The Conclave

We are now scheduled for this, although the original post below remains relevant, as that means we now have a heap of decisions to make and planning to do!

~~~~~

Original post:

I've been contacted (via The Conclave's Facebook page) by the organiser of the London Grand Tournament (https://www.lgtpresents.co.uk/),  who asked if the community would be interested in running Inquisitor as one of the GT's side events.

Now, the London GT is a pretty big deal - one of the biggest UK gaming events, with hundreds of players split across several sub-events (the main 40k singles event is apparently the biggest in Europe, and this year sold out in 11 days), and even some healthy support from GW themselves (this year it was live-streamed by the Warhammer TV team).
They're offering us a lot of support in whatever we want to put on, and there's a lot of flexibility in the format we choose - an event can be competitive or narrative; half-day, one-day or two-day; we'd have the freedom to go 28mm, 54mm or both; etc. (Ticket pricing would be discussed with the main event organisers).

The only real fixed details are the date (19th and/or 20th May 2018) and the venue (Westminster Academy Sport, Torquay St, London, W2 5EW - close to Paddington station, or Royal Oak tube). Pricing would be discussed with the main event organisers.

As such, I think this is an offer we should take fairly seriously. It's a very high profile event to be invited to, which could be a boost for the Inquisitor event scene.

I'm prepared to offer to run it myself (I live relatively close to London, so it's easy for me to get there), but I'm also content to split the job with people or to hand things over to others if people would prefer. (I know some people can find me a bit brash, and I'd really rather not let that ruin such an excellent opportunity).

At this stage, what we need to know is who's interested and what they'd like out of such an event. (The sooner the better!)

Okay, first off WOW :o

Second off, I consider myself extremely inexperienced as a GM, so at best I could come along to show solidarity/bring models/character sheets/etc, but I'd obviously want to be there.
Given the advance notice I'm extremely hopeful that I can get that weekend booked for this (I can think of no birthdays in that month on those dates, the nearest one would be the following weekend).

Are we going to consider this as our IGT event in conjunction, or a showcase/story event weekend?
If the former, I do have a scenario that I could run - but I would be winging it, even with that much preparation time.
And I need to work up the enthusiasm to paint the other 6/10 tokens for it. And do some base modifications.

i've got a slew of scenarios; will check with the missus as i can run demos easily enough

I'm happy to come. I need an excuse to get away to be honest. I haven't had a chance to do any hobby for some time  :-\ A day away should offer some naughty distraction!!!  ;D


You know I have NPCs aplenty and scenery too if required.

Quote from: mcjomar on October 18, 2017, 10:55:51 PMAre we going to consider this as our IGT event in conjunction, or a showcase/story event weekend?

Well, that's one of the things we'd need to discuss.

My first thought would be to have Saturday and Sunday as separate but related stories; That way there'd be something of a continuous story for people who could do a full weekend, but people who could only make it to one day or the other wouldn't feel completely left out.
An IGT format event wouldn't be so suited to being split like that, so we'd probably have to limit it to one day. (The other thing is that I tend to find that people unfamiliar with the IGT format often tend to get the wrong end of the stick about it being overly competitive).

Yeah good point.
I guess a story event would be more appropriate then.
Which begs the question, is the Carthax sector going to be brought up to date with the new timeline (200 years after 999 m.41 apparently, or so I keep reading)?
Or will it be set elsewhere/when?

We should definitely take them up on this.

I think a campaign/story event would be best for this, rather than a random IGT style event. It could be two completely different events (one for each day) or you could have a link between the two days, which I think would be better (even though I'll probably only be able to attend on the Saturday and maybe sunday afternoon). However each day should still have it's own conclusion (so that people who can only attend one day get a proper ending).

I also think we should try and do an extra special job for this one, putting a lot of effort into designing the setting, maybe even creating some scenery for the event. That might be asking too much though.

Quote from: mcjomar on October 19, 2017, 08:47:17 AMWhich begs the question, is the Carthax sector going to be brought up to date with the new timeline (200 years after 999 m.41 apparently, or so I keep reading)?

I'm assuming that we're keeping Carthax standard time (I certainly have no plans to age all my characters by a century or two), so the date is still 017.M42...

... or so it appears. The dating system in the Imperium has always been very inconsistent, and the new fluff has played heavily on that.

Guilliman has been trying to catch up on ten thousand years of history (and has formed the Logos Historica Verita to for the thankless task of trying to make a vaguely coherent and uncensored version for him to read), but has run afoul of the Imperium's utterly disastrous dating system.
(To the point that GW have introduced a conflict within the Ordos Chronos about what the actual date is).
Even just considering the main five dating systems, the current year is supposed to be anywhere between the early 41st millennium and somewhere in the 42nd (and that's discounting uncountable lesser interpretations).

Throw in the vagaries of warp travel and astropathic communication, and it could be that centuries have suddenly passed outside the Carthax sector. It's long been established that warp travel around the Carthax sector is somewhat more unusual than usual, with several "creases" in the Immaterium that mean there are some short-cuts a huge way across the galaxy.

Quote from: Cortez on October 19, 2017, 09:35:36 AMI also think we should try and do an extra special job for this one, putting a lot of effort into designing the setting, maybe even creating some scenery for the event. That might be asking too much though.

I don't want to jinx it, but a big event like this that's several months off would actually be a perfect kick in the arse to get Leander sorted.

We have seven months as of today, so we've certainly got the time to go a bit madder than usual; we're also being offered quite a lot of support from the GT team themselves, although our budget for sorting out special scenery and the like will obviously affect the necessary price for event tickets.

Wow.
Heck yes that would be a good idea.

It would be absolutely amazing to be the table(s) with an actual TITAN, rather than these piddly wee Knights, as far as grabbing spectators from passing traffic goes, and of course the grand finale scenarios get far more high-stakes with a titan plasma blast gun in the mix.

I can't commit right now to being particularly useful as far as creating terrain or NPCs and the like goes, but I'm pretty sure I'll be available for at least one of the days to play and talk to folks.

The LGT page itself seems pretty detail-light - is it mostly just a sports hall with a hundred games tables and hardcore gaming all day?

Is there sideshow stuff?
Vendors?
Tean and coffee acquiring facilities?

I'm happy to take these questions direct to the organisers as an interested ][ player, if it will increase the impression of how worthwile giving Inquisitor a few tables will be.

Quote from: TheNephew on October 19, 2017, 08:51:19 PMThe LGT page itself seems pretty detail-light

I think that's partly because it's expanding very fast as an event; despite its massive success, it's a fairly new event (I think it's only been in 2016 and 2017 so far), and it seems it's becoming quite a lot broader in scope each time; I don't think even the organisers know quite what will be happening next time.

I believe they're almost looking to become something of a gaming convention; aside from the things already listed on their site (including a narrative 40k event, so it's not all hardcore gaming), they're obviously talking to us, and I've heard they're also trying to line up Warmaster and Epic, with an expectation of about 700 total players for 2018.

However, if you'd like to ask about sideshows, vendors and food, they're good questions and I'd kind of like to know the answers as well.

QuoteIt would be absolutely amazing to be the table(s) with an actual TITAN, rather than these piddly wee Knights, as far as grabbing spectators from passing traffic goes

It's naturally the kind of thing Leander would be perfect for, but I won't make any promises just yet. (I have made some advances since I last updated her thread, but I know I've said I'd get her ready several times before).

Oh wow, this does sound big.  I had a message from a guy through the Carthaxian Inquisitor Facebook page at the start of the week asking if I was the chap that ran the WHW and Dark Sphere days (which I haven't), and bounced him in your direction Marco.  Hadn't a clue it was for anything like this!

It's a fantastic opportunity to show off Inquisitor to a large room full of circulating people, as well as an opportunity to have a campaign day.  I'd like to say I could make it, and would probably make it a two day trip to make the most of the opportunity.  I can take sleeper trains or fly to London from Inverness so travel there is a lot more direct than it ever is to Nottingham.  However, May time is when I expect I'll be very busy with MSc stuff, so it's a maybe from me for now.

Ruaridh

As I'm still one of the Facebook page admins, I've glanced over the conversation with the organiser over past few days and it's certainly a very interesting offer. (Best if you continue as single point of contact Dave! Avoids any confusion.)
I think even just a baseline of what the ticket pricing could range between would be very useful at this point.

If the event as a whole is tournament-heavy without any general foot traffic then having a demo table isn't really a good use of resources. However if they are angling more for the convention format then a demo table makes more sense.

As for whether we would run a campaign day or an IGT, I wouldn't mind either. Of course if we're there for 2 days we could run both on different days.

I would like to get to an event again it's been far too long, and like Ruaridh, travel to London is a lot simpler than travel to Nottingham when you're coming from Scotland.

Quote from: Heroka Vendile on October 21, 2017, 08:47:06 PMI think even just a baseline of what the ticket pricing could range between would be very useful at this point.

There's a £10 entry ticket to the overall LGT, and the suggested prices are that 1 day events are £20 and 2-day events £40.
(They also mentioned half day, but I can't see that being a good idea when people are dragging themselves hundreds of miles).

However, the final price is discussed with the organisers, and I'm guessing those prices expect that the running costs include a hefty prize pool (for which I can't think of a lot of good ideas).

QuoteIf the event as a whole is tournament-heavy without any general foot traffic then having a demo table isn't really a good use of resources. However if they are angling more for the convention format then a demo table makes more sense.

I'll have to ask about the format.

However, my thinking at the moment is that our numbers for the last few years are often very thin even without people sitting out to run demo tables - an assistant GM would probably be more useful.

If it's £50 to get in and play, I almost certainly can't do both days, which is unfortunate.

I'll shoot the exec an email to ask about their plans for what will be there - it'll show interest from the community, at the very least.

Unrelated note, and at the risk of initiating a squabble - seems like this might be the sort of event that would benefit from both 54mm and 28mm tables.

Quote from: TheNephew on October 21, 2017, 11:47:48 PMIf it's £50 to get in and play, I almost certainly can't do both days, which is unfortunate.

I've not had any kind of discussion with the organisers about this yet, but knowing how small the community is, I know we can't afford to see people put off by the ticket price.

Some budget could make the event really shiny (e.g. mission briefings handed out in wax sealed parchment envelopes, custom terrain, etc), but I can't imagine we need a massive prize pool, and I'd feel somewhat odd trying to run the event for profit.

QuoteUnrelated note, and at the risk of initiating a squabble - seems like this might be the sort of event that would benefit from both 54mm and 28mm tables.

If possible, I'd love to. Nice 54mm projects are great at catching attention, but nice 28mm conversions are much better at convincing people.

I've tried approaching both the Ammobunker and the largest INQ28 Facebook group, although so far I've only had two "sounds cool, but I won't be able to make it myself" answers. I may try hitting up specific people to see if they can help the idea get any traction.

Re. the May event in London - yes, absolutely! I'd be happy to help; just let me know what you need. I have 54mm miniatures, but could put together some 28mm in advance of the event too if need be.
I'm not an experienced GM, but would be happy to help with admin, set-up, terrain... I'd love to be involved in getting an Inquisitor game/tournament set up :)

Right...

I have today told them that we should have enough 54mm players; Eight people (not including myself) have expressed interest here, there's a few more regulars and semi-regulars I've yet to hear from, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to beg Gav Thorpe to share the event around to see if we can get a few more people out of the woodwork.

Numbers for 28mm are also perking up a bit, so it's even looking possible that we might be able to run a large dual-scale extravaganza.

i'm confused though; is it a traditional event (demos games day) or is it a narrative event (like a normal conclave) or a tournament (like the GT)?

The London GT is probably best described as an "event convention" - but despite the GT name, we're free to run whatever kind of event we want within that.

At the moment, the feedback has been most in favour of a normal narrative Conclave (although hopefully somewhat grander in scale) - this seems sensible to me, as these tend to be more familiar and less intimidating to newcomers than the GT format.

I know I'm a bit quieter on here but I'm still up for this. Still happy to bring down Scenery and NPCs. If we do get a scenario planned let me know if we need anything done for it (models, scenery etc) and I'll chip in to get something done for it.

Work is currently mental so it's eating all of my time up currently.

Sounds good.

I don't know what we'll need just yet though - I'm currently throwing around plot ideas, but exactly what will be the best plan will depend on whether we have the interest to sustain events on both Saturday and Sunday, or only Saturday.

