The Conclave

Abyss is a narrative 28mm scale Inquisitor event, set around the trial of a Radical Inquisitor.

3 November from 11:00-18:00 @ Dark Sphere Shepherd's Bush Megastore (Unit 8, W12 Shopping Centre, W12 8PP London, United Kingdom)

The day will be three rounds of gaming in a narrative campaign, using the Inquisitor Living Rulebook (with a few standard community tweaks) as a ruleset.
Event pack (http://www.mediafire.com/file/89b3z3amxezdm3e/2018+Abyss+Pack+V0-1.pdf)

The event is ticketed to cover table hire (and help manage the turn-out), with a price of £5.
The ticket link is here (https://billetto.co.uk/e/abyss-28mm-inquisitor-narrative-open-tickets-310943)

"Warbands" will not have to be Inquisition-themed - many factions and individuals will have an interest in influencing the outcome. Players will have a choice between four broad philosophies:

Adherents: Those who consider the law above all (e.g. Monodominants, Arbites)
Renegades: Those who consider themselves above the law (e.g. Xanthites, Adeptus Mechanicus)
Moderates: Those who believe that the law is important, but nonetheless malleable (e.g. more pragmatic Inquisitors)
Anarchists: Those who would destabilise the law entirely (e.g. Heretics, Traitors, Xenos)

~~~~~

Original Post:

As a case of not completely sitting on my arse, I'm starting to look into that Dark Sphere 28mm event I mentioned.

I'm hoping to scoop some possible players into a Facebook group, so I can then start doing polling on what dates would work for people:
https://www.facebook.com/events/412932725779061/

The format will be pretty standard for our events (Saturday, lightly house-ruled LRB, a story playing out over three rounds), except that the intention is that it will be a 28mm event.
(And although I had earlier suggested it might be otherwise, probably exclusively 28mm - although I do like having both scales alongside each other, only having to worry about one will make the planning at least a mite easier for me).

EDIT: Date likely in August to October, probably September.

I'm well up for this; assuming it's a date I can make, I'll be there.  (In the interests of avoiding double counting of interest, I'm one of the 'tentatives' on the FB page.)

Yup, I'm up for Dark Sphere if I'm free.
Is there a ballpark time/date for it?

Assuming the date fits, and Chaos willing I'm up for it.

Time to work up a 28mm warband.

Quote from: TheNephew on May 30, 2018, 06:00:39 PM
Yup, I'm up for Dark Sphere if I'm free.
Is there a ballpark time/date for it?

Doh. I've remembered to include this some places, but not all. Probably August to October time, most likely September.

(Late July isn't impossible*, but I would like a decent lead up to give people time to get ready, but August is likely to be holiday time).

* This is a more likely time for me to squeeze in an IRE playtest, I think, as I need fewer people and I'm expecting more of the people who might be interested to be ready at shorter notice, rather than having half finished models that they haven't yet had an excuse to finish).

First planning update - although I'll probably get on to Dark Sphere about dates tomorrow (as it'll be June, and they're likely to have their calendar open further), I've started thinking about plot ideas.

Looking through my ideas notebook, one idea that I'm quite liking for this event is centring things around the trial of a Radical Inquisitor.

In this, players would be looking to uncover, interpret, potentially tamper with, and present evidence for and against the Inquisitor leading up to the Radical's trial, as well as secure the political power to be able to sway the trial.

This would at its core be a conflict between Puritans (seeking to uphold the law of the Inquisition) and Radicals (seeking to uphold the legitimacy of their methods), but there will certainly be room for other factions.

I know we've yet to sort out which players would actually be at the event, but I'd like to get a preliminary idea of whether we'd be able to get a decent spread of philosophies for some proper conflict.

At the moment, I'm thinking about four factions:
- Law-abiding - those who believe that the law is above all.
(e.g. Strong Puritans, Arbites, Ecclesiarchy)

- Rebellious - those who believe themselves above the law
(e.g. Radicals, Rogue Traders, Adeptus Mechanicus)

- Moderates - those who (perhaps paradoxically) believe the Inquisition requires both independence and oversight...
(e.g more tolerant but not necessarily Radical Inquisitors)

- Anarchists - those who would simply use this as a chance to destabilise the Inquisition.
(e.g. Heretics, Chaos, certain Xenos, possibly Istvaanians)

I know many of you will have a choice, but for a story like this, which would your first choice of characters for the day likely fall into?

This is also a poll on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/412932725779061/413619815710352/

The pile of bits I'm generously calling my current project is a Rogue Trader (no make-up in sight), who necessarily needs a strong and stable Imperium to trade in - so either sticking his nose where it doesn't belong in the name of Law'n'Orda, or in the name of Moderately sensible behaviour all round.

Of course, being a Rogue Trader, it's not hard to pivot his stance a little to suit the narrative balance required, depending on the accused's crimes.

Second planning update!

The voting on faction and philosophy has been beautifully divisive so far, so it seems like the trial of a Radical Inquisitor is a good basis for the disagreements and differences of philosophy that help drive Inquisitor as a game, so I'm already working up a full set of plans for that as the theme of the event (with the working title of "Abyss").

