Proposed events:
Spring 2019 (No official title yet)
Date: March-April(-ish)
Scale: 54mm (presumably?)
Head GM: Cortez
Venue: Element Games, Stockport
Details: An event looking at the increasing rise of one of the most notorious antagonists in the Carthax Sector, the fallen Inquisitor Isabella von Ravensburg.
Fracture
Date: Depends on date of Spring 2019, in order to avoid events too close together. Likely either February or May.
Scale: Probably 28mm.
Head GM: MarcoSkoll
Venue: Dark Sphere West, London
Details: With the onset of a warp storm, astropathic messages are drifting back in time, revealing prophecies of futures yet to come.
Players will as the day progresses receive clues as to how the sector's future is being affected by their actions in the present.
London Grand Tournament 2019
Date: 14th-15th September
Scale: Likely 54mm. Possibly 28mm.
Head GM: TBA
Venue: Lee Valley Athletics Centre, London
Details: TBA
Original post:
As we haven't got anything scheduled for the rest of 2018, it's looking like it's time to start thinking forwards to 2019, such that we could theoretically have meets before about April.
The two big questions that come to mind first are:
1) The change to Warhammer World's table allocation policy
In future, WHW will be handling tables on a first-come-first-served basis rather than having bookings.
I've heard some mixed messages about whether they might still be prepared to reserve tables for people who are coming a particularly long way, so I've contacted them (now that a few weeks on, their departments will hopefully all be on the same page) for details, but haven't yet received an answer.
(It could be argued that we'd actually be better off a lot of the time, as we're often there right at opening time and could grab the best tables as we chose, but the risk that GW suddenly decide to put on a large tournament and basically close the venue to others is too great).
If they're not prepared to take bookings at all, then we're almost certainly going to need to hunt new venues.
The new Dark Sphere Megastore looks very good from that perspective - it's not as well positioned for many as WHW, and it doesn't have the same ambience (or the FW store), but in all other respects it competes very well.
2) The London Grand Tournament
We've not yet been asked about this again (we may just have been too small in numbers to be logistically worth inviting back, although I did what I could to make myself invaluable during pack-down), but it's not impossible that we will be.
I know people had a number of issues with the LGT when we went this year, primarily focusing on the pricing, but what would the interest be like if we were to be asked again?
~~~~~
... after that - well, if anyone has any ideas for events that I'm not running, then I probably wouldn't argue too much...
Well I'm going to be at Salute anyway, as are a few others - while I'm not interested in spending valuable buying time running a game it'd be great to grab some drinks with people afterwards? that'd technically be a conclave event!
Well, I had hoped to arrange a display game for Salute (I can't think of many better ways to reignite interest), but we simply didn't get enough responses before the deadline to be able to go with that.
I may potentially be at Salute otherwise, but I don't know.
I'll be Salute-ing, and up for a drinks/food post-event.
I've finally had an answer from Warhammer World, and it's basically "We don't care".
They're scaling up their own events to the point that there will basically be no open gaming space on weekends (and with no implication of "open weekends" either), which means they're simply no longer viable as a central hub for any of their niche and older games.
This means we need new venues.
We've already got Dark Sphere West as an option, but I know this is impractically far south for some.
The best option I can currently see as far as a venue further north (but yet still reasonably accessible for southern softies) is Element Games. Does anyone have any experience with them as a venue?
Bad Moon Cafe is opening on December 15th in London - seen some ads for it on skype but not many details yet
It does look fairly cool, but I'd have to hear a pretty good argument for having London events there over Dark Sphere West, which has the advantage of a better connected station (that, at least when half the lines aren't shut, you can get to without having to go through central London).
We've also had a suggestion of Asgard Games in Middlesborough. I think that one is too far for me to personally want to pick (and potentially far enough to rule me out entirely), but it might be a suggestion for other GMs to consider.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on November 12, 2018, 05:21:53 PM
This means we need new venues.
We've already got Dark Sphere West as an option, but I know this is impractically far south for some.
It's more impractically north and east in my case, plus there's always a big puddle of water just past Washington DC... :D
As the LGT have started making preliminary announcements, I've deliberately contacted them to know whether they're expecting to have us back.
(Given that our events have an overhead of writing at least the basic premise before we can get the event pack out, I wanted to avoid a rushed panic if we only found out at short notice).
The answer is that they will have us back should we wish to return.
I'm not allowed to reveal any dates yet, but I think I'll be okay phrasing it as "not so early in the year that it should be our first event of 2019".
