10 Years of Everything about Games

UK’s Largest Hobby Games Convention Proves Tabletop Games are alive and kicking!

Fifteen years in to the twenty second century, with computer and console games massively popular, one could be forgiven for believing that tabletop games have gone the way of the dodo. If you were to make that assumption you would be very wrong. Boardgames, card games, wargames and roleplaying games are not only surviving, they are thriving. Indeed this could well be the Golden Age of Tabletop Games.
Around the world, board game cafés are opening and thriving in Oxford, Valencia and New York as the public rush to tuck a game or two into their lunch hour. Games are becoming better quality each year with amazing components, stunning artwork and engaging play. Conventions are growing year on year and Britain is no exception.
The UK’s largest hobby games convention was only launched in 2007 and is fast approaching its 10th event on 3rd to 5th June 2016. In that time its attendance has expanded from 800 individuals to over7000 and a footfall of 14,000 over the three days. The organisers expect between 8000 and 10000 individuals in 2016 and over 15,000 footfall.

This expansion has meant that for the 2016 convention, the trade hall is being moved into 8000 sqm+ of Hall One of the National Exhibition Centre, whilst maintaining many tournaments and evening events in the nearby Hilton Metropole, one of the biggest convention hotels in the UK.
This event has become the focal point for Hobby Games in the UK. Games companies release new games and demonstrate their prototypes. Some of the largest tournaments in the Hobby Games World occur such as the Catan UK Final, the Carcasonne UK Final and a huge Xwing Miniatures Event with over 200 participants. UK Games Expo boasts the largest Roleplaying Games schedule in the UK with literally hundreds of games sessions in dozens of games systems over the three days.
The family and general visitor is well catered for with dedicated areas showing all the best and newest games both for the family audience and adults too, complete with demonstrators who explain all the rules – no need to work through a complex rule book here. Cosplayers who turn up as characters from Doctor Who, Star Wars and many other films and TV series, live entertainment games with active audience participation and Ambassadors who actively guide you through the show to areas and events suitable for you, all help to make this event easy, safe and above all fun for the family audience.
The UK Games Expo Organisers hereby send you an invitation to be part of their 10th Birthday party.

Dates for the 2016 Show: 3rd to 5th June.

Location:  NEC Hall 1 and NEC Hilton Hotel. www.UKGamesExpo.co.uk

My experiences at Essen Spiel 2014

Running the UK’s largest Hobby Games convention (UK Games Expo every May in Birmingham ) as we do, each October since 2006 has seen an annual pilgrimage to the Mecca of board games – Essen Spiel. For those who have not attended, this is the largest Hobby Games event in the world  with an attendance of 130,000 or there abouts.  They use three Huge halls of the Essen Messe (which is like the NEC) plus other smaller bits.  This event is all about playing and buying board and card games, and to a much lesser extent miniatures and role playing.

This year we had a party of 12. I took a carload of 4 with the UK Games Expo Stand in and drove through France and Belgium last Tuesday. Another car load and an “airborne contingent” lead by my fellow director, Tony followed on the Wednesday. We also had Expo senior managers like Lindsey, Pat “the main man” Campbell and coming to his first Essen, John Dodd and a number of friends who are all in some way associated with UKGE.   Wednesday is a setup day at Essen so we unloaded and set up a small booth of 5m x 2m consisting of a display/reception area to promote the show from and a 3m x2m office. In that inner sanctum we laid out a map of UK Games Expo so that during the meetings with the potential exhibitors we would show them the space and then they would get marked on a map with blue card.  A huge Tetris game then ensues.

In that room we also set up a coffee machine and a kettle and then we unpacked our secret weapon: Yorkshire Tea. As occurred last year we soon had British traders entering the room saying “I have heard you might have Tea!” or “I could kill for a cuppa”. Tea on the continent is usually herbal with a lemon in it and only Brits fully understand the kind of desperation that a Brit abroad encounters when you can’t get a proper cuppa! Next year I am going to take a Tea Pot and go the whole hog.

So then, we set to selling space at UK Games Expo. Pat and Lindsey with notable help from Alex Hickman backed up by John Dodd (who had sciatica poor chap and missed  a lot), Mal , Christine and my dad would stand at the desk and talk to any visitors and then book in meetings  for Tony and I. Tony and I had something like 50 meetings over the fair and only got out of our cell for an hour or two a day. We would then hurtle round and try and see the show, buy some games and grab some food. The result is that around 90% of Trade space at UK Games Expo is provisionally reserved and we confirmed some sponsorships and even picked up some guest ideas via John Dodd attending an industry party.  On top of that we have ideas for seminars, a movie to show and some cool game ideas too.  This means UK Games Expo 2015 is already looking exciting.

