The European Toy Fair, Belgium 's biggest games convention was held on the 16 th and 17 th of October. A delegation of Privateer Press would be there so we went out of our way to promote Warmachine and The Iron Kingdoms as best as we could. Brian Snoddy and Jason Soles were present and were joined a bit later by Matt Wilson and Sherry Yeary.
We, the Buccaneers, were lucky enough to get a sponsor to hick up the dough and we got our own booth, next to Privateer's booth. Our purpose was to run some demos for The Iron Kingdoms RPG and we wanted our booth to look a bit like an inn (not just any other inn, the Inn -- tom). So we headed to a second-hand store and got some bottles, cups, mugs, . to make it look as real as possible. Our friend Arjaan even managed to sneak in some pistols, rifles and a sword from the LARP-ers and we brought a projector and put up a slideshow on one of the walls.
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| The Buccaneer Bass setup |
Buccaneer waiters Tom and Ralph awaiting the first customers |
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Buccaneer Tom pledging allegiance to the Jolly Roger |
We had two scenarios which we would run at the convention. One was our already published adventure "Raid at Rannigh's Cliff", the other was our brand new "Jack of all Sides", based on an adventure seed which we received via our website. This new adventure got us into trouble right before the convention as during playtesting we discovered we needed about 2 hours to play through the first of the 3 scenes we wrote. So we had to cut it short and still it's duration at the convention was about 3 hours.
Rannigh's Cliff was run once on Saturday and about three times on Sunday. Jack of all Sides was played three times on Saturday and once on Sunday. So we had a comfortably busy schedule and our tables were filled pretty much the whole day. Luckily we could count on our guest-DM Koen (Kenshi, on the boards) to fill in when our throats were soar.
Buccaneer Steven educating the masses
In between the adventures, Buccaneer Tom found some room for heroics himself. He challenged Jason Soles' Cryx forces for an epic battle of Warmachine on Saturday and won. On Sunday, Jason wanted a rematch but Tom's Khadoran troops stomped him again.
Buccaneer Tom battling Jason Soles as the crowd (Buccaneer Ralph) goes wild.
Matt, Brian, Jason and Sherry proved to be very very amiable people, enthusiastic about all the support they got and always ready for a chat or a signature.
Brian Snoddy signing some books
Golden Goblin Pol, Buccaneer Ralph and Privateer Press president Sherry
Yeary discussing politics, art and Barbie dolls.
At the end of the second day, it was time for surprises. The Buccaneers were gathered and were presented with a leather-bound copy of the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide. In return we handed out T-shirts to Matt, Brian, Jason and Sherry and offered them a good sip of Sowles Brew.
Buccaneer and T-shirt vendor Koen handing out our Buccaneer Bass T-shirts.
From left to right: Buccaneers Steven, Koen, Ralph and Tom, Privateer Press president
Sherry Yeary, PP founder Matt Wilson, PP founder Brian Snoddy,
PP Rules guru Jason Soles
On last year's Gamesworld convention, Jason Soles left an impression.
And so we dedicated our Sowles Brew to him.
Drink like you got a pair. Or how Matt Wilson passed out after a few
sips of Sowles Brew. (Actually he was doing an imitation of a drunk Jason
Soles, skilfully assisted by Brian Snoddy who did the voice imitation).
The Crew : top left to right: Buccaneer Ralph, Guest-DM Koen, Golden Goblin Maarten, Press Ganger Gert, Mathijs, Golden Goblin Yves, Golden Goblin Tim, Matt Wilson, Sherry Yeary, Arne, Jason Soles, Buccaneer Tom. Bottom left to right: Buccaneers Koen and Steven, Golden Goblin Peter, Brian Snoddy.
A sword. My kingdom for a sword. Oh, it's a Pokemon sticker.
- During the Rannigh's cliff adventure, the players catch some bogrin in the act of stealing a warjack cortex. One of the players decided to shoot the cortex instead of the bogrin. Bad Cortex !!
- During the Jack of all sides scenario, the players encounter the Butcher. One of the players took a shot at him so Zoktavir replied with the bombard of one of his jacks. The bombard bullet, however, never got near the players as it was levitated by the mage and dropped on a bunch of Khadoran winterguard.
- Same scenario, same gutsy move by the rifleman.
Same reaction by The Butcher.
Only this time the Bombard shell did hit home.
Ouch.
- The cool one-liner that nobody picked up as the situation - almost literaly - exploded towards the end of "Jack of all Sides":
Why doesn't this ever happen to Bruce Willis?
- Here is a tip what to do when the guards grow suspicious.
Characters are under disguise. Since they seemed a bit undecisive and were losing time, I decided to put up the heat a bit and let one of the guards get a bit suspicious.
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Khador guard "Say, those aren't Khadoran boots you wear, are they?"
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Fast thinking player as Cygnaran Pistoleer in disguise "Nope, you know how it is with Khadoran army boots , they think everybody has big feet. Not really nice for a small woman like me.
Actually, I nicked these from a dead Cygnaran"
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Guard:"Ah, i see..."
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Pistoleer:"Yup, as a matter of fact, that's not the only thing I got from her. Check out this gun."
(Pulls a heavy, double barreled handgun and shows it to the guard)
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Guard:"Wow, can I see that?"
(After inspecting it he hands it back to her, handle first)
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Player to DM: "Ah, enough of this already. As he hands it back to me and is still holding the barrel, I pull the trigger."
- The players are all in disguise and crossing a Khadoran bridge. The Trollkin has to play the part of a prisoner they want to bring in.
The guard isn't very keen on letting them pass but quickly changes his mind as the players suggest to leave the trollkin with the guard.
As they pass the guard remarks that they sure caught a fatty and how he feels sorry for the horse the trollkin is riding.
Must have been the most relieved faces I saw during the whole weekend as they realized the short-tempered trollkin doesn't understand a word of the Khadoran language.
We are prolly forgetting a bunch of stuff, but there were so many fun and exciting bits that we can't put them all up here. You guys and girls were great. And there is always the . forum . you can use to remind us of your best moments :)
Buccaneer Ralph casting Blur on an unwary passer-by.
- Privateer Press for the leatherbound IKCG. Thank you so much, you have motivated us beyond words.
- Guest-DM Koen for helping us run the scenarios.
- Overall Good Guy and sponsor Arjaan for the booth, shirts, . This guy even traded one of the LARP-ers guns for a simple mug with our logo painted on it. You rule, Arjaan.
Ralph
