. Must say up front a big thanks to Gerald, Peter and John for sharing many, many laughs and surreal moments, both from games and from poker. Without the effort and dedication of these three unstoppable forces of nature, god knows where the Shadow Warriors con-force would be. Thanks to Whitt for company, jokes and whining about hangovers at a truly Olympic level, and much thrills and spills in the poker ("I've only played once before you know..." - yeah right...). A mention must also be made of Mark's heroic efforts in getting there, despite his body still being on auto-pilot from what sounded like a monumental debauchery session.

Wednesday was the usual confusion of loading the car, remembering things forgotten and leaving, returning, getting wallet, leaving, getting petrol, food, beer, beer and beer and then heading off down the woefully inadequate roads that form this country's Cthulhu like infra structure for transport and communications. Napoleon wouldn't have swapped my journey down to Conception for his retreat from Moscow. Really. Once there booking in was easy, the Conception staff rock at this now and have it down to a slick, smooth and even cheerful process. The accommodation was, as usual, fantastic, with a lodge bigger than the NEC and fantastically supplied with all manner of modern appliances, all of which could be cheerfully ignored as more time would be spent out of the lodge than in it. It was by now very cold. And you could feel a theme for the week developing here: it was going to stay cold, bloody cold, but at least it didn't rain, or snow, or hail or inundate us with a plague of locusts. All to the good. Wednesday is traditionally a quiet day of arrival, sorting, drinking, mooching about, meeting and greeting, drinking, finding con feet, checking that companions get there all right, drinking, looking at what games are being run, drinking, sorting out table space to run (claiming a good spot in the hall), drinking, checking through stuff and finding what you've forgotten... but this year I actually played a game… as well as all of the afore mentioned... The boards were full, there were far more people than usual milling about and getting in to games, a good sign for the whole con: there were to be more people than ever and more games, and especially more 'non-living' games. Living games are great, and we all love them to bits (of course), but they can dominate a bit with their hard core crowd of nutters, er, sorry, did I say nutters? I meant dedicated aficionados, but this year there was an abundance of non-living games and a hell of a lot of people looking to play them. Brilliant.

So, Wednesday was going rather nicely, what with the drinking and the gaming and the general 'stuff' done. Then the con really got underway. The 'Yellow' arrived. And by this I mean the Shadow Warriors with their nuclear, 'sun's-not-as-bright-as-us' yellow fleeces. And of course then the surreal joking and socialising got serious. Poker on Wednesday is a bit vague now, but I know we played some. Poker has become a bit of a ritual at Conception, with most of us agreeing to spend a lot of time getting drunk, laughing, playing badly and then giving Peter our money... I think Wednesday went according to plan... but I couldn't swear to it...

The Yellow sign up sheets were up, the tables grabbed and the Shadow Warriors began to get their slots filled (slots filled you say... ?). It's worth mentioning how difficult it is to get people at cons to play board games. The Formula De and Settlers slots were very slow to get sign ups, but Descent was seen as a 'real' game (for some reason) by the RPG obsessed and filled and played full every day. Next year it was suggested by Gerald that we put the sheets up as 'Cthulhu of Catan' and 'Formula Cthulhu', with some minor changes in the rules this shouldn't be a problem... and also that someone other than poor Peter should learn the Decent game and thus share the early slot duties... good idea, but I'm not sure it'll catch on...

Cthulhu games and slots were snapped up like hot things on a cold day (did I mention it was cold?). There was no quiz this year, which robbed us of a chance to make fools of ourselves and hinder John's more serious attempts to answer questions. Pity. But we found ways to fill our time... bloody poker... bloody Magic... bloody beer... Eventually Wednesday slipped by and a few hours sleep was had by all.

Thursday was game-tastic and all slots had Shadow Warriors games fully signed up. A lot of old faces were met and reacquainted with as well as a lot of new people gamed with. It was during Thursday that I actually realised that the on site bar were in fact completely serious about trying to charge me £2.75 for a pint of Grolsch. Interesting I thought. We duly found a way to share the odd kit-kat brought from the lodge, while utilising the on site glasses, er, I mean, cutlery. May seem a trivial point, but when you're essentially providing an invaluable service for free, you sort of begrudge that kind of price hike. Still. Ingenuity will out and it wasn't a problem. The games began and the Players began their obligatory duties of throwing plot lines, story arcs and character aspects out of the window, in favour of the more chaotic approach. The quotes began to flow in and much laughing could be heard from all of the Shadow Warriors games. It would seem that enjoying games was back in fashion. Great stuff. Picked Whitt up from the station, got lost there and back, but went via Tesco's, so it wasn't all bad. More supplies were garnered. High energy food and bottled water: life savers. Not that chocolate and beer are bad either.

