Contingency 2025

I’ve spent the last few days at Contingency 2025 (in Hunstanton, Norfolk), my first such convention since the last Conception (which was, what, 10 years ago?). With some leave needing using I booked into a shared lodge for week. Unlike Conception (which ran from Wednesday to Sunday), Contingency lets you into your accommodation from Monday to Monday. I decided to stick with the historical Wednesday to Sunday for this visit though. The Contingency team have their own website, a Discord setup and a Facebook group for finding out information. The website has the bare bones and Discord adds to that a bit but it appears that the majority of things are on the Facebook group. As someone who hasn’t used Facebook for almost two decades that put me at a bit of a disadvantage. One of the great things though is the service to and from Kings Lynn train station. It’s slightly more expensive than getting the bus (I think our driver said £1.50) but there’s no hanging around and it’s a lot more comfortable!

The venue

Arrival at the site was smooth and I found my lodge easily. There’s a Tesco within walking distance (I have some mobility issues due to knee and back issues but the, roughly, mile round trip wasn’t too bad for me) which meant that I could pick up some meals and snacks nice and cheaply. I did have to make a couple of trips though (one on the Wednesday, and another on the Friday) but if you’re fitter than me one would probably be enough.

The venue itself could do with some signposting though. The signup sheets are in a wide area before you get to what turns out to be the bar and lounge areas. The sheets themselves helpfully say what table (or lodge) the game is being held at and there’s a sign that tells you the name of the each room and which tables are in it. But I had to ask where these rooms are. They’re not far away to be honest but there’s nothing making it easier for someone who’s never been before. Another plus is being able to tick on the sheet to say that you will skip muster and be at the game location ready. Perfect for someone like me that can’t stand around for as long as muster could take. There were only two hiccups though. One where I was waiting at the wrong table (I’d signed up for a board game but it turns out that the board game table is not where all the board games are piled up but somewhere else). The second was down to the location changing between me ticking the sheet the day before from a table in the venue to a lodge but the GM came and got me so all good.

The other issue is when you’re asked for a game ticket at the start of the game. I’d forgotten about this part from Conception but you need to buy a game ticket to play each game. This could do with being highlighted somewhere (it might be on Facebook but…) to avoid the embarrassment of having to rush off to buy tickets at the start of the game.

For the games, those in the main venue have a big problem with noise¹ and some of the tables in the bar area are too close together². My top tip is to try and get games in a lodge. Certainly, if I run any games myself I will try and ensure I have that option. This is a shame though as I like the ability to see people socially and you are likely to miss people if you spend the entire convention in your lodge.

Not things that the Contingency team can do anything about but the food and drink on site was the usual resort fare. There was a decent session IPA on tap (at just under £5 a pint) but the food (I only had one evening meal and one breakfast) was overpriced and disagreed with me. Thankfully, you get 90 minutes between the afternoon and evening games so going back to your lodge and getting your own food is doable (see Tesco above).

The other issue was the lack of toilet facilities. Apparently, one set of the toilets was out of action due to refurbishment which meant that everyone in the main venue had to use the ones by the restaurant. I don’t know about the ladies, but the gents toilet was tiny. Two urinals and one cubical which you had to squeeze past someone at a urinal to get to (with a floor that was constantly covered in what I hope was water – not conducive to walking with a stick!)

The lodge itself was good. It seemed to be a Faraday cage though as trying to get any form of phone signal inside was nearly impossible. There was a wifi network showing in the lodge but apparently they haven’t finished installing it yet so you couldn’t connect to it. The lodge I was in had a twin room at one end and a double (with en-suite) at the other with an open plan dining area, kitchen, and living room. The dining area wasn’t big enough to play a game around but other lodges have bigger areas. I can’t complain though, I paid £200 for my room for the week and it was a great base for the event.

The games

On to the games. I tried a few systems I’ve been interested in but either haven’t bought or just didn’t really get/like when playing them previously.

Alien is one I’ve never played before. The adventure itself was fun but I wasn’t sold on the system which was full of whiff. It uses a d6 dice pool where 6s are needed for success. It reminded me of my first game of Exalted where I rolled 24 d10s and still failed. This game was one that I enjoyed despite the system. I might get the PDFs (if they appear in a bundle) for the background material but the system itself isn’t for me.

WFRP 4th Edition is one I’ve owned but just didn’t like the changes to the system. I’ve long since gotten rid of the physical books but have lots of the PDFs (thanks to Humble Bundle!). The first game I played the GM seemed to be ignoring a lot of the rules and stuck with the basics. Which isn’t that much of a problem but it did mean you didn’t get a full picture of how the rules worked and didn’t help the player who hadn’t played WFRP at all before and who had to rely on other players for pointers. The second game was much better. The GM took the time to explain a lot of the rules before we started which was a big plus. The second game showed the full range of 4th Edition’s rules and it gelled a lot more. I’m still not sure that it overtakes 1st Edition for me but I’ll be taking another look at the rules PDF (yes, I know, I need to take those rose-tinted glasses off…)

Star Trek Adventures was the last game that I played that I didn’t gell with previously. Like the second WFRP game, the GM here took the time to explain a lot about the rules (without going into too much detail that you were overloaded) but unfortunately, I still didn’t really gell with the rules. This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to revisit the 2d20 rule set but it just doesn’t work for me. Which is a shame as Modiphius have some great licences.

Finally, there was a game of Call of Cthulhu (yes, I know, I managed to get in one) which was really good fun and I also played in a couple of Liminal games. I really like Liminal and, as expected, they didn’t disappoint. Indeed, they reactivated my creative “juices” for a sourcebook/mini-campaign that I’ve had on the back burner for a while centred on Lincoln (provisionally called Liminal Lindum).

Overall, there was 12 slots that I could have played in and I played in 7 missing out on Thursday night, Friday morning, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. In fact, the 7 games I got into were ones I’d managed to prebook on Warhorn, the booking system the convention uses (although the convention website points to the schedule for the 2024 convention rather than the 2025 one). Maybe I’m getting picky in my old age but there were a number of games that just didn’t interest me. I could have brought something myself and offered that for the slots I knew I wasn’t in a game for but I was travelling light as I was on the train and it’s hard enough changing trains and getting across stations with a small rucksack, carry-on suitcase and walking stick as it is without trying to upgrade to a larger suitcase so I could bring scenarios.

I did use the spare time though to brain storm some ideas for Modus Operandi 2nd Edition which is something I’ve been thinking about recently. Modus Operandi itself was something I wrote as a sort of COVID project. It is based on the Old-School Essentials SRD and while I’m very pleased with how it turned out, I’ve often wondered about something that expanded on that to include skills and more character options.

Summary

Overall, I really enjoyed my time at Contingency and will most likely be back next year. As noted by my comments about the noise in the main venue, I’m going to look at maybe getting an upgraded lodge though so I can run games there. Maybe even some games of Modus Operandi 2nd Edition if I’ve managed to write it by then.

I have noted some minor issues but I’m hoping that these are taken as constructive feedback from someone who hasn’t been before.

Footnotes

¹ In fact, my phone’s health app highlighted that for the duration of my time at the convention I was being subjected to around 110 decibels of noise while in the main venue. That’s equivalent to being in a rock concert except I was doing this for 8 hours a day rather than just 2 or 3 for a concert (decibel level source: House Grail). Given I already suffer from tinnitus, this was a big problem for me and there were times when I couldn’t hear what was being said across the table – even people who were only a few feet away.
² As someone with mobility issues I found it hard to get into and out of the chair at one of the games held there. So much so that I made sure I wasn’t in any other games in the bar for the rest of the convention. The round tables in the lounge area were better though.