The question of course remains of whether we
do wish to return. I know people had issues with the event, although I'd hope that most of those were to some degree soluble. (I can't make them move the event further north, but they do seem to be trying to find a more suitable venue, and we can look at negotiating on things like ticket pricing).
Personally, I think it's nice for Inquisitor to have at least
some presence at larger events (and as we haven't yet been able to go through with the idea of a display at Salute...), but I can understand if others feel differently.
Quote from: SwordlordRoy on November 14, 2018, 04:09:20 AMIt's more impractically north and east in my case, plus there's always a big puddle of water just past Washington DC... :D
Alas, there's not much we Brits can do to arrange events in the US, but I can lend what little promotional power we have via mailing lists and Facebook pages to anything going on State-side should anyone wish to organise something.
I'd be interested, but the sooner LGT launch with a concrete date, the better I can have a chance of confirming or denying.
Either way, I would *want* to be there. The more we can get this part of the hobby back into the public eye, the better overall.
If we can prove an increase in interest in this sort of gaming experience, maybe we'll see movement from GW someday. (If wishes were horses...)
I'm up for it.
As pants as some logistical parts of it were last year, I enjoyed the games and seeing the folks again.
I'd like to stick around and try and catch some talks etc. after our games as well, schedule willing, as I fled to the nearest food dispensary last time.
It's a shame that Games Workshop seems to be reverting to arsehole mode again. So much for the plan of buying some forgeworld necromunda stuff at the next event.
Personally the Lgt was too expensive on top of the cost of getting to London. It also was a bit too awkward to do it as a day trip meaning I had to dash off at the end. Probably wouldn't attend again.
Element games is probably the best bet for me. I could try and arrange something there. I can certainly bring scenery to any event there although I'm not sure how easy it will be to get to from the mainline train stations.
As for type of events I'd quite like to do another of those Space Marine days like we did a couple of years ago.
Quote from: Cortez on November 16, 2018, 08:42:14 PMIt's a shame that Games Workshop seems to be reverting to arsehole mode again. So much for the plan of buying some forgeworld necromunda stuff at the next event.
It's certainly done a lot to again put me off spending money on GW.
I've been sitting on a reply e-mail for a few days that I'm not entirely sure if I want to send:
QuoteHello Chris,
We've gone away and discussed this, and unfortunately, this is not merely "in the short term we understand the offer is different to how you have known it". If your venue no longer plans to offer bookable open gaming space on the weekend, then this will make you inaccessible to us both long and short term.
The suggestion of available space on weekdays is irrelevant to us. We already go through considerable logistical challenges getting our group together from all over the country on days most of us already have off; It's just not feasible to move to other days of the week.
Regrettably, this is going to force us (as well as many other thinly spread groups) to find entirely new venues to meet up, and as a general PR move has already soured some of us to financially supporting your company. (And even for those not quite so dissuaded, your venue rules had been a significant reason to stick solely to using Games Workshop miniatures/parts in our collections, in order to keep all of our models usable for all of our meets).
While I thank your venue for the previous experiences we've had, unfortunately we are going to have to part ways.
David
I sort of know that the complaint won't mean much, but I kind of just want to complain anyway.
QuotePersonally the Lgt was too expensive on top of the cost of getting to London. It also was a bit too awkward to do it as a day trip meaning I had to dash off at the end. Probably wouldn't attend again.
I'm hoping that we may be able to negotiate at least some reduction to the ticket cost. If nothing else, we generally need fewer tables (and thus all "per table" costs) than other games.
QuoteElement games is probably the best bet for me. I could try and arrange something there. I can certainly bring scenery to any event there although I'm not sure how easy it will be to get to from the mainline train stations.
If you're offering, then I'd certainly appreciate an event I wasn't personally running!
Well I've got an idea in my head for a follow on campaign from the events of the LGT, namely Isabella handling such vast amounts of warp energy and the consequences of that event.
I was going to try and organise a day at Warhammer World for it but we can try Element Games if people think they'll be make it there.
It appears there's a train station at Davenport about 8mins walk from Element Games.
I could try and organise an event for March or April. Or is that too early?
March would be better I think for me.
Any chance we could haul a sunday, rather than a saturday? Sundays are becoming the easier option for me.
I'm prepping more marines - not sure whether I'd go with any that I've already built, or one of the new ones.
Sundays are a non starter for me I'm afraid.
Anyone have any auggests for a model to use for a female Darmon Prince? Not a great fan of the Andrea miniatures one and the Games Workshop Daemon Prince is a bit masculine for what I want. How does the altetnative nekima for malifaux compare scale wise?
Quote from: Cortez on November 17, 2018, 07:20:55 PMWell I've got an idea in my head for a follow on campaign from the events of the LGT, namely Isabella handling such vast amounts of warp energy and the consequences of that event.
