I thought I should begin getting things sorted for #OBaWS later this year. St Patrick’s was booked a while back but think time to begin thinking about the games and social events.

The main change from last year is that we have the option to game on the Friday too in that the upstairs room is booked for us from 2pm-11pm on Friday and then we have both rooms booked on the Saturday and Sunday. What I am currently thinking over is whether to do some social events in parallel to the gaming on Friday and if there are still some folks who would like a Friday night curry. Thinking about booking some space at Royal Pug and/or some table at a board game cafe too if there is interest.

My thought is to have 6 tables of games running on Friday – open at 2pm, with the first game at 2.30 and running until 5.30/6pm, break for food, and then second game on Friday 7pm until 10/10.30pm. I’d be keen to play in the first slot and then curry or beer in the evening.

Saturday we can have 12 tables morning and afternoon – 10am-1.30pm and then 2.30-6pm and go to a pub after. I’ll see if I can book some space at the White Horse

Sunday we can have a slot 10-1.30pm and then, as seemed popular last year, a shorter, ‘taster’ slot from 2.30-4.30pm, allowing people to get off and catch trains/hit the road.

Aware this potentially is a lot of games and may well not fill all these slots but we’ll see how we go. I’d be grateful to have some help as I won’t be able to be in multiple places at once, so volunteers welcome!

Hello! Thought I should begin to advertise our 2024 Owlbear and Wizard’s Staff RPG mini-con in Leamington!

Hello! Thought I should begin to advertise our 2024 Owlbear and Wizard’s Staff RPG mini-con in Leamington!

As in previous years, plan would be for us to meet on the Friday (13th September) in The Royal Pug in Leamington late afternoon, and then go for a curry later in the evening. Saturday 14th will be a full day of gaming at St Patrick’s Irish Club with 12 tables of RPGs in the morning and afternoon slot and, of course, samosas offered at lunch. The bar in the club will open at lunchtime. Saturday evening we will head over to The White Horse for food and beer.

The Sunday gaming seems popular and people asked for us to extend the day a little. So I have booked St Patrick’s later into the afternoon on the 15th, and thought we’d have a normal morning 3.5 hour RPG session, with perhaps 6-8 tables, and an option of some drop-in board games too. Then if people wanted to game in the afternoon we could have a post-lunch 2-hour session for those who would like to run or play a ‘taster’ session of a RPG.

I’ve booked the pubs and venue and need to think about the Indian meal as that was a bit complex last year.

I’ve received some great game submissions and will open the con up on Warhorn soon!

Plans are progressing for the next Owlbear and Wizard’s Staff (OBaWS) RPG mini-con in Leamington. We’ll go back to the more traditional slot of later in September. The con will take place on the weekend of 22nd -24th September 2023.

As is tradition, for those who can, we’ll congregate on Friday afternoon in the Royal Pug in town and go for a curry in the evening. Saturday 23rd will be a full day of gaming, again at the St Patrick’s Irish Club in Leamington, with samosas and refreshments provided. The bar will be open in the club from late morning for those who want a pint of Guinness and a bag of tatos with their game. Doors open at 9am with first session kicking off at 10am and second session at 2.30pm, after a lunch break. Then off to pub in the evening. Sunday morning there will be games in the morning – both a selection of RPGs and also Jimbo’s drop in board games

The GM response has been incredible – I’ve had 28 games submitted so far and am putting these up on Warhorn currently. Plan will be to have 12 games Sat AM, 12 games Sat PM, and perhaps 4-6 on the Sunday AM. Aiming to open sign-up later this month or early July.

Very much looking forward to seeing you all in Leamington!

Plans are progressing for our RPG mini-con in Leamington on the 2nd-4th September

As mentioned in the prior blog post, we’ll host the games in St Patrick’s Irish Club but for those who are down early, we’ll meet for drinks in the Royal Pug before moving onto Kayal for a curry on Friday evening. Saturday is a full day of gaming, samosas at lunch, with pub in the evening, and I’ve booked the venue for Sunday morning for some more RPG sessions and space to play some board games.

