Another wonderful Travcon UK has hurtled by. I type this in the Atrium of the Cranfield School of Management as the buzz of the convention continues. In an hour or so I depart for Bristol and subsequently to Longleat Center Parcs for a holiday with my offspring and their loved ones.
This is my first time at the venue, excited to experience the place having heard such good reports. There are very good reasons why this is becoming something of a Mecca for tabletop roleplay conventions. Reasonably priced rooms, spacious play spaces and with good facilities. I look forward to many more here, and delighted to see that Travcon has found a new and improved home with much room for expansion.
I suffered a slightly scary misjump on the way to the venue on Friday. Having given myself lots of time to drive down in my Polestar, I suffered a complete tyre blowout just after junction 26 of the M1. It was sudden, alarming, but all was OK in the end. I got the car onto the hard shoulder, accessed the RAC through their incident form and after a lengthy wait behind a barrier, shielding myself from the pleasant sun, a local tyre replacement company came to the rescue. I lost a lot of time, and much of my driving nerve. During much of the convention I was trying to catch up with exhaustion and returning calm. Despite this, I had a truly lovely time at Travcon, and look forward to being there again next year. The place didn’t seem quite right without Dom this year, with him double booked for birthday shenanigans, but it was great to have Tom with me during the weekend.
It really is great to be able to dive deep into my forever game, Traveller, for a full weekend with many old hands and a few new to the game. With a smattering of Classic Traveller, the vast majority of games were consistently using Mongoose Traveller 2e, a simple and playable system that delivers a great experience with minimal fuss. I had part prepared to bring T5, in a spasm of contrarian madness, however after a deeper look at the Far Future Enterprises version I strongly felt that the combat sequences needed a tighter flow for exciting play. I ‘fixed’ (at least for me) these elements with an adroit kludge, brining in a few Cepheus Universal pieces, whilst preserving the core T5 task system. In the end I shelved it and brought John Ossaway’s fun Calli’s Heroes adventure using Mongoose 2e. This proved a good decision.
The games themselves were all hugely enjoyable.
Friday Night: The Grendel Show, Steve Ellis
I was very grateful that Steve could squeeze me in part way through the first convention slot. My enforced late arrival, ragged nerves and need for some food, kept me until a chunk of session one was already underway. Steve always puts on a great game, and I was able to dive straight in as a member of the free trader ‘Beowulf’, a Sword Worlder warrior fighting monsters with ancestral blade in a Jarl’s hall. Truths were uncovered and a resolution found. A good start, and the session worked some magic by bringing me into the present and the fun of Traveller.
Saturday Morning: Calli’s Heroes, Me as Referee
John Ossaway’s ‘Calli’s Heroes’ is a lot of fun, and I am grateful to John for sending over the files for me. Something of a homage to one of my favourite films, Kelly’s Heroes, our rag tag squad of Imperial Soldiers decide to go on a caper to get rich. Chaos ensues. Game of the convention for a couple who kindly told me so, and my tribute here to my fantastic players: Glenn, Anne, Duane, Steve G, and Ed. Thanks to Ed for being Calli, and playing her with a nice light touch that enabled all the other players to shine.
Inevitably I failed to get a photo of the game, but here’s one of the table, all set up and ready to go.
Saturday Lunch Hour: Mongoose Q&A
The Q&A sped by as a flurry of questions were squarely answered by Matt. Here are a few highlights that I could remember:
- Digital Tools are still very much in the plans, but even to deliver a core of features to the quality required, will take time and significant cost. As I remember,they will appear in 2028 after the 50 year Traveller anniversary.
- The 50 year anniversay will be a whole year celebration, and Mongoose are putting in substantial planning for it.
- They will consider deckplans and like minis. If they were to extend support for them they would be at 28mm scale (boos from some of the crowd who want 15mm). I would agree that 28mm is the way to go.
- Discussion on making the DGP material available again are at a mature stage. This is looking hopeful.
- There are plans to publish a new version of MegaTraveller, with all the errata applied, new art and layout. I was pleasantly surprised by this. MegaTraveller was a key version of the game for me, that carried play through the 80s. I’ll pick this up when it arrives and then work out why I did, and whether I wold bring it back instead of Mongoose 2e.
- VTT work continues across the main platforms but it will be slow going.
- Mongoose are always looking for writers. Submitting short pieces for JTAS is the recommended way to start.
- Tom was going to chat to Matt about support for a manageable Traveller convention demo team.
There was a good spirit in the room this time, and Matt is always very open and enthusiastic. Traveller is in very good hands.
Saturday Afternoon: Dark Conspiracy, Bell and Matt
I was lucky to get selected as one of the players to try out the forming new version of Dark Conspiracy, run by Bell and Matt from Mongoose, and now featuring the Mongoose Traveller system. There are currently a few immediate changes, with Charisma in place of Social Standing and Empathy/Empathic Use replacing Psionics. The type of game you play is quite wide open, and as operatives you aren’t necessarily very clear about the organisation you are working for, at least to begin with. We ran through a complete character generation and an investigation set in an isolated Nevada town. Traveller random character generation can deliver some pretty incompetent characters, and our bunch were a bit sub standard, though this didn’t influence play. I went for perhaps the most ‘out there’ character concept, choosing an empath test subject. I came through troubled, profoundly disconcerting and with some early empath capabilities. Mostly my character was a social liability, and I tried not to scupper the more mission useful scenes that took us to an inevitable and dangerous conclusion.
Saturday Evening: The Raggedy Edge, Steve Hampshire
A huge orbital station with only 12 hours to live! We arrive seeking parts and quick exploitative credits. A very open structure had a series of vignettes that you could engage with as much as you wanted, providing many routes to the conclusion. Energy was low, so we finished in good time. Playing out the adventure with Tom and Paul was great and I enjoyed the game very much. Steve has run this a number of times and always gets different engagement and outcomes.
My Sunday has been nice and leisurely here. I topped up the EV charge and tyre pressure(!!) and have had tea and a chocolate bar to ready me for the journey ahead. Meanwhile Travcon continues around me in the adjoining rooms to the main atrium. I can here laughter and the gamer chat hum. A Stargrunt game with excellent setup as ever by Simon Bell is in full flow.
My thanks to the organisers, especially to Richard Talbot who has done much of the background work. To all my Traveller friends, I say thank you once more for good times and great company. Tribute to Mongoose for supporting the event and running games!
Until next year…