~~~~~

So... for any possible attendees:

1) Is anyone objecting to the idea of a "normal" narrative Conclave, or does anyone really want to push for another format?
2) Who at this stage thinks they could plausibly do the Sunday?
3) Does anyone have any particular suggestions they would like to make or plans they would like to share?

I don't think there's a pressing need for another format.

Sunday is not an impossibility for me, but only if it's a fair bit cheaper than £50, and if I've managed to free up that weekend.
It depends on a whole host of factors that are still up in the air  though.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a scenario or two that would be easy for passers by to drop into - even if it's something as minimal as the patrolling NPC sentries.
That's likely to be a bit fiddly though, I know.
Easy alternative is that folks that get killed off, or don't feel like playing a scenario, or are having lunch, can do those things on a spare half-table.

I'm radically interested, although I'll need more pricing details before I can fully commit.
I'm glad it's in may and not june, or it would be havoc for me to attend.
Let alone July - that entire month, and august as well is just right out for me.
But given reasonable pricing (or time to save) I would want to be around for both days in either scale.

At the moment, I've not heard back conclusively from enough people to be confident we'll have good numbers for Sunday - between the extra costs of event tickets and overnight stays near London, it's sounding like a lot of people might be stretching their budgets a bit too far.

As a two day event would obviously increase the planning load somewhat, my current suggestion is that we stick to a Saturday-only event. Should we find ourselves with excess time to work on things, we can put that effort into making the one day an absolutely sterling event, and can then make another decision about a full weekend if we should be invited back next year.

~~~~~

As far as an event plot, and as it looks like I may be the one taking this on, I'm going to suggest my long-postponed "Legacy" narrative (a sequel to "The Saint" back in 2011, although it's absolutely not necessary to have attended that):

In M42.011, Corporal Aderyn Aeslin died twice. Or, at least, that's what the official reports say.

What is known is that following her heroic (first) death and subsequent resurrection during the Ilithyian War (ref: "Ilithyia" - common name for Cerestne XVII, Cuir sub-sector, Carthax sector, Segmentum Pacificus), Aderyn was hailed as a heroine, a living embodiment of the Emperor's will and a game-changer in the decades-long conflict - a figurehead capable of driving Chaos from the world and back to the fallen Alykia sector (ref: lost to forces of Warlord Imylosst in 914-937.M41 war).
Perhaps even with time, she would become the leader of a counter-crusade that would reclaim those rightful demesnes of the Emperor.

These hopes were seemingly dashed when, once the Inquisition had chosen their champion (ref: Inquisitor Josephine Cortez) to assess Corporal Aeslin's purity, the site for the High Assembly was fired upon by a hijacked orbital defence platform. Officially, the Corporal was once again killed in action; unofficially, her body was never found.

News of the Corporal's second death lead to mass civil unrest across almost the entirety of the Cuir sub-sector, at grand costs both mortal and financial. The hero of this aftermath was undoubtedly the sub-sector's new Cardinal, Tobas Kiedrow (ref: took position in 009.M42, following disappearance of Cardinal Malatesta), whose inspiring sermons and posthumous canonisation of Aderyn rallied much the population into a wave of religious fervour.

Some years on, this has come full circle. His reputation built on the foundation of the saint, his continued aspirations have led attention to fall on the Ilithyian War once again. The voice of the masses now calls for the Imperium to fully reclaim the world in Aderyn's name.

Buoyed by this wave of zeal, the Imperium once again has possibilities that the living saint offered: a hope of fully bolstering Ilithyia and driving the taint from the sub-sector. A decisive victory here could free up many of the Cuir sub-sector's resources, both military and civilian.
Detractors say that it won't end there - the citizen's fervour would only grow with the end of the generations-old conflict, and where would that lead? A crusade into the Alykia sector would stretch the Carthax sector to its limits, but without such a common cause, the religious frenzy could lead to the civil war that was so narrowly averted before.

And so it is that the Inquisition once again look to Ilithyia. Some of them trying to end a war. Some of them trying to prevent one.

Because this has been sitting around for a while, it's already a fairly well developed narrative with a lot of possible hooks to explore, which translates into a big head start on getting this event put together.

Added detail from the organisers:

"Hi [REDACTED],

Thanks for your email.

There's lots going on aside from the big GTs. There will be intro games on offer from some of the other specialist games (Epic, Warmaster etc.) as well as some fun side events. Details of the full programme will be published on Wednesday and I would encourage you to go through the updated website then to see the breadth of stuff on offer. We've also got seminars on offer from Golden Daemon / Slayer Sword winning painters if that sort of thing is your cup of tea.

Kind regards,
Zach Becker
Convention Organiser"

Looks like there're demo tables as the norm, and a whole bunch fo other stuff too.

Depending on what's on and when, I might try and wrangle the extra day so I have some time to circulate.
If that works out, I'll be up for doing a two-day event if it leaves several hours to explore.

Huh. Maybe a way to handle it then would be to have a big narrative event on Saturday and something a bit more open-ended on the Sunday.

As already suggested, that could be something following the IGT format - although perhaps not actually called an IGT, because I feel that the IGT proper should be kept at Nottingham, not to mention that the GT naming tends to be something you have to keep explaining: "No, it's not all about people turning up with Space Marines and killing each other".

If it were perhaps called an "open event" instead, the general casualness of the format might come across better.
(And people who are rusty might be little less intimidated about the idea of GMing a scenario on Sunday if they know they'll already have had the Saturday to remind themselves of the rules).

In the absence of any objections, I'm going to assume we're going with the "Legacy" narrative on Saturday and an "open event"* on the Sunday, as it means we can do both days without quite as much effort as two entire narrative events. (Also, I already have a lot of the paperwork ready for such events, so we should be able to get things out sooner).

* Read: "IGT", but I want to avoid calling that - firstly, to avoid any arguments or confusion about whether the GT is moving from Nottingham and, secondly, because I know a lot of people get the wrong end of the stick regarding calling anything an Inquisitor "tournament".

If anyone does have any objections, please interject sooner rather than later.

I like this format.  Having an open day on the Sunday allows for introducing the game to anybody that shows interest.  As I said earlier, if I can come down then I would be around on the Sunday, as getting back up to Inverness on the Saturday would be tight for time, and exhausting to boot.

As the Legacy event is a follow up to The Saint it makes sense that I dust off this mysterious chap (http://carthax.wikia.com/wiki/Alias_Strang) and let him pick up where he left off...

Ruaridh

Three bits of news:

1) We're now officially in the latest LondonGT newsletter: http://mailchi.mp/a9cdd06e83dd/london-grand-tournament-1118913

2) If you've ignored the above link - the address has been changed. Given its expanding size, the London GT will now be held at the Olympic Stadium (London E20 2ST), near Stratford.

3) The organisers have told me that their gaming times are as follows, and I now need to fit a schedule to them:

Friday: 13:00 - 22:00
Saturday: 10:00 - 22:00
Sunday: 09:30 - 16:30 (Awards from 17:00)

I'm assuming most people who will only be able to make the Saturday won't be able to push anything like as late as ten at night, but we do need to know how late we can reasonably push on for.
(e.g. If people are relying on trains, when would their last train on Saturday be - by roughly increasing distance, the local stations are Pudding Mill Lane, Hackney Wick, Stratford International and Stratford)

For those who can stay later, I'm sure we'll be able to arrange some more casual gaming, or people can wander the overall event as they wish.

(I'm not planning any gaming for the Friday, but it's likely I would appear to make arrangements, so it's not impossible some light gaming could happen then, too).

Quote from: Van Helser on October 31, 2017, 08:51:22 AMAs the Legacy event is a follow up to The Saint it makes sense that I dust off this mysterious chap (http://carthax.wikia.com/wiki/Alias_Strang) and let him pick up where he left off...

What, in a cloud of hallucinogenic vapour? :P

I will probably stay at my Brothers for the event, so could potentially do both the Friday evening and all day Saturday, I'll probably do other things on the Sunday.

What's the situation with us getting tickets? Will we have some reserved or do we need to buy them from their webstore?

Also what is the parking/vehicular access like as we may need/want to bring scenery/vehicles (titans ;)) etc. that won't be easy to bring on the tube or rail network.

I'm fine with going with your Legacy event. What kind of models will you need for it? (bearing in mind I'm working on some Ecclesiarchy characters at the moment). We also need to discuss what scenery and other assets we'll need.

I'm interested if there's a 28mm option.  (There's a possibility I'll be on a course with work then, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get away for that weekend so I can't commit yet, but there's good odds I'll be available.)

I'm quite inexperienced at Inquisitor, having only played one campaign and sort of GMed another (very basically, and we were all beginners), so I'm not sure how much I'd be able to offer in supporting GM-type stuff.  Assuming I can make it, I could potentially help with NPCs if required.

Being quite new to all this, what sort of characters/warbands would we need to partake?  (And would stats/kit/backstory be all agreed here prior to the event itself?)

(Also, I'll put a link to this on the Lead Adventure Forum, which may attract some interest.)

Someone posted in 40k that tickets were nearly sold out; we need to buy tickets for the venue then tickets for whatever we organise?

Damn, do I need to buy a ticket now?
Is there a specific ticket type I need to buy?

EDIT: Well I bought a CAP ticket for now (does that cover both saturday and sunday?), and I guess I'll worry about anything else once we have a decision here?

Ok, I've bought the Convention Access Pass.  Hope that's all we'll need for now.

On the matter of tickets, yes, you will need both a CAP and a ticket for our event.

However as far as them selling out - emphasis mine, but otherwise verbatim from when I asked the lead organiser:

-Marco: "When will players have to make a commitment by? I see you've said in a few places that last year's convention sold out in 11 days - if that's the overall entry tickets to get in at all, that may be a problem for us, as I know a lot of our players can't make a concrete commitment this far in advance."

- Zach: "Commitment wise, the absolutley drop dead date is end of April. Though in reality we ask people to sign up as soon as possible so that we can plan terrain and tables etc. well in advance. A typical rule of thumb is, the earlier in the process we get people signed up, the better the event will be.

Last year we did indeed sell out in 11 days, this was mainly 40k led and I anticipate that we will repeat or better this again, for 40k. Your tables won't be competing with them and i'll ensure your guys can get tickets.  Though I encourage you to impress upon them the benefits of committing early i.e. November"

