Cauldron 24: What an amazing experience!

 

Note: This blog-entry is in English, as Cauldron 24 attracted an international audience!

I attended Cauldron - The OSR Euro Con from Oct. 17th to 20th: about 60 players from 13 countries holed up in a grand old mansion in central Germany, staying overnight from Thursday to Sunday & gaming non-stop (3 sessions per day): Braunstein, Chainmail, OD&D, lots and lots of AD&D 1e and a smattering of other games, including my In the Realm of the Nibelungs, translated just in time for the con and now available at DriveThruRPG in German, French, and English.

(Thank you, Canyon, for editing the text as a native speaker!)

I gave away a bunch of print versions in all three languages - and got gifted Seven Voyages on Fomalhaut myself by legend Gabor Lux, following up on his review of Seven Voyages of Zylarthen by Oakes Spalding - and ran my introductory adventure Gunther Must Die twice, once in English and once in German, to great success.

See the two play reports here (mostly just linking a player's report) and here.

(Thank you, Markus, for your write-up, as well as your overview & review of the game!)

Cauldron 24's organisation by the PESA-Nexus team was excellent, from encouraging car sharing and providing shuttle services, planning for special needs (food allergies etc.), outstanding meals (plenty of veggies but also roasted suckling pig, fresh waffles and more), many nice touches like free drinks and replenished sweets on-site, having everyone play the same tournament module (courtesy of B/X Blackrazor), and an auction wonderfully MC'ed by Settembrini!

This was only my third con, and I was astounded by the play culture at Cauldron: play was uniformly brave, creative and decisive across all sessions I attended or ran. I’m still processing but I can definitely say I was floored by the amount and depth of gaming you can get done when everyone is on the same page! No analyis-paralysis, no overblown thespian aspirations (but plenty of memorable roleplay nonetheless), no endless paging through rulebooks -- just good GMing and strong play, again and again!