At 7 PM we would jump in a taxi and try to get fed in a restaurant. We had two decent meals in a German steak house where the beer was very good too. Our usual Chinese buffet restaurant was up to scratch.  However we had a well cooked but VERY slow meal in a Spanish restaurant that took 2 hours to serve us!  Getting food after hours in Essen can be difficult at times with 30,000 extra hotel residents!  Then we would retreat to the hotel and play some games.  UKGE organizers are first and foremost games players and we want to play a game in the evening!

As for those games – Essen sees hundreds of new ones each year and I can recommend a few. Orcs Orcs Orcs (above)was a twist on the Castle Panic style of game but with well thought out spell casting rules. A light and fun game of Mages vs Orcs.  Armymals (below) is a tank battle game with nice little tanks and terrain and a surprising amount of strategy for a light game.

As for more involved games, I really enjoyed (and won!!) a game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig.  Based on a historical king who built extravagant castles with weird designs, you are soon building your castle and juggling bedrooms and armories about.

I also opened the box of a what was leading the BGG rankings at one point: Alchemist  (BGG= BOard Games Geek by the way and at Essen it runs a live list of games recommended by the vistors).  I have not yet played it because the rules were complex and our brains on Saturday night were frazzled.  Its all about experimenting with potions and trying to make them. Lots of deduction needed. One for an evening when I am less tired.

I also picked up some of the new World War 2 planes for Wings of Glory – including the famous Memphis Belle shown below. I can see some air war over Germany games on a table near here soon.

Overall I thought Essen was a lot quieter than usual – this was due it seemed to a main line rail strike in Germany. As a result I think a lot of the more casual day trippers probably gave it a miss.  However I enjoyed the trip as I always do – it has become an annual working holiday that is totally different to my day job. I now see so many  friends and contacts from the games world as well as UK Games Expo visitors that come by to say hello that is a real social occasion. It is now critically important to UKGE as we have so many important meetings and helps raise our profile both inside the UK and outside.

Now, If you will excuse me now I have a B17 to fly.

And a cup of tea to drink.

I have been visiting the Edinburgh Fringe these last few days along with many thousands of other visitors and have taken in a good number of shows. I talk about a few others of them here. Such is the variety of shows that even gaming – both computer, TV based and board game have inspired shows and events. I heard of but did not get a chance to see one inspired by the Knightmare TV series

You awake to find yourself in a dark room!

Last night I managed to attend The Dark Room. Remember those text based adventure games from the 1980’s or early 1990’s  that for many of us were our first experience of Computer gaming? Well Australian comedian, John Robertson has devised a live action version in which he plays a “floating head” who controls the game. Audience members get to choose which way to go and what to do. Naturally most choices lead to death in a variety of entertaining ways. Indeed in a somewhat tongue in cheek approach many options were bizarre -but inspired by the incredibly frustrating options and responses these games did contain.

It was clear that many in the audience were veterans of the game but many like my family were new to the experience and feeling their way, and trying to avoid being called on to play! That said providing you approached the game as a bit of fun you had a good time although it was clear that a few in the Saturday night Edinburgh crowd had a beer or five too many to appreciate it but Robertson did not seem phased by this and had witty come backs to most situations that arose.  Now the game seemed impossible to win but we were assured that you CAN win the game which is available online for those wanting to try but for my money the fun here is to play the game live, see how people react to the choices they have and how the floating head reacts in turn to those choices.

Usually with sarcasm or DEATH!

I have found a You-Tube clip which includes some footage of the game in play.

 How board games can change your life and save the world! was  the tag line for Always be rolling  This was a comedy show all about board games and the experiences we have playing them – the good and bad. So we were taken through those terrible games that people played as kids, or play at Christmas like the dreaded Monopoly and on to the immeasurably better games like Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. Along the way we played a live action version of buckaroo in which the comedian, James Cook was the donkey and two audience members including, ahem, me were invited forward to play with full size version of the game pieces. Alas  hanging the spade on a finger was my undoing.

So what you get is a extremely fun, accessible look at board games including some audience participation and some very funny examinations of board game box covers in which recurring themes come out.

Now this is a great 60 minutes if you are interesting in board games but even if you are not is a great little comedy act. Take the family (probably 10+’s) or go yourself for a very different Free Fringe Event.

