Beer & Pretzels Games Weekend 2009

This year the event went very smoothly, the numbers being slightly down on last year's record meant that we did not really need the extra space booked but it did mean that the people using the back halls could spread out to their hearts' content. The other reason for the apparent extra space was the huge popularity of the bar as a playing area. Since we are happy to let people eat and drink wherever convenient it did not seem to cause any problems but if anyone was disguising some disgruntlement please let me know so that I can whip people into line next year. For my part, it was a very relaxed time, the only panic being when the bar operator got his times confused and tried to shut 5 hours early - very swiftly resolved!

We had quite a few newcomers this year and the games library was especially well used, Dominion being the predictable favourite but a really wide selection of both old favourites and new demo copies seeing action too. The Bring and Buy was far and away the best ever and a lot of the games sold there were put to immediate use too. Which reminds me, our copy of Nuclear War and our Bloody Legacy have disappeared - if anyone finds that they have ended up with these in their games box please let us know.

The smooth running had a benefit for Sally, as I was able to take over from her at the shop on Saturday afternoon so that she was not trapped there to the end as usually happens. Particular thanks are due to Adie and Bat who manned the door pretty much the whole time thus freeing me to swan around doing the Mein Host bit and even playing the odd game without too much interruption, a rare treat indeed for me. Thanks also to the various people running games here and there, especially John and Shaun whose WWII game held the attention of many of the younger attendees for much of Sunday, and the No Dice RPG people who came up with a rather fine Beer & Pretzels T shirt for their raffle. I am thus shamed into ensuring that we produce some for next year, which as the 21st event will be the Coming of Age for B&P; we hold no truck with this modern nonsense about 18 being the relevant age...

Cheers, Phil

Caveman

Fruit Fair

Powerboats

Heroscape

Axis & Allies

Fluxx

Saturday's Ancients Wargame

Sunday's WWII Wargame

VTES