I’m delighted by the amazing games submitted so far by wonderful GMs – we have 25 sessions so far with RPGs including Blades in the Dark, Bushido, Cairn, Cepheus Engine, Conspiracy X, Deus Vult, Divided Horizons, Fate Tianxia, Heart, Kult, Liminal, Masks, Mistborn, Old School Essentials, Pendragon (Mythic Greece), Runequest Glorantha, Savage Worlds (2000AD, and East Texas University), Star Trek Dee Sanction, Things from the Flood, TimeWatch and Weird Frontiers.

I’m currently adding all these to Warhorn and I hope to get a few more games submitted in next couple of weeks and open to registration and sign-ups in early July! Aiming for about 12 tables morning and afternoon on the Saturday, and perhaps 4 RPG sessions on the Sunday with boardgames too.

Hope to see you in September!

Hence, had to go a bit earlier. This year, Owlbear will start on the evening of 2nd September (usually we meet in the Royal Pug for drinks and then go for a curry after, perhaps Kayal again), a full day of gaming on Saturday 3rd, followed by pub trip (people seemed to like The White Horse last year), and, I’ve also booked the venue for a Sunday 4th morning gaming slot for those who would like to stay around. As well as change of date, the extra gaming slot on Sunday, there’s a third change – I’m going to try a new venue. The Band Factory has been fantastic but thought I’d try St Patrick’s Irish Club – more salubrious, more parking, bar open from lunchtime, and a slightly spooky statue of Pat in a box by the river. The venue are still happy for me to provide samosas and tea/coffee so hoping will work well, and I’ve booked the ground floor room (see pic below) and a room on the 1st floor.

I’ll open doors on Saturday at about 9am with the first game slot at 10-1.30pm, a break for samosas, and then second slot at 2.30pm to 6pm, with us beginning to gather in the pub from about 6.30/7pm.

Sunday we’ll have a third game slot, from 9.30am-1pm. Could also offer some boardgames and pick up games in this slot too.

I’ll begin writing to previous GMs in the next several weeks and start building up a Warhorn page with the games on offer – so do get thinking!

I thought I’d offer a brief update as to where I’m up to with OBaWs.

I am hoping to host the 4th Owlbear and Wizard’s Staff mini-con in Leamington on 18th September. This is a very difficult decision given that although the Covid-19 restrictions have been discontinued, there is ongoing concern as to the number of cases and the spread of the virus.

At present, I aim to have an in-person event at The Band Factory with some parallel on-line sessions. For those interested, I’ll arrange a curry the night before the con in a local restaurant. The con itself will open at 9am on 18th, with the first game slot 10am-1.30pm, a break for lunch and samosas, and then a second game slot 2.30pm-6pm. We can then retire to the pub.

To make the event as safe as possible, I’d like all attendees to have had the double vaccine, to be negative on lateral flow test, and to not be suffering any symptoms of the virus at the time of the event. I’ll try and maximise ventilation and provide hand sanitiser gel. I’d like all attendees to wear masks when moving around, but will not insist on people wearing them during games. Of course, people are very welcome to wear masks during the RPG sessions and I’ll support that decision.

There are a couple of other caveats. The most obvious is that if the pandemic situation worsens and/or the government re-introduces restrictions, then it may be the case that the whole con may revert to being wholly on-line. The second caveat is that a given GM may become unwell or need to isolate/quarantine – so may be some last minute re-arranging of players into other games. Of course, I’ll try and accommodate preferences where possible.

For those who are intending in-person I’ll ask for a voluntary donation of £10 (via Warhorn) to cover venue hire and refreshment.

I’ve asked GMs to check the entries of their games on Warhorn this week, and to have a think as to whether would like to run in-person or on-line, and then intend to open bookings more widely on Friday 30th July.

I had intended to release tickets at around the end of June for OBaWS but given the delay in reduction of social distancing, and the spread of the delta variant, I’ll hold off for a few more weeks and see what 19th July brings us. I’m hoping by then vast bulk of adult population will be vaccinated, restrictions will be lowered further, and there won’t have been any increase in hospitalisations. If this is all the case, will be looking more positive for August and September. Of course if there are ongoing concerns, I’ll revert to an online event.

Many thanks for all the interest and enthusiasm for the 4th OBaWS event. Last year we were wholly virtually, this year I am hoping to offer both face-to-face gaming as well as online, with the caveat that if restrictions do not lessen in July/August, and the delta variant causes more problems, the whole con may move to being a virtual event.

The plan is roughly the same as previous years. For those who would like to, I’ll book a restaurant for a curry for the evening before (Friday 17th) so we can meet up for beer and food. Saturday will be the main day of gaming and will be in The Band Factory again http://www.thebandfactory.org/contact . I’ll open the venue at 9am and we’ll have the first gaming slot 10am-1.30pm, break for lunch and samosas, and then second session 2.30pm-6pm. I’ll book a pub in the evening for us to gather after a day of RPGs.

We managed to get 13 tables running in 2019 (26 games in total) and perhaps was a little cramped so will cap at 11-12 tables this year and some great GMs have submitted games already. At the time of writing we have 21 games on offer (11 morning, 10 afternoon), and getting close to closing for submissions.

Current games on offer in the morning include: Liminal, Gamma World, Deadlands, Sentinel Comics, Vampire, Questworlds Nightbane, Zweihander, Vaesen, Traveller, Hellboy, and Barbarians of Lemuria.

In the afternoon we have: Genesys Harry Potter, Questworlds Glorantha, Advanced Fighting Fantasy, Swords of the Serpentine, Call of Cthulhu, Liminal, Smithy of Sacrilege, The King of Dungeons, The Dee Sanction, and Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar.

I’ll probably charge £10 entry to cover venue hire and refreshments and won’t open the Warhorn site for at least another 2-3 weeks pending on developments with the pandemic and social restrictions.

A massive thanks to Paul @spookshow71 for the fab art (which we’ve dubbed ‘Owlbear Victorious’). If people are interested, I can add both of Paul’s #OBaWS designs to Redbubble if shirts would be popular.

I’ll keep everyone updated via the blog and Twitter and give good notice before ticket release. I’ll be keeping a close eye on all COVID-19 updates and the safety of the event.

With Birmingham and Oxford teetering on the edge of a further lockdown, and Leamington neatly between, I’ve decided to keep The Owlbear and Wizard’s Staff wholly virtual this year.

For the virtual event, on the 18th September we’re kindly opening The Owlbar at The Mitchener Arms for a beer and curry on Friday night, and being hosted by the gracious Paul Mitchener @TheTweedmeister https://twitter.com/TheTweedmeister . We then have three gaming slots on Saturday 19th (10am-1.30pm, 2.30pm-6pm; 7.30pm-11pm) and have lots of games on Warhorn for people to book into. Not many slots left so more GMs always welcome Some great games including Liminal, Cthulhu Dark, Star Trek Adventures Klingons, Conan, Legend of the Five Rings, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Dying Earth.

On the 20th, we’re going to have a RPG seminar/panel and I’m delighted to say we’ve got Chris Birch and Lloyd Gyan from Modiphius and Cat Tobin and Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan from Pelgrane lined up.

A big thanks to Paul @spookshow71 https://twitter.com/spookshow71 for his excellent art for this year’s event.

Link to the Warhorn page is https://warhorn.net/events/the-owlbear-and-wizards-staff-3-adventuring-in-the-aether

As on prior years, I’ll book a restaurant for a curry on the Friday night (18th). Saturday will be the main event at The Band Factory http://www.thebandfactory.org , with 12 tables of RPGs in the morning and in the afternoon (AM Session 10-1.30pm; PM session 2.30pm – 6pm). Samosas and RPG swap shop at lunch time. I’ve booked a private room and bar in the Royal Pug https://www.theroyalpug.com for the Saturday evening.

I had requests for us to continue into the Sunday morning for those able to hang around – we’ll have around 6 RPG tables, and also some boardgames and RPG demos hopefully.

I’ll set up Eventbrite and open tickets shortly and will then spend the next couple of months getting the games sorted with GMs before booking people into those from around Easter. One other change – rather than donations, I may add a charge for tickets so as to cover costs for venue, refreshments, and GM gifts. I hope that is ok with people