I should put my hand up and admit that I liked this show even more because UK Games Expo gets a mention – James himself coming 6th in our Carcassonne tournament this May. But marketing thoughts aside Always be Rolling is a  recommended experience.

UKGE this year has been widely hailed as a massive success. The catering collapsed, Bring and buy could not cope but 99% of attendees and traders recognize these issues were created by the sheer and unpredictable growth of UKGE.

This then my friends is the challenge and opportunity that UKGE presents. The year before the first expo a few of us (of which Pat and I are the remnants) helped run a 200 attendee event which, unless you played D and D Minis, Fow or Warmachines would have passed you by. It was the root of the first expo however and led to UKGE 2007.

That first year we had maybe 1000 individuals and attendance of maybe 1200. Through the  first 6 years growth was 20% or so a year.

Last year uniques went up by 25% and  attendance jumped by 50% and this year the jump is more like 60% to 70%.

This is exiting dizzy stuff and the possibility of an event of true international standing with over 10000 attending is not the pipe dream it was in 2007.  BUT there are issues. The Hilton can only hold a certain number. Even with a properly constructed and heated marquee the size of the Kings capacity will outstrip demand very soon.

It is clear that we organizers along with our main partners and sponsors need to do some serious thinking. There are options that many of you have already suggested: bringing in nearby hotels for some events, the new build across the lake, the NEC but the reason why we are thinking hard is we don’t want to loose that buzz, that excitement and vibrancy. Hopefully you will all help us maintain that whatever the final plans are.

We will be at the Hilton next year with “additions” and many modifications and will keep you in the loop just as soon as the loop exists.

Richard

Entertainment in Anglo Saxon times:

the year is AD 600. There are no Ipods, no Internet, no TV, radio and not even newspapers and books (unless you were wealthy ). What do you do to keep from getting bored?

Here are some ways that the Anglo Saxons had fun in the dark evenings.

Indoor entertainment and feasts

There was a high degree of ceremony connected with feasts. It would start outside the hall. A horn was blown to summon the guests to table and the host would great them at the door where there would be a hand washing ceremony at the door. The doors were shut to keep gate crashers away!

 Then the guests would enter and sit at benches lining long tables. The king’s warriors or thegns could sit in his halls but only men of high rank would sit at the high table. Women of high rank would be cup bearers and pour drinks for the king and lords. In the Christian era bread was blessed and then broken in remembrance of the Eucharist or holy communion/ mass.

Feasts might go on all day and night: there were even some 3 day feasts.

It was considered a serious matter to commit an offense or undertake violence at a feast

Entertainment at feasts: These might include playing the harp, lyre, horn, trumpet, drums flute or cymbals. There would be accompanying signing: often songs recalling battles.

They enjoyed dancing and juggling and the asking of riddles. Here is a typical Anglo-Saxon riddle from the Exeter book which has many riddles. Some are obscure and some lewd and suggestive. This one is straighter forward.
On the wave a miracle: water turned to bone.
What is the answer? See at the end of this section.

The Saxons loved stories such as has every generation of  humans from the earliest times. In the long lost mead halls of the Saxons tales of the past, of monsters and kings and heroes were told. In one of these halls the tale of Beowulf would have had its world Premier as we think of such things today. Imagine the scene: the fire is crackling and dancing away throwing shadows against the walls. The bard stands in the firelight. The rumble of conversation from the benches dies away. The poet bows to the king who inclines his head, signalling that the tale should begin. The unknown genius begins his tale – a story that to the Anglo-Saxon settler echoed back to earlier times and linked him to his past on the shores of distant Denmark just as that same story remains with us a powerful link to our own past in these Saxon halls.

Above: a game of Hnefatafl 
The Anglo-Saxons were fond of dice games. Dice were made from the knuckle bones of animals such as pigs. Board games were also popular and often recalled battles in a symbolic way. An example is Hnefatafl which is played using stone pieces on a carved wooden board.  One player’s pawns coming from the corners of the board would attack the other side’s king and pawns which were positioned in the centre. The player with the King would be trying to get him off the board (to escape from the battle) whilst the other player would try and trap him. These un-even games – where the two sides were of different sizes and abilities – were very prevalent in Anglo-Saxon and later Viking cultures. The Romans seemed to have brought Nine Men’s Morris and Three Men’s Morris to Britain. The English were certainly playing this my medieval times and it seemed likely that may have been aware of it in the Saxon Period.

