Owlbear and Wizards Staff Con 2025
OBaWS (as the con is affectionately known) at one point seemed like it was ages away, a huge gulf of time from the conclusion of UK Games Expo 2025 and yet those months flew past and before we knew it the con was before us.
I must admit I didn’t feel as well prepared as previous years, yet all went well over the course of the weekend. And like all great weekends, it was over quickly and now seems like a distant memory. Before my dodgy recollection fails I’m going to capture it here.
Socialising
Beer and fine food is an essential component of OBaWS and this year was no different with the traditional Friday evening visit to the Royal Pug followed by a curry and the Saturday evening visit to the White Horse.
Friday
A new feature this year was the Friday afternoon game slot which was well attended and got the event off to a flying start. This is the best part of a gaming weekend or “peak weekend” when you have the whole event ahead of you. It’s all downhill from here until the inevitable conclusion… but that was a problem for Sunday.
The game I had originally signed up for on the Friday afternoon was cancelled, but @filmfan68.bsky.social stepped up and offered the WEG Star Wars D6 adventure Scavenger Hunt in its place. Like all good Star Wars adventures we were a ragtag gang of hopeless rebels sent on a mission to the Dankayo system to recover data banks after an Imperial assault, but those bastards were flying away with it and we were giving chase. The Star Wars setting was brought to life with fantastic miniatures and space ships from various games set against a star scape battle mat. And of course we were victorious.
Saturday
I’ve long been a fan of the Lone Wolf game books (since they first came out) and had made a flippant suggestion to @paulbaldowski.bsky.social that a Lone Wolf adventure using his Sanction system would be a fine thing. Paul took up the challenge and came up with The Ashes of Vordakheim, a cracking investigative adventure in the city of Holmgard. The adventure was pacey with some twists and turns and the inevitable encounter with the baddies. As an unofficial fan game it was amazing, rich with Magnamund lore and beautiful character sheets.
Lunch quickly followed with the traditional and much anticipated samosas accompanied this year by a favourite of mine, the classic onion bhaji. It was a great lunch that set us up for afternoon gaming.
Then it was my turn to run a game - I’d wanted to give Into the Dungeon: Revived, a dungeon crawler system based on Into the Odd a go. I’m quite fond of these systems which are very light and offer fast combat with no dice rolls to hit. The author had posted conversions of a few adventures on their blog including The Old God’s Return, a DCC adventure. This looked like a decent adventure for a one shot, and with the conversion notes to help it was picked as my game to run. I enjoyed running the adventure very much, it was fast moving with a number of combat and adventure heavy encounters. The session was a lot of fun and over all too soon, and because I was into it I forgot to take photos.
Sunday
I was looking forward to a morning game of Cy-Borg but the GM had cancelled and so I jumped into a spare slot on a The One Ring game, A Conspiracy Most Cracked. I read the Quick Start books when they first came out but had only a vague recollection of the contents of the adventure so figured I could get by playing it. I always enjoy playing The One Ring and as I’ve played it extensively I found my system knowledge useful, and the GM, Dave, did a great job of setting the scene and running the adventure. A great way to wrap up a fantastic weekend.
Like every other gaming weekend it was over all too quickly. I was knackered and ready to head home with a load more great memories, so with a few farewells I was on my way. Huge thanks as always to @asako-soh.bsky.social for organising an amazing weekend, he did a great job pulling together this great community, all lovely people brought together by our shared passion for RPGs.
Now on to the next gaming weekend…