Introduction
TravCon09 is a UK
Traveller roleplaying convention
being organised by BITS. It will be
held near Sawtry (between Peterborough and Huntingdon
just off the A1M), on the weekend of 13 to 15 March
2009. There is space for about 30 attendees for a
great weekend of Traveller
roleplaying. Information on the available games will
be publicised over the coming weeks and we are
looking for volunteers to run games.
We look forward to meeting you at TravCon09.
Andy (BITS UK Limited) TravCon09@bits.org.uk
We look forward to meeting you at TravCon09.
Andy (BITS UK Limited) TravCon09@bits.org.uk
The Venue
TravCon09 is being held at:
Redwings Lodge
Old Great North Road
Sawtry
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire
PE28 5XP
Tel: 01487 830100
Fax: 01487 831700
Web: www.redwingslodge.co.uk
Redwings Lodge
Old Great North Road
Sawtry
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire
PE28 5XP
Tel: 01487 830100
Fax: 01487 831700
Web: www.redwingslodge.co.uk
Travel
Redwings Lodge is located approximately 12 miles
south of Peterborough and 6 miles north of
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire on the Old Great North
road (B1043), which runs parallel to the A1(M).
The venue is best reached by car: exit the A1(M) at junction 15 and follow the signs for “Monks Wood” and “Alconbury”. The hotel is located on the B1043 Great North Road behind the Q8 service station. (Postcode is PE28 5XP if you need to type it into your sat nav system).
There is parking in front and beside the hotel, including disabled parking spaces directly outside.
The venue is best reached by car: exit the A1(M) at junction 15 and follow the signs for “Monks Wood” and “Alconbury”. The hotel is located on the B1043 Great North Road behind the Q8 service station. (Postcode is PE28 5XP if you need to type it into your sat nav system).
There is parking in front and beside the hotel, including disabled parking spaces directly outside.
Accomodation
The hotel is comfortable, with en-suite facilities in
all rooms, albeit not quite the Savoy or Ritz. There
are ground floor rooms for a limited number of
attendees (disabled attendees will get priority on
these rooms – please ensure you indicate any
such requirement when you book).
Food
A small bar/eating area provides
“continental” breakfast facilities; the
bar is open 24 hours with two on-tap beers and a good
range of bottled drinks (soft and alcoholic). The
coffee machine is on continuously throughout the day
and just like last year there will be free snacks
from BITS!
Right next to the hotel, “Spice Land” offers an “eat as much as you like” Indian buffet (they don’t have an alcohol licence, so you can bring your own drinks or get them from the hotel). There is also a service station which stocks snacks, microwave food, etc. as well as petrol.
A few minutes drive away is Sawtry, with take-aways (Fish & Chips; Chinese) and a Co-op store, as well as a chemist, Post Office and Nationwide building society.
Right next to the hotel, “Spice Land” offers an “eat as much as you like” Indian buffet (they don’t have an alcohol licence, so you can bring your own drinks or get them from the hotel). There is also a service station which stocks snacks, microwave food, etc. as well as petrol.
A few minutes drive away is Sawtry, with take-aways (Fish & Chips; Chinese) and a Co-op store, as well as a chemist, Post Office and Nationwide building society.
Games and Events
To help people plan their days and to give everyone a
chance to play in several games, we are dividing up
the time using a simple “slot” system
where each slot lasts about 4 hours. We will have 5
tables which can seat up to 6 players at any one
time, so potentially we could run 5 or so games in
each slot, but this will depend upon the number of
players and referees available. The slots are planned
as follows:
Friday
8pm – 11pm: A short ‘opening’ slot for those who are desperate to start playing as soon as they turn up. Latecomers are welcome to join in!
Saturday
9.30am – 1pm: The morning slot (given the rooms, breakfast and the gaming areas are all within just a few metres of each other, there’s no reason people shouldn’t start gaming at a reasonable time!)
1pm – 2pm: Lunch!
2pm – 6pm: The afternoon slot.
6pm – 7pm: Dinner!
7pm – 11pm: The evening slot.
Sunday
9.30am – 1pm: Late starts are for losers, so don’t over-indulge on Saturday night!
1pm-2pm: Lunch!
2pm+: Last slot; something short for those who need to head off early, or up to 6pm for those who want to stick around.
5pm: Closing Ceremony!
Note to Referees:
Games can continue into the lunch/dinner slots if desired, provided everyone’s happy with doing this, and everyone finds a way of feeding themselves. Over-running further and compromising the next slot due to poor refereeing/planning/laziness will not be appreciated (by anyone) and we reserve the right to ask a referee to halt their game to avoid this inconvenience to all concerned.
Games
Details of games will be announced as they become available.