I've phoned Dark Sphere, and their dates are reasonably free this far in advance. September seems like a decent time to put the event (it gives people more time to prepare than July, people are most likely to be on holiday in August, and it's not as far away as October), so I'm going to open voting for then.

I will need to check whether I myself will be free on a couple of the Saturdays, but for the moment, tell me which Saturdays you'd be free for in September (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th), and I'll work out which dates are most viable.

You can also vote on the poll on Facebook if you would prefer: https://www.facebook.com/events/412932725779061/permalink/414019859003681/

September is a good month for me as I'll have had time to wind down from summer.
And it gives me time to easily finish 28mm mordecai, or take a stab at finishing jack.

Anytime that month. I've voted on facebook.

Now we've started to get an idea of who's available when, I've been talking with Dark Sphere.

The date currently leading the voting, the 29th of September is a Magic pre-release day, so their normal Waterloo store will be packed, so we would need to book for the second location they are currently in the process of opening, in Shepherd's Bush.

I'm assuming this is unlikely to present a major issue for anyone - it's only five miles different, and still very much in the middle of London's public transport network - but if anyone has any important objections, let me know.

If necessary, I'll go for one of the dates earlier in the month. (The options of the 1st and 8th aren't far behind in the vote, but they'll be closer behind things I'm doing at the end of August, so they are a reserve choice at the moment).

I think dates around then generally work for me at the moment.

Have we got a date confirmed for this event yet?  I really want to go, but there's only so long I can hold a whole month free... ;)

Any movement on this?
I'm fighting to keep as much of September free as possible, but I'm inevitably going to start losing free weekends soon.

Same.
And is it still 28mm?
My mordecai warband is complete, but I'd like to know if I should also consider dropping everything to build 28mm Jack.

Sorry, the limiting factor here has been that the preferential date for this has for some time been the 29th, but other than telling me that their Lambeth store was having a Magic release weekend, Dark Sphere couldn't give me a definitive answer about when the West London store would be ready to start taking bookings.

They're now starting to circulate publicity for that store, so I've re-contacted them about the date, although at this point I'm thinking I probably need to take a new ballot about date to decide whether this needs to be moved back into October to make sure people still have enough notice.

Quote from: mcjomar on August 26, 2018, 07:51:43 AMAnd is it still 28mm?

Definitely, as part of the point is to test 28mm player numbers around the London area to know whether it could be safely included as part of a future London GT.

Dark Sphere have now confirmed that tables will be available on the 29th (although it was a little ambiguous about which store), but I'm opening it up to a vote to decide whether to delay to October to give people more time to prepare.

Feel free to comment here, or vote over there - your choice:

https://www.facebook.com/events/412932725779061/permalink/483787962026870/

I'm happy either way, but I'm pro-September 29thso Idon't have to wait as long.
I'd probably be able to swing a weekend in October too, if it goes well enogh (and is well enough attended) that that would be feasible.

I too am pro 29th as my october is mostly booked, except for the second weekend in october, and I've been told by my wife (eee!) that she'd rather I have at least one weekend not fully booked in that month.

I'm not going to be available for September or October. Unlikely to have any free time before December now, so count me out.

The vote came up in favour of delaying the London 28mm event into October. Please vote again so that we can pick a new date!

I'm discounting the 6th, as this would only add a single week's notice over 29th Sept, and I already have a commitment for the 13th, so I'm also including 3rd November as an option to give people a reasonable choice.

You can pick multiple options, and either tell me here or vote on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/412932725779061/permalink/484242211981445/

At this point the november dates are my only option for attendance.

I'm now booked for 20/10/2018, Malifaux tournament in Landan or Essix or somewhere.

I'm more-heavily-pencilling in 03/11/2018 to make sure that stays free, as the The Tome of Empty (Hollow?) Visages suggests that that is the clear front-runner.

Hopefuly that doesn't get pushed into December too...

Edit: On the upside, this gives me time to actually prep character-appropriate sheets for the gang, rather than just fit some stats to the concepts on the train journey.

one of these days I need to stop painting kill team (currently working on an imperial guard team including kasrkin, tempestus, glory boy, and knock-off kasrkin, as well as normal cadian and other regiment guard) and DnD models, and get to work on sculpting 28mm Jack.

I think I've finally got a viable date, but I need a show of hands so I know the rough numbers I should be expecting.

