Escaping from weekend activity centres is no longer a sport! Any prisoner found sneaking out for a curry or a pint of overpriced beer will be shot on sight!
After last year's inaugural Expo Fringe there was little doubt that once more we would be spending a weekend behind the barbed wire of Stalag Luft Ackers. It really is a gem of a place, once you get past the spartan nature of the accommodation. Now that we knew what to expect we were mentally prepared for the bunk beds, harsh lighting and bracing showers, and the place felt quite homely, with an upgraded kitchen and new tables and chairs for the inmates.
The drive down on Friday morning wasn't too bad, roadworks notwithstanding, and after unpacking my gear I set up for the game of Cörk Børd that I was running. This is a an adaption of the Mörk Borg rules from Paul Baldowski of Cthulhu Hack and Dee Sanction fame and I was looking forward to seeing how the rules played out at the table.
The theme of the game is Nordic Noir detective fiction, with a team of variously damaged investigators unpicking gruesome crimes in a harsh landscape through dogged police work and the occasional lucky break. The scenario is broken down into scenes comprising sites, suspects and situations that have to have their complexity whittled down by the team applying their skills and using their fibre. This is roughly equivalent to the hit points, attributes and damage rolls of a traditional fantasy game, but the fun here is in the narrative that comes from the dice rolls. An investigator might make a good roll only to be thwarted by a delay (aka armour) leading to the case stalling.
Scenes are linked as the case is solved and I used a physical cork board with pictures for each scene and red tape to link them using pins. We tracked the remaining complexity on a scene with dice so the team could see where they needed to focus their efforts and added evidence with extra post it notes. The delays on certain scenes caused frustration (as intended) but I think when I write some more scenarios I'd build in keys to clear the delays and speed things up (such as splitting up suspects to interrogate them separately). The players did manage to get to the tragic conclusion with only one of them cracking under the pressure. Excellent fun!
Friday night was curry night with a takeaway from the Balti Mile - loads of delicious food with plenty leftover for lunch the next day. The weather was warm too, and once more we were able to sit on the balcony enjoying a beer or three and setting the world to rights as police chased boy racers on one side of the canal and trains chugged by on the other. Simply perfect.
After a night in the bunk beds I needed to go for a walk to stretch my legs so headed off for a stroll along the canal path. If you ignore the large waste incinerator chimney then it was very pleasant with ducks and geese for company. Even the graffiti was vibrant.
Saturday morning's game was Symbaroum - another Free League game that has been on my wish list to play for a while. This has a very different feel to the other fantasy games from the Free League stable, such as the free wheeling Dragonbane or the wilderness survival of Forbidden Lands. I really enjoyed playing a shape shifting changling duellist in conjunction with a rogue treasure hunter and a goblin witch searching for proof of a noble woman's true heritage in a monastery that was home to something very nasty. Cheers to Dave (aka Bagpuss Grognard) for running with aplomb.
Another change of pace for the afternoon with Martin Cookson running Lex Arcana - an alternate history where the Roman Empire hadn't fallen but instead had persisted with teams of Custos sent to the far flung corners of the empire to investigate and fight supernatural threats to the Pax Romana. An initially straight forward case of missing shipments from a mine on a distant windswept island turned into something much weirder with attacks from nightmarish creatures that had possibly been summoned by the Pictish druids. Yikes!
The use of latin names for the skills really added to the unique atmosphere on this one and the final denouement was suitably tense.
Saturday night saw us visiting the Hilton bar for food and a drink, but it was something of a mistake. It was hot, noisy and crowded and the beer was both overpriced and not particularly well kept. We just stayed for one pint before making our excuses and leaving. We'll not be doing that again.
It was much better to sit out at Ackers again and I don't think I've laughed quite as much for ages with a lovely bunch of people with many rambling topics of conversation (and appalling puns). I can't think of a better way to spend an evening!
Sunday morning was breakfast on the balcony and an efficient clean up operation, before setting off for Expo proper. Even after a coffee I was flagging whilst walking round the huge halls packed with gaming goodies. I didn't spend too much this year but I did find a copy of the Pirate Borg starter set and a gorgeous dice set with accompanying dice bag. Definitely one I'm looking forward to running!
Home now, with sore feet and aching knees, but well worth it for a memorable weekend of gaming and camaraderie - thanks once more to Steve (aka
Orlanth Rex) for organising!
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