I had a great time at Dragonmeet yesterday - it definitely helps to be accompanying a highly social 8 year old who's not afraid to ask to get into every game going (by my count he managed 6* games in 5 hours!). I finally bought 'Vornheim' - which I'd been after for a couple years - from James Raggi, and met the legendary Jonny Nexus, getting him to sign the copy of 'Game Night' he sold me. I was too shy to talk with Joe 'Lone Wolf' Dever, but my friend Jelly did. :)
*Bill played Zombicide, a WW1 aerial dogfight game (without me), Terminator: Genisys minis battle game, a Wild West finger-flick game (without me), and two Steve Jackson dice games, the entirely random Chupacabra and Brains(?), a you-are-the zombie game with a light skill element. The latter two left me wanting to play OGRE, the game on the SJG guy's T-shirt. :D
I think the highlight of the convention was getting to play Terminator: Genisys miniatures battle game with Bill, refereed by one of the designers. The first really good modern/future minis skirmish game I've played, it uses different dice for task resolution vs unchanging difficulty numbers representing skill, weapon damage & armour. It's a great approach which made for a really tense and exciting game as my Human Resistance fighters under Kyle Reese desperately tried to hold off Bill's Skynet Terminator Endoskeletons. At one point we looked sure to be overrun - you really get that movie-style sinking feeling as your massed volley of plasma rifle fire has zero effect on the advancing Machines - only my anti-tank systems had much effect. Once some of the Terminators got into melee with my guys they were shredding us right and left, and I managed to blow away one of my own guys in the crossfire. :) But then the tide turned as some lucky strikes shocked the Terminators and we were able to run in and coup-de-gras them ("Hasta La Vista Baby" move) before they could recover. I was still taking losses but as the number of Terminators dwindled, our greater numbers began to tell, and by the end Kyle and the three surviving members of his squad stood victorious over the smoking battlefield.
I manged to get a half price copy of the game from the
Downsides of the Convention - I could not find a proper listed timetable of speakers anywhere (not on the website, nor the programme, nor posted anywhere), and didn't get to hear any. Likewise, if there were any drop-in RPG sessions I could not find them, or a way to sign up on the day. I get to play RPGs a fair bit already so that was not a huge loss, but the lack of publicity re Speaker schedule was more of an issue.
Still, I had a fantastic day for my £10 on the door, and it's a great new & very accessible venue - definitely going again next year!
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