by Rob Shankly
DWARFcon was held between the 12th and 14th of June at Lyndale Secondary College, Dandenong. Two teams of past and present MURP members attended, and all had a good time. As always, DWARFcon was very small, with only 80-100 attendees, but this leant it an air of intimacy and allowed a small group to organise it very efficiently.
On the Saturday John Deague* and Rob Shankly met Liam Routt** at the convention and spent the day demonstrating Chaosium products and CheapAss games. As always the Mythos CCG was mighty popular, as was Button-Men. Rob finished the afternoon by GMing a group which included Tim Betz through Fire in the Sky, a Call of Cthulhu'20s scenario he wrote for Capricon 6.
The next day Toby Seidel, Ken Blakey, Rich Kershaw and David Dyte* joined John, Tim and Rob for three sessions of roleplaying in several teams:
Pride of Lions is a L5R tournament by Shane Erikson, which we all played. It is a very richly plotted scenario (it could easily have been expanded to two sessions) in which a group of senior Lion Clan members investigate the attempted assassination of the Emperor by his Lion Clan Court Champion. As usual, Shane Erikson was a great GM and kept things moving swiftly. Both groups succeeded in uncovering the plot, although with typically heavy L5R casualties. The team containing Rob Shankly and Tim Betz (and two DWARF members) was awarded Best Team, while Rob and Ken both won Best Roleplayer awards.
Richard, Ken, David and John also played the two session scenario The Awakening. Their characters are gods, or the progeny of gods, trapped in a Groundhog Day-esque cycle: the scenario restarts twice, each time at the very beginning, each time with characters replaced or swapped between the players. The MURP team felt that more background or roleplaying notes should have been provided, but the scenario was interesting because of the clues provided which eventually allowed the characters to escape from the cycle. Richard and John won Best Roleplayer medals.
Dan's Game is a single session "Hong Kong Action" style piece, using cut down Deadlands rules. Very tongue in cheek, it's a basic scenario: a lady "archaelogist" (Lara Croft meets Indiana Jones) sells a cult statue to demon worshippers. The other PCs, all Chinese demon-busters, then have to convince her of the error then retrieve the statue before an ancient evil is unleashed. There was not much to the story, which was run from handwritten notes, but it was played at breakneck pace and was heaps of fun. Tim, Toby and Rob all won Best Roleplayer, as did Jason, the fourth member of the group (from DWARF). We also won Best Team.
Finally, Tim and Rob played Welcome to Tombstone, a single session Deadlands scenario. This was presented well by the writer, who is obviously a good GM, but the scenario itself was very weak. Briefly, the PCs arrive in town to investigate a murder, and end up confronting a Werewolf. Unfortunately, 80% of the scenario consisted of scripted events that merely filled in time until the fight at the end (everyone eventually "caught" the lycanthrope by looking out a hotel window and seeing him in action...). In addition, one PC Indian spent a great deal of time badly marginalised by the racist NPCs (over an hour game time locked in the hoosegow to protect him from the mob). All in all, not a great game, although the presentation was not at all bad, and play was enlivened when one of the MURP players was allowed to "shuffle" the cards used to "randomly" resolve combat.
DWARF should be congratulated for a tightly run, very friendly convention, in an extremely good venue. The food was limited in scope, but hot and fresh (and they didn't run out of Coke). Room allocation worked perfectly, and spare players were found instantly to fill games. Military Simulations ran a small stall, as did Eureka Miniatures: both companies were happy with the weekend and will continue as sponsors next year. Shane Erikson, in particular, can be very proud of his part in a small group effort.
Your Roving Reporter,
Rob Shankly
*Old MURP
*Really Old MURP
by Liam Routt
Just a feel-good summary of my time at my first DWARFcon.
The venue is not large, but it is light and comfortable (in that school sort of way). The tables are stable, the chairs are not too uncomfortable, and there is a feeling of space and at the same time solidity about the place. It was only cold when the front and back doors were left open. A good place to spend a weekend, and not one which made my feel instantly as though I was about to come down with the flu!