~~~~~

(I'll respond to more in a moment, but I'm posting this part ASAP)

Quote from: Genghis on November 01, 2017, 11:24:12 AM
I'm interested if there's a 28mm option.  (There's a possibility I'll be on a course with work then, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get away for that weekend so I can't commit yet, but there's good odds I'll be available.)

I'm trying to arrange it, but my 28mm collection simply isn't large enough to sustain a large event, not while maintaining the standard I want to be presenting, so I'm desperately trying to appeal to other people to assist.

That's also heavily because I don't want my personal biases to skew the entire event - as much as I love my "dissect metals and use lots of greenstuff" style of INQ28, I know it doesn't inspire people in the same way as the kitbashy Blanchitsu style, and so I'd really like to see that presented by people who can really show it off to its fullest rather than me trying to imitate it.

QuoteI'm quite inexperienced at Inquisitor, having only played one campaign and sort of GMed another (very basically, and we were all beginners), so I'm not sure how much I'd be able to offer in supporting GM-type stuff.  Assuming I can make it, I could potentially help with NPCs if required.

That shouldn't be an issue. I'm expecting to write a lot of the scenarios as fairly GM-light, so that it can just be left to an experienced player to take charge of turn order and as many people can get stuck in as possible.

QuoteBeing quite new to all this, what sort of characters/warbands would we need to partake?  (And would stats/kit/backstory be all agreed here prior to the event itself?)

Your choice of characters and warbands will be very open.

The overall story is about whether a sub-sector will risk overextending in a religious crusade against Chaos or instead tearing itself apart in civil war.
Neither answer is clear-cut, and it's a story in which Puritans, Radicals, Rogue Traders, Techpriests, preachers, heretics, outright traitors, agents of the enemy, or even Xenos infiltrators might find themselves supporting either side.

There probably won't be a whole lot of room for Space Marine Dreadnoughts* or Ork Warbosses, but most sensible Inquisitor characters should be fine.

* Although if anyone did actually go to the trouble of modelling one for Inquisitor, it might be able to fit into the finale I've got in mind, particularly as that may have a Warhound Titan stomping around anyway.

As far as character sheets - I've yet to decide if I want to audit those in advance. I wouldn't normally, but we may be getting some players who aren't familiar with the idea of "Conclave Standard" statlines.

Thank you for the answers.  As I said, unfortunately I can't commit at this time, but if I am free, and there is 28mm, I will do my best to be there.  I should be able to confirm by the end of Jan (once I'm settled into a new job), which hopefully isn't too late.

Assuming I can make it, whatever the official policy is, I'll throw my character sheets up for vetting.  I've read some of the Conclave posts on the subject, but would seek confirmation I'm on the right track.  That said...

Quote from: MarcoSkoll on November 02, 2017, 02:44:42 AM
...finale I've got in mind, particularly as that may have a Warhound Titan stomping around anyway.

With that in mind, do I need to start trading in shotguns and laspistols for meltaguns and chainfists?   ;)

Quote from: Genghis on November 03, 2017, 03:17:06 PMWith that in mind, do I need to start trading in shotguns and laspistols for meltaguns and chainfists?   ;)

I'm going to say "no". :P

She's my crazy 54mm scale display project, so I simply wouldn't have the option for her to appear on the 28mm tables anyway*, and half the point of putting her on a table at all would be to be an unstoppable force. Characters are supposed to think around her rather than take her head-on (given the Inquisitor damage stats for Titan weapons would really just be rolling dice to see how large an area a character's bloody remains are now spread over).

*Another reason I'd really like to rope in some serious 28mm talent, so as to arrange some similarly cool toys.

I have gone ahead and bought a CAP.  This way I'm less likely to miss out if they go off general sale before I know my movements and commitments next year.

If I do bring Alias Strang, then I am going to revisit that paint job.  The colours are all far too flat.  And perhaps should be psychedelic after his hallucinogen experimentation.

Ruaridh

A 54mm Warhound!  I bet that'll be a sight to see.

Is anyone here active on the Oldhammer forum?  I'm not, but from what I understand of it, this might be the sort of thing some of them might be interested in, especially in the realms of "serious 28mm talent".

Embarrassingly delayed, I've sent off a draft briefing pack to the organisers, so we'll hopefully be able to get tickets for our event up for sale soon.

Speaking with the organisers, things should be ready to launch tomorrow.

The weekend will be ticketed as separate Saturday and Sunday events (although there's been no discussion yet about pricing), so people will be able to show up on just the days they can make it.

As discussed before, these days will be a narrative campaign and an "open event" (basically the IGT format, but hopefully with a name that needs less explaining that "no, it isn't just people turning up with Space Marines and killing each other", which I didn't think would be so great with other people doing a lot of the publicity).

Please bear in mind that places are not unlimited - at the moment, I've asked that the events are limited to 24 places on each day in order to keep the numbers manageable. While this would still be considerably larger than any Inquisitor event I've previously been to (the largest for me thus far was 16 players at the 2011 IGT),  it is possible that the places could disappear if sales are either very fast* or slow**, so early commitment is advised!

* I will be asking Gav Thorpe very kindly if he wouldn't mind sharing it around. Also, with six months advance warning and in a city with major international links, it's not unthinkable that this would be accessible to non-UK players (more so than our "no more than three months notice" Nottingham events, anyway).
** If we're struggling to sell tickets, I won't be able to keep arguing that we merit all that space. I've pointed out that we won't need a lot of tables to fit in 24 people, but even so...

After some hiccups, we've sorted out the preliminary details of the format for the 2018 LondonGT Inquisitor Narrative event(s), and tickets are now on sale (54mm only for the moment):

https://www.lgtpresents.co.uk/inquisitor

The overall weekend will be split into two separate events. Participants are welcome to attend for either or both days:
- On Saturday 19th May 2018, "Legacy", a narrative campaign set in the build-up to a religious crusade.
Will you support a crusade that the sub-sector is not truly prepared for, or will you stand against it, risking the religious frenzy boiling over into civil war?

- On Sunday 20th May 2018, an open event where the participants get to run scenarios of their own design, inflicting the horrors of the Dark Millennium upon each other in turn.
(This is broadly the IGT format with a friendlier name).

Early commitment is recommended, as space across the overall London GT is at a premium and we may have our allocation restricted if demand for the 40K and AOS events remains high.

(Please note that tickets are sold separately for each day, and you will also need a Convention Access Pass for the overall London GT).

Well I've bought a ticket for the Saturday. £20 is rather steep though.

They told me there would be discussion of ticket pricing, but that appears to have been abandoned as the convention has expanded to more and more events (with all the main events at exactly the same prices).

I would have liked to have knocked it down to £10-15 and I can try complaining if people want/need me to, but it's been a bit of a rush trying to fit this in around getting stuff ready for Saturday.

There is part of me that says it would mean a bit of budget to make sure all the tables look really pretty, get things like mission briefings and contact cards (which I'm strongly considering as a plot progression option) printed up properly or maybe even arrange a few cool extras (I'm planning to sculpt some NPCs for the event, and it's not at all out of the question that some of those could be cast up as event exclusive miniatures for participants)...

... but obviously, that's not preferable to people not turning up because of the cost.

£20 is a bit steep, but since it's the first time and all I can definitely do one day.

To be honest, it looks pretty expensive all round, from entry to event tickets, but perhaps I'm just inexperienced with non-trade show conventions.

Smashing event pack though, Marco.
An L][GT-exclusive mini would be amazing, but maybe that's stretching a bit.
Either way, once I work out which day I can do, I'll get a ticket.

I sent around a newsletter about the LGT earlier, but I now discover that my attempts to change the forum to use one of my email addresses (so that replies to forum e-mails were going into my inbox, rather than Gav's, as I'm generally most active) seemed to have directed forum mail into my spam box.

Can people check their spam boxes please and tell me if the same fate has befallen them? If it's happened to more than a few people, I'll send it out again (this time under a newly set up forum-specific email address), as it's quite an important message!

Quote from: TheNephew on November 15, 2017, 08:19:12 PMAn L][GT-exclusive mini would be amazing, but maybe that's stretching a bit.

Well, it seems within the bounds of possibility, although it's obviously up to people to decide whether that's the kind of thing they'd like. I thought it'd be an interesting gift for attendees (particularly given that model availability is one of the issues with Inquisitor these days).

Well I've grabbed my saturday event ticket.
I'm still mulling over the sunday event ticket.
I'll possibly grab it, we'll see.

[clears throat]

Ahem.

Hello brothers, six long years have passed. And here we find ourselves.

London is it. May, you say, the 18th year... a mile from my current habitation and the week of my birth celebrations....

-

I abandoned you (some will remember, others won't) all in 2011 as I moved to London, assuming I would have no time for the hobby. Well... turns out I'm a massively competitive gamer and podcast host these days for AoS and Bloodbowl. But goodness me do I miss good old days.

I actually am helping run the Blood Bowl event at LGT and know the events organisers. Its going to be awesome.

I've had my arm twisted to play AoS, Blood Bowl and Necromunda... but then I saw that something called 'The Conclave' would be running a little know game called Inquisitor. And my heart skipped several beats. Luckily my second heart didn't.

@salarath and @Makelor (old old users) and I are potentialy VERY keen to push our tickets in the =][= direction.

Questions:

1) What scale is predominant these days? I see Marco (hey Marco :) ) has been working very hard and has mentioned both 28mm and 54mm, have we reached a consensus? I do love 54mm, have talked about it at length on here in the past, but 28mm has a lot more scope these days in some ways. Not least of all in terms of terrain and creating more immersive worlds, especially as there seems to be budget/ ticket price concerns. For reference most AoS/ Bloodbowl events come in at £34-40 for the weekend including lunch so LGT is certainly on the dearer side of things.

2) Am I welcome back after years of transgression (and not even playing in the same universe)

3) What can I do to help organisationally and liasion-wise (my gaming club is a 5 minute walk from the Olympic Stadium and I've been starting to talk bout =][= a lot...)?

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, 6 years has made me unfamiliar with the interface!

EEK!

Adam

//EDIT= I'm going to get told off by mods immediately aren't I. Return to form... I've found the event pack on the website. Still keen to help/ talk about scale etc and help where I can. Perhaps a DM to Marco would've sufficed, but I'm excited to be back.

Quote from: Hadriel Caine on December 04, 2017, 06:41:28 PM1) What scale is predominant these days? I see Marco (hey Marco :) ) has been working very hard and has mentioned both 28mm and 54mm, have we reached a consensus?

54mm is definitely happening at the event. 28mm may also be happening, depending on whether I can find enough support from the community and what the event organisers say about ticket sales.

QuoteFor reference most AoS/ Bloodbowl events come in at £34-40 for the weekend including lunch so LGT is certainly on the dearer side of things.

Sorry about that - the organisers didn't discuss the ticket pricing with me (they said they would; they didn't) and it's now become a bit awkward to change.
I will try to do what I can to make the event worth that price. (This may include things like an event exclusive miniature).

Quote2) Am I welcome back after years of transgression (and not even playing in the same universe)

Certainly. I will absolutely forgive years of absence if it means we get to have a nice healthy turnout.

Quote3) What can I do to help organisationally and liasion-wise (my gaming club is a 5 minute walk from the Olympic Stadium and I've been starting to talk bout =][= a lot...)?

I don't know yet, but I will definitely bear it in mind.

Quote//EDIT= I'm going to get told off by mods immediately aren't I.

Probably not. I mostly handle that job these days, and everything seems fine in my book.

I've had a message from the LGT organisers, who say few tickets have been sold so far - particularly so for Sunday, to the point we have only one sign up.

I intend on putting out an e-mail to try and remind people (I suspect that some people may have been waiting to budget tickets and it's slipped their mind), but before I do that, this clearly isn't a resounding endorsement of the plan, so is there anything in particular people think needs to be changed?

(I can bring up ticket pricing if people think that's the underlying issue, but that's obviously somewhat impractical now some tickets have already been sold).

I can't do the Sunday.

How many tickets have been sold for the Saturday?

Three. That's obviously not great, but I'm also not worried, as I'm sure those numbers can be brought up enough - we have a proven success with Saturday events, and a lot of people told me they couldn't commit very early.

(This is all before I've made any decision about whether to invite the 28mm community of course; part of the reason I was waiting was because I needed to see 54mm sales first).

I haven't bought my ticket yet, but I will - dates are cleared with SWMBO, I just need to pick a day.

As I said (or intended to) earlier in the thread, I was going to sign up for whichever day was in need of more players.
To be honest, if there's only two or three people Sunday, I think I'd rather do Saturday though. More people to utilise tables, and easier travel.
It's probably no great comfort to you or the LGT people to merely say so, but I'll definitely be buying one one-day ticket.

The primary reason for the delay, as raised previously, is cost.
I'm not used to dropping £30 to play - that's pretty much triple the cost of any game ticket I've had to buy. Admittedly I'm not a huge tournament goer, but still, had the tickets (or total buy, rather) been £20 or less I'd have probably just picked one by now.
At £50, there's just no way I'm doing both days.
If LGT told you that there would be negotiation, or at least some for of discussion, about pricing, then I think it might be worth pointing out that this is unexpectedly expensive and probably flattening a bit of the hype about it.

Quote from: TheNephew on January 13, 2018, 06:59:27 PMTo be honest, if there's only two or three people Sunday, I think I'd rather do Saturday though.

At this stage, my vote is if people are only going to do one day, do Saturday. One event with healthy numbers and one tiny event will be much easier for me to deal with than two middling events.

(Smaller events will be easier to rethink if it turns out that the numbers aren't good enough - if it gets close to the event and Sunday is going to work out as only about three people, then I'll lock that down, talk with those three people and I'll work out something special for them).

QuoteIf LGT told you that there would be negotiation, or at least some for of discussion, about pricing

I won't quote the exact passage, because it was sent as a private communication, but it was definitely said that there would be some form of discussion.
It may have been forgotten when things went past the launch deadline (I won't completely shirk the blame for that, but I could have done with more than 13 days to get a plan for a large Inquisitor event together) and everything thus got a bit rushed, but it was said.

I don't know what we can do this year, but if we return next year I'll definitely argue for a more modest price.

Whilst it is a bit pricey, that's not a show-stopper for me.  It probably doesn't help much at this point, but I'll be in for both days, contingent upon there being 28mm options.

An irregular login for me, but I am the lonely soul signed up for Sunday.  I've got a Saturday ticket too.  I was surprised that it was £20 per day, but I guess we have been lucky to have had all our events where there was no booking fee, nor organisation, advertising etc. etc. by a third party. 

I suspect more people will sign up in time...  Organising 4 months in advance isn't always easy.

Ruaridh

as co-administrator of the facebook page through which the communication with LGT is occurring, means I am aware of the actual numbers being discussed - and honestly at the moment they don't exactly encourage me to fork out for a weekend trip to London from Scotland, requiring a day off work.

You don't need to worry about keeping the numbers secret, Euan - I've already reported them above.

Unfortunately, I've been a bit overwhelmed recently to really get stuck into rethinking the publicity campaign, but people have my permission to nag me incessantly if I've not at least sent around a new round of e-mails, social media and forum posts by the end of the month.

This is slightly delayed news, but it is fairly big news.

As a sequel to having John Blanche along for an event last year, this time we should be getting a visit from Gav Thorpe, who I've helped the London GT rope in as one of their special guests. (Which I suspect is part of why they're giving us quite so much leeway over our unsold tickets).

Although Gav won't be directly joining The Conclave's Inquisitor narratives at the event (unless he's planning on dropping a rather terrifying surprise on me!), it's pretty much a given that he'll come by while he's not busy with seminars, so you'll have an opportunity to get rulebooks signed or ask a couple of game design questions.

It'd be really great to have a good turnout when that happens, so please put your name down if you haven't already and pester any Inquisitor playing friends until they join us.

Speaking of pestering, is there any more news on whether 28mm is going to happen?

Saturday ticket bought!

If all goes to plan, I'll bring a small 28mm warband as well as as many 54mm models as I have available.

Depending on how that weekend develops and how flush with cash I'm feeling I might do Sunday as well, but that's contingent on finding a handy sofa or floor to crash on as well.

Great news about Gav coming - good work Marco.

Quote from: Genghis on February 17, 2018, 02:09:21 PM
Speaking of pestering, is there any more news on whether 28mm is going to happen?

I still want it to happen, but it's presenting a logistical challenge.

I need to know numbers for each scale at least roughly in order to plan well. But the organisers weren't even particularly keen on having me divide the entire event so that each day was ticketed separately, so rather than having 54mm and 28mm tickets I was hoping to get rough numbers by getting the initial 54mm sales in, then opening it up to 28mm and thus having a rough idea about what to plan for by what the sales were like before and after.

... that strategy hasn't exactly worked out (hashtag understatement). It's all been just tricking in, so I may need to politely ask the organisers if they wouldn't mind me having even more ticket options. Or try and come up with an alternative plan that doesn't rely on people seeing and obeying a "for the love of the Emperor, please e-mail me what scale you're using" notice.

Fair enough.  For what it's worth I'm keeping that weekend clear & will be attending both days if 28mm happens.  As discussed via e-mail a while back, I can also help with NPCs & terrain as well if required.

Will anyone on the LGT organisational team complain if you run a 28mm table as well?
Do you (we) have more than two tables, so there's spare for a 28mm table?

I'll bring my sole 28mm warband along anyway, because I have nowhere else to show them off and get C&C, rather than because I'm demanding a place to play with them.

It's always sounded like we players of The One True Scale are probably solidly in the vanishing minority, so perhaps advertising that there will be a table for 28mm would boost visibility and sales?

The organisational team have thus far seemed cool with the idea of 28mm, I think it absolutely should be at the event, and we still have capacity spare (for now).

However, to list the various problems I'm hitting:

~~~~~

- As already mentioned, tracking player numbers for each scale. To some extent I'll be able to have some leeway by making some scenarios so they can run in either scale, but the more scenarios I have do like that, the more work is required.

- I have a pretty poor record with actually getting reliable commitment out of the 28mm community. The first Dark Sphere meet had about five or six 28mm players who expressed interest, then only one turned up. I could handle that then, as I'd brought my 28mm stuff and could Player-GM, but I won't be able to do the same thing at the LGT.

- My 28mm collection is not particularly large (no pun intended). Without NPC support from others, the variety of scenarios that can be run will be fairly limited, particularly if more than a couple of tables are needed.

- My 28mm collection does not showcase INQ28 well, and that's a serious concern for an event of this standing.
I mostly dissect metal models from the 90s/00s, bury them under green stuff and end up with subtle conversions that many people would mistake for being much simpler than they are. This is not the kind of INQ28 that inspires people - most people are drawn in by "Blanchitsu" and/or creative kitbashing, and so that's what we need on display.

- On the other hand, for 54mm, I have a Razorback, Sentinel, a Warhound Titan on the way, characters sculpted to exactly imitate iconic GW art, squads of "army men" converted to look like Cadian-style troopers, etc.

I'm actually more proud of some of my 28mm work than some of that (for example, I think the 28mm Cpl Fielder is one of my best models, to the point I entered her into an IGT painting competition), but I simply have no knack for 28mm projects that have the same kind of "wow" factor that stops passers by.
Given the less-than-entirely-friendly rivalry between the 28mm and 54mm communities, I'm actually kind of worried how that kind of unevenness could be interpreted. (Seeing as I know a lot of the 28mm community still consider me an outsider).

~~~~~

Those problems pile up.

What I'd've really liked was one of the big champions of 28mm to leap in on this and help organise things, because it would have split the load, it would have brought in connections, and it would have avoided any accusations of favouritism. I did put out such an appeal, but got no interest.

Instead, at the very least, I'm going to need a commitment from a few people to help out with NPC/terrain/etc assets for the event.

For those of you who like such a way of following things, I've set up an official event page on Facebook. (It may make it easier to keep track of updates than having to drop into the forum).

https://www.facebook.com/events/157194981753239/

Facebook is offering some free advertising credit on The Conclave page, and it seems silly not to boost this event with it.

However, the current event image is the logo from the LGT, and for some reason Facebook decides to restrict the reach of adverts with lots of text in their image, so for best results, I need to cook up an alternative poster for the advert.

Does anyone have any particularly good game photos they don't mind being used in a poster for the event?

There's been a bit of a delay in trying to sort this, as I didn't have many offers of photos (Van Helser did offer an album on Facebook, but sadly I didn't think any of them would work that well as a poster).

I've yet to try clearing any of these with the LGT organisers, but I've tried throwing some together (I may slightly tidy up the logo position/colour) and I'm putting them out there for people to give me thoughts.

(https://imgur.com/tPs5nzF.png)

(https://imgur.com/CtBbyh7.png)

(https://imgur.com/vSUw2cI.png)

(https://imgur.com/F2ocGdu.png)

Of these, my gut feeling is the last one has the most professional looking photo, although I do kind of like the first (people aren't too prominent in the background, it's easy to find a clear space for the LGT logo - the others are hard to pick a colour/position for - and I even don't mind the die being in the foreground).

The other alternative is to go off on a bit of a tangent - for example, I can render something where photo quality isn't an issue, but the tabletop wargame aspect is somewhat less obvious here:

(https://i.imgur.com/jPjwXa6.png)

The only album I have with tabletop time is here:
https://imgur.com/a/yp0lK

From the space marine day a couple years back (it's been that long already?).

I'd be inclined towards tabletop photos where possible (even older ones from DM articles or that sort of thing).
I'd also agree regards the favoured photo of the ones you're showing there for tabletop use - it's nicely atmospheric.

you're welcome to any from these;
http://buildyourimagination.co.uk/minis/inq.php

if going for a picture with minis i'd try to go for one that shows the front of the mini though; the ones you've picked... aren't very interesting in my opinion
(i like the Cypher and the red cultists one)

If any of Gav's pics are sufficiantly pro-looking (or could be filtered effectively) I'd go with one of the 'squad posing' or showdown pics - I think having Big Greg E himself in the ad pictures would be useful.

I won't link to Gav's photos, because they aren't working for me (clicking a thumbnail just reloads the gallery page), but there a few that would suit.
Anything off the top two rows of the Summer Conclave '14, or Kisanth and J Ken, or Advance (featuring 54mm Rhino).
There are a few on the Winter Conclave '12 too.

I also took a few (not great quality) shots of the assembled gangs from the last day at WHW, which might work.
I'll see if I can find them and mail them to someone.

As has been said already, I think tabletop pictures are pretty much a must, in-game action shots a bonus, but you want the focus to be the front of recognisable models - the mock-ups at the moment prominently feature scenery and the backs of grunts.

Edit: To clarify, I think the most important features are recognisable Inquisitor-y miniatures, seen from the front.
Even if it looks staged to heck and back, a close shot of off-the-shelf Eisenhorn facing down Tyrus (ideally a converted but definitely Inquisitorial person) would be a better advert for Inquisitor than someone that is probably a guardsman watching to ant-people fight in the distance.

Quote from: greenstuff_gav on March 02, 2018, 08:37:01 AMif going for a picture with minis i'd try to go for one that shows the front of the mini though; the ones you've picked... aren't very interesting in my opinion

While on principle I agree with you, the process of finding photos that are...

- in focus
- not shaky
- well exposed
- crops well to the 16:9 that Facebook seems to prefer
- haven't got too much camera noise
- no half painted models (or in general any painting that I think anyone might be embarrassed to have used as the header for an advert).
- hasn't got the table entirely strewn with loose character sheets and misplaced dice (I don't mind a few, but there are limits)
- no-one's crotch in the background
- doesn't put anyone in the spotlight by showing their face
- actually, in general, just a fairly nondescript background
- seems to be something actually happening (I have several where it's very hard to actually see any story behind them).
- of 54mm models (because I can't use 28mm until/unless I confirm that)
- has somewhere reasonable to put the logo
- was something I actually have permission to use
- and which I haven't used for an event promo before

... narrows the choices I had a lot.

I've just tried looking through your galleries, but unfortunately, there's not many of them that would meet all of those.

If I cross off "don't reuse things" from that list, I used this photo for the IGT 15 event page. (Well, it's actually two similar photos merged, as by chance they came out with different focus, so it allowed me to lengthen the depth of field).
It's still showing the back of a character, but it does avoid a bit of the "ant people in the distance".

(https://imgur.com/MrFNe1J.png)

It's got well painted models, no-one's groin in the background, something going on, nice terrain and passable photography. It suffers a bit from grey-brown syndrome, but it's not terrible.

If anyone wants to stage something like Eisenhorn vs. Tyrus, then I'm prepared to consider that as an option, but I'll need a good photo and I'll need it pretty sharpish.

given how busy the detail is in the photo, I would advocate ditching the white outline for the text and putting a solid white box behind the text instead, with 40-60% opacity to let some of the photo detail show through.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree*, although the main question is about the right choice of photo. If people can offer up something that generally fits with the criteria I posted earlier, then I'm prepared to consider it, but I am struggling a bit to find anything suitable.
* The white border itself was an attempt to try and make it stand out a bit better from the busy detail. I might try again with a wider border as well.

The earlier mention of Dark Magenta battle report photos is a potentially interesting one. If we're really struggling, I'll try checking with Saussure if that reasonably falls within the DM publishing agreement, given that the 'Clave and Dark Magenta are something of a joint entity.

In any case, I've sent that to the LGT organisers asking if they'd be okay with us using something roughly like that. If they veto it, then there's not much point in arguing.

As an update, the organisers are fine with us doing an ad like that with a game picture and logo, so we're at least not wasting time barking up the wrong tree.

No-one has loudly complained about that image, and no-one has thrust me a particularly good image to use, so I'm assuming we're going ahead with that one.

Here's four variants of me trying to layer the logo in - tell me which you think is best.

Wider white border:
(https://imgur.com/PxEyo6n.png)

30% Translucent background:
(https://imgur.com/C5N5pai.png)

Wide white border and 30% translucent background:
(https://imgur.com/BFM5ODm.png)

50% Translucent background:
(https://imgur.com/D1yTMBf.png)

The final one for me.

I'd hoped for a bit more feedback, but I've already dawdled over this too long, so unless I hear any resounding complaints by the middle of tomorrow (Tuesday, for clarity), I'll be going with Van Helser's vote and running the last of those.

I second the Van Helser vote.
Just beginning to wish I had a better camera, and more Inquisitor games under my belt with better scenery/photographs.

Of the options I'd agree that the last is the best.

To remind anyone who's forgotten, don't forget to buy your tickets for this event!

Based on the list of people I'm expecting and the latest sales numbers from the GT organisers, it seems like not everyone has remembered!

~~~~~

Also, unfortunately, I have to set a final deadline of 31st March 23:59 BST to hear from enough 28mm players to be able to expand the event.
More players will be able to sign up after this if it goes ahead, but if I haven't got a bare minimum by then, I won't have a safe 28mm event, won't have time to plan and will have to only go ahead with 54mm scale.

It feels wrong to be going to such a large show and not showcasing everything that Inquisitor can be, so if you're reading this as a 28mm player and would be interested in attending, please comment below and help bring 28mm to the London GT.

Totalling up all the responses I had across sites at the deadline, unfortunately I haven't got enough to add 28mm to the event.

After throwing out the "yes" responses on the Facebook poll that seem to be people not particularly reading the poll (such as people in the US), adding in answers I've had elsewhere and doing my best to make sure I'm not counting anyone twice, the numbers are just too few for me to be sure of a safe event.

The problem is that the majority of my answers are from FB, but my previous experience with FB is that player take-up is not at all reliable (particularly when I've only got a "tick yes" answer rather than someone actually engaging with comments). If I'd had the same number of responses but they were all from The Conclave or Ammobunker, I'd be going ahead right now, but poor attendance would cause a massive headache when I've got two scales to deal with, so there's just not enough to open ticket sales to 28mm.

If the LGT invites us back next year, I'll try for dual scale again (as one of the problems seems to be that several major 28mm community members have other things on for that weekend and can't join us), but this year players are going to have to attend at 54mm.

(However, should anyone have both 54mm and 28mm collections, they are absolutely welcome to bring both - if enough people did that, then we might be able to run some of the games at 28mm, but people will need to assume we'll be primarily playing 54mm).

As the e-mail newsletter I've just sent around says, the "drop dead" date for sign-ups for the event is the end of April, as after this the LGT organisers need to start making final arrangements.

If you want to join us, and you've been procrastinating over it, you'll need your tickets before the start of May!

I am now officially attending both Saturday & Sunday at the LGT  ;D
Tickets bought, flights booked, etc, etc.

Now to brush up on Inquisitor, which I've probably not actually played in at least... 4 or 5 years.

Out of interest, where abouts in London are folk staying? Weighing up my options and if we're thinking of any social drinks or such after Saturday it might be handy.

Quote from: Heroka Vendile on April 28, 2018, 09:25:46 PMNow to brush up on Inquisitor, which I've probably not actually played in at least... 4 or 5 years.

It'll come back really fast.

Although Inquisitor's got a lot of modifiers, most of the rules are fairly logical, the game has nothing in the way of "movement before shooting" or "only one attack per turn" restrictions that you need to remember, and because it's GMed you have the freedom to go outside the normal rules anyway. (Plus the GM can fill in any gaps in your memory of the rules).

QuoteOut of interest, where abouts in London are folk staying?

I personally won't be, as by chance the dates match up with a narrowboat event in Rickmansworth - I'll be helping my parents get their boats there,  and then staying on the boats there.

It'll be a slightly longer journey than staying within London itself, but it is still on the tube network, and the mooring is close to the station (our narrowboats are both 1936 built - they have enough historic pedigree* that we get to put up near the main road bridge to the canal during the event).

* Neither is quite the image of your canal postcards with a boatman taking ten tonnes of coal from the mines to the factories though, as they've had work done over that time.
Sickle is probably the more "authentic", as she's still preserved much as she was for most of her working life - she was shortened in 1942 to convert her to an icebreaker as part of keeping the canals open for the war effort, and although she lost her ice ram sometime before 1957, she continued to work as an British Waterways maintenance boat right up until 2000. She even used to work in our region.

As far as drinks after Saturday - I don't know about that yet, we'll have to discuss it.

Quote from: Heroka Vendile on April 28, 2018, 09:25:46 PM
Out of interest, where abouts in London are folk staying? Weighing up my options and if we're thinking of any social drinks or such after Saturday it might be handy.

I have got an airbnb fairly close to the stadium.  Food and drink on the Saturday night will be a necessity for me.  I'm sure there'll be a hundred choices within walking distance. 

As a PSA for all, London also hosts the FA cup final, and the royal wedding that weekend so booking accommodation soon is probably a good idea for people staying on the Saturday.

Ruaridh

Quote from: Van Helser on April 29, 2018, 07:44:28 AMFood and drink on the Saturday night will be a necessity for me.  I'm sure there'll be a hundred choices within walking distance.

Quite probably, although if there's a plan for several people to do a proper meal, it might be a good idea to book in advance to be sure of enough seats. With hundreds of gamers who'll be staying overnight (and whatever events might be on at the stadium that weekend - the tournament isn't the entire thing), local venues might get packed pretty fast.

I'd be up for post-purge pints and/or dinner.

I didn't know it was a Royal Thing and the FA final that weekend - how badly is that going to bugger transport, do we think?
Badly enough that I should be angling for a pre-23:00 train?

I don't imagine transport will be catastrophically buggered over. Wembley Stadium is eleven and a half miles from Olympic Park, and any London-based events for the "Royal Thing" will be fairly spread out (as the actual wedding will be over in Windsor, rather than somewhere like Westminster) and will probably taper off slowly over the afternoon/evening, so we won't be right in the middle of a human stampede.

Still, it is likely to eat up a lot of the cheap accommodation in the area, so it is a valid shout.

What's the planned schedule for the day?

Trying to decide on whether or not to do it as a day trip or stay overnight at my Brothers.

That is something I'm still in the process of deciding, and it depends on feedback from the players and what the final ticket sales work out as.

As we're not limited to Warhammer World's hours, it's theoretically possible to push a bit later and get four rounds into the day without having to rush every round.

However, if several people tell me they'll have to race off fairly early, or I'm told we're expecting a fairly large turnout, I will keep it to three rounds. (In the case of the large turnout, so I can focus on just the strongest scenarios and will have more time to herd players between rounds).

Well if I was to do it as a day trip the last train is at 8.30 from Euston. Although it might be better if I aimed for the earlier train at 7.30.

By the reckoning of the TfL website, it's a smidge over 40 minutes from the Olympic Stadium to Euston. Roll in some extra margin for finding your way around the site, and I reckon you'd need at least an hour to be safe.
Adding in a bit of packing up time and some leeway for potentially overrunning a few minutes, and I reckon that for a 19:30 Euston train, the event would have to aim to end at about 1800.

Ideally, I'd like to push an hour later than that (to 1900), as that should give time to fit four rounds into the day (although I haven't worked out the exact timings).
I'm still not exactly happy about the fact ticket pricing wasn't properly discussed with me, but an extra game would certainly help nudge things back in the right direction as far as people's expenditure to gaming ratios.

I'm only going to be making a day of it on saturday, so as long as I'm able to find a train home on saturday evening (london bridge/victoria to coulsdon south/town) then it's all good.

I'd be quite happy to have a late-ish finish to get either more rounds or a more relaxed schedule, but I have an easy journey home with many trains until late.

What time is it likely to be starting?

Either way, about ten o'clock, although I won't be surprised if we're late starting (as usual...)

If we're running four rounds, the overall schedule will probably look something like this:

Briefing	1000-1015
Round 1: Initiation	1015-1200
Lunch	1200-1300
Round 2: Escalation	1300-1445
Politics	1445-1500
Round 3: Crisis	1500-1645
Politics	1645-1700
Round 4: Finale	1700-1900

I'll book a return seat on the 8.30pm train then.

I've had back the final ticket numbers - six for Saturday and four for Sunday, seven different people in all.

They're much lower than I would have liked, but it's enough to make an event out of, and I might even be able to re-rig things a bit to play up the inevitable rivalries that will come into play throughout the event.

(Unfortunately, although I was actually trying to track people down individually at one point, a lot of people weren't available. In some cases because they'll be at other LGT events - Hadriel Caine, for example, will probably come and see us at some point but has happened to win a ticket to another event).

~~~~~

Also, as a general request, can people offer any of the following as NPCs for the Saturday?

- Techpriest
- Preacher
- Models to be a crowd of civilians
- Chaos cultists or other plausibly heretical thugs/mercenaries

I'm not desperately reliant on any of these, but it will give me a wider choice of scenarios I can use (and thus vary the scenario progression depending on how the story is playing out so far).

Well that's a bit of a disappointing turnout.

I'm not sure what help I can be with the models as I didn't manage to complete any of my originally planned projects. I've got a few characters who will be usable as civilians though.

What scenery will we have to use?

I can bring some stuff, but with no parking I won't be able to bring most of my pieces. I will be able to bring some Sector Mechanicus terrain though and the old card necromunda terrain if it's needed.

Quote from: Cortez on May 04, 2018, 01:22:38 PMWhat scenery will we have to use?

The GT has offered "a ton of ruins [they're] not currently using". (Useful, as large parts of Ilithyia are a conflict zone).

I'm working as hard as I can to have my Paraelix Configuration build ready in time and, if I can figure out moving it all and find a couple of spare hours to add a few bits to it, I also have a WIP forest table that could be brought.
(For the record, "forest table" doesn't mean "a few dead twigs" such as we normally see at WHW, it means "I went completely insane ordering model trees on eBay").

Having some Sector Mechanicus terrain and Necromunda terrain would be great though, as it'll mean we'd be able to rejig tables between games to get more variety.

QuoteI'm not sure what help I can be with the models as I didn't manage to complete any of my originally planned projects. I've got a few characters who will be usable as civilians though.

Anything will help!

I can probably fill in most of those NPC requirements. I'll look stuff out and take photos of what I've got available.

Shame the numbers aren't big, but they are fairly equivalent to some of the WHW events.

Ruaridh

Gah - I've been an admin for nearly a year now, but I still keep clicking on the "edit" button rather than the "quote" button when trying to respond to people.

Quote from: Van Helser on May 04, 2018, 08:19:07 PMShame the numbers aren't big, but they are fairly equivalent to some of the WHW events.

That's largely what I'm thinking.

I certainly want to see it improve - we'll have to re-discuss ticket pricing if we go back, and I'd really like to see if the 28mm community can be kicked into action.
(I did have quite a lot of response from 28mm players, but my previous experience in how many Facebook players actually bother to turn out meant I wasn't confident about whether the numbers would have been good enough. If I can, I'll be trying to run an event at Dark Sphere sometime before next year to try and re-test the waters on turnout).