(Oh go on, you didn’t think we’d have worked this out yet, did you? Rest assured we will be looking for volunteers to run lots and lots of Traveller!)
Competitions
We’ll be running competition games of both Power Projection starship battles, and At Close Quarters miniatures skirmishes during the con. Of course, you don’t have to treat these as a competition – you can simply try out the rules and have fun!
Awards
Attendees get to vote to decide which of them gets the PFI gaming award (PFI represents “Ping! F*** It!” – the catchphrase of every gun bunny who begins stripping down their M98 Laser-Guided Gauss Missile Launcher, only to have a small but critical component from the weapon go “ping” and disappear somewhere down the back of the sofa). The winner of the BITS PFI award will gain notoriety, renown, and perhaps even a small prize.
Friday
8pm – 11pm: A short ‘opening’ slot for those who are desperate to start playing as soon as they turn up. Latecomers are welcome to join in!
Saturday
9.30am – 1pm: The morning slot (given the rooms, breakfast and the gaming areas are all within just a few metres of each other, there’s no reason people shouldn’t start gaming at a reasonable time!)
1pm – 2pm: Lunch!
2pm – 6pm: The afternoon slot.
6pm – 7pm: Dinner!
7pm – 11pm: The evening slot.
Sunday
9.30am – 1pm: Late starts are for losers, so don’t over-indulge on Saturday night!
1pm-2pm: Lunch!
2pm+: Last slot; something short for those who need to head off early, or up to 6pm for those who want to stick around.
5pm: Closing Ceremony!
Note to Referees:
Games can continue into the lunch/dinner slots if desired, provided everyone’s happy with doing this, and everyone finds a way of feeding themselves. Over-running further and compromising the next slot due to poor refereeing/planning/laziness will not be appreciated (by anyone) and we reserve the right to ask a referee to halt their game to avoid this inconvenience to all concerned.
Games
Details of games will be announced as they become available.
(Oh go on, you didn’t think we’d have worked this out yet, did you? Rest assured we will be looking for volunteers to run lots and lots of Traveller!)
Competitions
We’ll be running competition games of both Power Projection starship battles, and At Close Quarters miniatures skirmishes during the con. Of course, you don’t have to treat these as a competition – you can simply try out the rules and have fun!
Awards
Attendees get to vote to decide which of them gets the PFI gaming award (PFI represents “Ping! F*** It!” – the catchphrase of every gun bunny who begins stripping down their M98 Laser-Guided Gauss Missile Launcher, only to have a small but critical component from the weapon go “ping” and disappear somewhere down the back of the sofa). The winner of the BITS PFI award will gain notoriety, renown, and perhaps even a small prize.
Traders
BITS
We’ll have all our usual BITS products, second-hand stock (Traveller, plus anything else in our repository at that point) and perhaps some material from our local game store to spice things up!
Pagan Angel - Mel will be back again with T-shirts and jewellery for everyone!
Other Traders
We may squeeze in another trader or two – more details nearer the time.
Bring and Buy
There will also be a Bring and Buy facility – you can bring along anything from your roleplaying collection that you want to sell to other members at TravCon09. There will be a small fee for each item you sell, which will be donated to charity.
We’ll have all our usual BITS products, second-hand stock (Traveller, plus anything else in our repository at that point) and perhaps some material from our local game store to spice things up!
Pagan Angel - Mel will be back again with T-shirts and jewellery for everyone!
Other Traders
We may squeeze in another trader or two – more details nearer the time.
Bring and Buy
There will also be a Bring and Buy facility – you can bring along anything from your roleplaying collection that you want to sell to other members at TravCon09. There will be a small fee for each item you sell, which will be donated to charity.
How can you help?
We are now actively seeking referees to run games at
TravCon09. If you would like to run
a game at TravCon09, please send an
e-mail with the following details to TravCon09@bits.org.uk.
• The name of the adventure
• The Traveller system that it uses*
• Max number of players
• Your preferred slot date/time
• The game length (maximum of two slots)
• A description of the game (around 500 words) so that prospective players can decide whether they want to play it.
*Standard** rules systems only please, as we are limited for space. This is not an opportunity for you to try out that “conversion of HeroQuest for space gaming” that you’ve been working on for years but – strangely enough – couldn’t get your own gaming group to play…
** CT, MT, TNE, T4, GT, T20 or MongT
• The name of the adventure
• The Traveller system that it uses*
• Max number of players
• Your preferred slot date/time
• The game length (maximum of two slots)
• A description of the game (around 500 words) so that prospective players can decide whether they want to play it.
