Dragonmeet was the second in-person gaming convention I made it to this year, which would be a good showing for me even pre-Covid. This was my first time at the venerable UK RPG institution which I believe I had probably originally learned about in the pages of White Dwarf in the 1980s. There has to be a first time for everything of course, and getting all the way down to London is a Big Deal, so thanks to a combination of circumstances 2021 was a go for me.
Although showing up was a fairly last minute happenstance and as a result I wasn't on time to be able to offer a booked session of Talisman Adventures, the organisers had set aside a generous amount of space in one of the halls for demonstrations, and so I was able to buttonhole a few attendees and talk to them about the innovative new fantasy RPG from Pegasus Spiele. It's still a fresh experience to get the opportunity to chew people's ears off about the system and the setting in person, and particularly enjoyable to have people come up to me of their own free will interested to hear about it.
A father and son team even sat down for a turbo-charged play through of the Dread Wyrm Egg Hunt, which we managed to get done and dusted after about an hour of accelerated action. Speed of play was assisted by the heroes' no-nonsense approach - this was the first party to play the adventure who didn't try to rescue Grurt the goblin as he dangled over a chasm clutching a suspiciously egg-shaped bundle: one player stamped on Grurt's fingers, and the other (a Sprite) flew down and deprived the goblin of his precious goods as he plummeted to his death.
With a six hour drive back up North, I didn't quite have as much time to fully appreciate the convention as I may have liked, but I did get to do a quick tour of the stands and pick up some loot.
I took the opportunity to be the first of three (in the five minutes that I stood there) middle aged men to tell Games Workshop co-founder and Fighting Fantasy co-creator Ian Livingstone how a Puffin Book Club purchase of Forest of Doom/Citadel of Chaos/Warlock of Firetop Mountain changed my life. I imagine that the experience may sometimes be as wearing on the wizard of gaming as getting killed yet again in Deathtrap Dungeon, but he certainly bore it very good-naturedly. Loot acquired: signed Forest of Doom mini messenger satchel.
Mr Livingstone was sharing a stand with today's bearer of the Gamebook Crown of Command, Jonathan Green. There's an interesting interview with Mr Green on the latest Grognard Files podcast, particularly speaking about the whole history of the gamebook phenomenon. His own latest release is Dracula Curse of the Vampire - a 1000 paragraph monster, wherein the player can take on the role of the count or one of his hunters. It is lavishly illustrated by German illustrator Hauke Kock,whose work is easily the equal of the best of the illustrators of the 1980s and I greatly look forward to playing it. Loot acquired: signed Dracula Curse of the Vampire paperback.
Elsewhere, I spoke with designer Paul Baldowski about The Dee Sanction and The Cthulhu Hack. Right off the bat I need to confess that a significant draw for me is the A5 booklet: it hits me with nostalgia dopamine seeded by Tunnels & Trolls, the Elite manual and Traveller. Easy win for Mr Baldowski.
The Dee Sanction is enormously appealing. Its designer describes it as a product of having to do something with a history degree. Players are covert agents of magician Dr John Dee secretly using the dark arts to protect the devilry-beset Realm of Elizabethan England. In addition to an intriguing and original premise and choice of setting, the game system is novel and compelling, centering around "threat and consequence", involving an expected degree of character mortality and disposability. Hence the character sheets that come with the Essentials Kit are dry wipe... Loot acquired: The Dee Sanction Essentials Kit.
Finally I had to pick up something for the family. What better than the extremely endearing and not entirely un-Dixit adjacent card game by Bez Shahriari "A game about WEE WHIMSICAL CREATURES and trying to identify them after someone makes noises". And this I have got played, and my kids love it. Loot acquired: A game about WEE WHIMSICAL CREATURES and trying to identify them after someone makes noises.
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