~~~~~
These are the details as they are currently planned:

- Abyss - a narrative 28mm scale Inquisitor event, set around the trial of a Radical Inquisitor.
- Saturday 3rd November, 1100-1800
- Dark Sphere Megastore, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 8PP
- Inquisitor Living Rulebook (with a few standard community tweaks)
- Three rounds of gaming over the day.
- Ticketed event to cover table hire (and keep the turn-out manageable). Price likely £5.

"Warbands" do not have to be Inquisition-themed - many factions and individuals will have an interest in influencing the outcome. Players will have a choice between four broad philosophies:
Adherents: Those who consider the law above all (e.g. Monodominants, Arbites)
Renegades: Those who consider themselves above the law (e.g. Xanthites, Adeptus Mechanicus)
Moderates: Those who believe that the law is important, but nonetheless malleable (e.g. more pragmatic Inquisitors)
Anarchists: Those who would destabilise the law entirely (e.g. Heretics, Traitors, Xenos)

You can give a response in this thread, or vote on Facebook here (https://www.facebook.com/events/412932725779061/permalink/487601124978887/)

I think I voted on  Facebook, but as I don't really engage over there, I'll confirm attendance here too.

I'm bringing a Navigator(? maybe?), two attendants, and two space cops.

I'm thinking he's from a Rogue Trader ship the Inquisitor inquestion used frequently, impounded in orbit until the show is over. As such, the Trader wants the Inquisitor to be found innocent so their reputation doesn't get tarnished, but mainly he wants the trial over so they can get back to business. The Trader is waiting at the leisure of the Inquisition for his time on the stand, so his crew has been divided and sent forth to have a look around.

As such, probably Moderates, though if things are looking bad for the radical, a bit Renegade/Anarchist if they can get away with it.

I'll stick some stuff up soon - I'll likely need a bit of advice building the Nav (and actually using the psychic powers for once).

so 3rd I'll very likely be able to attend.
Mordecai will be my first pick unless I can get time to complete Jack.
So Adherents are most likely, but if I complete Jack then instead expect Moderates (if Illuminati Recongregators who lean toward more moderate or puritan attitudes than others within their faction can be accused of being moderate...)

The booking is now confirmed, so I've updated the first post with details. Tickets/event pack should be available soon.

Howdy all - as I've been writing the player pack, it's come to my attention that the Dark Sphere Megastore has longer opening hours than the Waterloo store. This could allow the schedule to be slightly extended to make the day a bit less hectic, with slightly more relaxed games and extra time for lunch.

However, I know that moving the time later may cause issues for people with long train journeys. As such, if you're planning on attending (or are likely to attend), what is your latest practical end time?

Currently, I'm looking at 6:00, 6:30, 7:00 or 7:30 as (rough) end times, but don't forget you will need a reasonable margin of time to get to the station - don't vote for 7:30 if your last train is at 7:41!

My last train is good and late, so I'm happy with a later finish.
I'll probably eat somewhere local too, if we finish at a suitable time.

Hi!

I've just signed up to the Conclave; I usually follow the Inq28 facebook page and that's essentially where I heard about the Abyss event. If you've no objections, I'll be joining you for the day!

I have a few odds-and-ends that i've converted for fun, but I've been motivated to make a completely new "warband" for this event.

Now I've just got to, ya know, learn the rules an' whatnot...  :o

None of the voters said that they couldn't do a 19:00 finish, so the end time has been pushed back an hour to give us extra gaming time.