Thursday was Decent, Cthulhu, SLA and evening plans for Settlers or Formula De. The Settlers never left Plymouth rock and the Formula guys got lost en-route to the track. But the other games were a roaring success. Thursday evening was the first 'serious' poker night, as we had Whitt in, and he (apparently) reckoned he had played only once before. Must have been in his previous life as an incarnation of Doc Holiday. Bloody shark. We also sampled some of the more insane Magic decks of both John and Whitt, none of which stopped us playing late in to the night and laughing enough to rupture ribs. Some sleep was had, but luckily not enough to prevent us all being kept upright by adrenaline, beer and snack food alone...

Friday was even quicker to sign up games than Thursday, with all sheets being full within half hour of hitting the boards. These people are just obsessed. Thankfully. More Cthulhu from John and Max, more Decent from Peter and the first pair of TPK's for Cthulhu games, though it was perhaps bound to happen. Friday was when Whitt decided to demonstrate his mastery of the 'hangover whine', with a sense of humour removal as well as a grump implant. He couldn't keep it up past lunchtime though, so may be in danger of losing his 'biggest wuss' title... I no longer have any claim to remember Friday night clearly. Though I'm vaguely aware of some cards being played, both Magic and poker and some more money being given to Peter. But I may be wrong. We played so long in to the night it seemed churlish to go to bed, so with Whitt's help, I rolled up some characters for D&D 3.5, which was to be run by me Saturday afternoon. OK, when I say 'with his help', what I mean is, he did it and I was there helping monitor the beer and Jameson's situation. Thanks Whitt.

Saturday morning and yet more Decent (Peter, you're a machine!), more Cthulhu (John, you're a manchine!) and a very rare blow out from SLA for me, though I still claim this as the quickest con TPK as they were all 'killed' before the game actually started, some of them twice, though cancelling, re-booking, then cancelling again. Although this was a bit of a shame, it does illustrate how many games were being run and the demand for non-living games in general. The afternoon was D&D 3.5, Settlers, Cthulhu and more sheer madness from all players and Shadow Warriors alike. Now I remember GM-ing the game that gave us the 'miming-smoking-a-pipe-and-calmly-saying-'you say' running gag, but it was Saturday that it truly began to take hold and have a stupefying effect on us all. Giggling that much simply can't be good for you (can't be good for you you say... ?) Though any attempt to explain or justify 'in-jokes' is of course futile and doomed to failure, I feel I must try. During the Cthulhu Gaslight, one of the players was a Victorian Doctor with an opium habit, whenever he was faced with a mind boggling situation, he would puff on his pipe and go in to denial: the player acted it out perfectly and thus it was born from a situation of a Ghoul attacking and ripping out the innards of a train passenger, another investigator tried to explain it to the Doctor, who's response was to puff frantically on his pipe and say things like "a ghoul you say...?"

It was then discovered by one and all that this could be adapted... "a ravening elder god you say..." And was then best used as a kind of tag to innuendo or egging on a 'carry on' like joke... but it's already lost and wasted on those not there... but we know... and we bear the scars... "scars you say...?" Saturday was the day we discovered 'Rocketmen' (damn you Wizz Kids). Saturday's evening shenanigans were joined by Mark (and 'Brave Dave' from the Conception staff) and I believe we all valiantly continued our obsession with giving Peter our money...

It has only just occurred to me that we were incredibly 'Bill Bailey' light' at this years con, with perhaps only one burst from the I-Pod, though I do remember some dodgy atmospheric music from Whitt during his SLA game (which he kindly ran for us) where we were convinced there were wales outside the lodge... well it was late, and we were all, very, very drunk...

Sunday another Cthulhu Gaslight, another Cthulhu Fang Rock, more Decent and more madness and laughter. It is truly amazing how many games can be GM'd by people with minimal sleep, fuelled by adrenaline, the enthusiasm of players and the laughter of all.

