CanGames 2017 Day 1 Report
Since the convention is already one day day over (as I write this blog entry), I figured that I should start posting up the reports on the weekend that was at CanGames 2017 today, while I have the chance. I don't really know how long and detailed these reports will be, given how ill (see below) I was, the fact that I didn't see all that much of the convention this year, and I didn't take all that many notes about the convention events as I usually do. So lots of this stuff is from memory alone. Unfortunately, there are no photos included with these blog entries, as I didn't take any photos at the convention, sadly enough. Other things on my mind. So this is a very small slice of perspective about the convention, if nothing else. This post, and the rest covering the events of each day at CanGames 2017, is behind the cut.
May 19th, 2017
I had a very poor night's sleep, my allergies bothering me terribly, but since I didn't have to work on the Friday, I woke up somewhat later than usual, about 8:45 am. Felt somewhat odd in the neck and throat area, but attributed that to the allergies and asthma attack that I had started to suffer from the day before, and my voice was a bit hoarse. Once I was up and about, I started to take care of packing my personal belongings bag and stuff that I would need, and made some foodstuffs ready for when
spross would arrive at my place around 11:35 am or so. Forgot to check the weather, but didn't worry about that at the time.
SteveR and I left my house around noon, and I realized that the one bag with the Coriolis - The Third Horizon rulebook and GM Screen was pretty heavy. Given my left shoulder problem, I didn't think I'd be able to carry that bag, but SteveR was kind enough to tote that one for me. We stopped at the local Tim Horton's for lunch, as I'd hoped to relax in the restaurant and eat, but I was feeling ill and not that hungry so figured I'd only have the soup. They didn't have a soup I wanted, so I convinced SteveR to go to the Subway at Bronson and Argyle (??) on the way to the convention venue, and we picked up lunch to take with us. I grabbed a 6-inch turkey on whole wheat sub with some fixings, and then we headed downtown for the Rideau Curling Club and the gaming venue.
We arrived at the Rideau Curling Club close to 1:15 pm, and as per usual, it was difficult to find a parking spot near the venue. This is typical of CanGames, and is one of those things that they need to get a better handle on. There's just not enough parking near the curling club for a convention of the size that it is. SteveR was actually able to find a parking space within about four blocks of the Curling Club, and we unpacked the car and walked to the venue. Since he had brought a dolly to take the two boxes of games he and I had brought to sell at the convention, SteveR was able to place all the gaming bags on the dolly as well, except for my personal bag (which also had my diabetic supplies/insulin in it). Even so, my left hip was cramping somewhat when we arrived at the place.
On entering the Rideau Curling Club, we saw that it was already busy, with folks involved in set-up, and gamers lounging about here and there. There was still a good 75 to 100 people present, so it wasn't too bad, and it was unpleasantly cool on the main floor. I was glad I'd brought my jacket and hoodie. SteveR and I collected our registration packages at the Registration Desks, and then went downstairs and found a pair of lockers to put our stuff in. The Curling Club shut off most of the areas with lockers, no doubt reserved for the curlers who regularly frequent the Club, so we ended up putting our gear in lockers in the Ladies Room (which turned out to be one of the approved areas for the convention goers). It was much warmer downstairs, something that would come back to bite me sort of the next day and Sunday. Once back upstairs, I went to the Game Registration area, and checked to see how many players I had signed up for games. I was disappointed but not surprised to see there was only one player for tonight's (Friday) game of Coriolis (but it was Roddy Turner, so that perked me up), two players for Saturday afternoon's Primeval game, one player (!!) for the Tales From the Loop Saturday night game (which was only in the on-line schedule), and much to my surprise, a full house of five pre-registered players for Sunday's Coriolis game! Wow!! I said "Hello" to some of the folks I knew at the convention, and everyone noticed that my voice was absolutely hoarse. And my head was blocked again from the allergies.