Nine men’s Morris

Outdoor Sports:

Horse racing  was mentioned in Beowulf  in 8th century copy which exists and by the writer Bede in the 7th. There are records of dog racing, hunting, ice skating, swimming, falconry, hawking, acrobatics wrestling and gymnastics.

So we see that the Saxons certainly filled the long dark winter evenings.

Here is the Answer to that riddle: 

On the wave a miracle: water turned to bone.
Ice or iceberg.

Last weekend – Sunday 26th January  was the 40th anniversary of the launch of a game that would change the world.  On 26th January 1974 Gary Gygax launched the original set of rules for Dungeons and Dragons.  It was not the first roleplaying game but it was going to have the greatest impact on the hobby.  A few years earlier in 1971 Gygax had published Chainmail. This was a set of skirmish rules for tabletop wargaming. They evolved out of medieval wargame rules but took the critical step of introducing fantasy elements to the combat.

A friend of Gygax called Dave Arneson saw that the mechanics for combat in the chainmail rules could be added to. You could infact create a whole fantasy world along the lines of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, populate it with monsters and treasure and suddenly you had a place ripe for adventures.  Arneson created this world and called it Blackmorr.  What was needed now was a set of rules that did not just include combat and fighting but allowed the players to interact with the world – to travel around it, to buy stuff and to set out on adventures.

That is what the original Dungeons and Dragons rules were designed for. You actually also needed a copy of chainmail to play the original version but very soon reprints and new versions were on the way.

From these humble beginnings a world wide game of massive  proportions has evolved. Dungeons and Dragons has gone through several editions.

Each developed the game, added more depth and at times disputes  over which version was better. Currently the gaming community is split between the “Official 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons”

And Pathfinder which is a massively updated revision of 3rd Edition:

For outsiders who have never played a game it can seem baffling with it weird shaped dice and its sets of rules that can rival a small library at times:

Yet at its heart Dungeons and Dragons like all the other roleplaying games that have developed since (Traveller -Science fiction, Call of Cthuhu -horror, Dr Who -time travel and others) is a big exercise in make believe and story telling. I think that is why as an author I enjoy it so much. Or why I became an author maybe. One of the players is the gamesmaster, Dungeon Master, GM, Umpire or whatever. He creates the world, describes it and populates it with characters. The players are like readers but much better than that. They don’t just read of the adventures – they go on the adventures.  they create their own characters full of flaws and strengths and interests and motivation. They interact with the other players and the GM’s world and together the adventure is taken forward.

Its like a book where the author is only in charge of part of it. The players fill in the rest.  Roleplaying is just damn good fun and usually laugh out loud fun at times.

Roleplaying Captain Scarlet at UK Games Expo

D&D has had bad press at times. The bible belt in the US got panicky that it would lead to people worshipping Satan. But they said the same thing about Harry Potter.  Its just make believe guys. My fire ball spell really doesn’t work alas.

I tried it on a patient and he didn’t go boom!!

If you want to know more about what all the fuss its about all this gaming – come to best Games Convention in the UK UK Games Expo.

Yesterday fellow  UKGE organizer Pat Campbell and I went along to a computer gaming convention called – appropriately – Insomnia which was held at the Telford International centre.  This was by invitation of the Insomnia organizers who were looking to expand their tabletop gaming area and having attending UK Games Expo in May asked us along.

Insomnia is primarily all about electronic gaming in all its formats. Michael Lambert, one of the main organizers, explained that they get around 20 to 25,000 gamers to their events.  Attendees split into two types.  You can either come along with your own computer (Bring Your Own Computer) of which two entire halls were filled with something like 5000 PC all hooking up to a variety of servers offering games of all types. The other alternative is to attend as a visitor(the cheaper option) and play the games offered up by the traders

In a third main hall there were fifty or so companies all with their own games or equipment on offer and you could slide into a  chair and try out their game. I was drawn to the new game World of Planes that I fancy having a go on sometime.

Another interesting item I spotted was a 3D printer which was printing out 3D games characters. I am sure that 3D printing could be used in the tabletop gaming world to make board game or miniature gaming pieces and I made a note of the company to look into that further.

A major element in Insomnia was the gamers getting to see or meet three types of gaming celebrities:

• The ‘You-Tubers’ These are the guys who make videos of computer game play with commentary, often quite funny, and upload it to You tube.  My 10 year old watches hours of these guys videos. They had a couple of dozen stars of You Tube at the convention. the queue to meet the gamers favorites stretched across the top floor!
• The game designers who gave talks in well attended panels.
• The gamer superstars who were fighting it out for top prizes worth thousands of pounds. The main hall had seatingfor something like 2000 and was jammed with gamers watching OTHER gamers play finals of tournaments which were shown on huge plasma screens.

