UK Games Expo ran last weekend and is now the world’s 3rd largest gaming con having apparently overtaken Origins.
I ran six games over the weekend mostly D100 system games (Call of Cthulhu, Laundry or Mythras) but took a side trip out of D100 gaming into Cyberpunk with The Downtown Dataheist. This a shorter scenario designed for conventions as a display/demo of the game. It works really well for that.
Like most PbtA games it is really for four player max so I kept the numbers to that and two couples who were big fans of the genre joined me at the table. They had been thinking about using The Sprawl in their own gaming so I was happy provide the push they needed. The team got into the swing of things and soon had the heist under way. One player got her Molly Millions character into the action by attacking a bunch of security goons and was very pleased not to have to do a long dreary combat – one roll and it was done. Later on a tougher set of security goons almost captured her but some deft use of grenades disoriented them and she ripped off the arm of the goon holding a gun to her head and beat him to death before intimidating the rest into retreating by threatening them with the bloody stump. Mission accomplished with some new fans for The Sprawl.
The link between the legwork clock and getting paid saw the light go on and much praise was elicited for the flow of the game mechanics and the players really, mostly, got in to the fiction.
Fantastic!
And that sounds like remarkable growth for UKGE, considering how Origins itself is growing! Hopefully I can make it over one day.
There’sa big US contingent, Paizo plus Asmodee and a bunch of others. Trans Atlantic flights are not that expensive and the hotels at the NEC aren’t any more expensive than Gencon (cheaper elsewhere or slightly out of town). My hotel bill from the Genting (major chain) was about £325 for three nights (and I get a refund of about £150 from the organisers for running 5 games in place of a ‘free’ two night stay sharing). Someone said that 2008 was about 1500 people and it was mostly boardgames which shows the growth rate.
Wow, that’s amazing growth!
I can’t hear the phrase “getting paid” without thinking of the money in the dystopian comedy movie IDIOCRACY, which takes a departure from the old money of 500 years earlier with the bold printed statements, “Gettin’ Paid! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”
http://sirbikesalot.com/user_photos/2007-09-09_idiotcash.jpg