When SteveR was ready, he and I (along with the dolly) headed for the back of the curling sheet part of the venue so that we both could take care of the selling of the games we had with us at the CanGames booth in the Marketplace (which had just a few people setting up). Once more, the Marketplace was no longer at the back of the curling sheet, instead being along the length of the right hand wall (as one comes onto the curling sheet). I still rather like this change, as it makes the booths more accessible and gives folks a bigger area to spread out across, but it also makes the area somewhat noisier. Jeff Black was in charge of the CanGames booth as usual, and he made the process relatively easy and efficient, the whole thing taking about 20 minutes. Once SteveR and I finished up there, we head back to the main section, but stopped for a few minutes to chat with Emily Griggs while she was setting up her Sweet Ingenuity booth area, one of the few dealers who was there at that point. The Sweet Ingenuity booth was going to have some good stuff again this year, and I hope that Emily continues to attend the convention. We chatted for just a bit, and then SteveR and I headed back to the main area on the ground floor.
We found one of the empty tables, and then sat down and had a late lunch, courtesy of our Subway purchases earlier, and I noticed that I was losing my voice even more. I'll admit that I started to worry about whether I'd be able to run any games, but SteveR convinced that I just needed to roll with the flow - and he knows my reasons for why I'd try, even with my voice in terrible shape. After lunch, we wandered around and checked out some of the games that were running by that time (it being after 2:00 pm). I chatted minimally with a few friends and acquaintances again, and also managed to incline a couple of folks to consider playing in the Coriolis game that night. I wandered around a bit, and checked out some of the miniatures games on the curling sheet that were being played, and made one trip up to the second floor where the board gaming events take place and where the Curling Club cafeteria is. Gods, but it was hot up there!! and I was glad that I didn't have to run up there. (And it stayed warm up there for the duration of the convention.) I also checked out the Open Gaming area out on the curling sheet, and they had some great board games, so the afternoon didn't lack for games for folks to play.
Around 4:00 pm or so, Shannon and Raymond Dickson, arrived at the venue, and we talked a little bit about the fact that she was running Hollow Earth Expedition several times at the con (including Friday night). She told me that Ray was going to be her "rules GM" as she really didn't "get" the game mechanics stuff too well. We talked a bit about that, and I told her that I've always felt that if one can't come to grips with or really like the game mechanics, one shouldn't run that game. Shannon told me she likes the game, and besides with Ray as her "rules ref", that it worked for her. Didn't argue the point, so... Given the upstairs cafeteria's poor menu (and I use that term sarcastically), full of hamburgers and fries, though there was a garden salad as well - but the prices! Oy vey! - SteveR and I decided to order out. Around 5:00 pm, SteveR called out for some supper - we decided to have Swiss Chalet for the evening meal, and we almost didn't get the order in let alone get the food, through a comedy of mobile phone errors and other stuff that I won't bore you with. Supper showed up around a quarter to six, so SteveR and I dug into the food. I had a 1/4 chicken meal with baked potato (donating my roll to feed SteveR's needs), and remembered that we had celery and carrots with us, so had that as the vegetables with the meal. I had made the mistake of talking too much during the afternoon, and my asthma was feeling worse and my voice was sounding very bad.
After eating supper, SteveR went downstairs to grab the pair of gaming bags (one of them quite heavy, remember?) with the Coriolis - The Third Horizon stuff for me, while I cleaned up the gaming table somewhat. I also started setting up for the game as well. Once the sign-up sheets were put out for potential players to find games to play in at 6:30 pm, I went over to the sign-up table, and using my dying voice to recruit a few players to join Roddy at the table. I managed to convince four other players to join him for the game, the last just around 7:00 pm, so I had a full table of gamers, and SteveR didn't have to sit in and play in the game. I went and joined the players at the table, and completed setting up for the game for the evening.