There is no doubt in my fuddled and tired little mind that I have forgotten much and misremembered even more. What I am absolutely sure of is that with the help of the Shadow Warriors, Whitt and Dennis (and Meg - awesome lodge sharing company), I had a fabulous time, boosted my faith in RPGrpg's, laughed more than any human is actually capable of and generally had a thoroughly anarchic and unashamedly escapist time.

As we look forward to next years Conception already, bigger, better, more ludicrous things are being planned... and why wouldn't they be, Conception, quite simply, rocks. A better time could not be legally had by a group on consenting adults with their clothes on. And that's ALL down to the company kept. Thank you all very, very much.

And remember... you can't keep a good joke down… (keep it down you say...?) ... but some gracefully die and fade away...

Conception 2006 - My Con by John

Overall, I thought it was the best Con I've been to, bar none.  Although Gen Con hardly puts up any competition these days. Great people, great games, great fun, good beer, awful food (apart from the fantastic chilli provided by Peter).  Thanks to all the guys who turned up and helped make the con so memorable. Gerald, Peter (or DJ Pedie Pee-Pee as Max christened him), Max, Whitt, not forgetting Mark who turned up (in body at least) on Saturday.

Wednesday
For me, the con started on Wednesday morning, I'd already run my scenarios at cons before so I was pretty confident (some might say over confident) that things would be ok.  Obviously, this lead to a nice relaxed sleep the morning before the con.  Or perhaps not ... The story starts on a black and stormy night ... er well, a different story starts that way, mine starts around 8am on Wednesday morning.  I dreamt that I was late, with my alarm going off at 1.00pm, the time I should have been meeting Peter and Gerald, then I dreamt that I woke up.  I thought "Thank god, it was just a dream".  And then I looked at the clock it really was 1pm and I really was late.  Then I woke up.  Apparently at 9am.  At this point I had no idea whether I was still dreaming or not, but decided to go with the flow and pretend I was.  Unless the last 6 days really are just a dream (a not unreasonable hypothesis at this moment), I guess I was awake!

The rest of Wednesday went much more smoothly.  Arrived at Hillingdon around 12.30, picked up by Peter and Gerald around 1, travel down in Peter's palatial BMW, taking the odd foray into the new forest and wondering why it was so cold outside (-40C according to the Beemers external temperature gauge. Brrr, as the smirnoff ice add says).

Arrived at the con in very good time (1 hour 45 mins, I think).  Plenty of time to unpack and do the obligatory beer/munchies run.  After a slight miscalculation of size requirements (2 trolleys, not the mere 1 I first thought would do) we ended up with "enough beer" - if such a concept exists.  Tried to send Max a text to see where he was, to 2 entirely different numbers.  He was replying to neither, as Naish Holiday village exists in some sort of mobile phone limbo, where only by facing North, wearing the magic cloak of phone-connections and chanting the mystic words "Vo-da-fown" may one be connected.  We cracked the 1st beer of the Con at 16.16, noted in my Book of Wisdom - a notebook to jot down the quotes of players, so that I wouldn't forget any gems.

So, suiting up in our nuclear yellow fleeces of doom, we entered the hallowed portals of the convention itself.  Our glorious yellowness was met with screams of "Aiiieee, my eyes" as we boldly travelled in search of tables to set up on.  After a slight bout of faffing, we were able to grab 2 (later 3) tables next to each other.  Result!  No place to put up our banner, but I don't think our visibility suffered because of this.  Entered the only game of the con that I paid for - Great White Hunter.

Our initial Cthulhu slots were filled in approximately 0.4 seconds, so it looks like Cthulhu is the "one true system" of the Con.  At least amongst the non-living/non-LARPing guys.

After finding the bar was indeed charging between £2.20 and £2.75 for Grolsh (it seemed to fluctuate on an hourly basis) we had a couple of games of magic, sampled the "excellent" food (I may be thinking of the wrong word here), and decided to repair to our chalet with Max for the initial bout of "give money to Peter via the medium of cards and beer".  The evening's entertainment decided, the only decision was which music to listen to.  Bill Bailey and Rammstein was tonight's fare. Until 3.00am. Hmmm.

Thursday and Friday
These days tended to blur into one.  A feast of TPKs, magic, laughter and no one signing up for Formula De.  Ah well.  The Cthulhu sheets were filled up pretty quickly.  Not one lasted up on the wall for more than 1 slot - in fact both Max and I ran extra Cthulhu games.  Peter an Descent (with an "s" :-) ) and seemed to keep his punters happy.  Even the ones he killed in the first room (Go, Peter!).

