Audio Recording this blog post is written from

TLDR: Back from Contingency, a lovely residential roleplaying convention in Sunny Hunny. Played and ran a bunch of games including Brindlewood Bay, Shinobigami, For the Queen, and Liminal Horror. Had some important realisations about modern safety tools—particularly the "lay-off/bring-it-on" mechanic borrowed from LARP combat for emotional scenes. The hobby has matured beautifully since the problematic old days, and I'm grateful for it. Also, a friend brought her baby, and it was delightful.

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I'm back from Contingency and I want to briefly capture my thoughts about it all. Contingency is a lovely role-playing convention that I disappear to once a year in Sunny Hunny for a week of role-playing. It is genuinely a highlight of my year.

Arrival and Setup

We arrived on Tuesday night in time for slot zero. Minor train delays, but the pickup service was lovely. I say pickup service—really, it's the organiser's dad and he's an absolute darling. It's organised on a simple spreadsheet and they called us on the train because, of course, British Rail had once again decided that running the service as advertised is, well, optional.

We arrived safe and sound to find friends and greet them all and equip our little lodge by the seaside with as much food and resources as we would need for a week of mathematical and magical role-playing.

Wednesday morning is slots one, two, and three, and then every day after is incrementing, as you would expect, until Sunday.

Wednesday: Work and Brindlewood Bay

Wednesday morning, I had some work to do. As you might see, we have some big things happening this week at Flammable Penguins, the games company that my wife and I and some friends run. And yeah, a lot of things are happening there, but that did, unfortunately, mean Wednesday morning was dedicated somewhat to work activities.

Additionally, I didn't have any preparation time prior to the convention, so some final nuts and bolts and printouts and designs had to be done for the games I planned to run.

However, not all was lost. By the evening, I had located my slot in a Brindlewood Bay game. It was a delightful time playing a module I'd played before called Dad Overboard.

Brindlewood as an investigation system is one I rather enjoy because it is what is called improvisational investigation—you go into a scene and you get clues and there are mechanics and such, but the setup, well predetermined, does not lead to a conclusive solution to the mystery. Through your various gathering of seeded clues that are somewhat vague, the group decides to weave a narrative, and the dice at the end succeed or fail in your uncovering of the truth or layer in complication. It's a broadly adorable game.

We played with three players at the table, and while it was not the strongest table I'd played at, nor the strongest GM, it was a delightful game and fun was had by all.

Of course, this game wraps up around near midnight. We go back to the lodge and share stories of the various games we have found and games we have booked in the next session.

Thursday: Cards, Coins, and Shinobigami

Thursday was a busy one for me as I was playing in someone's game with a friend of mine who is in the lodge with me. I was running a new Japanese TTRPG that I found, and I had not yet explored the Japanese role-playing scene. More on that later.

And finally, in the evening, I was playing Getting Away With Murder, designed by a dear friend, as an opportunity to catch up with him.

The Card-Based Mystery

Thursday rolls around, and we played in Versailles as investigators for a fraudulent coin mystery. The system itself was adequate in the broad strokes, however, the delightful and core mechanic of drawing cards instead of rolling dice was rather lovely.

That is not to say they merely replaced dice with cards. Instead, at the start of every day, you draw two cards, and you kind of know what your hand is like. A bad hand, however, is not a bad thing. My initial hand was absolutely terrible, but I just role-played my character being a bit hungover as she showed up to the job, and it layered in a sense of role-play. And you can use these bad cards with abilities to help others. So they are not without their benefit.

The shape of the cards shapes your days in a conscious, non-random way. Heavy usage of dials, wheels, or counters—however you want to call them—in the style of Blades in the Dark, leads on through an investigation with a predetermined ending. However, your path, much like many video game narratives, is very narrow at the beginning and narrow at the end, and wide in the middle. How you get to the ending is up to you, but there is largely a predetermined ending which you can succeed and fail at.

The card mechanic is one I have been exploring in my own time, and I have also been exploring with pre-rolled dice. So this particular coin-based game, or rather card-based game about fake coins, was a delight and a genuine joy. I had a friend at the table, and overall the table was particularly strong, so we had a very good time.

Shinobigami: Japanese TTRPG Discovery

This leads into my first running slot: Shinobigami. I shall double-check the spelling on that.

It is a Japanese TTRPG that is popular enough that it has been translated to English. I have to say, despite being a role player for many decades at this point, and confessingly somewhat of a weeb, none of my friends—who are much bigger weebs than me, or less weebs, and people who have lived in Japan and are roleplayers—have ever really mentioned a Japanese roleplaying scene.