As for the purpose of our visit we went and looked at the area that Esdevium were running this year. They had a dozen tables with good choice gateway games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and a giant version of Pandemic. I was concerned that the electronic gamers would turn their noses up at the area but in fact the gaming area was quite busy and the giant games in particular well attended.  As there is an Insominia at Easter next year – in the run up to Expo – I am hopeful we can attend and work with the organisers and Esdevium to create a bigger area with other giant versions of the games as well as maybe some Roleplaying and Miniatures.  I can see visual displays like dwarven Forge going down well.

I do play computer games occasionally like most tabletop gamers so it was an interesting visit. What struck me most though is that the audience at Insominia were quite similar to UK Games Expo audience and that it was clear that once shown a good table top game that there WAS interest from the folk whose main love is electronic gaming – and in particular their families who brought them along. I strongly believe that if shown a GOOD tabletop game that there can be a large overlap between those who pay the main stream computer games and the growing and reviving tabletop hobby which I hope UKGE is at the heart of.

by Richard Denning

 Some writers can point to early success, awards and pundits for their writing from their school years. This was most certainly not the case for me. I loved reading from a very early age and can remember devouring books like The Famous Five, The Secret Seven (Enid Blighton) and The Three Investigators (Hitchcock). Anything with  a mystery or from Sci Fi and Fantasy Genres was my staple diet. My favourite book has always been The Lord of The Rings – indeed my parents bought me a boxed set I still own as a reward for doing well at ‘O’ Levels at the age of 16.  So I loved to read BUT I hated English and English Literature lessons – they just seemed to take the fun out of a good book. As such I certainly did not win any awards for my writing in my school years.  This is not to say that I was not writing. My first novel (now lost) was “The insect invasion of Earth” about an invasion of giant insects and the war to defeat them. It is probably good THAT book was lost!

I decided to become a doctor and went off to the university of Manchester. 5 years of medical studies were followed by several years of long hours in hospital and then finally a permanent position in a GP practice in Birmingham. Through those years I did not do any writing BUT my imagination was being stimulated still. To begin with, in my first year at university, I discovered the first of Terry Pratchett’s amazing Disk World books.  I have read every one and love his writing. Many other fantasy books followed  of which the best were by David Eddings and Raymond Feist as well as Young Adult fiction including Garth Nix’s superb Keys to the Kingdom and of course Harry Potter. At the same time I became a fan of Bernard Cornwell’s Historical Fiction and similar author’s work. I also have always been fascinated by history (despite this being another subject I did not enjoy at school) and love visiting historical sites as well as reading about them. So hundreds of books (and many holidays) later my favourite genres to read and write fall into that area of cross over between historical fiction, scifi and fantasy and Young Adult novels.

Just as I spent many hours reading  about these subjects my main TV and movie viewing also fall into these areas. I am really not keen on reality TV, Soap, much sport (apart from Cricket) and chat shows. On the other hand I have absorbed thousands of hours of Star Trek, Dr Who, Buffy and Angel, Stargate, Babylon 5, comedy shows like Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Monty Python and documentaries galore on the History Channel.

All that helped stimulate the imagination but it is playing games that brought it all together. I love board games, card games, miniature gaming and roleplaying. In particular I am a game designer and have tinkered with designs and ideas for games for many years although my first published board game only came out in 2010 – The Great Fire of London 1666. I have also run many roleplaying campaigns. When you are the “dungeon master”/ games master/ umpire or whatever you have to invent and populate the world that the players will explore. Then, as they decide what to do and where to go, you must determine who they meet and what those people want. The process of running a good roleplaying game is really the same as writing a book. Having run campaigns set in Spy Genres, aboard space ships, in deep dungeons and in the Wild West (and many more) I can honestly say that I have had to come up with a lot of ideas to keep the story going. All those NPCs (none player characters) need motives, reasons to exist and  thinking up those reasons is really just the same as thinking up a good character.

So over the last 10 years as I started to try and write fiction all those elements – all the books, all the visits to castles and battlefields, all the movies and TV and all the games plus a fair helping of having seen a bit of the world as a doctor – all of that went in, subconsciously mostly, into the pot. I have had to learn a lot about writing and have much to learn because this process is ongoing but I hope this little piece explains something of what makes me tick.