Certainly an interesting possibility.
I may well be approaching the main follow up to Legacy at some point (with the consequences of the Carthax sector deciding to go to war), but there's a lot of hooks off that entire event.
QuoteI was going to try and organise a day at Warhammer World for it but we can try Element Games if people think they'll be make it there.
Despite Element Games being nearly 50 miles further from me, I can actually make it to Davenport station four minutes quicker than Nottingham station, and only about £8 more expensively if I pre-book the right tickets.
Rather than taking slow trains and having to detour one way or another, I can get on the express between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly.
It's part of the reason I looked at it as a venue - as a transport hub, Manchester is way more connected than Nottingham.
(Other reasons are things like a few lapsed members in the vicinity that we might possibly tempt - Necris, for example, still seems to be provisionally interested in Inquisitor, but mostly says that venues like London are too far for him).
QuoteI could try and organise an event for March or April. Or is that too early?
Definitely not too early in my book. We got off to a slow start this year (2018) by not having anything before the LGT in May, so if it were later than March/April, I'd actually consider looking at whether something should be run before it.
Quote from: mcjomar on November 17, 2018, 08:06:18 PMAny chance we could haul a sunday, rather than a saturday? Sundays are becoming the easier option for me.
Sundays are really impractical from the perspective of train journeys. As all the trains start later, I could only make it to Davenport before eleven o'clock if I travelled up on the Saturday and stayed overnight.
~~~~~
Quote from: Cortez on November 17, 2018, 08:46:26 PMHow does the altetnative nekima for malifaux compare scale wise?
Judging from this, and my recollection that standard humans in Malifaux use 30mm bases, I think that if you account for her lean, she's about 50mm to the scalp:
http://i.imgur.com/bMh3u44.jpg
As such, probably a little small, although possibly she could have her legs lengthened and be placed on a dramatic base to stop her being too scrawny.
A quick Google search turns up a few 75mm models and the like, but I can't immediately find suitable models in the 54mm region.
I'd be up for a Q1 event, but attendance for any event is based far more on how long it takes to get there than it is on when in the year it happens.
Element sounds doable, and I've heard a lot good about it from the Malifaux and Guild Ball scenes, so I wouldn't mind an excuse to visit.
I could do Sundays in London, the centre of the universe, but travel further afield on Sunday service is at best quite inconvenient.
Cortez - as Marco said, Nekima's a little too short for a 54mm daemon princess - she'd pass as roughly normal human height, but hardly imposing.
Looks like I might have to use Andrea's Nalach Evil Shadow model then. Not a fan of the head design or the bare boobs though.
So how many people would be able to make it to a campaign day at Element Games and what weekends are people free from let's say the end of February to early April? I'll speak to Element Fames this week and see what we have to do to book tables find out availability etc.
Pencil me in as a hard maybe.
It's wife dependent.
But I'd definitely want to be there, and would obviously be bringing Inquisitor Morannon and her entourage to such an event to maintain continuity.
The London Grand Tournament has now officially revealed its venue and dates via Facebook, so I can share those with you:
Lee Valley Athletics Centre, Friday 13th to Sunday 15th of September 2019.
As the date has moved a lot later in the year, my expectation is that this will be an "autumn event", with plenty of time for other meets before then.
The venue seems to address a lot of the concerns previously addressed:
- Plenty of free parking
- A considerably more open space (rather than just about every space being a corner that people have to be jammed into)
- Less restrictive catering
- Security on a roaming basis rather than everything having to be checked as it goes through the doors.
I don't yet know about other arrangements, but this seems like a positive improvement over previous issues.
As previously, friday is out, saturday is negotiable, sunday is best.
Location in north london isn't wild for trains as near as I can tell, and I know for my part driving wise I'd have to circle the M25 a bit, probably.
Assuming trains are okay though (there are two vaguely plausible stations within possible walking distance of the venue based on maps), and we get a reasonable start time (10am is usually good), then it might be a doable thing?
Trains I suspect will partially depend on how many people choose to drive.
There are, as you say, two stations sort of nearby, but Ponders End is a reasonably small station with only half-hourly service, and Edmonton Green is a bit more of a trek unless you can get the bus.
Lots of people trying to all arrive by public transport simultaneously could result in pretty packed trains/buses, but assuming that not everyone is trying to get to the exact same station last minute, I think things will probably be okay-ish.
A short hike isn't too bad given either A) other people to follow or talk to and/or b) plenty of time to make the walk for the event.
