Well that came around quickly. Barely seems like Expo 2023 finished and I was already making plans for 2024. Expo is a highlight on the gaming calendar, largely because of the trade hall and opportunity to buy stupid amounts of gaming stuff, but also because quality gaming, socialising and opportunities to bump into people. There’s always a great buzz in the Metropole where all the RPG games are hosted.
This year however, it was all going to be different. @orlanth.bsky.social had suggested a mostly off-site event where a few friends would stop at a house near the NEC and spend time gaming at the house, and shopping time at Expo. Thus a plan was formed: hit the trade hall early on the Friday morning and spend a few hours browsing and buying, then head to the house for gaming for the rest of the day and the Saturday morning and afternoon. Saturday evening was put aside for a trip to the Metropole bar, and on Sunday morning we’d visit the trade hall again.
A great plan which offered the delights of Expo and gaming with players we know and trust. My Friday plans were changed though, due to my youngest having a degree show for their course early Friday evening, but it all worked out grand in the end.
RuneQuest Glorantha
GM @jimjimthegrim.bsky.social had planned a longer RQG session which had started when I arrived on the Friday evening. I quickly joined the party on a quest to retrieve a necklace from an abandoned temple, overgrown with chaos foliage, and before too long we were dealing with mutant elves, chaos dryads and other horrors. Great stuff!
Call of Cthulhu and Swords of the Serpentine
After RQG and a quick break we split into two groups. I joined the Blackwater Creek for Call of Cthulhu table with @davepaters.bsky.social, while the Swords of the Bosphorus (using Swords of the Serpentine) group with @mcookie123.bsky.social as GM retired to the conservatory.
In Blackwater Creek I played a student from Arkham University following the trail of a missing academic who had been carrying out an archeological dig in the vicinity of the small town. This is a great adventure in a very traditional Call of Cthulhu mode, a clear trail to investigate, a small town with weird and interesting locals and a exciting and horrific conclusion. My character didn’t survive, as to the rest of the party, well…
The clatter of dice and cries of excitement told us the Swords of the Bosphorous group were having a grand time as well, and by all accounts it pretty damned good.
Mythic Bastionland and Honey Heist
Following a spot of lunch we headed back to the table for the late afternoon session. I was running Mythic Bastionland while @lintillaz.bsky.social ran Honey Heist, so again we split into two groups.
Mythic Bastionland has hit my virtual tabletop a couple of time before including Virtual Grogmeet. This was the first time I would be running it face to face, so I’d made the usual preparations, printing character sheets, rule snapshots and laminated maps, all great pre-game lonely fun. The rules were quickly explained (Mythic Bastionland is based on Into the Odd, but does so much more, particularly in combat), knights were selected and were soon on their way to the mythic, randomly generated realm.
I suspect Mythic Bastionland isn’t really designed for one-shot play, in a series of sessions you would have a number of myths in play and the knights would encounter omens from those myths, leading to interesting and exciting encounters. How this unfolds at the table is quite random as the PCs explore the hex map of the realm. For the one shot I started with an encounter based on a landmark, then selected one myth, pushing omens from it in front of the players. Each myth has six omens, but every time I’ve ran this we’ve only encountered a couple of omens before reaching the finale.
However, that has worked well. This time our heroes were on the trail of the dastardly Order of the Black Thorn who were scouring the land to gather resources for an attack on one of steadfasts in the game. The game has proven very dangerous, but as combat can be tactical, with the right choices and a bit of luck from the dice the heroes can survive and be victorious as they were here.
Metropole bar
A UK Games Expo tradition is hitting the very busy and hugely overpriced bar at the Metropole hotel. As we were off-site plans were made to taxi in and join our other gaming friends for beer, food and good times.
It was great to catch up with folks who we’d not seen over the weekend – I guess one of the costs off having an off-site event.
Trade Hall
On Sunday morning I was looking forward to a visit to the trade hall having missed it on Friday. There wasn’t a great deal on my list, certainly compared to previous years. Maybe I’d pick up Dragonbane and the monster book, or The Great Campaign for Leagues of Adventure. Possibly some OSR gubbins.
Despite a good few hours in there all I came away with was “The Staffortonshire Trading Company Works of John Williams”, an amazing volume of maps by Glynn Seal. I kept returning to the Free League stand but I guess Dragonbane wasn’t calling to me strongly enough. I came close to buying a few other bits, but I think fatigue had set in and I had no real appetite for it. I’m sure if I’d attended the Friday morning it would have been a different story. Probably just as well, I was happy to attend the cheapest expo for me yet!
Over lunch with a few friends it was observed that the RPG presence seemed smaller than ever (if you focus on actual games rather than RPG tat like artisan dice, hand crafted leather dice trays and dice bags, scented candles and assorted other unnecessary guff). Hopefully this isn’t a trend and in future years there will be plenty of nice RPG stuff to drool over.
And with that the weekend was over. A shorter one for me, but no less enjoyable with great gaming with amazing friends.
Roll on Expo 2025!
Old Scouser Roleplaying 