Con Season

The "convention circuit" begins soon. This year, I will be attending a grand total of three conventions:

1 - Chimériades, from 8 to 11 May
Chimériades is possibly the one and only French convention worthy of attendance. French cons, and French players in general, are obsessed with only playing French games, or at least foreign RPGs that have been translated to French. At Chimériades, on the contrary, you will find plenty of French players happy to mingle with non-French-speaking conventiongoers and even -- gasp! -- to play in English.

I had aimed at GM'ing a generic Old School dungeon on Friday afternoon, but since no one signed up to my game, I cancelled it. I will be playing White Books instead.
On Saturday, I will be a player in the Rise of Ralios Gloranthan freeform.

That still leaves quite a few slots open. I will be bringing along a few RPGs, with pregens and adventures, just in case:
- Almogàvers (I can GM the introductory adventure in the rulebook if anyone's interested)
- Tunnels & Trolls (I can GM one of the adventures in the Adventurers Compendium)
- Lamentations of the Flame Princess (I can GM one of the published adventures)

See you in Provence!

2 - Eternal Con, from 6 to 9 June
The Eternal Con is the one convention I never miss, even in lean years. It is held in a lovely castle above the Rhine, and most of the conventiongoers are people who have attended for a long time, so they're more like friends now than fellow gamers. The castle is now a youth hostel, so it has all the expected amenities even if they are somewhat Spartan.

The Eternal Con emphasises games that have stemmed from the original Chaosium mould, and their present-day descendants, such as RuneQuest 6, HeroQuest, Call of Cthulhu, etc., and there are always authors and publishers of these games present who demo new supplements or give out speeches or set up panels. It's really interesting for fans of the world of Glorantha, and I always make sure to write a small summary of the panels on this very blog.

I will be GM'ing a special science fantasy Glorantha In Space adventure on Saturday.

3 - The Kraken, from 20 to 25 August
The Kraken is not really a convention: it is a gaming vacation. The fact that it lasts a whole week rather than the typical 2 to 4 days of your usual convention makes it an altogether different gaming experience.
Also, it is slightly more expensive enabling the organisers to make sure the accommodation and the food are superior and, well, when you're 46 like yours truly you do pay attention to this kind of detail.

Even more so than the Eternal Con, The Kraken specialises in games that have stemmed from the original Chaosium catalogue; Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen have always been the guests of honour. Now that Greg cannot travel to Europe any longer, Sandy is the main guest of honour.

I don't really know what I'll prepare for The Kraken yet. I'll be probably helping refereeing the Rise of Ralios freeform, but apart from that I have no set plans yet.