Just before Easter BITS (British Isles Traveller Support) arranged their tenth TravellerCon. And it was my first time as participator. I arrived at Redwings Lodge just outside Sawtry on Friday with high expectations. This was going to be a weekend with constant Traveller play.

The Venue

For one who is more used to larger hotels when it comes to conventions and meetings Redwings Lodge was small, but for the purpose of this convention it had the right size. The rooms was nice and maybe most importantly, it had a 24 hour open bar. Which for me is surprising for such an small hotel.

The Participants

I found that the British crowd was very very friendly and for a diverse group that the Traveller players are, there was little in the way of bickering between Traveller versions which we usually encounter on certain discussion groups. Which for me was a relief. I was here for the game, regardless of rules.

In all we were about 25 - 30 participants. However, sadly Lindsay had to leave early Saturday due to events outside his control. I hope you have better luck next year, Lindsay.

The players was clearly motivated to spend the weekend playing Traveller. Derrick had even brewed his special beer for the occasion. Many of the players has a long story from previous conventions and it is clear that TravellerCon are popular among the British Traveller fans.

As the only foreign participant (except for fellow Norwegian Jeremy) I felt as an outsider to begin with, but it wasn't hard to get to know the different people. And many where impressed that we had come all the way from Norway to play Traveller this weekend.

Prior to game start on Friday we went over to Spiceland just next to the convention hall and ate some good food to set the mood for the coming events.

Rolling dice

We started gaming already on Friday from about 8PM until pretty late. Saturday was filled with games. 4 tables was set up with 6 participants and one referee each. Throughout Saturday there was 12 games in all just broken up by vital necessities as food and toilet breaks.

The rules used in all the games, far as I could tell, was Mongoose Traveller. This was my first encounter with the rules in play.  Personally I don't care much for the MgT rules, but from my point of view the games was quite rules light and did flow fast and easy. The only game that actually took 2 days to resolve was Dom's game that started on Saturday and was finished on Sunday. It was summed up as Dom's attempt to her cats.

Miniatures one way or the other was used in most games with great effect. And there was no lack in imagination.

Personally I have rarely used miniatures in my games, mostly because I never had any that was quite right, or hardly ever ran combat encounters that needed some.

I sure got a few good hints on how to play Traveller as a Referee as this was the first time I played it as a player opposed to as a Referee. Simon was maybe the Referee that impressed me the most. He had good control over the game and had clearly prepared himself quite a lot prior to the sessions. His games ran smoothly and stayed focused throughout the sessions.

His session "Storm Warning" was maybe the best game I played followed by the session Andy ran on Sunday. One of my actions in Storm Warning earned me an award and a diploma I received on Sunday. I at least learned that a camera was just as good as a weapon as the next rifle.

Wrap Up

On Sunday we played one session. After the last game it was time to wrap up. Andy Lily which represented BITS and was the primus motor for the convention summed up the weekend and thanked everyone for our good behaviour (what do you not do for a good game of Traveller?).

Some awards was handed out. One for the best action during the weekend and one for the worst mess up during a mission. There was a short list for the first. I guess it is hard to do something spectacular and creative and succeed, while it is quite easy to do something that really messes up the situation. I was nominated in the first category, but I was just a die-roll from ending up in the latter a few times.

Yours truly won the award "Starburst of extreme Heroism" in recognition of "Bravery in the face of stupidity" In short I used my camera as a weapon against a security guard armed with an assault rifle.

Simon won the other award (the name name of it escapes me at the moment) for doing a secret assassination on live public television broadcast.

Conclusion

To say the least, this is maybe the best convention I ever has been on. Maybe only the 1992 GenCon in Milwaukee when TNE was announced surpassed this. But the gaming experience at TravellerCon are some of the best I have had. I will do my best to return next year and steal the award again if I can. I may even run a game of you allow me.

• BITS UK
• TravellerCon on Flickr