Also, the first draft of the player pack has been released:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/89b3z3amxezdm3e/2018+Abyss+Pack+V0-1.pdf

Quote from: Sticklefront on September 26, 2018, 07:19:17 PMI have a few odds-and-ends that i've converted for fun, but I've been motivated to make a completely new "warband" for this event.

Sounds good! If running more open events is motivating anyone to get more out of their hobby, then it's a success for the community.

Tickets are now available for Abyss (https://billetto.co.uk/e/abyss-28mm-inquisitor-narrative-open-tickets-310943), and the ticket link will be available until Sunday 28th October at 23:59 (the Sunday before the event, in order to give me a little time to optimise the narrative for the expected turn out).

After this point, you will have to contact me directly.

There are currently 16 spaces available, although I will look into increasing this if early interest is high.

(Cross posted from the FB event page)

Hi! I'm putting paint to plastic on my Inquisitor and Pals, and am looking to writing a bit of background bumpf around their presence at Carren's trial.

Just wanted to ask... is the event taking part in a pre-existing setting... like, is this your own Sector/Planet? And if so... is it/are they named already? I want to make sure my characters slot in without causing anyone a headache 😉

Cheers!

As far as the general setting, this will be within the Abraxis sector, which is sort of a blank slate right now.

Back in 2009, Kaled contrived the idea of the Carthax sector (its wiki is here (https://carthax.wikia.com/wiki/Carthax_Wiki)) as a community setting, which meant that even if there wasn't a direct narrative from one event to the next, there was at least a continuity - and keeping it in a somewhat restricted area also helps explain why the same characters keep running into each other.

Carthax was a brilliant idea, but it's almost exclusively used for 54mm. Abraxis has come along later as a 28mm equivalent, so that players aren't dropped into a setting written by a load of people and featuring a load of characters they'll never get to interact with on the table.

Abraxis borders the Dalthus Sector that The Ammobunker set up, in order that it's plausible for characters from that setting to appear, but the development is being handled on a more ad-hoc basis, keeping the big picture somewhat vague so that it's harder to write things into a corner down the line.

It's yet to get a wiki - partly because it's only been used for three small events so far, and partly because I've yet to decide whether it should be separate from the Carthax one or whether to re-organise the Carthax wiki to cover both and keep all the Inquisitory goodness in the same place.

As far as broad details, it's out towards the Eastern Fringe, there are some sub-sector names (and rough descriptions)...
(http://i44.tinypic.com/2hx4msi.jpg)
... and currently it's suffering from being on the fringes of a warp storm (the last event saw the players fail to deflect an oncoming warp storm).

But other than that, it hasn't even really got many planet names or major NPCs set up. People like the sector governor, head of the sector conclave, etc still aren't named. Now that Abraxis is starting to be more used, I'll probably fill in some of the big gaps (once I decide how to handle the wiki), but mostly the intent is to let people add new bits as they're needed.

The event won't be happening on any single world within the Abraxis sector though. Different scenarios will be happening in different places, as Inquisitor Carren has been at large through large portions of the sector, so the evidence both for and against him is widely spread.

Ticket bought - see y'all there.

Greetings all!

Those of you specifically watching this event were deliberately notified first about tickets going on sale, but I'm now about to start advertising the event more widely in order to fill up more of the spaces.

I know from the ticket sales feedback that not everyone who's recently expressed interest has grabbed their ticket yet, so make sure you don't miss out!

https://billetto.co.uk/e/310943

Okay, I think I've got that weekend clear.
my remaining dilemma is which warband to choose:
Mordecai's warband is painted.
Samantha's warband is not painted, and Jack is not built. I could paint what I have, say Jack and x personnel are off on other missions while Samantha's attention is here, but that wouldn't be much fun without Jack.

It doesn't help that I'm scrambling like mad to paint about 21 guard to a good standard for kill team:
I've painted 10 kasrkin.
I've got 6 Not-Kasrkin to paint
5 Tempestus Scions to paint
10 guard to paint, comprising:
1 Praetorian
1 Savlar sergeant who is wearing a greatcoat, commissar style.
1 explorator with a flamer (GSC convert)
1 catachan with a flamer (mixed parts like mad)
2 cadians (one with a meltagun)
1 ex-imperial navy guy who is now guard.
3 cadians with green (or red) berets.

