The prodical son returns?

It’s been a very odd couple of weeks for me.  As some of you will have seen I’ve put my name down for MCC (the Malifool’s summer tourney) and am down as the co-organiser of the Malifaux tourney at next year’s Vapnartak.  Many people have assumed that these actions mean an impending return to the world of Malifaux, I’m sorry to say those people are wrong.

For months I have been waiting to see the final version of the book before deciding whether or not to dip my toes in again.  Having now spent some time with the book, I’m now certain that the version that is here to stay is not something that I am going to be playing.  To some, this will make my recent actions seem quite odd so it’s time to shed some light on the matter.

First up is MCC which is going to be the 4M of next year (presumably minus the swag bags, etc).  For me, the decision to enter this was an easy one because I like spending time with the sort of people that will be at the event.  Quite frankly, the event could have been for any game and I would have signed up in a heartbeat just because it would provide an excuse to hang out and drink with people that I respect and have genuine affection for (and Mickleburgh).  Just to clarify, this does not mean that I’ll be trying to leg hump Conrad, I’ll leave that to Baby Jake!

The decision to help run the next Vappa tourney was a bit more difficult and to understand it, you first have to know what happened in the run up to last year’s event.  Running a tourney at a big event like Vappa is a very different prospect than running one at the local club, there are all sorts of organisational and logistical nightmares that can occur.  As the local club runs the 40k tourney and has a limited amount of scenery, none of that was available for the Malifaux.  The event is also run by a different club so trying to get things sorted out can be a bit of a pain and means trusting in people that you don’t know (they also don’t know you which can also cause issues).  In the run up to the event I didn’t sleep for 3 days and on the day the only thing that was keeping me upright was enough Monster and Relentless to kill a horse.

For the 2014 Vappa the demand for a tourney was there and local guy Chris (of Soulstone Train fame) contacted me about wanting to run something.  He was asking questions about the venue and who to contact, etc and it made me remember what a ball ache it had been the previous year.  As this will be Chris’ first event as TO, I offered to take some of the burden to hopefully make it an enjoyable experience for him.  I think Chris has the potential to be a great TO and I wouldn’t want him to be put off because his first event is the one that was the most complex that I ran.  This is definitely Chris’ event, I am only chipping in to ease the pressure and be his bitch on the day so don’t come to me with any TO questions!

So now that we all know I’m not coming back, what will I be doing instead?  I’ve been working on trying to bring a bit more variety to our gaming group and the local club (the latter has sadly been limited recently due to work issues).  I’ve also been working hard to refine what the new Soulstone Train is and there’s exciting developments coming on that front.

DFTBA

Monkee