Well that sounds better than the Olympic Stadium. It would probably mean driving and staying overnight on both the friday and saturday nights though as doing a day trip sounds questionable to that location. Which means permission from the wife might be hard to obtain. It's also a bit close to our anniversary which might not be popular either. We'll have to see a lot will depend on the price.
In order to keep the discussion going, I'm pulling this out of my ideas folder:
~~~~~
Fracture
"Do not make the mistake of understanding the warp. Time and distance flow like water there. Seconds turn into years, years turn into hours, hours turn into centimetres, and centimetres turn into dust. It's a realm of no fixed rules, and as many or as few dimensions as it likes." -
Inquisitor Lord Davian FinachIt is not particularly unusual for an occasional astropathic message to come through dated slightly ahead. Even without the vagaries of the warp, the Imperium's million worlds seldom agree on a precise date, with delays in communication and the conversions to and from local date formats constantly introducing errors.
Most of the time, these anomalies are of little concern to anyone other than a few adepts who shuffle around muttering under their breath about how to fit it into their filing system.
It is a more serious matter when messages begin appearing many weeks, months or even years ahead.
The approach of the warp storm "Lord Hallen's Grave" has lead to such messages arriving with disturbing frequency within the Abraxis Sector. Many of them are minor messages of little import - dull tithe reports of average harvests or nobles frivolously exchanging love poems of questionable literary value; Others speak of far more serious matters...~~~~~
This would probably be a 28mm scale event, focusing on temporal disruptions in the Abraxis sector - a situation largely caused by the Inquisition's failure to deflect a warp storm in the earlier "Guardian" event. (Although if interest is insufficient, I can certainly respin it as a 54mm Carthax event).
Throughout the day, players would be receiving cryptic messages that have drifted the wrong way in time, updating the sector's future in response to their actions in the present.
At the moment, I'm thinking that I'd probably run Fracture at the Dark Sphere Megastore; this is considerably more practical for me than Element Games, and Cortez is probably better placed to run any inaugural event up there.
Hopefully turnout can be improved (I certainly had people saying "tell me next time you're running something" when I posted the reports from Abyss), but if not, I think I've sort of proved that I can make things work with even poor turnouts.
(You may note that I've slightly changed the quote in the event brief - the original was a little too ridiculous to use as the tagline for an event).
I will certainly be there in spirit.
I can see about coming to this. I should be able to put together a 28mm team from various models I have.
It will depend on when it is though.
Warp temporal fluctuations sounds right up Navigator Octivia's alley, especially now her new standing as star Inquisitorial defender has upped her clout aboard her employer's ship.
Since the boss is a little more on board with her extra-curriculars now, she'll probably be bringing a couple of ship security officers alongside reliable old 008 - 064 is unfortunately still outside Carren's courtroom, digging his way to China through the back of Snipes' skull.
Quote from: Cortez on November 25, 2018, 08:49:55 AMIt will depend on when it is though.
That largely depends on when you choose to put your Isabella event.
I think events should have at least a couple of months lead time and, at least at their current frequency, shouldn't be too close together.
If your event will be around March, then I'd probably pick May. (I think January is probably too short on lead time, although it's not entirely unthinkable). If it will be in around April, then I'd probably go for February.
If I were making the decision completely independently, I'd probably choose February. Close enough to hold people's interest, far enough away to give them time to prepare.
I'm curious about both events, but dates and times will decide my ability to attend.
To cross post this from the Dark Magenta resurrection thread...
Although it'd be great to get Inquisitor battle reports from any source, I'm looking into arranging games specifically for the purpose of writing up for Dark Magenta. These will obviously differ from standard Conclave events, being more exclusive, somewhat slower paced (in order to have time to take notes/photos) and without the same overarching narrative structure.
At the moment, I'm planning this for the London area (although I may look at other locations in future). If you'd be interested as either a player or a gamesmaster (of either scale), let me know, and once I've found enough willing victims, I'll try to work out some good match-ups and sort out dates for us to meet.
As I say, these won't be conventional events, but I'm mentioning it here as they will obviously need to be fitted in around other events (there should be plenty of room for that in the schedule, but we still need to bear it in mind).
We're being approached by the LGT team again to ask about arrangements.
Although we had some issues last year, they seem to be putting in a lot of work to tighten things up; there are some things that won't much affect us directly (such as their terrain issue, but they're certainly shaping things up), but assuming things live up to what has currently been publicised, we're not going to be crammed into a small corner (also good for getting our weird oversized toys spotted), catering arrangements should be less restrictive, no obnoxious security, and there isn't a mandatory long walk to get to the venue. (If you go via Edmonton Green station, the W8 bus heads right to the centre).
We still need to look into the issue of pricing - I can't yet guarantee anything, but I'm hoping I can argue that because we're normally 3 or 4 to a table that we're using less space and fewer tables/mats/etc than other games, so while there will be per-person costs like catering/security/insurance, we do require less total expense per attendee.
It depends a bit how that discussion goes, but in general I think The Conclave should probably be involved with the LGT again. Whether that holds true for a third year will depend, but I'm seeing enough improvement from last year that I think it's fair to give the event a second chance.
~~~~~
There's two main questions here then:
1) Have we got enough interest to return?
2) Who will be running it? I'm prepared to take on the task, but it doesn't necessarily have to be me, or even the same person on both days.
(I will also be sending round newsletter e-mails, but at a more sensible time of day!)
I'm in.
I'd be happy to write a scenario for it, if the two day split is the plan - I'm not up to running the whole event though.
I'm assuming the two day split for the moment.
Although a two-day campaign could be a fantastic opportunity to allow intricate stories running over 5 or 6 rounds, I don't think we'd get enough people who could do it. We'd need to see a much stronger community to make that viable.
Another alternative is that maybe we keep it to just one day if not enough people are interested enough in the Sunday.
Two things to cover:
~~~~~
First up, I've been in discussion with the LGT organisers about pricing.
They're somewhat wary about having events trying to undercut each other, but I've managed to convince them that Inquisitor is sufficiently niche that this is unlikely to be a major concern, and that the Inquisitor community isn't really used to full tournament pricing and, that with several of us to a table, people felt that at least some of the costs could have been split more ways.
With that in mind, I've argued the price down from the £40 of most LGT events to a £30 ticket. I know this remains a little pricier than the £10 we used to ask for the one-day IGT, but I'm hoping it still puts the price into a more reasonable ballpark for people.
As it is, I think this means an improvement on almost every concern that we had with the LGT last year - less cramped, more flexible catering, less obnoxious security, a more accessible venue (with plenty of on-site parking, and buses right to the doorstep from one of the local stations), and a lower ticket price.
~~~~~
Secondly - Cortez, are you ready to set a date for your Isabella event yet, or are you alright for me to set the date for Fracture first and then work around that?
For me to have any chance of putting Fracture around February, I need to be starting to make moves on that.
I assume that's £30 including the ~£20 entry that was separate last year?
That's ok by me, as long as the LGT's organisational skills have improved significantly.
That is for the entire event, as they've removed the separate "convention access passes" from last year (although my recollection is that they were £10, not £20), bringing the total price for the weekend down from a £40 ticket and £10 pass last year to "just" a £30 ticket (and, as far as I can tell, without the requirement to purchase the venue's food and drink either).
On top of that, I'm looking at the possibility of also being able to add some arrangements on the Friday afternoon/evening for anyone who will be staying the night before - I know this won't be everyone, so I'm possibly thinking some long format games or the like that we can't normally fit into our standard events (perhaps giving players the opportunity to organise amongst themselves).
So, potentially that's three days of gaming for only slightly more than half the price of two last year.
I'm strongly considering it.
I'll need to try to get it into the calendar before my wife gets there.
If we have any more feedback regarding whether we join the 2019 London Grand Tournament, the organisers are pressing me for plans, but I'd like to hear back from more of you if possible.
Autumn time isn't going to be suitable for me unfortunately so I'll have to pass on the LGT. I am glad that they have taken feedback on board and changed the venue to somewhere more suitable to place gaming tables and with better security arrangements though.
Ruaridh
Gah...
Turnout was kind of marginal last time, and anyone that can't make it starts making things increasingly impracticable. I have had some interest expressed via Facebook, but I've not really got much to work with.
I would be free across that weekend.
I hope to be available, I am heavily involved with tribemeet/yakday https://yaktribe.games/community/threads/tribemeet2019uk-nce.7914/ around that time but it is usually the weekend before this. Once tribemeet 2019 (March 15th-17th is out of the way we will look at when the September event will take place. I have some say in it but who knows?
With enough notice I can perhaps get a whole new retinue done towards a specific theme if needed? I see tom (lordborak) is interested as well and possibly jamie (horuswaspretty) I can sound them out a bit more
I've not heard anything from Lord Borak or horuswaspretty about the London GT myself, but if you think you can get them involved, that could be a big decider. With some of the people who did it last year either uncertain or unavailable (such as Van Helser due to be occupied with looking after snotling #2), we need to try to fill in those already quite thin numbers again.
Specific themes are generally not required, but to be fair, I haven't yet decided which of the various weird things in my ideas folder to use for the LGT...