My Cthulhu groups seemed to enjoy dying in droves, and Max's provided the quote of the con ("quote of the con, you say?"). Mine provided a couple of keepers:
(American in Cornwall, talking about a Mi-Go he'd seen, described as an 8-foot long dragonfly-octopus) "Well, I didn't recognise it, perhaps it's indiginous to this country."
Shortly followed by "Evisceration could be the least of your worries!"
Highlight of the game - another death by falling off a lighthouse, this time he was beaten off with an iron bar and shot in the chest with a flare gun. By another PC, of course.

I had one set of punters turn up to 2 of my games, and they expressed an interest in coming along to Shadow Warriors, even though one of them would have to travel from Fishguard(!)

More magic and beer, then off to play poker, to the accompaniment of whale noises from Whitt's iPod.  I also had a friend turn up to chat, drink beer and learn poker.  Witt did his best to piss everyone off while playing poker.  Well done!  We played SLA either today or Saturday, and I'm sure Dave (one of the con organisers) played poker with us.  Discovered my camera's flash was used by Lancaster bombers in WW2 to illuminate the countryside from a mile up.  I think Max still has the image burned into his retina.

Saturday
Slight change of pace (for me at least). Mark arrived (much to the consternation of all involved). Ran one game (TPK-1 this time, got a "best game of the con" from one of the players), watched the Rugby with Mark.  Discussed best text messages to send to any Welsh friends we had.  Drank copious amounts of beer.  Gave more money to Peter in the guise of playing Poker but this was assuaged somewhat by a fine chilli. :)

Sunday
Ran my last game, (yet another TPK) with lots of happy (although dead) players.  This time the players completely avoided the main plot whilst thoroughly exploring the secondary plot. Players, can't live with 'em, but CAN kill enough to make a difference :-)  Screw up with the forms from Kult of Keepers, but one of my players got a prize anyway.  Another player won a Golden Badger (bronze) for blowing his own head off with his elephant gun.  Won a T-shirt (the one I'd wanted to buy, which said "I am not really here" on the front) in the raffle. Using Gerald's tickets (thanks Gerald, owe you for that one).  Then it was off home, pausing only to watch the 1st half of Scotland's victory over France.  Despite expectations, we didn't pass Max's broken down car as we left the con!

Here's hoping next year's as good,

Cheers,

John

After our success at Conception 2005, Shadow Warriors are proud to announce that we will again be running events at Conception 2006, at the Naish Holiday Village near Christchurch in Dorset.  Conception runs from the evening of Wednesday 1st February until the evening of Sunday 5th February.  For more details click the link below.

TimeTable

Thursday

Cthulhu (RPG)
Slot 3: Thursday 9am - 1pm

 Descent (Board Game)
Slot 3: Thursday 9am - 1pm

Call of Cthulhu by Gaslight (RPG)
Slot 4: Thursday 2pm - 6pm

Settlers of Catan (Board Game)
Slot 4: Thursday 2pm - 6pm

SLA Industries (RPG)
Slot 4: Thursday 2pm - 6pm

Formula De (Board Game)
Slot 5: Thursday 7pm - 11pm

Friday

 Descent (Board Game)
Slot 6: Friday 9am - 1pm

Cthulhu (RPG)
Slot 7: Friday 2pm - 6pm

Settlers of Catan (Board Game)
Slot 7: Friday 2pm - 6pm

SLA Industries (RPG)
Slot 7: Friday 2pm - 6pm

Formula De (Board Game)
Slot 8: Friday 7pm - 11pm

Saturday

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

 Descent (Board Game)
Slot 9: Saturday 9am - 1pm

 D&D 3.5 (RPG)
Slot 9: Saturday 9am - 1pm

Settlers of Catan (Board Game)
Slot 10: Saturday 2pm - 6pm

SLA Industries (RPG)
Slot 10: Saturday 2pm - 6pm

SLA Industries (RPG))
Slot 10: Saturday 2pm - 6pm

Formula De (Board Game)
Slot 11: Saturday 7pm - 11pm

Sunday

 Descent (Board Game)
Slot 12: Sunday 10am - 2pm

Settlers of Catan (Board Game)
Slot 12: Sunday 10am - 2pm

Open Slot (RPG)
Slot 12: Sunday 10am - 2pm

To find out more about our Events at Conception 2006 click the link below

Boardgames

RPG's

Call of Cthulhu
Horror at Fang Rock:  [top]
Slot 3: Thursday 9am - 1pm
Slot 7: Friday 2pm - 6pm

It is evening in late July 1926 and the characters are on the steamship "Plutonia", just off the coast of Cornwall. Travelling from America, the PCs are planning to disembark at Plymouth in a few hours.