The adventure I ran on Friday night is called "The Statuette of Zhar Bagra", and revolves around the players characters being hired to find an object that is somewhere on Coriolis station that their client wishes to purchase from its current owner. Needless to say, the plot is a bit more convoluted than that, and has a very Arabian Nights feel to it in terms of the setting. This scenario is part of the content of the main Coriolis - The Third Horizon RPG rulebook, and there are no set characters for it, so I had created five player characters for the adventure. The five characters are all Explorers with their own ship, The Eye of Shamtar. The player characters are: Maysama ("May") Hamradan, an independent and stubborn scout who serves as the ship's Pilot; Aqilah Mamrudh, a dutiful meercenary who serves as the ship's Gunner; Shakir al Mazouras, a doubting spy who serves as the ship's Sensor Operator; Omran Padaris, a righteous archaeologist, who serves as the ship's Engineer; and Havim Sajhiran, a manipulative courtesan who serves as the ship's Captain. I'm not going into detail about the plot here (because others might run the adventure down the line, and I'd like to run the scenario again sometime!), but suffice to say that the adventure went very well, though I did alter a couple of the plot's aspects to make it fit with the characters and their backgrounds better.
Overall, I think the players had a good time of it though my voice faded to an almost hoarse whisper in the four hours at Table F5 where I'd been assigned on the main floor across from the Registration Desk, trying to make myself heard over the cacophony of noise from the other tables. They enjoyed that they were all part of a crew (thus having a reason to be together), though their motivations and personal relationships were "varied" (as one player put it). They also found the rules extremely easy to comprehend, and didn't have any problems with the dice mechanics; while they were a bit leery of the Darkness Point mechanics, they came to really enjoy them and how I chose to use them during the course of the adventure. I thought the players did a good job playing the various characters, and was surprised when the other players deferred to Nicholas who was playing Havim, the captain. He did a subtle job of manipulating the other characters, willingly and unknowingly, but he let the others do their jobs. Highlights of the game session for me include a bit in the Spice Plaza where the characters were trying to find out where their target was staying, and they had an encounter with an old, crone-like woman who gave them a dark prophecy about their future, and that freaked out the player characters. The final sequence at the bridge across the Promenade was a lovely showdown scene, the player characters making use of the cables and ropes below, though it could have been a much more dangerous bit of play.
For the most part, I had a good time running the scenario, but was feeling pretty ill, both vocally and with a bad headache by the time we finished up for the night. The players managed to accomplish their (real) goal, and in true Arabian Nights fashion did what they realized they might have to do at the very beginning of the adventure. I chatted with several of the players a bit after finishing the adventure with about 10 to 15 minutes to spare, despite how I was feeling. Several of the players commented they were surprised how much they enjoyed the game and the mechanics, as they came into it without any expections other than the "Arabian Nights in space" angle, and that it really did live up to that. I expressed the fact that I hoped my voice problems didn't prevent them enjoying the game, but several of them reassured me on that score. Roddy flattered me once again about my gaming style, about how he loves how I run games, and about how much fun this game of Coriolis - The Third Horizon had been. I was chuffed, but still feeling ill. After chatting with the players for a bit longer, I gulped down half a bottle of water. Part of the problem was that I'd not drank enough water during the course of the game session (especially given the heat on the main floor), though I did have a cup of tea at one point.
After packing up the game materials, SteveR (who had played a game during the course of the evening as well) and I took the gaming stuff down to the lower level and the locker rooms, and I took my blood glucose. It was somewhat high, around 12.2 (a sure sign that I was feeling off), and I took my insulin shot and then had a small plastic bowl of Cheerios. SteveR gathered up the stuff from the lockers while I went about assigning the rankings on the sign-up sheet, which I took up to the Game Registration Desk, and collected my first $5 GM reward tokens. When that was done, we headed out with the gaming stuff for the car. That was a very long walk for me, on this night.
I don't remember most of the trip back to my place, and I was pretty quiet in the car as my voice was barely above a whisper by that point. SteveR helped me unpack, and it must have been close to 11:45 pm by this time. I had some water to rehydrate, and then made a cup of tea to soothe the throat (I hoped), then managed to unpack the gaming stuff and the personal materials tote bag. By that time, around 12:25 pm, I was on my last legs for the night, and went to bed. I remember falling asleep rather quickly, and also making a decision about the rest of the weekend.
And there you have the write-up for the Friday of CanGames 2017. I hope it wasn't too long for folks, and those who've read this day's write-up enjoyed it. The write-up for Saturday at CanGames will get posted as soon as I have a chance to do so.
May 19th, 2017
I had a very poor night's sleep, my allergies bothering me terribly, but since I didn't have to work on the Friday, I woke up somewhat later than usual, about 8:45 am. Felt somewhat odd in the neck and throat area, but attributed that to the allergies and asthma attack that I had started to suffer from the day before, and my voice was a bit hoarse. Once I was up and about, I started to take care of packing my personal belongings bag and stuff that I would need, and made some foodstuffs ready for when
spross would arrive at my place around 11:35 am or so. Forgot to check the weather, but didn't worry about that at the time.SteveR and I left my house around noon, and I realized that the one bag with the Coriolis - The Third Horizon rulebook and GM Screen was pretty heavy. Given my left shoulder problem, I didn't think I'd be able to carry that bag, but SteveR was kind enough to tote that one for me. We stopped at the local Tim Horton's for lunch, as I'd hoped to relax in the restaurant and eat, but I was feeling ill and not that hungry so figured I'd only have the soup. They didn't have a soup I wanted, so I convinced SteveR to go to the Subway at Bronson and Argyle (??) on the way to the convention venue, and we picked up lunch to take with us. I grabbed a 6-inch turkey on whole wheat sub with some fixings, and then we headed downtown for the Rideau Curling Club and the gaming venue.
We arrived at the Rideau Curling Club close to 1:15 pm, and as per usual, it was difficult to find a parking spot near the venue. This is typical of CanGames, and is one of those things that they need to get a better handle on. There's just not enough parking near the curling club for a convention of the size that it is. SteveR was actually able to find a parking space within about four blocks of the Curling Club, and we unpacked the car and walked to the venue. Since he had brought a dolly to take the two boxes of games he and I had brought to sell at the convention, SteveR was able to place all the gaming bags on the dolly as well, except for my personal bag (which also had my diabetic supplies/insulin in it). Even so, my left hip was cramping somewhat when we arrived at the place.
On entering the Rideau Curling Club, we saw that it was already busy, with folks involved in set-up, and gamers lounging about here and there. There was still a good 75 to 100 people present, so it wasn't too bad, and it was unpleasantly cool on the main floor. I was glad I'd brought my jacket and hoodie. SteveR and I collected our registration packages at the Registration Desks, and then went downstairs and found a pair of lockers to put our stuff in. The Curling Club shut off most of the areas with lockers, no doubt reserved for the curlers who regularly frequent the Club, so we ended up putting our gear in lockers in the Ladies Room (which turned out to be one of the approved areas for the convention goers). It was much warmer downstairs, something that would come back to bite me sort of the next day and Sunday. Once back upstairs, I went to the Game Registration area, and checked to see how many players I had signed up for games. I was disappointed but not surprised to see there was only one player for tonight's (Friday) game of Coriolis (but it was Roddy Turner, so that perked me up), two players for Saturday afternoon's Primeval game, one player (!!) for the Tales From the Loop Saturday night game (which was only in the on-line schedule), and much to my surprise, a full house of five pre-registered players for Sunday's Coriolis game! Wow!! I said "Hello" to some of the folks I knew at the convention, and everyone noticed that my voice was absolutely hoarse. And my head was blocked again from the allergies.
When SteveR was ready, he and I (along with the dolly) headed for the back of the curling sheet part of the venue so that we both could take care of the selling of the games we had with us at the CanGames booth in the Marketplace (which had just a few people setting up). Once more, the Marketplace was no longer at the back of the curling sheet, instead being along the length of the right hand wall (as one comes onto the curling sheet). I still rather like this change, as it makes the booths more accessible and gives folks a bigger area to spread out across, but it also makes the area somewhat noisier. Jeff Black was in charge of the CanGames booth as usual, and he made the process relatively easy and efficient, the whole thing taking about 20 minutes. Once SteveR and I finished up there, we head back to the main section, but stopped for a few minutes to chat with Emily Griggs while she was setting up her Sweet Ingenuity booth area, one of the few dealers who was there at that point. The Sweet Ingenuity booth was going to have some good stuff again this year, and I hope that Emily continues to attend the convention. We chatted for just a bit, and then SteveR and I headed back to the main area on the ground floor.
We found one of the empty tables, and then sat down and had a late lunch, courtesy of our Subway purchases earlier, and I noticed that I was losing my voice even more. I'll admit that I started to worry about whether I'd be able to run any games, but SteveR convinced that I just needed to roll with the flow - and he knows my reasons for why I'd try, even with my voice in terrible shape. After lunch, we wandered around and checked out some of the games that were running by that time (it being after 2:00 pm). I chatted minimally with a few friends and acquaintances again, and also managed to incline a couple of folks to consider playing in the Coriolis game that night. I wandered around a bit, and checked out some of the miniatures games on the curling sheet that were being played, and made one trip up to the second floor where the board gaming events take place and where the Curling Club cafeteria is. Gods, but it was hot up there!! and I was glad that I didn't have to run up there. (And it stayed warm up there for the duration of the convention.) I also checked out the Open Gaming area out on the curling sheet, and they had some great board games, so the afternoon didn't lack for games for folks to play.
Around 4:00 pm or so, Shannon and Raymond Dickson, arrived at the venue, and we talked a little bit about the fact that she was running Hollow Earth Expedition several times at the con (including Friday night). She told me that Ray was going to be her "rules GM" as she really didn't "get" the game mechanics stuff too well. We talked a bit about that, and I told her that I've always felt that if one can't come to grips with or really like the game mechanics, one shouldn't run that game. Shannon told me she likes the game, and besides with Ray as her "rules ref", that it worked for her. Didn't argue the point, so... Given the upstairs cafeteria's poor menu (and I use that term sarcastically), full of hamburgers and fries, though there was a garden salad as well - but the prices! Oy vey! - SteveR and I decided to order out. Around 5:00 pm, SteveR called out for some supper - we decided to have Swiss Chalet for the evening meal, and we almost didn't get the order in let alone get the food, through a comedy of mobile phone errors and other stuff that I won't bore you with. Supper showed up around a quarter to six, so SteveR and I dug into the food. I had a 1/4 chicken meal with baked potato (donating my roll to feed SteveR's needs), and remembered that we had celery and carrots with us, so had that as the vegetables with the meal. I had made the mistake of talking too much during the afternoon, and my asthma was feeling worse and my voice was sounding very bad.
After eating supper, SteveR went downstairs to grab the pair of gaming bags (one of them quite heavy, remember?) with the Coriolis - The Third Horizon stuff for me, while I cleaned up the gaming table somewhat. I also started setting up for the game as well. Once the sign-up sheets were put out for potential players to find games to play in at 6:30 pm, I went over to the sign-up table, and using my dying voice to recruit a few players to join Roddy at the table. I managed to convince four other players to join him for the game, the last just around 7:00 pm, so I had a full table of gamers, and SteveR didn't have to sit in and play in the game. I went and joined the players at the table, and completed setting up for the game for the evening.
The adventure I ran on Friday night is called "The Statuette of Zhar Bagra", and revolves around the players characters being hired to find an object that is somewhere on Coriolis station that their client wishes to purchase from its current owner. Needless to say, the plot is a bit more convoluted than that, and has a very Arabian Nights feel to it in terms of the setting. This scenario is part of the content of the main Coriolis - The Third Horizon RPG rulebook, and there are no set characters for it, so I had created five player characters for the adventure. The five characters are all Explorers with their own ship, The Eye of Shamtar. The player characters are: Maysama ("May") Hamradan, an independent and stubborn scout who serves as the ship's Pilot; Aqilah Mamrudh, a dutiful meercenary who serves as the ship's Gunner; Shakir al Mazouras, a doubting spy who serves as the ship's Sensor Operator; Omran Padaris, a righteous archaeologist, who serves as the ship's Engineer; and Havim Sajhiran, a manipulative courtesan who serves as the ship's Captain. I'm not going into detail about the plot here (because others might run the adventure down the line, and I'd like to run the scenario again sometime!), but suffice to say that the adventure went very well, though I did alter a couple of the plot's aspects to make it fit with the characters and their backgrounds better.
