I've been asked to pass on an invitation for anyone from the CE who wants to run/demo games at Battlemasters this year.
For those who haven't heard of it, Battlemasters is an annual RPG con held in Leicester; this year it will be the 13th to the 15th of April.
It's a comparatively small con -- the first time I went, about four years ago, there were about 120 people there, but due to a lack of advertising, this fell to more like 60 last year. Apparently they're plugging it a bit more this year, so the number may start going up again.
The main focus is Living D&D and Call of Cthulhu, but not exclusively, and there has been interest in Indie games (I ran a successful game of Dogs in the Vineyard last year). Given the number of horror fans who go, I would have thought Cold City and Dead of Night would be easy sells at least.
Laurie Wignall, one of the organisers, has offered free admission for a CE demo team (although this still has to be rubber-stamped by the couple who bankroll the con), but with the limitation that this wouldn't extend to accommodation, which would be about £65 total for the Friday and Saturday nights. Given the proximity of some of you, though, it may be practical to get a presence there just from people close enough to make day trips.
If you want more information, the website is http://www.eurolog.org.uk/. Laurie can be contacted directly at laurie(at)eurolog.org, or, if you prefer, I can pass messages on to him.
While it's not the biggest con around, it's one at which I've had fun for the last few years, and it attracts some creative and open-minded gamers. It may be worth the investment of time for those in the Midlands who have that weekend free.
Thanks for passing on the
Submitted by Matt on Mon, 12/02/2007 - 19:20.
Thanks for passing on the invite Scott! I'll check my calendar and see, but Leicester is easily doable for me distance wise.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
Battlemasters Cancelled
Submitted by Scott Dorward on Mon, 05/03/2007 - 18:19.
I just received this, via a friend who was helping to organise the con:
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========Colleagues & Friends
It is with regret that because of low bookings we have decided to cancel Battlemasters 2007, which was due to take place 13th – 15th April 2007. All payments received for Battlemasters will be refunded in full. If you have any queries about this aspect please contact justine@eurolog.org.
The convention scene is changing, gamers get older and with increasing numbers with family commitments, along with a drop in the number of people attending conventions in general (SoCal cancelled), we have decided to have a Battlemasters and Eurolog on hiatus.
This is not to say that we shall never return, never say never, but after 17 years I think we are due a break.
City of Sokal and Araxis and the story so far, may be written up for all to read. The scenarios so far are vast, but a lot of work would be involved to put them into a useable state. They may be available at a later date for you to run for your players.
We would like to thank all of those who have helped throughout the years; not only the referees but those who have run game control, reception and security, you helped make Battlemasters uniquely fun, relaxed and professional.
Eurolog Team
Chris – chris@eurolog.org
Laurie – laurie@eurolog.org
Justine – justine@eurolog.org
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Apologies if anyone was planning on going -- I hope I didn't waste your time.
- Scott
That's not so good. It's
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Mon, 05/03/2007 - 18:21.
That's not so good. It's always sad to see a con get cancelled like that. Hopefully this won't discourage the organisers and others too much. I hope that at some point it will get ressurected.
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
And I thought it was a
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 06/03/2007 - 12:19.
And I thought it was a healthy time for the UK con scene - this year there are more small (and big) cons in the UK than for a long time. I guess there's a difference between lots of cons and lots of attendees.
It's a great time for Cons.
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Tue, 06/03/2007 - 16:33.
It's a great time for Cons. Battlemasters seemed to be incredibly badly organised, with pretty much zero information on the website and a forum full of questions from potential delegates which went unanswered by the organisers. When someone who isn't affiliated with the Con has to answer all the questions asked on the UKRoleplayers website, you know that says something about the organisation.
Rich is right
Submitted by Scott Dorward on Wed, 07/03/2007 - 13:20.
Rich is right on the money here. Battlemasters has suffered from poor promotion for the last few years. It used to get over a hundred attendees, but this has dropped steadily for the last few years, as not many people have been getting to hear about it. Last year, there were only about fifty delegates.
Most of the promotion for it has been done on either their own site or ukroleplayers. I know they'd made a bit more of an attempt this year, such as handing out flyers at Conception, but I've seen nothing about it in any other online venues.
One thing that helping to promote Concrete Cow has taught me is the importance of getting the word out as widely as possible, especially in Internet forums and mailing lists. I fear any con that fails to do this effectively is going to find its attendance dwindling.
Communication
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Wed, 07/03/2007 - 14:20.
Communication is the key and the problem here: I heard about Battlemasters and was vaguely interestedl. I went to the website and found that it was organised by some people calling themselves Eurolog who expected some sort of membership, obviously had some kind of World Of Warcraft habit and then mentioned in passing that oh yeah, we also do this thing called Battlemasters. So I looked for information about it and found bugger all of any use. Eventually I found some info about costs, which had a price for accommodation but no details of what that entailed (Was it a single room? Double? Was it nearby? Was it a hotel, a caravan or a tent guarded by Beefeaters?). No details of what was going to be going on (other than "Lots of games including Call Of Cthulu!"), how to run a game there etc etc.
Compare that to CONcrete Cow, where I heard about it from Neil's sig on RPG.Net, followed the link and learned all about what was going on there and decided to go. All the info was there for the taking and I bet that website only took 15 minutes to compose!