|
|
Gaming event gets on a fantastic roll
Original Article: Edinburgh Evening News.
Miranda Fettes
FOR the last month, prostitutes in Detroit have been found slashed to death in alleyways or outside their homes with macabre runes cut into their flesh. The murders have raised a hue and cry in the local press, but police investigations have got nowhere. Who, or what, is committing these gruesome deeds and why?
Sounds like the plot of the latest crime thriller but it’s not, and tracking down the killer is up to you.
Not that you’re an FBI agent or a member of the Detroit Police Department, rather you’re more likely to be a player in Conpulsion - a play on the words convention and compulsion - Edinburgh’s premier gaming convention, which is being held this weekend.
While the general perception of gaming enthusiasts may be a Dungeons and Dragons-inspired image of strange social misfits, its defenders say it is in fact a sophisticated and stimulating pastime which is enjoying a surge in popularity - in part due to the success of cinematic adventures such as Lord of the Rings, The Matrix and Minority Report.
The two-day event, being held at Teviot Row Union in Bristo Square, includes role-playing, card game tournaments including a Lord of the Rings event, wargames, board games and demonstration games, as well as bring-and-buy stalls, a charity auction and raffle, live bands, salsa and mamba with Fiesta Latina and a pub quiz.
Special guests are expected to include acclaimed fantasy artist April Lee, Games Gazette editor Chris Baylis, Judge Dredd artist Colin MacNeil, Games Workshop’s Inferno magazine illustrator Andy Hepworth and local author Elizabeth Kerner, who is published by Tor Publishing. They will also take part in Celebrity Pictionary.
Already massive in the United States and Germany, Conpulsion organiser Fiona Campbell says role-playing and gaming is growing all the time. She is expecting hundreds to attend the event, and says enthusiasts are travelling from as far afield as Ireland, Newcastle and Aberdeen especially for the weekend.
"There’s a wide variety of games on offer," she explains. "Some people might think we’re weird but we feel we’re much more in touch with our creativity and imagination than many people - we’re not that geeky. Role-playing is about working together and problem-solving and it’s a good way of team-building and conflict negotiation, but you’re using your imagination at the same time.
"If you look at the people who play it, you’ve got people who are high flyers in business or the computer games industry and they’re interested in keeping their creative side going. I think people are a lot more accepting that we need to look to the imaginative side of ourselves because if you don’t have a bit of imagination, you’ll never be inspired in life."
According to Fiona, the games work in similar fashions. Basically, you will have something to achieve such as solving a murder mystery or making an alliance with a particular country or achieving the holy grail of world peace - and all involve some form of diplomatic manoeuvring.
You might hunt vampires and other evil denizens of the night, if you’re in Middle Earth you might be a Hobbit, or if it’s in the future, you might be an alien, then you develop the character.
"It’s like when you sit and watch a movie and you go, ‘no, don’t do that; do this instead’," says Fiona. "When you start role-playing, you can do that. Live action role-playing is almost like you’re a cast in a show but you make the script up as you go along. It’s like improvised theatre."
Role-playing games over the weekend include a Star Trek game set in Oberon in the year 2378, a scientific mission to establish a colony on the planet Poseidon and a gothic horror science-fiction game called a/state, set in The City, a world of flickering gas lamps, rotting towerblocks, crumbling tenements and clanking railways, paranoia and anxiety.
Also in the line-up are collectable card games, collectable miniature games and live action role-playing games.
Meanwhile, the Waterloo Campaign, a war-game, will also be played today and tomorrow. The blurb for this one reads: "It’s 1815. Napoleon Bonaparte has escaped from Elba and reclaimed the throne of France, and again all Europe is marching against him. French, Anglo-Dutch and Prussian armies are massing near the Belgian border. Will the French divide and destroy their British and German adversaries or will the Allies triumph in the name of legitimate monarchy? YOU decide."
The weekend will culminate in a Golden Goblet Awards Ceremony, giving prizes for best costume (although you don’t need to dress up to attend) and other categories. "It’s a very wide range of creative and imaginative settings and scenarios that people can play in," smiles Fiona.
Just make sure you catch the Detroit ripper before he - or she - finds you
( Back to Conpulsion. )
|
|