Overall, I think the players had a good time of it though my voice faded to an almost hoarse whisper in the four hours at Table F5 where I'd been assigned on the main floor across from the Registration Desk, trying to make myself heard over the cacophony of noise from the other tables. They enjoyed that they were all part of a crew (thus having a reason to be together), though their motivations and personal relationships were "varied" (as one player put it). They also found the rules extremely easy to comprehend, and didn't have any problems with the dice mechanics; while they were a bit leery of the Darkness Point mechanics, they came to really enjoy them and how I chose to use them during the course of the adventure. I thought the players did a good job playing the various characters, and was surprised when the other players deferred to Nicholas who was playing Havim, the captain. He did a subtle job of manipulating the other characters, willingly and unknowingly, but he let the others do their jobs. Highlights of the game session for me include a bit in the Spice Plaza where the characters were trying to find out where their target was staying, and they had an encounter with an old, crone-like woman who gave them a dark prophecy about their future, and that freaked out the player characters. The final sequence at the bridge across the Promenade was a lovely showdown scene, the player characters making use of the cables and ropes below, though it could have been a much more dangerous bit of play.
For the most part, I had a good time running the scenario, but was feeling pretty ill, both vocally and with a bad headache by the time we finished up for the night. The players managed to accomplish their (real) goal, and in true Arabian Nights fashion did what they realized they might have to do at the very beginning of the adventure. I chatted with several of the players a bit after finishing the adventure with about 10 to 15 minutes to spare, despite how I was feeling. Several of the players commented they were surprised how much they enjoyed the game and the mechanics, as they came into it without any expections other than the "Arabian Nights in space" angle, and that it really did live up to that. I expressed the fact that I hoped my voice problems didn't prevent them enjoying the game, but several of them reassured me on that score. Roddy flattered me once again about my gaming style, about how he loves how I run games, and about how much fun this game of Coriolis - The Third Horizon had been. I was chuffed, but still feeling ill. After chatting with the players for a bit longer, I gulped down half a bottle of water. Part of the problem was that I'd not drank enough water during the course of the game session (especially given the heat on the main floor), though I did have a cup of tea at one point.
After packing up the game materials, SteveR (who had played a game during the course of the evening as well) and I took the gaming stuff down to the lower level and the locker rooms, and I took my blood glucose. It was somewhat high, around 12.2 (a sure sign that I was feeling off), and I took my insulin shot and then had a small plastic bowl of Cheerios. SteveR gathered up the stuff from the lockers while I went about assigning the rankings on the sign-up sheet, which I took up to the Game Registration Desk, and collected my first $5 GM reward tokens. When that was done, we headed out with the gaming stuff for the car. That was a very long walk for me, on this night.
I don't remember most of the trip back to my place, and I was pretty quiet in the car as my voice was barely above a whisper by that point. SteveR helped me unpack, and it must have been close to 11:45 pm by this time. I had some water to rehydrate, and then made a cup of tea to soothe the throat (I hoped), then managed to unpack the gaming stuff and the personal materials tote bag. By that time, around 12:25 pm, I was on my last legs for the night, and went to bed. I remember falling asleep rather quickly, and also making a decision about the rest of the weekend.
And there you have the write-up for the Friday of CanGames 2017. I hope it wasn't too long for folks, and those who've read this day's write-up enjoyed it. The write-up for Saturday at CanGames will get posted as soon as I have a chance to do so.