All for a halloween event a few days beforehand.

Mordecai is probably my best bet. No explanation for it, but still...

Ticket sales for Abyss have been lower than expected compared to the responses I'd received previously.

If you have not purchased your ticket because you now wish to or need to back out, PLEASE ACTUALLY TELL ME, because the number of tables booked was based on people's responses, and otherwise we will be paying for the hire of tables we're not using.
(And if it's a case that you're not attending because you don't like something about the event, it would be appreciated if you could explain what that is).

Otherwise, please purchase a ticket sooner rather than later (or at least inform me that you'll be buying later), as based on current numbers I am going to have to scale back our booking and there may not actually be space for you if you delay.

This event was intended partially to test the water for an ongoing series of events and a community-wide running narrative where people could link their own stories into a bigger picture, but if we stumble at the first hurdle, that cannot happen.

I've finished a boatload of models today, more than I need if I'm being honest!  ;D

If you're left with extra costs because of bailers/no shows, I'm happy to put in a little more. It shouldn't land on you, that's not cool. Same if we want extra tables or whatever, just lemme know.

How's the spread of participants looking? I can muster warbands for any of the factions at this point, so do you need any particular slots filled?

Ditto - I had to hold off my ticket due to budget, but it's purchased now.
I can try to support with costs, but please don't ask me until just after the 26th (I don't get paid till then).

I'm hoping to get my remaining guard killteam models painted this week to give me just enough time to throw at painting other models just in case I want to use someone other than Mordecai for this event.

Frustratingly, these London events seem to be convenient enough that folks don't feel the need to commit ahead of time.

I'll be there, and am also happy to chip in so you aren't caught with an over-sized table hire fee Marco.

Okay, most of my killteam are now done aside from some (probably unnecessary) scions.

I've got an idea for an Abraxis-specific Inquisitor, and I've picked out a couple of good minis to use for his entourage - I may need to expand it further due to casualties/events? Is it advisable to have a larger stable of characters to choose from across an event like this in case of injuries?

The theme is hats - no helmets.

I'll skim the player pack and see where I'm at. Thankfully with my rushing the killteam painting, I now have two weeks to get this done - if I try to maintain pace, not only will I have my minis for the event painted, but I might even have a surplus, and still manage to paint those scions. Cross fingers!

E: Looks like I only need to paint 2 minis, and I'll be good to go.
I've got one already, plus 3 guard minis from the killteam stuff I just painted.
I'm thinking the 3 guard are either individual chars, or maybe just an NPC mob, not sure yet.
Thoughts?

E2: Here's the painted group.
http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2846.0
I've got some basic stats together for the first three, but not yet for the minions.
No real backstory just yet, but this group will be purely for Abraxis events.

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE

All three of the stations in the vicinity of Dark Sphere West are affected by engineering work on the 3rd November.

- Shepherd's Bush will be running no National Rail services, and Overground services will ONLY be running to/from the south. The Central Line is  unaffected.
- Goldhawk Road and Shepherd's Bush Market are closed entirely, due to the closure of the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines.

For more details on replanning your journey, see the following links:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/203638.aspx
https://tfl.gov.uk/tube-dlr-overground/status/?Input=&lineIds=&dateTypeSelect=Future%20date&direction=&startDate=2018-11-03T00%3a00%3a00&endDate=2018-11-03T23%3a59%3a59

Bear in mind that the District and Metropolitan lines will also be closed between all stations that coincide with either the Circle or Hammersmith lines, as they use the same tracks.

If necessary, consider bus services instead.

Remember, midnight tonight is your last chance to get tickets!

https://billetto.co.uk/en/e/310943/

If you are joining us for Abyss, please post some basic details on the philosophy of your intended character choice.

It's important you do this as soon as possible, even if it's just a few short bullet points.
Due to ticket sales being lower than hoped, I can no longer just assume that there will be a decent spread of philosophies, and I may need to adjust parts of the event to ensure that you all still get a good experience.

(For example, if the turn-out is going to be heavily Puritan, I will need to shift the evidence for/against Carren to make his actions more reasonable so that there are still people willing to speak for him, rather than all the players immediately agreeing to burn him at the stake! Inquisitor doesn't work well without conflict and drama).