There were not a horde of people at DWARFcon. The main area was taken up with rows of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K tables (although plenty of walk space was left to get by), but even those were not full all the time. There were several rooms where roleplaying happened, but there never seemed to be a crush. There was a free form that ran in the locker room area (spilling out into the hall), but they had trouble getting the full complement of players (16?) - still made a heap of noise, threatening those of us nearby.
But the number of people was sufficient to keep things occupied and comfortable. I was manning a pair of demo-type tables (Chaosium and Cheapass Games), and I never felt abandoned or alone (as it is easily possible to do at the larger cons, even in the main registration areas). That was probably a direct result of the size of the venue, and the limited number of things available to do. With the Playstation (and N64?) games and the anime room (with enormous 40" brand new TV!), and my tables of goodies, there was always something to do; and the Mil Sims store was well-stocked and had great prices on the stuff I saw.
While I doubt people had the feeling that this was the con that they would remember for the rest of their lives (which I have had at least one time in Melbourne), the vibe was an open and friendly one, which did not have too much of that feeling of social outcasts that roleplaying sometimes has. I felt I was amongst intelligent and well-adjusted people who were having a good time. With the sole exception of the loud freeform I even felt that the others were being aware and respectful of the other gamers. This is the first con I can recall where the minatures players were not looked at as losers, and where they did not seem to have disdain for the roleplayers. Overall it is the first con I can recall in a long time that did not feel as though there were factional lines drawn everywhere - everyone was there together. That alone was precious for a jaded old hack like myself.
I must put in a mention for the amenities. Most particularly I want to comment on the food. I was told, triumphantly, that DWARFcon has the best food of any Victoria con. While I was pretty darn fond of the Spanakoppita (spelling?) at past Arcs, I must say that the "made-with-loving-hands" aspect of the food here was great. I saw my burger being created, and it had fresh ingedients, and wasn't dripping in fat. It wasn't health food, but most gamers could put it in that category. The range of food items was impressive, and the menu changed from day to day (hot dogs one day hambugers the next). I didn't see what Vegetarian food there was on offer, but I felt that it was unlikely not to have been considered. The prices were reasonable, and I did get lunch for under $5 each day.
At all times the staff were polite and friendly. They were never surly, they were never too busy to help. They also never seemed professionally friendly or as though they had a fake smile on for the day. That made the trips to the canteen and the front desk all pleasant, and removed a lot of the sense of confrontation that keeps me (at least) from asking too many "irrelevant" questions at many cons.
I noticed, as well, that there a decent number of women (or girls, if they want to keep their age ambiguous - I certainly wouldn't guess at the ages of the people I met). These were not girlfriends along to help out, as far as I could tell (maybe they were, if so they were great girlfriends!), but people there because they were part of the society. Full-fledged real people. Participants who seemed to be solid and non-fluffy. I didn't see a single tightly-attired vampire chick, either! Not the right scene, I guess.
Reports of the roleplaying events were positive. There was a decent day's roleplaying to be had at thois small con that is perhaps better known for its minatures events. The games were interesting and worthy of the tie they had allotted. There were a variety of systems and genres on offer.
I was there not as a player, however, but as a demo dude (my words). My shared Chaosiuim-Cheapass Games stall drew a decent amount of interest, and always had people around either pawing over the Cheapass Games or Cthulhu rules, or playing Mythos or Button-Men with me. I taught a bunch of people Button Men, and a few people Mythos, and was suprised to find that there was even a real undercurrent of support for Mythos ("Great game!" , "Lots of fun!" , "Ahh, Mythos!"); we always had a few onlookers who were offering intelligent advice and good-hearted jibes. It was not a place for card sharks, I can tell you (my deck construction is appalling!). And Rob Shankly had no problem getting a team of people to play his Cthulhu demo session, which went rather well.
Liam