We are heading down the motorway at 8 am to visit Milton Keynes Premier TTRPG Con Concrete Cow.

I’d missed Owlbear and the Wizard’s Staff due to family celebrations, so was keen to attend this small but friendly gaming con.

Arriving around 9 am, we had time to browse Leisure Games goods and the bring and buy sale before a brief visit to Tescos to pick up provisions, then we laid down our gaming forms!

I was struggling to find a second session to finish off a Trail of Cthulhu game, The Dance in the Blood by Graham Walmsley. I offered the players two choices, just to cancel it and I’d summarise what happened, or to play through the second half by chat on Discord. We went with the latter.

I set it up as follows; a dedicated Discord Text channel, a dice bot, rollem. I then posted the description of a scene perhaps a picture or handout, along with an indication of any potential dice rolls that were needed. I used markdown to signify in-character and out-of-character speak or mechanics.

I then used hammertime for the deadline to post (24 hours), including a countdown. When the deadline was reached I would react to the actions of the players, perhaps calling for dice rolls and then summarising the key stat changes - stability, health.

I’ve just started a new campaign, run by Martin. It’s a fantastic take on Swords of the Serpentine, using Martin’s knowledge of the Byzantium Empire circa 1450.

I play Miguel Dias, a member of The Order of Christ, which holds the remnants of the Knight’s Templar. Of Portuguese descent, Miguel is an explorer, now down on his luck and looking for coin and secrets to uncover in the streets of Constantinople.

At Christos’ wine bar, he finds Exi and Atticus and invites himself to help them investigate the forgery and illegal production of books from the royal library.

Game or Gamer you’ll miss.

This is an odd prompt, but I’ll make a case for Golden Heroes.

It’s probably more accurate to say, “The game I miss”. Golden Heroes was I think one of the first games that I bought myself, rather than use second-hand from my brother or friend (AD&D, Gamma World) or got as a gift (Tunnels & Trolls, Traveller), yes it was my hard-earned cash as a teen (birthday money from gran!).

Person you’d like to game with.

I will go with KARTAS (Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff), I don’t mind if it is Ken Hite or Robin Laws, but one of them has to GM.

Having listened to the above podcast for many years, I’m always impressed with the stories from Ken and Robin, either how they’ve improvised an adventure as a GM, or taken an adventure in a weird and unique direction through their play.

Awesome App.

As a constant organiser of RPG games on Discord, I’ve selected Hammertime.

Hammertime does one thing and does it really well, it allows you to select a date and/or time and generate a code. This code can be posted into a Discord message and everyone will see the date and time in their timezone.

GREAT GAMER GADGET.

Let’s embrace technology and say the Virtual TableTop (VTT). Now I could easily say the internet, Skype, or any other tools, but I’ll take it to the extreme.

When I first came back to the hobby in 2015, after a break of 25 years or so, it was made possible by 1. reaching a certain point in life where things had calmed somewhat 2. the release of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition and 3. VTTs, specifically Roll20 and that little thing the internet.

MARVELLOUS MINIATURE.

Kudos to Morgue Miniatures Fabio Vollono and Julie’s wonderful array of eclectic RPG minis.

I’ve particularly enjoyed their range of mouse critters, but they also did some fantastic Tales from the Loop adjacent 80s kids.

SUPERB SCREEN.

Again, I’m not big on stuff like this, but a mini-screen was appealing for con trips, and okay, I’m not the biggest Mörk Borg fan, but this is gorgeous.

It’s also a game where a few prompts can go a long way. So whilst it’s not that useful for a complex set of rules to look at because it’s dead simple, it does help if there are a few random tables for inspiration.

DESIRABLE DICE.

Okay, I’m not a big dice fetishist, so I’ll keep it simple. If and when I next play 13th Age face-to-face, I’ll put together a very large photo cube/escalation die.

There is a great example of one here from Pelgrane Press.

ACCLAIMED ADVICE.

Following the work of one Paul Baldowski, I’ve picked up several gaming approaches that align with what I enjoy and get out of TTRPGs.

I first came across Paul’s work with his standout RPG, The Dee Sanction.

PEERLESS PLAYER.

Incredible fun sitting back and watching the performance of Mr Spike aka Mike Percival Maxwell, who played a mild-mannered antiquarian, Percy Blake, who had lycanthropic tendencies who was mainly concerned with finding a replacement for his frequently torn tweed suits.

This occurred in a fantastic Liminal game from Jonathan that threw up Mancunian vibes alongside Quatermass and ancient English legends, wonderful stuff.

Notable Non-Player Character.

I'll go for Meepo, a kobold from Tales from the Yawning Portal, specifically The Sunless Citadel.

We discovered him pining for his pet dragon Calcyrx and though we treated him with disdain his weedy appearance and trusting nature won us over (helped by an excellent voice performance from our GM).

CLASSIC Campaign.

So many to choose from but I'll plump for The Two-Headed Serpent for Call of Cthulhu 7e.

We ran this over a year, our Sunday group reliving Call of Cthulhu after a break of 40 odd years for some of us.

AMAZING ADVENTURE.

Let’s combine the Fabled Lands with Tunnels and Trolls, let’s arm the GM with a Gandalf-sized tome of campaign and adventure information and let’s bring in three of his regular roleplaying group to supplement the two con newbies.

So Tunnels and Trolls was a big nostalgic rush, I’d got my parents to get this for me one Christmas when I was 10 or 11. My brother laughed at the “silly-sounding spells” and “stupid maths stuff”! But it felt personal to me, perhaps a bit more approachable, less serious than D&D and that art by Liz Danforth, whoa mama!

SENSATIONAL SESSION.

I’m going to go for something from The Yellow King RPG, the RPG of supernatural horror based on the works of Robert W. Chambers. This session is from the Paris section of Cassilda’s Song (Robin D. Laws's four-book campaign, which will be coming when it’s ready from Pelgrane Press.

I can’t give too much away as it is a playtest and may be very different when it gets a commercial release. I know, I know, well done Jim for choosing something you can’t comment on! But maybe I can give a flavour.

MEMORABLE MOMENT OF PLAY.

It’s been hard to top the exit of two players from Eternal Lies.

We’d played Eternal Lies until Chapter two, but unfortunately, three of our players had to take a break, this unfortunately meant the permanent hiatus of Eternal Lies… but it WILL return, one day.

AN ENGAGING RPG COMMUNITY.

There can be only one for me, The Grognard Files.

Coming back to the RPG hobby in 2015, that year or maybe a little later, introduced me to The Grognard Files podcast, I quickly went back and devoured the first episodes that mixed cosy nostalgia with a reawakening of a previously dormant life, I was Robert De Niro in Awakenings, to Dirk and Blythy’s Robin Williams, that movie ended badly, didn’t it?

QUICK TO LEARN.

I’m going to go for Index Card RPG, I try and play new games every now and again, but I rarely come across a game where it clicks all at once, yes, I am slow.

I played Index Card RPG for the first time at 2023 Grogmeet, run brilliantly by Neil Old Scouse Roleplayer.

GREAT CHARACTER GEAR.

I really struggled with this, I’m not a power gamer and I tend to enjoy RPGs where I am just an average Joe or Josephine, so games where I have loads of cool gear, leave me a bit meh.

Still, it’s RPGaDAY so I’ve got to come up with something, so it’s The Hand of Vecna.