EDIT: So you know, the final ticket numbers were 5, with the fifth being sold half an hour from the deadline.

It's a lot less than I hoped for, but the numbers jumping from four to five people (or even six, if I player-GM) at the eleventh hour is enough to let me split the plot on to two tables (assuming everyone turns up!), which means more story, as well the slightly grander sense of scale from the knowledge that important things are happening elsewhere.

I'm still going to have to adjust our table reservation, but it's just enough to take it from being a tiny mini-plot to a story with a bit more sense of scale.

As noted on the FB post, I'm bringing a moderate ex-amalathian recongregator, who likes to hunt/collect archeotech/xenoarcheon.

Navigator Octivia (and mooks) is up in the rules bit.

She's primarily angling to prove Carren's innocent, or guilty but her and hers are innocent, for almost entirely self-serving reasons.

Edit: I'm also quite happy for the intent and motive to drift, if that proves meta-narratively convenient.

Well...

Unfortunately, in major respects, Abyss was a serious failure. For something that was supposed to be a proof of concept for the idea of a future series of narrative Inquisitor events in London, it has not achieved that in the slightest. Of a meagre five tickets sold in the first place, only two of those players showed up. So far, I only know why one of those players was missing (what, at the time, seemed to be a genuine emergency - I'll leave it to them to share if they wish), but this still seems to show that the interest in London events simply doesn't exist. I'd hoped that the small ticket fee would (aside from funding the event) have helped reduce the commitment problems that have affected previous events, but it didn't seem to be the case.

Worse, only one of those players was actually on time. By the time our latecomer had rolled in at a quarter past twelve, I was just hoping that there was anything that could be rescued to not make it a completely wasted day.

Looking back on it now, twelve hours later? I can't currently think of any honest excuse to put Abyss below second place on the long list of Inquisitor events I've been to, and even that may be too low.

Although the turn out and the first hour of the day was a downer, once we actually got into the event, things went pretty swimmingly.

Of particular note was the way in which the players absolutely ran away with the mechanics for conducting the trial. Given I'd written and playtested the whole system in only an hour or two on Thursday, I had been worried that it might either be too complicated to quickly learn or too simplistic to provide interesting gameplay.

I'll have to provide fuller thoughts when I'm actually rested, coherent and have been able to mull things over, but even if my skills in actually promoting and marshalling events would seem to be a perpetual failure, I at least feel like my skills for creating the events themselves are improving.

I was one of the (and very unhappy about it too) no shows, due to a possible gas leak.
Which massively sucks.

I was looking forward to it, especially as the campaign mechanics for a day campaign are really well sorted (having tried out previous examples at events like LGT).
If it hadn't been for the gas leak (which turned out to maybe not be a gas leak, so I'm still not sure what happened there), I'd have been there bright eyed and such, and raring to go.

It's a massive pity that the event doesn't seem to have gotten as many attendees as initial interest showed here, on FB, and on the ammobunker.
It's quite painful to see, and the more I consider it, the more I feel that it's a bit of a gutpunch, so I can't imagine how it feels for the person organising.
For what it's worth, Marco, I think you've proven a stellar job at sorting these events out, and providing good and interesting mechanics for campaign days.

After a long investigation and a gruelling trial (which inexplicably involved the prosecuting Inquisitor repeatedly calling harlots to the stand and quoting the traitor Magnus the Red, to the constant objections of the defence), Inquisitor Carren was found to be not guilty of the charges placed against him.

Not that this fact would particularly comfort him, as the veteran Inquisitor was assassinated within the court room as the trial came to its climax.

It does however set a disturbing precedent for the state of affairs in the Abraxis sector. With Inquisitor Carren absolved of crimes of sorcery, and the warp storm "Lord Hallen's Grave" approaching the sector, Abraxis is liable to attract Radical Inquisitors keen to study and practice the ways of the warp - an outcome that reactionary Puritans are already calling the death of the sector.