Earlier that evening, a meteor was seen to fall into the sea nearby.  The sea is unusually calm and a strange, greenish tinged fog has arisen.  The lighthouse in the distance gets nearer before suddenly winking out.  Foghorn blasts drift across the water, getting louder as the fog gets thicker and thicker.

Up to 6 Investigators, pre-gens supplied.

Please Note that we ran this adventure at Shadow Con 2005.

Terror in Transylvania:  [top]
Slot 9: 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.

Up to 6 Investigators, pre-gens supplied.

Please Note that we ran this adventure at Conception 2005.

Call of Cthulhu by Gaslight  For more details on this scenario ** New **
The Death Of Sherlock Holmes:  [top]
Slot 4: Thursday 2pm - 6pm

You have been in contact with Dr Watson for many months, you and the other member of the Brothers Of Righteousness, helping where you can with the fight against the criminal underworld. Now you are told by Dr. Watson that Holmes is dead, and that his death must be kept a secret. In conjunction with this, the good Dr. has asked you to come to London to help him with a particularly alarming case, which could lead to the overthrow of the government, and which Holmes was working on when he met his untimely demise.

Cthulhu scenario, Victorian setting, 4-6 Investigators, pre-gen's supplied. (Any level of Cthulhu experience welcome.)

SLA Industries.
Money For Nothing  [top]
Slot 4: Thursday 2pm - 6pm

After the completion of a routine Blue 'filler' BPN, destiny deals you an apparently winning hand. The twist of fate means you and your squad mates could be set for life... The World of Progress, and SLA Industries in particular, can be fickle mistresses. How you handle this turn of events will determine whether you live to enjoy your new found good luck.

Fortune favours the brave...

A SLA Industries scenario for a squad of 4-6 Operatives, SCL 9+. (Pre-gens supplied.)

The Shell  [top]
Slot 7: Friday 2pm - 6pm
Slot 10: Saturday 2pm - 6pm

Things get out of hand so easily. One minute you're cruising through BPN's accumulating some good cred with both SLA and your street contacts, and then it all goes pear shaped. Cloak issued Termination Warrants, and from there it's all a bit fuzzy. Offered a Green as a way out of the Warrants, you figured taking it was the smart thing to do. Now you're at some briefing in an Uptown office being told you have to escort this scientist guy to go get some kind of egg. This can't be right can it?

SLA Industries scenario for 4-6 Operatives, pre-gen's supplied. (Any level of SLA experience welcome.)

Visions  [top]
Slot 10: Saturday 2pm - 6pm

Report just in. Stephen Brooke, headliner for the Alien Sex Channel and well known racounteur, reported killed 6 months ago has been in seen in Downtown Sector 675. Reports state "He looked wierd dude.", "...like he wasn't all there man."

ASC issued the following statement "Mr Brooke's death was reported to this Station by Shivers six months ago. This Station only acts on solid information and believed what was reported to them by Shivers. It seems there may be more to Mr Brooke's disappearance than meets the eye". The spokeswoman refused to answer any further questions.

Following on from our top story. In response to the clamour for information about Stephen Brooke the Department of Investigation has issued a BPN. Over to you Krystal for the weather. Thanks Dane....

(Pre-gens supplied.)

D&D 3.5
From Little Acorns  [top]
Slot 9: Saturday 9am - 1pm

Taken captive by the hated Slavers of Thay, you feel life could not get any worse. But fate has a strange way of working. The galley is shipwrecked during a fierce storm on the Sword Coast, and you are thrown up on to the shores of a mysterious island.  As you band together with the only other survivors, you realise you may have been thrown from the cauldron in to the fire...

D&D 3.5, a beginning adventure that would suit newcomers to the game, 4-6 Adventurers, pre-gen's supplied.

General RPG [top]
Slot 12: Sunday 10am - 2pm

We will run one of the many RPGs run over Conception if there is enough interest/players in a particular game.

To see what we've planned for Conception 2007 
31st January - 4th February 2007

CLICK HERE

All trademarks acknowledged.