However, I'm hoping that we'll be able to do our normal trick of punching somewhat above our weight. I know this is a grander venue than anywhere we've been before, but our toys do stand out.

One of these days I'll finish my work on the 28mm version of Inquisitor Morannon's warband (she'll be present for this event in her 54mm form, as I'm finding I prefer her warband, currently).

Quote from: Van Helser on May 04, 2018, 08:19:07 PM
I can probably fill in most of those NPC requirements. I'll look stuff out and take photos of what I've got available.

... if the pictures are going to take time, could you just summarise which of those you think you can help with? I have got to finalise things.

Judging by the terrain making videos they've been putting on the LGT facebook page, looks like it's all going to be very basic stuff we have to work with. Which is perfectly understandable, but if anyone not flying in like VanHelser & myself is able to bring something to help supplement the terrain supply, it'll be very appreciated.

I'll be bringing a couple of boxes worth of sector mechanicus terrain (the Promethium Refinery and Galvanic Magnavent sets), that covers a pretty decent area. I'll also be bringing my old card Necromunda terrain, it's seen better days and isn't ideal for Inquisitor as the bulkheads are a bit short but is better than nothing and can be taken apart for travel. I'll see what other small bits of terrain I can fit in, but most of my other stuff is just too large to bring on the train.

Yeah, I've also been watching those and while it is indeed entirely understandable (they have got several hundred tables to fill with terrain!), it does fall rather short of what was originally described to me.

However, I have been anticipating the possibility, and it's part of why my modelling log of late has been filled with me rebuilding those old Paul Rudge terrain articles.
(The other part is because I'm hoping that appealing to people's nostalgia is going to help us stand out in the middle of such a large event. It seems a lot of people do still remember that battle report and its table...)
(https://i.imgur.com/U2fFBcL.jpg)

Along with the other stuff I've been working on, I think we're going to be okay on mass terrain coverage even if everything the LGT provides proves completely useless, but anything else people can bring along will definitely be very much appreciated. I certainly wouldn't say no to a sprinkling of scatter terrain, as I didn't manage to get as much of that completed as I would like.

Looking forward to meeting you all on Saturday. It will be my first game of Inquisitor for many years (and first tournament of any game), but rest assured I will be swotting up on the rules in the meantime so it's all fresh in my mind.

I am afraid I don't have any terrain or NPCs to bring, just my warband.

If I could finish climbing my painting mountain I could provide a number of NPCs. Alas, I cannot. Yet. Given time, though...

Sorry for the delay in getting round to photographing models.  It's been a long time since any of them were out of the loft and a lot of repair work was needed unfortunately.

Big group shot of what I plan to bring along (baggage allowance dependent!):

(https://i.imgur.com/oaZgZpM.jpg)

Amongst all that are some critters and some potential PCs for me over the weekend, including the return of "Alias Strang":

(https://i.imgur.com/gwzIAan.jpg)

An Alpha Legionnaire as big shiny models attract attention (and someone might let me game with him if I'm very convincing):

(https://i.imgur.com/MRuJ4qQ.jpg)

As for NPCs, here are cultists and a daemonhost:

(https://i.imgur.com/xXX6WbJ.jpg)

...and a bunch of civilian-ish types, with a preacher and techpriest:

(https://i.imgur.com/NHlX2c2.jpg)

I've also got some scatter terrain, including brains in jars:

(https://i.imgur.com/SlrW3Xd.jpg)

It just about all fits in a GW carry case, with some of the terrain in a box with my dice and tape measure. 

Ruaridh

That looks absolutely excellent. Because of the questions over terrain, I've been struggling for the time to work on NPCs, and although I could have managed with what I have, having some extra stuff will really add flavour.
If you have a complete crisis over baggage allowance when you put it on the scale, PM me, and I'll try to prioritise what's most important. (I won't do it here - or unless necessary - to try and minimise any spoilers).

As for me, I think I've just finished the scenarios for the Saturday. Although it's been quite a bit of work, I've actually had a heck of a lot of fun writing some of them.

I'm just wondering, with all these extra models potentially kicking around, do we want to have a model display of some sort alongside the leaflets (and a large "do not touch" sign next to the models)?

We've done it at other events, but it will depend on exactly how things are laid out on the day.

As far as leaflets though, I've realised that I have very few left. I think Rob had something of a field day handing them out at Mother of Mercy and we never got the file updated to justify running off any more.
It might be that we have to ask that the last couple are kept back for people to read there.

Better late than never, a version of the briefing pack that actually contains some campaign rules:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/3g83s99l234k6tf/London_GT_Inquisitor_Briefing_pack.pdf

Don't worry if you've not got it printed out, I will have available copies on the day.

Got it and printed. I'll try to remember to put it in my copy of the rulebook along with my character sheets.

I'm here and in the queue. Let's go folks!

Wherabouts are you in the queue?

I was not far from where you were standing. But I think you have had a haircut so I wasn't sure or I'd have waved.

Here's an album of pictures from the day.



http://imgur.com/gallery/1pn62wh

I'll use a few of these for my in character recollections later.

WelI I had a lot of fun. Isabella had a mixed affair, alternating between being quite spectacular and getting her head ripped off by a power fist or something similar. Daniel might have set a new record by dying (or critically injured at least) in every game (So much for power armour). I think he may need to be retired now as I think he may have exhausted all his dark pacts this time.

Day was a bit exhausting though. I'm not sure I'd do a day trip to london again. I think I prefer our normal events at Warhammer World.

I too had a great time - thanks again for your the work that went into it, David.
Was great to see everyone again, and some new faces.
I much prefer London, because it's about three hours closer and far more accessible for me. Obviously that's far from true for everyone.

I think in many ways it was my most successful event yet - narratively I got many of my scenario, campaign and character goals completed, and game-wise Mr and Mrs Mech spent far less time floored and gutshot than usual.

Making friends with Strang's gang, who promptly turned around and convinced the PDF that I was the Bad Guys, was great.
Getting repeatedly shot by said guards while trying to usefully engage said Bad Guys was good fun too.

Finally having a Cunning Plan succesfully executed, with the unfortunate demise of everyone's favourite Cardinal, was nice.

Watching the slightly confused Saint stolen from the amorous embraces of Buckethead Bill and Epicurius(?) was one of the funniest things I've seen on the table in a while.
Relying on a Magos to sell the "Oh my gosh, it's a chaos space marine attacking us all, all of us!" narrative was maybe not the smartest call on Planck and Mirielle's part though.

The finale was also a great showdown, wading thorugh hordes of zombies while Daniel held (and eventually just blocked) the balcony against the oncoming Forces of Good (and Ambivalence) felt suitably cinematic.

Hope the second days goes/went well.

Well - I hope you all enjoyed yourselves.

I am fairly shattered, as I stayed behind to help the main organisers pack down the rest of the event (hoping to help set a good impression with them on our first visit to the event), so you'll have to wait to hear any more thoughts from me until I am on the other side of some sleep!

All in all I had a fantastic time.

Samantha may not have quite impressed her superiors with the loss (martyrdom) of the Cardinal, but on a personal level, she would be satisfied with the upheaval her actions have caused (or been involved in). Jack may be less pleased, having been on the receiving end of yet more chaos shenanigans (and a very wounded leg) - not great for the psyker! I think the warband will likely recognise how useful haywire grenades are for dealing with various problematic targets (a single plasma pistol does not a solution make!). As Ordo Hereticus (of a fashion) they're liable to recognise the danger of Carthaxian witchery, and might also consider psyk-out grenades also (Jack won't be happy about those either).

I had a grand old time causing violence and meeting everyone.

Apologies, Cortez, for causing you so much trouble!

Thanks Marco for setting everything up and running it all! It was a great day, and some fantastic work and storytelling.
Thanks to everyone who played with (or against) me for making the day so much fun - I hope I returned the favour!

For my part, I like how local London has proven to be - Warhammer World is nice, but it requires a long drive to my parents for me to be able to make it with a reasonable degree of sleep. Either setting is workable though, given enough advanced notice.
Anyone local to Surrey is welcome down the Surrey Spartans for a game!


Apparently my quote of the day: "Clearly I need to make sure to execute little girls out of hand!"

More 40k version:
"Better a thousand innocents die, than let a single traitor live." (paraphrasing a little)

For a more proper wrap up of the weekend now I've had some (but not yet quite enough) time to recover...

~~~~~

Buoyed up on a wave of holy fervour, the Imperium has finally fully retaken Ilithyia after more than eighty years of conflict, and is now gearing up to repay the fallen Alykia sector in kind.

High Cardinal Tobias Keidrow became a martyr for his own cause, murdered by traitor forces in a suicide attack. (Or so the wider Imperium would believe - rumours abound that internal machinations may have been in play).

However, this lead to the dramatic revelation that Saint Aderyn (or at least someone sufficiently able to pass for her...) had indeed survived the traitorous attack on the High Assembly in 011.M42, having spent the last six years hidden away by Inquisitor Lyra Rhodes of the Ordo Perditus.
Secretly inducted into the ranks of the Adepta Sororitas under the guise of being one of her own body doubles, the Inquisitor elected to reveal the ruse in the crucial moments after the High Cardinal was assassinated, in the hopes that the return of the Saint could stabilise the conflict after the demise of the energetic orator.

It was however a short lived return for the Saint - as a final desperate blow, the forces of Chaos attempted a final vindictive blow upon the world. A dark monolith had been implanted upon the world, corrupting loyal servants of the Emperor into dessicated husks bound to Chaos.
Discovered by the traitorous Isabella Von Ravensburg, the breach was almost fully opened.
At the very last moment, the raw faith of Saint Aderyn, assisted by the heroism of Inquisitor Duvarnae (which I've probably misspelt and will need to look through my notes for the day to check) was enough to overwhelm the accursed artefact, but at the cost of the Saint's third death.

Riding upon her success at the climax of the conflict, and with the support of the individual known as "Strang", Duvarnae was easily able to politically suppress any calls for moderation, and fully set the process of the Alykian Crusade in motion.

~~~~~

Although we had a small turn-out, I think Legacy turned out as a successful event. (Although it seems that the LGT's main WH40K event has proven pretty controversial).

For the Saturday, it was nice to have had the opportunity to run a plot over four rounds (something we've not had time for in a while), allowing some of the plot threads to actually progress through the event.

I was also happy that I'd managed to pick a plot line which proved sufficiently "controversial" that we had players supporting both sides of the conflict; We had 4 "Warmongers" and 2 "Peacekeepers" (to use the vernacular from my planning notes), which was sufficiently balanced that I could have representatives of both factions in every game. (Particularly as I had written the scenarios with multiple possible objectives and could pick and choose as appropriate to the characters, even with characters supposedly on the same side having different ideas about the best way to achieve their goals).

~~~~~

Sunday also worked fairly well, particularly as we've not really had much prior experience with trying to run events on a Sunday.
I am appreciative to all of the GMs for rejigging their scenarios on the fly to work for four players (in order that I didn't spend the day sitting out), and I had quite a lot of fun joining the game.

To pick a few of the moments I particularly enjoyed from joining in, Maya deciding in Ruaridh's hive-quake scenario that "Frak this, I can fly"...

(https://imgur.com/ZJoWkTr.jpg)

However, it seemed there was no flipping point in me writing rules for people with big flaming wings being very visible, because everyone proceeded to wilfully ignore the flying, flaming psyker for the rest of the game - even once she started shouting in a psychically boosted voice. (She's a very versatile psyker that can combine the disciplines of pyrokinesis, empathy and microtelekinesis into a power set that goes from illusion to shock and awe. As the game was going on, she was definitely shifting more and more towards the "shock and awe" end of that spectrum, given she started the game half invisible and ended up flying, on fire, and doing a Brian Blessed impersonation).

In Chris' Heretek scenario, Evelyn managing to mess up my chances of intervening in genuinely important matters by refusing to forgive Suggs, Euan's gunslinger, for chucking a grenade at her, and thus wasting time booting him in his already badly mutilated groin.

And for Euan's Squigeon scenario, I decided that the best replacement "message" to plant on the Squigeon (as per my objective) would be to booby trap it with a live krak grenade. This was obviously going to be a much trickier approach than just scrawling a completely misdirecting note, but live explosives seemed like a good way of starting a power struggle/internal war with the planet's Ork problem, it was much more interesting and it gave Kronen a chance to actually use her "Booby Traps" ability.

That plan went out of the window when one of Richard's arbitrators charged while the trap was being set (letting the Squigeon break loose), but Kronen (at her Kroneniest) used Lighting Reflexes to chuck the already primed grenade at the Arbitrator.

She did however make the mistake of misidentifying an Alpha Legionnaire as a loyalist - an embarrassing mistake for a veteran of the 13th Black Crusade who has fought and killed Space Marines before...

(Plus Evelyn deciding that the aforementioned arbitrator also needed a boot in the groin. I think that may be becoming a thing).

~~~~~

I enjoyed myself (although I am thoroughly worn out, what with having spent extra time at the end of the day helping pack up) - and I hope you all did too, and I'll see you at the next one. (Maybe someone else can run that one... I can bring the terrain though!)

Had a super busy week and haven't really had the chance to post anything until now, but the extra week has given me some time to digest the weekend.

Sterling work from Marco to organise the day, and to provide excellent terrain for two tables.  Both days had great games in the right Inquisitor spirit with some stand out moments.  My personal favourite was Vector Tern's sneak attack with a powerfist to Isabella's unfortunate head, which we double-checked with Gav Thorpe that you can't become aware of a successful sneak attack by hearing it if the risky action roll was passed.  The dastardly powers of the warp brought Isabella back from the dead (dead dead), with the Protean warp malignancy causing an outward change in her.  The games on the second day were good fun, and hunting for a squigeon with a Legionnaire that couldn't muster more than two successful actions a turn was an excellent farce.

There were downsides to the event, but all of them I think lie squarely at the door of the LGT organisers:

The security arrangements simply meant that there were too few staff to check bags, and that meant a big delay to the events.  Wasn't too much of an issue for us as scenarios can always be tweaked and sped up if needs be, but it was bad news for the other tournaments.

It would have been nicer to not be shut away in a corner of the bar, as we probably could have had more interest from attendees if we'd been more visible.  What was more concerning about the position was the lack of space between tables and the tortuous route past the Warmaster games to get to the bar or toilets.  If there had been any less-abled attendees, it would likely have been a real struggle to get to our games.  I am still convinced that a fire safety inspector would have had a fit if he'd seen the layout.

If Marco hadn't provided terrain, we would have fought over unpainted polystyrene blocks like the 40k gamers had to endure.  Poor show from the organisers in failing to get that done to an acceptable level.

£50 to play over the two days...  not sure where our money went, other than the use of a gaming mat and the rent of the space.

All in all it was a great event, but that's down to Marco and the other Inquisitor players.  I just feel like we could have had as much fun in Nottingham at WHW without the entry fee, had more space and comfort and probably more visibility amongst all the other tables.  Even with the advertising through the LGT page, attendee numbers were about the same as they are for any of the Nottingham events we do, so despite the reach and clout of associating with a big GT event I don't think it paid off in terms of growing the game. 

Oh, and £5.40 beers.

Not sure I'd do another LGT without big changes in the overall set up.

Ruaridh

Quote from: Van Helser on May 27, 2018, 12:50:55 PMSterling work from Marco to organise the day, and to provide excellent terrain for two tables.  Both days had great games in the right Inquisitor spirit with some stand out moments.

Hopefully people had fun with some of the various twists and tricks I'd tried to build into the scenarios.

QuoteThe security arrangements simply meant that there were too few staff to check bags, and that meant a big delay to the events.  Wasn't too much of an issue for us as scenarios can always be tweaked and sped up if needs be, but it was bad news for the other tournaments.

I think we also got quite lucky with how long it took people to get through the door - although we started late, we did ultimately get everyone to the table early enough that it didn't derail anything too badly.

QuoteI am still convinced that a fire safety inspector would have had a fit if he'd seen the layout.

Probably. (Says the person who'd brought along a plasma ball which 1) had instructions that said "do not tamper with this device, as it may be a fire risk" and 2) he had heavily tampered with, including plugging it into twice as much voltage as it was designed to run on).

Our positioning was somewhat exacerbated by the Warhammer Community team. The originally planned floor layout would have been a bit less cramped, but with the community team taking up a huge chunk of space, things had to be shifted around.
(I'm still wondering exactly how often shouts of "Die Heretic" and "Clearly I should have just executed that random bystander" got broadcast over Twitch...)

QuoteIf Marco hadn't provided terrain, we would have fought over unpainted polystyrene blocks like the 40k gamers had to endure.  Poor show from the organisers in failing to get that done to an acceptable level.

Actually, the ruins we were offered were not the unpainted polystyrene from the WH40K event - there were a few crates of basic, but functional ruins around from previous LGTs. (Which were unused because the main event was aiming for identical, symmetrical table layouts).

They would have been usable without the table looking like an explosion at B&Q, although I turned them down on the day; between what I and Cortez had brought, we were well set for the two tables worth of terrain we needed, and I thought people would prefer to play some games on tables that weren't half ruined debris like we usually get at Warhammer World.

(Both tables were hopefully somewhat different to our normal fare, with the configuration table offering two levels for characters to move around and a couple of fairly impressive centrepieces, and the forest table breaking up pretty much all longer lines of sight and offering a lot of risky terrain).

QuoteNot sure I'd do another LGT without big changes in the overall set up.

At present, I'm planning to say yes if I'm asked about it again next year (although I plan to argue for lower ticket pricing), as I hope that involvement in a high profile event* like that has the potential to help develop Inquisitor's visibility (even if just through things like the final results, we did get to announce our presence), and even if it wasn't perfect, I personally enjoyed it enough that I'm prepared to give it another shot.

I'm not certain I'd do it a third time unless things seem quite a bit more in order next year, but a second time, sure.

* Although I still think the holy grail would be running a display table at Salute - that'd be as high profile as I think as it's possible to get in the UK, with a constant throughput of attendees (rather than players focused on their own games), and us with large models that tend to do a good job of getting noticed.

That's starting to seem quite a bit more viable as an idea, now I've got entire sets of portable terrain...

I'd agree with Rauridh that we didn't get our moneys-worth out of the LGT organisers - in stuff, space, convenience or exposure for the game.

In an ideal world we'd be a bit more visible (or at least have elbow room), tickets would be £10-15 per day, there would be fewer queues, and the drinks would come in pints not stubbies.

Having said that, if ticket prices next year are cheaper to reflect that I'd do it again - even factoring in the laughable queue situation, my ratio of game:travel time was much more favourable than approximate parity, which it is at WHW.

I'd probably even do both days.

Quote from: MarcoSkoll on May 27, 2018, 02:28:13 PM

(I'm still wondering exactly how often shouts of "Die Heretic" and "Clearly I should have just executed that random bystander" got broadcast over Twitch...)

I did try to find out but the twitch channel for warhammer community has a subscription requirement and I'm not sure how willing I am to pay for that.

I finally submitted my response to the LGT general feedback survey - I think it's important we all do so as a very small part of the event.
My key comment was high ticket price considering all they really provided us was a venue and some tables. Also about being hidden away in a corner - note really conducive to promoting our ancient game  ;)

I too raised the point that our benevolent overlord runs a better event without the 'help' of the LGT, so the ticket price was hard to justify.

Given the space allowances for the other events, I'm not too sorry we were out of the way, but you're right that publicity was no small part of why we were there in the first place.

I did say I would likely go again if they manage to get their act together - I would have liked to see more of what was going on in the evening, but eating dinner on-site was not an option.