*Standard** rules systems only please, as we are limited for space. This is not an opportunity for you to try out that “conversion of HeroQuest for space gaming” that you’ve been working on for years but – strangely enough – couldn’t get your own gaming group to play…
** CT, MT, TNE, T4, GT, T20 or MongT
Prices
Attendee Prices
• “Lead Character” (Friday night to Sunday afternoon, ensuite room, B&B, with entry to all games) – £99.
• “Secondary Character” (as “Lead Character”, but sharing a room with a “Lead Character”) – £25.
• “Non-Player Character” (non-gamer, aged 18 or more, sharing a room with a “Lead Character”) – Free
• “Non-Player Youngster” (non-gamer, aged under 18, sharing a room with a “Lead Character”) – Free
• “Saturday Stand-In” (gamer, day ticket, for Saturday only) – £15.
• “Sunday Stand-In” (gamer, day ticket, for Sunday only) – £10.
Please note these prices are only for payments made by Saturday 6th December 2008; after that date, the Lead
Character price increases to £109 and the Secondary Character price increases to £35.
Please note that booking priority will be given to Lead and then Secondary Characters; Stand-In tickets will only be issued if there are spaces left after all higher priority attendees are booked.
ALL attendees must book in advance through BITS UK Limited. We cannot guarantee availability of any spaces on the day. Please do NOT turn up without booking in advance as we would hate to have to turn you away on the day. Please note that the hotel can NOT accept booking directly for this event.
All prices include VAT at 17.5%.
• “Lead Character” (Friday night to Sunday afternoon, ensuite room, B&B, with entry to all games) – £99.
• “Secondary Character” (as “Lead Character”, but sharing a room with a “Lead Character”) – £25.
• “Non-Player Character” (non-gamer, aged 18 or more, sharing a room with a “Lead Character”) – Free
• “Non-Player Youngster” (non-gamer, aged under 18, sharing a room with a “Lead Character”) – Free
• “Saturday Stand-In” (gamer, day ticket, for Saturday only) – £15.
• “Sunday Stand-In” (gamer, day ticket, for Sunday only) – £10.
Please note these prices are only for payments made by Saturday 6th December 2008; after that date, the Lead
Character price increases to £109 and the Secondary Character price increases to £35.
Please note that booking priority will be given to Lead and then Secondary Characters; Stand-In tickets will only be issued if there are spaces left after all higher priority attendees are booked.
ALL attendees must book in advance through BITS UK Limited. We cannot guarantee availability of any spaces on the day. Please do NOT turn up without booking in advance as we would hate to have to turn you away on the day. Please note that the hotel can NOT accept booking directly for this event.
All prices include VAT at 17.5%.
Registration
You can get your TravCon09 tickets by doing the
following:
1. Fill in the Booking Request Form (Word or PDF file) and e-mail* it to us at TravCon09@bits.org.uk.
2. When we receive your Booking Request Form we will check to make sure that we have all the necessary details and a suitable room for you. We will then contact you back by e-mail* to either (a) ask you for payment, (b) clarify your details or (c) regretfully tell you we can’t accept your booking (if, for example, we are already booked out).
3. Assuming (a) above, we will e-mail* you details of how to pay – preferably by Paypal (if you have a Paypal account, or want to use a credit card), though we can also process cheques*. You must pay by the date requested by us (in the e-mail), otherwise we will regard your booking request as having been rescinded.
4. Only once your payment has been received and cleared by BITS UK Limited will your booking be confirmed by e-mail*.
* If you don’t have e-mail, then you can send a printed copy of the Booking Request Form to “BITS TravCon08, PO Box 4222, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, CM21 0DP”. Do not send payment with your booking form unless you have already contacted us and we have asked you to do so. We will then respond to you by phone or post.
1. Fill in the Booking Request Form (Word or PDF file) and e-mail* it to us at TravCon09@bits.org.uk.
2. When we receive your Booking Request Form we will check to make sure that we have all the necessary details and a suitable room for you. We will then contact you back by e-mail* to either (a) ask you for payment, (b) clarify your details or (c) regretfully tell you we can’t accept your booking (if, for example, we are already booked out).
3. Assuming (a) above, we will e-mail* you details of how to pay – preferably by Paypal (if you have a Paypal account, or want to use a credit card), though we can also process cheques*. You must pay by the date requested by us (in the e-mail), otherwise we will regard your booking request as having been rescinded.
4. Only once your payment has been received and cleared by BITS UK Limited will your booking be confirmed by e-mail*.
* If you don’t have e-mail, then you can send a printed copy of the Booking Request Form to “BITS TravCon08, PO Box 4222, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, CM21 0DP”. Do not send payment with your booking form unless you have already contacted us and we have asked you to do so. We will then respond to you by phone or post.
Booking form
The booking form can be obtained here:
