Another sunny, Bank Holiday Monday another carnival of fun, friends and frolics. No, I’m not talking about Notting Hill but The Bedford in Balham scene of the latest ZatuCon with it’s heady mix of boardgame delights: – dems, participation, social deduction, raffle, sale bargains and a top quality quiz
The More the Merrier
The Summer ZatuCon events are always busier than the Easter ones and so it proved again with over 300 attendees in advance tickets and walk-ins. With eager gamers coming from far and wide, all over Southern England and Wales. Plus many with back grounds from further afield.
Whilst demonstrating the dextrous tree-building game Offshoots – like an artistic green Jenga – I chatted with players from South Africa, Australia, France and Saudi Arabia as well as those more local commenting “it’s nice to see a Game Convention in London because they always seem to be in the North!”
Some thought it was more local than it was, like Dan and Helen (pictured below with their completed Offshoots tree) who hail from Bedford and when they saw ZatuCon was in the Bedford Hotel thought it was nearby. But they came anyway and were glad they did, enjoying the games and the quiz!
Offshoots was a big ZatuCon hit, attracting a constant stream of budding horticulturists. It is simple to learn so much so that when I left the table unattended people taught themselves and self-seeded trees sprang up. Despite the cries of “Timber!” as competitors were lured into over-ambitious branches, generally a pleasant Zen-like atmos prevailed and you could chat and make friends.
Those who didn’t quickly crash and burn – I’m looking at you 7 leaf Jamie – went steadily upwards and onwards and at least 4 sets of players completed the whole 75 leaf tree!
From the highest tree to the depths of the Sea
Alongside the Offshoots table was fellow blogger Lorna Rennie demonstrating the excellent 2 player game Kelp. Despite her Scottish name Lorna had travelled in all the way from Cardiff and attracted a great deal of interest in this asymmetric struggle between Pyjama Sharks and Common Octopuses. She must feel some affinity with the latter as she sometimes wants 8 arms to get her own 2 little Pyjama Sharks into bed.
Our two Blogger demo areas were pitched in front of the mighty ZATU retail stand crewed by the indomitable Daisy, Lauren and Michael who, despite having had little rest, toiled like Trojans to feed the thronging masses with a top class diet of gaming delights. Bright, best sellers and enticing, super value, Mystery boxes.
In the spirit of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, Becky, an enterprising Bedford staffer has Repurposed herself as a creator of designer D&D accessories. Inspired by rescuing an old ripped, leather coat that was being thrown out she used the material to make quality dice bags and dragon based trinkets.
Developed Demonstrated Deduced
The rest of our area and the room alongside were full of fascinating games being displayed by their developers or from specialist demonstrators brought in by gaming giants like Asmodee and Kosmos. Leading to a smaller snug bar where Silver-haired Matt hosted the devious in further rounds of Social Deduction – Blood on the Clocktower.
From Sara and David showing Kickstarter Cryptid catcher Kryptothera (try saying that quickly!) looking resplendent in an Art Deco world to Nick of Devir running the Red Carpet for Kosmos, a highly rated game of paparazzi jostling for the best snaps of the great and good.
And then there’s Escape the Rat Race where you progress through the different decades of your life either taking a steady but not over rewarding salary or jumping into the high risk, high reward world of entrepreneurship collecting life experiences on the way until you retire. Speaking as a retiree myself I’m happy with my collected experiences though thanks to my ZATU blogging I’m still gaining them.
Beyond the demonstration areas, every available space: upstairs, downstairs and throughout the venue was taken up by gamers playing games they’ve bought, brought or borrowed from the library. This dice-rolling, card collecting and worker placement continued through the day until 5 0’clock brought them back to the raffle by the ZATU area.
After the lucky winners (including me for the 1st time!) had been drawn it was time for the Fantastic Board Game Quiz!
Have You Seen This Man?
Yes, it was time for the teams to try their luck at working out such brain burners as 4-letter anagrams, 3-part or even 2-part multiple choice questions, spotting box art and picking the odd one out, out of 4.
To be fair there were harder questions as well but you have to put some effort in to gain the very generous £100 games voucher prize. Matilda and Johnny certainly put in said effort notching up an impressive 58 out of 60 points and taking 1st place for The Imps Return their 2nd win.
Who can beat them next time? Maybe Dice, Dice Baby who were only a point behind or any of the other 5 teams who scored in the 50’s.
I hope everyone enjoyed it all including the dad jokes and will come again. Especially the German-speaking team members who kindly didn’t correct my poor pronunciation of top German game and designer names
And remember if you did enjoy the quiz my name’s “Panto” Pete Bartlam and if you didn’t it’s Jamey Stegmaier!
Keep your eyes peeled for our next ZatuCon announcement!
