This year was my first time attending Gaelcon and I can say for certain that it will be the first of many...

Gaelcon 2005 Review

This year was my first time attending Gaelcon and I can say for certain that it will be the first of many. This article will be a journal of my experience at Gaelcon as it would be impossible for one person to write a review of the entire event as there were so many things going on.

Friday

After a Munchkin filled train journey Ben, Johnny, Hugh and myself arrived at Dublin station. Our first task was to check out the venue and make sure we knew where it was, the place in question was Clontarf Castle. The venue had two main plus points, firstly it is a hotel which obviously has plenty of experience in hosting large events, and secondly – it’s a bloody castle! What could be more perfect for a gaming convention than a castle? In the hotel bar we bumped into Brian, who I believe is the con treasurer. He was obviously incredibly busy organising everything for the following day but he still had time to have a bit to eat with us and share stories of conventions past and present. We returned to our B&B for a wild party which involved a game of Illuminati, the South Park movie and Meet The Parents. I had to sleep on the floor but it was actually rather comfortable. I’ll not to tell you the things Ben did but let’s just say he’s seriously addicted to the internet.

Saturday

When we arrived at Clontarf Castle we were met by an already sizable crowd waiting for registration to open. Luckily, once they did set up the registration desk the queue seemed to form around us and we didn’t have long to wait until we were inside. The main convention hall was arranged in a logical fashion, with trading stalls along the walls and gaming tables in the centre. About half the tables were dedicated to wargames such as Warhammer, other games involving big robots and a terribly complex looking recreation of the Battle of Gettysburg. The other half of the tables were either reserved for organisations attending the con or left free for attendees to use when they wanted.

We hadn’t been there long when Ben and Johnny locked target on a nice little board game called Twilight Imperium which was duly purchased for the club to enjoy. I was drawn to a game based on Civilization but when I returned later to buy it I was disappointed to find it gone. I hope the completely innocent stranger who bought it chokes on one of the pieces! (Not really of course… well, just a little.)

All four of us entered the Dungeons & Dragons competition held that morning. We split up to increase the chances of bringing home the glory for Dragonslayers, Johnny and I ended up in the same group while Ben and Hugh were playing in the other two. The adventure was a pretty standard affair with all the party members trying to screw each other over to achieve a few personal objectives. My halfling rogue’s objectives were to steal a priceless gem and somehow kill my partner, whilst Johnny’s dwarven cleric seemed determined to destroy the gem. Fortunately for me he failed! I managed to survive and get my hands on a slightly scratched gem with the help of a cowardly dwarf played by a nice guy called Eamon (at least I think he was called Eamon, I really should remember his name since we ended up married the next day). I enjoyed the game mostly because the other players were a good bunch that knew how to have a laugh, stabbing people in the back is also a lot of fun! The game was marred slightly however by the rules that were used to run it, for example the character sheets had no skills or feats and most the characters’ AC’s were wrong. So while the game was a lot of fun to play in I personally believe the game would have been more fun if I’d been able to play a ‘complete’ character rather than just rolling checks based on ability scores. I asked the DM about this and he said the reason was that at the previous con they had had a lot of beginners enter the D&D competition so they had decided to keep it simple this year. I’m not sure if keeping it that simple was a good idea though.

The afternoon brought more competitions to enter and Ben and I decided that a LARP based on the WWE sounded like fun. The wrestling crowd headed to a room somewhere deep in the hotel where we were allocated characters from the world of World Wrestling Entertainment. I was to play The Heartbreak Kid himself Shawn Michaels who has very oddly become a minister since the last time I watched any wrestling - which was clearly a long time ago. My mission was to convert the sinners of the WWE to my way of thinking (by picking fights). Ben had to play Eddie Guerrero whose objective was to steal cars or something. The game had many high points, most notably the Undertaker’s head getting popped (he a brush with a balloon for a head) and half the cast being murdered. The combat system was based on rock-paper-scissors but why do that when you can just push people over?! The event was ultimately won by Ray Mysterio but to be fair he was wearing a mask, there’s no way anyone could compete with that.

That night was time for the Gaelcon Pub Quiz, which was held in the main hall making the transition from gaming to quizzing all the less painful. The quiz was very well done with plenty of visual rounds on a large projector screen but also plenty of gaming questions. If you ever need to know anything about games then just ask Johnny, we would’ve been lost with his scary knowledge of the gaming world. Sadly we were robbed of victory due to quite a few teams getting more points than us. Scandalous. Post-quiz we headed to a quiet little bar in Dublin called Fibber’s where a fancy dress party was being held for Gaelcon attendees. Ben turned up dressed in a pretty nifty Batman costume, especially considering he made it out of stuff be bought in a shop in just a few hours. I have many photos of the party which will hopefully see the light of day on the website soon.

Sunday

Sunday arrived and slightly hungover we headed from our B&B back to the mystical world of Clontarf Castle. During the morning I took part in the Call of Cthulu competition where I played Stephen Ob Den Knacker (yes really), the manager of a Brussels S&M club and host to a nasty brain eating alien insect. I managed the club along with my wife Siobhan who was played by a nice guy with a beard called Eamon. Anyway, people died, brains were eaten and everyone else was arrested or horribly killed. I however managed to escape - wounded but alive. Sadly I failed my objective (enslaving humanity or something) but I've gained a reputation as someone who will send you to your death without a thought! The Cthulu competition again didn’t use the standard rules with a d20 system being used instead, while I still had a lot of fun with the whole roleplaying aspect of the game I felt that the mechanics being used to run it were not quite right.

Sunday afternoon brought my first game of Twilight Imperium. From a distance it looks very complicated but once you start playing you realise that, yes, it actually is very complicated but mightily addictive. I predict many days will be lost playing it in the future. The evening approached and we were slowly edged from our table for the Gaelcon Charity Auction. The auctioneer was MIB’s Colm Lundberg and I must say it was rather amazing. In the end I believe they raised over €30 thousand for charity with Colm Lundberg displaying a natural talent for extracting money from people. Gaelcon and the people who bid on items should be congratulated on this, it’s quite an achievement. I would have bid on some stuff but sadly as a poor student most of it was out my league.

Monday

On Monday we made a big mistake, we played Twilight Imperium instead of getting involved in the joys of Gaelcon. Not only did I not enter a few competitions I had planned too but I missed my chance to blow cash on some gaming goodies at the trade stalls. What a waste of a day, we didn’t even get the game finished!

The day ended with the prize giving and you should be happy to know that your President Ben won the DnD competition and your Senior Gamesmaster Hugh won the Civil War GURPs competition. Once again, Dragonslayers conquers all! To finish the night the con director was made to neck a bottle of vodka, very entertaining it was as well.

Overall I’d have to say that Gaelcon was a lot of fun with a good mix of games available to play. Wargames seemed to be especially well represented in the main hall with the various LARP events proving popular. Although the RPG gaming was a little muddled it was still enjoyable, perhaps it could’ve done with a few more organised RPG competitions. Perhaps the best part of Gaelcon was the atmosphere which was helped by the crowd which consisted of the young go-getting gamers such as myself as well as the old people – like Hugh (just kidding!). The con-staff were always there to help as were the Clontarf Castle staff, who seemed to enjoy the whole event greatly. I made many new friends/enemies at Gaelcon and had lots of laughs, so I will definitely be there for next year!