I have since uncovered a wealth of systems and mechanics that are not common over on our side of the world, and it is heavily influenced by the doujin, or self-publishing culture there. They publish their RPGs much more in the format of manga and light novels than in the format of our roleplaying books. That, combined with some unique mechanics, means it is something I desperately want to explore this year.

Starting off with this popular game, it is a shounen ninja game set in a modern setting that perfectly captures that wild, swingy nature of Naruto and all of its shounen ninja derivatives up to the more mature stuff.

Mechanics like an unblockable, perfect, first-time attack that shall always succeed, very much capture the genre. However, if anyone has observed this attack, it is then counterable in future encounters, or if they gather information on it from your usage of it in a scene. That, combined with positive and emotional bonds (which could be also negative), and various sort of webs of encounters, and the inability to die outside of the climax, really mechanically lends itself to the thematic shape of shounen anime.

So that was a rather delightful discovery with a very strong table of friends. We played in the lodge, I knew every player, and it came to a delightful conclusion. The module design itself—this is the "dagger that kills gods" module that is suggested as an introduction module. We played the player-versus-player version, as that seemed to scale up to a larger group better.

It has a different design in that the pre-designed characters actually have blank sections on their character sheets to insert player name X for your various secret motivations. This delightful bit of freedom led to a situation where all the players largely succeeded in the end and helped each other succeed, despite in some cases beating each other to death and then reviving each other. It was a very strange web of events that I shan't fully describe in case you wish to play the module. However, it was the perfect conclusion to a lovely story.

Getting Away With Murder

In the evening, I played my friend Thad's Getting Away With Murder game. It is a board card role-playing game heavily influenced by the likes of Fiasco. A murder mystery that is mechanically very interesting, but is largely a framework for improvisational storytelling of a traditional murder.

I've spoken and written about it in the past before. However, it is an extremely well-designed game that you can find at the Getting Away With Murder website as a digital playable. I once again have encouraged him to do a Kickstarter and a print run, because the game at the moment supplies a printed home version, but desperately needs a high-quality production run, as it is something I would happily run for friends and have done on more than one occasion.

However, the printed home version is rather tedious. The digital version is very well put together, though. That is what you get for trying to launch a board game at the start of lockdown.

Friday: For the Queen and Exploration

This leads the sun to Friday, and admittedly, I left out that the night was spent up late, the slow cooker was brought, so many healthy meals were had, and sleep is an optional activity at a convention.

Friday was a rather full day, though I did have the evening free to catch up with friends.

James Mullen's For the Queen

In the morning, I head off to a James Mullen game, which in the best of traditions, starts an hour later than everything else. It started at 10am, and I cannot express how much I adore James for this later start.

We played improvisational storytelling—you might have noticed a trend here—a card game called For the Queen. It is a very popular game, but I had yet to play it. And I was sitting down at a table stacked with familiar faces. Very good role players who we all knew wanted to push the limits.

What followed was, instead of a traditional story, an in-depth retelling that occupied the entire slot, which was meant to be enough space for two rounds, involving a cyberpunk queen, a space whale religion, and a decaying empire. The space whale turning into a holy grail-esque quest, a mysterious woodcutter, and an alien introduction into court, as the decaying human empire—ruling over a multitude of aliens, stagnant for millennia with their long-lived bioscience—holds on to the last scrap of the old earth in a forest, guarded by an old, mysterious woodcutter.

Leading ultimately to a climax that was thrilling, satisfying, and a narrative I have yet to get out of my head. I have taken many notes, and I shan't be surprised if I do something with those notes in the future.

Anime Combat Exploration

This led on to my first real planned game, as the Japanese Shinobigami was very much a distraction from research, shall we say.

I am running three games—well, I ran four, but the plan was to run three games around similar concepts. So I shan't dive into it too much. Needless to say, we are close to shipping our first game, and there are some ideas I have about our next game narratively, and I really wanted to explore them through three mechanical lenses.

The first of these three games was a traditional anime-inspired (hence my research) combat kind of exploration adventure with a bit of mystery. The key thing here, though, is that the mechanics are what you would expect in a role-playing game, and the protagonists were in control and powered with a genuine, more likely-than-not chance of succeeding against the paranormal forces against them.

The game ran extraordinarily well, and I was very happy. I was extremely excited to bring these ideas out of the back of my brain and explore them. I cannot, with enough love, express my joy and thankfulness to that table for indulging this bit of experimentation. Though I think fun was had by all.

Evening with Friends

This led into an evening of catch-up with friends that was, well, really the highlight of the con. Catching up with friends across the various cons every year is a touchpoint. And these very close friends, who I normally see more frequently, I had not seen much of in the last year.

So to the pub we go and watch and chat and talk about singularity theory, AI, quantum physics, simulation, and whether or not certain adaptations of media are successful. Which did very much lead into watching Night of the Seven Kingdoms. I have been told the introduction to the first two episodes has been heavily discussed online. I can see why. I don't think I will be following the show. However, it has enticed me to read the short stories.

Saturday: Brindlewood Hacks and Horror

Now, Saturday I had two games to run.

Carved from Brindlewood

The second exploration of these narrative concepts I wanted to explore was using a variation of Brindlewood Bay—what online is called "Carved from Brindlewood." I hacked and slashed the mechanics to fit into a boarding school paranormal investigation.

Pulling that out for a very, very lovely table who genuinely got their fingers into it was an utter delight. I did get a little bit of feedback that at one time I pushed back on the paranormal side a little too strongly. However, overall, the game was strongly enjoyed.

And while it didn't add as much to my explorations of the narrative concepts, it gave me a shape in my head that I definitely want to file the way for characters. It also allowed me to really confirm the flexibility and joy of the investigation improv system that Brindlewood is built around. And it is definitely something I will be returning to in the future.

I then had a break between games, something I thought I desperately needed, and I did. Which involved napping, prepping for my last game, which was rather a big one. But ultimately, the slot was quite long. So off I went to purchase dice, catch up with friends again, and generally potter about for the four to five hours in between games.

Liminal Horror: Deep Exploration

This led into the final slot I was running and the climax usually of the con—Saturday evening.

This led into a 25-plus mature game where I was exploring deep psychological horror and the concepts of victimhood or being powerless. Again, around the same concepts and mechanics that the empowered module with an anime tone and the light-hearted comedy investigation paranormal at a boarding school module used with the improvisational investigation.

This absolute exploration into horror and victimhood was powered by the Liminal Horror system, or rather the SRD version of that, which I had adapted.

Overall, the game was intense. The players were very good. And at the conclusion, it did seem people really enjoyed themselves. And I felt very satisfied in the exploration.

Reflections on Safety Tools

However, in the debrief and aftercare, I discovered a lot of weaknesses.

First of all, it has to be said, and it is a longer conversation for another time, that as an old role player, a lot of what I shall call my "trauma games" were run in the age before safety tools—when, well, our naive selves and our problematic culture, especially around the second edition days, led to games probably which should not have been run in formats that were harmful to individuals. After all, this is a game.

Modern safety tools such as the X-Card, pausing the game at any time, being able to walk away from table, and other veils and lines tools are extremely useful and provide a safe environment to explore.

However, my home game has been running at a lower age rating for the last few years than I am used to. I would say my comfortable range for role playing and campaign games, as a preference, is in what I would call the 16 to 18 age range. Fun, not too traumatising, but with enough grit to get into conflict in the human condition. However, you run for the players you have and to maximise fun for all.

My home game started out in a pub with complete new players during COVID and continued over the last four years. The table has largely settled for the last two years or so into what I would call a PG-13 or slightly lower rating. While we do sometimes explore adult concepts, the method by which we do it is more in the Saturday morning cartoon or similar genre.

So to say I was rusty to pull up these extreme horror mechanisms, and extremely nervous as I had not done so since I'd been introduced to the modern robust safety tools, made me very nervous of overstepping bounds.

The Lay-Off / Bring-It-On Mechanic

That abundance of caution and care made me stifle some of the player-to-player interactions and really clip the wings of the potential exploration the characters could have done. And the players found that a bit frustrating. Everyone did have fun, but that limitation was clearly expressed to me.

The post-game discussion was extremely useful. However, the post-post-game discussion with my friend and long-time experienced GM—who is a bit younger than me, but is also working in a field that gives him a lot of insight and has a diversity into modern buffer LARPs and LARPs generally that I don't have—was invaluable.

I am a big fan of Vampire LARPs and what I would call the dinner LARP or the pub LARP. I have largely found myself unable to engage in the British scene overall. And games like Empire, which my friends thoroughly enjoy, I have had no desire to attend. I have attended buffer LARPs, but very much not for me.

Of course, they have a different set of safety tools, mostly around physicality. What interested me in my discussion with him was that these safety tools that were originally designed for physicality have been used in drama scenes.

Most noticeably, the lay-off and bring-it-on mechanic. That is to say, in combat, people sometimes say "lay-off" or some variant to say, "go easy on me because I'm a bit tender." Or "bring-it-on"—"I want to whack you really hard and be whacked really hard."

And this is translated over to the emotional scenes.

I think this player-engaged volume control, which I have seen in other settings, is a useful tool and would have been the perfect tool for this mature group of adults sitting around who had known and engaged with content warnings into a horror game where they wanted to explore the dark parts of humanity. And I genuinely would embrace their future use.

The Right Tool for the Moment

The other bit of important insight he gave me was about a particular scene that frustrated one of my players, where I stepped in using in-game narrative to control the emotional state because I was worried that one of the players was a bit close to breaking. This was the incorrect handling of it.

While my desire to keep my players safe was good, the correct tool to reach for was not in-game narrative, but the above-table safety tool. And if I had brought the above-table safety tool to bear, it would not have redirected the narrative, it would have brought the players more comfort that the safety tools were there to be used, and it would have provided the players a chance to say, "bring it on, I want to explore this."

So, that was a thorough and good lesson.

Sunday: Burning Wheel

Finally, Sunday morning rolled around for a quiet game of Burning Wheel, which was a slow start and an early finish as we had to hop on the train.

Playing in my friend's game is a delight, and genuinely, that game is an ongoing one, which brings me happiness, joy, and a character archetype I rarely play. In fact, it is a character archetype I think I have never played before.

A naive little mage that, if the party was not working effortlessly, constantly, to keep me alive, would have resulted in her death in the first session and every session thereafter. Playing such a naive and innocent character with, shall we say, the expected lifespan of a mayfly is very much not something I have explored in-depth in a campaign. I have done it in one-shots. And getting the opportunity to play in a campaign as a forever GM is genuinely a pleasure.

So I look forward to moving on with that game this year. Though, while the game has always been in person, we did discuss moving some of that campaign digitally. Something you may know I have been hesitant to do in the past. However, I think in this case it will work.

Final Thoughts

One last note before I sign off on this delightful adventure.

As we ran off to the train, which ran as expected, largely—though once again, the service as advertised did not operate, and we had to redirect around King's Cross—instead of getting a taxi, we motivated ourselves by saying, if we don't get a taxi, we can arrive home to a lovely dish of poke. Which we did.

P.S. The Evolution of the Hobby

Conventions and role-playing are one of the best things in my life. I do want to write about it more. I do want to talk about it more. Especially now that I'm running a games company. I think it gives me some space and opportunity to maybe do things I didn't have space to do in the past. Despite being excessively busy at the moment.

And finally, I do want to talk about safety tools and narrative overall. I may have sounded overly critical of the "bad old days," as I call them. They did form who I am. And I have some wonderful, as well as extremely traumatic, experiences from that time.

And I do not so much blame the people of the time. You must remember, for people of a certain age, the internet was extremely new. I have grown up on the internet, but I grew up initially on BBSs and MUDs and things of that nature. And most players growing up, pretty much into the third edition of D&D in 3.5, didn't have as much internet tooling around.

The third edition of D&D was really the first edition where the internet made an impact. And convention culture was really starting to feed back into things.

The early days, people, usually kids, picked up these books in isolation, read up, and did what they could with their friends and ran them. And given the nature of socially awkward teens reaching for D&D books, not everyone engaged in the healthiest behaviours. And the self-reinforcement of five-year and decade-long campaigns and filtering out those who found it a little bit creepy or awkward led to some darker corners.

P.P.S Babies at the Table

One last note. A dear friend, who was pregnant at the last convention, brought her baby this year. And it was lovely. I'm not someone who is fond of babies myself or any desire to be a mother. But it was delightful to see the child there.

Oh, I say child. Little, squirming, wriggling baby. That it is.

And my friend was somewhat nervous about bringing the baby to the table. They had made a bunch of arrangements—considerative and well-attentive parents they are. However, we did constantly reassure them that we would not mind the baby around for most of the games. And I think most people would be fine with it.

And this, combined with the invention of safety tools and the general family and wholesome and maturing of the hobby, the exploration of actual play online, and the general upgrading of the hobby and the empathy increase in the hobby, have been the most pleasurable things to witness.

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So I hope you have a safe, enjoyable and open table. And I hope you explore your local, in-person events.

Digital is bringing us together. But there is nothing quite like being in a room with mathematical fun.

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Links

Games Mentioned

• Brindlewood Bay - Cozy murder mystery RPG
  
• Shinobigami - Japanese modern ninja battle RPG
  
• For the Queen - Card-based collaborative storytelling
  
• Getting Away With Murder - Murder mystery board/card/RPG hybrid
  
• Liminal Horror - Modern cosmic horror RPG
  
• Burning Wheel - Character-driven fantasy RPG
  
• Blades in the Dark - Scoundrel heist RPG
  
  

Safety Tools

• X-Card by John Stavropoulos
  
  

Convention

• Contingency UK - Residential roleplaying convention in Hunstanton