As always, only time will tell.

~~~~~

Have some photos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DiBgGwVqi4Rsrri78

Quote from: mcjomar on November 04, 2018, 04:42:54 PMIt's a massive pity that the event doesn't seem to have gotten as many attendees as initial interest showed here, on FB, and on the ammobunker.
It's quite painful to see, and the more I consider it, the more I feel that it's a bit of a gutpunch, so I can't imagine how it feels for the person organising.

I'm not completely sure how I feel.

As far as Abyss itself - although I certainly didn't feel this way when I only had one player by twelve o'clock, in the end I enjoyed myself so much that it's hard to actually attach any sense of disappointment to the event.

I guess mostly I have concerns about what it means for the future, because this has hardly been the launching off point I wanted.

Quote from: mcjomar on November 04, 2018, 04:42:54 PMFor what it's worth, Marco, I think you've proven a stellar job at sorting these events out, and providing good and interesting mechanics for campaign days.

I feel I'm generally improving my skills as far as the events themselves.
In my opinion, the only potentially better event I've run was "New Dawn", which cheated monumentally by being an IRE event.

Not to say that other events were necessarily bad events, but the thing is, there will have been moments where I felt that one player or other wasn't enjoying it as much as I would like.
And that's not problems like we had for Legacy at the LGT, such as the price, or the huge queue for checking bags - I'm talking specifically about elements that I personally had control over.

By the criteria of whether I felt like I had screwed up anything in the underlying event, Abyss was the absolute best I've ever run, because there was nothing I felt I could personally have done better.

~~~~~

On another note - the new Dark Sphere store seems to have massive potential as a venue.

- Cheap (tables are a few quid each)
- Fantastic transport links (National Rail and tube stations just over the road)
- Long opening hours (no being shoved out of the door at 6 o'clock)
- Well lit (my photos have come out significantly better than normal!)
- A huge choice of food options (it's in a major shopping centre)
- No "GW models only" rule (although, to be fair, that's never much hindered us)
- And although it perhaps wasn't busy enough on the day to judge it in future, it's a lot less noisy than WHW (and certainly less noisy than the other Dark Sphere with the trains going overhead).

Although I will admit a certain personal bias (I can get there with models and two tables worth of terrain in an hour and a half from my front door), it does seem like an absolutely sterling location for events.

As the late show-up, I had a fantastic time for the duration I was there.

As Marco says, as a stategic venture to expand the scene, this one didn't quite work, but I think Euan had a good time once we got going and I felt like it all went pretty great. It definitely was amontg the best events I've made it to thanks to Marco's prep work.

The prosecution of the court case was a great little diversion from the table events of the climax - complete with not just surprisingly persistent young women of questionable repute but also a boomerang book of forbidden texts that just kept popping up too.

I've got a quick sketch of the events put together that I'll fill out and post in the next couple of days.

New Dark Sphere was great for space, lighting, comfort, noise, food, product range, and not being two hundred miles from my flat.
It's a far better playing space than old Dark Sphere, and while it lacks some of the charm of Warhammer World it's also a lot easier to talk over the table.

Sorry to read that it didn't run as planned.  It is an age old question of how to get attendees there on the day - I would've thought spending money on a ticket would have guaranteed attendance (emergencies aside), but it just goes to show.  I am glad that the venue was a good one though.  Despite being further away, London is a lot easier to get to for an Invernesian than Nottingham.  If I do manage a hobby weekend next year, then I'd be okay with Dark Sphere.

Ruaridh

I had thought that ticketing would improve commitment, but I suppose that when there are modellers out there who'll spend £35 on a five model box to only use a few parts out of it, the idea that someone might write off a £5 ticket if they don't really want to get out of bed on a Saturday morning isn't that surprising.

I suppose people might have been less likely to bail on a £10 ticket, but I only really wanted the price to cover the cost of the event itself (table hire, some printing, ticket store fees) - as tempting as it might be to try to recoup The Conclave's hosting fees (which I'm now paying for), that precedent feels like it could be awkward if I end up charging for more than just event costs, but other community members are running stuff for free.
(I honestly don't know how people would feel about that).

Quote from: Van Helser on November 06, 2018, 07:51:20 PMDespite being further away, London is a lot easier to get to for an Invernesian than Nottingham.

It makes sense. Nottingham is reasonably well connected, but not on the same scale as London.
(As I recall, you'd said that on at least some occasions you fly down to London and then get trains back up to Nottingham).

Depending on how things eventually turn out at WHW with the whole concept of removing bookings (where last I'd heard, there were a lot of contradictory reports about whether they were removing some bookings or all), it may even have to be that we'll have to start searching for new venues anyway.