Dragonmeet 2013

Just a quick update on Dragonmeet 2013, which was held in Kensington Town Hall last Saturday, 7th December. I’d intended to post the following photos last week, but a combination of other distractions (preparing ranks of figures for Curt’s Painting Challenge), Christmas tree purchasing, Christmas tree decorating and (again) work, kept me occupied for a lot of last week and this weekend.

However, I can report now that Roundwood Towers is amply festooned with Christmas decorations, allowing me to turn to blogging again.

As my daughter was attending her first convention, I didn’t arrive as early as normal at Dragonmeet. By the time we arrived, about 2pm, things were already well under way, with a host of games being played in the main hall (as participations) and in the various break out rooms. 

Dragonmeet is a fun convention, and we found no problem in finding a couple of games to play – the first of which was “Lords of War”. My daughter, as I mentioned before, is very much into worlds of fantastic literary adventure. So she really enjoyed the easy, card driven mechanics of Lords of War. It’s a perfect game for any young person who likes beautifully produced cards and finds game mechanics fun. The premise of the game is that your hand of cards represents your army, and that each card has differing attributes. Slightly scissors/paper/stone (with quite a few complications), but definitely none the worse for that. Easy to pick up, fun to play – what more can you ask? We bought a copy of both decks, so you can tell we enjoyed it. Later playing at home has confirmed that it’s a fun game for all the family – so, a keeper in other words.

We also played a fun game called Camelot, which is set in the world of King Arthur and features tile-laying as the players decorate the King’s hall. The tiles and artwork are stunning and there’s more than enough to keep a younger player happy for an hour. We played a couple of games and enjoyed it a lot. And yes, we bought a copy to play at home. Further “research” this weekend has proven it makes a good after-dinner game with non-gaming friends, something which is always a bonus in the Roundwoods’ social calendar.

Also in the purchase pile was a lovely Cthulhu Britannica supplement entitled “Folklore”. This is a wonderfully produced supplement from Cubicle 7, following up a fine book in 2011 called “Shadows over Scotland”, and earlier works in the Cthulhu Britannica stable. For a number of reasons I’ve been eagerly waiting for “Folklore” for a while. I’ve long enjoyed non-Mythos focused Cthulhu adventures, and I’ve been interested in British folklore and legends for many years. I love reading Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories from the stables of James, Blackwood and Le Fanu. So the “Folklore” volume has been high on my list of titles to acquire for a long while. Without giving a review of the book, it’s enough to mention that Black Dogs, folk magic (including transformation into an owl) and Welsh hill giants all feature (among others) in the book, which is a splendid addition to any Call of Cthulhu library, or indeed any gamer’s library where recreating elements of British Folklore is the goal.

We wrapped up the convention with a visit upstairs to where blogger-supreme Ashley was again running games of Ogre. Ashley’s Blog, Paint it Pink, is a store of Ogre related and science-fiction miniatures information and chatting to her about the gaming hobby is always a pleasure. And yes, the new Ogre edition has a huge box!! A great game, re-issued to hopefully entice a whole new generation of gamers into this excellent game.

Finally, me and Eleanor made it to the Kensington Council Chamber to catch the last 20 minutes of “Ken and Robin Talk about Stuff – Live!”. As podcast fans might already know, “Ken and Robin Talk about Stuff” is a really excellent podcast about roleplaying and gaming in general. The hosts, Ken Hite and Robin D Laws are wonderfully informed and genial hosts whose conversation meanders through discussions on gaming, literature, cinema and food. It was a privilege to see them in London and to say hello to them later, with Ken very generously signing a copy of “Double Tap”, his new book.

And with that, we left. Three hours well spent. Long enough to see everyone and everything we wanted to and play some games. Short enough to prevent an 11-year old daughter from getting bored. So, in other words, a great convention and an excellent day out.

Next post, hopefully before very long, will feature my preparation for the Analogue Hobbies Fourth Annual Painting Challenge, currently hitting the blogosphere with av vengeance. So, stay tuned for that!